Copy
19 May 2017
In honor of former Mexican Ambassador to UNESCO Andrés Roemer, who will receive the American Sephardi Federation’s International Sephardic Leadership Award on Sunday (21 May)
Touching on a perishing community’s vibrant history spanning over 2000 years” 
By Nelly Skoufatoglou, Neos Kosmos

Melbourne’s Jewish Museum is hosting an exhibition, Jews of Greece, that is being curated by two accomplished professionals of visual media, photographer Emmanuel Santos and filmmaker Carol Gordon. Striving to conjure up a lost cultural beauty, the visual angle is reflected in the way the exhibits have been placed in the museum’s corridors, evoking “memories and emotions, not only of sorrow but of hope. As much as the history itself is dark… the layout is designed to create light.” Santos adds, “There’s brightness to it. It’s uplifting, that’s the kind of feeling; that nice Greece vibe.”

Image from Jews of Greece exhibition
(Photo courtesy of Neos Kosmos)
 
Feature of the Week: Andrés Roemer’s 2014 UC Berkeley Commencement Speech

 

Andrés Roemer, US Berkeley Commencement Speech, 17 May 2014
(Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley/Youtube)

In 2014, Andrés Roemer, then the Consul General of Mexico at San Francisco, received the UC Berkeley’s Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award. In his acceptance speech, Roemer, who received a PhD in public policy from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School ten years earlier, encourages students to cultivate their minds to “explore new questions… really challenge the status quo… [and] take risks in dangerous ideas.” Romer took his own advice by standing up at UNESCO for the dangerous idea that the truth of Jerusalem’s Jewish and Christian history is not subject to the dictates of authoritarian regimes, such as Iran, Sudan, Algeria, and Russia.
 
Ethiopian Jewish activists meet with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir
(Photo courtesy of My Jewish Learning)
Modern-Day Moses: The Heroes Who Saved Ethiopian Jews” 
By Team Be’chol Lashon, My Jewish Learning

Israel and the U.S. played a critical role in saving Ethiopian Jewry. Less well-known is the role played by Ethiopian Jews in Ethiopia who acted, and often suffered, in order to get their community to Israel. Ethiopian-Israeli filmmaker Avishai Mekonen’s new film tells their story, “I want people to know the names of Yona Bogale, Gedalia Uria, Ester Hollander, and others. 440 Ethiopian activists and kessim [Ethiopian rabbis] were jailed in Ethiopia. So many risked their lives.”
“Like” ASF on Facebook to keep up-to-date on our projects, programs, and publications, as well as to share your thoughts
“Like” ASF on Facebook to keep up-to-date on our projects, programs, and publications, as well as to share your thoughts
Upcoming Events:


As seen at the 20th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival!
The Women's Balcony
Coming soon to theaters nationwide!

Opening on May 26 at:


Lincoln Plaza Cinema
1886 Broadway
New York, NY 10023 

and

Quad Cinema 
34 W 13th Street
New York, NY 10011


Discover Israel's #1 smash hit film, THE WOMEN'S BALCONY!

When a women’s balcony collapses during a Bar Mitzvah, a close-knit Sephardic congregation in Jerusalem fractures along gender lines, when an Ashkenazified Sephardic rabbi tries to upend the traditional customs of the congregation. This is a popular crowd pleaser about women speaking truth to patriarchal power.

 

Watch the trailer and find a theater near you


Greek Jewish Festival


Sunday, May 21st from 12-6 PM
Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum
280 Broome Street (between Allen & Eldridge Streets), New York City

Join ASF at the third annual Greek Jewish Festival as we celebrate the unique Romaniote and Sephardic Heritage of the Lower East Side. Experience authentic kosher Greek foods and homemade Greek pastries, traditional Greek dancing and live Greek and Sephardic music. There will be an outdoor marketplace, kids activities, and so much more!


Mexico and Moral Courage:
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Jerusalem’s Reunification
&
Honoring Ambassador Andrés Roemer’s Stand for Jerusalem at UNESCO


Sunday, May 21st at 7 PM
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York City

In honor of this year's Yom Yerushalayim, the 50th Anniversary of the liberation and reunification of the Jewish People’s eternal capital, The American Sephardi Federation is awarding the International Sephardic Leadership Award to former Mexican Ambassador Andrés Roemer. When confronted by the recent UNESCO resolution that sought to erase Jerusalem, Israel’s Jewish and Christian history, Ambassador Roemer knowingly risked his position to voice and vote his conscience, leaving the voting hall instead of following the instructions he had received. While the resolution still passed, Ambassador Roemer did not forget Jerusalem and his moral courage convinced several countries, including his own, to seek to reverse the resolution’s ill–considered position against historical truth and the possibility of peace.

Featuring remarks by Professor Ephraim Isaac.

And a special performance by David Serero!

Kosher hors d'oeuvres by Mexikosher NYC and refreshments to be served

Co-Presented with The Philos Project

RSVP Required

Please click here to make a reservation 
Complimentary


When Baghdadi Jews Baruch and Ellen Bekhor (née Cohen) succumbed to the camera’s gaze for their denaturalization pictures in 1951, they became stateless. Ellen was in her eighth month of pregnancy. Permitted to bring no more than a few kilos of belongings out of Iraq, Ellen carried their wedding picture and ketubah in her pocketbook. Laissez-Passer, Royaume D’Irak by Leslie Starobin (2016) 

The Last Address

Through April 2017
in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display 


Center for Jewish History 
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

 

The American Sephardi Federation proudly presents excerpts from The Last Address, a multi-year, photo-montage series and oral history and book project by award-winning artist Leslie Starobin that explores the enduring texture of memory and culture in the lives of Greater Sephardic families from dispersed Jewish communities in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon.

Leslie Starobin is a Boston-area photographer and montage artist. Her work is in the permanent collections of many academic (Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University) and public (Jewish Museum, MoMA) museums. Starobin is the recipient of numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation of the Arts/Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Most recently, she received two Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Grants for this series, The Last Address.

Her exhibition in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display 
is sponsored in part by CELTSS: The Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship and Service at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, where Starobin is a Professor of Communication Arts.

Please click here for additional information and viewing hours

 and your tax-deductible contribution will help ASF preserve and promote the Greater Sephardi history, traditions, and culture as an integral part of the Jewish experience! 

Contact us by email or phone ((917) 606-8266) to learn about giving opportunities in honor or memory of loved ones

Share
Tweet
Forward
+1
Share
Copyright © 2017 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.

Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.

The American Sephardi Federation is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, New York, 10011).

www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 548-4486

unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 
 
Share
Tweet
Forward
+1
Share