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16 June 2017
In memory of Salim Fattal, A”H, who passed on the 76 Anniversary of the Farhud, which he did so much as a “writer, film director[,] and pioneer of Arabic broadcasting in Israel” to memorialize
The Farhoud Remembered” 
By Dr. Edy Cohen, The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA)

Nazi propaganda was largely responsible for instigating the Farhud (Farhoud), the two-day attack on Iraqi Jewry in June 1941. Inspiration for the Fahud can be traced to two figures, the German ambassador to Baghdad, Dr. Fritz Grobba, and the exiled mufti from Jerusalem and Nazi sympathizer and ultimately collaborator, Hajj Amin El Husseini. Husseini arrived in Baghdad in 1939 with a long track record of instigating anti-Jewish violence, “from the April 1920 Jerusalem pogrom… to the 1929 riots in which 133 Jews were murdered and hundreds injured, to the 1936-39 ‘revolt’ in which hundreds of Jews were murdered.” 

Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini giving the Nazi salute to soldiers he apparently recruited, Wiener Illustierte, 12 January 1944
(Photo courtesy of MidEast Web for Coexistence
Dar Bishi Synagogue, Tripoli, Libya, 2011 
(Photo courtesy of Diarna: Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life)
Libya’s Jews: A Forgotten Consequence of 1967” 
By David Harris, The Algemeiner

After 1967’s Six Day War, Libya’s four thousand Jews suffered their third pogrom of the 20th century. 18 Jews were killed, and an even greater disaster was only prevented when the Italian Ambassador, Cesare Pasquinelli, “ordered all Italian diplomatic missions in the country to extend their protection to the Jews.” “A very few Muslims helped as well, including one — who at great risk — hid the teenager who was to become my wife, along with her parents and seven siblings, for two weeks until they were able to leave the country. Tellingly, however, this righteous Libyan has refused any public recognition, lest his life be put in danger for saving Jews,” writes David Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish committee. A few weeks later, the entire Jewish community had fled. Libyan Jewry’s 2,500-year sojourn in the country was over.

A Special Message from The Diarna Situation Room at ASF


Screenshots of Diarna interviews (Photo courtesy of Diarna/Newsweek)

ASF’s partner in digital preservation, Diarna: The Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life, is in a race against time to preserve the oral histories of the last primary source generation with memories of Jewish life throughout the region.

Diarna is particularly interested in interviews with: Iraqi Jews from outside of Baghdad (places such as Najaf, Samawah, Fallujah, Mosul), Libyan Jews from outside of Tripoli and Benghazi (such as Sirt, Derna, Yifrin, Gharyan), and Yemeni Jews from outside of Sana’a (such as Ibb, Sa’adah, Taiz, Aden).
 
Contact us immediately by email or phone (212.548.4486) if you or someone you know has memories or documents to share. Diarna researchers are ready to meet you in the US, Canada, Israel, UK, Australia, France, or Italy. To-date Diarna has conducted over 200 interviews, identified over 1,800 synagogues, schools, shrines, and other structures, and documented hundreds of sites via more than 40 research expeditions.

 
Please help us preserve these memories before they are forever lost.
Feature of the Week: Im Nin’Alu (“If the Doors are Locked”)
 

Ofra Haza
(Photo courtesy of Notes on the Road)

Yemeni-Israeli Superstar Ofra Haza, A”H, sings “Im Nin’Alu” (“If the Doors are Locked”), the classic Sephardi piyyut written by Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, a 17th century Judeo-Arabic poet in Yemen.
Syrian Jewish Cuisine: A Food in Exile” 
By Rachel Ament, Paste Magazine

Syrian Jewry was historically composed of three groups, “the Musa’abarim, who first entered the region in 586 BCE; Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, and Portugal in 1497, and Italian Jews who moved to Syria for trading purposes.” Syrian Jewish culinary tradition accordingly reflects these various influences, from Persian cuisine to Spanish-derived egg dishes to earthy vegetables popular in Italian kitchens, such as tomatoes and artichokes: “Like so many other Jewish food traditions, Jewish Syrian cuisine helps us understand who we are by illuminating where we’ve been.”

Syrian Chicken and Potatoes; Click here for the recipe 
(Photo courtesy of Marilyn Faham)
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“Like” ASF on Facebook to keep up-to-date on our projects, programs, and publications, as well as to share your thoughts
Upcoming Events:


Axelrod Israel Film Festival: “The Lost Crown”


Wednesday, June 21
7:00 p.m.

Axelrod Performing Arts Center
100 Grant Avenue 
Deal Park, NJ 07723

ASF's friends at Moment Magazine, in conjunction with the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, are hosting a screening of a new documentary by Avi Dabach, great-grandson of the gatekeeper of the Aleppo Codex, the oldest and most complete bible in existence. The mystery of the missing pages is unraveling with exciting new information on the horizon.  Avi will be present for the screening to be interviewed by Nadine Epstein, editor of Moment Magazine and author of The Mystery of the Cairo Codex.
 

Please click here to purchase tickets


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 September 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

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

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