14 July 2017
In memory of Otto Warmbier, A”H, a Jewish 22-year-old University of Virginia student, who endured extensive brain tissue loss as a hostage of the democidal Socialist North Korean regime
Iosif Vaena grew up in the city of Thelassaloniki (Salonica). Occasionally, as a young boy, he would find stones “with Jewish letters.” Later he came to understand that he was finding Jewish tombstones in a city where the Jews had been exterminated and a university was built on the ruins of the old Jewish cemetery. Today, Vaena collects the “stones with Jewish letters” that he finds around Thelassaloniki until he can deliver them to a Jewish cemetery: “I think it’s a bit more dignified than having people step on it.
After the ancient Jewish graveyard in Thessaloniki was destroyed, the gravestones were broken up and used as building materials in the city
(Photo courtesy of Renee Gross/WUNC 91.5)
Soprano Daniela Dimova sings the Ladino classic, Yo Me’Enamor D’Un Aire (lyrics), accompanied by the Orchestra of Opera and Philharmonic Society Plovdiv, conducted and orchestrated by Benjamin Ashkenazy.
Kuzguncuk is truly a theatrical neighborhood, a veritable stage with its storefront characters, pampered strays, conspicuous intellectuals and photo-happy sightseers
(Photo courtesy of Daily Sabbah)
If you travelled back in time one hundred years, Turkey’s cosmopolitan character was on display in the mixed Istanbul neighborhood of Kuzguncuk, where Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and Muslims lived and mingled. As the traditional Kuzguncuk saying went: “‘After an Armenian dinner, meet a Greek woman in a Jewish home.’” In Erdogan’s Turkey, however, that human diversity has become, like the Jewish community itself, a dim memory: “The local Jewish community has all but vanished… Only about four old Jewish men are left in the neighborhood.”
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street, New York City, 10011
Rabbi Dr. Sharon Zaude Shalom is a Visiting Scholar at Brandeis University's Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. Born Zaude Tesfay in an Ethiopian village, Rabbi Shalom emigrated to Israel as an eight year-old in a rescue mission by the Mossad and the Jewish Agency, following two years in the Tawa refugee camp in Sudan. As a young Ethiopian immigrant in Israel, he struggled with questions of identity and his place in Israeli society. Those questions have influenced his scholarship and teaching. He served in the IDF as an officer in the infantry and later worked in the army educational system. Rabbi Dr. Shalom received his smicha from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and a doctorate in Jewish philosophy from Bar-Ilan University. He is the author of a book, From Sinai to Ethiopia, which examines the history, customs, and law of the Beta Israel, codifying the ancient cultural heritage of Ethiopian Jewry. He is also a lecturer at Bar-Ilan and Tel Aviv universities. In addition to his academic positions, he serves as rabbi of Kedoshei Yisrael, a community in Kiryat Gat established by Holocaust survivors.
Susan Pollack has spent her life helping people trapped by oppression and tyranny. From 1981-1991, Susan worked in Sudan and Ethiopia during civil war and famine, smuggling Jews out of Ethiopia where the Marxist military regime arrested and tortured those trying to leave the country. For years, Susan repeatedly brought exit papers and medical supplies to Ethiopia’s Jews. Realizing the solution was ultimately political, Susan tirelessly lobbied reluctant governments to stage airlifts. They did so in November 1984 with Operation Moses out of Sudan, and once again in May 1991 with Operation Solomon. She followed the community to Israel in 1991 and worked there for 3 years, helping with the absorption of the Ethiopian Jewish community. Since returning to the United States, she earned a Masters Degree at Harvard University and spent 9 years working on behalf of Yemin Orde Youth Village in Israel, which helps immigrant and refugee children from 22 countries, as well as continuing her passion for helping other refugee children- from Tibet, India, and orphans of Rwandan genocide. The book, Operation Solomon, by Stephen Spector, gives her tremendous credit as a ‘heroine’ of Operation Solomon. Susan is married Now living in Silver Spring, MD, she continues to work on behalf of the Ethiopian Jewish community through Friends of Ethiopian Jews, a nonprofit organization which she co-founded.
Our event will include two prominent speakers, DR RABBI SHARON SHALOM and SUSAN POLLACK, and will include a discussion of the Jewish immigrant experience in Israel, the US, and beyond. Their impressive bios are below. Our evening will include a discussion of the Jewish immigrant experience in Israel, the US, and beyond.
Please come with your questions and personal stories!
Co-Sponsored by Chassida Shmella Ethiopian Israeli Jewish Community in collaboration with The American Sephardi Federation.
Click here to make a reservation (required) Complimentary
Sunday, August 6 from 8 P.M. to Midnight
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street, New York City, 10011
The American Sephardi Federation presents Tu B’AV, the Jewish Valentine’s Day! Come to celebrate this special holiday with music and dancing! Dress code: White is preferred (not mandatory). No shorts, t-shirts, or tank tops allowed.
Please click here to purchase tickets (Admission $40; includes open bar)
August 24, 27, and 28
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street, New York City, 10011
Dynamic and diverse performances by world-class artists will be heard at the first edition of The American Sephardi Music Festival. Hosted by The American Sephardi Federation and directed by David Serero, the Festival will take place over three days.
Tickets are from $20 to $40 ($20 Tax-Deductible Donation) Click here for Sponsorship, Media, and Other Inquiries
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)
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
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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).