Morocco’s tradition of inter-religious tolerance is finding a home in New York City, where “a group of Moroccan Jews and Muslims… meet regularly to socialize, enjoy good food, and get to know one another.” For the 15th Dinner, Moroccan Americans in New York partnered with the American Sephardi Federation and Association Mimouna the night before the Opening of the 20th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
Attendees included the founders of the Moroccan Jewish Dinners, Simo Elaissaoui; and Irina Tsukerman; 2017 ASF Pomegranate Award Honoree for Lifetime Achievement; Mr. André Azoulay, Councillor to HM King Mohammed VI of Morocco, and performers: French-Algerian Superstar and ASF Pomegranate Award Recipient Enrico Macias and his grandson; rising star Symon Mill, Israeli-Moroccan Star Neta Elkayam and her husband; composer Amit Hai Cohen; Kuwaiti Star, human rights activist, and Pomegranate Award Recipient Ema Shah; and French-Moroccan Baritone Opera Star David Serero.
Enrico Macias, ASF Exeucitbe Director Jason Guberman-P., and ASF Board Member Oded Halahmy, 15th Moroccan-Jewish Dinner, Bedford on Park, 29 March 2017
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
Yehuda Glantz playing the charango, a stringed instrument popular in South America’s Andes region
(Photo courtesy of Moshe Glantz/Wikimedia)
Argentine-Israeli musician Yehuda Glantz plays “Adon Olam” (“Lord of the World”) on the charango. The lyrics of this classic piyyut (liturgical song) are frequently attributed to Solomon ibn Gabirol, an 11th century Sephardi scholar, poet, and philosopher born in Málaga, Spain.
Melisa Alahey at the Absorption Center of Mevasseret Zion, outside of Jerusalem
(Photo courtesy of Ruth Eglash/The Washington Post)
With Prime Minister Netanyahu’s watershed visit to Ethiopia serving as the backdrop, The Washington Post asked several Ethiopian Jewish Israelis about their journeys to the Jewish State. Melisa Alahey, 76, who grew-up in a farming village near Gondar, a city in northern Ethiopia, describes how his family waited six years to emigrate to Israel: “We suffered abuse in Gondar. The people there did not like us because we were Jews,” but they endured because: “[i]t was always my dream to come to Jerusalem, and [now] everything here [in Israel] is even better than I expected.”
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).