Mazal Tov/Mabrouk to Professor Ephraim Isaac of the Institute of Semitic Studies on delivering the Mayo Clinic’s 2018 Distinguished Lecture - Special Education Grand Rounds on 25 June. Professor Isaac, a Distinguished Member of The American Sephardi Federation’s Board of Directors, is the “founder and first professor of the Department of African-American Studies at Harvard University… was voted the best teacher each year by students… and the department has endowed Harvard’s Ephraim Isaac Prize for Excellence in African‐American Studies” in his honor. The lecture addressed “the challenges of establishing and maintaining” the department, his “personal experience… [as] a Black Jew at Harvard University, and in the US in the early 1960s,” and the “undying power of love as the perennial key to a peaceful, amicable, and productive life [for and amongst] people of diverse persuasions.”
Sephardic Jews are moving into the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan, and schools, synagogues, and restaurants are catering to their needs. Rabbi Emeritus of the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, Haham Marc Angel, remembers when his prayer quorum was the only Sephardi minyan in town: “I would not have foreseen it… Thirty years ago, no one ever heard of bourekas.”
Ahmed Alshaiba performing on multiple instruments
(Photo courtesy of Youtube)
The Israeli-born leader of Yemen Blues, Ravid Kahalani, is set to appear with the Yemenite-born, virtuoso multi-instrumentalist, Ahmed Alshaiba, in early August at The Brooklyn Bowl. In this week’s featured video, Alshaiba records Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” in a Middle Eastern key.
New York City remains the center for inter-cultural creation between Jews and Muslims. The latest evidence? Yemen Blues’ Israeli-born musician and vocalist Ravid Kahalani has been collaborating with Ahmed Alshaiba, a virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist Yemeni Muslim from Sana’a, Yemen. Performing with an Israeli from a Yemenite Jewish family comes naturally to Alshaiba, “The culture in Yemen was inclusive. We were all Yemeni. Most of Yemen would sing and listen to Jewish songs. [Israeli super star] Ofra Haza was the Yemeni idol.”
Ravid Kahalani (Photo courtesy of Ravid Kahalani/Times of Israel)
Wednesday, 8 August at 7:00 PM Beyond Tunis: A Comprehensive Mission to Tunisia
Featuring Diarna photographer Chrystie Sherman
Diarna “Situation Room” at ASF
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Please click here to make a reservation Space is limited
Join Diarna researchers for the final installment of a three-part passport series exploring Jewish historical sites and stories:
Over a million Jews once lived in the Middle East and North Africa, spanning from synagogues on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Morocco to abandoned Jewish fortresses in Saudi Arabia and the traditional shrines of Biblical personalities in the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Iran. The profound Jewish imprint on the region could be experienced in major cities and diffuse villages.
Now, decades since communities have disbanded, synagogues, schools, cemeteries, and other structures left behind are suffering from natural decay or being deliberately targeted for destruction, while political strife has stymied visiting, no less preserving, thousands of sites. In recent years the Iranian regime has threatened to destroy the purported shrine of Esther and Mordechai at Hamadan; the storied Eliyahu HaNabi Synagogue in the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus was reduced to rubble (a consequence of being caught in the crossfire of the Syrian Civil War); and ISIS exploded the traditional tomb of Jonah, which had been located within one of Mosul’s oldest mosques.
Diarna: The Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life--an independent initiative of Digital Heritage Mapping, a spacial humanities non-profit organization--is working to digitally preserve the physical remnants of Jewish history throughout the region. We are in a race against time to capture site data and record place-based oral histories. Diarna pioneers the synthesis of digital mapping technology, traditional scholarship, and field research, as well as a trove of multimedia documentation. All of these combine to lend a virtual presence and guarantee untrammeled access to Jewish historical sites lest they be forgotten or erased.
We look forward to seeing you!
MALA and American Sephardi Federation Present:
Maktuv*: An Evening of Islamic and Jewish Calligraphy:
Monday, 13 August 6:00- 7:30PM Join MALA and ASF for an interactive workshop led by experiential educator and artist Ruben Shimonov!
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
We will explore the significance of Arabic in Islam and Hebrew in Judaism, as well as the close relationship between both Semitic languages. It'll be a space to share our personal connections with the holy languages of our respective faiths and to engage with these two languages through a hands-on calligraphy workshop!
No background in Arabic or Hebrew calligraphy necessary. Refreshments will be served.
*As cognates, Maktoob and Ketuv mean “written” in Arabic and Hebrew respectively.
About our workshop leader:
Born in Uzbekistan, Ruben Shimonov belongs to the native Persian-speaking Jewish population of Central Asia. This community—the Bukharian Jews—have lived alongside their Muslim neighbors for 1300 years, engaging in cultural and intellectual commerce.
Given his background, Ruben possesses a strong passion for Muslim-Jewish community building. He has brought this interest to his academic, professional and community leadership work, including his involvement with the American Sephardic Federation (ASF) where he currently serves as the Vice-President of Education and Community Engagement on the Young Leadership board. Ruben is also an ASF 2018 Broome & Allen Fellow.
His interest in Muslim-Jewish dialogue has also informed his artistic work, inspiring him to create multilingual calligraphy that juxtaposes and weaves together Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian. He currently studies at New York University, pursuing a dual Master’s in Public Administration and Judaic Studies.
We look forward to seeing you!
Yemenite Faces and Scenes & Episodes in Yemenite History
The Teimani Experience, which closed on 5 June, continues in part with a photographic exhibit in our Leon Levy Gallery and an art exhibit in the Myron Habib, A"H, Memorial Display.
On view until September
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Yemenite Faces and Scenes: Photographs by Naftali Hilger
Intrepid photographer and photo-journalist Naftali Hilger traveled extensively in Yemen in the late 1980s and early 1990s photographing structures, street scenes, and the last remnants of Jewish life. These images—including of Yemenite children learning to read Torah upside-down in their father’s shop and a family relaxing in their diwan (salon)—depict an existence that has faded into history as the ever-shrinking community has found refuge in a government compound at Sana’a.
Episodes in Yemenite History: Paintings by Tiya Nachum
A series of eight paintings by the artist and sculptor Tiya Nachum of Encino, CA. The paintings reflect the tragedies and triumphs of Yemenite Jewish history, from the Mawza exile to the founding of the Inbal Dance Troupe by Sara Levy. Each painting tells a story and each story is a history onto itself.
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The American Sephardi Federation is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, New York, 10011).
