A fire recently ravaged and gutted Brazil’s National Museum. The loss is staggering. The museum included one of the largest collections of natural history on the planet, along with artifacts from ancient Egypt and the Greco-Roman world. Fortunately, the museum’s nine Torah scrolls, including one from 13th century Yemen, weren’t damaged in the fire. The museum released a statement confirming that the scrolls are, “being kept in a safe place.”
The Yemenite Torah Scroll is from the collection of Brazil’s Dom Pedro II (1825-1891), “evidence of the admiration that the Portugese monarch had for the Jewish people and for their traditions. This was so rare in Europe,” according to Osias Wurman, Israel’s Honorary Counsel at Rio (Photo courtesy of CristianoRohling/Imgur)
Moti Taka, Ohevet Oti Single Cover
(Photo courtesy of Apple Music)
Moti Taka is part of a new generation of Ethiopian Israelis who have burst onto Israel’s music scene. Taka’s brand of Mizrahi pop music regularly receives millions of views on YouTube, and more than four 4 million people have already checked out his single, Ohevet Oti (“You Love Me”), released at the beginning of 2018.
Noam Vazana is an Israeli musician and vocalist living in Amsterdam who is set to do something that some thought would never be done again: record an album of new Ladino songs for adults. Vazana’s project is rooted in the memory of her Moroccan-born grandmother singing to her in Ladino, but also in her aspiration to write Ladino songs with a contemporary, secular sensibility. Funny enough, Vazana’s Ladino-language teacher, Jonathan Benavides, has doubts about that part of the project, “[Ladino] was part of a world, of a community, defined by the Jewish religion. And when you examine it outside of that context, well, you’re looking at half the story.”
Kostas Papadopoulos is the last surviving link to the 2,300-year-old Romaniote Jewish history of Crete. Ferried off the island in 1944 at the age of two and ultimately saved from the Nazis by hiding with a local Christian family, Papadopoulos grew up in Greece before returning to Crete in 1970. Even as he makes a living selling religious art, he refuses to sell the Judaica, “a menorah, Torah pointers, a samovar and other heirlooms,” that’s exhibited in his gallery, “To be happy… I always have to see them.”
Kostas Papdopoulous, Crete, Greece, 2018 (Photo courtesy of Roger Rapoport/JTA)
The Jewish Genealogical Society and The American Sephardi Federation Present:
Branching out from Sepharad: Solving a Converso Mystery with Sarina Roffé
Sunday, 21 October, at 2:00PM Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Ticket Info:
For non-members: $5 at the door
Free for JGS, ASF, NYG&B members
Sarina Roffé, professional genealogist, founder of the Sephardic Heritage Project, and author of Branching Out from Sepharad: A Global Journey of Selected Rabbinic Families with Biographies and Genealogies (Forward by Professor Walter P. Zenner, Sephardic Heritage Project, 2017), outlines the history and expulsion of Jews in Spain, their history in Syria, and immigration to the Americas.
She discusses the Kassin rabbinic dynasty from the 12th century through the 50-year leadership of Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin in Brooklyn, and solves a Converso mystery.
Professor Mohammad Gharipour will discuss his research and recently published book, Synagogues of the Islamic World: Architecture, Design, and Identity (Edinburgh University Press, 2017), which explores how the architecture of synagogues in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain responded to contextual issues and traditions, as well as how these contexts influenced the design and evolution of synagogues. The book considers patterns of the development of synagogues in urban contexts in connection with urban elements and monuments, while revealing how synagogues reflect the culture of the Jewish minority at macro and micro scales.
This presentation is being made possible by the generous support of The Cahnman Foundation.
Mohammad Gharipour is Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University at Baltimore, Maryland. He obtained his Masters in Architecture from the University of Tehran and a Ph.D. in Architecture and Landscape History from Georgia Institute of Technology. He has received several awards, including the Hamad Bin Khalifa Fellowship in Islamic Art, the Spiro Kostof Fellowship Award from the Society of Architectural Historians, the National Endowment in Humanities Faculty Award, and was recognized as "one of the twelve minority scholars in the US who are making their mark in academia" in 2016 by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education Magazine. Professor Gharipour's books include Bazaar in the Islamic City (American University of Cairo Press, 2012), Persian Gardens and Pavilions: Reflections in Poetry, Arts, and History (I.B. Tauris, 2013), Calligraphy and Architecture in the Muslim World(co-edited with Irvin Schick, Edinburgh University Press, 2013), The City in the Muslim Word: Depictions by Western Travelers (co-edited with Nilay Ozlu, Routledge, 2014), and Sacred Precincts: The Religious Architecture of Non-Muslim Communities across the Islamic World (Brill, 2014). He is the director and founding editor of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture (www.intellectbooks.com/ijia)
How do you want to present yourself to, and be remembered by, someone who never knew you in your life?
What facet of your existence do you want the world to be aware of in 100+ years?
Tuesday, 30 October, 4:30PM - 6:30PM Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City Please note that there are two parts to this event:
1.) Tour of the Spanish and Portuguese cemetery on 21st St west of 6th Ave,
&
2.) A workshop in American Sephardi Federation at The Center for Jewish History.
One of the public things that people leave behind after they die are epitaphs and final disposition markers. These texts are curated presentations of a life lived and represent what people think of their life's achievements and how they want to be remembered by others. Join us as we think about this question and craft our own presentations, framed by the larger question of: what remains of this text and these tombstones after 100+ years?
"Let's bring death out of the shadows and into the light." #LetsReImagine
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.
Closing soon!
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.
Donate nowand 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!
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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).
