In Honor of Dr. Mohamed al-Issa, General Secretary of the Muslim World League and Saudi Arabia’s Former Justice Minister, for standing-up for historical truth and the possibility of peace at a Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations with American Sephardi Federation event this week honoring Muslims who, in the face of the absolute evil perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its allies, respected and protected Jewish minorities living amongst them and Jewish refugees who fled the Nazi onslaught. Dr. al-Issa said: “We have to try to assert our joint values and our joint goals simply because society loves harmony. We should carry on with dialogue, and we should never listen to voices of hatred and exclusion.” The event also included ASF’s Partner Association Mimouna and official representatives of several Muslim-majority countries—Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Morocco—where Jews were protected and who are committed to Jewish-Muslim cooperation today. In the classic Sephardic tradition of tolerance and inclusion, ASF’s delegation to the event included Muslim scholars and communal leaders, including our friends from the Moroccan Americans in New York and Muslim American Leadership Alliance.
The word “maqam” in Arabic is an equivocal term that literally means place, but also means musical scale. In Iraq it likewise serves as a term for the country’s spiritually rich but disappearing art music. Iraqi musicians have begun trying to preserve the genre, including Iraqi Jews, who, like Linda Menuhin, live in Israel: “These maqam songs entrench the values of beauty, peace and love.”
Poster for the annual International Oud Festival in Jerusalem (2013)
Jews played an important role in the North African music industry during the first half of the 20th century. They recorded in several languages, including Hebrew, as a 1932 Tunisian recording of what would become Israel’s national anthem, HaTikvah, attests. What’s most remarkable, however, “is just how uncontroversial the release of Hatikvah in North Africa was at the beginning of the 20th century.”
Logo of The Center for Middle Eastern Classical Music
Classical Israeli music with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern roots, from the Andalusian Orchestra of Ashdod to the annual Jerusalem-based International Oud Festival, is beginning to flourish and receive institutional support. According to Avi Shoshani, founder and director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Classical Music, the initial difficulties were a function of ignorance: “Those running public radio here… were invariably… brought up in the Western tradition. They could not conceive of a classical music that was not Western and European… That Arabic and ethnic Jewish music has its own classical canon was beyond them, if not intellectually, then emotionally.”
The Yeshiva University Museum and American Sephardi Federation Presents: Hey, Wow! The Art of Oded Halahmy
Monday, 30 April
Exhibition Viewing at 6:00 PM
Musical Performance at 7:00 PM
Dessert Reception Following
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
This exhibition features the mixed-media work of New York and Jaffa-based artist Oded Halahmy, an international artist with roots in Iraq and Israel. Halahmy’s lyrical sculptures span from expressive abstraction to simple but vivid figuration. His work reflects the rich, complex history of Jewish heritage in Babylonia, and celebrates the notion of homeland. Hey, Wow! explores themes originating in a popular Hebrew song written in Iraq. The artist riffs on Hebrew letter forms, blending the languages of modern artistic practice and of his ancient culture heritage.
Featuring performance by vocal artist Victoria Hanna
Kehila Kedosha Janina Presents: International Greek Jewish Shabbat
Friday-Saturday, 4-5 May Kehila Kedosha Janina
280 Broome Street
New York City
Join us for a very special Shabbat celebrating the Romaniote and Sephardic traditions of the Jews of Greece.
We are honored to welcome community leaders from Greece, Seattle, Indianapolis, Portland, Miami, Atlanta and Philadelphia, including the following distinguished Hahamim:
Rabbi Gabriel Negrin, Jewish Community of Athens, Greece
Rabbi Ben Hassan, Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation of Seattle
Rabbi David Gingold-Altchek, Etz Chaim Sephardic Cong. of Indianapolis
Rabbi Nissim Elnecave, Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America
We look forward to having you join us!
RSVP required at: amarcus@kkjsm.org
The Forth Annual Greek Jewish Festival
Sunday, 6 May 12PM - 6PM Kehila Kedosha Janina
280 Broome Street
New York City
Join the Greek Jewish Festival as we celebrate the unique Romaniote and Sephardic heritage of Kehila Kedosha Janina. Experience authentic kosher Greek foods and homemade Greek pastries, traditional Greek dancing and live Greek and Sephardic music, an outdoor marketplace full of vendors, arts and educational activities for kids, and much more!
Wednesday, 9 May at 7:00 PM Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City
In Uprooted, Lyn Julius, a British journalist (Guardian, Standpoint) and daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees, explores the mass exodus of Middle Eastern Jewish minority communities, the clamour for recognition, redress, and memorialization, and how their cause can further peace and reconciliation between Israel and the Muslim world.
Tuesday, 29 May 7:00 PM Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City
Join Irene Shaland, an internationally-published art and travel writer, educator, and lecturer, for a fascinating talk about her travels through Jewish history in Burma, India, China, Cuba, and Cambodia. Seeking Jewish narrative all over the world, Irene with her husband-photographer Alex, has visited close to 70 countries and shared her experiences with audiences and readers in US, Canada, and Europe.
A three day academic and cultural conference exploring the cultural heritage of Jews of Yemenite heritage and their joint cultural commonalities with the Muslims of Yemenite heritage. Learn more at: www.ASFYemenConference.org
International Academic Conference Monday, 4 June, 9:00am-5:30pm
Tuesday, 5 June, 9:00am-3:30pm @The Center for Jewish History
Celebrating the culture and history of Yemenite Jews and the rich interactions between Yemenite Jews and Muslims. Topics include Jews and Muslims, spirituality, antiquity, modern culture, and Yemenite women.
The American Sephardi Federation Presents: The Teimani Experience: An interactive, multi-sensory exploration of the history and culture of Yemenite Jews
On view: 9 April - 5 June
Yeshiva University Museum’s Rosenberg Gallery
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
The Teimani Experience immerses visitors in the sights, sounds, and even smells of the Yemenite Jewish culture, including the actual room (complete with ostrich eggs and rose water) recreated in Israel by Yemenite women from Sana’a who continued the tradition of making the birth mother the center of attention after both she and her newborn survived for thirty days. Aspects of Yemenite daily life are represented through an original painting of a representative Jewish home, artifacts pertaining to different Jewish occupations (including jewelry from remote areas of Yemen as well as worm-worn handwritten Biblical texts in Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic and a rare printed Maimonides text dating back approximately 100 years), correspondence between Yemen and the Land of Israel, pictures taken in the last 30 years of Jews and Jewish sites (synagogues, shrines, and other structures) in Yemen, and recordings of Torah reading and women’s songs.
We look forward to having you join us!
The Teimani Experience is presented by E’eleh BeTamar and the American Sephardi Federation, in conjunction with Yeshiva University Museum.
Extended through April
in ASF’s Leon Levy Gallery Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City
The Philos Project and American Sephardi Federation cordially invite you to “Nosotros," an art exhibit featuring the work of two renowned Latino artists, Angel Urrely (Cuba) and Carlos Ayala (Puerto Rico)--as a symbolic recognition and “step forward” to improving Jewish-Latino relations. We thank the Dominican artist, Juan Bravo, for exhibiting his pieces for the exhibit’s Opening Night. Each piece reflects the shared roots of Jewish and Latino communities and expresses hope for a more positive future from the perspective of each respective artist.
Each artist has displayed their works in hundreds of exhibits in both the US and Latin America, having many of them included in some of the most coveted collections in the world. We are very excited to bring them and their works to celebrate the importance of uniting us (or Nosotros), the Jewish and Latino communities, and having this art displayed in a very powerful way at the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History. Artists:
Angel Urrely is to the point. This son of Cuba does not beat around the bush. At least not for what the brush comes to reveal—his theory is clear and sharp. Each frame creates a specific, assertive and brutal connection. The reading of his work is—from the perspective of the viewer—very simple, to the point that if you assume an interpretation of what you are reading, believe me: Urrely is addressing exactly what you are thinking. Urrely has something to tell you and will let you know one way or another.
Carlos Ayala presents himself as the “Benjamin” of the tribes, the youngest of them all. This son of Puerto Rico presupposes that his youth may seem an obstacle to you, so he shows you his clutched fists from the introduction. This young man is fierce. Carlos shows us the deepest pains experienced by man, and brings them to an entertained, distracted and ill-bred public. He does not sit down to dream on the Caribbean coast and wait for boats loaded with promises. He does not have the time for it, but rather wants to remind you that even at the best moments pain is present. And at any moment it can befall us.
We look forward to having you join us!
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 Street, New York, New York, 10011).
