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29 June 2018

In Memory of CPL Morris “Moe” Meshulam, A”H, a Sephardi Jew from Indianapolis who served in the Korean War with distinction before his capture and death in a North Korean Prisoner of War Camp (see the Feature of the Week below for details)
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Rev. Gershom Mendes Seixas was the first native-born Jewish communal leader in the United States 
(Image courtesy of Wikipeadia Commons
Honoring America’s first synagogue.” 
By Colin Mixson, Downtown Express
 
The first synagogue in the United States was the Mill Street Synagogue, built in lower Manhattan in 1730, to serve the Spanish and Portuguese members of Congregation Shearith Israel. The congregation’s “Patriot Rabbi,” Gershom Mendes Seixas, became famous for supporting the revolution from his pulpit during the American War of Independence. Today, the American Sephardi Federation is partnering with the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, “to support a request for signage on a lamppost outside the Dubliner restaurant co-naming South William Street as Mill Street Synagogue/Gershom Mendes Seixas Way.” 

Update: The NY City Council approved the request this week! A dedication ceremony will be announced in the near-future. Mazal Tov to Attorney James Kaplan, President and Chair of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, who originated and spearheaded this important initiative.  (See below for details about his special 4th of July event). 
Star Spangled Banner-based Syrian Sephardi Piyyut 
Hebrew Text and Recording by Sephardic Pizmonim Project
Introduction by Eddie Ashkenazie, Sephardi World Weekly

 
Magen David Congregation was the first Syrian Sephardi synagogue built in Brooklyn. In honor of its 1921 inauguration, Rabbi Moses Ashear, who would serve as the hazzan of the Congregation until his death, composed a piyyut. Incorporating verses and terminology from the Tanach, the song begins by praising the actions of the committee who built the synagogue and then goes on to glorify the building and its importance for the community that would grow around it. 

While other songs were written for the occasion, only this piyyut was set to the score of the Star-Spangled Banner. The reason is unknown. Perhaps Rabbi Ashear, as an immigrant to the United States from Syria in the early 1900s, wished to celebrate the community finding success in America by synthesizing an aspect of the Syrian tradition (the composition of piyyutim) with the National Anthem. He may also have wished to situate this event within the context of America’s ideas and ideals, especially our rights to Thought, Worship, Speech, and Assembly, as codified in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

Magen David Congregation, Brooklyn, NY
(Photo courtesy of At Home Studios
Feature of the Week: “Coming Home After 67 Years:  A Sephardic Jewish Korean War Veteran’s Return”
By Anna Selman, Programs and Public Relations Coordinator, Jewish War Veterans of America
 

 
CPL Morris Meshulam
(Photo courtesy of the Korean War Project)
 
ASF: It is not every day that a Korean War soldier’s remains are identified and returned home after nearly 70 years. In this rarest of the rare cases, the remains belong to a Sephardic Jew, CPL Morris “Moe” Meshulam. What follows is an account from the Jewish War Veterans of America/National Museum of American Jewish Military History, with whom The American Sephardi Federation has patterned to preserve and promote the proud history of patriotic service to the cause of American liberty rendered by Sephardic Jews. Our work together has included hosting the Jewish Warrior Weekend for Jewish cadets from West Point, the Air Force Academy in Colorado, the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and Texas A&M for a Veteran’s Day Weekend Shabbaton at the Center for Jewish History.
 
On June 4, 2018, JWV received a notification from the U.S. Army that the remains of CPL Morris Meshulam had been identified.  CPL Meshulam, who died 67 years ago, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on 11 July 1931 to Sam and Pauline Meshulam.  His parents were founding members of the Etz Chaim Congregation, which is a small community of Sephardic Jews in Indianapolis.  According to the family, Moe, as he liked to be called, dropped out of High School when he was 18 to sign-up for the Army. 
 
The little that we know of CPL Meshulam comes from his surviving family – his sister Rose and his nephews Sam and Morris.  Rose was contact by the Army a couple of weeks ago, and she was in “total shock” that her baby brother was finally found.  CPL Meshulam’s brother Jack and his twin sister Rae gave their DNA to Department of Defense officials in 2006 to help identify Moe’s body.  Jack, Moe, and Rae will finally be brought together in the family plot in Indianapolis later this year.

 
Bonus Feature: Jewish Spain in American Tongue: The Sephardic Return of Emma Lazarus
 
(Screenshot courtesy of The Jewish Broadcasting Service)
 
À propos Independence Day: watch ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Leonard Stein’s fascinating Young Sephardi Scholars Series lecture at The Center for Jewish History, co-sponsored by the American Jewish Historical Society and Leo Baeck Institute, on the life and work of American Sephardi poetess and patriot Emma Lazarus, whose iconic sonnet is inscribed upon the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
Bonus Feature: A Sephardi-American Patriot’s Passion
 
The first American-English translation of the siddur by Isaac Pinto (who also has a Stratford connection), was one of the rare books and artifacts from the American Sephardi Federation’s collection on display in The Center for Jewish History’s David Berg Rare Book Room exhibition with ASF, Sephardic Journeys, which is now part of the Google Cultural Institute
(Photo courtesy of John Halpern/Center for Jewish History)
 
Grace Mendes Seixas Nathan (1752-1831) was born in Stratford, Connecticut, into a proud Sephardi family dedicated to the Patriots’ cause. Her brother, Gershom Mendes Seixas, preached persuasively on behalf of the principles of liberty. He convinced his congregation, Shearith Israel: The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, to decamp New York rather than submit to saying prayers on behalf of King George III, after the city fell to the British in 1775 (see: “Unlocking a key to the Sephardic diaspora... in Stratford”). Seixas later served as one of the clergy at George Washington’s inaugural. Another brother Moses Seixas, a founder of the Newport Bank of Rhode Island, wrote the letter on behalf of the Touro Synagogue (as it is now known) to which President George Washington famously replied that all Americans, including Jews, "possess[ed] alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.”

Grace, a gifted writer, shared her family’s sentiments and poured her ardent love of America and the Jewish People into poems and correspondence. In celebration of this year’s Independence Day, we offer our readers a stirring passage from one of Grace’s letters to her niece, in which she proudly proclaims her Patriotism—and her contempt for British imperialist revanchism!—during the War of 1812:

“...but I cannot for the life of me feel terrified—besides I am so true an American—so warm a Patriot that I hold these mighty Armies—and their proud-arrogant-presumptuous and over-powering Nation as Beings that we have Conquered and shall Conquer again—this I persuade myself will be so. And may the Lord of Battles grant it may be so.”

(David de Sola Pool, “Some Letters of Grace Seixas Nathan, 1814-1821,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 37 (1947), p. 209. For a portrait of Grace and other members of the Seixas family, explore The American Jewish Historical Society’s Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. Database of Early American Jewish Portraits).
Jewish patriot joins South Carolina legislature, Jan. 11, 1775” 
By Andrew Glass, Politico
 
Francis Salvador was a Sephardi Jew whose family emigrated from mainland England to the American colonies in the 18th century. On 11 January 1775, Salvador became the first Jew to be elected to an American colonial legislature, only to become the first Jewish soldier killed in the American War of Independence soon thereafter, when ambushed by Cherokees and British loyalists.

The originally Sephardic Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue, the second oldest synagogue in America, Charleston, South Carolina (Photo courtesy of the Historic American Buildings Survey - Library of Congress)  
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 “Religious Liberties and the Bill of Rights,” an online exhibit of the Ambassador John L. Loeb Visitors Center, Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island

A Reading of George Washington’s Letter to the 
Jewish Congregation at Newport


Wednesday, 4 July at 3:00 PM
Fraunces Tavern
54 Pearl Street
New York City 


The American Sephardi Federation proudly recommends joining Da’at Elohim: Temple of Universal Judaism for a meaningful Independence Day commemoration: a reading of George Washington’s August 1790 letter assuring “the children of the stock of Abraham” that “every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree....” While addressed to Newport’s Sephardic community, Washington delivers a universal message:
 
“The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”


For additional information please contact Jim Kaplan


The 9th Annual AXELROD Israel Jewish Film Festival:
Opening Night: Film, Reception & Exhibit

Sephardic Wedding Traditions:
An Archival Photo Exhibit by the American Sephardi Federation


Sunday, 8 July at 6:00 PM
Axelrod Performing Arts Center
100 Grant Ave 
Deal, New Jersey


Please click here to make a reservation


The Axelrod’s highly successful Israel/Jewish Film Festival enters its ninth year in 2018. Under the leadership of film enthusiast Toby Shylit Mack, the festival presents a dozen international films that celebrate the Jewish experience, most of which have received awards at major film festivals around the world.
 
Each year, audience enrichment activities and special events in conjunction with the films are planned, including talks with filmmakers, book-signings, culinary events and more.

We look forward to seeing you!


Diarna: The Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life Presents:


Passport to Jewish History:

Wednesday, 11 July at 7:00 PM
A Pilgrimage to Morocco's Jewish Saints 

Wednesday, 25 July at 7:00 PM
Expedition to Egypt: Results of a Recent Research Trip
Featuring Diarna's Lead Photographer/Outreach Director Josh Shamsi


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
Passes to all three sessions are available
Space is limited



Join the Diarna 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!


The Center for Jewish History Presents:
Family History Today: Genealogy Lecture for Sephardi and Mizrahi Families

Thursday, 12 July, 6:30 PM - 8 PM 

Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street 
New York City

 
Curious about family history outside of the Pale of Settlement? 
The Center for Jewish History and American Sephardi Federation welcome you to a lecture on genealogy tools for those interested in researching Jewish community records and Jewish life in the Sephardi or Mizrahi Diaspora. 

Open to all. No previous experience or preparation is necessary. 

Presented by J.D. Arden, Genealogy and Reference Librarian at The Center for Jewish History and adjunct faculty member at the LIU-Palmer School of Library & Information Science. 

An ASL interpreter may be made available if requested in advance.

Please click here to RSVP
or
Call: 800-838-3006


Generously sponsored by The Center for Jewish History’s Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute


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.

 and 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! 

Contact us by email to learn about giving opportunities in honor or memory of loved ones

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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).

www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 548-4486

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