Combat Anti-Semitism Presents:

A Year Since Poway: Lesson from the Synagogue Shooting



Sign-up Now!

Sunday, 26 April at 3PM EST 

Join us as we commemorate the one year anniversary of the deadly shooting at the Chabad of Poway Synagogue during Shabbat morning services on the last day of Passover.

We will honor the memory of Lori Gilbert-Kaye, who was tragically killed in the attack and hear from brave survivors of the shooting who helped prevent further bloodshed as the shooting unfolded.

This virtual event will also feature diplomats and local government officials, security experts and religious leaders, who will discuss the government responses and private security approaches to combating anti-Semitism and how we should respond to the increasingly violent acts against Jewish communities around the world.

Special guests include:

 Dr. Ahmed Shaheed - UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
 Elan Carr - US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
 Jonathan Morales - Border Patrol Agent that Helped Stop the Shooter
 Aubrey Meyerowitz - Poway Synagogue Congregant and Attack Survivor.

The American Sephardi Federation is a proud partner of Combat Anti-Semitism and encourages everyone to sign the CAS Pledge.

ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History... from home Presents:

Expedition to Iraq

Sign-up Now!
(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)
No Passport, Airfare, or Quarantines! 

Tour Departs Promptly at 2PM EST, Monday, 27 April 



ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History... from home presents Expedition to Iraq, a journey in time and space powdered by the Diarna Geo-Museum Tours.

Expedition to Iraq features Babylonian Jewish shrines, schools, and cemeteries throughout the country, with stops in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, al-Kifl, and Amediye.



Watch this recorded Diarna Geo-Museum Tour of the Shrine to Nachum at al-Qoosh, Iraqi-Kurdistan

Feedback on Experience Egypt: 

>>“Totally engrossing program … thank you” 

>>“Thank you so much for a truly enjoyable and educational trip to the Jewish sites of Egypt!  I visit[ed] Cairo in 2009 and am so happy to have had the opportunity to ‘return’ to Egypt today! Kol ha’kavod v’todah rabah for the wonderful presentation!” 

>>“I just wanted to say
how informative and impressive it was.... It was also reassuring in these incredible "science fiction times", that we had a chance to band together and share our resources, and keep optimistic.” 

Sponsorship Opportunities: 

Expedition to Iraq is the 3rd in a planned series of ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History... from home. Possible future tour destinations include: Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia. Naming opportunities available.

Please click here to sponsor a tour today!
(Donations are tax-deductible)

On an ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History tour, you will... explore the Middle Eastern and North African heartlands of Jewish history with live Diarna Geo-Museum guides and historians, meet special guests, see historical sites that are off the beaten path or even inaccessible to visitors, hear fascinating stories, and reconnect with your roots.

At this terrible and turbulent time, we are here to serve the community, preserving and promoting our Greater Sephardic history, traditions, and rich mosaic culture.

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:

The Crypto Experience
The Global History of Secret Jews

An online course presented in 10 minute episodes.
Learn at your own pace.

Please sign-up now!
Total cost of the course is $75.00

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is proud to present “The Crypto Experience,” an online course on Crypto-Jews. It is part of a series of online courses on a variety of topics that make up the robust Jewish experience.

For hundreds of years there have been descendants of Crpto-Jews, who have covertly kept some of their traditions while maintaining a very different public persona. It is a question of identity, be it Huegenot, Catholic, Sephardi, or Mashadi. Professing one faith on the outside and another on the inside speaks to our quest for defining identity today.

These questions of identity that we think are so new and so relevant are really rather old questions under different circumstances. In this course Dr. Hilda Nissimi (Bar Ilan University) presents an overview of crypto societies historically and in the context of today. She challenges the participants to ask themselves difficult questions like: What defines identity? If I project this outer self, how do I keep my real me? Who is the real me? Am I the me before the expression of an outer facade? Is it a new me?

The course discusses these questions as they pertain to Jews, specifically. What does it mean to be a Jew? What do I have to keep if I want to call myself a Jew? Am I allowed to change? Am I the person to decide? Who will decide? How can anyone decide under such circumstances?

In order to understand this in historic and cultural contexts, world-renowned scholars and experts in the field have joined Dr. Nissimi and will be presenting the challenges facing a range of crypto societies: 

Huegenots – Dr. Hilda Nissimi
Spanish-Portuguese Crypto Society – Dr. Ronnie Perelis (Yeshiva University)
Bildi’in of Morocco – Professor Paul Fenton (Sorbonne Université, Paris) 
Mashhadi Jews of Iran – Dr. Hilda Nissimi
Tracing Jewish Roots – Genie and Michael Milgrom
Growing Up Mashhadi– Reuben Ebrahimoff


For more information and other ASF IJE online course offerings visit: https://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:

The Greek Experience
Explore the world of Greek Jewry from the ancient Romaniote to the Sephardim and others who made it to and through Greece.

An online course presented in 10 minute episodes.
Learn at your own pace.

Please sign-up now!
Total cost of the course is $75.00

Jews have been in Greece since before the Temple was destroyed. They were in Greece upon the founding of the Greek Orthodox Church. Community members, known as Romaniote, made their way through Venice, Byzantium, Spain, across the Ottoman Empire, and beyond.
 
Dr. Yitzchak Kerem provides an overview of the unique languages, liturgical nuances, and communal life of Jews across Greece. Dr Kerem spent significant time living in Greece and researching Greek and Sephardic history. Photographs, maps, and personal accounts provide course participants with a full picture of the unique nature of the Jews of Greece and its surroundings.
 
In the course, participants will look at major influential points in Greek Jewish history. They will explore The Golden Age of Salonika, a time when Greece’s northern city was a hub of Jewish scholarship. Kerem introduces the tension arising in the Greek Jewish community because of Shabtai Tzvi and the Sabbateanism movement that brought with it false messianism and conversion to Islam, at least outwardly.
 
The course looks at when the Alliance Israélite Universelle moved in and the Sephardic culture in Greece developed a rich secular culture with its own novels, theater, and music. 
 
This is part of the greater Jewish heritage and history that is often overlooked. ASF IJE online courses will bring to life all parts of the greater Jewish Experience.

For more information and other ASF IJE online course offerings visit: https://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/