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1 May 2020

In Honor of the ASF Young Leaders who creatively and compassionately created an inter-generational Virtual Sephardic Seder on Zoom that helped over 175 seniors and young people to celebrate Passover together during the COVID-19 lockdown in accordance with the teachings of the Hakhamim (Sephardic Sages). Mazal tov/Mabrouk! to ASF YL President Lauren Gibli, Member Ben Cohen, Member and ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Richard Sassoon, and Outreach & Educational Coordinator as well as ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Ruben Shimonov, who led the Seder with a wondrous mix of stories, scholarly insights, and songs.
 
Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one. 
The Sephardi World Weekly is made possible by generous readers like you. Show your support by becoming a Patron via Patreon and your name will appear in each edition along with timely, thought-provoking articles on Greater Sephardi history, the arts, and current affairs. Thanking you in advance! And thank you to Sephardi World Weekly Patrons Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina and Gwen Zuares!
 
Did the Nazis Cover Up a Jewish Discovery in Spain's ‘Oldest Christian Basilica’?” 
By Candida Moss, The Daily Beast
 
Spain’s “oldest Christian basilica,” located twenty minutes from the eastern Mediterranean coast, apparently was once a synagogue. Few know this, however, because “excavations of the site during WWII were conducted… [by] German archaeologists appointed by the Nazi regime.” Even the seven-branched Menorah on the basilica’s floor has been elided by generations of archaeologists. The deeper story, it seems, is the, “1500-year-old project, begun by ancient Christians and perpetuated anew by the ideological interests of the Nazi regime… to appropriate and ‘Christianize’ the contributions and property of Jews in Spain.” 

Ancient mosaic menorah, Elche, Spain
(Photo courtesy of Robyn Walsh/The Daily Beast)

 
Feature: Simcha Gedola Ha'Layla (“Plenty of Joy Tonight!”)
 


Moshe Eliyahu (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)


Damascus-born Moshe Eliyahu (1919-1994) was one of the great Syrian musicians of the 20th century. When anti-Semitism made it impossible for him to make a living as a musician in Syria, however, Eliyahu made Aliyah to Israel. Once in the Jewish State, he continued writing and performing music, including the raucous Simcha Gedola Ha'Layla, (“Plenty of Joy Tonight”), his most popular song, an adaptation of a popular Arabic melody to which Eliyahu added a text celebrating the re-founding of the State of Israel.

Professor Gloria Ascher, International Ladino Day 2020, Leo & Julia Forchheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 12 January 2020
(Photo courtesy of Sephardic Horizons



 
Facing 80: Keeping an Ancient Language Alive” 
By Rhonda J. Miller, Next Avenue
 
Professor Gloria Ascher was raised in New York City by Ladino-speaking parents from Turkey. Charmed by her mother’s songs, Ascher grew-up to include Ladino language and culture among her areas of academic expertise, enjoying a career as a lecturer at Tufts University. And she’s still at it: in January, she spoke at the American Sephardi Federation, Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood, and Sephardic Home for the Aged Foundation’s 2020 International Ladino Day, organized by Dr. Jane Mushabac and Professor Bryan Kirschen. What does Ascher think about recently turning eighty-one? “‘I have a block against numbers. They put you in a category… I’m not a number. I’m a creature of God.’”
Sephardi Gifts:
His Hundred Years, A Tale
by Shalach Manot
Translated by Jane Mushabac


His Hundred Years, A Tale by Shalach Manot is a novel about a Turkish Jew, a peddler, an everyman, in the fast-deteriorating Ottoman Empire and in New York.

“This fascinating book by gifted writer and storyteller Shalach Manot reflects on the life of an unusual Sephardic man, his childhood in Turkey, and later, his adaptation to life in America. We follow his adventures and come away with a deeper appreciation and understanding of the Sephardic immigrant experience during the 20th century.” — Marc D. Angel, author of The Crown of Solomon and Other Stories.

“Sensitive and gripping portraits of diverse Turkish Jewish women caught in a patriarchal system.”—Gloria J. Ascher, Professor and Co-Director of Judaic Studies, Tufts University

 
Farewell Espana: The World of the Sephardim Remembered
by Howard M. Sachar


Farewell Espana transcends conventional historical narrative. With the lucidity and verve that have characterized his numerous earlier volumes, Howard Sachar breathes life into the leading dramatis personae of the Sephardic world: the royal counselors Samuel ibn Nagrela and Joseph Nasi, the poets Solomon ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi, the philosophers Moses Maimonides and Baruch Spinoza, the statesmen Benjamin Disraeli and Pierre Mendes-France, the warriors Moshe Pijade and David Elazar, the fabulous charlatans David Reuveni and Shabbatai Zvi.

In its breadth and richness of texture, Sachar's account sweeps to the contemporary era of Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco, poignantly traces the fate of Balkan Sephardic communities during the Holocaust—and their revival in the Land and State of Israel. Not least of all, the author offers a tactile dimension of immediacy in his personal encounters with the storied venues and current personalities of the Sephardic world. Farewell Espana is a window opened on a glowing civilization once all but extinguished, and now flickering again into renewed creativity.

 
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:

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

Coming soon... 


Virtual Lag Ba’Omer
A hilula like no other, as Diarna Geo-Museum Tours digitally transports pilgrims to shrines in multiple countries, including Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, and Morocco


Tour departs promptly on 12 May at 2PM EST 
No Passport, Airfare, or Quarantines! 

SUPPORT THE LAG BA’OMER TOUR NOW

We need your help to honor the holiday and make this tour free and open to the public. Every donation is tax-deductible and essential to keep our researchers working non-stop to identify, document, and make Jewish history accessible.

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.



Feedback on Previous Experiences

>>“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.”


>>“Thank you so much. I got on it, learned so much and really enjoyed it.  I await the one on Iraqi Kurdistan.” 

>>“Thanks so much. Truly fascinating, we really enjoyed it. We have signed up for more information so hopefully we will be able to join further tours.” 


Sponsorship Opportunities

Possible future tour destinations include: Iran, Morocco, Syria, Kurdistan, 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 visithttps://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/

 and your generous tax-deductible contribution will empower the ASF to fight for Jewish unity and champion the Sephardi voice in Jewish communal affairs at home and abroad, as well as in our programs, publications, and projects. 

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) 294-8350

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