Hakham Henry Pereira Mendes’ Perspicacity & Progress

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In Memory of Hakham Rabbi José Faur, A”H (1934-2020). A teacher to all. He was a man who lived his life in the way that he should, with the knowledge that Boreh Olam’s hand was guiding him throughout. He spent his life swimming against the stream, book and family always by his side.

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30 June 2020

The Monthly Sage ◊ Feature ◊ Sephardi Gifts ◊ Upcoming Events ◊ Donate ◊ A rchive

Do not miss ASF Broom & Allen Fellows Dr. Vanessa Paloma Elbaz & Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas:

The Music of North Africa

Modern and Contemporary Judeo-Arabic Song and Performance

Wednesday, 1 July at 10AM EDT

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Sephardi Ideas Monthly is a continuing series of essays and interviews from the rich, multi-dimensional world of Sephardi thought that is delivered to your inbox every month.

The previous issue of Sephardi Ideas Monthly featured Dr. Murray Mizrahi’s fascinating essay, “A Sephardic Component to Zionism in Israel Education.” This month we continue Mizrahi’s exploration of Sephardi contributions to Zionism and Zionist education by featuring his original article, “The Biblical Zionism of Rabbi Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes.” Dr. Murray Mizrachi is an ASF Broome & Allen Fellow, currently lives with his wife and children in Brooklyn, NY, has a doctorate in philosophy from the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, teaches business courses at CUNY, and was named to The Jewish Week’s “36 under 36” for his work in the Sephardic community, including as founding Executive Director of the Sephardic Community Alliance (SCA).

Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes
(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

“The Biblical Zionism of Rabbi Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes”

Henry (Haim) Pereira Mendes (1852-1937) was born into a distinguished Western Sephardi (Spanish-Portuguese) rabbinic family in Birmingham, England. In 1877, he was invited to assume leadership of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, a position he then held until his passing in 1937. In his essay, Murray explores Rabbi Dr. Mendes’ “Bible Zionism… a unique Zionistic approach based on the Jewish tradition but relatable to the other monotheistic faiths.”

Murray notes that R’ Dr. Mendes came to his Zionism “early.” In 1897 he attended the first Zionist Congress in Basel and, according to Mendes’ own account, he was personally invited by Herzl “to introduce the Zionist movement in the United States.” Mendes did so with gusto, engaging throughout his career in literary and political projects that aimed to advance the Zionist movement. (R’ Dr. Mendes was also the founder of the Orthodox Union).

What makes Mendes so interesting, however, is not merely his early, enthusiastic, and ultimately enduring participation in the Zionist movement. Rather, his writing reflects an original and active mind that actively imagined the grounds for, and implications of, a future Jewish state. Freely moving in the realm of imagination, writes Murray, “R’ Mendes’ ideas regarding the future Jewish state can strike us as fantastic, if not naïve.” However, “close examination reveals how, in some ways, R’ Mendes saw the reality before him with remarkable perspicacity. What’s more, his more utopian ideas can provide helpful ideas and ideals for thinking about the future trajectory of the Jewish state.”

Sephardi Ideas Monthly is proud to present Dr. Murray Mizrahi’s original and thought-provoking essay, “The Biblical Zionism of Rabbi Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes.”

Click to read “The Biblical Zionism of Rabbi Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes.”

Feature Video: “Uv’nucho Yomar”

Hakham Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes composed this Shabbat morning prayer, which is one of several choral works that are part of the “standard repertoire of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York City, and are sung there regularly to this day. As such, they represent the liturgies of several services in the Western or so-called Amsterdam Sephardi liturgical music tradition as it has been preserved, stylized, harmonized, and even supplemented by original compositions in America,” according to the Milken Archive.

The Monthly Sage החכם החודשי

Hacham Eliyahu Yitzhak Hazan

Hacham Eliyahu Yitzhak Hazan
(Photo courtesy of HeHaCham HaYomi)

This month’s featured sage is Hakham Eliyahu Yitzhak Hazan

Who said that China never had any Jewish sages? For fourteen years, beginning in 1904, Baghdad-born Hakham Eliyahu Yitzhak Hazan officiated in Hong Kong as rabbi of its Bavli (Iraqi) community. He then led the Bavli community of Shanghai from 1920-30.

In 1930 Hakham Eliyahu made Aliyah to Israel, settling in Jerusalem. He passed away in 1938.

Hakham Eliyahu’s writings were published in Yad Eliyahu, a series of books including Rabbinic responsa, piyyutim, excerpts from the Zohar, and Maimonides’ introduction to the Mishna.

This responsa from Yad Eliyahu treats the minor question of whether or not it is permissible to use electric light in synagogue for ceremonial purposes. The answer to this minor question, however, is a fascinating historical document, taking us to early 20th century Shanghai and the communal squabbles that emerged as traditional society grappled with the essence and implications of electricity:

Concerning the Ner Tamid that is customarily lit in synagogues using olive oil or other kosher lighting oils, new things have arrived of late. A certain rabbi has come here, an Ashkenazi who became a rabbi in Shanghai, may God protect it, and instructed to take down the Ner Tamid and to light an electric one in its place, for its light is powerful and also because in all British regions they have the custom of lighting [with] electricity instead of olive oil. They ask whether doing so is permitted, for it is known that the Torah said: ‘that they bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually’ – while electricity comes from the earth and can be called neither oil nor lamp…
It is shown by the words of the Shulchan Aruch that the obligation in synagogues is not olive oil in particular, since he wrote: It is the custom to light lamps to honor them. End quote. He did not write that there is an obligation to enhance the mitzvah by using olive oil. Concerning the Sabbath light he did write about enhancing the mitzvah [by using] olive oil.
Therefore, if it is difficult for them to light with olive oil and their intent is to honor the synagogue by illuminating it well with electricity, one should not protest if they act thus. And God, blessed be He, will illuminate our eyes with His Torah, amen.

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Sephardi Gifts:

The Return to Judaism: Descendants from the Inquisition Discovering Their Jewish Roots
by Sandra Cumings Malamed

During the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal many Jews were forcibly converted to the Catholic faith. These Conversos, as they were called, were required to give up their religion, their traditions, and in some cases even their names.

During the 1990s, historian Sandra Malamed conducted a series of probing interviews with people of Spanish and Portuguese descent, who considered themselves Christians or even non-believers, but who nonetheless practiced various Jewish traditions—often without knowing where the traditions came from. When she explained to them what these customs were all about, they were fascinated to learn that Judaism might be part of their families’ history. The word spread, and before long people from all around the country and beyond began to contact Malamed.

The Return to Judaism: Descendants from the Inquisition Discovering Their Jewish Roots includes a brief history of the Inquisition, the interviews with more than fifty descendants of Conversos, a survey of Sephardic Judaism worldwide today, lists of Sephardic surnames, timelines, glossary, bibliography, index. Illustrated with black and white photos throughout.

The Sephardic Journey: 1492-1992
Published by Yeshiva University Museum

The exhibition catalog documents Yeshiva University Museum’s The Sephardic Journey: 1492-1992, which examined the cultural, intellectual, and artistic achievements of Sephardic communities established after the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal.

American Sephardi Federation

Sephardi Ideas Monthly

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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:

The Music of North Africa

Modern and Contemporary

Judeo-Arabic Song and Performance

By ASF Broom & Allen Fellows Dr. Vanessa Paloma

Elbaz & Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas

Wednesday, 1 July at 10AM EDT

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(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience

and E'eleh BeTamar present:

The Yemenite Torah

With Rabbi Dr. Bentzion Barami
Lecture will be conducted in English

Monday, 13 July at 12PM EDT

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Yemenite Jews are known to be conservative in their keeping of tradition. However, when the Yemenites brought their Torah scrolls to the Western World, they were rebuffed. There are slight differences in the Yemenite Torah as compared with the Jews around the world. Rabbi Barami will discuss these unique details and how it is actually the true continuation of the Torah that was in the Temple.

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience

and E'eleh BeTamar present:

הרב ד"ר בנציון ברעמי: מה מיוחד בספרי תורה במסורת תימן

With Rabbi Dr. Bentzion Barami
Lecture will be conducted in Hebrew

Monday, 13 July at 10AM EDT

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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and E'eleh BeTamar present:

ד"ר מוטי קדר: למה המזרח התיכון אזור בעיתי כל כך?

Dr. Motti Kedar will help you connect the dots between the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the tension in Israel, and other incidence across the region.

Lecture will be conducted in Hebrew

Tuesday, 7 July at 10AM EDT

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(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and E'eleh BeTamar present:

What makes the Middle East so problematic?

Bar-Ilan University’s Dr. Motti Kedar will help you connect the dots between the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the tension in Israel, and other incidence across the region.

Tuesday, 7 July at 12PM EDT

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(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)

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/

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/

Donate now 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.

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