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10 July 2020 

In memory of the Blida, Algeria-born French journalist and humanist writer Jean Daniel Bensaïd, A”H, a veteran of WWII who served with the Free French Forces, confidant of world leaders (including President Kennedy, who sent him on a secret mission to Cuba), correspondent for The New Republic, champion of the anti-Communist left, a Grand Officer of France’s Legion of Honor, and Founder/Executive Editor of Le Nouvel Observateur (now known as L’Obs)

 
 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. Click here to become a Patron today!. Thanking you in advance! And thank you to Sephardi World Weekly Patrons Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina and Distinguished ASF Vice President Gwen Zuares! 
 
ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History... from home and the Sephardic Heritage Alliance (SHAI) present Passport to Persia, an online pilgrimage to Iranian Jewish Sites and Stories, powered by Diarna Geo-Museum Tours.

Join us for an exploration of 2,700 years of Jewish life in Iran. 
Featuring exclusive documentation and information on shrines, synagogues, cemeteries, schools, and other structures. 

Tour departs promptly on Tuesday, 14 July at 1PM EDT 
 Sign-up now!
“I’m Kurdish and proud’: Fauda actor on his Kurdish roots” 
By Holly Johnston, Rudaw
 
Idan Amedi is a singer and actor on the hit Israeli Netflix series Fauda. A proud Kurdish Jew who feels a deep connection to his Kurdish Jewish heritage, Amedi ends his musical performances “with a Kurdish song in homage to his roots.” He also hopes to visit and perform in Kurdistan one day: “‘We tried to do it a few years ago and it was a bit of a problem. It’s really a dream. I hope it will happen in the future.’”
Idan Amedi, 2020
(Photo courtesy of Sally Ben Aryeh/Wikipedia) 
 

Professor Eliezer Papo
(Photo courtesy of Youtube) 
 
In this sixteen-minute video, Ben-Gurion University Professor Eliezer Papo explains why the Sephardic Jewish history of the Balkans is relevant for present- day, Western political concerns.

Jean Daniel Bensaïd
(Photo courtesy of Jeammot /Times of Israel) 
 
“Remembering Jean Daniel — a journalist of unshakeable distinction and integrity” 
Benjamin Ivry, The Forward

The French-Sephardi Jewish writer, Jean Daniel, passed away in Paris on 19 February. He was 99. Born Jean Daniel Bensaïd to a Jewish family in Blida, northern Algeria, Daniel kept a “Jewish-sounding name,” unlike other French-Jewish writers who changed their names in order to assimilate, and “spent his long life analyzing his feelings of Jewish identity in memoirs, while also producing a mountain of political commentary.” Banjamin Ivry’s tribute celebrates the life of “a venerable, inward-looking journalist of unshakeable distinction and personal integrity.”
Sephardi Gifts:
The Historic Synagogues Of Turkey / Turkiye'nin Tarihi Sinagoglari
(In Turkish and English)
By Joel A. Zack
Photographs by Devon Jarvis
Drawings by Ceren Kahraman

Published by the American Sephardi Federation.

This project testifies to a historic Jewish community of vibrancy and dynamism that once dotted Turkey. Dating back to Roman and Byzantine times, Jews thrived on Turkish soil, finding refuge in the tens of thousands after their expulsions from Spain, Portugal, and Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Joel Zack and his team have performed an important cultural service, retrieving for posterity rich testimony of the Jewish architectural heritage in Ottoman and modern Turkish History.
 
The Synagogues of Greece: A Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace
by Elias V. Messinas

Published by the American Sephardi Federation, this is an English edition of Elias V. Messinas’ study The Synagogues of Greece: A Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace based on his 1999 doctoral dissertation and subsequent work on documentation and protection of Jewish heritage sites in Greece. 

The book provides two main themes. First, it is a detailed history of the the synagogues of northern Greece (Macedonia and Thrace), mostly a legacy of the Ottoman period. Messinas has dug deep to collect information on all identifiable synagogues, some known only by name. He traces the history of these institutions and structures and places them in their urban context from the 15th through the 20th centuries - so there is much of value here for student’s of Jewish settlements and Jewish quarters. Almost all of these buildings are gone. Many were destroyed in the great fire that swept Salonika in 1917. Those that were rebuilt were destroyed in the Holocaust or in the years following, when the once large Jewish communities of Northern Greece were reduced to tiny numbers. In the 1990s, Messinas was able to document several extant synagogues—albeit surviving in ruined condition—and document them with measured drawings and photos before they were demolished. 

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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:

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

Sign-up Now!
(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

Sign-up Now!
(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)



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.

ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History... from home and the Sephardic Heritage Alliance (SHAI) present:

Passport to Persia
An online pilgrimage to Iranian Jewish Sites and Stories,  powered by Diarna Geo-Museum Tours.

Join us for an exploration of 2,700 years of Jewish life in Iran. Featuring exclusive documentation and information on shrines, synagogues, cemeteries, schools, and other structures. 

Tour departs promptly on Tuesday, 14 July at 1PM EDT 

Sign-up Now!
(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)

No Passport, Airfare, or Quarantines! 



Feedback on Previous ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History: 

>>“Thank you so much... learned so much and really enjoyed [Expedition to Iraq].”  

>>“Your online programming is STELLAR!!! It’s part of my quarantine ‘must haves’!!! Thank you and many blessings!!!” 

>>“Thanks to all the special guests for sharing your fascinating insights and knowledge!” 

>>“Totally engrossing program … thank you” 

>>“I loved the Egypt Tour, as it personally connected me, truly, authentically to the spirit of the ASF, which I sorely miss. 
It was also so satisfying to be connected (via Zoom) to all the scholars 
across many lands and learn new things.”

>>“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 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!” 

>>“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: 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 visit: https://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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