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25 October 2019

In remembrance of the barbaric massacre of Jews in Pittsburgh one year ago on Shabbat, the deadliest attack in American Jewish history. 
 

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. Now there is a new way to show your support. Become a Patron of the Sephardi World Weekly 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!
“Sri Lanka Stands Up to Extremism” 
By Irina Tsukerman, Fair Observer
 
ISIS-affiliated Islamist terrorists executed an Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka that claimed 259 lives, mainly Christians and foreigners. While still in a state of emergency, the Muslim World League organized this summer’s Colombo Summit to “promote... tolerance among the people of Sri Lanka.” MWL’s Secretary General, Sheikh Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa—who in April joined the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations with the American Sephardi Federation in signing the It Stops Now Agreement against hate, bigotry, and fanaticism—condemned attacks on all communities in his remarks, particularly noting the atrocities in Poway and Pittsburgh. Sheikh Dr. Al-Issa also made sure to include Christian and Jewish representatives, both from the Vatican and the American Sephardi Federation. Fighting “hate speech” isn’t always a simple proposition, but Irina Tsukerman argues that the MWL’s “Colombo [S]ummit went beyond talking points and feel-good speeches, tackling head on the divisions deepened by the attacks in Sri Lanka with actionable measures.”
 
 
The Muslim World League’s Secretary General, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed al-Issa ensured Jewish representation in Sri Lanka’s National Conference on Peace, Harmony, and Coexistence at Colombo by bringing a delegation from the American Sephardi Federation composed of distinguished ASF Board Member and Hakham, Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie, Elise Abadie, ASF Executive Director Jason Guberman, and national security & human rights lawyer and analyst Irina Tsukerman. The Colombo Conference re-affirmed and amplified the message of the It Stops Now Agreement 
(Photo courtesy of MWL)
Special Feature: Omri Mor: It’s About Time!
 

Omri Mor playing piano
(Photo courtesy of Musrara Mix) 

Omri Mor, the Israeli virtuoso jazz pianist, had two main teachers: Arnie Lawrence, the legendary jazz educator from New York who spent his last years spreading the gospel of jazz in Israel, and the Moroccan-born, Jerusalem-based Master of Andalusian music, Nino Bitton. Mor has been known on the Israeli jazz scene for a long time, and last year he finally brought the different parts of his musical personality together for his debut album, “It’s About Time!” As Mor tells it, his sound is, “Arab-Andalusian music combined with jazz, and North African music.” Meet Omri Mor, and hear for yourself. The results are, unsurprisingly, wonderful.

Gravestone 9 ( 4,6): Shihata Abdalla Saltoun, Died: 25 May 1938, Jewish Cemetary, Khartoum, Sudan.
(Photo courtesy of C.Motzen/Diarna Geo-Museum) 
“Sudan’s lost Jewish community - in pictures” 
BBC
 
By 1973, the Sudanese Jewish community was practically gone. Today, Daisy Abboudi is documenting the history of Sudanese Jewry through photographs and oral histories. Among her finds is an amazing 1948 photo of the graduating class of Unity High School, a Christian-British institution that educated Sudan’s elite. In the picture, a Jewish student sits with Egyptian Copts, Armenian Christians, Greek Orthodox, and Sudanese Muslims. What’s been lost with the end of Sudanese Jewish life? As Marianne Neumann remembers: “‘When you sleep on the roof, you can look up to the sky at night and because the air was so pure you could see thousands and thousands of stars, and you could smell the jasmine and gardenia from all the gardens…’”
 
“Tehrani Brothers Oriental Rugs Reopens With New Name” 
By Jesse Bernstein, The Jewish Exponent
 
What’s in a (Middle Eastern) Jewish name? Benjamin and Yehudah Teherani have been selling Oriental rugs in Philadelphia since 1977, but their store’s ornate, Persian-style façade, and name, “Tehrani Brothers Oriental Rugs,” conspired to damper business. In recent years, “People were calling and leaving messages telling them to ‘go home,’ (and) calling them terrorists.” Their response? Hoping for a change in fortune, they recently rechristened (so to speak) the store, “Bryn Mawr Oriental Rugs.” But Benjamin and Yehuda aren’t completely hiding their identity: “The store’s interior… is covered in symbols of America and Judaism; statues of Moses, American and Israeli flags and a photo of Ruben Tehrani posing with Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein.”
 
Yehuda and Ruben Tehrani 
(Photo courtesy of Jesse Bernstein/The Jewish Exponent)
Sephardi Gifts:
From Generation to Generation: a Legacy of Faith and Tolerance
by David S. Malka 

A son of Sudan’s Chief Rabbi, David S. Malka published this text as his personal contribution to the legacy of the Malka family, in the hope that this and future generations will re-discover their patriarch’s teachings and advance his message of faith and tolerance on to the next generation. The book is dedicated to the illustrious memory of Hakham Rabbi Shlomo Malka, a great Jewish scholar, spiritual leader, and humanitarian.

From Generation to Generation: a Legacy of Faith and Tolerance is true to the Classic Sephardic Jewish tradition of love, tolerance, and pride in one’s heritage.
Journey Through Grief: A Sephardic Manual for the Bereaved and their Community
by Rabbi Yamin Levy

Conceived in Rabbi Yamin Levi’s early years as a rabbinical student at Yeshiva University under the tutelage of Hakam Solomon Gaon, this is one of the few comprehensive resources to guide the Sephardic bereaved in their time of grief. 

This book incorporates Syrian traditions, as well as affords the reader the benefit of the author’s personal experience in the rabbinate and thoughts on a broad range of topics.

The principles of Hesed presented within this book covers correctly the wisdom of the Torah and of sages of blessed memory, and will be a guide for those who wish to bring a degree of healing to a world in need.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:


The American Sephardi Federation and Chassida Shmella Ethiopian Israeli-Jewish Community present:

The 10th Annual Sigd Celebration*
Join us for the Authentic Ethiopian Jewish Weekend!  

Friday, 1 November at 7:00PM
Traditional Kosher Ethiopian Shabbat Dinner with ASF Young Leaders
Professor Ephraim Isaac and special guests from Israel: Kes Eli Vanda Menntessnout and Revital Iyov (who recently appeared in Netflix’s Red Sea Diving Resort)
All age groups are welcome to join the celebration!

Saturday, 2 November at 7:30PM
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah
130 W 30th Street
New York City
Screening followed by a Q&A with Professor Ephraim Isaac and special guests from Israel.
Light refreshments will be served

Sunday, 3 November at 5:00PM
Special guest:
Gili Yalo! Ethiopian-Israeli singer 
Kessouch reading in Ge'ez ምህልላ, Ethiopian Music and Shoulder
Dancing, Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony, traditional Kosher food and entertainment

Please register here
Early bird specials end today at Sundown

~Contact Yves Seban to learn more about sponsorship opportunities~

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

Chassida Shmella Ethiopian Israeli-Jewish Community hosts an annual SIGD Celebration, marking this celebratory Ethiopian Jewish community event.
For the past eighth years, Chassida Shmella, the Ethiopian Jewish community of North America, has taken on the challenge and exciting experience, of bringing the SIGD ceremony to New York!

The overarching idea is to bring diverse people together to experience the beauty of this festival. Ethiopian Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews attend and even others in the community who just want to experience- this amazing celebration.

This day commemorates both the giving of the Torah and the communal gatherings held in Jerusalem in the days of the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah.
Thousands of Jews traveled on foot every year in Ethiopia from Gondar Province to the village of Ambober where the joyous celebration included prayer and fasting.
In modern times, the celebration commemorates the return of Ethiopian Jewry to Israel, our ancient homeland.

The day is a national holiday in Israel!

In New York, SIGD occurs approximately a week following the festival in Israel when a weekend is set aside for a SIGD in the Diaspora.

The festival is a full weekend event and includes celebratory meals, traditional Ethiopian music, dancing, and crafts. Here in NYC, the event comes alive through music, dancing, traditional food, dress and chanting, and through photos. Ethiopian Jewish Qesim (priests) and rabbis who live in Israel join us for the SIGD so the spirit of this festival can be authentic. Historical photos bring the viewer to experience the event as if they are there in time and place - in Ethiopia in times past, and in Israel in recent years.


Centro Primo Levi and the Rhodes Jewish Historical Foundation in partnership with Kehila Kedosha Janina and the American Sephardi Federation present:

Los Corassones Avlan*
The Hearts Speak
*from a Sephardi saying

Conversations on Jewish Life on the Island of Rhodes
A multimedia pop-up installation

On view 29 October through 24 November, 2019

Opening hours: 
Sunday through Thursday: 1:00PM to 9:00PM
Friday: 1:00PM to 4:00PM
Saturday: 5:00PM to 10:30PM 
Bourekas, sweets, coffee and tea will be served during opening hours

West Village
148 West 4th Street
New York City

Los Corassones Avlan is dedicated to centuries of Jewish life in Rhodes. It expands the ideas of the Rome Lab, a 2017 installation created by Centro Primo Levi and the Jewish Museum of Rome, which challenged traditional museum narratives by playing on the tension between personal memory, official history and ongoing research debates.

Conceived as an old funhouse, made up of objects, projection and rotating soundscapes, the new installation will juxtapose ambiguities, uncertainties and discontinuities onto linear representations of the past. It will invite the public to imagine a world that was profoundly different from ours and to question stereotypes and prepackaged depictions of other cultures that increasingly restrict the way in which we experience the present.

The project will be installed in a 19th century carriage house on West 4th street that shares the courtyard with the historic night bar named after Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s novel Vol de Nuit. The bar was once a popular eatery and cabaret called The Samovar, which the photographer Jessie Tarbox Beals seized in one of her legendary images of lower Manhattan and where Al Jolson is believed to have performed in his early career.

During the month of November, the carriage house, which is usually closed, will become home to the exhibition and to roundtables, readings, talks, film and music presentations, where the public will experience the little-known story and traditions of the “Rodeslis,” the Jewish community living on the island of Rhodes for an unknown number of centuries until its destruction in 1944.

*Centro Primo Levi’s public program is made possible in part through the generous support of the Viterbi family. The Rhodes installation was made possible through the generous support of Peter and Mary Kalikow and Bruce Slovin.

The American Sephardi Federation Presents:

The New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival’s (NYSJFF)
23rd Anniversary Edition

SAVE THE DATE
18-27 February 2020!
Please click here to reserve your Festival Passes now!


The American Sephardi Federation/ASF Young Leaders are partnering with Germany Close Up for the first-ever trip for Sephardi young professionals to Germany!

Dates:  4-12 May, 2020
Total cost: $900
(includes airfare, hotels, sightseeing, and meals)

Please here to apply

Travel to Germany with the American Sephardi Federation - ASF Young Leaders and Germany Close Up this spring! This will be Germany Close Up’s first-ever partnership with a Sephardic group – join us and make history! This trip has been tailor-made just for us to connect with our past.  We’ll interface with what remains of the Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg, dive into artifacts of the Turkish Jewish community in Berlin, and explore other Sephardic histories on our journey.  We will find out how Germany is relevant to a more diverse Jewish story – including Sephardic Jews!

About Germany Close Up:
Founded in 2007, Germany Close Up introduces young Jewish professionals to modern Germany.  The Germany Close Up experience is administered by the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, the New Synagogue Berlin Centrum Judaicum Foundation, and the German government’s Transatlantic Plan.



The American Sephardi Federation is proud to partner with Combat Anti-Semitism on its Venture Creative Contest - Round 1. The Contest’s Art Award is named in honor of Emma Lazarus, the Sephardi American patriot, poet, playwright, critic, journalist, campaigner against anti-Semitism, and champion of Zion.

Venture Creative Contest – Round 1

Anti-Semitism is once again on the rise, just 75 years after the Holocaust. This irrational hatred of Jews and the world’s only Jewish State harms both innocent victims and perpetrators infected by bigotry. The resurgence of anti-Semitism poses a challenge to all people of conscience:
How can we work together to stop anti-Semitism?

This contest is crowd-sourcing new solutions to help end “the world’s oldest hatred.” The contest is sponsored by the CombatAntiSemitism.org Coalition.

People of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities are encouraged to participate by creatively addressing one of the categories. 

Round 1 Deadline: 1 December 2019
Future Rounds Coming Soon

Please click here to submit your contest entry 

Contest Rules – Contest Judges – FAQ – Contact

Specific contest awards co-sponsored by Coalition Members, including:

American Sephardi Association logo
Israel on Campus Coalition logoGaliaArtists


The Philos Project and the American Sephardi Federation present:

Nosotros 3.0: Strengthening Bonds Between Jewish and Latino Communities

On view until May 2020

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

The Philos Project and the American Sephardi Federation cordially invite you to the third edition of our Latin American classic art exhibit: Nosotros 2019. 

This years exhibit explores the Judtice of Zionism through the lens of Jewish and Latino national liberation struggles for independence from European colonialism. A new collection of art pieces will be revealed, including pieces from master artists Norma Lithgow and Deyvi Pérez. It will be a night of celebration of the shared history and culture of the Jewish and Latin communities.

 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
Copyright © 2019 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.

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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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