Copy
15 November 2019

In Honor of Stella Levi, a native Ladino speaker and member of the Board of Directors of Centro Primo Levi NY, who was born on the Island of Rhodes under Italian rule. On 23 July 1944, Stella, her immediate family, and the entire Jewish community of Rhodes (1,870 people) were deported to Auschwitz. She has long been involved with the reconstruction and preservation of Sephardic and Italian Jewish life and traditions, offering her knowledge, guidance, and dedication to the Jewish Museum of Athens, the Jewish Museum of Rhodes, the Museum of Kehilah Kedoshah Janina, and the American Sephardi Federation. Stella appears in several films, including The Longest Journey by Ruggero Gabbai, The Island of Roses by Rebecca Samonà, and Redemption Blues by Peter Stastny. A flow of programs, publications, and projects have their source in her imagination and questions. Stella’s love and understanding of culture is very special. Recently pictured dancing at the Los Corassones Avlan exhibition, Stella, in her ninth decade, is an inspiration for all of us! 
 
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!
 
In the heart of NY, pop-up education center revives extinguished Rhodes Jewry” 
By Jordan Hoffman, The Times of Israel
 
In 1944, the Nazis rounded up 1,700 elderly Jews of Rhodes and sent them on a twenty-two-day, nightmarish journey to Auschwitz. Only 131 survived, including Stella Levi. The nonagenarian Levi was on-hand for the opening of Los Corassones Avlan (Ladino for “The Hearts Speak”), an exhibit recreating Jewish life in Rhodes that is on display through November 24th in lower Manhattan. How will people respond? According to Levi, the answer is reflected in the exhibition’s name, “The Hearts Speak”: “‘This is something my mother and grandmother used to say… people will always respond to one another if they are open.’”

The ASF is proud to join our partner Centro Primo Levi in this imaginative and inspirational initiative. It is not to be missed!
 
Stella Levi, age 3, flanked by her sister Selma and a family friend, Luisa Hasson
(Photo courtesy of Stella Levi) 
Special Feature: A Greek Jew Remembers the Holocaust
 

Holocaust Survivor Yaacov (Jacki) Handali
(Photo Courtesy of Yad VaShem/Youtube

Frequently forgotten in discussions about the Holocaust is its impact on Sephardic communities. In this video testimony, filmed by Yad VaShem, Yaacov (Jacki) Handali remembers how, in 1943, the Nazis fooled his father into thinking that local Greek Jews would be transported to Krakow. In reality, however, they were being taken to concentration camps, with the Germans systematically plotting atrocities along the way.

Defaced Holocaust Memorial, Arta, Greece, 28 March 2017
(Photo courtesy of the Former Jewish Community of Arta – Greece/Facebook
The Jewish Community of Arta, Greece – Fables, Memories and the Holocaust” 
By Elias Messinas, The Jerusalem Post
 
The story of Romaniote Jewry, the Jews who lived in Greece since ancient times, began in the southern Greek town of Arta. But the community of Arta was devastated by the Holocaust, and the last Jew left in 1959. Today, the history of Arta’s Jews is preserved by Theocharis Vadivoulis, “a local of Arta, lawyer and dedicated researcher,” who you’ll find at a local church. Why is Theocharis so dedicated to preserving the memory of Arta’s Jews? “My grandmother… never told stories… However, there was one thing that she kept telling me about… The painful memory of losing her Jewish friends, and their deserted homes after their deportation: the deserted streets in the Jewish quarter, the silence, the open windows swaying in the wind, the closed shutters, the emptiness… Their loss was unbearable.”

Exclusively available at The ASF's Sephardi Shop: 
The Synagogues of Greece: A Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace by Elias V. Messinas, an English edition published by The American Sephardi Federation
Sephardi Gifts:
The Holocaust in Salonika: Eyewitness Account
Edited by Steven Bowman
Translated from Greek and Judeo-Spanish by Isaac Benmayor


The accounts presented in this book are the three primary sources for the post-war memory of the Holocaust amongst the Salonikan Jews. They constitute the first official witnesses of those tragic years supplemented in succeeding years by a continuing current of personal memoirs in half a dozen languages. Witnesses include: 

Yomtov Yacoel was the lawyer for the Community and liaison with the Nazi civilian representatives, Dr. Max Merten and Dr. Muller. He maintained contact with Jewish and Christian political leaders in Athens. 

Salomon Meir Uziel was the only survivor of the Jewish Council of Salonika.


Dr. Isaac Aaron Matarasso was the post-war physician for the survivors in Salonika. His report includes the earliest eyewitnesses stories of the fate of the Jews in Auschwitz, including the medical experiments.

An Appendix presents the constitution for the reorganization of the Community issued under German order in 1941.

 
A Liter of Soup and Sixty Grams of Bread: The Diary of Prisoner Number 109565
by Heinz Salvator Kounio
Translated by Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos


On 15 March 1943 the first Greek transport left from Salonika bound for Auschwitz. Their arrival on 20 March was the beginning of the end of Greek Jewry. Among the 2,800 deported Jews was the 15-year old Heinz Kouinio. Wrenched abruptly from a comfortable upper-middle class home, Heinz found himself immersed in the horrors of the Nazi Concentration Camps. Heinz, along with his mother, father, and sister, would ultimately survive. What kept him going was his fervent wish that his murdered brethren would be remembered and that their killers would be punished. He had to survive to bear witness to that unbelievable horror. Heinz kept a diary in which he recorded his experiences. That diary is the basis of this book.

 
“Like” ASF on Facebook to keep up-to-date on our projects, programs, and publications, as well as to share your thoughts
Upcoming Events or Opportunities:


The American Sephardi Federation and the Embassy of Kosvo present:

The Righteous Gypsy 
Screening

Monday, 18 November
3:00PM and 8:00PM


Please register here

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


The Righteous Gypsy: directed by Jakov & Dominik Sedlar, Pravednica Ciganka

A short film that tells the story of the only Gypsy woman honored by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.


ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and מרכז דהאן - Dahan Center present:

The End of Jewish Communal Life in the Arab Lands

International Conference

Monday, 2 December from 9:30AM-5:00PM

Please register here
Conference Timeline

~Sponsorship Opportunities Available: Email or Call (212.294.8350) Yves Seban ~

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


For thousands of years Jews have lived across North Africa and the Middle East. Despite the long history, 1948-1967 marked the effectual end of many of these Jewish communities. The Dahan Center, together with the American Sephardi Federation and Yeshiva University, seeks to explore this history through research and personal anecdotes.

Join us as we host international scholars, as well as local students, to share stories of the rich life that once was and the events across the region that caused the majority of Jews to leave.

Among our distinguished speakers will be Hakham Rabbi Dr. Elie AbadieDr. Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah (Leiden University),  Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas (ASF Broome & Allen Fellow), and multidisciplinary artist Ms. Dana Avrish!

The conference is organized in collaboration with Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry for Social Equality.

The American Sephardi Federation represents the Sephardic voice in diplomatic and Jewish communal affairs as a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and World Jewish Congress. In this capacity, we encourage our constituents to attend this event organized by Israel’s Permanent Mission to the UN with JIMENA. 


Jewish Refugee Commemoration at the United Nations

Wednesday, 4 December at 3:00PM

Please RSVP here
Please note that this RSVP is not transferable.
For further inquiries please contact the Mission of Israel to the United Nations at UNInfo@Newyork.mfa.gov.il


United Nations Headquarters
752 United Nations Plaza 
New York City


In honor of the fifth anniversary of Israel's Official Day to Commemorate Jewish Refugees from North Africa and the Middle Middle East, Israel's Permanent Mission to the UN and JIMENA, in partnership with The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, World Jewish Congress, American Sephardi Federation, and Justice for Jews from Arab Countries,  invite you to a commemoration gathering highlighting unique voices from the Middle East.

Distinguished speakers will discuss current events related to anti-Semitism, religious minority rights in the Middle East, and international efforts to protect the heritage of Jewish People from North Africa and the Middle East: 

Elan Carr - U.S. State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat anti-Semitism
Sarah Idan - Former Miss Iraq, Founder of Humanity Forward, and an advocate against anti-Semitism 
Ambassador Danny Danon - Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations

This gathering will take place in the Trusteeship Chamber at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Government issued identification with individual tickets is required by each guest for entry.


The American Sephardi Federation with the Jewish Community of Urmia, Iran and participants from Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey present:

International Nash-Didan (Judeo-Aramaic) Day 

Sunday, 15 December at 7:00PM

Please register here

~Sponsorship Opportunities Available: Email or Call (212.294.8350) Yves Seban ~

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


The first of its kind to take place outside of Israel, an evening featuring an international team of scholars exploring the history, culture, language, and traditions of the Nash Didan, the Aramaic speaking Jewish communities of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.

Featuring NY State Senator Anna Kaplan, a native Nash-Didan speaker

 
Performance by Israeli-Nash Didan Star Hadassah Yeshurun


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!

~ Sponsorship Opportunities Available: Email or Call (212.294.8350) Yves Seban ~


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)

Explore:

• Berlin, Hamburg, and United Germany!

• The Holocaust and the Nazi Era (including a visit to a former Concentration Camp)

• Germany's current politics and its relationship with the US and Israel - including a meeting with German Federal Officials!

• Jewish Life in Berlin, past and present, and Sephardi communities in Germany


Please click here to apply
Applications Close on 25 November!

~If you have any questions about the application or trip,
please contact
ASF Young Leaders ~


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.

Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.

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

unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 
 
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
Share Share