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22 November 2019

Mazal Tov to Distinguished ASF Board Member, Hakham Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie, for representing the ASF at Azerbaijan’s II Baku World Summit. The Summit, as R’Abadie wrote, advances recognition of “Azerbaijan… [as] a center of multiculturalism, promoting the inter-civilizational and Inter-religious cooperation and improving the intercultural dialogue, thereby creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust.”
 
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!
 
Bias Against Sephardim Tests Jewish Unity” 
By Gary Rosenblatt, The Jewish Week
 
Mijal Bitton is fellow-in-residence at the Shalom Hartman Institute, rosh kehilla (“community head”) of the Downtown Minyan, and an ASF Broome & Allen Fellow. She is writing her doctoral thesis at NYU on the experience of a contemporary Sephardic community in the U.S. After recently hearing Bitton participate in a sit-down discussion with writer and journalist Matti Friedman at the Park Avenue Synagogue, journalist Gary Rosenblatt reached out to her in order to discuss, “the Ashkenazi-Sephardi gap in the U.S. and what can be done to help close it.” Ultimately, Rosenblatt concluded that American Jews can learn much from Sephardic Jewish traditionalism, “an emphasis on family…; community cohesion and loyalty; and… religious practice that… is infused with spirituality though not necessarily a commitment to all of the mitzvot.”
 
ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Dr. Mijal Bitton, Lillian Goldman Reading Room, Center for Jewish History, 2018 (Photo courtesy of NYU Steinhardt
Special Feature: Enrico Macias Sings: Exalted be the Living God!
 

Enrico Macias performing Yigdal Elohim Hai
(Photo courtesy of Youtube)

The incomparable Sephardic musician and vocalist, Enrico Macias (an ASF Pomegranate Award Lifetime Achievement Honoree), performs a dynamic and stirring version of R. Dani’el ben Yehudah’s classic 13th century piyyut, Yigdal Elohim Hai (“Exalted be the Living God”). The piyyut casts in poetic form Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of Faith, and is still sung in many congregations at the conclusion of Shabbat evening prayers. But not like this.
 
Dr. Sarah Abrevaya Stein. Maurice Amado Endowed Chair in Sephardi Studies & Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA
(Photo courtesy of UCLA)
Meet the Levy Family. Their History Is Our History” 
By Matti Friedman, The New York Times 
 
Sarah Abrevya Stein’s research talents are “ferocious,” while her voice is “light and human.” Such is the considered judgment of the award-winning journalist and writer, Matti Friedman, in his review of Stein’s Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century. According to Friedman, “like the best micro-histories,” Stein’s account of this Mediterranean clan originally from Salonica, “contains much more than a family story.” In tracing the Levys’ 20th century story, we glimpse, “the forces that shaped the world we live in now.”

Order a copy of Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century now from The ASF's Sephardi Shop!
Sephardi Gifts:
Un Ramo de Poemas: A Bouquet of Poems
by Haim Vitali Sadacca

Haim Vitali Sadacca, who wrote and published poetry in Turkish in his younger years, now composes poetry only in Ladino, his beloved ancestral language. The poems in the book, chosen by the author himself, express the universal aspirations of the human soul for love, affection, compassion, generosity, peace, and harmony. Flowing in rhyme and rhythm, they reveal Sadacca’s skill as a poet and his mastery of the Ladino language.

This unique collection is further distinguished with English translations, prepared especially for this book, by the late David F. Altabe, himself an accomplished poet in Ladino and English.

Sadacca’s poems have appeared in publications worldwide, in Ladino only, including Sephardic journals such as Shalom (Istanbul), El Amanaser (Istanbul), Los Muestros (Brussels), La Lettre Sepharade (Paris and Washington), Sefaraires (Buenos Aires), as well as on Ladinokomunita, the Ladino-language Internet discussion group with over 1,000 members. Sadacca's poems have also been read on the air, worldwide, in Sephardic and Ladino programs, such as Radio Exterior de España and Kol Israel Radio.

 
Contemporary Sephardic Identity in the Americas: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Edited by Margalit Bejarano and Edna Aizenberg

The Sephardic population in the Americas is formed by a large number of small groups, divided according to the communities of origin in the Iberian Peninsula, the Middle East, and North Africa, and dispersed among English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French-speaking societies. While the emigration from the Ottoman Empire that began one hundred years ago resulted in the fragmentation of Sephardic communities, their dynamism allowed them to adapt and survive, striving to retain the old yet gesturing continually to the new. On the threshold of the twenty-first century, these communities became subject to transnational migrations and globalization that called for a new definition of the boundaries between the different Sephardic groups and new interpretations of their culture. 

In this pioneering collection, Bejarano and Aizenberg provide a vital contribution to the long-neglected study of the Sephardic experience in the Americas. Spanning from the 1908 revolution of the Young Turks that motivated migration from the Ottoman Empire to the establishment of new Sephardic centers in South Florida, the editors draw from the fields of history, literature, musicology, and linguistics. Focusing on recent developments, such as the growing participation of Sephardim in Jewish politics and the emergence of orthodox trends that challenge separate Sephardic identities, contributors highlight the growing influence of Sephardim on the culture of their respective countries.

 
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:


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.


Yeshiva University Museum, the American Sephardi Federation and the YU Center for Israel Studies present:

The Israeli Songbook: Celebrating Yemenite Singers: Ofra, Izhar, Gali & Co.

Thursday, 5 December at 7:30PM

Please register here

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


Join Israeli-Yemenite singer Ariella Edvy and the MusicTalks Ensemble for an evening paying tribute to the Yemenite-Jewish heritage in music. Ms. Edvy will tell the story of the Yemenite-Jewish diaspora and its journey to Israel through the lens of her own family story. This upbeat concert will celebrate the role of Yemenite singers such as Ofra Haza, Zohar Argov, and Eurovision winners Izhar Cohen and Gali Atari in Israeli music, with songs from the ancient oral traditions passed down through the generations to ones that became pop hits in modern-day Israel.


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.

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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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