In Memory of “Salim Saleh Mahlab, A”H, a great and a good man, who founded the first Iraqi Jewish synagogue in the NYC area in Jamaica, Queens. When I arrived to New York in 1987, almost immediately I was taken to this synagogue and Congregation, Bene Naharayim. Not only was Salim Mahlab the founder, but he led the services for Shabbat and the High Holidays. He did it with such warmth and inclusiveness. And it was completely true to the Babylonian tradition. Having never been to Baghdad, I got a sense for the first time of what our traditions and sentiments felt like. It was wonderful. It left a lasting impression on me and was one of the inspirations that influenced me to get involved with the American Sephardi Federation.”~ David E.R. Dangoor, President of the American Sephardi Federation
David E.R. Dangoor (American Sephardi Federation), Salim Saleh Mahlab, Maurice Shohet (WOJI: World Organization of Iraqi Jews), Carole Basri (American Sephardi Federation), Edeed Ben-Joseph (Babylonian Jewish Center), Bahar Somekh (Actress), Albert Nassim (Babylonian Jewish Center), Shlomo Bakhash (Babylonian Jewish Center), Mike Nassimi (American Sephardi Federation), The ASF’s Inaugural Benefit Dinner: “Back to Babylon: 2,600 Years of Jewish Life in Iraq,” The Pierre Hotel, New York City, 30 November 2006
Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one.
The Sephardi Ideas Monthly is made possible by generous readers like you. Now there is a new way to show your support. Become a Patronof the Sephardi Ideas Monthly via Patreon and your name will appear in each edition along with essays and interviews from the rich, multi-dimensional world of Sephardi thought. Thanking you in advance!
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.
Last month’s Sephardi Ideas Monthlyexplored the global movement of Greater Sephardi Jews to Latin America (Brazil and Argentina, in particular) with Dr. Aviad Moreno’s eye-opening article, “What Do You Know? Jewish Migration to Latin America.” This month, Moreno continues to guide us through the mass migrations from the Middle East and North Africa with: “Globalizing the ‘Mizrahi Revival,’” his introduction to the Moroccan Jewish immigration to Venezuela.
Moreno begins this month’s feature by noting how perspectives on Middle Eastern migrations are usually determined by political boundaries. In our case, the first wave of academic research into the migration of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa focused on migrations to Israel, while the following wave of research also focused on Israel, but with a “post-Zionist” angle. The problem is that entire swaths of recent history were overlooked:
The politically oriented study of Jewish immigration to Israel from Morocco and other Muslim lands overshadows cases of Jewish migration to other destinations both prior to and since Israel’s statehood.
Take, for example, Venezuela:
In the 19th century… Venezuela attracted Moroccan Jewish laborers into its evolving multiethnic society, and its appeal became even more pronounced after 1945 in the context of Venezuela’s “open door” immigration policy that helped fuel that petroleum-rich country.
Why was Venezuela so appealing to some Moroccan Jews after 1945? Most immediately, Spanish-speaking Moroccan Jews could easily integrate into Venezuela’s Spanish-speaking society. In addition, thanks to the previous, 19th century migrations, Moroccan Jews in Venezuela had already established “kinship, and commercial and communal networks that eased… assimilation into the local political and economic elite class of that country.....”
While all of this is interesting, it might seem that focusing on the particularities of Moroccan migration to Venezuela and assimilation into Venezuelan society narrows one’s field of vision. However, the truth is the opposite: studying Sephardic migrations outside of the conventional scholarly boundaries can engender fruitful comparative perspectives. Consider how studying Moroccan Jewish society reflects back upon post-Zionist claims regarding Moroccan Jewish identity in Israel.
Moreno notes that the glue connecting the European, Middle Eastern, and North African Jewish communities of Venezuela was a “prominent Zionist narrative and a strong identification with Israel.” This is significant because post-Zionist scholars attribute the Zionist identity of Israeli Jews from Morocco to Israel’s homogenizing project of erasing diaspora identities. But that claim is harder to defend when we look at Sephardic Jews from a global perspective. As Moreno puts it, in Venezuela, “Moroccan Jews adopted modern Zionist identities, even without being subjected to Israel’s melting pot strategy that post-Zionist scholars suggest was the main factor that led Moroccan Jews to adopt such identities while denouncing their Moroccan ones.”
All in all, examining Moroccan immigration to Venezuela in particular, and to Latin America in general, enables us to move beyond the binary distinction between “a global migration of Jews to the Americas and Europe” and the “Zionist immigration to Israel.” And once we move beyond this “familiar taxonomy,” there’s no reason not to expand our vision to include “additional historical cases—ranging from the Baghdadi merchant diaspora in India of the 19th century to Iranian Jews in Los Angeles in the 21st century.” In short, the research has only just begun. Sephardi Ideas Monthly is happy to bring this broader perspective to our readers with Dr. Aviad Moreno’s enlightening article, “Globalizing the ‘Mizrahi Revival.’”
“Jacob Sasportas, sefardischer Rabbiner in Amsterdam,” oil painting attributed to Isaac Luttichuys, 1670
(Photo courtesy of Elie Posner/The Israel Museum, Jerusalem)
The featured sage for the month of January, 2020, is Hakham Jacob Sasportas (1610-1689).
Born in Oran, Algeria, Hakham Jacob moved to Tlemcen to serve as rabbi in 1628, and in 1634 was appointed President of the Tlemcen rabbinic court. After a series of libels resulted in his imprisonment, Hakham Jacob moved to Morocco, where he married, and then in 1651 found refuge in the tolerant city of Amsterdam. In 1655 he accompanied Manasseh ben Israel on a diplomatic mission to London.
Hakham Jacob served in a variety of posts for a variety of rulers until, in 1667, news of Shabetai Tzvi’s messianic movement reached him in Hamburg, Germany. Hakham Jacob proceeded to compose a four-volume work, Tzitzat Nobel Tzvi, aiming to convince the masses not to follow the false messiah. He his other works include Ohel Yaakov—a collection of his responsa that was published posthumously in Amsterdam (1737) by his son, Hakham Abraham.
Hakham Jacob’s travels subsequently took him to Italy before he returned to Amsterdam in 1684, where he assumed leadership of the fabled Etz Haim Yeshiva. In 1693 he was appointed rabbi of the Spanish & Portuguese Community at Amsterdam. Hakham Jacob passed away in and was buried in Amsterdam in 1698.
In the following passage from Ohel Yaakov, Hakham Jacob emphasizes that love of truth should motivate us to engage in debate while gladly accepting criticism:
I have been told by a certain student that his honor, our great master and rabbi, Rabbi Shaul Levi Mortina, has expressed his doubts about that ruling and has ineffectively sought to prove its contradiction. I wrote him in protest about this a second time, asking that he present his arguments to me, and advise me of the true course…not for my honor's sake, but to honor God's Torah and reveal the truth concerning my approach with the great masters from all regions, who share their inner thoughts with me both in writing and in person, and who write me from distant lands requesting my opinion. For if I haven't the knowledge, how will my words revive their spirit and fulfill their need for a response? This is my way of expressing affection and respect for them. On the contrary, thanks to the criticism of scholars, and by sharing my true feelings with him, if he has erred I will understand and not humiliate him, and if it is I who have erred I will admit the truth. And I will not be embarrassed if he tells me I am mistaken, for I am no better than Rabbi Akiva, who interpreted "the bread of knights" to mean the bread of ministering angels, and was told by Rabbi Yishmael: You are mistaken. Moreover, I do not merit the honor of Rabbi Yishmael's teaching, nor am I Rabbi Akiva, yet I will nevertheless not cease debating, so that the rabbi may point out my errors, and I will pursue the truth, not to be annoying nor out of love of victory. And if this, to his mind, places me in error, it is actually he who is mistaken.
Dissident Rabbi: The Life of Jacob Sasportas by Yaacob Dweck
In 1665, Sabbetai Zevi, a self-proclaimed Messiah with a mass following throughout the Ottoman Empire and Europe, announced that the redemption of the world was at hand. As Jews everywhere rejected the traditional laws of Judaism in favor of new norms established by Sabbetai Zevi, and abandoned reason for the ecstasy of messianic enthusiasm, one man watched in horror. Dissident Rabbi tells the story of Jacob Sasportas, the Sephardic rabbi who alone challenged Sabbetai Zevi’s improbable claims and warned his fellow Jews that their Messiah was not the answer to their prayers.
Yaacob Dweck’s absorbing and richly detailed biography brings to life the tumultuous century in which Sasportas lived, an age torn apart by war, migration, and famine.
Dissident Rabbi is the revelatory account of a spiritual leader who dared to articulate the value of rabbinic doubt in the face of messianic certainty, and a revealing examination of how his life and legacy were rediscovered and appropriated by later generations of Jewish thinkers.
Iraq's Last Jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, and Escape from Modern Babylon by Tamar Morad
Iraq's Last Jews is a collection of first-person accounts about the once-vibrant, 2500 year-old Jewish community and its disappearance in the middle of the 20th century. This book tells the story of this last generation of Iraqi Jews, who both reminisce about their birth country and describe the persecution that drove them out, the result of Nazi influences, growing Arab nationalism, and anger over the re-birth of the State of Israel.
Total in-country tour cost:$2,600.00* (Early Bird offer ends on 30 January 2020)
Total in-country tour cost:$3,200.00* (Price after 30 January 2020)
HIGHLIGHTS:
•Experience Rabat, Casablanca, Essaouira, and Marrakech with scholars and communities members.
•VIP Access to the 2nd Jewish Africa Conference (23-25 March), featuring African leaders and scholars discussing the role of Jews and the need for Jewish voices in African civil society, the development of Jewish space, perspectives on old and new African Jewish identities, and encounters between Jews and non-Jews in contemporary Africa.
•Explore Moroccan Jewish history, culture, and contemporary life, as well as Mimouna’s pioneering work to perpetuate Morocco’s tradition of tolerance and combat anti-Semitism abroad
*PRICE INCLUDES:
· Welcome & assistance upon arrival at Casablanca’s Mohamed V Airport (Roundtrip airfare NOT included) · 6 Nights / 7 Days in Five Star Hotels (Double-occupancy; Single rooms available upon request for additional cost) · In-country tour transportation · Certified local English speaking tour guide and scholars throughout the whole trip
· Shabbat experience in Marrakech at Slat Lazama, a Sephardic synagogue founded in 1492 by Jewish refugees expelled by the Alhambra Decree · Entrance fees to monuments · Kosher breakfasts, lunches, and dinners
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.
Donate nowand your generous tax-deductible contribution will empowerthe 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
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 a proud partner of the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, NY, 10011).
