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20 March 2020

In Memory of pioneering Iranian lexicographer, playwright, and essayist Solaiman Haiim, A”H (see article below) and in Honor of the Persian Jewish community in America that is preserving his legacy against erasure by the Khomeinist Regime
 
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!
 
“Lazaret, the Original Quarantine in Split” 
By Daniela Rogulj, Total Croatia News
 
The word “quarantine” (lit., forty days) dates back to the Venetian demand that ships arriving from plague-ridden countries wait for forty days before docking. Sick passengers were subsequently placed in the “lazaretto,” or our more familiar “lazaret,” a hospital for those with contagious diseases. In the 16th century, when the Venetian-ruled city of Split was the busiest port along the Venetian-Ottoman trade route, the town’s lazaret was designed by Daniel Rodriguez, a Venetian Jew of Portuguese descent. But Rodriguez demanded something in return for his plan, “that the Venetian Republic receive a colony of Jews exiled from Spain to Marjun,” one of Split’s most prominent hill-tops. The deal was done, and Rodriguez helped Split became, “the golden ring between the East and Venice.”
 

Excerpt of Louis-François Cassas' “Vue de Spalatro ed du Lazareth” (“View of Split and its Quarantine Hospital”), 1782 
(Courtesy of Collectio Felbar)
Feature: Moshe Peretz & Omer Adam Give Thanks


Moshe Peretz and Omer Adam, Jerusalem, Israel, 2016 
(Screenshot courtesy of YouTube) 

 In Israel, thanks in large part to the influence of Greater Sephardic culture, a strict distinction isn’t always drawn between secular and religious realms. Instead, the love of Jewish tradition is often embraced, and performed, at public events that wouldn’t seem to be a natural setting for “religious” rituals, from soccer matches to musical performances. In this particular instance from 2016, popular Israeli vocalists Moshe Peretz and Omer Adam don, before a packed arena, kippot and tallitot and then sing a heartfelt rendition of Modeh Ani (“I thank you…”), a song of appreciation to the Divine.

The Nidhe Israel (“Scattered of Israel”) Synagogue, Bridgetown, Barbados 
(Photo courtesy of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s Community Blog)

 
“How Jewish Immigrants Spurred the Barbadian Rum Trade” 
By Jared Ranahan, VinePair
 
How did Barbados become home to a flourishing rum industry that goes back 400 years? Sephardic refugees from Brazil fleeing the Inquisition during the first half of the 17th century brought with them an important skill, namely, sugar cane rearing. And with sugar cane comes molasses, “a key ingredient in the production of most rums.” While Barbados’ island neighbors soon surpassed her in sugar cane production, and Jews by and large had left the sugar trade by the 18th century, the foundation had been laid: rum remains to this day a particularly Barbadian staple.
“Honoring the Jew who created Iran’s first English-Farsi dictionary” 
By Karmel Melamed, JNS
 
Solaiman Haiim was an Iranian Jewish scholar who created the first English to Farsi and Farsi to English dictionaries: “At the start of the 20th century, when Iran was modernizing… Haiim’s comprehensive two-volume dictionary was an invaluable resource.” Haiim’s life is still celebrated by Iranian Jews, but, “the Iranian regime has done everything in its power to erase his legacy.” Last month, on the 50th anniversary of his passing, nearly 600 Iranian Jews gathered at the West Hollywood Temple Beth El to remember the man who helped to connect Iran and the English-speaking world.
 
 
Solaiman Haiim, A”H 
Sephardi Gifts:
The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
by David I. Kertzer

David I. Kertzer’s fascinating investigation of the dramatic kidnapping shows how this now obscure saga would eventually contribute to the collapse of the Church’s temporal power in Italy. As Edgardo’s parents desperately search for a way to get their son back, they learn why he—out of all their eight children—was taken. Years earlier, the family’s Catholic serving girl, fearful that the infant might die of an illness, had secretly baptized him (or so she claimed). Edgardo recovered, but when the story reached the Bologna Inquisitor, the result was his order for Edgardo to be seized and sent to a special monastery where Jews were converted into good Catholics. The Inquisitor’s justification for taking the child was based in Church teachings: No Christian child could be raised by Jewish parents. The case of Edgardo Mortara became an international cause célèbre. 

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1997, and has been made into a play by Pulitzer and Oscar winning playwright, Alfred Uhry. Early versions of the play were performed at Hartford Stage in 2002 and the Guthrie Theater in 2006.
 
Rebelot: Authentic Sephardic and Ashkenazi Italian Jewish Recipes
by Lorenza R. Pintar and Yael Stucchi

This cookbook is a 2-year project inspired by family and friends. The collection the author and her mom organized features “Nona” Emma’s authentic Jewish recipes that were passed down from mother to daughter. They come from an Italian family in Milan with both Sephardic and Ashkenazi ancestry. Her great grandparents were the last generation practicing Judaism.

“With the rise of Fascism during the Mussolini regime Judaism was kept private and preserved mostly through food ritual practices. This book is as precious as the wedding gift Shabbat candlesticks Emma and Angelo received and were hidden underground in a time of darkness. I happen to have inherited one that now stands proud in my house in Brooklyn. We are not professional chefs so we hope this book will be taken for what it is: an expression of love, diversity, and freedom.”

Exclusively available at ASF's Sephardi Shop
 
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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/

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