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3 April 2020

In Memory of legendary Moroccan musician Marcel Botbol, A”H, who succumbed to COVID-19 while visiting Paris. The scion of a famous Judeo-Moroccan family (he is the son of the renowned artist Jacob Botbol and brother of the singer Haïm Botbol), Morocco’s King, Mohammed VI, described Marcel in his condolences as a “‘pioneering and talented’ artist who enriched the Moroccan artistic landscape with his distinguished musical creations inspired by the Moroccan-Jewish legacy,” praised his “sincere patriotism… and his unwavering attachment to the glorious Alawite Throne,” and “prays God to reward the deceased for the services extended to his country.”
 
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. Show your support by becoming a Patron 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!
 
Cherished Jewish Brazilian artist and educator dies of COVID-19” 
By Marcus M. Gilban, The Times of Israel
 
Daniel Azulay was the creator of “Turma do Lambe-Lambe,” a group of characters that a generation of Brazilians grew-up watching on T.V. Cartoonist and educator, Azulay was also a Moroccan descendant of the founding members of Rio’s first Sephardic synagogue. He passed away on 27 March 27, a victim of the novel coronavirus. As one fan remembered him: “‘He was an idol for countless kids like me. … I have kept the letter that he wrote to me in response to the drawings that I sent him.’”
 

Daniel Azulay, A”H, a Moroccan-Sephardi Brazilian entertainer and educator.
(Photo courtesy of Facebook via JTA)
Feature: Sephardic Pesaj Coco’s
by Hélène Jawhara-Piñer, Ph.D


Dr. Hélène Jawhara-Piñer
(Photo courtesy of Mohammed Jawhara/Too Good to Passover

 Just in time for Passover, ASF Broom and Allen Fellow Hélène Jawhara-Piñer presents her recipe for Sephardic Coco’s.  Click here to watch the food demosnitration.

Hélène Jawhara-Piñer, a Ph.D in History, Medieval History, and the History of Food from the University of Tours, France, is a member of the IEHCA (Institute of European History and Cultures of Food), the CESR (Centre for Advanced Studies in the Renaissance), and the CoReMa Project (Cooking Recipes of the Middle Ages). Her primary research interest is the medieval culinary history of Spain through interculturality with a special focus on the Sephardic culinary heritage written in Arabic. She has lectured at Bar-Ilan University (in collaboration with the Stali Institute and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC): “El patrimonio culinario judío de la Península Ibérica a través de un manuscrito del siglo XIII. Ejemplos de la pervivencia de recetas en la cocina de los sefardíes de España y de Marruecos,” 2018), as well as at conference of the Association Diwan (“Reflections on the Jewish heritage according to the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ,” 2015), IEHCA of Tours (“Jews and Muslims at the Table: Between coexistence and differentiation: state of affairs and reflections on the culinary practices of Jews and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula and in Sicily from the 12th to the 15th century,” 2017), and Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies (“The hidden Jewish culinary heritage of the Iberian Peninsula through a manuscript of the 13th century. Examples of the provenance of some recipes in Venezuelan and Colombian cuisine,” 2017). Her recipes have appeared in the Sephardi World Weekly, Tablet Magazine, The Forward, and S&P Central’s Newsletter. Dr. Jawhara-Piñer is currently writing a book on the Jewish culinary history of Spain.
Bonus Feature: Reciting the Haggadah, Yemenite Style


Adir Vashdi
(Photo courtesy of Youtube)

 Passover is coming, coronavirus be damned. To help you get ready and in the mood, last week we brought you the Haggadah, Moroccan-style. This week it's according to the ancient Yemenite tradition, led by the young and talented Adir Vashdi and his chorus.

Avraham Toledano Synagogue, Tangier, Morocco 
(Photo courtesy of Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life


 
A View From Tangier: Inner Dynamics of Moroccan Jewish Modernity” 
By Aviad Moreno, haSephardi
 
The 19th and 20th century history of North Africa is often told as a story of tensions between “two fixed cultural entities,” the European west and the native east. According to Dr. Aviad Moreno, however, this view is a gross oversimplification of a complex and multi-layered reality.   Examining the “Minute Book of the Governing Junta of the Hebrew Community of Tangier,” a document, “composed by the emerging leadership of the Jewish community in Tangier in the 1860s,” Moreno argues that paying attention to “local history” shifts the perspective, “from the relationship between West and East to the smaller resolutions of the historical process generating these categories…”
Sefrou: Moroccan City Of Religious Symbiosis Between Islam And Judaism – Analysis” 
By Dr. Mohamed Chtatou, Eurasia Review
 
The northern city of Sefrou opens a window onto the Jewish-Islamic symbiosis that is part of Morocco’s heritage. The Arabic language (Moroccan Darija) was spoken in the city alongside Tamazight/Berber dialects, as well as Hebrew and French. How did Sefrou become a unique site of pluralism and tolerance? Geography is part of the story. Sitting, “at the foot of the central Middle Atlas on the former trans-Saharan trade route (Trik as-Sultane), Sefrou was, throughout its history, a transit point, a crossroads of diverse cultures.” 

French postcard: “SEFROU – Entrée du Mellah” 
(Photo courtesy of Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life)
Sephardi Gifts:
Light for Morocco
Aluminum and Bronze Cast
by Oded Halahmy


From the world renowned, Baghdad-born artist Oded Halahmy’s “Hey, Light” Collection

Now on Sale Online Exclusively at
The ASF’s Sephardi Shop

 
A Treasury of Sephardic Laws and Customs
by Herbert C. Dobrinsky


North America's growing Sephardic Jewry includes four major separate and distinct communities: Syrian, Moroccan, Judeo-Spanish and Spanish and Portuguese, each with its own unique history and vibrant body of traditions.

This volume, the first of its kind, provides a comprehensive compendium of the laws and customs of these four main communities of Sephardic Jewry in such areas as holiday observances, worship services, birth, Bar Mitzvah, marriage and divorce, death and mourning, dietary laws, family relations, and many other vital areas of personal, family, and communal life. Based upon extensive research, it serves as a fascinating opportunity to experience the full variety and scope of Jewish life as it evolved in diverse historical periods and cultural regions. 

 
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:

ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History... from home Presents:

Experience Egypt
An exclusive Diarna Geo-Museum Tour of Egyptian Jewish historical sites



Sign-up Now!

(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)
No Passport, Airfare, or Quarantines! 

Tour Departs Promptly at 2PM EST, Sunday, 5 April 

Join Diarna Geo-Museum historians and guides for Experience Egypt, an exciting tour of Jewish historical sites in Alexandria, Cairo, the Nile Delta, and Port Said. This inaugural tour will feature Diarna’s lead photographer, Josh Shamsi, who led a research expedition to Egypt in 2017, as well as special guests:
 >>>Magda Haroun (President of the Jewish Community of Cairo) &
Sammy Ibrahim (Director of the Drop of Milk Foundation), who will both be joining us live from Egypt, and 
 >>>Yoram Meital (Professor of Middle East Studies and Head of the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), who will be joining us live from Israel 




Watch this recorded Diarna Geo-Museum Tour of the Baba Sali’s Grandfather’s Tomb at Damanhur, Egypt

Experience Egypt is the first in a planned series of ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History tours. Possible future tour destinations include: Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia. Naming opportunities available.

Please click here to sponsor a tour today!
(Donations are tax-deductible)



On an ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History tour, you will... tour the Middle Eastern and North African heartlands of Jewish history with live Diarna Geo-Museum guides and historians, meet special guests, explore historical sites that are off the beaten path or even inaccessible to visitors, hear fascinating stories, and reconnect with your roots.

At this terrible and turbulent time, we are here to serve the community, preserving and promoting our Greater Sephardic history, traditions, and rich mosaic culture.


MALA: Muslim American Leadership Alliance and the American Sephardi Federation present:

Laughter is the Best Medicine: Virtual Comedy Show with K-von
Join us for an evening of laugh-out-loud jokes, insights, and performance

Monday, 20 April at 6:30PM EST

Sign-up now!


Join MALA and nationally acclaimed writer, actor, and comedian K-von for a virtual comedy show!

K-von has garnered millions of views online with sketches, stand-up comedy clips, and a viral ‘TED Talk’. He also produced an award-winning documentary about Noruz (the Persian New Year), and is currently working on a book which details his unique upbringing and journey into comedy.

During this time of Social Distancing, laughter can sometimes be the best medicine. 


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 visithttps://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/

 and your generous tax-deductible contribution will empower the 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

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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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