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17 April 2020

In Memory of Stanley Chera, A”H, a member of the Syrian Sephardic Jewish Community, whose talent, perseverance, and savvy propelled him and his family from a sole proprietorship on Fulton Street, Brooklyn, to the heights of Fifth Avenue retail and a high-end portfolio as the founder of Crown Acquisitions 
 
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!
 
“Funeral of Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron” 
By Hezki Baruch, Arutz Sheva
 
The former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, passed away on Sunday night at the age of 79, a victim of COVID-19. A scholarly giant and dedicated leader, R’ Bakshi Doron was remembered and eulogized by various rabbinic leaders and dignitaries, including Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, “‘Rabbi Bakshi Doron was an important link in the Torah chain of Chachmei Sefarad (the Torah leaders of Sephardi Jewry). His exceptional proficiency in [Torah wisdom] blended with his noble character traits…. His essence was understanding, tolerance and love for the people and the state.’”  And President Reuven Rivlin added,: “‘R’ Bakshi Doron… felt a deep sense of responsibility for all of the Jewish people. He was… a spiritual guide to Jewish communities in Israel and also in the Diaspora.’”

Former Sephardeic Chief Rabbi Bakshi Doron inspecting an Etrog, 2014
(Photos courtesy of Bechdrei Chareidim/Matzav.com) 
Feature: Shirat HaYam (“Song of the Sea”)
 


Moroccan Shirat HaYam by Amir Benayoun 
(Screenshot courtesy of Youtube)

 This week, in the shadow of the novel coronavirus, the Jewish world still joyously celebrated the 7th and concluding day of Passover. On this day, we remember the splitting of the Sea and the “Song of the Sea” that followed (found in the Book of Shemot/Exodus, ch. 15).  In this video, Amir Benayoun, the great Israeli vocalist, turns the traditional Moroccan melody into a triumphant march, leading the musical procession with his unique mix of passion and control.

Stanley Chera, A”H 
(Photo courtesy of Patrick McMullan via Getty Images/The Real Deal) 

 
“Stanley Chera, Titan of NYC Retail, dies of coronavirus” 
By Hiten Samtani and Rich Bockmann, The Real Deal
 
Stanley Chera parlayed his father’s Brooklyn-based children’s department store, “Suzette Kiddie Store,” into Crown Acquisitions, a titan in the cut-throat world of New York Real Estate. In time he became a living legend among New York’s business elite, counting President Donald Trump amongst his friends and admirers. His strength? According to prominent developer Steve Witkoff: “‘Stanley loved the chase… He knew what the trends looked like before anyone else does.’” Chera, a member of the New York Syrian Sephardic Jewish community, passed away from COVID-19 on 11 April. 
“Dario Gabbai, a Final Witness to Auschwitz, Is Dead at 97” 
By Joseph Gerber, New York Times
 
On the outside, Dario Gabbai appeared to be tailor-made for California. Even in his old age he still made it to the gym, and he drove around in “a dark Mustang convertible.” But Gabbai, born in 1922 and raised in Thessaloniki (Salonika), lived through horrors too great for words. He served in Aushwitz-Birkenau as a “Sonderkommando,” instructing, “men, women and children to undress for the gas chambers, and [dragging] their bodies to the crematories.” As Gabbai said in 2015, “‘I have inside some stuff I can never tell… Even now, I like to cry to get it out of my system. But it doesn’t go out.’” Gabbai was 97 when he passed away in Los Angeles, on 25 March.

Excerpt of an unfinished Portrait of Dario Gabbai by David Kassan
(Photo courtesy of USC Shoah Foundation)  
Sephardi Gifts:
Creating Lively Passover Seders: A Sourcebook of Engaging Tales, Texts, & Activities
by David Arnow

A guide to help you invigorate your Seder, create lively discussions, and make personal connections with the Exodus story today.

For many people, the act of simply reading the Haggadah no longer fulfills the Passover Seder’s purpose: to help you feel as if you personally had gone out of Egypt. Too often, the ritual meal has become predictable, boring, and uninspiring.

Creating Lively Passover Seders is an innovative, interactive guide to help encourage fresh perspectives and lively dialogue. With three new chapters, this intriguing Haggadah companion has been revised, updated, and expanded, and offers thematic discussion topics, text study ideas, activities, and readings that come alive in the traditional group setting of the Passover Seder. 

Reliving the Exodus is not about remembering an event long ago, but about participating in a conversation that provides hope and strength for the struggle to make tomorrow a brighter day. With this complete resource, you can create more meaningful encounters with Jewish values, traditions, and texts that lead well beyond the Seder itself.
 
A Sephardic Passover Haggadah
by Hakhram Rabbi Marc D. Angel, Ph.D

This unique Sephardic Passover Haggadah will be valued by Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike. Hakham Rabbi Angel provides a new, readable translation of the classic Haggadah text. Added to it are some selections in Judeo-Spanish as well as the popular “Bendigamos” blessing after meals.

This special edition of the Haggadah includes a running commentary, drawn from the teachings of Sephardic sages through out the generations, with insights from such Sephardic luminaries as Rabbis Moses Maimonides, Yitzhak Abravanel, Hayyim Y. D. Azulai, Benzion Uziel, Hayyim David Halevy and many others, ancient and modern. The Haggadah also includes a number of Sephardic customs which will enrich anyone's Passover Seder. 
 
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:

Association Mimouna, the American Sephardi Federation, the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), and Moroccan Americans in New York (MANY) present:

Virtual Mimouna 2020

Complimentary RSVP

Sunday 19 April at 2PM EST
(8PM GMT)

Sign-up Now!



“Mimouna” is a unique Moroccan Jewish celebration of liberty and community. Moroccan Jews would invite their Muslim neighbors to join their post-Passover festivities and Moroccan Muslims would reply with gestures of goodwill, solidarity, and a shared craving for carbs.

Join جمعية ميمونة Association Mimouna, the American Sephardi Federation, the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), and Moroccan Americans in New York (MANY) as we bring this tradition online, virtually traveling from house to house, to the homes of special guests in Morocco, Israel, the United States, Canada, and France.

At this difficult time, we are honored to host leaders of Morocco’s Jewish community.


The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:

Tracing your Roots:
A Two-Part Workshop With Genie Milgrom

Complimentary RSVP

Sunday 19 April at 12PM EST
(Part Two)
Sign-up Now!

Tracing her family back 15 generations to the early 1500s in Spain, Genie Milgrom was able to unravel the web of lies and deceit that her family had spun around themselves in order to survive the Spanish Inquisition. This fascinating story brought her on a journey she could have never imagined.

For those of you looking to trace your own roots, or begin a genealogical expedition, Genie will share what she learned and how she has helped others trace their own roots. At the end of the first session there will be time for questions.

For more intricate inquiries, please email drora@americansephardi.org before the second session.

It is recommended that you read her first book, My 15 Grandmothers, before the workshop. There, Genie takes the reader through her journey—from growing up Catholic to finding her Crypto-Jewish lineage and embracing the religion of her ancestors.

Genie Milgrom was born into a Roman Catholic family in Havana, Cuba and today lives in Miami, Florida, where her family emigrated during the Cuban Revolution. Genie serves as President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Miami,  the Tarbut Sefarad-Fermoselle, and the Society of Crypto-Judaic Studies at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

Genie appears in The Crypto Experience, an IJE semester-long online course. Featuring world-renowned scholars and experts, and presented in 10 minute segments, the course explores different crypto societies and how they maintained their identities. 


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. 

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

Sephardim in the Shoah

In observance of Yom HaShoah
(Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day)



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

Wednesday, 21 April at 2PM EST 

In observance of Yom HaShoah (Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day), join the ASF IJE, Diarna Geo-Museum, and an international team of researchers for Sephardim in the Shoah, a survey of Sephardic communities in Southern Europe, labor and discipline camps across North Africa, and the Night of Fools in Algiers.

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.


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/

 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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