The Moroccan-born, Israeli rabbi, Yisrael Abuhatzeira (1889-1984), aka the Baba Sali (“the praying father” in Arabic), passed away on the 4th of Shevat. Last week more than 100,000 people made their way to the Baba Sali’s grave in the southern town of Netivot to commemorate his life and work. The Baba Sali was important for many reasons, including his role in paving the path for the Sephardic revival in Israel: “[T]he Baba Sali forged the way for the full participation of the Sefardic Torah community in Israel’s religious life, which saw its fulfillment through the Shas party and the personality and teachings of the late Rishon LeZion, Rav Ovadiah Yosef.”
Ethiopian-Israeli Kessim, Sigd 2018, Jerusalem, Israel (Photo courtesy of CBN News/Youtube)
Throughout Ethiopian-Jewish history, Jews would ascend to the top of a local hill or mountain peak fifty days after Yom Kippur and, as a community, pray for forgiveness and their return to Jerusalem. Today, Sigd is celebrated in the Holy City itself, and the holiday’s emphasis on communal atonement and Jerusalem’s centrality to Jewish national identity is beginning to resonate within Israeli society beyond Ethiopian Jewish circles.
Born in Jerusalem, Hakham Saul Kassin, A”H, became Chief Rabbi of the Syrian Sephardic Community in Brooklyn, following in the footsteps of his father and former Chief Rabbi, Hakham Jacob S. Kassin, A”H
(Photo courtesy of The Jewish Voice)
A fascinating study conducted by Beit Hatfutsot: The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv revealed some interesting answers to the Sephardic journeys of Jews from Arabic-speaking lands. While Israel was the preferred destination, Jewish communities were also established in “the Amazon in northern Brazil and Peru… There were… communities of Jews from Iraq who settled in India and the Far East… most Algerian Jews settled in France… Jews from Aleppo began immigrating to Mexico in 1912.”
Congregation Bene Naharayim’s Sisterhood presents:
Commemoration Ceremony
of the 50th anniversary of the execution of nine Jews in Iraq
Sunday, 20 January, at 1:00 PM Congregation Bene Naharayim
85-34 Midland Parkway
Jamaica Estates, NY 11432
Join Congregation Bene Naharayim’s Sisterhood for the 50th Anniversary of the Hanging of Nine Jews in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square by the Baath Party. The event will honor the Nine “and others who were killed before and after this devastating event.”
Presentations will be made by:
David Dangoor, President - American Sephardi Federation Maurice Shohet, President - World Organization of Jews from Iraq Rita Katz - Daughter of the late Fouad Gabbay, HY"D, who was 35 years old when he was hung along with the eight others.
Please RSVP by clicking here by 16 January There will be a special Min'ha and Hashkaba service for dead.
Light refreshments will be served.
The American Sephardi Federation and Association Mimouna present:
Representatives from across Africa (including Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and other countries) will present on panels exploring the history, culture, and contemporary life of Jewish people and sites in Sub-Saharan and North Africa. There will also be a strategic planning lunch to foster communication and cooperation between Jewish African communities.
Participants include (but are not limited to):
Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila (Chabad-Lubavitch of Central Africa), Dr. Aomar Boum (“Jews of Timbuktu”), Dr. Marla Brettschneider (The Jewish Phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa), President Magda Haroun (Egyptian Jewish Community), Vice President Samy Ibrahim (Drop of Milk Association), Dr. Ephraim Isaac (From Abraham to Obama: A History of Jews, Africans, and African Americans), Abere Endeshaw Kerehu (Jewish Community in Ethiopia), Dr. André Levy (Return to Casablanca: Jews, Muslims, and an Israeli Anthropologist), Dr. Yoram Meital (“Synagogues and Jewish Heritage in Modern Egypt: Re-configuring Past and Present”), Director Tali Nates (Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre), Houda Ougaddoum (Association Mimouna), Dr. Tudor Parfitt (“The Jews of Sub-Saharan Africa: Myth and Reality”), Ilona Remy (“The Place of the Igbo in the Israelite World”), Diplomatic & Parliamentary Liaison Chaya Singer (South African Jewish Board of Deputies), and Dr. Shalva Weil ("The Beta Israel of Ethiopia until 1991: Identity, History, and Unique Customs")
The Jewish Africa Conference is made possible by a generous grant from OCP
As part of the Jewish Africa Conference - Past, Present, and Future, Kulanu is sponsoring a two-night, four film festival exploring Jewish life in Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria, and Uganda. Each evening will feature either the director or a participant from the films as a presenter as well as post-film Q&As.
Monday, 28 January, at 7:00 PM
Gabrielle Zilkha’s Doing Jewish: A Story from Ghana (2016)
David Vinik and Debra Gonshor Vinik’s Yearning to Belong (2007)
Tuesday, 29 January, at 7:00 PM
Joshua Kristal’s Journey to Judaism: the Story of Madagascar (2016)
Jeff Lieberman’s Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria (2012)
Conference Badge or VIP Conference Badge holders can attend the entire Jewish Africa Conference (including the Opening Cultural Evening) and the Jewish Africa Film Festival. Tickets to specific events are also available.
The Algemeiner Editor’s Club and the American Sephardi Federation
The Algemeiner’s Editors Club and the ASF will host Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA Analyst, AEI Resident Scholar, and author of the new book, Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness (Oxford University Press, 2018), in conversation with Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid Efune
Wednesday, 30 January, at 7:15 PM A conversation and book signing with Kenneth Pollack Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Please register here General admission: $15
VIP ticket: $75
Complimentary for Algemeiner members
VIP entrance includes a signed copy of the book and VIP reception at 6:30PM
For further information, please email: batsheva@theaj.com or call: 212-376-4988 ext 101.
The American Sephardi Federation, Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, Binghamton University Department of Judaic Studies, & American Jewish Historical Society present:
A Festival to celebrate Ladino, the remarkable language also known as Judeo-Spanish.
Sunday, 10 February, 2:00-5:00PM Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Please register here
or call: 1.800.838.3006 Light refreshments will be served.
Celebrate Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish, in the company
of highly acclaimed writers and musicians. Hear author Jane
Mushabac’s story, “Seven Songs”; clarinetist Danny Elias;
composer Avi Amon introducing his musical fantasy, Salonika;
scholar Bryan Kirschen speaking on Ladino’s rich culture; Rabbi
Nissim Elnecavé on wisdom tales; and the Alhambra Ensemble’s
Songs of Courtship, Love, and Holidays with oud, violin, shawm,
dumbek and voices.
Since 2013—when Israel’s 5th President Yitzhak Navon endorsed
Zelda Ovadia’s idea of International Ladino Day—celebrations have
been held in Jerusalem, Seattle, Istanbul, Madrid, Dallas, Forest
Hills, Boston, and other cities. February 10th marks the Second
Annual International Ladino Day at the Center for Jewish History.
Ladino is a bridge to many cultures; it’s a Spanish language that
includes words in Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, and more. The mother
tongue of Jews in the Ottoman Empire for 500 years, Ladino was
the home language of Sephardim worldwide in the early 20th
century.
Although today Ladino is only spoken by a small fraction of
Sephardim, the interest in the language and its culture is
experiencing a resurgence through distinguished university
programs, publications, concerts, and events of many kinds.
Curious about family history outside of the Pale of Settlement? The Center for Jewish History welcomes you to a lecture on genealogy tools for those interested in researching Jewish community records and Jewish life in the Greater Sephardic Diaspora. Open to all. No previous experience or preparation is necessary. Presented by J.D. Arden, Genealogy and Reference Librarian at the Center for Jewish History and adjunct faculty at the LIU-Palmer School of Library & Information Science. An ASL interpreter may be made available if requested in advance.
Presented by The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at The Center for Jewish History and The American Sephardi Federation.
The Center for Jewish History, The American Sephardi Federation, The American Jewish Historical Society, and Jewish Book Council present:
Thursday, 12 March, at 7:00PM Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Matti Friedman's new book, Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel tells the unknown story of four of Israel's first Sephardi spies. Recruited by a rag-tag outfit called the Arab Section before the 1948 War of Independence, they assumed Arab identities to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations. At the height of the war the spies posed as refugees fleeing the fighting, reached Beirut, and set up what became Israel's first foreign intelligence station. pies of No Country not only tells a breathtaking and true espionage story, it also explores a different story about how the state was founded and raises many questions that are relevant today.
In a wide-ranging, First Person conversation, Matti Friedman speaks with the Cairo-born, awarding-winning Sephardi author Lucette Lagnado (The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit) about his journalism career in the Middle East and what Spies of No Country reveals about Israel in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Please register here Ticket Info: $15 general; $12 seniors, $10 members and students
Nosotros 2.0, which opened as a one-night pop-up exhibition on 11 October. continues in part as an exhibition in our Leon Levy Gallery.
On view until April
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
The Philos Project and American Sephardi Federation cordially invite you to “Nosotros," an exhibition composed of pieces by Latino artists celebrating the shared history and culture of Jewish and Latino communities, and expressing hope for a more positive future. Latin American artistry is rich with Sephardi and Crypto-Jewish allusions and symbols.
The exhibit is titled “Nosotros,” the Spanish word for “us,” and all of the art represents the growing relationship between the Jewish and Hispanic communities in New York and around the world. The exhibit is one of the many things Jesse Rojo, The Philos Project's Hispanic Affairs Director, is doing to bridge the gap between Hispanics and the Middle East.
Donate nowand 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!
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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).