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29 March 2019 

In Honor of Lisa Azuelos, who was honored at the Iraqi Closing Night of the 22nd NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival with the 2019 ASF Pomegranate Award for Directors

 
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Click here to dedicate a future issue of The Sephardi World Weekly in honor/memory of a loved one
Growing Up Jewish in Modern Baghdad” 
By Lindsey Newman, Be’chol Lashon/My Jewish Learning
 
Ceen Gabbai grew-up a relatively assimilated Jew in present-day Iraq. In this interview, the Brooklyn-based Gabbai describes moving to the U.S. in 2015 because anti-Semitism limited her future options. She also describes her fond memories of celebrating Nowruz in Baghdad, the spring festival that is marked across the Middle East and Central Asia: “My family would generally go to the park, dress up in new clothes, dance and play, and enjoy the flowers, trees, and gardens.”
 
Ceen Gabbai, Baghdad, Iraq
(Photo courtesy of Ceen Gabbai)
Feature of the week: Israeli Sisters Sing a Sweet Yemenite Rain Song 

 

A-Wa (Photo courtesy of Femmes du Maroc)
 
A-WA is an Israeli band made up of the three Yemenite-Jewish sisters who sing traditional Yemenite songs with a hip-hop, contemporary vibe. In this video, however, the women of A-WA go for a more old-school sound, utilizing the tin-drum typical of Yemenite Jewish music to intone a sweet-sounding rain song. 

Hebrew calligraphy above a doorway, Shrine to Ezekiel, al-Kifl, Iraq
(Photo courtesy of Alex Shams/Ajam Media Collective
A Jewish Shrine inside a Mosque: the History of Ezekiel’s Tomb in Iraq” 
By Alex Shams, Ajam Media Collective
 
The central Iraqi city of Najaf is home to the gold-domed tomb of Imam Ali. Just north of Najaf sits the village of al-Kifl and another tomb, this one purportedly belonging to the Prophet Ezekiel. The layers of history in the Middle East are thick, however, and this Jewish shrine is enclosed in a mosque. Ignore this article’s anti-Israel incitement, and enjoy a stunning array of photos from this ancient Jewish pilgrimage site.
 
See the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life’s entry on the purported shrine to Ezekiel at al-Kifl for additional information and archival photographs of the shrine. 
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ASF Young Sephardi Scholars Series Presents:

At the Crossroads of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking Worlds:
A Three-Part Learning and Cultural Series on the Greater Sephardic Communities of the Former Soviet Union



16 April - Georgian Jews
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City

Please register here
or call: 
1.800.838.3006
Light dinner reflecting the cuisine of Bukharian, Georgian, and Kavkazi Jews will be served


Back by popular demand, the American Sephardi Federation’s Young Sephardi Scholars Series is excited to once again host a 3-part learning and cultural series about the Russian-speaking Jewish (RSJ) communities of the Greater Sephardic world. The cultures and histories of Bukharian, Georgian, and Kavkazi (Mountain) Jews are situated at the fascinating, yet lesser known, intersection of RSJ, Sephardic and Mizrahi life. Led by Ruben Shimonov, this multimedia learning series will provide a unique opportunity to explore the multilayered and rich stories of the three communities.

Co-sponsored by JDC Entwine. This project was created as part of the COJECO BluePrint Fellowship, supported by COJECO and Genesis Philanthropy Group.

Ruben Shimonov is a Jewish educator, community builder, and social innovator based in New York City. His multilayered identity as an immigrant, Bukharian, Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-speaking Jew continuously informs his commitment to the cultural and global diversity of the Jewish people. Ruben has previously brought this passion to his work at Queens College Hillel as Director of Cross-Community Engagement and Education, where he had the unique role of cultivating Sephardic-Mizrahi Jewish student life on campus. Ruben is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Sephardic-Mizrahi Q Network—a one-of-a-kind, grassroots movement that works to build a vibrant and supportive community for LGBTQ Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. He also serves as Vice-President for Education and Community Engagement on the American Sephardi Federation's Young Leadership Board, as well as the Director of Educational Experiences and Programming for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee of New York. Ruben was recently named among The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” emerging Jewish communal leaders and changemakers. He is also a 2018 ASF Broome & Allen Fellow, as well as a 2018 COJECO Blueprint Fellow. His speaking engagements include presenting at the Limmud Festival in the United Kingdom, one of the largest annual Jewish learning conferences in the world.

The American Sephardi Federation invites Sephardi World Weekly readers to attend this event by our Partner, the American Jewish Historical Society:


American Jewish Historical Society Presents:

Iranian Jews Between Iran, Zion, and America
Talk with Leah Mirakhor (Yale University) and Lior Sternfeld (Penn State University). Moderator: Atina Grossman (Cooper Union).

Tuesday, 16 April at 7:00PM
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City

Please register here
or call: 
1.800.838.3006


“This talk celebrates the new groundbreaking work of two social historians of Iranian Jewish life and community in the 20th century between immigrations and diasporas in Iran, Israel, and the US, paying tribute to the work of HIAS in helping Jews immigrate and resettle in the US in the years post the 1979 revolution in Iran.  

Leah Mirakhor is Lecturer in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (ER&M) and the Program in American Studies at Yale University. Mirakhors writing has appeared in The Yale Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, African American Review, The James Baldwin Review, and Studies in American Jewish Literature. Mirakhor is the author of ‘After the Revolution to the War on Terror: Iranian Jewish American Literature in the United States’, which appeared in Studies in American Jewish Literature 35.1 (2016).

Lior Sternfeld is a social historian of the modern Middle East with particular interests in Jewish (and other minorities) histories of the region. Sternfeld teaches at the Jewish Studies Program at Penn State University. Sternfelds new book, Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth Century Iran, examines the integration of the Jewish communities in Iran into the nation-building projects of the twentieth century. This book examines the development of the Iranian Jewish communities vis-à-vis ideologies and institutions such as Iranian nationalism, Zionism, and constitutionalism, among others. 

AJHS has just finished [processing] the records of the organization HIAS  The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the organization that helped families Iran, both Jewish and non-Jewish, immigrate and resettle in the US since the 1970s.”


Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America Presents:

Sephardic Birthright Israel Trip

26 June - 7 July, 2019

Please register here 
or email: info@sephardicbrotherhood.com 

“Join Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America for the Birthright Israel - Sephardic Israel Trip this Summer from June 27 - July 7! For 10 days, you'll be able to travel around the country with amazing people with Sephardic, Greek, and Turkish backgrounds, all while exploring everything Israel has to offer. You'll be able to ride camels in the desert, raft down the Jordan River, explore the Old City in Jerusalem, and a whole lot more. especially for Sephardic Jews from across the United States.”

Sign up now or learn more here

Note: While not an ASF program, ASF is proud of the members of our Young Leadership Board who are involved in organizing this trip


Nosotros 2.0: Strengthening Bonds Between Jewish and Latino Communities

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.

 and 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! 

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) 548-4486

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