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7 August 2020 

In Memory of Bernard Ouziel, A”H, Past Vice President of the American Sephardi Federation’s Board of Directors. Together with then-President Leon Levy, A”H, Bernie led an ASF trip of over 120 people to Spain, Turkey, Morocco, and Israel in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. A native New Yorker, Bernie, whose family was from Tekirdag/Rodosto, Turkey, attended Brooklyn Technical High School and graduated CCNY Summa Cum Laude and first in his class with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He continued on to NYU Law School and graduated second in his class with a Juris Doctorate, served on the Law Review, and was awarded the Order of the Coif. He practiced law for more than a decade at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison. He was an arbitrator in Small Claims Court of Queens County for over 30 years. He continued to practice law while semi-retired, offering charitable and pro-bono work, and pursued several business and real estate projects. Bernie was twice elected President of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood, which he served for over 40 years as President, Director of the Henry J. Perahia Funds for the Needy, and on the Scholarship Committee. He was, for many years Vice President and was presently President of the Sephardic Jewish Center of Forest Hills. He tirelessly supported the culture and religion of the Sephardic Spanish-Jewish community. ~Joe Halio, M.D., Distinguished Member of the ASF’s Board of Directors & Programming Committee Officer
 
 Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one.

Thank you to 
Sephardi World Weekly Patrons Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina and Distinguished ASF Vice President Gwen Zuares! Become a Patron today!
 
All Jews Together @ ASF's Institute of Jewish Experience  

“We have to unite our energies together. All Jews, together…. If we are united, all Sephardim and also Ashkenazim, together... we will see the light!”
~Enrico Macias

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is uniquely dedicated to ensuring that today’s Jews know our history; appreciate the beauty, depth, diversity, and vitality of the Jewish experience; and have a sense of pride in Jewish contributions to civilization.
 

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Plague to protein: Israeli firm seeks to put locusts on the menu” 
By Jonah Mandel, phys.org
 
To stave off the global risk of protein scarcity, Israeli company Hargol Foodtech has an old-school solution, namely, grasshoppers as “unprocessed locusts consist of more than 70 percent protein.” Where does one get such an idea? Growing-up in Israel during the 1950s, Hargol’s chief executive Dror Tamir heard about local Yemenite Jews who “did not view locusts as crop-ruining pests, but as an edible source of nutrients.” While Hargol beats the locusts into powder, still, Tamir admits, “‘[W]hen trying to target North American and European customers, it’s really hard to overcome the 'yuck' factor.’”
 
Note: In the weeks before Passover in 2013, CBS News reported on Sephardim and Saudis enjoying the same regional “delicacy.” 
Chief Moshe Basson, The Eucalyptus, Jerusalem, Israel, 2013 
(Photo courtesy of The North African Post
Feature of the week: Sephardi Playlist on Spotify  
 


The ASF is continuously working on innovative projects to preserve & promote the rich mosaic culture of Greater Sephardic communities.

Today, ASF launched 10 playlists on Spotify, each celebrating the virtuosity and vitality of Sephardi soloists, bands, and orchestras in a variety of genres:

 
Andalusian
Babylonian (Iraqi)
Contemporary Greater Sephardi/Mizrahi
Friends of the ASF
Maghrebi (North African)
Mediterranean (Greek, Turkish, Balkan)
Piyyutim
Sephardi Jazz 
Spanish & Ladino 
Taimanit (Yemenite)

From Enrico Macias, Ofra Haza, and Jo Amar to A-Wa, Françoise Atlan, and Neta Elkayam, the ASF Sephardi Playlist(s) feature Sephardic stars of the past and present. Discover lesser known legends and the latest hits. We are particularly proud to feature, in the Friends of the ASF list, some of today’s top artists, including Sephardi Jazz pioneers Omer Avital and Itamar Borochov. 

Click here to follow us!

The playlists are not meant to be comprehensive and will perpetually be works in progress. Please send your suggestions here.

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Greek Jewish Community Leader David Saltiel
(Photo courtesy of Gavriel Fiske/The Times of Israel)


 
Thessaloniki’s Jews: 'We can’t let this be forgotten; if it’s forgotten, it will die’” 
By Sam Jones, The Guardian

The small Sephardi community of Thessaloniki (Salonika) is looking to preserve its history and to strengthen its future through an agreement with the Spanish government’s Instituto Cervantes. The plan is to build a small center, “where people will be taught modern Spanish while also learning about Sephardic culture and the exiles’ still-spoken language, Ladino.” According to David Saltiel, president of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, “‘[W]e’ve always kept that idea of our Spanish past in our hearts and we want to keep our traditions alive.’”
Sephardi Gifts:
The Holocaust in Salonika: Eyewitness Account
Edited by Steven Bowman
Translated from Greek and Judeo-Spanish by Isaac Benmayor.

The accounts presented in this book are the three primary sources for the post-war memory of the Holocaust amongst the Salonikan Jews. They constitute the first official witnesses of those tragic years supplemented in succeeding years by a continuing current of personal memoirs in half a dozen languages. Witnesses include: 

Yomtov Yacoel was the lawyer for the Community and liaison with the Nazi civilian representatives, Dr. Max Merten and Dr. Muller. He maintained contact with Jewish and Christian political leaders in Athens. 

Salomon Meir Uziel was the only survivor of the Jewish Council of Salonika.

Dr. Isaac Aaron Matarasso was the post-war physician for the survivors in Salonika. His report includes the earliest eyewitnesses stories of the fate of the Jews in Auschwitz, including the medical experiments.

An Appendix presents the constitution for the reorganization of the Community issued under German order in 1941.

 
They Called Me Gigi: A True Story
By Berthe Cohen

Touching and thoughtful remembrances and reflections of a Greek Sephardi Holocaust survivor and her postwar struggles in Egypt and France. The consequences of war and violence are candidly shared in They Called Me Gigi: A True Story. Having lived anything but an average life, the author details the difficulties she has faced—including the destruction of war, the loss of her childhood, and her suffering from depression—after experiencing the horrors of World War II, Israels War of Independence, the Suez Canal War, and the turbulent crisis in Nanterre.

In her postwar reflections, the author asks, “What can society do to avoid hatred and war?” She proposes some answers, especially educating our children to live happy lives. Also, we should consider the consequences of our actions, assume responsibility, and strive for a healthy family life. Reading of her remarkable life, the reader comes away feeling that we can and should help to make this world a better place.

*Exclusively available at the ASF’s Sephardi Shop

 
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:
 

The Axelrod Performing Arts Center and CHAI FLICKS present:

The 11th Annual Axelrod Israel Jewish Film Festival  
Featuring 10 North American and regional premieres of award-winning films!

Sunday, 19 July - Thursday, 13 August 
Stream on All Devices, Including Your SmartTV


Sign-up Now!


The Axelrod Israel Jewish Online Film Festival Includes:

10 Award-Winning Films
(Ticketholders will be emailed information on each film,
as well as how and when to view it) 

Zoom Talk-Backs 

Under the Stars Movie Event
(Planned Pending Approvals) 

30 Days CHAI FLICKS Streaming on all devices

Check back soon for the APAC Israel Jewish Film Festival's collaboration with the ASF's New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and Kol Yisrael Haverim (Alliance Israelite/KIAH) present:

Teaching the Jewish Experience Mosaic - Egypt 

Wednesday, 19 August 12:00-3:15PM EDT 
Zoom workshops with educators from across the globe

Sign-up Now!


We are excited to launch a new initiative:
T-JEM, Teaching the Jewish Experience Mosaic.

Kol Yisrael Haverim (Alliance Israelite/KIAH) and ASF Institute of Jewish Experience have joined forces to offer a series of teacher workshops. Each workshop will present  the Jewish dialectic as embodied in a different Jewish community with its culture, literature, philosophy, history, geography and Rabbinic sources. For the time being our workshops will be held via Zoom with educators from across the globe. 
This first session to be held Wednesday August 19 12:00-3:15 pm EDT for a select group of educators. The session will focus on Egypt.  
 
A tentative schedule for the workshop follows:

Virtual tour of Egypt and its Jewish sites
IJE teaching resources for Egyptian synagogues
Panel discussion - Multifaceted aspects of Jewish thought  - Egypt as a case study, with Prof. Zvi Zohar and others
KIAH Hacham Yomi as the basis for lessons – small group discussion
Applications and next steps

“The Torah scroll has no vowel symbols (nikkud) so that people may interpret as they wish. The letters, not being marked with vowels, tolerate different meanings, and can break up into many sparks. This is why we were instructed not to punctuate Torah scrolls with vowels” 
Hacham Haim Yosef David Azoulai

If you have any questions or to register please reach out to 
drora@americansephardi.org


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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