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11 September 2020 

In memory of the victims and in tribute to the survivors and especially heroes of September 11, 2001 on this 19th anniversary of Al Qaeda’s atrocity. 
  
 Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one.

Thank you to 
Sephardi World Weekly Patrons Professor Rifka Cook,  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.
 

Donate Now!
Miscarriage of Justice in France over Sarah Halimi’s Grotesque Murder” 
By Irina Tsukerman, Republic Undergound

Will there be justice for Dr. Sarah Attal-Halimi, HY”D? The Sephardi-French Jewish grandmother was horrifically murdered and defenestrated by a neighbor after he had been indoctrinated at an Islamist mosque. Almost as shocking as the French police’s refusal to intervene in real-time despite being outside Halimi’s door, the alleged murderer has not stood trail because, according to the French judiciary, the marijuana in his system rendered him criminally irresponsible. What’s next? The last appeal is before the Court of Cassation and there will be a COVID-19 safety-compliant rally this Sunday (13 September) at Paris’ Place de la République. 

Moroccan-French Sepharadim, Eddie Suissa and Mouchka Ruth Beniflah, the administrators of the 17.5K strong Facebook group “L’immense marche Pas silencieuse pour Sarah Halimi,” reached out to Simo Elaissaoui, President of the Moroccan Americans in New York (MANY) and the American Sephardi Federation to raise awareness about this miscarriage of justice. 

Watch the Combat Atni-Semitism Movement’s video
here

The Sephardi World Weekly will continue to follow the story.

Dr. Sarah Attal-Halimi, HY”D
(Photo courtesy of l’CRIF)   
Feature of the week:  Penitential Piyyutim at the Kotel
 

Sofar blowing overlooking the Kotel’s Selichot gathering, 4 September 2018
(Photo courtesy of Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post

The annual, public singing of Selichot (“penitential prayers”) at the Western Wall during the month leading up to Rosh HaShanah is arguably the most intense and moving public event in the Jewish world. The filming in this video is a little shaky, and the sound can be problematic, but the effect remains stunning, as nearly 100,000 people came together in 2018 to sing the classic, anonymously-authored piyyut, Adon HaSelichot (“Master of Forgiveness”), according to the Sephardi-Yerushalmi melody. There will be no public prayer this year because of the novel coronavirus, so we'll be praying, among other things, for the opportunity to pray together again, next year in Jerusalem!

Einat Levi, Chefchaouen, 2019
(Photo courtesy of Einat Levi/Facebook)

 
Einat Levi: The Civilian Ambassador to Morocco” 
By Deborah Danan, Jewish Journal

Einat Levi’s parents made Aliyah to Israel before she was born. After visting Morocco for the first time in 2013, she was so moved by the experience that she founded, “Connection to Morocco,” an organization that, “helps people construct their own unique visits, doing everything from formulating itineraries and finding drivers, to obtaining visas and often accompanying them as a guide.” Why the accent on the local flavor? Says Levi: “In order to understand the story of Jewish Morocco, you first need to understand the story of Morocco.”
Sephardi Gifts:
Where the Wind Blew: A Boyhood Lost in Tangier
By Michel Emile Bensadon

This memoir of coming of age in Morocco in the 1950s is also the memoir of a lost nation. The author’s childhood coincides with the end of the idyllic Sephardic culture that had flourished in Tangier for centuries. This is the story of two paradises lost: the dreamy childhood, which ends when Michel’s parents’ marriage breaks apart; the end of Morocco’s colonial rule, in which the Jewish community had grown and prospered. The “wind” in the title is Simoun, an infamous blast that blew in from the Sahara and terrified the author as a child. The wind is also the symbol for the wild forces at work in that part of the world and the havoc they wreaked upon the author’s family, and the Jews who left soon after.

The author has recreated the rich tapestry that was his Sephardic culture; a world redolent of spices, populated by exotic extended families, and lavish celebrations. The book spans the crucial years 1949-1960, and is a time capsule of that vanished Eden. This is the definitive portrait of a lost Sephardic paradise.

 
Jewish Women from Muslim Societies Speak

Published by the American Sephardi Federation and Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Woman at Brandeis University 

Jewish women from Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iran were invited to share their personal stories. It could be said that these women's voices are from the last generation of Jews to have an intimate personal knowledge of the Muslim world, the enormous diversity within and among Middle Eastern Jewish communities.

We hope that these essays, told through the medium of vivid personal stories, will stimulate discussion about contemporary dynamics in the Muslim world and raise awareness of Jewish women’s history in North Africa and the Middle-East. 

Exclusively available at the ASF’s Sephardi Shop
 
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:
The Sephardi House Fellowship!
Wisdom, Creativity, Community on Campus


 Apply Now to be a ‘20-‘21 ASF Sephardi House Fellow!

The American Sephardi Federation is pleased to launch the inaugural Sephardi House Fellowship! We invite undergraduate student leaders and influencers to apply now! Sephardi House’s purpose is to bring #AllJewsTogether by infusing the inviting and enlightening Sephardic soul into Jewish life on campus.

Sponsorship and Naming opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
Announcing ChaiFlicks, the American Sephardi Federation's Official Streaming Service.

Featuring the Best in Jewish Entertainment, including your favorite films from the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival!
 
Sign-up Now!

Sponsorship and Naming opportunities avaialble:
info@americansephardi.org


The Axelrod Israel Jewish Film Festival in Partnership with The American Sephardi Federation Presents:

The Virtual Sephardic Film Festival

The Film Series Pass Includes Six Award-Nominated Films
Plus an Exclusive Bonus
Tours of “The History of Jews” in the Middle East
Including Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, Persia, and Kurdistan 
presented by the ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.


Sunday, 30 August 
through
Sunday, 13 September

Don't miss Live Zoom Q&A with Avi Dabach the Great Grandson of the Keeper of The Aleppo Codex on Sunday, 13 September at 5:00PM 

All Films Start at 7:00PM
Links and Passwords will be sent out a few hours prior to the start of each film.
Each film is Available for Streaming for 3 Days


Sign-up Now!

Check out the Trailers Below!

(Talkbacks for These Films Coming Soon)
 

      

    

           




Sponsorship and Naming opportunities avaialble:
info@americansephardi.org


Saving the Iraqi Jewish Archives: A Journey of Identity

Premiére at the American Sephardi Federation’s NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival

Sunday, 13 September

11:00AM EDT
(18:00 Israel Time)

Followed by the Q&A with the Filmmakers 
ASF Vice President Carole Basri, Esq. & Adriana Davis


6:00PM EDT 
Rebroadcast


Sign-up Now!

The Iraqi government, under color of law, stripped the Iraqi Jews of their property, including religious and cultural artifacts, starting in 1952. Rescued by US soldiers in 2003 from a flooded basement of the Iraqi secret police, the Iraqi Jewish Archives consist of over 4800 books and artifacts. Among those are the records of the last Jewish education center in Iraq – The Frank Iny School. Presently, the US and Iraqi governments are planning to return those same archives to a politically unstable Iraq. One day there will be little hard evidence for the community to prove they ever existed in Iraq. Moreover, this same plight is being inflicted upon other minorities in the middle east. NYSJFF is pleased to present this eye-opening feature documentary that includes personal stories of escape, how the archives were discovered, and what the archives mean to future generations to come.

Sponsorship opportunities avaialble:
info@americansephardi.org

ASF Young Leaders present:

Sephardi Indie Film Series

Broken Bird

Director Screening and Discussion with the Director
Rachel Harrison Gordon


Tuesday, 15 September at 7:00PM EDT


Sign-up Now!
(Complimentary RSVP)



Rachel Harrison Gordon is an MFA/MBA candidate at NYU Tisch/Stern and a Sundance 2020 Blackhouse Fellow. Rachel's interest in storytelling evolved through pursuits of perspectives in journalism and in government. She has studied people through quantitative behavioral data and through their stories, and hopes to create films, commercials and music videos that highlight the different ways people come of age. Her work challenges expectations of race, family, and addiction.

Prior to NYU, she served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow for the Obama Administration, learning about Veterans and their experience returning home. She worked as a data analyst within a consumer insights group at The New York Times. Rachel graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering, where she studied Mechanical Engineering. Broken Bird is Rachel's first film.

The Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America and the American Sephardi Federation present:

Preparing for the High Holidays
Understanding our Sephardic Laws and Traditions with
Hakham Rabbi Elie Abadie, M.D.


On Wednesdays at 8:00PM EDT
16 September -
 Rosh Hashanah 
23 September - Yom Kippur

30 September - Sukkot
7 October - Simhat Torah


Sign-up Now!
(Comlimentary RSVP)



Rabbi Elie Abadie, M.D., comes from a long and distinguished rabbinical lineage dating back to fifteenth century Spain and Provence. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, he grew-up in Mexico City before settling in the United States. Following in the footsteps of the great Jewish scholar and philosopher Moses Maimonides (the Rambam), he is both a rabbi and a physician. Rabbi Dr. Abadie maintains a practice in Gastroenterology and is fluent in English, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, French, as well as conversant in Italian and Portuguese. He serves on the Boards of the American Sephardi Federation and Beit Hatfutsot, as the Director of the Jacob E. Safra Institute of Sephardic Studies at Yeshiva University, Head of School of the Sephardic Academy of Manhattan, and Founder and Leader of the Manhattan East Synagogue – Congregation Shaare Mizrah.


Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer


Episode Two:
Beans, Chicken, and Brown Nougat


Sephardi Culinary History is a new show that combines chef and scholar Hélène Jawhara-Piñer’s fascination with food studies and flair for creating delicious cuisine. Join along as she cooks Sephardic history!

Wednesday, 30 September at 10:00AM EDT


Sign-up Now!

Tickets support Chef Hélène’s forthcoming publications and the ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience


ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Hélène Jawhara-Piñer earned her Ph.D in History, Medieval History, and the History of Food from the University of Tours, France.

Chef Hélène’s primary research interest is the medieval culinary history of Spain through interculturality with a special focus on the Sephardic culinary heritage written in Arabic. 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), Chef Hélène 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).

In May, Chef Hélène hosted “
Shavuot in the Sephardic Kitchen: Bread of the Seven Heavens,” one of the most popular sessions of the Great Big Jewish Food Fest. Her recipes have appeared in the Sephardi World WeeklyTablet MagazineThe Forward, and S&P Central’s Newsletter. Chef Hélène is currently writing a scholarly book and accompanying cookbook on the Jewish culinary history of Spain.

We are proud Chef Hélène is serving as one of the judges for the ASF's Great Sephardic Chef Competition!



Sponsorship and Naming opportunities avaialble:
info@americansephardi.org


The ASF’s Great Sephardic Chef Competition


Enter for a chance to win a spot in the ASF’s Virtual Cookbook and other prizes!

Does your family have the best Sephardic recipe? Like to cook Sephardic? Let the world know by submitting  your recipe to the ASF’s Great Sephardic Chef Competition. Entries will be judged by a panel of scholars, chefs, restaurateurs, and authors in the following categories:

Appetizers
Bread
Communities (Greek, Iraqi, Italian, Moroccan, Persian, Spanish, Syrian, et al...)
Desserts
Entrees
Grandma’s Favorite
Mom’s Best
Salads
Shabbat 
Soups
Special Occasions & Creations
Vegan
Yom Tov


Submission Due Date: 15 October 2020 

$10 per entry; unlimited entries!

Submit Your Video Here!


Finalists will be announced on 17 December 2020 by our international panel of judges!


Sponsorship and Naming opportunities avaialble:
info@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.

Copyright © 2020 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.

Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.

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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