Mazal Tov/Mabrouk to Sam A. Sutton (Compiler) and Eddie Ashkenazie (Arranger) of a new edition of The Vidduy, designed “for the lay reader,” just in time for Yom Kippur, “[f]eaturing color coded text specific for men and women, updated English translation, and easier to follow formatting.” This new work is “[b]ased on the vidduy (confession) of Rabbi Isaiah Dayyan (Aleppo, c. 1898). Updated and expanded based on the writings of Rabbi Haim David Azoulai (HIDA), Rabbi Abraham Hamawi, and others.” Please click here for a complimentary copy.
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!
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Together, we can go from strength to strength in the New Year!
Sharon Gomperts and Rachel Emquies Sheff, the self-proclaimed “Sephardic Spice Girls,” are back, this time with a recipe for the “thin, airy, crunchy cookies” that Spanish-speaking Moroccan Jews call, “tortitas.” “A Moroccan host or hostess” keeps tortitas “on hand to serve to visitors with a steaming pot of tea with bright green spearmint leaves of 'nana,'” a great way to break the upcoming Yom Kippur fast. With recipe.
L’cha Eli T’shuqati (“My Desire, Lord, is Yours”) is a personal and confessional piyyut composed by the great Medieval commentator, theologian, grammarian, and poet, Avraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1167). Thanks to the piyyut’s open admission of weakness and simultaneous desire for closeness to God, it has become a canonical part of the Yom Kippur service. In this week’s featured video, Meir Banai (1960-2017), a singer, musician, and songwriter from the legendary Banai family, puts a modern, folk-rock, and soulful spin on Ibn Ezra’s piyyut.
We wish our readers a meaningful Yom Kippur and blessings for the upcoming year, especially an abundance of health!
Dr. Idan Perez holds a Catalonian Machzor circa 1280 CE, National Library of Israel, Jersualem, Israel, 15 September 2019
(Photo courtesy of Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)
Even though Dr. Idan Perez was born, raised, and educated in Barcelona, he admits, “I thought all
Sephardic Jews… were the same.” After making Aliyah to Israel in 2004, however, Perez discovered the religious literature of Catalonia. Moved by his discovery, he used six manuscripts to reconstruct and publish the Sidur Catalunya, “the first complete recreation of a prayer book used by the Jews of Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.” The Sidur’s distinctive aspects include abundant piyyutim, as well as Hanukkah traditions that differ from contemporary conventions. But this is no museum piece. Says Perez, “‘The most satisfying moment of this whole project for me was when I took some of the first copies to my synagogue so that I and others could use them in prayer.’”
“Wisdom” in Hebrew and Arabic (unframed) By Ruben Shimonov
Custom designed art. Please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.
Our Story: The Jews of Sepharad; Celebrations and Stories
By Lea-Nora Kordova Annette and Eugene Labovitz
Celebrations and Stories, a special publication of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education with the American Sephardi Federation, is an essential work that enhances the teaching of Sephardi history, traditions, and cultures.
The life cycle and calendar sections are designed to horizontally connect to the teaching of customs and ceremonies from the Spanish & Portuguese, Syrian, Judeo-Spanish, and Moroccan traditions. Other sections include translations of classic texts and poetry, tales of our history’s heroes, and classroom activities.
Sponsorship and Naming opportunities available: info@americansephardi.org
The Sephardi House Fellowship!
Wisdom, Creativity, and 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 by 30 September! Sephardi House’s purpose is to bring#AllJewsTogetherby infusing the inviting and enlightening Sephardic soul into Jewish life on campus.
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!
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).
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.
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!
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
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.
“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!
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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).
