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5 March 2021 
 
In honor of Women’s History Month, meet Madam Frecha-Flora Sassoon, the brilliant, Bombay-born Iraqi-Jewish trailblazer who became an expert in Jewish manuscripts, Midrash, Sephardi customs, & halakhic practice!
 
 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, Rachel Amar, Deborah Arellano, and Distinguished ASF Vice President Gwen Zuares!
Become a Patron today!

Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer 
Join us on Sunday, 21 March at 10:00AM EDT for Episode VIII: Mexican Crypto-Jewish Pesah recipe.

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(Complimentary RSVP; Donations suggested)

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Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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Shlomo Hillel, who spearheaded mass aliyah of Iraqi Jews, dies at 97” 
By Ron Kampeas, JTA

Baghdad-born Shlomo Hillel played an outsized role in helping Iraqi Jewry make Aliyah to the Land of Israel. In the process, he was as close to a real-life James Bond as you're gonna get: Hillel "executed at least four undercover operations in the pre-and post-state years in various guises — including as a British businessman — to spirit out Iraqi Jews." Altogether, Hillel helped 120,000 Iraqi Jews make come to the Promised Land. In the words of Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin: “‘He came from a great generation, a generation that fought with its hands for Israel’s independence and its existence as a safe haven for the Jewish people.’” 
Former Knesset Speaker Shlomo Hillel, A”H, Jerusalem, Israel, mid-1980s.
(Photo courtesy of David Rubinger/Corbis via Getty Images)


Moderator Natasha Kirtchuk, Moroccan Ambassador Hilale, ASF Executive Director Jason Guberman, Former Ambassador Dennis Ross, Comat Anti-Semitism Movement’s Summit, 1 March 2021
(Photo courtesy of the CAM


At this week’s Combat Anti-Semitism Annual Summit, ASF Executive Director Jason Guberman framed and introduced a fascinating discussion between the Kingdom of Morocco’s UN Ambassador Omar Hilale and veteran US Diplomat, former Ambassador Dennis Ross, regarding the Abraham Accords and Jewish-Arab relations. Guberman also explained how the Accords: “‘represent a reassertion of classical Middle Eastern values of moderation, pluralism, and future-mindedness by recognizing the rightful place of Israel in the region, and the rightful place of Jews in the region.’”

Sephardi House Fellow Ariella Levy, University of Pittsburg Class of ‘23 (Photo courtesy of Ariella Levy)

 
Sephardic Jewry celebrated at Hillel JUC’s annual summit
By Adam Reinherz, The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

Students at the Hillel JUC (Jewish University of Pittsburg) were recently treated to a “Sephardic-themed
Shabbaton” that featured, “a cooking demonstration with chef and author [and ASF Broome & Allen Fellow – ed.] Hélène Jawhara Piñer.” The event was planned by Ariella Levy, a University of Pittsburgh sophomore and an inaugural ASF Sephardi House Fellow: “Levy worked with staff from Hillel JUC and the American Sephardi Federation to ensure students from diverse backgrounds could better appreciate the history and nuances of Sephardic Jewry.” But this event was only a first step. Says Levy, “‘I’d like to see Sephardic Judaism integrated into other events as well.’”


Click here to learn more about Ariella and the other ’20-’21 Sephardi House Fellows, as well as how you can help Jewish college students discover the vast diversity, depth, and vitality of the Jewish experience, which is rooted in the classic Sephardi intellectual and cultural legacy. 
Sephardi Gifts:
The Grandees: The Story of America’s Sephardic Elite
By Stephen Birmingham

The controversial classic purporting to provide insight into how “the Sephardic Jews began a tradition of wealth, pride, and exclusiveness that continues to this day. Stephen Birmingham sheds light on this segment of Jewish society who viewed other Jews as peasants and ardently shunned all publicity. It is the story of over three centuries of power and achievement, scandal and folly, elegant lifestyles, and sometimes flamboyant personalities - a story only Stephen Birmingham could tell with characteristic spellbinding skill.”

 
Loving Truth and Peace: The Grand Religious Worldview of Rabbi Benzion Uziel
By Hakham Rabbi Dr. Marc D. Angel

Hakham Rabbi Benzion Uziel (1880-1953) was one of the leading rabbinic figures of his generation. He served as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Salonika before becoming the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel (1938), a post he held until his death. 

A scion of great Sephardic rabbinical families, he was also well-steeped in the teachings of the Ashkenazic tradition. A staunch traditionalist, he was innovative and sensitive to the challenges to modernity. He was a religious Zionist who taught respect for all Jews, even those who were not religiously observant. He was deeply devoted to the particular teachings and norms of halakhic Judaism, while also maintaining a universalistic outlook and a genuine concern for the well-being of the non-Jewish population within Israel. 

Rabbi Uziel was a prolific author. His volumes of responsa, Mishpetei Uziel, are models of halakhic erudition, clarity and sensitivity. Various speeches, sermons, and addresses were included in a volume, Mikhmanei Uziel, reflecting not only Rabbi Uziel's worldview, but also the pressing issues within the Jewish community of his time. Shaarei Uziel is a two-volume work dealing with the laws of guardianship of orphans and with the laws of charity in general. Hegyonei Uziel is a two-volume work in which Rabbi Uziel presents a general philosophy of Judaism.

This book draws on the various published writings of Rabbi Uziel to present his grand religious worldview rooted in Classic Sephardic Judaism. He dealt with issues that are of continuing concern to the Jewish people, such as conversion, halakhah in a modern Jewish state, the role of women in Jewish law, Jewish nationalism, and tolerance. 

 
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities:

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:

New Works Wednesdays

In our extended New Works Wednesdays series, Ross Shepard Kraemer discusses her new book
The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity: What Christianity Cost the Jews.

“The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity” examines the fate of Jews living in the Mediterranean Jewish diaspora after the Roman Emperor Constantine threw his patronage to the emerging orthodox (Nicene) Christian churches.


Wednesday, 10 March at 12:00PM EST


Sign-up Now!



About the author:
Ross Shepard Kraemer is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies at Brown University, where she specialized in early Christianity and other religions of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, including ancient Judaism. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and a B.A. from Smith College. Her many publications have focused particularly on gender and women's religions in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, and on aspects of Jews and Judaism in the late antique Mediterranean diaspora.


Click here to learn more about “The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity: What Christianity Cost the Jews” 

Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org

The ASF Young Leaders present:

Beyond the Curriculum:
A Jewish Communal Discussion


Bringing #AllJewsTogether

Wednesday, 10 March at 8:00PM EST
(5:00PM PST)


Sign-up Now!



Are Jews defined by antisemitism or our proud history, traditions, and resiliency? Much of the debate about California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum has been divisive for Jews, especially Sephardim, whose identities are being exploited to further rigid, simplistic, and destructive narratives. We, as a community, need to face what has become a national issue that has profound implications for the post-Pittsburgh and Poway Jewish future in America. Join the American Sephardi Federation’s Young Leaders for an open conversation with young Jewish activists who have had the courage to speak out. Stand with us as we discuss what positive steps to take to ensure the Jewish experience continues to undermine and defy bigotry, not embrace it.

The Department of Anthropology & Archeology at the University of Calgary, King’s College London, the International Network of Jewish Thought (Universidad Complutense of Madrid), & the American Sephardi Federation present:
Sephardi Thought and Modernity 2021 Webinar Series

A monthly lecture from February through June 2021, presenting different experiences of Sephardi modernization in different places and times.

On Thursdays at 1:00PM EDT 
(11:00AM MST)


18 March
Yaakov Yadgar (Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford): Sephardim in Israel and the critique of secularism

22 April
Clemence Boulouque (Columbia University):
In praise of the Orient: Elia Benamozegh’s Sephardic Modernities


20 May
Gabriel Abensour (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Rabbi Yosef Knafo’s Struggle for Democratization of Knowledge in Fin de Siècle Essaouira

17 June
Yuval Evri (King’s College London) and Angy Cohen (University of Calgary): Foreign in a familiar land: language and belonging in the work of Jacqueline Kahanoff, Albert Memmi, and Jacques Derrida.

Sign-up for the Webinar Series Now!
(Complimentary RSVP)


The intention of this series is to spark the interest in processes of Jewish modernization not exclusively mediated by Europeanization. The questions we will be dealing with are related to non-dichotomic identities, multiplicity and loss of language, colonization, social transformation, and intellectual responses to it. We will approach these questions by looking at Jewish-Arab influences, the Sephardi response to European modernization, the responses of the rabbinic leadership and the work of Sephardi intellectuals.

Series organized by Yuval Evri (King’s College London) and Angy Cohen (University of Calgary).

There will be a change to Daylight Saving Time in March, so the event times in North America will remain the same, but the event time in your area may change, depending on your location. The start time on Feb. 18 is 11 a.m. (MST), 1 p.m. (EST), 6 p.m. (GMT), 7 p.m. (Madrid; GMT +1); on March through June events, the start time will be 11 a.m. (MDT), 1 p.m. (EDT).



Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer


Episode VIII:
Mexican Crypto-Jewish Pesah recipe

Click here to check out the ingredients


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!

Sunday, 21 March at 10:00AM EDT


Sign-up Now!
(Complimentary RSVP; Donations suggested)

Donate Now

Your generous contribution will support Chef Jawhara Piñer’s forthcoming academic publication and accompanying recipe book, as well as the ASF Institute of Jewish Experience!

Pre-order your copy of “Sephardi: Cooking the History.
Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora, from the 13th Century Onwards” 
now


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 available:
info@americansephardi.org


The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:

The Persian Experience

Sign-up now!

Jews lived in the Middle East, and particularly Iran, even before the advent of Islam. Iran has a long history with varying dynasties, dynastic changes, and evolving borders and Jews have been there continuously throughout these changes. Throughout the ascent of Islam in its different forms, Jews were integrated at times more and at times less economically. There were times of intellectual and spiritual growth as well as suppression and persecution. All this will be addressed and discussed in a historical context.

The course is divided into seven units:


1. The Ancient Period – the settlement of the Jews in Iran, Acaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanian times
2. 7th to 9th Centuries – The emergence of Islam, Islam and the Jews, Dhimma, and Jewish religious streams
3. 13th to 18th centuries – Mongols, Jewish Persian poets, Safavid times
4. Mid-18th century to 19th century – Invasion, dynasties, and persecutions
5. The latter part of the 19th century – Interactions with World Jewry, legal status and conversions
6. Early 20th century – Modernization and education, constitution revolution, Zionism
7. The 20th century – Pahlavi dynasty, Revolution, Mashadis, and Migration


Dr. Daniel Tsadik
Dr. Daniel Tsadik, a former professor of Sephardic and Iranian Studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, has been awarded The Prime Minister’s Prize (Israel) in 2020 for the Encouragement and Empowerment of Jewish Communities in Arab Countries and Iran for The Jews of Iran and Rabbinic Literature: New Perspectives, published by Mosad Ha-Rav Kook.
Tsadik researches the modern history of Iran, Shi'ah Islam, and Iran's religious minorities. A Fulbright scholar, he earned his Ph.D from the History Department at Yale University.

Dr. David Yeroushalmy
Born in Tehran, David Yeroushalmy completed his primary and part of his secondary education at the Alliance Israelite school in Tehran. He immigrated to Israel in 1961 and upon completing his secondary education he enrolled in the Department of Middle Eastern History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Completing his B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and in Political Science, he served in the Israeli Army as an officer. He pursued his doctoral studies at Colombia University New York, in the Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures. He specialized in Persian and Hebrew languages and literatures. D. Yeroushalmy was appointed lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel-Aviv University, where he has been teaching Persian language and Iranian history and culture. His Book entitled The Judeo-Persian Poet Emrani and His Book of Treasure, was published by E.J. Brill Publishers, Leiden, in 1995. Dr. Yeroushalmy's current research focuses on the communal and cultural history of Iranian Jewry in the course of the nineteen-century.

Ms. Lerone Edalati
Lerone Edalati is a member of the Mashadi community of New York. In addition to her role as Associate Director of Donor Relations at ISEF, she researches and records the history and current practices of the Mashadi Jews. She holds a BA from NYU in Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, and an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is a Broome & Allen Fellow at the American Sephardi Federation and is currently gathering oral histories of Iranian Jews in NY.

Dr. Hilda Nissimi
Dr. Hilda Nissimi is the chair of the Generatl History Department at Bar Ilan University. Her most current research focuses on the formation adn change of identity layers in crypto-religious communities, with a particular focus on Mashadi Jews. Her book, The Crypto-Jewish Mashadis, was published in 1985 and remains the main text on the study of that population. She has written numerous articles on identity and forced conversions.


This course is made possible with the support of The Shazar Center, Israel.

For more information and other ASF IJE online course offerings visit:
 https://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/



Sponsorship opportunities available:
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/

With your generous, tax-deductible donation, the ASF can cultivate and advocate, preserve and promote, as well as educate and empower!



Please donate now to support the American Sephardi Federation!

Together, we can go from strength to strength in the New Year!
Copyright © 2021 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.

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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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