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3 July 2020
In Honor of Attorney James Kaplan, President and Chair of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, who originated and spearheaded the successful initiative to co-name a New York City street to commemorate the founding of North America’s first temple, Congregation Shearith Israel’s Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue on Mill Street (today’s 26 South William Street), as well as to honor Shearith Israel’s leader and hazzan, Rev. Gershom Mendes Sexias. The new Mill Street Synagogue/Sexias Way is a tangible reminder of the significant contributions of Seixas to the Patriot’s cause and his Congregation’s “to the rise of New York as that most cosmopolitan of American cities.” Ambassador John Loeb was honored at the ceremony with the LMHA & Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York’s Religious Freedom Award. 1st District New York City Council Member Margaret Chin, Shearith Israel’s Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik, and ASF’s President David Dangoor were amongst the speakers.
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In Honor of Attorney James Kaplan, President and Chair of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, who originated and spearheaded the successful initiative to co-name a New York City street to commemorate the founding of North America’s first temple, Congregation Shearith Israel’s Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue on Mill Street (today’s 26 South William Street), as well as to honor Shearith Israel’s leader and hazzan, Rev. Gershom Mendes Sexias. The new Mill Street Synagogue/Sexias Way is a tangible reminder of the significant contributions of Seixas to the Patriot’s cause and his Congregation’s “to the rise of New York as that most cosmopolitan of American cities.” Ambassador John Loeb was honored at the ceremony with the LMHA & Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York’s Religious Freedom Award. 1st District New York City Council Member Margaret Chin, Shearith Israel’s Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik, and ASF’s President David Dangoor were amongst the speakers.
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“Syrian Sephardi Star-Spangled Piyyut” Hebrew Text and Recording by Sephardic Pizmonim Project Introduction by Eddie Ashkenazie, Sephardi World Weekly Magen David Congregation was the first Syrian Sephardi synagogue built in Brooklyn. In honor of its 1921 inauguration, Rabbi Moses Ashear, who would serve as the hazzan of the Congregation until his death, composed a piyyut. Incorporating verses and terminology from the Tanach, the song begins by praising the actions of the committee who built the synagogue and then goes on to glorify the building and its importance for the community that would grow around it.
While other songs were written for the occasion, only this piyyut was set to the Star-Spangled Banner. The reason is unknown. Perhaps Rabbi Ashear, as an immigrant to the United States from Syria in the early 1900s, wished to celebrate the community finding success in America by synthesizing an aspect of the Syrian tradition (the composition of piyyutim) with the National Anthem. He may also have wished to situate this event within the context of America’s ideas and ideals, especially our rights to Thought, Worship, Speech, and Assembly, as codified in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. |
 Magen David Congregation, Brooklyn, NY
(Photo courtesy of At Home Studios) |
Hebrew Text and Recording by Sephardic Pizmonim Project
Introduction by Eddie Ashkenazie, Sephardi World Weekly
While other songs were written for the occasion, only this piyyut was set to the Star-Spangled Banner. The reason is unknown. Perhaps Rabbi Ashear, as an immigrant to the United States from Syria in the early 1900s, wished to celebrate the community finding success in America by synthesizing an aspect of the Syrian tradition (the composition of piyyutim) with the National Anthem. He may also have wished to situate this event within the context of America’s ideas and ideals, especially our rights to Thought, Worship, Speech, and Assembly, as codified in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
(Photo courtesy of At Home Studios)
The first American-English translation of the siddur by Isaac Pinto (who also has a Stratford connection), was one of the rare books and artifacts from the American Sephardi Federation’s collection on display in The Center for Jewish History’s David Berg Rare Book exhibit, Sephardic Journeys, which is now part of the Google Cultural Institute
(Photo courtesy of John Halpern/Center for Jewish History)
Grace, a gifted writer, shared her family’s sentiments and poured her ardent love of America and the Jewish People into poems and correspondence. In celebration of this year’s Independence Day, we offer our readers a stirring passage from one of Grace’s letters to her niece, in which she proudly proclaims her Patriotism—and her contempt for British imperialist revanchism!—during the War of 1812:
“…but I cannot for the life of me feel terrified—besides I am so true an American—so warm a Patriot that I hold these mighty Armies—and their proud-arrogant-presumptuous and over-powering Nation as Beings that we have Conquered and shall Conquer again—this I persuade myself will be so. And may the Lord of Battles grant it may be so.”
(David de Sola Pool, “Some Letters of Grace Seixas Nathan, 1814-1821,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 37 (1947), p. 209. For a portrait of Grace and other members of the Seixas family, explore The American Jewish Historical Society’s Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. Database of Early American Jewish Portraits).
(Scan courtesy of The Marvin Weiner Catalogue of the Sabato Morais Ledger (University of Pennsylvania Libraries: Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image), p. 22)
The excerpt reads: “I am not indifferent, my dear friends! to the event [the Declaration of Independence] , which four score and seven years ago, brought to this new world light and joy. I yield to none in the feelings of deep reverence for the sages and patriots that labored for its consummation. The principles enunciated in the document unfolded and first read in yonder hall, command still my highest admiration. But the more intently I gaze upon the bright past, the darker does the present appear to my vision.”
Thankfully, unlike the Jewish defenders at Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Union defenders repelled their attackers, the Confederate invaders of the North, at Gettysburg on 1-3 July, as Morais found out after his sermon.
To learn more about Mikveh Israel’s Hakham Rabbi Dr. Sabato Morais see: Sephardi Ideas Monthly’s “Continuity, not Rupture: Sabato Morais’s Sephardi Rabbinic Humanism in Victorian America” and “A Dream Deferred: The Andalusian-Italian Sephardi Tradition in America.”
 Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison’s banner featuring the Liberty Bell’s image and inscription (from Vayikra/Leviticus XXV:X): “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof” Boston, MA., 1843 (Photo courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society) |
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“Covenant and the American Founding” In 2017, Sephardi Ideas Monthly featured a series of articles on the political concept of “covenant” by Professor Daniel J. Elazar, a highly successful political theorist and the Founder and First President of both the American Sephardi Federation and Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. In the series’ third article, Professor Elazar begins with Abraham Lincoln’s “view of the American experience as being parallel to that of biblical Israel. If Americans were not the chosen people, they were at least, in his eyes, ‘an almost chosen people.’”
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Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison’s banner featuring the Liberty Bell’s image and inscription (from Vayikra/Leviticus XXV:X): “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof”
Boston, MA., 1843
(Photo courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society)
By Marc Leepson
Saving Monticello offers the first complete post-Jefferson history of this American icon and reveals the amazing story of how one Sephardic Jewish family saved the house that became a family home to them for 89 years – longer than it ever was to the Jeffersons.
Commodore Uriah P. Levy discovered that Jefferson’s mansion had fallen into a miserable state of decay. Acquiring the ruined estate and committing his considerable resources to its renewal, Levy began what became a tumultuous nine-decade relationship between his family and Jefferson’s home. After passing from Levy control at the time of the commodore’s death, Monticello fell once more into hard times, cattle being housed on its first floor and grain in its once elegant upper rooms. Again, remarkably, a member of the Levy family came to the rescue. Uriah’s nephew, the aptly named Jefferson Monroe Levy, a three-term New York congressman and wealthy real estate and stock speculator, gained possession in 1879.
After Jefferson Levy poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into its repair and upkeep, his chief reward was to face a vicious national campaign, with anti-Semitic overtones, to expropriate the house and turn it over to the government. Only after the campaign had failed, with Levy declaring that he would sell Monticello only when the White House itself was offered for sale, did Levy relinquish it to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1923.
Click here to read Marc Leepson’s exclusive interview in Sephardi Ideas Monthly and here to learn more about the anti-Semitic campaign against the Levy family.
by Hakkham Rabbi Dr. Marc D. Angel
Special Edition for the American Sephardi Federation
Published to mark Shearith Israel’s 350th anniversary, Remnant of Israel a Portrait of America’s First Jewish Congregation tells their individual stories as well as the history of the Congregation, explaining its origins, its rituals, and its traditions. It is profusely illustrated with portraits, historical documents and ritual objects. This book tells a fascinating story, one that will appeal to anyone interested in the history and culture of the Jewish People, of New York City, and of the United States.
*Exclusively available at the ASF’s Sephardi Shop
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and E’eleh BeTamar present:
ד”ר מוטי קדר: למה המזרח התיכון אזור בעיתי כל כך?
Dr. Motti Kedar will help you connect the dots between the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the tension in Israel, and other incidence across the region.
Lecture will be conducted in Hebrew
Tuesday, 7 July at 10AM EDT
Sign-up Now!
(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and E’eleh BeTamar present:
What makes the Middle East so problematic?
Bar-Ilan University’s Dr. Motti Kedar will help you connect the dots between the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the tension in Israel, and other incidence across the region.
Tuesday, 7 July at 12PM EDT
Sign-up Now!
(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and E’eleh BeTamar present:
הרב ד”ר בנציון ברעמי: מה מיוחד בספרי תורה במסורת תימן
With Rabbi Dr. Bentzion Barami
Lecture will be conducted in Hebrew
Monday, 13 July at 10AM EDT
Sign-up Now!
(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and E’eleh BeTamar present:
The Yemenite Torah
With Rabbi Dr. Bentzion Barami
Lecture will be conducted in English
Monday, 13 July at 12PM EDT
Sign-up Now!
(Pay via PayPal by Credit or Debit Card)
Yemenite Jews are known to be conservative in their keeping of tradition. However, when the Yemenites brought their Torah scrolls to the Western World, they were rebuffed. There are slight differences in the Yemenite Torah as compared with the Jews around the world. Rabbi Barami will discuss these unique details and how it is actually the true continuation of the Torah that was in the Temple.
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 visit: https://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/
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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 |
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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