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10 February 2020
In Honor of Dr. Ahmad Abadi, Secretary-General of Morocco’s Mohammadia League of Scholars and co-host (with the Moroccan Foreign Ministry and US State Department Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback) of the 1st Regional Conference on the Preservation of Cultural and Religious Heritage, for his excellent interview on Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya Network about the Holocaust. Dr. Abadi was a member of Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa’s Muslim World League Delegation to Auschwitz with the AJC Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one.
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In Honor of Dr. Ahmad Abadi, Secretary-General of Morocco’s Mohammadia League of Scholars and co-host (with the Moroccan Foreign Ministry and US State Department Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback) of the 1st Regional Conference on the Preservation of Cultural and Religious Heritage, for his excellent interview on Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya Network about the Holocaust. Dr. Abadi was a member of Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa’s Muslim World League Delegation to Auschwitz with the AJC
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The Sephardi World Weekly is made possible by generous readers like you. Now there is a new way to show your support. Become a Patron of the Sephardi World Weekly via Patreon and your name will appear in each edition along with timely, thought-provoking articles on Greater Sephardi history, the arts, and current affairs. Thanking you in advance! And thank you to Sephardi World Weekly Patrons Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina and Gwen Zuares!
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“Interview with longlisted author Mohammed Eissa Al-Mu’adab” International Prize for Arabic Fiction Tunisian writer Mohammed Eissa Al-Mu’adab’s novel, Hammam Dhahab, was recently longlisted for the prestigious International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The plot of Al-Mu’adab’s novel revolves around the Jewish community of Tunisia, an angle, he acknowledges, that poses an implicit question: “‘[W]hy was Tunis so diverse… with its different cultures and religions… whereas now it has become an arena for hatred…? Isn’t a Tunisian Jew the same as a Tunisian Muslim?’” As for readers’ responses, Al-Mu’adab claims, “‘[T]hey are thirsty for the forgotten history of the Jewish minority community… Tunisian historians did not narrate in depth this forgotten history.’”
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 Hammam Dhahab (book cover) |
International Prize for Arabic Fiction
Second meeting of the Council of Moroccan Rabanim (including Rabbi Haim David Serero) Rabat, Morocco, 1952
(Photo courtesy of Darké Abotenou)
In honor of today’s holiday, Tu BeShvat, wepresent R’ David Kadoche singing two piyyutim in a richly sweet, Moroccan-melodic style: “Shir Mipi Al Yushbat” (The Song of my Mouth will Never Cease) and “Hodu Leeli Shokhen” (Thank my Dwelling God…)
 Esther Levy-Chehebar, Beged, 13-20 December 2017 (Photo courtesy of Fashionating by Liri) |
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“Trees Grow in Brooklyn” By Esther Levy-Chehebar, Tablet Magazine Esther Levy-Chehebar is an aspiring writer born and raised in Sephardi Brooklyn. Reflecting on the ways in which the trees lining Ocean Parkway symbolically shelter—both in the sense of smothering and protecting—her community, Levy-Chehebar examines how the recent wave of anti-Semitism is striking different chords among local Sephardim, including the immigrant generation: “‘I suspect that for many elders in my community, acknowledging that there is still a war to be waged is a bitter pill to swallow.’”
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Esther Levy-Chehebar, Beged, 13-20 December 2017
(Photo courtesy of Fashionating by Liri)
By Esther Levy-Chehebar, Tablet Magazine
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.
By David Raphael
Three momentous events in the history of Spain took place in 1492: Columbus’ discovery of the Americas, the fall of the last Moorish bastion in Granada, and the expulsion of the Jews.
The Alhambra Decree is a well-researched novel that vividly reconstructs the forces and the events surrounding the Edict of Expulsion declared by Ferdinand and Isabella, and that graphically relates the misfortunes and calamities that befell the dispersed Jewish exiles. Focusing upon the Jewish community of Segovia, the book describes the mass uprooting and dispersion of Spanish Jewry. Based upon original medieval Hebrew and Spanish documents, many of them eye-witness accounts, the horrifying tale of the expulsion is told as never before.
Last chance to join the trip!
Applications Closing!
The American Sephardi Federation invites you to
The 2nd Jewish Africa Conference
&
Morocco Trip Extension!
Please click here to apply now
Trip Dates: 23-29 March 2020
Total in-country tour cost: $2,600.00*
HIGHLIGHTS:
•Experience Rabat, Casablanca, Essaouira, and Marrakech with scholars and communities members.
•VIP Access to the 2nd Jewish Africa Conference (23-25 March), featuring African leaders and scholars discussing the role of Jews and the need for Jewish voices in African civil society, the development of Jewish space, perspectives on old and new African Jewish identities, and encounters between Jews and non-Jews in contemporary Africa.
•Explore Moroccan Jewish history, culture, and contemporary life, as well as Mimouna’s pioneering work to perpetuate Morocco’s tradition of tolerance and combat anti-Semitism abroad
*PRICE INCLUDES:
· Welcome & assistance upon arrival at Casablanca’s Mohamed V Airport (Roundtrip airfare NOT included)
· 6 Nights / 7 Days in Five Star Hotels (Double-occupancy; Single rooms available upon request for additional cost)
· In-country tour transportation
· Certified local English speaking tour guide and scholars throughout the whole trip
· Shabbat experience in Marrakech at Slat Lazama, a Sephardic synagogue founded in 1492 by Jewish refugees expelled by the Alhambra Decree
· Entrance fees to monuments
· Kosher breakfasts, lunches, and dinners
~Click here to learn more about the trip, or contact ASF at
212-294-8350
info@americansephardi.org ~
The American Sephardi Federation presents:
The New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival’s (NYSJFF)
23rd Anniversary Edition
Dedicated to Ike, Molly, & Steven Elias
23 February-2 March 2020
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City
Pomegranate Award Honorees, Special Filmmaker Appearances, &
7 NY, 2 US, and 2 World Première Films!
Use discount code ASF23NYSFF to access special prices!
Early Bird offer ends on 2 February 2020
Passes & Special Nights | Schedule | Sponsorship Opportunities
1:00PM: Levantine (U.S. Première)
3:00PM: Ma’Abarot
6:00PM: Opening Night
Red Fields (NY Première)
Monday, 24 February
1:00PM: Stockholm
5:00PM: Say Amen (NY Première)
7:00PM: Greek Night
Life Will Smile (NY Première)
Romaniotes: The Greek Jews of Ioannina
Tuesday, 25 February
12:00PM: Shalom Italia
2:00PM: The Hug of Destiny (World Première)
6:00PM: The Last Jew in the Village (U.S. Première)
8:00PM: Portuguese Night
The Nun’s Kaddish (NY Première)
Sefarad (NY Première)
Wednesday, 26 February
1:00PM: Everytime We Say Goodbye
4:00PM: The Final Hour (U.S. Première)
7:00PM – Moroccan Night
Where Are You Going Moshé? (NY Première)
Thursday, 27 February
2:00PM: Wanderings: A Journey to Connect
7:00PM: Iraqi Closing Night
The Wolf of Baghdad (World Première)
Saturday, 29 February
8:00PM: The Syrian Jewish Community: Coming to America (1900-1919)
Monday, 2 March
7:00PM: Mexican Night
Leona
*At Instituto Cervantes
Order online or by phone via Brown Paper Tickets:
1.800.838.3006
Discuss Sponsorship or Advertising: Yves@AmericanSephardi.org
Email Inquires:
info@AmericanSephardi.org
The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization,
Center for Jewish History, American Jewish Historical Society,
and the American Sephardi Federation invite you to a lively discussion on:
Midwives, Musicians, Soldiers, Rabbis:
Whose Stories Will We Tell?
Celebrating the release of
The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 6: Confronting Modernity, 1750-1880, edited by Elisheva Carlebach.
Thursday, 12 March, 6:30-9:00PM
Please register here
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City
Discussion will be led by Prof. Deborah Dash Moore, Editor-in-chief of The Posen Library, in conversation with Elisheva Carlebach, Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, and Society; Director, The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University; Dara Horn, award-winning novelist and professor of Hebrew and Yiddish; and Sephardi-Israeli ASF Pomegranate Award Recipient for Musical Conservation and Coexistence Itamar Borochov, who will also play a duet with pianist Gadi Lehavi.
Followed by a festive reception with music by Cabinet of Melodies, led by Ira Khonen Temple, accordionist in Fiddler on the Roof (in Yiddish)
The Philos Project and the American Sephardi Federation present:
Nosotros 3.0: Strengthening Bonds Between Jewish and Latino Communities
On view until May 2020
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City
The Philos Project and the American Sephardi Federation cordially invite you to the third edition of our Latin American classic art exhibit: Nosotros 2019.
This years exhibit explores the Judtice of Zionism through the lens of Jewish and Latino national liberation struggles for independence from European colonialism. A new collection of art pieces will be revealed, including pieces from master artists Norma Lithgow and Deyvi Pérez. It will be a night of celebration of the shared history and culture of the Jewish and Latin communities.
Donate now 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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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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