Sarajevo Haggadah, Portuguese Citizenship, and Rock in the Red Zone

11 March 2018 Mabrouk/Mazal Tov to Nahariya for naming a street in honor of Eli Amir, the Baghdad-born Israeli writer (including of The Dove Flyer), former Director of Youth Aliyah for the Jewish Agency, and Executive Board Member of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center

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“An ancient holy book symbolises the fate of Sarajevo’s Jews” TRT World The Sarajevo Haggadah dates to 14th century Spain and was brought to Bosnia in the 17th century. During WWII it was hidden from the Nazis, “under the threshold of a mountain hut near Sarajevo.” During the 1992-95 Yugoslav wars, the Haggadah was placed, “in a safe at the national bank.” Beginning last month, the precious text was put, “on permanent display at Bosnia’s National Museum.” 800 Jews live in Sarajevo today. Is there a future for the Jewish community of Sarajevo after all?

Composed in 1350s Barcelona, Spain, The Sarajevo Haggadah, journeyed with Sephardic Jews into exile after the Expulsion of 1492 (Photo courtesy of Goodoldpolonius2/Wikimedia)

“An ancient holy book symbolises the fate of Sarajevo’s Jews”
TRT World

Feature of the Week: Rock in the Red Zon (Trailer)
 

Ana Mendes Godinho (Portugal’s Secretary of State for Tourism) recently led a delegation (including Rabbi Natan Peres of the Comunidade Israelita de Lisboa) to meet with ASF and other leading Jewish organizations, ASF’s Oded Halahmy Gallery, Center for Jewish History, 6 February 2018  (Photo courtesy of Joseph Samuel)

“1,800 Sephardic Jews Get Portuguese Citizenship” Cnaan Liphshiz, Forward Approximately 1,800 Sephardic Jews acquired Portuguese citizenship in 2017, with another 12,000 waiting in line. The uptick in numbers, “comes amid a host of initiatives by the government to strengthen the country’s ties to Jewish audiences and recognition of its Jewish heritage,” from a Jewish museum in Lisbon to a network of cities with Jewish heritage sites.

“1,800 Sephardic Jews Get Portuguese Citizenship”
Cnaan Liphshiz, Forward

The 21st NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival

5-15 March 2018
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
The American Sephardi Federation’s NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival showcases contemporary voices steeped in the history, traditions, and rich mosaic culture of Greater Sephardic communities through NY premiere film screenings, intriguing stories, evocative documentaries, Q&As with filmmakers, the Pomegranate Awards (sculpted by Baghdad-born artist, Oded Halahmy) Ceremony, and special guests.

This year’s ten-day festival has film entries focused on Iraqi, Syrian, Mexican, Egyptian, Israeli, French, Tunisian, Ethiopian, and Greek communities. Each night of the Festival features a themed program honoring the rich and diverse communities ASF represents.

Reserve a FESTIVAL PASS: (includes Opening Night, Closing Night, All Screenings, and All After Parties) $100/$150  (VIP Seating)
$85 for ASF Pomegranate Card Members

Schedule at a Glance

• Sunday, 11 March: The Promised Land: Ma’abarot Memories – The Ancestral Sin (NY Premiere) and Rock in the Red Zone
   
• Sunday, 11 March: The Egyptian Experience – Starting Over Again (NY Premiere) and The Band’s Visit
   
• Monday, 12 March: Young Professionals Night: A Moroccan-Israeli’s #MeToo – Brave Miss World
   
• Tuesday, 13 March: Sephardi Shorts Program – The Pirate Captain Toledano (NY Premiere), Sara Levy Cohen (NY Premiere), 116 Cameras, Keep it Cool
• Wednesday, 14 March: On the Road to Zion – Two Zions: The Living Legacy of The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon
• Thursday, 15 March: Tunisian and Iraqi Closing Night – Journey from Tunisia (NY Premiere) and Remember Baghdad (NY Premiere)

 

Passes & Tickets

SINGLE SCREENING: $10/$15 (VIP Seating) 
CLOSING NIGHT FILM AND AFTER PARTY: $25
YOUNG PROFESSIONALS FILM & HAPPY HOUR: $25

FILM PASS: (includes only Film Screenings on 7, 10, 11, 13, and 14 March) $50/$80 (VIP Seating)
$35 for ASF Pomegranate Card Members

For additional information: www.nysephardifilmfestival.org

Email us here to discuss sponsorship and advertising opportunities

ASF Young Sephardi Scholars Series Presents:
At the Intersection of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking: A Three-Part Learning and Cultural Series on the Greater Sephardic Communities of the Former Soviet Union 

26 February – Kavkazi (Mountain Jews)
20 March – Bukharian Jews
24 April – Georgian Jews

ASF’s Sephardi Scholars Center
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
The American Sephardi Federation’s Young Sephardi Scholars Series, in partnership with COJECO BluePrint Fellowship, is excited to host a three-part learning and cultural series about the Russian-speaking Jewish (RSJ) communities of the Greater Sephardic world. The cultures and histories of Bukharian, Georgian, and Kavkazi (Mountain) Jews are situated at the fascinating, yet lesser known, intersection of RSJ, Sephardic, and Mizrahi life. Led by Ruben Shimonov, this interactive multimedia learning series will provide a unique opportunity to explore the rich and multilayered stories of the three communities. 

Ruben Shimonov, 2018 American Sephardi Federation Broome & Allen Fellow, was born in Uzbekistan and grew up in the vibrant Greek and Turkish Sephardic community of Seattle. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in International Relations, Near Eastern Studies, and Jewish Studies from the University of Washington. As a Bukharian Jew—whose own multilayered identity lies at the intersection of Mizrahi, Sephardic, and RSJ—Ruben roots his work as an educator, social innovator, and community builder in a deep passion for the diverse cultural mosaic of the Jewish people. This has informed his active leadership and community organizing endeavors within organizations such as the American Sephardi Federation (where he is the Young Leadership Board’s VP of Education and Community Engagement), JDC Entwine, Moishe House, and OneTable. He has also brought this passion to his work at Queens College Hillel for the past four years—most recently as Director of Cross-Community Engagement and Education—where he had the unique role of engaging, empowering, and creating meaningful Jewish experiences for Sephardic and Mizrahi students. Ruben is currently pursuing Master’s degrees in both Public Administration/Nonprofit Management and Judaic Studies at New York University. Ruben was recently named a COJECO Blueprint Fellow and is working on community projects that highlight the intersectional identities of Russian-speaking Greater Sephardic Jews. He is also the founder of the Sephardic-Mizrahi LGBTQ Shabbat Dinner Series and annual retreats, which provide a one-of-a-kind platform for LGBTQ Jews from Sephardic and Mizrahi backgrounds to build a vibrant and supportive community.
 
We look forward to having you join us!

Please click here to make a reservation
Light dinner reflecting the cuisine of Bukharian, Georgian, and Kavkazi Jews will be served

Please note: a limited number of tickets are still available. The first lecture sold out. Tickets will not be sold at the door. 

The American Society for Jewish Music Presents:
Songs of Devotion and Desire:
The Musical Heritage of
Jewish Spain

Sunday, 25 March, at 3:00 PM

Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
The American Sephardi Federation is proud to co-present The American Society for Jewish Music’s program featuring Sephardic music from the 16th to the 20th centuries, by Alonso Mudarra, Wolf Simoni, Alberto Hemsi, Roberto Pla, Zhul Levy, and Paul Ben-Haim. Performers include Heather Buck (soprano), Janice Meyerson (mezzo soprano), Valeriya Sholokhova (cello), Lorne Richstone (piano), with commentary by Dr. Raymond Scheindlin.

Please click here to RSVP or call SmarTix at 212.868.4444
 

Centro Primo Levi Presents:
Money Must Stay In The Family

Sunday, 25 March, at 6 PM
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
The American Sephardi Federation is proud to co-present Centro Primo Levi’s program on Italian novelist, essayist, and journalist Alain Elkann, who follows the flight from fascist Italy of an upper class Jewish family from Turin, the fictional Ottolenghis, through their arrival and settlement  on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1939.
 
The plot, loosely inspired by the author’s maternal family, the Ovazzas, unfolds around the foresight of the matriarch, Olga Ottolenghi who, sensing that the family is succumbing to an inner centrifugal force, conceives of a will that will keep it together.
 
The gravitational center of the story is New York: the place of safety, new beginnings, mixing, and eventual return. Here, people who left behind everything re-invent themselves and at the same time reinforce their century-old attachment to their Jewish-Piedmontese origins.
 
The program includes a screening, for the first time in public, of a rare record of Italy’s Jewish elite’s daily life before the Shoah, part of the Ovazza family archive, and will be presented by Alain Elkann’s brother, Giorgio Barba Navaretti. The footage was filmed by Vittorio Ovazza starting in the early 1930s up to shortly before the promulgation of the Race Laws, and shows travels and festivities in Italy, France, Lybia and New York.
 
We look forward to having you join us!

RSVP Required: Molly Engelmann 

Reception to follow

Please note: Tickets will not be sold at the door. 

Nosotros: Strengthening Bonds Between Jewish and Latino Communities

Extended through April
in ASF’s Leon Levy Gallery
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
The Philos Project and American Sephardi Federation cordially invite you to “Nosotros,” an art exhibit featuring the work of two renowned Latino artists, Angel Urrely (Cuba) and Carlos Ayala (Puerto Rico)–as a symbolic recognition and “step forward” to improving Jewish-Latino relations.  We thank the Dominican artist, Juan Bravo, for exhibiting his pieces for the exhibit’s Opening Night. Each piece reflects the shared roots of Jewish and Latino communities and expresses hope for a more positive future from the perspective of each respective artist.

Each artist has displayed their works in hundreds of exhibits in both the US and Latin America, having many of them included in some of the most coveted collections in the world. We are very excited to bring them and their works to celebrate the importance of uniting us (or Nosotros), the Jewish and Latino communities, and having this art displayed in a very powerful way at the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History.
 
Artists:
 
Angel Urrely is to the point. This son of Cuba does not beat around the bush. At least not for what the brush comes to reveal—his theory is clear and sharp. Each frame creates a specific, assertive and brutal connection. The reading of his work is—from the perspective of the viewer—very simple, to the point that if you assume an interpretation of what you are reading, believe me: Urrely is addressing exactly what you are thinking. Urrely has something to tell you and will let you know one way or another.
 
Carlos Ayala presents himself as the “Benjamin” of the tribes, the youngest of them all. This son of Puerto Rico presupposes that his youth may seem an obstacle to you, so he shows you his clutched fists from the introduction. This young man is fierce. Carlos shows us the deepest pains experienced by man, and brings them to an entertained, distracted and ill-bred public. He does not sit down to dream on the Caribbean coast and wait for boats loaded with promises. He does not have the time for it, but rather wants to remind you that even at the best moments pain is present. And at any moment it can befall us.
 
We look forward to having you join us!

Please click here for additional information and viewing hours

Donate now and your tax-deductible contribution will help ASF preserve and promote the Greater Sephardi history, traditions, and culture as an integral part of the Jewish experience! 

Copyright © 2018 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) 548-4486 unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

Copyright © 2018 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) 548-4486


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