André Azoulay to Receive ASF Pomegranate Award, Spanish Jews Seeking Ibn Shushan, Salon-Style Sephardic Plays in LA, and Elkayam at Essouira Festival

17 March 2017 Mabrouk/Mazel Tov to distinguished American Sephardi Federation Board Member Oded Halahmy, the renowned artist, designer of the NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival’s Pomegranate Awards, and proprietor of the Pomegranate Gallery in Soho and Jaffa. The Hanukkah Lamp he created for the Casablanca Jewish Museum recently appeared in a segment on Al-Hurra television.

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“Andre Azoulay to Receive American Sephardi Federation’s Lifetime Achievement Award”  By Morocco World News The American Sephardi Federation will be honoring André Azoulay, Counsellor to the King of Morocco, on Opening Night of the upcoming NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival. The ASF’s Executive Director, Jason Guberman-P., explains why: “Morocco is… an exception to the global trend of increasing intolerance… Moroccans are proud of their effusive Jewish legacy. Indeed, Morocco’s constitution celebrates its ‘one and indivisible national identity’ defined by its Jewish, Arab, Amazigh and other elements… Counsellor Azoulay has made it his life’s mission to perpetuate this Moroccan ideal… In honoring Counsellor Azoulay, ASF hopes that others will emulate his enlightened example.”

Mr. André Azoulay, Counsellor to the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI (Photo courtesy of Morocco World News)

“Andre Azoulay to Receive American Sephardi Federation’s Lifetime Achievement Award” 
By Morocco World News

Mr. André Azoulay, Counsellor to the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI
(Photo courtesy of Morocco World News) 
 

Ibn Shushan Synagogue, Toledo, Spain (Photo courtesy of World Jewish Congress)

“Spanish Jewish community wants restitution of former Ibn Shushan synagogue in Toledo”  By World Jewish Congress The glorious 11th century Ibn Shushan synagogue in Toledo was occupied by the Catholic Church in the early 15th century. Now that Spain, looking to right a historical wrong, is offering citizenship to the descendants of Sephardim, the President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain thinks that restoring the synagogue to its original owners would also be fitting: “Spain is a better place and its society has made progress… The same thing needs to happen with the church: there needs to be Judeo-Christian dialogue.”

Ibn Shushan Synagogue, Toledo, Spain
(Photo courtesy of World Jewish Congress) “Spanish Jewish community wants restitution of former Ibn Shushan synagogue in Toledo” 
By World Jewish Congress

Feature of the Week: Neta Elkayam Performing at the 2013 Festival des Andalousies Atlantiques in Essaouira, Morocco

 

“New Works at Jewish Women’s Theatre Explore Lingering Impact of Spanish Inquisition on Today’s Sephardic Jews”  By Julia Cabrera, Broadway World During the next few weeks, the legacy of Sephardi Jewry will be told in ten different sites around Los Angeles, as the stories of Sephardi writers such as  Ruth Knafo Setton, André Acimen, and Herbert Hadad will be staged, salon-style, around the city: “Audiences will learn about the nomadic history of Sephardic Jews who were told they could ‘die as Jews or live as Muslims,’ and hear songs and poetry that describe exile and yearning.”

André Aciman speaking at ASF’s “We Were Neighbors: Remembering Middle Eastern and North African Jewish Communities,” Center for Jewish History, 30 Nov. 2016 (Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)

“New Works at Jewish Women’s Theatre Explore Lingering Impact of Spanish Inquisition on Today’s Sephardic Jews” 
By Julia Cabrera, Broadway World

André Aciman speaking at ASF’s “We Were Neighbors: Remembering Middle Eastern and North African Jewish Communities,” Center for Jewish History, 30 Nov. 2016
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)

New York Sephardic Film Festival
March 30 – April 6, 2017

Center for Jewish History 
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 

The American Sephardi Federation presents the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival’s 20th Anniversary Edition.

Through the poignant medium of film, the NYSJFF provides viewers with an understanding of the rich mosaic culture of Jews from the Middle East and greater Sephardic Diaspora. Select nights are dedicated to the Moroccan, Iraqi, Greek, and Yemenite Jewish communities. 

The Counsellor to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Mr. André Azoulay, is to receive the American Sephardi Federation’s Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement on Opening Night, 30 March. Counsellor Azoulay’s fête, co-presented with Association Mimouna, will feature live performances by French-Algerian recording legend Enrico Macias, Kuwaiti star and human rights activist Ema Shah, Israeli-Moroccan singer Neta Elkayam and Amit Hai Cohen, and French-Moroccan opera singer David Serero, the great-grandson of Morocco’s former Chief Rabbi, Haim David Serero of Fez.
 

Opening Night plus VIP Festival Pass = $100 
Festival Pass excluding Opening Night = $50 
Young Professionals Night= $25 
Individual Film = $10
 

Click here or call 1.800.838.3006 for Program Listings, Film Descriptions, and Pass & Ticket Options

Click here or call 917.606.8266 for Sponsorship & Advertising Opportunities

Special Announcement

Sephardic Birthright Trip Summer 2017

Sephardic Communities in New York, Miami, and Seattle, are joining together to create a Sephardic Birthright Israel Trip this Summer from August 7th to August 17th!  If you’ve never been on Birthright before and want to go to Israel for free, this is your chance! For 10 days, you’ll be able to travel around the country with amazing people with Sephardic, Greek, and Turkish backgrounds, all while exploring everything Israel has to offer. You’ll be able to ride camels in the desert, raft down the Jordan River, explore the Old City in Jerusalem, and a whole lot more.

The trip is totally free and anyone between the ages of 18 and 26 who hasn’t been on a Birthright Israel trip before is eligible. What’s more, we are working on creating an extended portion of the Trip to Greece! Even if you’ve been to Israel before on a non-birthright trip you may still be eligible. 

Register HERE today and be sure to select the “Sephardic Experience” Trip. Registration takes less than 10 minutes and no final commitment is necessary. If you have any question, be sure to email us atinfo@sephardicbrotherhood.com and be sure to check out some of the amazing pictures from last year’s trip and our promo video made by one of our very own trip participants! 

Note: While not an ASF program, ASF is proud of the members of our Young Leadership Board who are involved in organizing this trip

When Baghdadi Jews Baruch and Ellen Bekhor (née Cohen) succumbed to the camera’s gaze for their denaturalization pictures in 1951, they became stateless. Ellen was in her eighth month of pregnancy. Permitted to bring no more than a few kilos of belongings out of Iraq, Ellen carried their wedding picture and ketubah in her pocketbook. Laissez-Passer, Royaume D’Irak by Leslie Starobin (2016) 

The Last Address

Through April 2017
in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display 

Center for Jewish History 
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 

The American Sephardi Federation proudly presents excerpts from The Last Address, a multi-year, photo-montage series and oral history and book project by award-winning artist Leslie Starobin that explores the enduring texture of memory and culture in the lives of Greater Sephardic families from dispersed Jewish communities in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon.

Leslie Starobin is a Boston-area photographer and montage artist. Her work is in the permanent collections of many academic (Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University) and public (Jewish Museum, MoMA) museums. Starobin is the recipient of numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation of the Arts/Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Most recently, she received two Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Grants for this series, The Last Address.

Her exhibition in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display is sponsored in part by CELTSS: The Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship and Service at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, where Starobin is a Professor of Communication Arts.

Please click here for additional information and viewing hours

Portugal, The Last Hope: Sousa Mendes’ Visas for Freedom

Through June 2017
Center for Jewish History 
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

The American Sephardi Federation, Portuguese Consulate of New York, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Municipality of Almeida, Portugal proudly present an exhibition in the Leon Levy Gallery honoring Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the courageous and creative Portuguese diplomat who saved Salvador Dali, the authors of Curious George, and thousands of other Holocaust refugees.
 

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 © 2017 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 St., New York, New York, 10011). www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 548-4486 unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

Copyright © 2017 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 St., New York, New York, 10011).

www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 548-4486


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