Flory’s Balkan Sephardi Flame, Hacham Ovadia’s Ethiopian Ruling, The Sephardic Book of Why, and Yemenite-Israeli Singer Remembered

16 December 2016 In memory of Sylvia Kedourie, A”H, alumnae of the Alliance Israélite Universelle School at Baghdad, a superlative scholar, editor of Middle Eastern Studies and several books, as well as invaluable partner to her husband, Elie Kedourie, A”H

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“Sephardic Musician, 92, Keeps Tradition Alive”  By Ray Hardman, WNPR A new film, Flory’s Flame, celebrates the life and work of Flory Jagoda, a ninety-two year old Holocaust survivor and resident of Connecticut, who is credited, “with preserving the traditional Sephardic music of the Balkans, an art form that was nearly wiped away by the Nazis during World War II.”

Flory Jagoda (Photo Courtesy of Masters of Traditional Arts)

“Sephardic Musician, 92, Keeps Tradition Alive” 
By Ray Hardman, WNPR

Flory Jagoda
(Photo Courtesy of Masters of Traditional Arts)

Rabbi Ilan Acoca (Photo courtesy of The Vancouver Courier)

“Rabbi Ilan Acoca Launches ‘The Sephardic Book of Why’” By Pearl Markovitz, The Jewish Link of New Jersey Rabbi Ilan Acoca was born into a Moroccan Jewish family in Israel stepped in Sephardi traditions, and then educated in Ashkenazi Jewish institutions in Montreal.  Today he is the leader of a Sephardi congregation in New Jersey, and in his position Rabbi Acoca is often called upon to explain Sephardi practices. So he decided to write a book about it: “Sephardic customs are rich and extremely diverse. The purpose of my book, The Sephardic Book of Why, is to give the reader a general idea about Sephardic customs with a little taste of specific practices.”

Rabbi Ilan Acoca
(Photo courtesy of The Vancouver Courier)   “Rabbi Ilan Acoca Launches ‘The Sephardic Book of Why’”
By Pearl Markovitz, The Jewish Link of New Jersey

Feature of the Week: Imi Imi (“My Mother, My Mother”)

 

“Hacham Ovadia’s Ruling Confirmed Ethiopian Jews as Full-Fledged Jews”  By Rabbi Haim Jachter, Wall Street Journal R’ Ovadia Yosef was a monumental rabbinic figure who changed the face of Israeli Judaism and Israeli society, but “[w[hich ruling… had the most impact?” When he “forcefully asserted that the Jews in Ethiopia were indeed Jews in the fullest sense. There are some more than 100,000 Ethiopian Jews who currently reside in Israel as a direct consequence of Hacham Ovadia’s 1973 ruling,” according to Rabbi Haim Jachter.

December’s Sephardi Ideas Monthly explores Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom’s From Sinai to Ethiopia: The Halakhic and Conceptual World of Ethiopian Jewry (Photo courtesy of YouTube/Emunah of America)

“Hacham Ovadia’s Ruling Confirmed Ethiopian Jews as Full-Fledged Jews” 
By Rabbi Haim Jachter, Wall Street Journal

December’s Sephardi Ideas Monthly explores Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom’s From Sinai to Ethiopia: The Halakhic and Conceptual World of Ethiopian Jewry
(Photo courtesy of YouTube/Emunah of America)

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

Now 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 January 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 © 2016 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 © 2016 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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