Baghdad’s House of Dreams Destroyed, Jews of Jamaica, Spanish Citizenship for 220 Sephardim, Eicha Reading, and Nabucco Reviewed

12 August 2016 In memory of Boris Toledano, A”H, leader of Casablanca’s Jewish community

“Baghdad to destroy home of Jew who helped found modern Iraq”  By Dov Lieber, The Times of Israel   Sir Sassoon Eskell was born in 1860 to an aristocratic Baghdadi Jewish family. He played an instrumental role in the founding of modern Iraq in 1920 and served as the country’s finance minister five times. In a depressing sign of our intolerant times, the Baghdad municipality announced that it would destroy Eskell’s 100 year-old home and hand it over to a developer. Update: Diarna Geo-Museum researchers in Baghdad have confirmed that the house was destroyed. ASF is partnered with Diarna on the “race against time” to document endangered Sephardi synagogues, schools, shrines, and other structures, as well as to record the memories of the last primary source generation. Please contact Diarna immediately if you or someone you know can contribute eyewitness testimony, photographs, videos, or other relevant information on this site or others.

Sir Sassoon Eskell, Iraq’s first Minister of Finance and “Father of the Parliament” (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

“Baghdad to destroy home of Jew who helped found modern Iraq” 
By Dov Lieber, The Times of Israel
 

Sir Sassoon Eskell, Iraq’s first Minister of Finance and “Father of the Parliament”
(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

David Serero as Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar)

“A Verdian Season in New York” By Fred Plotkin, WQXR David Serero’s production of Verdi’s Nabucco, sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation and performed at the Center for Jewish History, received high praise from a premier opera critic, Fred Platkin, who writes the Operavore column for WQXR. “Hearing Verdi’s music so intimately had the unexpected effect of taking the listener closer to the melodies than one normally experiences when an opera is presented in full production with large orchestra… It had a particular force because Nabucco (1842) was the passionate expression of a young composer whose wife and two children had just died within 18 months, and he channeled his grief to produce his first masterpiece.”

David Serero as Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar)  “A Verdian Season in New York”
By Fred Plotkin, WQXR

David Serero’s production of Verdi’s Nabucco, sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation and performed at the Center for Jewish History, received high praise from a premier opera critic, Fred Platkin, who writes the Operavore column for WQXR. “Hearing Verdi’s music so intimately had the unexpected effect of taking the listener closer to the melodies than one normally experiences when an opera is presented in full production with large orchestra… It had a particular force because Nabucco (1842) was the passionate expression of a young composer whose wife and two children had just died within 18 months, and he channeled his grief to produce his first masterpiece.” Feature of the Week: Tisha B’Ab Reading from “Eicha” (Lamentations)
 

“Spain naturalizes 220 Sephardim, including Jerusalem’s chief rabbi” By JTA   220 Sephardim were recently granted Spanish citizenship. Included in the group was Shlomo Amar, former chief Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel and presently the Sephardi chief rabbi of Jerusalem. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, Amar’s ancestors fled from Spain to North Africa. R’ Amar’s office claimed, however, that the Spanish government unilaterally conferred citizenship without consulting with the rabbi.

Shlomo Amar, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Israel (Photo courtesy of Alchetron)

“Spain naturalizes 220 Sephardim, including Jerusalem’s chief rabbi”
By JTA

Shlomo Amar, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Israel (Photo courtesy of Alchetron)

Shaare Shalom Synagogue, Kingston, Jamaica (Photo courtesy of The Times of Israel)

“Jews of Jamaica” By Yvette Alt Miller, Virtual Jerusalem Spain gave Jamaica to Christopher Columbus’ descendants as a gift for his service to the throne, but his grandson resisted the royal initative, the Spanish Inquisition, by allowing Spanish-Jewish conversos to settle on the island. When Spain then threatened to occupy Jamaica in response, Jamaican Jews “pledged to help England conquer the island from Spain.” By 1655, the British ruled Jamaica while Jewish pirates were making life miserable for local Spanish forces. Jamaica’s Jewish community went on to flourish to such a degree that in the 19th century the Jamaican parliament would recess for Yom Kippur.

Shaare Shalom Synagogue, Kingston, Jamaica (Photo courtesy of The Times of Israel)  “Jews of Jamaica”
By Yvette Alt Miller, Virtual Jerusalem

Spain gave Jamaica to Christopher Columbus’ descendants as a gift for his service to the throne, but his grandson resisted the royal initative, the Spanish Inquisition, by allowing Spanish-Jewish conversos to settle on the island. When Spain then threatened to occupy Jamaica in response, Jamaican Jews “pledged to help England conquer the island from Spain.” By 1655, the British ruled Jamaica while Jewish pirates were making life miserable for local Spanish forces. Jamaica’s Jewish community went on to flourish to such a degree that in the 19th century the Jamaican parliament would recess for Yom Kippur.  

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

April 7th through September 9th
Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street
New York City

The American Sephardi Federation, Portuguese Consulate of New York, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Municipality of Almeida, Portugal proudly present a new 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

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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’s Sephardi House is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, New York, 10011).

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


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