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30 JANUARY 2015
In Honor of Bruce Slovin, founder of the Center for Jewish History and a distinguished member of the American Sephardi Federation’s Board of Directors
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 Gina B. Nahai (pictured), another featured writer, will be speaking this coming Tuesday (3 February) at the Center for Jewish History about her new novel, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. Please see the invitation below for details (Photo courtesy of the author) |
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“How Iranian-Jewish Women Started a Writers’ Revolution” By Benjamin Ivry, The Jewish Daily Forward A new collection of essays, The Jews of Iran: The History, Religion and Culture of a Community in the Islamic World, edited by Houman Sharshar, explores a number of themes, including the Islamist regime’s persecution of Persian Jews. Roya Hakakian recalls how “on rainy days my father was told to stay home lest a splash off his body sully a Muslim classmate” and Dalia Sofer fictionalizes the “painful details of imprisonment” experienced by her father for allegedly being “a Zionist spy.”
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Gina B. Nahai (pictured), another featured writer, will be speaking this coming Tuesday (3 February) at the Center for Jewish History about her new novel, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. Please see the invitation below for details (Photo courtesy of the author)
By Benjamin Ivry, The Jewish Daily Forward
A new collection of essays, The Jews of Iran: The History, Religion and Culture of a Community in the Islamic World, edited by Houman Sharshar, explores a number of themes, including the Islamist regime’s persecution of Persian Jews. Roya Hakakian recalls how “on rainy days my father was told to stay home lest a splash off his body sully a Muslim classmate” and Dalia Sofer fictionalizes the “painful details of imprisonment” experienced by her father for allegedly being “a Zionist spy.”
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“The Muslim and the Lost Jews of Morocco” By Tali Farkash, Ynet Kamal Hachkar, a Muslim Amazigh (“Berber”), discovered during a visit back to his southern Moroccan village, Tinghir, that it was once home to an ancient Jewish community, all of whom immigrated to Israel. His desire to connect with these former neighbors led to multiple trips to Israel (where he studied Hebrew), and the creation of a 2012 documentary, Tinghir-Jerusalem, les échos du Mellah (Tinghir-Jerusalem, Echoes from the Mellah). Back in Israel again, Hachkar says: “When you listen to a Moroccan song sung by (Israeli vocalist) Neta Elkayam, you – like every young Moroccan – connect. We are the same, brothers and sisters.” |
 Click here to see the trailer of Kamal Hachklar’s documentary film, Tinghir-Jerusalem, les échos du Mellah. |
By Tali Farkash, Ynet
Kamal Hachkar, a Muslim Amazigh (“Berber”), discovered during a visit back to his southern Moroccan village, Tinghir, that it was once home to an ancient Jewish community, all of whom immigrated to Israel. His desire to connect with these former neighbors led to multiple trips to Israel (where he studied Hebrew), and the creation of a 2012 documentary, Tinghir-Jerusalem, les échos du Mellah (Tinghir-Jerusalem, Echoes from the Mellah). Back in Israel again, Hachkar says: “When you listen to a Moroccan song sung by (Israeli vocalist) Neta Elkayam, you – like every young Moroccan – connect. We are the same, brothers and sisters.”
Click here to see the trailer of Kamal Hachklar’s documentary film, Tinghir-Jerusalem, les échos du Mellah.
The floor of the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Great Hall at the Center for Jewish History features the the Shiv’at HaMinim (Biblical Species) gathered by Moses’ spies during their reconnaissance of the Promised Land (as depicted in Devarim/Deuteronomy 8:8). Designed by Michele Oka Doner, the terrazzo floor embedded with aluminum, bronze, and mother-of-pearl was a gift of Bruce Slovin, the Center’s Founder and a Member of ASF’s Board of Directors. (Photo courtesy of the artist)
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“Reclaiming Sephardic music, culture on road to Spanish citizenship” By Jonathan Maseng, Jewish Journal Maya and Noa Dori remember how their grandmother furiously forbade them from ever pointing at stars in the sky, telling them “horrible things would happen to their fingers if they counted the stars.” This turned out to be a valuable piece of evidence in proving Maya’s successful claim to Spanish citizenship: during the Spanish Inquisition, authorities would look for Conversos counting three stars to mark the end of Shabbat… and their own false conversions. Maya and Noa have now opened a consultancy firm,“Lisa Advisors, named after their grandmother,” to “help other Jews of Spanish descent reclaim their birthright….” |
 The execution of Mariana de Carabajal, one of ten members of her family convicted and burned at the stake for covertly observing Jewish Law, at the auto-de-fé in Mexico City, 25 March 1601 (Illustration by El Libro Rojo, 1870)
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By Jonathan Maseng, Jewish Journal
Maya and Noa Dori remember how their grandmother furiously forbade them from ever pointing at stars in the sky, telling them “horrible things would happen to their fingers if they counted the stars.” This turned out to be a valuable piece of evidence in proving Maya’s successful claim to Spanish citizenship: during the Spanish Inquisition, authorities would look for Conversos counting three stars to mark the end of Shabbat… and their own false conversions. Maya and Noa have now opened a consultancy firm,“Lisa Advisors, named after their grandmother,” to “help other Jews of Spanish descent reclaim their birthright….”
 Professor Richard Freund (Photo courtesy of Jewish Light) |
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“A Colossal Devastation: The Jews & the Colossus of Rhodes” Connecticut Jewish Ledger The University of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies will host a lecture by renowned archaeologist Professor Richard Freund, recently returned from excavations on the island of Rhodes. Once known in Ladino as “‘La Chica Yerushalaytim’” (‘the little Jerusalem’) for the vibrancy of its Jewish life, Rhodes’ Jewish history dates back to the arrival of Maccabean emissaries in the 2nd century BCE, and continued until 23 July 1944, when the Nazis’ deported “the last 1,600 Jews who were left on the island… to Auschwitz.” |
Professor Richard Freund (Photo courtesy of Jewish Light)
Connecticut Jewish Ledger
The University of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies will host a lecture by renowned archaeologist Professor Richard Freund, recently returned from excavations on the island of Rhodes. Once known in Ladino as “‘La Chica Yerushalaytim’” (‘the little Jerusalem’) for the vibrancy of its Jewish life, Rhodes’ Jewish history dates back to the arrival of Maccabean emissaries in the 2nd century BCE, and continued until 23 July 1944, when the Nazis’ deported “the last 1,600 Jews who were left on the island… to Auschwitz.”
Book Talk @ the Center for Jewish History (15W 16th Street): Join ASF, CJH and Akashic Books for an evening with award-winning author Gina B. Nahai on February 3rd at 6:30PM in the Forchheimer Auditorium. Nahai will read from and discuss her new novel, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. Part murder mystery, part family saga, this is the first novel written about the experiences of the Iranian Jewish community in the US. A light reception and book-signing will follow the program. Click here for additional information and to RSVP.
Come visit ASF’s Leon Levy Gallery at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street) to view “Echoes of Jewish Morocco: A Photographic Exhibit by Joshua Shamsi for the Diarna Geo-Museum” on display now through 20 March.
Contact us by email or phone (212-294-8350) to learn about opportunities to underwrite our newly designated office spaces and publications in honor or memory of loved ones.
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Copyright © 2014 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, NY., 10011). American Sephardi Federation | http://www.Sephardi.House | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 294-8350 |
Copyright © 2014 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, NY., 10011).
American Sephardi Federation | http://www.Sephardi.House | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 294-8350
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