(NEW YORK, NY) December 10, 2024 – The American Sephardi Federation congratulates this year’s 15 Broome & Allen Fellowship & Scholarship Recipients! Dedicated to recognizing impressive academic accomplishments, service to the community, and encouraging excellence in Sephardic Studies, ASF Broome & Allen Fellows and Scholars represent and reflect the rich diversity of the Greater Sephardi world in their family backgrounds as well as research interests.  Amongst the recipients are students from Iraqi, Moroccan, Ottoman, Persian, Spanish & Portuguese, Syrian, and, for the first times, Azerbaijani Mountain Jewish and Ethiopian Israeli ancestry. We are especially proud that this year’s Broome & Allen recipients are pursuing their studies at top global centers of learning, including Bar-Ilan University, Columbia Law School, Harvard University, Mohammed V University, Penn State University, the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and Yale University.

“The caliber and intellectual curiosity of this year’s Broome & Allen Fellows is one more sign of the vitality of the field of Sephardi Studies. We are excited to encourage these young scholars,” says David E.R. Dangoor, President of the American Sephardi Federation.

“The ASF’s tireless efforts to preserve Sephardic cultural heritage while fostering understanding between diverse communities is truly commendable. ASF’s innovative programs not only celebrate unique Sephardic traditions but also create meaningful connections and bridges that enrich humanity,” says ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Elmehdi Boudra, a doctoral candidate at Mohammed V University, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and President of Mimouna Association.

ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Daria Berman, a fourth-year Ph.D candidate at Washington University in St. Louis researching the persecution of conversos in the Spanish and Mexican Inquisition, writes: “I am inspired by the American Sephardi Federation as a top-tier research institution and archive, and its dedication to supporting scholarly contributions.”

ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Yana Naftalieva, President of the World Union of Jewish Students, says she was “very happy [to discover] that Sephardi Jews have an organization to preserve our heritage and amplify our voices…. For generations, my family has called Azerbaijan home, tracing their ancestry back to Iran. Yet, I have come to realize that the unique heritage of Mountain Jews remains largely overlooked and under-researched. I am eager to dive into this aspect of Jewish history, shedding light on our language, customs, and traditions. Preserving our heritage is not just a personal passion but a communal responsibility, one that I am committed to sharing with the broader Jewish community.”

“This fellowship presents a unique opportunity to deepen my research and access to archives…. the interdisciplinary and collaborative ethos of the fellowship aligns perfectly with my goal of producing research that not only contributes to academia but also facilitates greater understanding and collaboration between the peoples and nations involved in this new era of diplomacy,” writes ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Yassmina Asrarguis, who works in the Cabinet of UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, is an AJC-Mimouna Association Sachs Fellow, and a 2nd year doctoral student at the Sorbonne Nouvelle under the supervision of professors Bernard Rougier (La Sorbonne) and Bernard Haykel (Princeton University).

Asrarguis, “a scholar dedicated to understanding the multifaceted dimensions of the Abraham Accords,” is also lead author on the Paris-based Open Diplomacy Institute’s report, “L’IMPENSÉ DES ACCORDS D’ABRAHAM.”

Other Broome & Allen Fellows are pursuing independent scholarly projects, as well as studying law and medicine. Courtney Hakimian, a member of the Mashadi community, is becoming a dentist; Aviv Assayag, whose family is Moroccan, is at Harvard Law; Jaime Samuel Israel, born in Spain to a Nothern Moroccan family, recently completed his LLM at Columbia Law School; Susannah Jacob, a descendant of Ladino-speaking Balkan Sephardim, is a former US presidential speechwriter and currently pursuing a doctorate in history at Yale University; and Michael Abolafia, the valedictorian of his class at Columbia College and a widely published writer, is currently researching Louis Abolafia, the revolutionary Sephardic artist, social reformer, and candidate for the 1968 United States presidency.

This year’s only scholarship recipient, Lenoy Balay, a first-generation college student at Penn State University, writes: “Although I attended a predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish [high] school, my parents still taught me about Ethiopian Jewish (Beta Israel) customs. They always ensured that I knew about their families’ difficulties faced while immigrating to Israel from Ethiopia. This only made me stronger and prouder to be a Jew.”

The Broome & Allen Fund was founded over 70 years ago by a group of Sephardic businessmen determined to provide a vacation for hundreds of children who otherwise would not be able to escape the hot and humid summers of New York City. As the need for this service waned, the Fund began to offer scholarships. Since the year 2004, over one hundred grants have been awarded

Murray Farash, the last of the original Broome & Allen Fund Board Members and a Distinguished ASF Board Member who chairs the Broome & Allen Endowment Committee, says: “These exceptional students are doing great work and will carry on our proud legacy of supporting scholarship and service to the Greater Sephardic community.”

The ASF’s Executive Director, Jason Guberman, says: “The remarkable scholarly accomplishments and recognition of Broome & Allen Fellows and Scholars testifies to the importance of nurturing the next generation of leadership in the academy, the Jewish community, and public life.”

Distinguished Broome & Allen Fellows include: Dr. Moisés Hassan Bendahan, Dr. Mijal Bitton, Rabbi Isaac Choua, Dr. Vanessa Paloma Duncan Elbaz, Dr. Benjamin Berman-Gladstone, Dr. Murray Mizrahi, Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer, Richard Sassoon, Dr. Leonard Stein, and Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas. 

Notable Broome & Allen Scholars include: Issac de Castro, Julia Jassey, Ethan Marcus, Adela Cojab Moadeb, and Isabella Rose Soffer.

Broome & Allen recipients will be able to utilize the ASF’s Sephardi Scholars Center at the Center for Jewish History as a hub for research and place for them to conduct seminars, classes, lectures, and discussions. Fellows are also eligible for additional research, conference, teaching, and publication grants, as well as to have their work featured in the ASF’s Sephardi World Weekly, Sephardi Ideas Monthly, and The Sephardi Report

ASF Broome & Allen Fellows

Michael Abolafia

Michael Abolafia is a writer, researcher, and historian. His scholarship is focused on American countercultures and their literary, political, and policy effects. He is working on a biography of Louis Abolafia, the revolutionary Sephardic artist, social reformer, and candidate for the 1968 United States presidency. That interdisciplinary project draws on largely unexamined archival materials to explore the role of the kabbalah and Jewish mysticism in the formation of underground political and artistic networks from the 1940s until the present. He received his BA in English from Columbia College, where he was the Class of 2017 valedictorian. Michael has been pursuing graduate studies with the support of the Leon Levy Fellowship. He is a board member of the Bergen County Historic Preservation Advisory Board. His scholarship can be read in the Times Literary Supplement. Abolafia’s writing can also be found in BBC History, NY Daily News, Dead Reckonings, and Publishers Weekly.

Yasmina Asrarguis

Yasmina Asrarguis is a researcher at Sorbonne-Nouvelle University and a graduate of Sciences Po Paris where she undertook her Masters in International Security. She formerly served in the United Nations and the Diplomatic Unit of President Macron and as a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, where she was awarded the Peter Throughton Prize in 2018 for her study on the root causes of ISIS recruitments in France.

Aviv Assayag

Aviv Assayag, a Moroccan Sephardic Jew, is a second-year law student at Harvard Law School. He graduated summa cum laude with College Honors from UCLA in 2022. A Los Angeles native and long-time “law nerd,” Aviv has several years of legal research, work, and extracurricular experience.

Dana Avrish

Dana Avrish, researcher and lecturer, pursuing a PhD at Bar-Ilan University, is a  third generation Jew of Lebanese, Syria, and Iranian heritage. Her research focuses on the history of Jewish communities living in Islamic countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Created. She curated the exhibition “Leaving, never to return!” – a tribute to the Jews of Arab countries and Iran, at the Eretz Israel Museum in 2019. The exhibition included 110 objects from 11 different Jewish communities in Islamic countries; Bags for Torah scrolls, inscriptions, paper cutouts, costumes, musical instruments, jewelry, medals, letters, photos, documents and more. Through each of them she told the story of Jewish life and the uniqueness of each community from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya , Egypt, Aden and Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. She also wrote the book Anti-Judaism, Anti-Zionism and the Question of Restitution of Jewish Property from Islamic Countries, which was nominated for the Prime Minister’s Award, on behalf of the Dahan Center, Bar-Ilan University. Avrish’s research focus is the synagogues in Morocco.

Daria Berman

Daria Berman is a fourth year PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis. She is a social and cultural historian of early modern Spain and Mexico. Her research centers on the persecution of conversos in the Spanish and Mexican Inquisition in the context of tensions between colonies and the metropole. She did her undergraduate studies in English and History (honors) at New York University and was awarded at Master’s in History (MAPSS) from the University of Chicago for her thesis “Of Kings and Usurpers: The Anti-Jewish Riots in the First Castilian Civil War.”

Elmehdi Boudra

El Mehdi Boudra has a special interest in minorities’ rights and cross-cultural communication dialogue. In 2007, he founded Association Mimouna, a Moroccan nongovernmental organization that aims to advance Muslim-Jewish dialogue, and has since held the position of its president. In 2011, Boudra organized the first Holocaust Conference in the Arab world, and in 2012, he brought the first Arab student seminar to Israel. In 2018, Boudra was among the Algemeiner Journal’s ‘J100’ list of the top one hundred individuals who have positively influenced Jewish life. From 2015 to 2021, he joined a renowned Moroccan think tank for which he serves as the head of its international relations program. In 2022 he became a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East programs. Boudra is associated with and serves on the boards of many civic and educational organizations in Morocco and the United States, such as the American Sephardi Federation and the Jewish Africa Conference. At the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs at Yeshiva University, Boudra is a visiting research scholar. He is also a member of the Moroccan Jewish communities in the Americas research unit under the Moroccan Jewish Studies Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Boudra speaks Arabic, French, Spanish, and English. He has a BA in international studies from Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, an MA from the Brandeis University program in peace, conflict, and coexistence studies, and is currently a PhD candidate at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco.

Courtney Hakimian

Courtney Hakimian is currently in her third year at the Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine. As the Treasurer of the Stony Brook Medical and Dental Jewish Student Organization, she leads Jewish student engagement by organizing events and planning Torah study groups. Additionally, she serves as a TA for the Center of Implant and Digital Technology. With a deep passion for enhancing oral public health and restoring confidence in people’s smiles, Courtney is committed to making a positive impact through her dental career.

Courtney is of Persian Jewish heritage, with immigrant parents who fled Iran due to religious persecution during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and found a life of freedom and opportunity in the United States. She is a proud member and congregant of the United Mashadi Jewish Community of America and the Sephardi Jewish Community at large. 

In her free time, Courtney enjoys practicing yoga, cooking, and spending quality time with family and friends.

Through her fellowship with the American Sephardi Foundation, Courtney aspires to explore more about her Persian Jewish culture as well as serve as a leader amongst the Sephardi Jewish American youth.

Wiam Hammouchene

Wiam Hammouchene holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. Upon graduation, Wiam worked as a Partnerships and Development Officer at the Policy Center for the New South, a think tank in Rabat, Morocco. Wiam was the president of the Mimouna Club at Al Akhawayn University, a cultural club dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Moroccan Jewish heritage through various events, conferences, and trips, and is now an active member of the Mimouna Association in Rabat. Currently, Wiam is pursuing a Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution and Coexistence at Brandeis University. Wiam’s research focuses on Moroccan Jewish history, specifically the immigration patterns of Moroccan Jews from Morocco to Israel and the preservation of their heritage.

Jaime Samuel Israel

Jaime Samuel Israel is an Israeli-trained lawyer specializing in corporate and securities litigation. He was born in Madrid to a Sephardic family from Tetuán, Morocco, and prides himself on speaking five languages fluently: Spanish, English, Hebrew, Portuguese, and French. Jaime recently graduated from the LL.M. program at Columbia Law School.

Jaime’s professional journey is complemented by distinguished military service as a tank commander in the Israel Defense Forces, where leadership and strategic thinking were paramount.

Passionate about preserving the Broome & Allen Legacy, Jaime seeks to contribute to the Sephardi Scholars Center at The Center for Jewish History. With a keen interest in the rich Sephardic culture, this endeavor aligns with Jaime’s commitment to his Sephardic heritage.

Susannah Jacob

Susannah Jacob, the descendant of Ladino-speaking Turkish and Bulgarian Sephardim,  is a PhD candidate in the History Department at Yale. Her dissertation concerns the history of the Democratic Party’s relationship with Silicon Valley. She previously worked as a speechwriter to President Barack Obama, from 2014 to 2017. Her journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, among other publications. She was born and raised in Texas and is a graduate from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sarah Leiter

Sarah Leiter is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. Her dissertation research explores identity and language use among New Mexicans who are discovering their previously unknown Sephardic ancestry. Between 2018 and 2022 Sarah was a member of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico’s Sephardic programming team, where she helped Sephardic-descended individuals apply for citizenship in Spain and Portugal. Currently, in addition to writing her dissertation, she teaches cultural anthropology at the University of New Mexico

Yana Naftalieva

Yana Naftalieva, a Mountain Jew born in and raised in Moscow, is the President of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), the democratic organization representing over 800,000 students across the globe. Yana is committed to empowering the next generation of Jewish leaders and fostering Jewish student activism. Prior to her current position, Yana founded and led a Jewish student club in HSE University in Moscow, which soon after won the award of “the most trending organisation on campus”. In 2021 she was elected as Vice President of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS). After making aliyah, she pursued a master’s degree at Reichman University and continues her research and activism on behalf of the Jewish people.

Ian Pommerantz

Ian Pommerantz is a second-year doctoral candidate at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in Paris, France (INALCO), studying under Professor Dr. Alexandar Prstojevic and Dr. Zeljko Jovanovic at the Center for the Study and Research of Global Literatures and Oralities (CERLOM). His dissertation, “La musique ou l’harmonie fondatrice de l’identité sépharade ibérique, de 1992 à nos jours” (“Music or the Foundational Harmony of Sephardic Iberian Identity from 1992 to the Present”), intersects Musicology, Iberian Studies, and Sephardic Studies. A member of the Central Council of the Sephardic Brotherhood of America, he is active in Sephardic communal life, speaks advanced Djidio, the Judeo-Spanish language of his  grandmother’s childhood, and as a professional musician has two decades of experience in Jewish music, including the critical release Art Songs of the Jewish Diaspora, a years-long, critically-acclaimed collaboration with the estates of 19th-and 20th-century Jewish composers of classical vocal music whose works that were previously unrecorded, including the Sephardic composers Léon Algazi and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Nathalie Ross

Nathalie Ross is a doctoral candidate at the University of North Texas (UNT) focusing on Jewish and Food History.  Her dissertation is a historical narrative of Anglo-Judeo Sephardic cookbooks in America examining the intersection of memory, identity, food, and nationhood.  Nathalie is a past fellow of the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and Culinary Arts and the current recipient of the Excellence in History Award at UNT.  Her previous work has focused on women and the Greek Holocaust and has appeared in the peer-reviewed scholarly journal Prism.  Her work on female archetypes, food, and antisemitism will appear in the forthcoming edited collection Small Screen Food:  American Identity Through a Culinary Televisual Lens edited by Urszula Niewiadomska-Flis and Carrie Helms Tippen.  In addition, her writing has appeared in www.exploringjudaism.com, as well as the cookbook Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves.  

Nathalie is a passionate cookbook collector and has an extensive archive of Jewish community cookbooks, especially Sephardic texts.  She enjoys visiting used book stores on her travels, as well as recreating vintage recipes.  She teaches U.S. Food History courses at UNT and especially loves teaching Jewish food and cooking classes to high school students at her local synagogue.

ASF Broome & Allen Schoalrs

Lenoy Balay

Lenoy Balay is a first-generation college student at Penn State University. Born in Israel to Ethiopian Jewish refugees, she grew-up in Maryland. At Bethesda’s Walter Johnson High School, she was a member of the Jewish Student Union, Black Student Union, Israel Student Association, and a variety of other organizations.

Email us at info@americansephardi.org if you are interested in discussing donating securities or planned giving options with a financial professional from AllianceBernstein.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Alumni are encouraged to update the ASF about their accomplishments.