The American Sephardi Federation’s Sephardi Ideas Monthly for October 2021 is dedicated in honor of Wynton Marsalis, world-renowned trumpeter, composer, teacher, and Artistic Director of Jazz At Lincoln Center, for receiving the Combat Antisemitism Movement, Jazz Leadership Project, and American Sephardi Federation’s inaugural Albert Murray Award for Omni-American Excellence
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The ASF’s Sephardi Ideas Monthly is a continuing series of essays and interviews from the rich, multi-dimensional world of Sephardi thought and culture that is delivered to your inbox every month.
This month’s issue of Sephardi Ideas Monthly features a video recording from the first day of, “Combating Racism and Antisemitism Together: Shaping an Omni-American Future,” a trailblazing event organized by the the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), Jazz Leadership Project (JLP), and American Sephardi Federation (ASF).
The term “Omni-American” is taken from the writings of the American writer, critic, and philosopher of the blues and jazz, Albert Murray (1916-2013). Murray’s work combines an invigorating interpretation of music, literature and American identity with a celebration of excellence in the arts and civic life, and during the two-day event, a remarkable array of Jewish and Black American writers, scholars, activists and artists came together to explore, comment upon, musically perform, and interpret Murray’s writings as part of the “Blues Idiom Wisdom Tradition,” a term coined by the JLP’s co-founder and CEO, Greg Thomas.
The gathering was one of the most substantive Black-Jewish collaborations since the heady days of the Civil Rights Movement. The ASF’s Chief Editor and Director of Publications, Dr. Aryeh Tepper, noted that the “Blues Idiom Wisdom Tradition” is the cultural complement to the political progress of the Civil Rights Movement, a perspective on the arts and life that looks beyond skin color and simplistic reductions in order to focus on human excellence.
As for the Jewish dimension, Tepper noted during the second evening (to be featured next month) how Hakham R’Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, the first Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, celebrated, “the exceedingly strong receptive power of the nation of Israel.” This is the receptive power that, throughout Jewish history, has absorbed different forms of human vitality and excellence from around the globe by following Maimonides’ directive to “hear the truth from whoever says it.” The Jewish tradition has developed in line with this principle and in accordance with the teaching of the sages that: “if one will tell you that there is wisdom among the nations – believe it (Eichah Rabbah 2:13).” And that’s what the event celebrated, the Omni-American vision at the heart of the “Blues Idiom Wisdom Tradition.”
The event’s opening evening included presentations by Thomas and Tepper, readings by Chloe Valdary, Dr. Sheena Mason and Prof. Farrah Jasmine Griffin, Prof. Bob O’Meally’s personal remembrance of Albert Murray, an interview with 2022 NEA Jazz Master Donald Harrison, three songs performed by the Itamar Borochov quartet—Borochov was the 2021 recipient of the prestigious “LetterOne Rising Stars Jazz Award” as well as the 2018 recipient of the ASF’s “Pomegranate Award for Musical Conservation, Creativity and Coexistence”—and the highlight, the giving of the first-annual “Albert Murray Award for Omni-American Excellence” to Murray’s protégé, Wynton Marsalis. In accepting the award (at 1:18:52), Marsalis offered: “We are many, let us also be one, unified in our embrace of humanism and cultural excellence and democracy….”
Sephardi Ideas Monthly is pleased and proud to share the video of the remarkable opening evening from what was truly a beautiful and extraordinary cultural event, “Combating Racism and Antisemitism Together: Shaping an Omni-American Future.”
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The American Sephardi Federation invites all individuals, communities, and organizations who share our vision & principles to join us in signing the American Sephardi Leadership Statement!
Please also support the ASF with a generous, tax-deductible contribution so we can continue to cultivate and advocate, preserve and promote, as well as educate and empower!
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The Monthly Sage החכם החודשי
Born in Modena, Italy, circa 1778, Hakham David was already past seventy when he was appointed to lead the Modena community in 1849.
A scholar, Hakham David thoroughly studied the laws of circumcision while also examining the ritual’s medical aspects. He then wrote several halakhic works on the topic that were based on the cutting-edge anatomical and medical knowledge of his time.
As an educator, Hakham David fought against assimilation and aimed to reconcile the science and culture of his day with the Jewish tradition.
Hakham David Zakut passed away in 1865 and was buried in Modena. He authored two books: Zecher David, a collection of sermons on the Torah, and Limudei Hashem, a book on ethics.
The following passage from Zecher David emphasizes the importance of a pleasant manner when engaging in business transactions and speaking with others:
“As it was taught: ‘And you shall love the Lord your God’ which means that you shall make the name of Heaven beloved. One should do so by reading Torah, and learning Mishna, and serving Torah scholars; one should be pleasant with people in conversation and in business transactions. What do people say about such a person? “How fortunate is the one who learned Torah”… It says “one should be pleasant with people” in business transactions and in conversation, which means that being pleasant with people brings about that the name of Heaven is pleased…However, the name of Heaven is not pleased with those people of unpleasant speech etc., despite their reading and learning….”
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A Pizmonim: Sephardic-Hebrew Songs of the Middle East, Volume 1
By David Elihu Cohen
Pizmonim, a unity of poetry and song, have been an integral part of the Jewish People and may be traced in the Bible to the very beginning of our history.
The twelve selected Pizmonim contained in this booklet serve to perpetuate the Greater Sephardic culture and tradition of singing praise to the Lord on all joyous occasions.
Mystic Siren: Woman’s Voice in the Balance of Creation
By Dr. Vanessa Paloma Duncan-Elbaz (ASF Broome & Allen Fellow)
Mystic Siren is about women’s spirituality, Jewish mysticism, and Sephardic musical and cultural traditions. Beautifully illustrated by Gloria Abella Ballen, an award-winning artist recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, Mystic Siren is a unique artistic and scholarly collaboration between a talented mother and daughter team.
“This little book is an unusual mix of fable and spiritual wisdom that will elevate and enrich the reader, even the parent who is reading to the child.” ~David Suissa
“Vanessa Paloma… is a passionate scholar and performer of songs from the Sephardic Diaspora from North Africa to Turkey…” ~National Public Radio
“Paloma…brings this richness of heritage to her work as an author, performer, teacher and preserver of Ladino songs and music.” ~Here & There, Hadassah Magazine
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
At the Crossroads:
Provençal Jewish Culture in the Middle Ages
Monday, 1 November
@ 9AM PDT ◊ 12PM EDT ◊ 5PM London ◊ 7PM Jerusalem ◊ 8PM Dubai
Sign-up Now!
The medieval Jewish community of Provence sat at the crossroads of Ashkenaz and Sefarad, a meeting place of diverse ideas and a center of innovative thought. Provençal Jews were renowned for their masterpieces of Talmudic learning as well as groundbreaking works of philosophy and science. It was in Provence that the treasures of Judeo-Arabic learning were translated into Hebrew, from which they were handed down to us today. This distinct blend of traditional and worldly knowledge characterized Provence. Its denizens saw themselves as belonging to a unique regional culture and proudly recorded its customs in books of minhagim and its version of the liturgy. With the French expulsions of the fourteenth century, Provençal Jewish culture was dispersed, but it did not come to a halt. Everywhere that members of this community went, they carried with them their distinctive approach to Jewish life, and their influence is felt into modernity.
About the speaker:
Dr. Tamar Marvin is a scholar of medieval Jewish intellectual history and a semikha student at Yeshivat Mahrat. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a B.A. in Literature and Journalism from New York University. Dr. Marvin has taught and developed curricula in a variety of academic and Jewish settings, including American Jewish University and Hebrew Union College-JIR, Los Angeles. She has published her work in academic journals as well as writing for broader media. Dr. Marvin’s research centers on questions of how medieval Jews reacted to and creatively adapted new forms of meaning-making in the world they encountered around them, including both philosophical reflection and Kabbalistic speculation.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
No hay boda sin tanyedera:
Ladino Music Salon
Thursday, 4 November at 10:30AM EST
Sign-up Now!
Are there “right” instruments to accompany Sephardic songs? People often remark on the instruments in the background of Judith’s online lectures and concerts. Here, Judith will use the online format to invite you to this background, her living-room, and all the stringed, wind and hand percussion instruments in it. Rather than background, the instruments, most of them hand-crafted, will be protagonists. Each one has songs and stories associated with it, and your questions and comments will help shape the order in which they’re presented.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Judith Cohen is a Canadian ethnomusicologist, medievalist, singer and storyteller specialized in Sephardic music, music among the Portuguese Crypto-Jews, and related traditions. Her presentations are based on both academic research and many years of fieldwork in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, the Balkans, Turkey, French Canada and wherever else her work and curiosity take her. She teaches part-time at York University in Toronto and is the consultant for the Alan Lomax Spain 1952 recordings.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Museum Mondays:
The Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem
Tour the Museums from the comfort of your own home with Nachliel Selavan, the Museum Guy.
On Mondays
8 November
A Hanukah Tour Through Ancient Greece – Greek Exhibits in Museums Around the World
Sign-up Now!
10 January
Tour the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda
Sign-up Now!
(Registration required for each session)
@ 9AM PDT ◊ 12PM EDT ◊ 5PM London ◊ 7PM Jerusalem ◊ 8PM Dubai
About Your Tour Guide:
Nachliel Selavan created and delivered an integrated learning and museum tour program for both school and adult educational settings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has hosted similar pilot visits to a dozen museums in North America, and a few museums in Europe and in Jerusalem. He also teaches and engages audiences through virtual tours and social media. He has recently completed a year long Tanach Study podcast called Parasha Study Plus, delivering a weekly episode of Archaeology on the Parasha, and is now on his second podcast and a new video series reviewing every book in Tanach, called Archaeology Snapshot.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org