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“Can bridal fashionista Berta Balilti turn Israel into the dress-up nation?” By Karen McDonough, JNS.org Berta Balilti was born in Cairo and emigrated to Israel at the age of three, just before the Six-Day War. Today, Balilti fashions, “luxurious and glamorous wedding gowns sold worldwide.” Enjoying more than 1.5 million (!) social media followers, Balilti’s immigrant experience has kept her grounded and taught her the value of gratitude: “My family’s history [in Egypt] wasn’t very positive at the end. But I grew up in a family that always cherished the positive things they had there. I am obviously a proud Israeli, and do not take anything we have here for granted.”
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 A Berta Balitli wedding gown (Photo courtesy of Berta Bridal) |
By Karen McDonough, JNS.org
A Berta Balitli wedding gown (Photo courtesy of Berta Bridal)
 Azerbaijani Women (Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman) |
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“The Curious Case of Azerbaijan and Its Jew-Loving Muslims” By Justin Amler, Forward 30,000 Jews live in the predominantly Shi’ite state of Azerbaijan, which borders Iran to the North. There is almost no anti-Semitism in the country, and relations with Israel are close. These realities demonstrate how “the conflict between Israel and its neighbors cannot simply be termed a conflict between Jews and Muslims writ large. Rather, it’s a conflict between fanatical and intolerant extremists exploiting religion, on the one hand, and the rest of the world, on the other.” |
Azerbaijani Women (Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
By Justin Amler, Forward
30,000 Jews live in the predominantly Shi’ite state of Azerbaijan, which borders Iran to the North. There is almost no anti-Semitism in the country, and relations with Israel are close. These realities demonstrate how “the conflict between Israel and its neighbors cannot simply be termed a conflict between Jews and Muslims writ large. Rather, it’s a conflict between fanatical and intolerant extremists exploiting religion, on the one hand, and the rest of the world, on the other.”
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“Portuguese Jews: Inventors of Fish & Chips!” By Abby Sher, Jewniverse Fish and chips? A Converso story. “Jewish refugees had to act like Christians, at least outwardly, so they fried fish on Fridays. Then, behind closed doors, they ate it cold on Shabbos.” French Fries soon followed in Belgium, and then, in the middle of the 19th century, “a Jewish man named Joseph Malin… opened the doors to the first fish and chip shop on Cleveland Street in London.”
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 The Great British Meal: Fish & Chips?(Photo courtesy of Jewniverse) |
By Abby Sher, Jewniverse
The Great British Meal: Fish & Chips?(Photo courtesy of Jewniverse)
“‘Blue like Me’: An Indian-Jewish Artist’s Boundless Imagination” and “Baghdadis & The Bene Israel in Bollywood & Beyond”
3 November at 7 PM
at the Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY
Having grown up in the enigmatic community of the Bene Israel in Mumbai, India, Siona Benjamin’s art synthesizes her Jewish roots with the Hindu, Catholic, Muslim, and Zoroastrian iconography of her homeland. ASF and the Indian Consulate at New York are proud to present Blue Like Me, a new documentary on Siona’s life and work.
The evening will also feature Kenneth X. Robbins, author of a multi-volume history on the Jews of India, for the inauguration of “Baghdadis & The Bene Israel in Bollywood & Beyond,” a new exhibition in ASF’s Leon Levy Gallery. At a time, when custom and tradition kept many Indian women from performing in movies, liberated Jewish actresses and Jewish scriptwriters built the now world-renowned Bollywood brand.
Contact us by email or phone (212-548-4486) to sponsor future issues of the Sephardi World Weekly in honor or memory of loved ones.
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Copyright © 2015 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). American Sephardi Federation | http://www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 548-4486 |
Copyright © 2015 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).
American Sephardi Federation | http://www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 548-4486
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