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26 July 2020
In Memory of Rabbi Dr. Ezekiel Nissim Musleah, A”H, a Baghdadi-Indian Jew who served his home community of Calcutta (Kolkata) for twelve years, after being ordained at New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1964, he moved with his family to Philadelphia and was Rabbi of Congregation Mikveh Israel (Philadelphia’s Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue) until 1979. He also served as Chairman of Philadelphia’s Conservative Beth Din until 2015. Rabbi Dr. Musleah’s publications, beginning with his doctoral thesis, On the Banks of The Ganga: The Sojourn of Jews in Calcutta, focus on his heritage and family history. His other publications include: Kol Zimra (Hebrew-English Liturgical Songs); Kirú Aharai (Guide for Mourners); No Shortcuts to Far Horizons (autobiography); and Bits and Pieces (a memoir). A Torah reader par excellence, Rabbi Dr. Musleah knew four tropes and was renowned for his meticulous pronunciation. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; three daughters (including Rahel, a journalist, singer, educator, and leader of Jewish heritage tours to India, familiar to Sephardi World Weekly readers), eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one.
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In Memory of Rabbi Dr. Ezekiel Nissim Musleah, A”H, a Baghdadi-Indian Jew who served his home community of Calcutta (Kolkata) for twelve years, after being ordained at New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1964, he moved with his family to Philadelphia and was Rabbi of Congregation Mikveh Israel (Philadelphia’s Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue) until 1979. He also served as Chairman of Philadelphia’s Conservative Beth Din until 2015. Rabbi Dr. Musleah’s publications, beginning with his doctoral thesis, On the Banks of The Ganga: The Sojourn of Jews in Calcutta, focus on his heritage and family history. His other publications include: Kol Zimra (Hebrew-English Liturgical Songs); Kirú Aharai (Guide for Mourners); No Shortcuts to Far Horizons (autobiography); and Bits and Pieces (a memoir). A Torah reader par excellence, Rabbi Dr. Musleah knew four tropes and was renowned for his meticulous pronunciation. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; three daughters (including Rahel, a journalist, singer, educator, and leader of Jewish heritage tours to India, familiar to Sephardi World Weekly readers), eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
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The 11th Annual Axelrod Israel Jewish Film Festival
Featuring 10 North American and regional premieres of award-winning films Stream on All Devices, Including Your SmartTV Sunday, 19 July – Thursday, 13 August |
Featuring 10 North American and regional premieres of award-winning films
Stream on All Devices, Including Your SmartTV
Sunday, 19 July – Thursday, 13 August
Sign-up now!
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“Rich Sephardi legacy of Murcia brought to light after agreement signed” By The Jerusalem Post The Spanish Autonomous Region of Murcia and the Hispanic Jewish Foundation recently signed an
agreement that aims to strengthen the connection between the region and its Sephardi past. An investment in tourism? A reflection of the strength of world Jewry? An expression of Philo-Semitism? According to the Region’s President, Fernando López Miras, “‘This agreement is… an invitation to dialogue, to work together, to learn from our history to know that nothing should divide us in the face of adversity.’” |
 Sinagoga de la Fortaleza del Sol (a reconstruction of 15th century synagogue), 7th Floor, Parador de Lorca Hotel, Lorca, Murcia, Spain
(Photo courtesy of Comunidad Israelita de Alicante) |
By The Jerusalem Post
agreement that aims to strengthen the connection between the region and its Sephardi past. An investment in tourism? A reflection of the strength of world Jewry? An expression of Philo-Semitism? According to the Region’s President, Fernando López Miras, “‘This agreement is… an invitation to dialogue, to work together, to learn from our history to know that nothing should divide us in the face of adversity.’”
(Photo courtesy of Comunidad Israelita de Alicante)
by Haaretz
 Cover of Yasmin Levy’s Album Libertad
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“Yasmin Levy teams up with iconic Greek singer Haris Alexiou”
By Barry Davis, The Jerusalem Post
Yasmin Levy, the world-famous Israel-based Ladino singer with the “sultry rich” voice that packs |
Yasmin Levy, the world-famous Israel-based Ladino singer with the “sultry rich” voice that packs
“an emotive powder keg,” just released her first album in eight years, including a collaboration with
Greek legend, Haris Alexiou. Why the wait? “‘A wonderful record producer I know said to me ‘Yasmin,
an album is not a collection of pretty songs.’ All my life that’s what I thought, so I asked him what an
album really is, and he told me, ‘An album is what you want to say now.’ That changed my life.’”
(Book & Cassettes, exclusively available at the ASF’s Sephardi Shop)
By By Dina Sabbah
Dina Sabbah, who holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Montreal, was born in Morocco, and studied in Tel-Aviv and Paris. A teacher of Jewish studies and music, Dr. Sabbah founded “Zimryia”, a gathering of all the choirs of Jewish schools of Montreal, and conducted “Kinor,” The Centre Communautaire Juif Choir.
Publication of this collection of Sephardic Jewish songs was sponsored by the Communauté Sépharade du Québec to encourage the perpetuation of the Sephardic legacy amongst the Greater Montreal community.
By Professor Aviva Ben-Ur
A complete, descriptive bibliography of library of the late Louis N. Levy, which includes one of the most important Ladino collections in the world. Amassed over the course of more than three decades, this library contains more than 150 publications in Judeo-Spanish and upwards of 150 rare books in Hebrew, Spanish, Yiddish, Portuguese, Italian, French and other languages.
A tribute from his grandchildren, Rena Marcy Levy, Jeremy Eliahu Levy, and Louis Agnew Levy. The Louis N. Levy Rare Book Collection is part of the ASF’s National Sephardic Library & Archives.
Yad Hazaka presents:
Facing and Fighting Prejudice
How Encountering Anti-Semitism Shaped our Approaches to Racism
Tuesday, 28 July
8:15PM EDT
Join with a Zoom ID: 987 9796 3580
Zoom Panel Discussion
(No registration required)
Featured speakers:
Rena Nasar First, StandWithUs, Executive Director, Campus Affairs
Hindy Poupko, UJA, Deputy Chief, Planning Officer
Jason Guberman, American Sephardi Federation, Executive Director
Rabbi Dr. Richard Hidary, Yeshiva University, Professor
Congregation Shearith Israel and the
American Sephardi Federation present:
Tisha B’Ab Services
Live-stream from the Shearith Israel (The Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue of New York)
Wednesday, 29 July
8:30PM EDT
Fast of Ab services, followed by a special lecture by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Sign-up Now!
(Complimentary YouTube Live)
Thursday, 30 July
10:00AM EDT
The morning service of Tisha b’Ab in the Western Sephardic tradition (kinot)
Sign-up Now!
(Complimentary RSVP)
The morning service of Tisha b’Ab in the Western Sephardic tradition includes more than 25 different elegies (kinot). These are sung to an amazing variety of beautiful and moving melodies. The kinot will be performed live via Zoom by both hazzanim and laymen from Shearith Israel, and special guest hazzanim from London and Israel. The service is expected to last about 1.5 hours. Join us for this rare opportunity to hear the kinot sung according to their traditional melodies. This service is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Richard Schulz, עליו השלום, whose expert reading of these kinot will be sorely missed.
The Fast of Ab services as conducted at Shearith Israel (The Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue of New York) are uniquely dramatic and moving. The service is conducted in a darkened sanctuary. The traditional Western Sephardic melodies chanted for the Book of Lamentations and for the Kinot (elegies) are incredibly beautiful and emotionally moving. In most years large crowds fill the room for an experience that is unlike any other. This year, with the help of the American Sephardi Federation, Shearith Israel’s Fast of Ab services, together with a special lecture by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, will be presented via live-stream from the sanctuary. Although there will not be large crowds of people inside the synagogue this year, we hope you will be able to experience a small degree of the unique beauty and drama of this special service.
Bendigamos and the
ASF Institute of Jewish Experience present:
Western (Spanish & Portuguese) Sephardi Tisha B’Av Kinot & Readings
Live-stream from Israel, Netherlands, and United Kingdom
Thursday, 30 July
4AM NY | 9AM London | 10AM Amsterdam | 11AM Jerusalem
Sign-up Now!
(Complimentary)
In the tradition of the Global Nação’s Azharot, Bendigamos and the ASF Institute of Jewish Experience present:
Chazan Eliot Alderman (London)
Rabbi Jonathan Cohen (Netivot)
Rabbi Shalom Morris (London)
Chazan Dr. Peter Nahon (Bordeaux/Paris)
Rabbi Natan Peres (Jerusalem)
Chazan Nachshon Rodrigues Pereira (Amsterdam)
Elad Zigler (Jerusalem)
Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and the
American Sephardi Federation present:
Children of the Inquisition
Film and Discussion
Thursday, 30 July at 2PM EDT
Children of the Inquisition follows a diverse group of descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions as they unravel their complex and often hidden Jewish identity. Each is on a personal quest to discover and explore his or her distant Sephardic roots.
Panelists include Joe Lovett, Doreen Carvahal, Professor David Gitlitz, ASF Executive Director Jason Guberman, Keith Stokes, and Carlos deMeideros.
The Axelrod Performing Arts Center and CHAI FLICKS present:
The 11th Annual Axelrod Israel Jewish Film Festival
Featuring 10 North American and regional premieres of award-winning films!
Sunday, 19 July – Thursday, 13 August
Stream on All Devices, Including Your SmartTV
The Axelrod Israel Jewish Online Film Festival Includes:
10 Award-Winning Films
(Ticketholders will be emailed information on each film,
as well as how and when to view it)
Zoom Talk-Backs
Under the Stars Movie Event
(Planned Pending Approvals)
30 Days CHAI FLICKS Streaming on all devices
Check back soon for the APAC Israel Jewish Film Festival’s collaboration with the ASF’s New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Crypto Experience
The Global History of Secret Jews
An online course presented in 10 minute episodes.
Learn at your own pace.
Please sign-up now!
Total cost of the course is $75.00
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is proud to present “The Crypto Experience,” an online course on Crypto-Jews. It is part of a series of online courses on a variety of topics that make up the robust Jewish experience.
For hundreds of years there have been descendants of Crpto-Jews, who have covertly kept some of their traditions while maintaining a very different public persona. It is a question of identity, be it Huegenot, Catholic, Sephardi, or Mashadi. Professing one faith on the outside and another on the inside speaks to our quest for defining identity today.
These questions of identity that we think are so new and so relevant are really rather old questions under different circumstances. In this course Dr. Hilda Nissimi (Bar Ilan University) presents an overview of crypto societies historically and in the context of today. She challenges the participants to ask themselves difficult questions like: What defines identity? If I project this outer self, how do I keep my real me? Who is the real me? Am I the me before the expression of an outer facade? Is it a new me?
The course discusses these questions as they pertain to Jews, specifically. What does it mean to be a Jew? What do I have to keep if I want to call myself a Jew? Am I allowed to change? Am I the person to decide? Who will decide? How can anyone decide under such circumstances?
In order to understand this in historic and cultural contexts, world-renowned scholars and experts in the field have joined Dr. Nissimi and will be presenting the challenges facing a range of crypto societies:
Huegenots – Dr. Hilda Nissimi
Spanish-Portuguese Crypto Society – Dr. Ronnie Perelis (Yeshiva University)
Bildi’in of Morocco – Professor Paul Fenton (Sorbonne Université, Paris)
Mashhadi Jews of Iran – Dr. Hilda Nissimi
Tracing Jewish Roots – Genie and Michael Milgrom
Growing Up Mashhadi– Reuben Ebrahimoff
For more information and other ASF IJE online course offerings visit: https://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Greek Experience
Explore the world of Greek Jewry from the ancient Romaniote to the Sephardim and others who made it to and through Greece.
An online course presented in 10 minute episodes.
Learn at your own pace.
Please sign-up now!
Total cost of the course is $75.00
Jews have been in Greece since before the Temple was destroyed. They were in Greece upon the founding of the Greek Orthodox Church. Community members, known as Romaniote, made their way through Venice, Byzantium, Spain, across the Ottoman Empire, and beyond.
Dr. Yitzchak Kerem provides an overview of the unique languages, liturgical nuances, and communal life of Jews across Greece. Dr Kerem spent significant time living in Greece and researching Greek and Sephardic history. Photographs, maps, and personal accounts provide course participants with a full picture of the unique nature of the Jews of Greece and its surroundings.
In the course, participants will look at major influential points in Greek Jewish history. They will explore The Golden Age of Salonika, a time when Greece’s northern city was a hub of Jewish scholarship. Kerem introduces the tension arising in the Greek Jewish community because of Shabtai Tzvi and the Sabbateanism movement that brought with it false messianism and conversion to Islam, at least outwardly.
The course looks at when the Alliance Israélite Universelle moved in and the Sephardic culture in Greece developed a rich secular culture with its own novels, theater, and music.
This is part of the greater Jewish heritage and history that is often overlooked. ASF IJE online courses will bring to life all parts of the greater Jewish Experience.
For more information and other ASF IJE online course offerings visit: https://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/
Donate now and your generous tax-deductible contribution will empower the ASF to fight for Jewish unity and champion the Sephardi voice in Jewish communal affairs at home and abroad, as well as in our programs, publications, and projects.
Contact us by email to learn about giving opportunities in honor or memory of loved ones
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Copyright © 2020 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 is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, New York, 10011). www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 294-8350 |
Copyright © 2020 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 is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, New York, 10011).
www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 294-8350
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