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19 March 2021
In Memory of Dr. Dhafar Fouad Eliyahu, A”H, who, until his fatal stroke on Monday, was admired for his courage and compassion. An orthopedist at Baghdad’s al-Wasiti hospital, where he was known as the “doctor of the poor,” Dr. Eliyahu was one of Iraq’s last Jews.
Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one. Thank you to Sephardi World Weekly Patrons Professor Rifka Cook, Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina, Rachel Amar, Deborah Arellano, and Distinguished ASF Vice President Gwen Zuares! |
Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one.
Thank you to Sephardi World Weekly Patrons Professor Rifka Cook, Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina, Rachel Amar, Deborah Arellano, and Distinguished ASF Vice President Gwen Zuares!
Become a Patron today!
 Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer Join us on Sunday, 21 March at 10:00AM EDT for Episode VIII: Mexican Crypto-Jewish Pesah recipe. (Complimentary RSVP; Donations suggested) Donate Now Donate Now
Sponsorship opportunities available: |
Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer
Join us on Sunday, 21 March at 10:00AM EDT for Episode VIII: Mexican Crypto-Jewish Pesah recipe.
(Complimentary RSVP; Donations suggested)
Donate Now
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Using Debit or Credit Card
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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“Speaking out on Critical Ethnic Studies as a Sephardic Jew” By Isaac de Castro, The Times of Israel Isaac de Castro is a young “Sephardi and Ashkenazi Panamanian Jew” who moved to the United States |
 Isaac de Castro holding a picture of his paternal grandparents, Woodrow and Luna de Castro, Z”L
(Photo courtesy of the Isaac/Instagram) |
By Isaac de Castro, The Times of Israel
Isaac de Castro is a young “Sephardi and Ashkenazi Panamanian Jew” who moved to the United States
full of optimism about his future as a Jew in America. Recently, however, that faith has been challenged
by a strange new variant of anti-Semitism that shows up on college campuses, “in progressive spaces
disguised as social justice.” Most recently, it deeply informed, “California’s Critical Ethnic Studies
Curriculum Model.” De Castro is leading grass-roots resistance to that “Model,” in coordination with the
ASF Young Leaders and the ASF: “Last month, I sent a letter to ASF’s board of directors, asking them to take a stand. I am proud that they did, as they have been one of the only Jewish institutions with the integrity and courage to do so.”
(Photo courtesy of the Isaac/Instagram)
Lauren Gibli, President of the ASF’s Young Leaders, leads a fascinating and informative discussion with two young, dynamic activists and co-founders of the New Zionist Congress, Isaac de Castro and Blake Flayton, about California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. Bottom line: it’s a bad idea built upon critical-race theory (CRT) and the valorization of victimization that threatens to undermine the accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement and to confuse an entire generation.
[Publisher’s Note: On the verge of Thursday’s ESMC vote, and unfortunately after our deadline for inclusion in the Sephardi World Weekly, Professors Ari Y. Kelman, Devin E. Naar, and Jessica Marglin released a public letter echoing some of the earlier concerns of the ASF’s Board of Directors (see here and here) on the Curriculum’s problematic portrayal of Jews. They specifically noted how the “Antisemitism and Jewish Middle Eastern Americans” Sample Lesson Plan is riddled with historical inaccuracies, how it offers “only the barest insight into the richness and diversity of Jewish life,” and how its “critical” approach centering anti-Semitism is the equivalent of “presenting a Black History Month curriculum around anti-blackness, or a Womens’ History Month lesson around misogyny.” We offer this link for your consideration while noting the ASF’s reservation about their critique of the widely-adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of anti-Semitism, the Jewish people’s shared rootedness in the Middle East, and the centrality of the land of Israel throughout Jewish history and in contemporary Jewish life.]
 Mr.André Azoulay accepting the ASF’s Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement, Opening Night of the 20th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, Leo and Julia Forcheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 30 March 2017 (Photos courtesy of Chrystie Sherman) |
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“Countries turning their backs on their history weaken their own destiny, Moroccan King’s advisor”
The North Africa Post
André Azoulay, Senior Advisor to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, spoke at a recent international webinar dedicated to theme of, “Preserving and Transmitting Memory to Anchor Otherness.” Pointing to the King’s royal inaugration in January 2020 of Bayt Dakira—a multifaceted museum, research, and cultural center located in the old Jewish quarter of Essaouira—Azoulay explained how Morocco is reappropriating, “‘the depth of all its diversities and the resilience of all its histories… It is in Bayt Dakira and from Bayt Dakira that our mixed memories and our summed up histories tell about the closeness, the intimacy and the exhilarating complicity that Islam and Judaism have lived, forged and carved over more than two centuries in Essaouira.’” |
Mr.André Azoulay accepting the ASF’s Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement, Opening Night of the 20th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, Leo and Julia Forcheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 30 March 2017
(Photos courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
André Azoulay, Senior Advisor to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, spoke at a recent international webinar dedicated to theme of, “Preserving and Transmitting Memory to Anchor Otherness.” Pointing to the King’s royal inaugration in January 2020 of Bayt Dakira—a multifaceted museum, research, and cultural center located in the old Jewish quarter of Essaouira—Azoulay explained how Morocco is reappropriating, “‘the depth of all its diversities and the resilience of all its histories… It is in Bayt Dakira and from Bayt Dakira that our mixed memories and our summed up histories tell about the closeness, the intimacy and the exhilarating complicity that Islam and Judaism have lived, forged and carved over more than two centuries in Essaouira.’”
By Rabbi Dr. Marc D. Angel
Rabbi Angel explores the teachings of the Sephardi sages (Hakhamim) and thinkers who flourished around the Mediterranean and in the New World in the centuries after the Expulsion.
By Rabbi Dr. Marc D. Angel
Hakham Rabbi Benzion Uziel (1880-1953) was one of the leading rabbinic figures of his generation. He served as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Salonika before becoming the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel (1938), a post he held until his death.
A scion of great Sephardic rabbinical families, he was also well-steeped in the teachings of the Ashkenazic tradition. A staunch traditionalist, he was innovative and sensitive to the challenges to modernity. He was a religious Zionist who taught respect for all Jews, even those who were not religiously observant. He was deeply devoted to the particular teachings and norms of halakhic Judaism, while also maintaining a universalistic outlook and a genuine concern for the well-being of the non-Jewish population within Israel.
Rabbi Uziel was a prolific author. His volumes of responsa, Mishpetei Uziel, are models of halakhic erudition, clarity and sensitivity. Various speeches, sermons, and addresses were included in a volume, Mikhmanei Uziel, reflecting not only Rabbi Uziel’s worldview, but also the pressing issues within the Jewish community of his time. Shaarei Uziel is a two-volume work dealing with the laws of guardianship of orphans and with the laws of charity in general. Hegyonei Uziel is a two-volume work in which Rabbi Uziel presents a general philosophy of Judaism.
This book draws on the various published writings of Rabbi Uziel to present his grand religious worldview rooted in Classic Sephardic Judaism. He dealt with issues that are of continuing concern to the Jewish people, such as conversion, halakhah in a modern Jewish state, the role of women in Jewish law, Jewish nationalism, and tolerance.
Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer
Episode VIII:
Mexican Crypto-Jewish Pesah recipe
Click here to check out the ingredients
Sephardi Culinary History is a new show that combines chef and scholar Hélène Jawhara-Piñer’s fascination with food studies and flair for creating delicious cuisine. Join along as she cooks Sephardic history!
Sunday, 21 March at 10:00AM EDT
Sign-up Now!
(Complimentary RSVP; Donations suggested)
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Your generous contribution will support Chef Jawhara Piñer’s forthcoming academic publication and accompanying recipe book, as well as the ASF Institute of Jewish Experience!
Pre-order your copy of “Sephardi: Cooking the History.
Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora, from the 13th Century Onwards” now
ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Hélène Jawhara-Piñer earned her Ph.D in History, Medieval History, and the History of Food from the University of Tours, France.
Chef Hélène’s primary research interest is the medieval culinary history of Spain through interculturality with a special focus on the Sephardic culinary heritage written in Arabic. A member of the IEHCA (Institute of European History and Cultures of Food), the CESR (Centre for Advanced Studies in the Renaissance), and the CoReMa Project (Cooking Recipes of the Middle Ages), Chef Hélène has lectured at Bar-Ilan University (in collaboration with the Stali Institute and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC): “El patrimonio culinario judío de la Península Ibérica a través de un manuscrito del siglo XIII. Ejemplos de la pervivencia de recetas en la cocina de los sefardíes de España y de Marruecos,” 2018), as well as at conference of the Association Diwan (“Reflections on the Jewish heritage according to the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ,” 2015), IEHCA of Tours (“Jews and Muslims at the Table: Between coexistence and differentiation: state of affairs and reflections on the culinary practices of Jews and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula and in Sicily from the 12th to the 15th century,” 2017), and Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies (“The hidden Jewish culinary heritage of the Iberian Peninsula through a manuscript of the 13th century. Examples of the provenance of some recipes in Venezuelan and Colombian cuisine,” 2017).
In May, Chef Hélène hosted “Shavuot in the Sephardic Kitchen: Bread of the Seven Heavens,” one of the most popular sessions of the Great Big Jewish Food Fest. Her recipes have appeared in the Sephardi World Weekly, Tablet Magazine, The Forward, and S&P Central’s Newsletter. Chef Hélène is currently writing a scholarly book and accompanying cookbook on the Jewish culinary history of Spain.
We are proud Chef Hélène is serving as one of the judges for the ASF’s Great Sephardic Chef Competition!
Sponsorship and Naming opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
The Department of Anthropology & Archeology at the University of Calgary, King’s College London, the International Network of Jewish Thought (Universidad Complutense of Madrid), & the American Sephardi Federation present:
Sephardi Thought and Modernity 2021 Webinar Series
A monthly lecture from February through June 2021, presenting different experiences of Sephardi modernization in different places and times.
On Thursdays at 1:00PM EDT
(11:00AM MST)
22 April
Clemence Boulouque (Columbia University):
In praise of the Orient: Elia Benamozegh’s Sephardic Modernities
20 May
Gabriel Abensour (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Rabbi Yosef Knafo’s Struggle for Democratization of Knowledge in Fin de Siècle Essaouira
17 June
Yuval Evri (King’s College London) and Angy Cohen (University of Calgary): Foreign in a familiar land: language and belonging in the work of Jacqueline Kahanoff, Albert Memmi, and Jacques Derrida.
Sign-up for the Webinar Series Now!
(Complimentary RSVP)
The intention of this series is to spark the interest in processes of Jewish modernization not exclusively mediated by Europeanization. The questions we will be dealing with are related to non-dichotomic identities, multiplicity and loss of language, colonization, social transformation, and intellectual responses to it. We will approach these questions by looking at Jewish-Arab influences, the Sephardi response to European modernization, the responses of the rabbinic leadership and the work of Sephardi intellectuals.
Series organized by Yuval Evri (King’s College London) and Angy Cohen (University of Calgary).
There will be a change to Daylight Saving Time in March, so the event times in North America will remain the same, but the event time in your area may change, depending on your location. The start time on Feb. 18 is 11 a.m. (MST), 1 p.m. (EST), 6 p.m. (GMT), 7 p.m. (Madrid; GMT +1); on March through June events, the start time will be 11 a.m. (MDT), 1 p.m. (EDT).
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Jews lived in the Middle East, and particularly Iran, even before the advent of Islam. Iran has a long history with varying dynasties, dynastic changes, and evolving borders and Jews have been there continuously throughout these changes. Throughout the ascent of Islam in its different forms, Jews were integrated at times more and at times less economically. There were times of intellectual and spiritual growth as well as suppression and persecution. All this will be addressed and discussed in a historical context.
The course is divided into seven units:
1. The Ancient Period – the settlement of the Jews in Iran, Acaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanian times
2. 7th to 9th Centuries – The emergence of Islam, Islam and the Jews, Dhimma, and Jewish religious streams
3. 13th to 18th centuries – Mongols, Jewish Persian poets, Safavid times
4. Mid-18th century to 19th century – Invasion, dynasties, and persecutions
5. The latter part of the 19th century – Interactions with World Jewry, legal status and conversions
6. Early 20th century – Modernization and education, constitution revolution, Zionism
7. The 20th century – Pahlavi dynasty, Revolution, Mashadis, and Migration
Dr. Daniel Tsadik
Dr. Daniel Tsadik, a former professor of Sephardic and Iranian Studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, has been awarded The Prime Minister’s Prize (Israel) in 2020 for the Encouragement and Empowerment of Jewish Communities in Arab Countries and Iran for The Jews of Iran and Rabbinic Literature: New Perspectives, published by Mosad Ha-Rav Kook.
Tsadik researches the modern history of Iran, Shi’ah Islam, and Iran’s religious minorities. A Fulbright scholar, he earned his Ph.D from the History Department at Yale University.
Dr. David Yeroushalmy
Born in Tehran, David Yeroushalmy completed his primary and part of his secondary education at the Alliance Israelite school in Tehran. He immigrated to Israel in 1961 and upon completing his secondary education he enrolled in the Department of Middle Eastern History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Completing his B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and in Political Science, he served in the Israeli Army as an officer. He pursued his doctoral studies at Colombia University New York, in the Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures. He specialized in Persian and Hebrew languages and literatures. D. Yeroushalmy was appointed lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel-Aviv University, where he has been teaching Persian language and Iranian history and culture. His Book entitled The Judeo-Persian Poet Emrani and His Book of Treasure, was published by E.J. Brill Publishers, Leiden, in 1995. Dr. Yeroushalmy’s current research focuses on the communal and cultural history of Iranian Jewry in the course of the nineteen-century.
Ms. Lerone Edalati
Lerone Edalati is a member of the Mashadi community of New York. In addition to her role as Associate Director of Donor Relations at ISEF, she researches and records the history and current practices of the Mashadi Jews. She holds a BA from NYU in Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, and an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is a Broome & Allen Fellow at the American Sephardi Federation and is currently gathering oral histories of Iranian Jews in NY.
Dr. Hilda Nissimi
Dr. Hilda Nissimi is the chair of the Generatl History Department at Bar Ilan University. Her most current research focuses on the formation adn change of identity layers in crypto-religious communities, with a particular focus on Mashadi Jews. Her book, The Crypto-Jewish Mashadis, was published in 1985 and remains the main text on the study of that population. She has written numerous articles on identity and forced conversions.
This course is made possible with the support of The Shazar Center, Israel.
For more information and other ASF IJE online course offerings visit: https://courses.instituteofjewishexperience.org/
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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/
Please donate now to support the American Sephardi Federation!
Together, we can go from strength to strength in the New Year!
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Copyright © 2021 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 © 2021 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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