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10 February 2017
In memory of Menashe Somekh, A”H, the Baghdad-born intellectual and journalist, whose career spanned from writing for Iraq’s Sawt al-Ahali newspaper to directing Israel Radio’s Arabic Service. |
In memory of Menashe Somekh, A”H, the Baghdad-born intellectual and journalist, whose career spanned from writing for Iraq’s Sawt al-Ahali newspaper to directing Israel Radio’s Arabic Service.
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“Here’s How A Jewish Woman’s Poem Redefined The Statue Of Liberty” By Rachel Wilkerson Miller, BuzzFeed
The famous words adorning the Statue of Liberty—“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”—were written by a thirty-four year-old American Sephardi poetess, Emma Lazarus, to help raise funds for the statue’s pedestal. Only added to the statue sixteen years after Lazarus’ death in 1903, those words came to speak for the immigrant experience in America: “Letters were written home… [about how] you would see this wonderful goddess in New York Harbor when you arrived in America to welcome you.”
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 Emma Lazarus |
By Rachel Wilkerson Miller, BuzzFeed
Emma Lazarus
(Photo courtesy of Indiana University)
Professor Naar pointing to the word “Seattle” in Ladino
(Photo courtesy of The Seattle Times/YouTube)
Ladino was spoken by the Jewish immigrants to Seattle. Devin E. Naar, Chair of Sephardic Studies at the University of Washington and an ASF Advisory Board Member, is working to preserve this endangered Jewish variation on Spanish that embodies and connects to diverse cultural worlds.
 Persian Square Sign, Tehrangeles (Los Angeles), California (Photo courtesy of Quora) |
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“Strangers in the Land of the Free” By David Wolpe, The Atlantic
Rabbi David Wolpe was moved by President Trump’s recent immigration suspension to meditate on Iranian Jewry, who make up fifty percent of his Los Angeles congregation: “The older members speak Farsi, the younger are navigating two civilizations. The extent of their wealth and success and talent makes it seem that they have both feet planted in the gilded soil of Beverly Hills… But underneath is the unease of people who in an instant lost everything—their homes, their past, their businesses, their sense of security.”
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Persian Square Sign, Tehrangeles (Los Angeles), California (Photo courtesy of Quora)
By David Wolpe, The Atlantic
When Baghdadi Jews Baruch and Ellen Bekhor (née Cohen) succumbed to the camera’s gaze for their denaturalization pictures in 1951, they became stateless. Ellen was in her eighth month of pregnancy. Permitted to bring no more than a few kilos of belongings out of Iraq, Ellen carried their wedding picture and ketubah in her pocketbook. Laissez-Passer, Royaume D’Irak by Leslie Starobin (2016)
Now Through April 2017
in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
The American Sephardi Federation proudly presents excerpts from The Last Address, a multi-year, photo-montage series and oral history and book project by award-winning artist Leslie Starobin that explores the enduring texture of memory and culture in the lives of Greater Sephardic families from dispersed Jewish communities in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon.
Leslie Starobin is a Boston-area photographer and montage artist. Her work is in the permanent collections of many academic (Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University) and public (Jewish Museum, MoMA) museums. Starobin is the recipient of numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation of the Arts/Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Most recently, she received two Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Grants for this series, The Last Address.
Her exhibition in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display is sponsored in part by CELTSS: The Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship and Service at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, where Starobin is a Professor of Communication Arts.
Please click here for additional information and viewing hours
Portugal, The Last Hope: Sousa Mendes’ Visas for Freedom
Through January 2017
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
The American Sephardi Federation, Portuguese Consulate of New York, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Municipality of Almeida, Portugal proudly present an exhibition in the Leon Levy Gallery honoring Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the courageous and creative Portuguese diplomat who saved Salvador Dali, the authors of Curious George, and thousands of other Holocaust refugees.
Please click here for additional information and viewing hours
Donate now and your tax-deductible contribution will help ASF preserve and promote the Greater Sephardi history, traditions, and culture as an integral part of the Jewish experience!
Contact us by email or phone ((917) 606-8266) to learn about giving opportunities in honor or memory of loved ones
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Copyright © 2017 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 St., New York, New York, 10011). www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 548-4486 |
Copyright © 2017 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 St., New York, New York, 10011).
www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 548-4486
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