AMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION- A Secret Sephardic Spice, Moving to Dubai, & Bahrain’s Jewish Cemetery
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~Love, Wendy
The Sephardi World Weekly is made possible by Professor Rifka Cook, Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina, Rachel Amar, Deborah Arellano, and Distinguished ASF Vice President Gwen Zuares!
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“Cilantro’s Jewish Roots”
By Orge Castellano, Tablet Magazine
Cilantro (Photo courtesy of Tablet Magazine)
Throughout their history, Sephardi Jews used certain foods and ingredients in their dishes. The Inquisition accordingly took an active interest in people’s kitchens: “[I]n many cases… storing particular items such as eggplants, chickpeas, or saffron, and even frying with olive oil—rather than cheaper lard—was enough to justify prosecution before the inquisitorial courts.” One ingredient “ubiquitous to medieval Spanish Jewish cooking” was cilantro, or coriander, and possession of the spice could lead to persecution. Today? Says Hélène Jawhara Piñer, a 2018 ASF Broome & Allen Fellow and the author of the award-winning Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora, from the 13th Century Onwards: “‘I use cilantro a lot because, as someone who is a historian, it is a way of reclaiming our Sephardic past and is reminiscent of our ancestors… So to eat is much more than just getting nourishment; it’s recalling history.’”
Feature: Reclaiming Identity: A Yemenite-Tunisian Israeli Jew in Dubai ✡️️
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Yael Gafny, Reclaiming Identity: Jews of Arab Lands and Iran Share Stories of Identity, Struggle, and Redemption
(Photo courtesy of the ASF IJE)
Yael Grafy is an Israeli Jew of Yemenite and Tunisian heritage who works today as the Chief Operating Officer at Crossroad of Civilizations Museum in Dubai. She began her career as a Senior Training Officer in the IDF and then shifted to the tourism industry, finding herself working in different places around the world. The move to Dubai, however, was different. In this video from the Nov 30, 2021, event organized by the ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience, “Reclaiming Identity,” Grafy shares her experience of living and working in the UAE, “Coming back to Dubai, and living in the Muslim world, and Arab country, I meet a lot of people coming from Tunisia and Yemen. Last week on Friday I met a tour guide that came to the museum, she’s Tunisian, and immediately we clicked. I have this kind of, ‘oh my Tunisian sister’, and immediately we connected…”
⛪“Arabian Gulf’s only Jewish cemetery symbolises Bahrain’s rich cultural heritage”
By Nick Webster, The National
The century-old Jewish cemetery in Manama, Bahrain
(Photo courtesy of Aamer Mohammed /The National)
The rebirth of Jewish life in Bahrain inspired Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo, president of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, to restore Bahrain’s only Jewish cemetery, “Because of the Abraham Accords, we know we will have more expatriate Jews coming to live in Bahrain, so we want to make sure this is an integral part of the community.” A Hindu temple, a Catholic church and a mosque are all within walking distance of the cemetery, a reflection of the tolerant spirit now animating the country and, to some degree, the region. That said, looking at the cemetery, Nonoo knows that basic work remains to be done, “We would like to see the walls strengthened — because I’m worried they will crumble down — and the graves reset properly so they can withstand the test of time.”
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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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By Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer, a 2018 ASF Broome & Allen Fellow
In this extraordinary cookbook, chef and scholar Hélène Jawhara-Piñer combines rich culinary history and Jewish heritage to serve up over fifty culturally significant recipes. Steeped in the history of the Sephardic Jews (Jews of Spain) and their diaspora, these recipes are expertly collected from such diverse sources as medieval cookbooks, Inquisition trials, medical treatises, poems, and literature. Original sources ranging from the thirteenth century onwards and written in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Occitan, Italian, and Hebrew, are here presented in English translation, bearing witness to the culinary diversity of the Sephardim, who brought their cuisine with them and kept it alive wherever they went. Jawhara-Piñer provides enlightening commentary for each recipe, revealing underlying societal issues from anti-Semitism to social order. In addition, the author provides several of her own recipes inspired by her research and academic studies.
Each creation and bite of the dishes herein are guaranteed to transport the reader to the most deeply moving and intriguing aspects of Jewish history. Jawhara-Piñer reminds us that eating is a way to commemorate the past.
Edited by Dr. Rachel Yedid and Dr. Danny Bar-Maoz
Until about one hundred and thirty years ago, the Jewish community in Yemen was largely unknown. Despite the irregular connections that this ancient Diaspora held with the various centers of the world’s Jewry, knowledge about the community remained somewhat vague.
E’ele Betamar, ASF’s partner in presenting The Yemenite Conference: Shared Jewish Cultural Values of Jews & Muslims in Yemen, has embarked on this great research project, which aims to document, preserve, research, and distribute Yemenite Jewry’s heritage by publishing books that treat on Yemenite Jewish research in it’s various branches.
Ascending the Palm Tree: An Anthology of the Yemenite Jewish Heritage includes several new studies that have been written specially for this book. Thus twenty-two articles have been collected, along with dozens of photographs, which gives the readers a glimpse into the special world of Yemenite Jews in the following areas: their history and their manner of life in their country of exile; the miraculous manner in which they immigrated to Eretz Israel; their costumes; the eye-catching, ornate decoration and architecture of their homes; the Jewish daughter’s way of life in Yemen; and the expression of all these in song, in storytelling, and in dance.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Paving a New-Old Path: The Integration of Jewish Yemenite Folk Music in Israeli Art Music
The immigration of the Jews of Yemen to Israel began in the 13th century and lasts until this day. With them, Yemenite Jews brought their unique culture as reflected in their clothes, jewelry, food, art, dance and music.
The presentation deals with the meeting of five Israeli composers from the first generation who were educated in the western music style, combining the folk Yemenite music that the immigrants brought with them. In analyzing the Jewish Yemenite folk music as well as music compositions influenced by these folk songs, the level of influence was checked in matters of folk vocal sound production, texture, typical intervals, modes and maqamat and other folk-Yemenite parameters.
This research examines the ways any of those parameters appear in the concert music in pure, altered or complex way.
Sunday, 6 March at 12:00PM EST
(Ticket: $10 per session)
Sign-up Now!
About the speaker:
Naama Perel-Tzadok completed her MA studies in Music Composition at Haifa University, Israel. She has written music for diverse ensembles, and today they are performed by different orchestras, ensembles and choirs in Israel.
These days, she’s a lecturer at the technological college “Kineret”, in the sound engineering department.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Iranian Jewry: A Brief History
Dr. Daniel Tsadik Shares History
Jews have lived in Iran for more than 2,000 years. This ancient community had its trials and tribulations, but remained until today. Despite all vicissitudes, Iranian Jews remained true to their roots and connected to their heritage for generations. Dr. Daniel Tsadik will provide an overview of the Jews in that region from ancient times until today.
Tuesday, 8 March at 12:00PM EST
(Ticket: $10 per session)
Sign-up Now!
About the speaker:
A Fulbright scholar, Dr. Daniel Tsadik obtained his PhD in 2002 from the Yale University History Department. He authored several articles, a book entitled Between Foreigners and Shi‘is: Nineteenth-Century Iran and its Jewish Minority (Stanford University Press, 2007), another book entitled The Jews of Iran and Rabbinic Literature: New Perspectives (2019), which won the Israel Prime Minister Prize, and co-edited the book Iran, Israel and the Jews: Symbiosis and Conflict from the Archaemenids to the Islamic Republic (2019). From 2008 to 2020, Professor Tsadik taught at Yeshiva University, where he served as Associate Professor of Sephardic and Iranian Studies. His current research is on Shi‘ite-Jewish polemics.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The Department of Anthropology & Archeology at the University of Calgary, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University and Belzberg Program in Israel Studies, University of Calgary, & the American Sephardi Federation present:
Sephardi Thought and Modernity 2022 Webinar Series
Continuity and Rupture in Sephardi Modernities
(Second Edition)
On Wednesdays at 1:00PM EST
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK / 8pm Israel / 9:30pm Iran)
(Complimentary RSVP)
9 March
Deborah Starr (Cornell University) and Eyal Sagui Bizawe (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Nostalgia as Critique: The Case of Jews in Egyptian Cinema
13 April
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 5pm UK / 7pm Israel / 8:30pm Iran – note time – US Daylight Savings)
Julia Philips Cohen (Vanderbilt University) and Devi Mays (University of Michigan) Middle Eastern and North African Jews in Paris: A Forgotten Chapter
11 May
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 5pm UK / 7pm Israel / 8:30pm Iran – note time – US Daylight Savings)
Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (University of Cambridge) Rhizomic networks of unruptured continuity from 16th c. Italy to 21st c. Casablanca: Music, Power, Mysticism and Neo-Platonism
In this second edition of the Sephardi Thought and Modernity Series we will focus on the question of continuity and rupture as a way to deepen our dialogue about the different forms that modernity has adopted throughout Sephardi history. We will discuss questions such as the meaning of the concept of “modernity” in non-European contexts such as the Levant and/or the Arab world. We will explore how non-European Jewish societies developed ways of life and practices that synthesized tradition, change and cultural diversity throughout time. We will delve into Sephardi intellectual life, cosmopolitanism, cultural belongings, language, translation and mobility.
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Sepharadi approach to Talmud Torah in the writings of Hakham Yosef Faur (1934-2020)
(3 Part Series)
Join us for Part 2 in our series “Insights from our Hakhamim with the students of The Habura.”
Thursday, 10 March at 12:00PM EST
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
About the speaker:
Yonatan Rahmani is a Jewish educator living in NYC. After completing the Springboard Fellowship at CUNY Queens College Hillel, he moved to Jerusalem to study at the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. Yonatan returned to NYC as a member of the NYU Bronfman Center’s Student Life team, before joining YCT as a member of the inaugural JEWEL program. Yonatan is happiest when cooking, learning, hosting guests for Shabbat, and spending time with his family.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project, Iranian American Jewish Federation, Nessah Synagoque, and USC Caden Institute present:
Languages of the Jews of Iran: A series of online conversations and performances
On Sundays at 1:00PM EST
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK / 8pm Israel / 9:30pm Iran)
(Complimentary RSVP)
13 March
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 5pm UK / 7pm Israel / 8:30pm Iran – note time – US Daylight Savings)
Judeo-Persian in the 20th century: New research
Dr. Habib Borjian and Ibrāhīm Šafiʿī present personal documents written in Persian in Hebrew letters, and Alan Niku discusses the distinctive Tehran Jewish dialect of Persian based on recordings and fieldwork. Then, Cantor Jacqueline Rafii presents Passover psalms translated into Judeo-Persian and recorded by her grandfather in Tehran in 1971.
Jews in Iran historically spoke many languages – from Semitic, Median, and Persian language families. The languages/dialects of Jews in different cities and towns were so different that their speakers often could not understand each other. Now these longstanding Jewish languages are endangered, as most Jews shifted to standard Persian in Iran or to Modern Hebrew, English, and other languages after emigrating.
The HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project presents a series of conversations and performances highlighting this rich linguistic heritage. By attending these events, you will learn how Jewish languages compare to each other and to local Muslim, Zoroastrian, and Christian languages. You will be inspired by the elderly speakers and young activists who are working hard to preserve them for future generations. And you will be entertained by new songs in Judeo-Isfahani, Judeo-Hamadani, and Jewish Neo-Aramaic.
These events will last for 75 minutes. Please register for each event separately. While the Jewish Language Project usually posts recordings of events the following day, these events will only be accessible at the times they are presented (due to security concerns and preferences of some of the presenters). These events will also be screened in person at Nessah Synagogue in Beverly Hills, California. Learn more and RSVP for the in-person screenings here.
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The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in partnership with the Consulate General of Canada in New York presents:
CHEWDAISM: A Taste of Jewish Montreal
Film Screening
Co-sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation, Center for Jewish History, & CHAIFLICKS
An hour-long documentary following Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman of “YidLife Crisis” fame as they discover the roots of Montreal’s Jewish community through a series of classic Jewish eateries. As they tell this story, Batalion and Elman encounter various guests along the way, sharing tales and meals during a day’s worth of eating in and around the city.
This screening will mark the New York premiere of the film and will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with Batalion and Elman, moderated by James Beard Award-nominated food journalist Gabriella Gershenson. Babka from Boulangerie Cheskie in Montreal will be served after the program.
Thursday, 17 March at 7:00PM EST
General Admission: $10
YIVO, ASF, or CJH members: $5
Students: $5
Proof of full COVID-19 vaccination with matching ID is required in order to enter the Center for Jewish History. Click here to see our Visitor Safety Requirements.
Tickets must be purchased in advance.
They will not be available at the door.
Sign-up Now!
About the Speakers:
YidLife Crisis is a Yiddish comedy web series and Jewish cultural brand created by two friends, Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman, wanting to pay homage to the yiddishkayt in their upbringing and the Jewish comedic lens on life with which they were raised. With the initial support of the Shaping our Future Grants and the Bronfman Fellowships, they created “YidLife Crisis” as a love letter about modern Jewish identity, set mostly in Yiddish, making Jewish identity inclusive to all through the ice-breaking power of comedy. What started as a passion project turned into a hit with over 4,000,000 video views and 40,000 subscribers, global press, awards and accolades, appearances and shoots around the world, the collaboration of talent such as Mayim Bialik and Howie Mandel, and a chance to work with various organizations from Jewish community centers through academic institutions through comedy festivals.
Gabriella Gershenson is a James Beard Award-nominated food journalist based in New York City. She is an editor of The 100 Most Jewish Foods (Artisan) and the IACP Award-winning On The Hummus Route (Magica), and moderates a series of Jewish food talks at Temple Emanuel’s Streicker Center. She is currently on staff at Wirecutter.
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Kavkazi, Georgian, and Bukharian Jews: At the Crossroads of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking Worlds
(3 Part Learning Series)
The histories and cultures of Bukharian, Kavkazi (Mountain), and Georgian Jews are situated at the unique intersection of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking Jewish (RSJ) identities. Through this 3-part learning series, we will explore the multilayered and rich stories of these millennia-old communities in Central Asia and the Caucasus—discovering the ways in which they have developed their mosaic cultures through dynamic interactions with the dominant and changing societies surrounding them. Our discussion will also shed light on how their experiences fit into the broader historical saga of the Jewish people.
On Tuesdays at 12:00PM EST
(Ticket: $10 per session)
22 March
(Part 3)
Sign-up Now!
About the Speaker:
Ruben Shimonov is an educator, community builder, and social entrepreneur with a passion for Jewish diversity. He previously served as Director of Community Engagement and Education at Queens College Hillel. Currently, Ruben is the American Sephardi Federation’s National Director of Sephardi House and Young Leadership. He is also the Founding Executive Director of the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network and Director of Educational Experiences & Programming for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee. He is an alumnus of the COJECO Blueprint, Nahum Goldmann and ASF Broome & Allen Fellowships for his work in Jewish social innovation and Sephardic scholarship. He has been listed among The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” Jewish community leaders and changemakers. Currently, he is a Jewish Pedagogies Research Fellow at M² | The Institute of Experiential Jewish Education. Ruben has lectured extensively on the histories and cultures of various Sephardic and Mizrahi communities. He is also a visual artist specializing in multilingual calligraphy that interweaves Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
New Works Wednesday with Lior Sternfeld
Join us for New Works Wednesdays with Associate Professor Lior Sternfeld as he discusses his book Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran
Wednesday, 23 March at 11:00AM EST
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
About the book:
“Between Iran and Zion” offers the first history of this vibrant community over the course of the last century, from the 1905 Constitutional Revolution through the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Over this period, Iranian Jews grew from a peripheral community into a prominent one that has made clear impacts on daily life in Iran.
About the author:
Lior is an associate professor of history and Jewish Studies. He is a social historian of the modern Middle East with particular interests in the histories of the Jewish people and other minorities of the region. His first book, titled Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran (Stanford University Press, 2018) examines, against the backdrop of Iranian nationalism, Zionism, and constitutionalism, the development and integration of Jewish communities in Iran into the nation-building projects of the last century. He is currently working on two book projects: The Origins of Third Worldism in the Middle East and a new study of the Iranian-Jewish Diaspora in the U.S. and Israel. He teaches on the modern Middle East, Iran, Jewish histories of the region, and Israel-Palestine related classes.
For more about the book: “Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran.”
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Evolving Nature of Humanity in the writings of Hakham Eliyahu Benamozegh (1822-1900)
(3 Part Series)
Join us for the final part of the series “Insights from our hakhamim by students of The Habura”.
Thursday, 24 March at 12:00PM EST
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
About the speaker:
Ohad Fedida attended the Talmudic University of South Florida. He is now completing a B.S in Psychology from Florida International University and is a research assistant at the TIES Lab. He is working toward a Clinical Psychology, PhD. Ohad is also a student at TheHabura.com
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Torah and “Secular” Studies in the writings of Hakham Yosef Qafih (1917-2000)
(3 Part Series)
Join us for Part 1 with David Hazan: “Insights from our hakhamim by students of The Habura”.
Thursday, 31 March at 12:00PM EST
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
About the speaker:
David Hazan has studied and taught in yeshivot in Israel and England. Committed to finding ways of helping the Jewish community remain inspired and connected with its universal mission and unique spirituality, David looks to further his training and experience in different areas such as Meditation, counselling and mental health. He holds a Diploma in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the Open University and a certificate in Jewish Education from London School of Jewish Studies. David currently attends a programme of Rabbinical training (RTA) and officiates as a Sephardic Hazan in different synagogues. He is also a student of TheHabura.com.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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