#Sephardic Jews

[sefaradweb]

Adafina: The Classic Sephardic Sabbath Stew

🇺🇸 Adafina is a classic Sephardic Sabbath stew similar to cholent among Ashkenazi Jews. It was prepared before sundown to comply with Sabbath laws, ensuring a ready meal the next day. This slow-cooked stew combines meats, vegetables, chickpeas, and eggs, transforming these ingredients into a delicately textured and flavorful dish. The recipe emphasizes using organic ingredients to enhance the taste, with the key ingredient being time, as the long cooking period perfects the flavors.

🇪🇸 La adafina es un guiso clásico sefardí para el sábado, similar al cholent entre los judíos asquenazíes. Se preparaba antes del atardecer para cumplir con las leyes del sábado, asegurando una comida lista para el día siguiente. Este guiso cocido a fuego lento combina carnes, vegetales, garbanzos y huevos, transformando estos ingredientes en un plato de textura delicada y sabor exquisito. La receta destaca el uso de ingredientes orgánicos para mejorar el sabor, siendo el tiempo el ingrediente clave, ya que el largo período de cocción perfecciona los sabores.

🇮🇱 La adafina es un guiso klasiko sefardí para el Shabat, parecido al cholent entre los djidyos ashkenazis. Se preparava antes del eskurezimiento para kumplir kon las layes del Shabat, assegurando una komida lista para el día sigyente. Este guiso kochido a fuego lento kombina karnes, verduras, garvanzos i wevos, transformando estos ingredyentes en un plato de textura delicada i sabor eskisito. La rezetika sujere uzar ingredyentes organyikos para mejorar el sabor, siendo el tiempo el ingredyente klave, pues el largo peryodo de kochura perfecciona los sabores.

[koenji]

A Sephardic Torah manuscript with golden Stars of David, Soria/Tudela 1300–1312. ✡

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Hébreu 21, fol. 98v, Soria/Tudela 1300–1312.

From: Clockwise–Counterclockwise: Calligraphic Frames in Sephardic Hebrew Bibles and Their Roots in Mediterranean Culture by Dalia-Ruth Halperin. x

[ichooseyoupikajew]

Yad Mizrah Magazine - Issue #1

If you haven't heard of Yad Mizrah, it's a brand new literary magazine that focuses on Sephardic and Mizrahi culture. I highly recommend you check it out.

But if there's any article that I think you should read, definitely check out From Exoticism to Extermination: Orientalising the Jew by Aurele Aaron Tobelem.

[foodglorious-food]

Shakshuka - A spicy egg and tomato dish invented by Maghreb Jews in North Africa and adopted all over the Middle East 🥚🍅🍳

[jewish-vents]

Being non Ashkenazi in a country that isn’t Israel sucks so badly. I’m Mizrachi-Sephardi (I know it refers to Minhag at its core, but my family’s Israeli so we interpret these things more through a cultural lens), but mostly Mizrachi. The country I live in has barely any Mizrachi or Sephardi Beitei Knesset in it, and there’s also not much of a Jewish culture outside of Ashkenazi stuff. I want to connect to my heritage, but I can’t even go to the place that my Mizrachi side was built up, or we will literally get executed. I’m so tired of everything being so Ashkie centric in the diaspora, obviously there’s nothing wrong with Ashkenazi stuff but I just wish there was more of a movement for non Ashkie Jewish cultures. I don’t know, it just sucks that right now I can’t really feel comfortable in my community

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[mental-mona]

[rw7771]

Watch "5 Surprising Differences Between Ashkenazi & Sephardic Jews | Big Jewish Ideas | Unpacked" on YouTube

[5oclockcoffees]

AFTER MY FIRST LECTURE on the history of the Jews of Salonica at a Conservative synagogue near Princeton, a perfect stranger with a typical Ashkenazi surname sent me a package. In a handwritten letter, he expressed his appreciation for my “wonderful talk,” but concluded: “I hope that the Ashkenazi strands here can enrich the Sephardic side too.” That “here” referred to the book that accompanied the letter: Sander Gilman’s classic 1986 study, Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews. Did my first piece of fan mail insinuate that the history of the underrepresented Sephardic “side” was impoverished and could not stand on its own? Or that my de-emphasis of the Ashkenazi side amounted to self-hatred? I was so put off by the message surrounding the “gift,” that it took me years to crack the book open. That piece of mail also reminded me why I pursued the academic study of Sephardic history in the first place: it was, in part, a form of self-defense. I wanted to arm myself with an understanding of the world from which my family came �� my grandfather, whom I called nono in Ladino, was born in Salonica, once home to a major Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire and today the second-biggest city in Greece — and also to comprehend and combat the kind of sly prejudice I encountered in Jewish spaces. I had already grown accustomed to Jews — principally white, Ashkenazi Jews — using me as a screen on which to project their own discomfort and ignorance about Jews whose stories they do not know or cannot fathom. At a community-wide Holocaust commemoration in college, one of the organizers insinuated that I had made up the fact that my Salonican-born great-uncle and his family had perished in Auschwitz, since she was a survivor herself and had never met a Jew from Greece. In another instance, neighbors my own age, who are now rabbis in the Conservative and modern Orthodox movements, knocked on my door one Shabbat morning and asked if I would serve as their “shabbos goy”: “Because, you know, you’re Sephardic . . .” During one of my first visits to a Jewish research institution in New York, a senior colleague found out that my mother is Ashkenazi and retorted: “Aha! That explains your intellectual curiosity,” as if to say that if I were fully Sephardic, I would have no business engaging in scholarly pursuits. A Jewish acquaintance, a baby boomer active in the Reform movement, recently learned of my family background and jokingly, or so it seemed, described “mixed breeds” like me with the derogatory term “mulattos.” A peer of my own generation invoked the “one-drop rule” — another “joke” — referencing the legal system in parts of the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries that disallowed anyone with a single black ancestor from “passing” as white in the eyes of the law. He referred to my son as an “octoroon,” a term used in slave societies to refer to those with one-eighth African and seven-eighths European ancestry. There is a Ladino refran, or proverb, that goes: Deshame entrar, me azere lugar (“Let me enter and I will make a place for myself”). I used to think that Sephardic Jews — like many “other” Jews — just needed to have the door opened by the gatekeepers, especially the white Ashkenazi Jewish establishment, in order for their fate to improve. But a seat at the table is not enough for today’s generation. Sephardic identity and culture have largely been swallowed up by Ashkenaziness, by whiteness, by erasures so complete that many of my peers no longer possess a consciousness of what it could mean to be Sephardic today. Those sublimated histories must be reclaimed and those submerged stories raised up. Confronting the deep-seated and disturbing history of intra-Jewish prejudice is a prerequisite for the empowerment of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews — and Jews of color — in Jewish spaces, and for a reckoning with the place of most Jews as targets of, and willing and unwilling accomplices to, the structures of white supremacy. Our white supremacy problem, by Devin E. Naar.

[msclaritea]

"Farrakhan, who is Black, was born Louis Eugene Walcott on May 11, 1933 in The Bronx, New York City. He is the younger of two sons of Sarah Mae Manning (1900–1988) and Percival Clark, immigrants from the Anglo-Caribbean islands. His mother was born in Saint Kitts, while his father was Jamaican. The couple separated before their second son was born, and Walcott says he never knew his biological father. Walcott was named after Louis Walcott, a man with whom his mother had a relationship after becoming separated from Percival Clark. In a 1996 interview with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Walcott speculated that Percival Clark, "a light-skinned man with straight hair from Jamaica", may have been Jewish."

"Speaking of his father's white Portuguese parents, the Nation of Islam leader said, "I'm going to tell you something. You really want to know what I think? I think they were members of the Jewish community."

He added: "I believe that in my blood, and not in a bad way. Because when I was a little boy I used to love listening to the Jewish cantors in Boston. They had a program, and every week I would listen. I was struck by the cantor, and I've always loved the way they sing or recite the Torah."

Gates, citing an academic source, says Farrakhan's assertion about his lineage is "highly probable" given that nearly all people of Iberian descent in Jamaica and Barbados are of Sephardic Jewish ancestry.

Farrakhan was born in 1933, the son of Mae Clark, who was from Barbados. He was named Gene after his father, a light-skinned man with straight hair from Jamaica. His father, Gates writes, was a philanderer whom the family rarely saw.

"If in my lineage there are Jews, I would hope that in the end, before my life is over, I not only will have rendered a service to my own beloved community of black people but will also have rendered a service to the Jewish community," Farrakhan was quoted as saying..."

Then there's the founder of the Nation of Islam cult. People still don't know exactly who he was, but one thing is certain: Wallace Fard Muhammad was a prolific con artist.

Theories of origin

Karl Evanzz, in his book The Messenger, postulates that Fard was the son of a Pakistani Muslim, then known as East Indians. He bases this theory on several indications:

Fard spent time at the Ahmadiyya Mosque, a movement prominent in Pakistan and used translations of the Quran from Pakistanis.

The name Fard is a common surname in Pakistan as are other names he bestowed upon his followers such as Shabazz, Ghulam, and Kallatt

Interviews with long-time Nation figures who met him or saw original photos of him such as Ozier Muhammad, Rodnell Collins (nephew of Malcolm X) and Wilfred Little indicate that Fard has Pakistani features

Early teachings from Fard indicated a distrust and disdain for Hinduism

The 2017 book Chameleon: The True Story of W.D. Fard by A. K. Arian studies the origin of the Nation of Islam founder.[129] One theory postulated is that Fard was of Afghan heritage.

The 2019 book Finding W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam investigates a variety of theories about Fard's ethnic and religious origins, writing: "The people who actually met him, and the scholars who have studied him, have suggested that he was variously an African American, an Arab from Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco or Saudi Arabia ... a Turk, an Afghan, an Indo-Pakistani ... a Greek ... In an attempt to determine the origins of W.D. Fard, most scholars have relied on his teachings as passed down, and perhaps modified, by Elijah Muhammad. Some have suggested that he was a member of the Moorish Science Temple of America or the Ahmadiyyah Movement. Others have suggested that he was a Druze or a Shiite." Morrow suggests that a background of Ghulat or extremist Shia Islam best fits with what's known of Fard.

Muhammad Abdullah

For decades after Fard's disappearance, Elijah Muhammad maintained that Fard was alive and well. Elijah Muhammad suggested that California Imam Muhammad Abdullah was Fard, though Abdullah himself later retracted this claim. Scholar Fatimah Fanusie has argued that Abdullah was in fact Fard.

Abdullah was reportedly introduced as Fard to boxing legend Muhammad Ali...

[sefaradweb]

Cortina del arca de la Torá con el emblema de la comunidad judía sefardí, Países Bajos, siglo XVII. Seda; bordado con hilo de oro y algodón.

Torah ark curtain with the emblem of the Sephardic Jewish community, Netherlands, 17th century. Silk; gold- and cotton-thread embroidery.

[sefaradweb]

El renacimiento de los judíos sefardíes en Jerusalén

🇪🇸 El renacimiento de los judíos sefardíes en Jerusalén destaca por la reconstrucción de sinagogas sefardíes después de la expulsión de los judíos de España en 1492. Entre ellas, se encuentran cuatro sinagogas históricas, como el Kal Talmud Torah y la sinagoga Eliahu Hanavi, vinculadas a leyendas de milagros que ayudaron a preservar la comunidad judía bajo el Imperio Otomano. Este renacimiento simboliza la resiliencia cultural y religiosa de los judíos sefardíes en Jerusalén, quienes, a pesar de las restricciones impuestas por las autoridades otomanas, lograron reconstruir su identidad. A través de la coexistencia, aunque en condiciones difíciles, los judíos sefardíes establecieron una presencia duradera en la ciudad santa, destacándose como parte central del judaísmo de Jerusalén.

🇺🇸 The revival of the Sephardic Jews in Jerusalem highlights the reconstruction of Sephardic synagogues after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. Among these are four historic synagogues, such as the Kal Talmud Torah and the Eliahu Hanavi Synagogue, linked to legends of miracles that helped preserve the Jewish community under the Ottoman Empire. This revival symbolizes the cultural and religious resilience of Sephardic Jews in Jerusalem, who, despite the restrictions imposed by Ottoman authorities, managed to rebuild their identity. Through coexistence, albeit in difficult conditions, the Sephardic Jews established a lasting presence in the Holy City, standing out as a central part of Jerusalem’s Jewish identity.

[koenji]

Rachel Sofaer, Jewish actress in Kolkata, in the Bollywood classic 'Punarianma: A Life Divine' in 1932.

Her family of Baghdadi Jews had migrated from Iraq first to Burma and then India. When Rachel's father fell on hard times financially, he permitted his daughter to act under the name Arati Devi. She was accompanied to the set by her mother and married a Baghdadi Jewish man in 1933 at age 21, never again acting in a film. Her cousin Abraham Sofaer became a Hollywood character actor. x

[elder-millennial-of-zion]

1941

7 years before the establishment of Israel

4 years before the end of the Holocaust. During the Holocaust.

The Middle East’s hatred and persecution of Jews predates Israel and Zionism by centuries.

Tomorrow is Farhud Day, the day marking the violent ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Jews in 1941, equivalent to Kristallnacht and the Holocaust.

There used to be thousands of Jews in Iraq. The ancient Talmudic centers of Surah and Pumbedita were in Iraq. Jews in Iraq, and indeed most of the world, had never been treated as equal citizens, being subject to Dhimmi laws, but still the Iraqi Jewish culture flourished.

Today, it is estimated that there are only four Jews left in Iraq. Four Jews.

The Iraqi Jewish community is one of the oldest Jewish communities outside of Israel, and it was razed to the ground.

If you talk about the Holocaust but don't talk about the multiple ethnic cleansings and genocides of Jews in the SWANA region, you are being deliberately ignorant and antisemitic.

My ancestors lived and died and were buried in Iraq but I can't visit their hometowns and gravesites because they're all gone.

Remember Iraq's Jews.

[rw7771]

Watch "AishJewish" on YouTube