Sephardic Jews
The Latest
-
Life Crossing the Bosphorus: My Great-Grandmother’s Sephardic Memoir
Exactly one hundred years ago, on September 8th, 1916, my great-grandmother Estrella penned the last entry in her French notebook. At the time she was attending an elite preparatory school for Jewish students in Paris. Like hundreds of other Sephardic teenagers from around the Mediterranean, Estrella had been plucked from her tiny Jewish community on…
-
Fast Forward After Brexit, 300 British Sephardic Jews Seek Portugal Citizenship
— One of Portugal’s Jewish communities said it was observing an increase in requests for naturalization by British Jews following the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union. About 300 British Jews who are descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews requested Portuguese nationality from the Porto Jewish Community, compared to five before the June 23…
-
Fast Forward Shearith Israel Will Appeal Loss in $7M Shul vs. Shul Feud With Touro Synagogue
— Congregation Shearith Israel in New York will appeal a federal court ruling last month stripping its control of the historic Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island. The Manhattan congregation filed a notice Tuesday saying it will appeal to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an effort to reverse last month’s decision concerning its…
-
Fast Forward 1941 Baghdad Pogrom Commemorated With Candle Lightings
WASHINGTON — The author of a work on the Nazi-era massacre in Baghdad believed to have precipitated the Jewish exodus from Iraq is commemorating its 75th anniversary with candle lightings in four cities. Edwin Black, who in 2010 published “The Farhud,” about the June 1-2, 1941 massacre of at least 180 Jews in Baghdad, will…
-
News Turkish Jews Proudly Defend Last Sephardic Homeland — Even as Some Flee
A prominent Turkish-Jewish businessman and politician, Cefi Kamhi is chairman of an Istanbul-based consulting agency and television distribution company. He heads three councils for Turkey’s foreign economic relations board, and represents his home country in the European Jewish Parliament. His wife is Muslim. Yet after several assassination attempts, Kamhi is under 24-hour police protection to…
-
Opinion Inside the Western Hemisphere’s Only Romaniote Synagogue — and Its Greek Jewish Festival
Most of the year, the stretch of Broome Street between Allen and Eldridge Streets, on the Lower East Side in New York City, is fairly quiet. The majestic Kehila Kedosha Janina overlooks Chinese restaurants and repair shops as cars and motorbikes speed by on Allen Street’s southbound branch. But this Sunday, the block was crowded…
-
Fast Forward Rhode Island Congregation Wins $7M Shul vs. Shul Legal Battle Over Shearith Israel
The Rhode Island congregation that worships at the United States’ oldest synagogue owns that house of worship and its assets, a federal judge ruled on Monday, rejecting a New York synagogue’s claim to oversight. The ruling follows a four-year legal battle that began when members of the Touro Synagogue in Newport tried to sell a…
-
Opinion Jews of Color Get Personal and Political at First-Ever National Gathering
If you want to get black Jews, Mizrahi Jews and a Palestinian-American Muslim to burst into tears at the same time, invite Yavilah McCoy to talk about hair. Speaking at the opening plenary of the Jews of Color National Convening, which took place May 1–3 in Manhattan, McCoy gestured at the woman beside her, a…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Trump to ‘defend the rights of Christians,’ announces new faith initiative led by controversial televangelist
- 2
Music Critics say Kendrick Lamar was too loud and hard to understand — they said the same thing about Bob Dylan in Newport
- 3
Music In lawsuit, Drake accuses Kendrick Lamar of picking on ‘Jewish heritage’
- 4
Opinion Yes, Trump’s Gaza plan is outrageous. It could also be just what the Middle East needs
In Case You Missed It
-
News Burned trees, traumatized animals: Nature is revealing the unseen effects of Israel’s wars
-
Opinion Trump’s mind-bending Middle East gambit: Egging Netanyahu on, from the right
-
Fast Forward JD Vance to visit Dachau on Thursday, the latest VP to tour the Nazi camp
-
Culture Kosher cannabis? These gummy edibles have a rabbi’s seal of approval — and a following
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism