Sephardic Jews
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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News Meet the Congolese Politician with Jewish Roots — and Presidential Potential
The Democratic Republic of Congo is at a crossroads: Its next election, scheduled for the fall, could be the first open presidential race in 50 years. One rising star and potential candidate is a man named Moïse Katumbi, business tycoon and former governor of mineral-rich Katanga, in the south of the country. Katumbi is a…
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Opinion When Ashkenazi Jews Eat Kitniyot on Passover, Is It Cultural Appropriation — from Sephardim?
How do millions of Ashkenazi Jews react when, after hundreds of years, they finally get permission to eat kitniyot on Passover? We’re about to find out. Last December, the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards approved a teshuvah, a Jewish legal ruling, permitting the consumption of kitniyot on Passover. Kitniyot — foods like…
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Fast Forward Portugal Right of Return Law Breathes New Life Into Tiny Community
(JTA) — Five years ago, this city’s tiny Jewish community was so strapped for cash it couldn’t afford to fix the deep cracks in its synagogue’s moldy ceiling. The Jewish Community of Porto was also too poor to hire a full-time rabbi because of its small size (50 members) and the paucity of donors in…
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Fast Forward Spain King Honors 4,302 New Sephardic Citizens
Spain’s king honored Sephardic Jews at a ceremony recognizing a new law that confers citizenship on the descendants of those banished during the Inquisition. “Dear Sephardim, thank you for your loyalty,” King Felipe VI told representatives of Sephardim from various countries at the royal palace on Monday, The Local-Spain news website reported. “Thank you for…
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