Sephardic Jews
The Latest
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Opinion My Sephardic Guilt on Kristallnacht
Postcard of Madeira While other Jewish families suffered unimaginable brutality in the Holocaust, my family lived like royalty in the Portuguese paradise known for its wine, Madeira. I know: I sound like an entitled, unsympathetic brat. And what I’m trying to say is, I feel guilty about this. I always have. Every time a Holocaust…
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Fast Forward Sephardic Chief Rabbi Forbids Israelis From Going to Temple Mount
An Israeli chief rabbi urged Jews to stay away from the Temple Mount to prevent bloodshed. Yitzhak Yosef, Israel’s chief Sehardic rabbi, made the call during the funeral Friday of Shalom Ba’adani, 17 who died that morning in hospital from wounds he sustained on Wednesday when a Palestinian terrorist hit him and 12 others with…
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Opinion Learning to Undo ‘Ashkenormativity’
Maimonides, one of the most famous Sephardic Jews, as portrayed on an Israeli banknote Like most Jews with ties to South Africa, my heritage is extremely Ashkenazi. In fact, both sides of my family largely originate from the same region of what is now northeastern Lithuania and northern Belarus. Growing up in New York, most…
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Fast Forward Jerusalem Elects Ashkenazi and Sephardi Chief Rabbis
The Jerusalem City Council elected two new chief rabbis, including Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the former chief rabbi of Israel. Amar was tapped as the city’s Sephardi chief rabbi on Tuesday evening. Rabbi Aryeh Stern was picked as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi. Both had the support of Mayor Nir Barkat. Stern is a modern Orthodox rabbi…
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Culture Columbus May Not Have Been First Jew in America
(Haaretz) — On August 3, 1492, just three days after the deadline given to Spain’s large and vibrant Jewish community to convert to Christianity or leave the country for ever, three ships – the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria – set sail from the port in Palos de la Frontera West. They were heading for the…
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Culture For Patrick Modiano, Nazi Occupation Offers Rich Backdrop to Tales of Trial and Triumph
Although London’s betting parlors had claimed the odds-on favorites for this year’s Nobel Prize for literature were Kenya’s Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Japan’s Haruki Murakami, the choice of France’s Patrick Modiano was good news for Jewish readers. In awkward English, the Nobel Academy referred to Modiano’s obsession with wartime France as the “art of memory…
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Books Patrick Modiano, French Sephardic Novelist, Wins Nobel for Literature
(Reuters) – Patrick Modiano, a Sephardic French novelist, has won the Nobel Prize for Literature as “a Marcel Proust of our time,” The Swedish Academy said on Thursday. French writer Patrick Modiano has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature for works that made him “a Marcel Proust of our time” with tales often set…
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Fast Forward Toledo Recalls Sephardic Past With Sukkot Festival
The city of Toledo in central Spain is launching a two-day cultural festival themed around the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The festival, which ends on Oct. 12, will feature Sephardic music; workshops on how to build a sukkah – a flimsy hut where Jews eat during the holiday in memory of their ancestors’ nomadic existence…
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