Sephardic Jews
The Latest
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News Little Sign of Change at Syrian Charities After Scandal
An organization that declared its intent to bring transparency to charitable donations in Syrian Sephardic Jewish communities has gone silent three years after its inception. Shortly after the July 2009 arrests of three prominent Sephardic rabbis who had used charity funds in a money-laundering scheme, the Sephardic Community Federation instituted a compliance plan for charitable…
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Books Discovering Louisa May Alcott’s Jewish History on Portuguese Tour
Louisa May Alcott was often told as a child that her dark hair and dark eyes came from her Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Her mother, Abigail May Alcott, who had similar coloring, had learned this from her father, Joseph May, a late 18th-century Boston businessman whose Portuguese Jewish ancestors immigrated to Sussex, England, just before 1500….
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Opinion Israel’s Shas, Right-Wing Kingmaker Party, Takes Sharp Turn to Left
Barely four months after the political earthquake of the January 22 Knesset elections, Israeli politics are about to undergo another seismic shift. This one will bring less drama, but it just might have a deeper impact on the system. The catalyst is Arye Deri, the onetime Haredi wunderkind and convicted felon, who returned on May…
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News African Island’s Lost Jewish Heritage
A Portuguese rabbi and a Moroccan diplomat stood shoulder to shoulder in a Catholic cemetery here while 200 mourners howled in grief as they buried a resident of this island off the western coast of Africa. The foreigners had come to Cape Verde’s main cemetery earlier this month not to bury a local, but for…
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Fast Forward Spanish Jewish Museum Opens in Granada — and Founders Wed at Opening
A Spanish couple that built a Jewish museum in Granada celebrated its opening day by getting married there. Gabriel Perez and Beatriz Cavalier got married during the dedication ceremony earlier this month of the Sephardic Museum of Granada – a small institution they set up in the southern Spanish city after years of fundraising and…
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Fast Forward Portugal Considers Giving Citizenship to Descendants of Jews Who Fled Inquisition
The parliament of Portugal is scheduled to vote on whether to naturalize descendants of 16th century Jews who fled the country because of religious persecution. The motion will be brought to a first reading on Thursday by Portugal’s Socialist Party and is expected to pass since it also is supported by the ruling Social Democratic…
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Fast Forward Venezuela Jews Dedicate New Sephardic Synagogue
The Jewish community of Caracas officially dedicated the Venezuelan city’s new main Sephardic synagogue, Tiferet Israel Este. Hundreds gathered Sunday at the multimillion-dollar synagogue in the Las Palos Grandes neighborhood for the ceremony led by Isaac Cohen, the chief rabbi of the local Sephardic community. “As Kohelet said, there is a time for everything,” Cohen…
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Fast Forward Spanish Town Holds First Seder Since Inquisition
A town in northern Spain is preparing to hold its first Passover seder since the areas Jews were forced to flee during the Spanish Inquisition of 1492. The festive dinner will take place in the old center of the town of Ribadavia on March 25 and is being organized by the municipality’s tourism department in…
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