11th NY INTERNATIONAL SEPHARDIC FILM FESTIVAL
February 1 - 8, 2007

The NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival recently celebrated its 11th season this past February 2007. The film festival, a centerpiece of the public programming presented by the American Sephardi Federation with Sephardic House, continues to explore the varied and rich cultures, identities and widespread historical roots of the Sephardic Jews.

As in past years, this year’s film festival offered international and New York premiers, post-screening panel discussions moderated by filmmakers and scholars, and actors and directors from around the world.

Recognizing the growing impact and influences of Sephardim in the Israeli film industry, the 2007 festival spotlighted Sephardic Voices in Israeli Cinema featuring works of prominent as well as up and coming Israeli filmmakers.

Over the past three years, the NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival has gained unprecedented critical and public recognition and has become a one-of-a kind and important event in the world of Jewish film festivals.

In 2007 the Sephardic Film Festival expanded its reach three distinct venues: the Center for Jewish History in the Chelsea Neighborhood and the Manhattan JCC on the Upper West Side in New York, and for the first time showcased outside of the New York area as part of the Miami Jewish Film Festival in January.

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BACK TO BABYLON: 2600 Years of Jewish Life in Iraq

A Four-Day Conference, November 2 - 5, 2006 at the Center for Jewish History & Congregation Shearith Israel

Dedicated to the legacy of Meir Basri (1911-2006),  the last President of the Jewish Community in Iraq With Iraq so dramatically present before the eyes of the world, the American Sephardi Federation, in pursuing its mission to preserve and promote Sephardic culture, will offer its diverse audience a unique chance to go beyond the headlines, and to uncover one of the most fascinating chapters in Jewish history.

Photo: Gerard Alon

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 7:00PM
Annual Jack Calderon Memorial
** C o n c e r t **

HABRERA HATIVEET FEATURING SHLOMO BAR

One of the most dynamic ensembles in world music, Habrera Hativeet’s very formation in 1977 was a bold experiment in diversity that fused together artists with authentic Sephardic, African, Indian and Middle Eastern roots, time-honored songs from Andalusian Spain, Yemen, and Morocco, Hasidic chants from Eastern Europe, and contemporary Israeli poetry. Twenty-nine years later, "The Natural Gathering" still possesses a seemingly bottomless reservoir of uncompromising energy and creativity.

Admission: $18 general, $15 seniors, $10 students, ASF/SH and Museum members.
Buy tickets online at www.mjhnyc.org or call the Museum's box office at 646-437-4202 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage -- A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 36 Battery Place in Lower Manhattan.

Co-presented with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Part of our annual Performing Arts Series.

This Concert is dedicated to the Memory of Jack Calderon former Vice-President of Sephardic House.

Opening & Reception - Monday, April 3, 2006 7pm

Exhibition on view - April 3 - June 30, 2006

Cochin Diary: Jewish Life in Southern India
The opening night program will feature a talk by Jewish-India expert, Dr. Kenneth Robbins on The Jews of Cochin and Kerala. Reception will follow.

Photographer-anthropologist Joshua Eli Cogan conveys the spirit and evolution of the centuries-old community of Cochin, a small peninsula town in the Indian state of Kerala, where Jews, Hindus, Christians, and Muslims have lived side by side for generations. Our goal is to enlighten both the Jewish and non-Jewish public about the people and traditions that have so long distinguished this small Indian town.

Exhibition on loan from the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum.

Exhibition Opening and Reception
Admission: $25 general - $20 ASF/SH members, seniors and students / Suggested tax-deductible contribution $40.
Location: American Sephardi Federation with Sephardic House
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

Tuesday, March 28th 2006 at 6:00 PM

In Search of a Lost Ladino: Letter to Antonio Saura

    Book presentation

Photo by: Jean Marc de Samie

French writer Marcel Cohen is one of Europe’s greatest living authors. Poignant and richly textured, his prose has been widely published and has received accolades from the prestigious Académie Française. He will present his latest work which is both a haunting journey into personal and collective memory and a meditation on a dying language, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), and a dying way of life—that of the Sephardic Jews of the Ottoman Empire. In Search of a Lost Ladino includes a thoughtful essay, “Three Degrees of Exile” by translator Raphael Rubenstein as well as a series of ink drawings by the well-known Spanish painter to whom Cohen addresses his letter. The author originally wrote this touching memoir in the language of his childhood, Judeo-Spanish.

Location: At the Cervantes Institute
211 East 49th Street in New York
Admission is free. Seating is limited; reservations suggested. 212.308.7720

February 2-8, 2006

10th Anniversary of the NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival
10 Years of Cinematic Exploration of Sephardic Jewry

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS:
Live and Become (Va, Vis et Deviens); Radu Mihaileaunu; France/Israel, 2004; 143mins.
Audience Award winner of the Berlin Film Festival 2005 will open the festival on February 2nd. From director Radu Mihaileanu comes a poignant story of an Ethiopian boy airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp during 1984’s Operation Moses. Adopted by a Moroccan family in Israel, the film follows Schlomo’s conflicted journey into adulthood as he struggles with survival, a secret identity, and love. Actor Sirak Sabaha will be present for a Q & A.

Until Tomorrow Comes, New York Premiere; David Deri; Israel, 2004; 65mins.
Directed by David Deri, the film vividly depicts the realities of inter-generational conflicts in a dramatic and tender portrayal of a week-in-the-life of a beauty salon owner in the South of Israel facing the decline of her aging mother, the unraveling marital crisis of her daughter, and an unexpected courtship threatening her glorious solitude.

The Forgotten Refugees, New York Premiere; Michael Grynszpan; USA, 2005; 49 mins.
A documentary that traces the decline and disappearance of once vibrant Middle Eastern Jewish communities that had existed for over 2,500 years. Compelling interviews from modern day Jews from Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya, who quietly carry the memory, give insight into a destroyed civilization.

Secret Passage; Ademir Kenovic; UK-Luxembourg, 2004; 94mins.
Directed by Ademir Kenovic and starring John Turturro, the film is a period piece filled with intrigue and romance. Set in 16th century Venice, Isabel and Clara are growing up in a time of terror. It is 1492, and Spain has decreed that all Jews must either convert to Catholicism, go into exile or face trial and execution. Although forcibly baptized, the sisters are chased through Christendom until they arrive in Venice. It is in this great maritime empire, where opulence rhymes with tolerance, that Isabel organizes secret passages to the Ottoman Empire for refugees fleeing the Inquisition while Clara falls in love with a Venetian nobleman.

Love Iranian American Style; Tanaz Eshaghian; USA, 2005; 62mins.
The film first premiered at the festival in 2001 as a short entitled “The Persian Girl.”
Sexual purity, money, and a mother’s worries come together in Tanaz Eshaghian’s humorous documentary, offering a rare glimpse into the inner circles of the tightly knit Persian community in the United States. The film follows Tanaz, the narrator, a hip New Yorker whose Iranian family attempts to marry her off now that she’s reached the ancient age of 25. As they arrange dates with suitors, lament her liberal American upbringing, and agitate about the passing of youth, Tanaz explores whether she can find love in her own way.

Elias Canetti; Thomas Honickel; Germany, 2005; 59mins.
A "Spanish poet of German language," Elias Canetti grew up a polyglot, living at different periods of his life in Bulgaria, England and Vienna. He was born into an elite Sephardic family who when expelled from Spain in 1492, settled in the Ottoman Empire. His masterpieces “Auto-da-Fé” and “Crowds and Power,” are considered among the most original works of the 20th Century. The film will be followed by a talk with Gloria Ascher, Tufts University on Canetti’s Sephardic heritage.

A Matter of Time, NY Premiere; Serge Ankri; Israel 2005; 52mins.
The little-known story of the Jewish Communities of North Africa (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco) during WW II, revealing how, had fate not intervened, it was only “a matter of time” until they would share the fate of their co-religionists in Europe. While often considered a Jewish community “apart,” the film reveals through archival and contemporary footage and stills, and extensive interviews with surviving witnesses and historians, that these Jews too were very much in the thoughts of Nazi planners.

Salaam Shalom; Vanessa C. Laufer; Canada, 1999; 50mins.
A colorful film about the Jews of India that brings to life a remarkable history dating back two millennia. A microscopic minority living within a vast, varied nation, Jews who have been in India for thousands of years and more recent immigrants from Iraq and Spain, co-existed in an environment of tolerance and pluralism. With the declaration of Indian independence in 1947 and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, many of the Jews of India decided to “leave their home to find their home: their religious loyalty stronger than their national loyalty to India.”

The Garden of the Finzi Continis, Vittorio De Sica; Italy/West Germany, 1970; 94mins.
Adapted from Giorgio Bassani's 1962 semi-autobiographical novel, the film chronicles the gradual disintegration of the Jewish community living in Italy at the beginning of World War II. As Fascist persecution of the Jews escalates from the onset of Benito Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts in 1938 to the mass arrests and deportations in 1943, the wealthy Finzi-Contini family open their lush gardens to the persecuted friends of their daughter, Micol, and their son, Alberto. It is through the eyes of one of these friends, a middle-class, Jewish-Italian student named Giorgio, that the story of unrequited love, unfolds.

December 14 - 22, 2005, (See schedule below)

Victor Attar in
Golgotha

A stirring journey into the past of Albert, a Holocaust survivor from the Greek city of Salonica; a monodrama revealing, through the blending of video and music, the story of the Ladino–speaking Sephardic Jews who were sent to the Auschwitz and Bikenhau concentration camps.

The play is based on the character of Alberto Salavado, a traditional Jew from Thessalonica, Greece. When in 1943, Alberto with his wife and two daughters, were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, he alone survived. The play, set in Tel-Aviv at the end of Alberto’s life, shows him remembering some of the most dramatic moments in the hell of Auschwitz.

By Shumuel Refael
Adapted by Haim Idissis
Directed by Geula Jeffet-Attar

Play runs from December 14 -22, 2005
Opening Night
Benefi t Performance, 8pm
Performance followed by a discussion/commentary with Dr. Shmuel Refael,
Head of the Naime & Yehoshua Salti Center for Ladino Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. With the participation of the Consul General of Israel, NY and the Press Counselor of Consulate General of Greece, NY. Reception will follow.

Admission: $50
Includes a tax-deductible contribution of $35 to benefi t the Sephardic Greek
Holocaust Project which builds awareness of the effects of the Holocaust on Sephardic Jewry.

Sunday, December 18, 2005 at 2:30PM
Matinee Performance for Young Audiences and their Families
Performance followed by dialogue and commentary with the playwright.
Admission: $15 and $10 for students and seniors

Sunday, December 18, 2005 at 8 PM
Evening Performance
Performance followed by Flora Hogman, PhD giving a talk on “The Double Edged Sword of Memory: Issues and Conflicts Faced by Survivors Remembering their Holocaust Experience.”
Admission: $20 / $15 for students and seniors

To reserve tickets for December 14th and 18th performances,
please contact ASF/SH (212) 294-8350 / info@americansephardifederation.org.

For all other performances, contact La MaMa Theatre Box Office directly.

This presentation is made possible through the generous support of the Recanati Foundation, Norman Belmonte, Martin Elias, Leon Levy and other individual contributors.

Play runs from December 14-22, 2005

All performances at:
La MaMa Theatre
74 E. 4 St. - New York City
Box office: 212.475.7710

Monday, December 19, 2005

THE SYRIAN-JEWISH PIZMON LATE 19TH & EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

Dr. Kay Shelemay, Professor of Ethnomusicology, Harvard University

Co-sponsor: The National Foundation for Jewish Culture

Location: American Sephardi Federation with Sephardic House
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 7:00 PM

RETURN TO JUDAISM: CRYPTO JEWS (ANOUSIM) AROUND THE WORLD

Yaffah daCosta will join Rabbi Marc D. Angel of Congregation Shearith Israel to talk about an extraordinary and growing phenomenon of our time the desire of forcibly converted Jews or anousim from Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and parts of the Americas to return to the religion of their ancestors. Yaffah daCosta is founder and director of Ezra L'Anousim, a Jerusalem-based organization dedicated to reconnecting crypto-Jews with their Jewish heritage. Of "Anousim" background, the story of her discovery of and return to Judaism is fascinating and inspiring. Ezra L'Anousim is playing a vital role in reaching out to crypto-Jews throughout the world.

Co-sponsor: Congregation Shearith Israel

Admission: Free admission
Location: 8 West 70th Street, NYC

HONORING TURKISH DIPLOMATS- IN COLLABORATION WITH THE RAOUL WALLENBERG FOUNDATION

One in a series of four programs, to honor heroic rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust who came from countries where Sephardim lived for hundreds of years. Successive programs will focus on rescuers from Greece, Italy, and Spain.

Co-sponsor: Consulate General of Turkey
Admission: By Invitation
Location: The Turkish House
821 United Nations Plaza, NYC

CENTENNIAL SYMPOSIUM ON ELIAS CANETTI
A Symposium, Film and Readings in honor of the Nobel Laureate’s Birth

A "Spanish poet of German language," Elias Canetti grew up a polyglot, living at different periods of his life in Bulgaria, England and Vienna. He was born into an elite Sephardic family who when expelled from Spain in 1492, settled in the Ottoman Empire.
His masterpieces “Auto-da-Fé” and “Crowds and Power,” are considered among the most original works of the 20th Century.

12:00 Noon - U.S. premiere of film, Elias Canetti, by Thomas Honickel, (60 min./German w/ English subtitles); 2:00 PM-5:00 PM-Talks and debates with Gloria Ascher, Tufts University; Michael Taussig, Columbia Univeristy; Dagmar Barnouw, University of Southern California; Robert Elbaz, University of Haifa;7:30 PM-Readings, lecture and public dialogue with Claudio Magris and other guests. Moderator, Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania.

Admission: Film and talks & Evening Lecture, each: $20; $10 Students/faculty & ASF members. All-day pass: $35 (includes 10% discount at the bookstore and café)

Presented in collaboratioin with the Primo Levi Center and the Leo Baeck Institute.
For reservations call the CJH Box Office: 917-606-8200

"Losing the Rat Race, Winning at Life" - A book signing and talk with author, scholar and Senior Rabbi of the Congregation Shearith Israel, Marc Angel. Rabbi Angel, the author of numerous books and articles on Sephardi history and culture, will discuss his latest work Losing the Rat Race, Winning at Life.

Books will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

Admission: Free admission
Location: American Sephardi Federation with Sephardic House
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

The evening will feature a staged reading of the play Disobedience by playwright Luis Francisco Rebello which compellingly recounts the heroic efforts of Consul Aristedes de Sousa Mendes of Portugal in saving the lives of thousands of Jews during the Nazi regime. The performance is followed by a question and answer session with the playwright and a reception featuring a Portuguese Kosher wine and olive oil tasting.

The proceeds of this event will benefit the Jewish community of Belmonte, Portugal who is re-embracing Judaism” after secretly holding onto their faith for five centuries as a result of the Spanish Inquisition.

RSVP by June 1 to 212.294.8350
Admission and tax-deductible contribution: $50
Center for Jewish History (CJH)
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

May 26, 2005
Israel Independence Day and Lag B’Omer Concert

In celebration of the state of Israel’s establishment on May 14, 1948, this event features songs and melodies influenced by the Sephardic traditions of the Middle East, Andalus and the Orient. Co-sponsored with the Yeshiva University Museum; Congregation Sheartith Israel and the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue.

Location:
Center for Jewish History (CJH)
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

"The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature"
A never before collected anthology of fiction, memoir, essay, and poetry from 28 writers in 18 countries, dealing with resonant issues such as the status of minorities, opposing forces of religion and secularism, and the sting of prejudice.

Location:
Center for Jewish History (CJH)
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

Join guest speakers Rabbis Hayyim Angel and Yamin Levy, with moderator Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie, in a discussion of the continuing relevance of Maimonides’ life and philosophy. Meet author Dr. David Bensousan who will present his new book, A Jewish Wedding in Mogador: The Illuminated Ketuba of Mogador, Morocco. Presented by Yeshiva University in cooperation with the American Sephardi Federation with Sephardic House.

Location:
The Schottenstein Center
239-241 East 34th Street
(between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
New York

Location:
at the Hyatt Newporter • Newport Beach, California
For further information, please contact the Sephardic Experience at (949) 257-0897
or via e-mail at sephardicOC@earthlink.net