Sefarad vehaMizrah on the occasion of its 30^th year anniversary is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting on Wednesday, July 28 beginning at 19:30 p.m. Israel time.

Topic: Global zoom of some 27 Sephardi and Mizrahi presentations going from east to west every 20-30 minutes beginning in Israel and continuing throughout Europe and the Americas until the same evening on the west coast of the USA Pacific time.

 
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6968745676?pwd=RE84RDhyYy9CNzdsdytKS0R4T3Jvdz09

Presentations (ca. 20 minutes each):

1) Ambassador Dan Oryan, Israeli ambassador to North Macedonia and initiator of Bitola/Monastir cemetery restoration project, “The Jewish Cemetery in Bitola (Monastir) from the Perspective of the Israeli Ambassador” 19:50

2) Dr. Vlatko Janev, University of Skopje (from Tiblisi, Georgia), “The Jewish community in Skopje during the last century of Ottoman rule (1800-1912)”. 20:10 (21:10 in Tiblisi)

3)  Prof. Zvi Zohar, Bar Ilan University, “Are Israeli Mizrahi Rabbis still Sephardic? Reporting on a newly -begun research project”.20:30

4) Yagel Harush, paytan of Moroccan Jewry, Yerucham College Sephardi/Mizrahi studies program. 20:50

4a) Dr. Aviva Franke, Univ. of Koln/Jerusalem. “The Twenty-four Wards of the Priests in the Holy Temple as they appear in archeological inscriptions in Yemen”. 21:05.

5) Prof. Dov (Claude) Stuczynski  Bar-Ilan University, “New Christian `Men of the nation’: Judeo-Christian Identities”. 21:25

6) Dr. Margalit Bejarano, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “FESELA” (”La Federación Sefaradí Latinoamericana”) 21:55

7) Yossi Ohana, Kehilot Sharot Piyyut Project, Jerusalem. 22:15

8) Dr. Avraham Huli, “Greek Jewish Rescuers in the Holocaust, and growing up at Greek Jewish moshav Tzur Moshe”.22:35

9) Dr. Rami Kimhi, Ariel University, Sephardic filmmaker, film scholar, and film critic, ”Material Culture of the Land of Israel; In New Palestinian and Israeli Cinema”. 22:50

Musical interlude, Sarah Aroeste “Mi Monastir”. 23:05

10) Dr. Paul Isaac Hagoel, Thessaloniki (Salonika), “The Holocaust in Salonika”.23:10 (Israel), 22:10 Thessaloniki

11) Ken Blady, Berkeley, California, “From the Land of Frankincense and Myrrh: The Jews of Yemen”.23:30 Israel, 13:30 Pacific time, California

12) Nardo Bonomi, Florence, Italy, “The History of Sephardim in Italy”.23:50 (Israel), 22:50 Florence, Italy time.

13) Sydney Corcos, Jerusalem (from Essoueira, Mogador, Morocco), “The New Jewish Museum in Essoueira (Mogador) and the Corcos family”. 24:20 (Israel), 22:20 Morocco time.

14) Prof. Jose Tavim, University of Lisbon, “Portuguese Jews in Morocco and Cochin, XVI century”.24:40 (Israel), 22:40 Portugal time.

15) Prof. Shalva Weil, Hebrew University (broadcasted from Univ. of Cambridge, England) “The Jews of Goa”.  1 a.m, Israel time, 11:00 p.m./23:00 p.m. Cambridge, England time

16) Yosi Stepanski, archeologist, Safed, Israel, “Newly Discovered Sepharadi Epitaphs from the Tsfat (Safed) Cemetery”. 1:30 a.m. Israel time.

17) Dr. Shoshana (Susana) Weich-Shachak, Tel Aviv, “The Treasure of Sephardic Childhood Repertoire”. 2 a.m. Israel time.

18) Dr.Judith Roumani, Editor Sephardic Horizons, “"The online journal Sephardic Horizons in the contact of electronic publication; and an update on Libyan Jewish studies", Wash. D.C. 2:30 a.m. Israel time, 7:30 p.m./19:30 p.m.  Wash DC, EST)

19) Dr. Annette Fromm, Miami, anthropologist and museum curator, “We are a minority among a minority, the romantization of the Romaniotes”. 8:00 p.m./20:00 p.m. Miami, FL. EST

20) Dr. Judith Cohen, Toronto, musicologist and Judeo-Spanish singer “Around the worlds of Sephardic music in 20 minutes”, 8:30 p.m./20:30 p.m. Toronto, Canada

21) Dr. Hernan Rodriguez, author, Santiago, Chile, “Kultura Sefardi Biva”. 9:00 p.m./21:00 p.m. Santiago/Chile. Equivalent to EST. 

22) Prof. Henry Green, Univ. of Miami, “Sephardi Voices: the Untold Story”.9:30 p.m./21:30 p.m. Miami, Florida EST

23) Prof. Victor Friedman, University of Chicago, “Judezmo in Macedonia”.

9:00 p.m./21:00 p.m. (Central time).

24) Arthur Benveniste, Los Angeles, CA, Editor “Halapid” (Crypto-Jewish studies), “The History of the Sephardim in Los Angeles”. 7:30 p.m./19:30 p.m. Los Angles, CA, Pacific time. (20:30 Mountain time)

25) Dr. Seth Ward, Univ. of Wyoming, Denver, Colorado, “Anusim Descendants in Contemporary Colorado and New Mexico, USA: a talk celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Sephardic Newsletter”. 9 p.m./21:00 p.m.  Mountain time, Denver, Colorado.

26) Prof. Ethan Katz, University of California, Berkeley. Historian on North African Jews in France, and Operation Torch in North Africa during WWII.  8:30 p.m./20:30 p.m. Pacific Time, Berkeley, California.

Conclusion: Prof. Yitzchak Kerem, 7:00 a.m. (Jerusalem), 21:00 PST, 22:00 Mountain time, 23:00 Central Time, 24:00 EST.

Foundation for Jewish Diversity, Los Angeles

The Heritage House for the Sephardic and Eastern Communities (Beit Maksim), Jerusalem

A TASTE OF JEWISH MUSIC FROM—ANYWHERE: JAFFA

(in the musical / film Kazablan)

Seth Ward

22 February 2021

FOOD AND DRINK

Each program in this series has featured food and drink—a recipe and a drink recommendation. These are somewhat obvious for Kazablan. This movie is often called a “Bourekas” film—a moniker for melodramatic films from the 1960s through 1970s and 80s that focused on ethnic tensions, and featured Sephardic and Mizrachi characters. Similar films portraying largely Ashkenazi communities were sometimes called “Gefilte Fish” films—also appropriate for Kazablan which features a memorable scene with this Ashkenazi favorite. Here is a recipe for Bourekas.

I adopted this recipe from a number of online sources. One of these is Tori Avey’s website:

https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/cheese-bourekas/.

Avey linked Bourekas to Purim. “These Cheese Bourekas are also a fun recipe option for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Purim. Purim is sometimes celebrated with a meatless menu in honor of Queen Esther, who became a vegetarian to keep kosher in the palace of her non-Jewish husband King Ahasuerus. Stuffed foods are traditional for Purim, as are triangle-shaped foods. These Cheese Bourekas are both triangular and meatless, making them a great choice for your Purim menu!”

Avey may have something here: Bourekas are similar in some ways to kreplach, although kreplach would normally be meat-filled, and boiled rather than baked. While I imagine most readers of this recipe are most familiar with kreplach on Erev Yom Kippur, most sources indicate that kreplach are eaten on Hoshana Rabba and Purim as well.

In order to make the bourekas Pareve, I used margarine rather than butter. Similarly, I made the filling without cheese.

BOUREKAS RECIPE

Pastry Dough

·        1 cup cold unsalted margarine (about half a tub)

·        1 teaspoon coarse salt

·        1 tablespoon olive oil

·        2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)

·        3 tablespoons ice water

Combine all the ingredients except the water in a food processor.  Add a little water, then pulse, continue until dough rolls up into a ball.

Pack the dough into a plastic container or wrap in plastic and refrigerate for ½ hour or more.

Filling

·        2 russet potatoes 

·        ½ to 1 cup mushrooms, carrots or other vegetables

·        2 large eggs

·        Salt and pepper, spices to taste

·        1 large egg yolk; 2 teaspoons water

·        1 tbsp sesame or poppy seeds for topping (optional)

·        Sesame seeds

·        Nonstick cooking oil spray

Preheat oven to 350; put parchment paper on baking pan(s)

Microwave potatoes until just able to be mashed; mash

Add mushrooms or other vegetables to taste, 2 eggs, salt, pepper and other spices.

Roll out pastry dough 12” X 12” or 12” x 8” sheets. There should be 2 if doing 12” x 12”, or 3 if 12” x 8” sheets.

Cut into 4” x 4” squares – this makes about 18 such squares, place on baking pan

Put filling on a corner of the dough: try to fill half the square along the diagonal

Fold one corner to the other, to make a triangle.

Use a fork to make indentations in two sides of each one

Mix egg yolk with a little water, brush onto each boureka, top with sesame seeds

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Enjoy!

Fans of the film should also consider Almonds and pistachios, baklava, gefilte fish and of course… goulash!

DRINK

Arak.

In the film, if you look closely, you can see glasses with a white liquid: add water to Arak and it turns white. However, you can also drink it straight or over ice.

SONG SHEETS

The song sheets that follow were taken from Internet sources and from Dovi Seltzer, Oseh Ha-Manginot, ”The Melody Maker” (Kineret, 2010), which includes a biographical narrative by Seltzer, words and musical notation for many of his songs, and comments on much of the music. Sometimes there are differences between the Hebrew texts and the transliteration in the musical notation, or the wording sung on the film.

YAFO
Words: Amos Ettinger. Music: Dov Seltzer

Some may be interested to note that the lyrics and music for this section are in Melody Maker but not in the film. Here is the score for this section:

ROSA ROSA

Lyrics: Haim Hefer, Music: Dov Seltzer

This song was not in the stage musical. Seltzer writes that he composed it for Yehoram Gaon’s first solo performance; Israel Broadcasting (Kol Yisrael) “didn’t get the joke” but the public loved it and demanded Gaon sing it in his concerts. Note that Hefer wrote a third verse that was not included in the film. Interestingly, Yehoram Gaon sings about opening a store to sell “almonds and raisins” in the film, and not the pistachios of the published lyrics.

I chose this song, a great production number, largely because it is the piece my students at the University of Wyoming typically remember best, both in terms of the refrain and the critique of the gap between democracy’s promise and reality.

DEMOCRATIA

   Lyrics: Amos Ettinger, Music: Dov Seltzer

Kol Ha-Kavod is probably best translated as “congratulations for this honor!” or “great job.” This song is last on the list only because it was covered recently in the Colorado Hebrew Chorale’s program on Yehoram Gaon, in the Marvelous Musical Men series.

KOL HAKAVOD

Lyrics: Dan Almagor, Music: Dov Seltzer