By Barbara Winkelman, Special to The Jewish Sound Part two in a series about a new law that may allow Sephardic Jews to return “home” to Spain. Seattle’s Sephardic population has expanded exponentially since Vivian Kahn Blum’s grandparents, Behor and Behora Chiprut, arrived in 1909, yet it is too smallContinue Reading
By Shelley Adatto-Baumgarten, Jewish Sound Columnist Growing up Jewish-Turkish in Seattle, the eight-day festival of Passover was quite meaningful to me. Celebrating the flight from bondage in Egypt to liberation translated into a lot of holiday preparation. The Sephardim from Turkey were committed to the rules of grand hospitality andContinue Reading
By Barbara Winkelman, Special to The Jewish Sound Vivian Blum has a story to tell. It starts in Spain in the 900s, moves to Turkey in 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Spain, and lands in the United States in 1909, where it remains to this day. Soon thereContinue Reading
By Diana Brement, JewishSound Columnist “Just look on the cover,” was Rachel Almeleh’s response when I asked what her favorite recipe was in her just-published cookbook, “A Legacy of Sephardic, Mediterranean, and American Recipes.” There, a plate of lightly browned bourekas, plump with potatoes and two kinds of cheese, temptContinue Reading
By Shelley Adatto Baumgarten, Jewish Sound Columnist The festival of Purim falls on the 14th day of the month of Adar, which is early springtime. Purim, the Hebrew word for lottery, is a great cause for rejoicing. After all, we recall Queen Esther, after concealing her Jewish identity for the sakeContinue Reading
By Boris Kurbanov, Jewish Sound Correspondent Today, an estimated 40,000 Jews call Spain their home. But five centuries ago, the nation was home to one of Europe’s largest and most vibrant Jewish communities — a group that flourished before its expulsion in 1492. Those exiled Jews — who came toContinue Reading
By Rabbi Marc D. Angel, Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals The Shabbat of Hanukkah was observed among Sephardim of the Ottoman Empire as “Shabbat Halbashah,” the Shabbat of providing clothing for the needy. Traditionally, the rabbi would deliver a sermon that day on the mitzvah of charity and lovingkindness.Continue Reading
By Shelley Adatto Baumgarten, Special to the Jewish Sound “What makes a fried donut a birmuelo?” I recall my then 9-year-old daughter asking me at the beginning of the eight-day festival of Hanukkah. A birmuelo, I explained to her, is not simply a donut made from flour, water, yeast, sugarContinue Reading
By Tori Gottlieb, Jewish Sound Correspondent If you’ve ever heard the Hanukkah song “Ocho Kandelikas” (“Eight Little Candles”) you’re familiar with Flory Jagoda’s music. Next week, the 90-year-old Sephardic songstress will visit Seattle to perform that and other songs — some her own, and some passed down from generation toContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound Looking back on the past 84 years, Isaac Azose is most proud of the family he built. Next, he’s proudest of his books — the five prayer books in the Sephardic tradition of the Isle of Rhodes that he edited andContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound For the first three months of his life, Sophie-Shifra Gold’s son, Isaac, had bad reflux. Then at four months, he was diagnosed with low muscle tone, hypotonia. At the end of April this year, Gold got an official diagnosis for herContinue Reading
You and Your Genes — genetic screening Sunday, November 16, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. One in four Ashkenazi Jews is a carrier of at least one in 19 genetic diseases; one in three Sephardic or Persian Jews is a carrier of at least one in eight diseases. If you and yourContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound Jean (Mosseri) Naggar was 19 when her family received an expulsion notice. It was 1957 Cairo, in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, and Jews were fleeing Egypt en masse. The office they were to report to, ironically, was on aContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Correspondent, The Jewish Sound Although turning 40 is usually a time for review, the theme of the University of Washington Stroum Center for Jewish Studies’ 40th Spring Gala in May is “looking forward” even as it celebrates its last four decades of immense growth. In 1974, now-retiredContinue Reading
By Talia Bloch, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — The group of young Jewish professionals had gathered to participate in the revival of a Sephardic tradition hearkening back to the days of their grandparents and great-grandparents. Arriving at an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, they greeted eachContinue Reading
By Ty Alhadeff, Stroum Center for Jewish Studies It has been 40 years since Dr. Rina Benmayor visited Seattle to record romansas (ballads) among local residents of the Sephardic community. Dr. Benmayor followed in the footsteps of her mentors to capture the musical traditions that the Jews of Spain andContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick , Editor, The Jewish Sound It took more than 500 years of waiting, then six or so months of planning, and on Dec. 5, the last day of Hanukkah, the first International Ladino Day will take place in Seattle and cities around the world. “It came asContinue Reading
