Posts by Schelly Talalay Dardashti
90 posts
BREAKING NEWS: Today, Spain finally passed its "Law of Return" for Sephardim. In the English version of the El Pais (link below in comments),: "Applicants need to produce either a Jewish community certificate or an ancestor’s marriage or birth certificate to support their Sephardic ancestry. They also have to demonstrate that they have some links to Spain through family, knowledge of Spanish, or ...
On June 11, the Spanish Congress is to vote on final amendments to Jewish citizenship law. This is from JTA. Again, there is NO official Spanish government list of Sephardic surnames. The "window of opportunity" for this law is three years (if not extended one additional year by the government) and takes effect in October 2015. If you share this article, please include this text along with the lin...
An interesting paper, with many names (see particularly pgs 8-12) and historical insights: "Between Iberia, the Dutch Republic and Western Africa: Portuguese Sephardic long- and short-term mobility in the 17th century" by Filipa Ribeiro da Silva."Most scholarship on early modern Jewish history has used the Portuguese Inquisition archives to study the persecution and diaspora of Jews and New Christ...
From the excellent article below, which details the very restrictive law (unlike Portugal's much easier law): Spain's Jewish federation has received more than 5,000 requests for information about the Spanish law. For now, they are telling would-be applicants to start gathering family history as evidence, to consider learning some Spanish and to think about establishing a link to Spain, said federa...
From the excellent article below, which details the very restrictive law (unlike Portugal's much easier law): Spain's Jewish federation has received more than 5,000 requests for information about the Spanish law. For now, they are telling would-be applicants to start gathering family history as evidence, to consider learning some Spanish and to think about establishing a link to Spain, said federa...
An interesting article on the birth of Ladino (Judezmo, Judeo-Espagnol, etc.), a language developed by Sephardic Jews in Spain before the Expulsion and taken with them around the world. This is from a presentation at a major conference at UCLA by Avner Perez of Israel, with many document images and background."Even while living in Spain, Jews used to write Spanish in Hebrew characters. Proof of th...
Mina (the Inquisition's most threatening Jewish dish) and a medieval haggadot exhibit made me change my mind. I wasn't planning to post today, just relaxing after all of yesterday's potchke'ing (to potchke - to do a lot of work) in the kitchen, but Janet Amateau's Sephardic cooking post on making the yummy ubiquitous Sephardic world's matza/meat dish - "mina" - and her visit to the Haggadah exhibi...
Portugal's parliament today (Thursday, 29 Jan 2015) approved the measure giving Portuguese citizenship to the descendants of those expelled so long ago. The ABC news link is below. The story quotes my friend James Harlow as well as others. Some 100 requests have been received.Conditions:--Portuguese rights will apply to those who can demonstrate "a traditional connection" to Portuguese Sephardic J...
Second annual Ladino Day (2014) at the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, University of Washington, Seattle. Read about this year's program on December 4, as well as a video on the highlights of the 2013 event. http://jewishstudies.washington.edu/sephardic-studies/ladino-day-2014-celebration-seattle/Professor Devin Naar of the UW Sephardic Studies Program is co-organizing it with Molly FitzMorris, ...
Thank you, Ton Tielen, for setting up this new group.
November 13-16, 2014 - Albuquerque and Taos, New Mexico. Please share with those who may be interested.
"Who Counts as a Sephardic Jew?" is a very interesting post by Asya Pereltsvaig, posted May 19, at the Languages of the World website. Well worth reading, it covers history, culture, even DNA. Read it here:
ANOTHER story, this time by BBC, on the citizenship law not yet voted on in Spain. It quotes international journalist Doreen Carvajal and others, spotlights trials and tribulations, etc. This one was published May 31 - read it here:
400 years after Portugal's Inquisition, there's a Sephardic family reunion - the da Costa family - in Amsterdam, spearheaded by Marina da Costa, an animated Surinamese Jewish woman who has become a passionate researcher of her family’s history"......Yet this was no typical family. The da Costas are descendants of four Portuguese Jewish brothers (Abraham, Uriel, Joseph and Mordecai who, with their ...
For those with interest in crypto-Judaic studies, and Sephardic Jewish history in general. Please share this with your contacts and organizations.The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies will hold its annual conference this year in Dallas from July 20-22, at the Hilton Anatole.For the latest updates, see the SCJS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SocietyForCryptoJudaicStudiesAn impressive group...