## *YOUR SEPHARDIC PROBLEMS ANSWERED!*## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 1 MAY 2022*Do you have a brick wall in your Sephardic genealogy research? This week on Sephardic World we are putting on our doctors’ white coats and inviting you to share your problems. If possible, please post your questions in advance to our Patreon page. https://www.patreon.com/sephardi If you are not a member, you can share your questions here, or on YouTube during the meeting.The meeting is on Sunday 1 May 2022 at 11am in LA...
## *THE HOLOCAUST IN YUGOSLAVIA*## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 24 APRIL 2022*## *WITH ESTHER GITMAN****Esther Gitman*** is an American historian and expert on the Holocaust in Yugoslavia. She was born into the Sephardic community of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, in 1939 and her family fled the Nazi invasion when she was two years old. She earned a Ph.D. from City University in New York with a dissertation entitled Rescue of Jews in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941–1945. She received a Fulbright schol...
## ***SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 10 APRIL 2022***## ***WITH TON TIELEN AND DAVID MENDOZA***## ***RESEARCHING THE ARCHIVES OF THE PORTUGUESE INQUISITION***Most of the records of the Portuguese Inquisition survive, and much of this collection has been scanned by the Torre do Tombo, the Portuguese national archives. Searching is not as difficult as you might think. Ton and David provide a simple introduction. We shall focus on how to find relevant documents, what to prioritise when looking at Inquisit...
The Rules on Portuguese Nationality for Sephardim have changed. Here is the report by the Sephardic Genealogical Society about what is going on and what should happen next. https://www.sephardic.world/news/changes-to-the-rules-on-portuguese-nationality-for-sephardim?fbclid=IwAR2TogbMXD8KPkhnuXc81R3QC8nq9fVZ3ziYEV6K7MG_uXoK7dkm8jCtS3s
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 27 MARCH 2022*## *WITH JACOB MARRACHE*## *RABBIS, MERCHANTS, AND CONSULS -*## *THE MARRACHE FAMILY OF MOROCCO*After the Terras de Idolatria (Spain and Portugal), the Marrache family settled in Tetuán where they were rabbis and kabbalists. Subsequent generations led communities in Rabat and Tangiers, while merchants in the family moved to Gibraltar and Egypt. In the 19th Century, some of the Marrache became involved in international diplomacy. In Terra Santa, they were...
## *Judah Cohen Sikly, or Judah Cohen Scali *Daniel Cohen de Azevedo, Haham of Amsterdam, died in 1822. The Mahamad of Amsterdam struggled to find a replacement. One of the promising candidates was one Juda Cohen Sikly – as his name was written in meetings of the Mahamad and in several underlying documents.There was one problem, Dutch law required that he underwent a rabbinical exam by “het Rabbinaal College van Examinatoren”, an institution that was established in 1815. Sikly agreed to submit t...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 20 MARCH 2022*## *PORTUGAL'S NATIONALITY LAW - DOES IT ALL END IN AN AUTO-DA-FÉ?*Portugal introduced a law offering citizenship to Sephardim and people of Sephardic origin in 2015. The Sephardic genealogy community has long had concerns over the implementation of the law, but these were ignored. What was supposedly intended as reparation has quickly turned into something much darker.Questions over the award of Portuguese citizenship to Roman Abramovich by the Jewish C...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2022*## *WITH YEHONATAN ELAZAR-DEMOTA*## *SEPHARDIC TRADITIONS - WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THE PORTUGUESE JEWS?*It is customs and traditions that make a community unique. The Western Sephardim, also known as the Nação Portuguesa (Portuguese Nation) and Spanish & Portuguese Jews, were the community that experienced the Inquisition. What sets this historically small but important group apart? What is different about its liturgy, and why? What is uniquely Portugue...
## ***SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 6 MARCH 2022***## ***WITH TON TIELEN***## ***THE SEPHARDIC ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM***## ***IN THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE******Ton Tielen*** continues his review of the Portuguese-Jewish archives of Amsterdam, looking at Sephardim in the Dutch Golden Age.The Amsterdam archives are probably the most important resource for Sephardic genealogists, and Ton is an acknowledged expert on the subject. Ton will discuss the records between 1639 and 1728. The original three communities...
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## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2022*## *WITH MICHAEL WAAS*## *THE STORY OF SEPHARDIC SURNAMES: FRUIT TREES, CATHOLIC THEMES, AND ‘EXPERT LISTS’*Spain and Portugal's 2015 “Right of Return" citizenship laws for descendants of expelled Jews caused an explosion of interest in Sephardic genealogy. The laws addressed the descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492 and/or forcibly baptized in Portugal in 1496/1497.Many people interested in the possibility of an EU passport started to ask ...
## ***THE SEPHARDIC ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM***## ***SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY 2022***## ***WITH TON TIELEN***This week, ***Ton Tielen*** will provide an introduction to the Portuguese-Jewish archives of Amsterdam. Subject to the Internet working, this will be a live demonstration.The Amsterdam archives are probably the most important resource for Sephardic genealogists, and Ton is an acknowledged expert on the subject. Through the archives, he will discuss the history of the thre...
## ***TRADE AND PERSECUTION: THREE MERCHANTS BETWEEN LISBON AND LONDON***## ***SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY – 13 FEBRUARY 2022 - WITH CARLA VIEIRA****The trajectories of Gabriel Lopes Pinheiro, Diogo de Aguilar and Fernando Dias Fernandes*In February 1723, thirteen New Christian/Jewish merchants and businesses signed the paperwork of a ship transporting gold to the merchant John Goodall in England. At the time, most of the gold entering the English market came from Brazil via Lisbon. These merchants ...
## *THE SEPHARDIC DIASPORA - OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY*## *WITH DAVID MENDOZA - JARRETT ROSS -*## *MICHAEL WAAS – TON TIELEN*## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2022*The Sephardic Diaspora group on Facebook was set up in 2014 in response to how Sephardim were represented in the Ashkenazi-focused world of Jewish genealogy. We felt the need for a space for informed discussion on Sephardic genealogy and history. The Sephardic Diaspora has had successes in the world of academia and Jewish gene...
## *WILL THE REAL LOUSADA DUKE PLEASE STAND UP?!*## *WITH JULIAN LAND*## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 30 JANUARY 2022*Who is the legitimate claimant of the Spanish Lousada dukedom? Three families of alleged Jewish ancestry say it is them!Did the Baruch Lousada commit fraud in making the original claim?! Do the Barrow family descend from the Baruch Lousada? Julian Land discusses this eminent Victorian family whose members included mayors of two English towns and three British generals. Are th...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 23 JANUARY 2022*## *WITH PEARL FOSTER*## *JEWS IN GEORGIAN SOCIETY - THE LARA'S OF LONDON*## *THE EXTRAORDINARY LIVES OF THE LARA'S OF LONDON DURING THE GEORGIAN PERIOD*Abraham collaborated with Pitt the Younger’s government to reduce the National Debt. Esther’s husband was a good friend and benefactor of Horatio Nelson. Benjamin was the perpetrator of a huge lottery swindle and his brother, Moses, accumulated a large fortune. Charlotte Dacre and her father, "...
## *JEWISH PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN? *## *WITH TON TIELEN *## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 16 JANUARY 2022 *The idea of Jewish pirates was popularised by Ed Kritzler's book *Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean*. Ed was a much-loved personality with a deep interest in Jamaican history, but how accurate was his research? As well as his work, there has been a short film, a number of articles, and the phenomenon is all over social media. How much truth is there to it? Who are the people presented as...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 9 JANUARY 2022*## *WITH YITZHAK MELAMED*## *WHY WASN'T SPINOZA EXCOMMUNICATED?*The Herem against Spinoza is famous, but what is a Herem? Is it an ex-communication?In his talk ***Yitzhak Melamed ***will distinguish between fact and fiction in this milestone of Sephardic history. He will discuss the text of the Herem. Why did the leaders of a community that had itself faced persecution resort to this measure? Can we know their motivations?***Yitzhak Melamed*** i...
*SEPHARDIC WORLD, WEDNESDAY 29 DECEMBER 2021**SPEAKER: DAVID MENDOZA**SPAIN AND THE JEWS: FROM EXPULSION TO CITIZENSHIP*Iberian Jews were expelled in 1492, and Sephardim offered Spanish citizenship in 2015. How did Spain see the Jews during this 500 year period? What caused the shift from anti-Semitic Catholic zeal to putting out the welcome mat? Against the backdrop of Spanish history, ***David Mendoza*** discusses the evolution of Spain's attitude towards Jews.This meeting is being held this *...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 19 DECEMBER 2021*## *WITH FRANCINE FRIEDMAN*## *THE JEWS OF BOSNIA*Sephardim arrived in Bosnia from the Ottoman heartland in the 16th Century. Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied by Austria-Hungary in 1878, creating opportunities for the territory's Jews. After the First World War, in the 1921 census of Yugoslavia, 10,000 of Sarajevo's 70,000 inhabitants listed Judeo-Espanjol as their native language. The Nazis invaded in 1941. During the War, 10,000 of Bosnia...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 12 DECEMBER 2021*## *JEWISH CEMETERIES IN JAMAICA*## *WITH RACHEL FRANKEL AND JOSEPH DE LEON*## *LAUNCH OF THE DATABASE OF JAMAICAN JEWISH BURIAL GROUNDS*On Sephardic World this Sunday, the Jamaican Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Fund (JJCPF) are launching their database of Jewish burial grounds. Extensive cataloguing of the Jewish burial sites across the island took place from 2008 to 2017. 33 Jewish burial locations were recorded, which includes synagogue purchased ...
## *SEPHARDI WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 5 DECEMBER 2021*## *WITH ALAIN NEDJAR *## *SEPHARDIC GENEALOGY IN LIVORNO *The port of Livorno, in northwest Italy, was a major hub of the Western Sephardic diaspora. One of the oldest Portuguese-Jewish communities, Livorno served as a gateway between the Spanish & Portuguese Jews, other Sephardim, and Mizrahi communities of the Mediterranean. Trade networks spread as far as India in the east and the Caribbean in the west. Relying on the recent project mapping...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2021*## *WITH DAVID MENDOZA AND TON TIELEN*## *15 RESOURCES EVERY SEPHARDIC GENEALOGIST SHOULD KNOW*Where do you start when researching your Sephardic ancestors? This week ***Ton and David ***share their top fifteen resources for Sephardic genealogy. Many of these are accessible from your desktop. These range from national archives to specialist websites and indispensable books. While not a comprehensive list, this will help you get ahead in studyi...
## *Sephardic World Meeting, Sunday 7 November 2021*## *With Yves Fedida*## *Jewish Genealogy in Egypt*For over a hundred year there was a Jewish cultural flowering in Egypt, followed by the exiling of the community. ***Yves Fedida*** is the expert and tireless campaigner for Jewish heritage of Egypt. In looking at the community's genealogy, he will discuss its structure, including the nationalities held by members and their socio-economic situation. Much of the Egyptian Jewish archives have bee...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 31 OCTOBER*## *WITH BRIAN HAMM*## *THE PECULIAR CASE OF LUIS MÉNDEZ CHÁVEZ AND THE CARTAGENA INQUISITION*Luis Méndez Chávez was a Portuguese Jew tried by the Cartagena Inquisition in 1648 for attempting to smuggle a chest of Jewish books and liturgical items into colonial Venezuela, together with a boat full of African slaves. This voyage was one of the earliest attempts by leading Jews in Amsterdam to expand directly into Spanish territory in and around the C...