## *Today!*## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, 18 APRIL 2021*## *WITH SCHELLY TALALAY DARDASHTI*## *SEPHARDIC RESEARCH: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE*The genealogy landscape has dramatically changed over the last twenty years. Many Sephardic genealogists are too young to remember life before the Internet. This week we want to look at how things have changed, and speculate about where genealogy is heading. We are delighted to welcome the person whose career helped define these changes.***Schelly Talalay Dard...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 11 APRIL*## *DATA MINING THE DECEASED*Is there a downside to genealogy? What happens to our shared family trees and DNA samples? This Sunday, Sephardic World hosts ***Professor Julia Creet,*** a critic of the genealogy industry. Her documentary film, ‘Data Mining the Deceased’, is essential viewing for genealogists. If possible, please watch it before the meeting. It is an important view that deserves consideration by the genealogy community.http://juliacreet....
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 11 APRIL*## *DATA MINING THE DECEASED*Is there a downside to genealogy? What happens to our shared family trees and DNA samples? This Sunday, Sephardic World hosts ***Professor Julia Creet***, a critic of the genealogy industry. Her documentary film, ‘Data Mining the Deceased’, is essential viewing for genealogists. If possible, please watch it before the meeting. It is an important view that deserves consideration by the genealogy community.http://juliacreet....
## *Today!*## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 21 MARCH 2021*## *THE FARHI OF THE LEVANT*Alain Farhi's Les Fleurs de l'Orient website has long been a valuable resource for Sephardic genealogists researching families from the Ottoman Empire.Alain joins us to share his decades of research on the Farhi family, from 13th Century France to the Ottoman Empire and Syria.Alain Farhi is a well-known personality in Jewish genealogy. He started tracking the Farhi families in the early 1980s. His Les Fleurs...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD, SUNDAY 2021, MARCH 14*## *AMSTERDAM - BOOKSTORE OF THE WORLD*Jews are the People of the Book. ***Emile Schrijver*** is the *General Director of the Jewish Historical Museum and the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam.* He is a world expert on Jewish culture and history in the Netherlands. We are privileged to welcome him to discuss Sephardic printers, booksellers, and readers in Amsterdam.The Netherlands had been a publishing and literary superpower since the 17th Century. ...
BREAKING NEWS!THIS IS THE DAY THE AMSTERDAM CITY ARCHIVES CHANGES THE WAY WE SEARCH FOR INFORMATION IN HANDWRITTEN DOCUMENTS.From the new website:Amsterdam City ArchivesSearch here for the first time in detail hundreds of thousands of handwritten pages from the Amsterdam notarial archives of the 17th and 18th centuries. This collection contains the results of the project "Crowd Leert Computer Lezen", in which volunteers made and corrected transcripts in order to train computer models in Handwrit...
## *Sephardic World Meeting- Sunday 7 March 2021*## *Sephardim in the Atlantic World - Jessica V Roitman*This week we have an opportunity to put questions directly to a world expert in Sephardic research. ***Jessica V Roitman*** is the newly appointed Professor in Jewish Studies at the *Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.*Her current research focuses on Sephardim in the Atlantic World, including the intersection of colonialism and Judaism. She examines themes such as the self-fashioning of communitie...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING 28 FEBRUARY*## *THE ALLIANCE ISRAÉLITE UNIVERSELLE - SOURCES FOR SEPHARDIC STUDIES AND GENEALOGY*Researching Jewish communities around the Mediterranean is challenging. Many archives have been destroyed, lost or confiscated. However, the records of the Alliance Israélite Universelle sit safely in Paris.The Alliance Israélite Universelle was founded in 1860 by a group of French Jews, the majority of them being Ashkenazim from Alsace. However, the school network of th...
## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 21 FEBRUARY*## *JEWISH GENEALOGY IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE*The vast Ottoman Empire was home to a variety of Jewish communities. This week ***Michael Waas*** will discuss available resources for genealogical research of Jewish families in that vast territory that at one point reached the gates of Vienna. Michael will discuss how to access resources, and what results you can expect to find. He will illustrate the talk with a couple of case studies from his own famil...
## SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 14 FEB WITH ALEXANDER BEIDER## JEWS IN THE MAGHREB: THEIR SURNAMES AND THEIR ROOTSJews in North Africa – the Maghreb - have multiple origins including Berber, Musta’arabi, and Iberian. It is often difficult to identify which family fits in where. Alexander Beider will discuss how he has approached the challenge. He will share case studies, including examples of names derived from Arab and Berber tribes, and Jews of the Sahara. He will also discuss Sephardi migr...
SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 14 FEB WITH ALEXANDER BEIDERJEWS IN THE MAGHREB: THEIR SURNAMES AND THEIR ROOTSJews in North Africa – the Maghreb - have multiple origins including Berber, Musta’arabi, and Iberian. It is often difficult to identify which family fits in where. Alexander Beider will discuss how he has approached the challenge. He will share case studies, including examples of names derived from Arab and Berber tribes, and Jews of the Sahara. He will also discuss Sephardi migrations...
***SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING SUNDAY 7 FEBRUARY******A JOURNEY THROUGH CURAÇAO’S JEWISH HISTORY******Ron Gomes Casseres*** gives a brief history of the Jewish community of the Caribbean island of ***Curaçao***, the longest surviving Jewish community in the Americas. In the early days there were more Jews in Curaçao than in all of the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Ron will discuss the history of the Curaçao Jewish community, its heritage and traditions. He will show us sites of Jewish interest, as...
## **THE DNA OF THE SEPHARDIC DIASPORA – EARLY EVIDENCE**Who are we? By popular demand, ***Adam Brown*** returns to discuss the current state of knowledge on the origins of the Sephardim, how we fit together, and how we fit within the wider Jewish world. He will provide an overview of the field and will then focus on the Western Sephardim (the Spanish & Portuguese Jews) and communities in Morocco and the Americas.We are hoping that Adam will be joined by two other experts in the field, ***Michae...
*Sephardic World Meeting with Thierry Samama, Sunday 24 January*## SEPHARDIC JEWS IN CONSULAR AND DIPLOMATIC ARCHIVESThroughout history, Sephardic Jews interacted with foreign diplomats for political, business, or personal reasons. These interactions have left oceans of written records in diplomatic archives worldwide. What types of records exist, where can they be found, which ones will yield the most valuable information, and what historical or genealogical insights can we gain from them? The ...
## ***SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING - SUNDAY 10 JANUARY***## ***THE DUTCH PIMENTEL FAMILY - HISTORY AND HOLOCAUST***This week we bring you three expert speakers.The Pimentel are one of the oldest Sephardic families in The Netherlands. ***Henk Dijkman** *will discuss the family history, stretching back to Medieval Spain. ***Fokko Weerstra** *tells the story of Jacques Pimentel during the Shoah. Along with some other Sephardim, he tried to use his distant Catholic ancestry to escape deportation to Polan...
## ***SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 3 JANUARY 2021***## **DAVID BARUCH LOUZADA - A SEPHARDIC LIFE**Happy New Year! Our first talk of 2021 showcases what we can all achieve through innovative research.David Baruch Louzada (1640-1699), like other Sephardim of his generation, was an ordinary person living in extraordinary times. His life has been researched by his descendent, ***Julian Land***. Julian will discuss not just David's family and commercial life, but also his social and communal activ...
## ***Sephardic World Meeting -Sunday 27 December 2020 with Abigail Green***## ***SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE - JEWISH LIBERATOR AND IMPERIAL HERO******Sir Moses Montefiore*** is a giant of Jewish history. He was a British financier, philanthropist, Sheriff of London, and close to Queen Victoria. He was a member of Bevis Marks synagogue - where his seat is now reserved for VIPs - and President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He was key in unifying British Sephardim and Ashkenazim, and also wa...
## SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING SUNDAY DECEMBER 13## **FROM PORTUGAL TO JAMAICA - THE DELGADO STORY**Steve Delgado Porter has traced his Delgado ancestry from Jamaica back to Portugal. He shares the family history, and the sources used. The family includes famous poets such as João Pinto Delgado, rabbis such as Haham Moses Cohen D'Azervedo, and men of business. As well as Portugal and Jamaica, there are family links to Hamburg, Amsterdam, and London.Jamaica has become a major focus in Sephardic gene...
> **Sephardic World Meeting, Sunday, December 6**> **"My Heart is in the East..." Financial support for Eretz Israel from the farthest West**Support for the Jewish community in Terra Santa was one of the earliest obligations the Amsterdam and London Jewish communities took upon themselves. They placed great value in fulfilling this charitable obligation over the course of centuries. The money ensured that a large number of Jews and Jewish institutions could survive in Ottoman Palestine. Ton Tie...
SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING, SUNDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2020**The De Sola Mendes family and the Portuguese Inquisition**Dr Florbela Veiga Frade has studied this famous family in Inquisition records, including those who escaped and those who stayed and suffered at the hands of the Inquisition. Sephardic family histories tend to focus on that part of the family that left.Using documents from the Inquisition archives, Florbela, a recognised expert on Early Modern Sephardic history, brings us a more rounded sto...
**Sephardic World Meeting Sunday 22-11-2020****Moroccan Sephardic Migration to England in the 19th Century****With Sidney Corcos**During the 19th Century, many Sephardic families from the city of Mogador/Essaouira in Morocco migrated to England where they became part of the rich fabric of the Jewish community. Sidney Corcos was born in Agadir and left Morocco for Israel as a child. He served as director of the Natural History Museum in Jerusalem and is currently working on the new Beit Dakyra mu...
## SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING 15 NOVEMBER 2020**From Glory to Dispersion - The Sephardi Lisbona family from Damascus**David Lisbona will discuss the history of his Sephardic ancestors who originated in Portugal and later settled in Damascus, a major city on the Silk Road. The 'Franco' Sephardic community maintained a distinct identity from the indigenous Arabic-speaking Jews. Using available historic and genealogical sources, including records new to us, David tells the remarkable story of his fami...
**This Sunday: Menasseh ben Israel vs. The Rabbis**## **SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING WITH STEVEN NADLER**Do you think conflicts within Jewish communities are something new? It is possible that the re-admission of Jews to England was a consequence of a squabble between Amsterdam's leading rabbis.With the merger of the three original Amsterdam Sephardic communities, the city found itself with four rabbis. All of them were strong characters. Inevitably, there were disputes over who had religious authori...
## ***LIBYAN JEWS IN THE MAELSTROM OF MODERN HISTORY******Sephardic World Meeting on Sunday 25th October 2020***A frequently overlooked part of modern Jewish history, the Holocaust and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries, is this week's topic, looking at the experience of Libyan Jews. The Holocaust and post-War politics in Libya led to the destruction of an ancient Jewish community.We are delighted to be teaming with Sephardic Horizons. Judith Roumani of Sephardic Horizons will introduce our t...
## SEPHARDIC WORLD **MEETING SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2020**> **THE JEWS OF ITALY**Luca Ascoli shares his knowledge on researching Jewish families in Italy, including sources often unknown to researchers outside Italy. There were several Jewish communities in Italy, including those with ancient roots such as Rome, Portuguese Jews in Livorno, and mixed communities in Venice and elsewhere. Italian Jews spread around the world, including families such as Montefiore and Disraeli to London.There were sig...