## *SEPHARDIC WORLD MEETING WEDNESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2023*There is no Sephardic World meeting today, Sunday, but we have a Patrons-only meeting this Wednesday, 1 November, at the usual time, 11am in LA, 2pm in NYC, 7pm in London, 8pm in Paris/Amsterdam, and 9pm in Jerusalem. The meeting link is being emailed to patrons. If you are not yet a patron and want to support our work, please go to: https://www.patreon.com/sephardiProfessor Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Centre at Lancaster University, will join us to discuss her work applying technologies including Global Information Systems (maps), Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, other aspects of Machine Learning and Corpus Linguistics approaches to early modern Mexican colonial archives. These cutting-edge ideas are directly applicable to our work with Sephardic genealogy.***Letter to the Portuguese Parliament***This coming week, we hope to send a message to the committee of the Portuguese National Assembly that is considering changes to the Sephardic nationality rules. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to drafting the message.***Help save Bevis Marks synagogue!***We need your help once again to put in place lasting protections to save Bevis Marks Synagogue and secure its future. Five minutes of your time can make a difference! The London congregation has been fighting for the City of London to protect the synagogue within a new conservation area. They now have the agreement of the City of London to put one in place, and they have launched a consultation that runs from now until 6 November 2023.However, the City has decided to consult on three boundary options for the conservation area, only one of which properly protects the synagogue and its setting. This is their third option, which we shall refer to as option #3. This option is based on a proposal that the synagogue originally submitted to the City for consideration, and for which the City’s own planning committee have shown strong approval.We won the planning battle two years ago to overturn a 47-storey proposal from the developers of 31 Bury Street. The building would have diminished the synagogue’s remaining light and overshadowed its historic setting. We now have an opportunity to ensure this kind of proposal can never happen again. This is critical as the developers are now planning to re-submit their tower proposal on the site with only the most minor of alterations. As Jews are a protected class, the City can do better.*We need the City to hear your voice!*The online consultation is now live. Please follow the link below to participate and select option #3. This includes 31 Bury Street as well as the historic locations of the Great Synagogue (1690), the synagogue of the resettlement (1657), and remnants of the London Wall, all of which are excluded from the City’s preferred boundary. Collectively, their inclusion will help ensure that the history of Anglo Jewry is protected and respected.Please click the link below to take part in the consultation. It only takes a few minutes. We have some talking points at the end of this message which you may consider in arguing in support of option #3, though we ask you to use your own words if possible.https://creechurchconservationarea.commonplace.is/Finally, if you are on social media, please share the consultation link and encourage others to select option #3 before the deadline of 6 November 2023.Suggested Responses1. This area very much deserves to be designated a Conservation Area. It is surprising it has not been designated as a Conservation Area before now.2. The heritage of the area is unusually rich, both in terms of Jewish history (Bevis Marks; the site of the first synagogue of the resettlement; and the site of the Great Synagogue) and Christian history (the Guild Church of St Katharine Cree and the church of St Botolph Without Aldgate). It is a great thing for inclusivity and community coherence that here both traditions can be celebrated and protected together.3. Protecting individual buildings can be achieved by Listing. The point of a Conservation Area is that is protects the settings and context of important buildings, and has an intangible as well as a tangible dimension. It is important that this Conservation Area is drawn widely enough to properly embrace the settings of all the Jewish and Christian sites (as well as the very important site of the Roman city wall).4. It is very clear from official guidance that buildings included in Conservation Areas don't have to be of specific heritage interest themselves. Indeed, they don't even need to make a positive contribution. They should be included if doing so makes for a more relevant and coherent Conservation Area. All the buildings shown in Option 3 should be included for these reasons.5. The Option 3 boundary is not arbitrary. It was drawn up by two experienced heritage experts commissioned by the Synagogue.6. 31 Bury Street is a highly contentious site. If redeveloped with a tower, as the owners would like, it would cause irreparable damage to the Synagogue. The City rightly rejected a proposed tower only a couple of years ago, but it appears the owners are going to try again. This makes it particularly important for the site to be included in the Conservation Area so that the heritage considerations can be given full weight if and when further planning applications are submitted.7. The argument that the existing building at 31 Bury Street is not worthy of inclusion is fallacious. It is an unremarkable piece of 1990s architecture that is respectful of its setting and makes at least a neutral contribution to the heritage value of the area. It must be included to ensure the Conservation Area has coherence, quite apart from the fact that its unsympathetic redevelopment has the potential to cause great harm.***There is no Sephardic World meeting this Sunday.***We thank all the participants at last Sunday's meeting to discuss the new proposed change in the Portuguese nationality law. We shall be writing to the committee of the Portuguese National Assembly.Using Facebook for Researching the Jews of Egypt. Jacob Rosen's lively and entertaining talk on researching Egyptian Jews is now available to watch on YouTube.*Best wishes**Ton and David**Sephardic World****Help save Bevis Marks synagogue!***