Bemidbar – Making Census of the S&P
ב שְׂאוּ, אֶת-רֹאשׁ כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, The rabbinic name for Sefer Bemidbar is the same as its English name, ‘Numbers.’ The rabbis called it Sefer Hapikudim, ‘The Book of Countings,’ as […]
Category Archives: Academics
Research and Commentary on Topics of Post Expulsion Life
Ki Tetze -King Henry VIII’s Yibum
This week’s Torah reading is central to one of the greatest controversies in the history of England, the Levirate marriage of King Henry VIII, and Sephardim helped to cast the […]
Re’eh – Reform and the Western Sephardim
“Two Jews, three opinions” is nothing new to the Jewish community. However, a Biblical prohibition would seem to indicate that this isn’t a laughing matter. The verse states “Ye are […]
Passover and the Splitting of the S&P
On the 7th day of Pesah 1827, at London’s Bevis Marks Synagogue, the reading of the spitting of the sea also split the congregation. Typically, Haham Raphael Meldola read the […]
Curacao – The Caribbean’s Jewish Island
Even today, the signs are all still there. The Maduro and Curiel’s bank, the Senior Curacao Blue liquor, the Gomez store, the Penha building, and the Jewish year 5466 written […]
Jews and the Great Fire of London
In all of the recent fanfare surrounding the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London (2-5 September), I didn’t hear any mention of Jews. That’s for good reason. Jews […]
Conference on Jews and Slavery
This past October Potsdam University in Germany hosted a conference of interest to the history of the Western Sephardim . The title of the conference was ‘Colonial History – Sephardic Perspectives.’ […]
Geopolitics and the ‘Spanish & Portuguese’ Diaspora
My understanding of the ‘Spanish and Portuguese’ Jewish diaspora is now far more nuanced, having recently visited the S&P communities of London, Amsterdam and Paris, coupled with my intimate familiarity […]
Shalom Says Hello 