Mas’ei – Port Cities of Refuge
Port cities are central to the history of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews. To escape the Inquisition the Western Sephardim found safety in international centres of trade, such as Amsterdam, […]
Category Archives: Torah
Torah Thoughts Informed by my AshkeSephard Worldview
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 […]
Shofetim – Cutting Down Trees, People, and Monuments
Monuments mean something. They remind us of people and history. Sometimes they recall movements that are meaningful to some whilst not to others. Other times, they celebrate dictators or regimes. More […]
Tisha B’Ab 2017 – 200 Years Since Disraeli’s Apostasy
This year’s Tisha B’Ab marks 200 years since Benjamin Disraeli converted to Christianity. On 31 July 1817, Isaac Disraeli brought his son Benjamin to the baptismal font. Following a feud […]
Sephardic Jews and the American Revolution
The American Revolution pitted British subjects against one another. Patriots vs. Loyalists, Englishmen vs. Americans, brother vs. brother, and Jew vs. Jew. At that time there were only Sephardic congregations […]
Shelah – The Western Sephardic Talet
Once upon a time one of the most noticeable features of Western Sephardic worship was their distinctive talet, the prayer shawl worn by men during prayer. The S&P talet stood […]
Vayhi – The S&P and Ashkenazim
Narratives are important. The same series of events can take on a completely different meaning depending on how they are told. A prime example of this is the story of Yosef and […]
Vayigash -Goshen and the S&P
Jewish convention has it that when setting up a new Jewish community the first priority is to acquire a Jewish burial ground, then to establish a place of worship, and then […]
Vayishlah – Fighting Jews
The joke goes that the shortest book in history is on the subject of Jews in sports. Historians claim, however, that the first modern day sports hero was actually a […]
Vayetze -A Working Woman
King Solomon describes the ideal woman in his acrostic poem ‘Eshet Hayil (Proverbs 31:10).’ His female model, though, may come as a bit of a surprise. He describes her as a working woman, labouring […]
Shalom Says Hello 