eSefarad Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi
Conference Overview, Speakers and General Information
Conference information is subject to change. Please check back often! To register, click here.
Join us for our 25th annual conference — a secular venue
for the descendants of crypto-Jews, scholars and other
interested parties to network and discuss pertinent issues.
Our 25th year comes to fruition in Miami with a stellar assembly of speakers and artists. «This year’s conference promises to be a memorable one,» says conference chair Matthew Warshawsky, «thanks in part to the location and flavor of the convention site. Miami, after all, is the gateway to Central and South America and a great resource of crypto-Judaic history currently under exploration.»
We appreciate the many speakers and participants with Spanish language heritage who have contributed abstracts or committed to attend, all bringing their cultural legacy with them.
This year’s conference starts at noon Sunday with the SCJS-sponsored Genealogy Workshop presented by Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Bennett Greenspan and Genie Milgrom; and concludes on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.
Panels and round table discussions with SCJS members and other academics sharing their experiences, insights and personal stories is the foundation of the conference. This year, among our many honored participants, one panelist of note joining us is Jo Ann Arnowitz. The executive director and chief curator of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, Jo Ann will present a brief history of the Museum and an overview of more than 250 years of Jewish life in Florida. Through exhibitions and programs on the immigration and acculturation experience of one ethnic group as the example for all American families, the stories about the contributions of Jews to all areas of Florida’s growth inspire understanding and tolerance.
In addition to the intellectual stimulation we guarantee, we know you’ll find our arts contributors among the most captivating to date. Many thanks to our newest board member and conference arts coordinator, Ellen Premack, for adding such rich value.
Another highlight—and attendee favorite—is the Judy Frankel Memorial Concert, a musical program after dinner Monday evening. Open to the public; additional tickets sold at the door.
Meals and beverages are included with registration fees, beginning with the Sunday dinner event through lunch on Tuesday. Partial registration options are also available. Add to all this the sheer delight of Florida and its beautiful weather and surroundings, the excellent cuisine created for our attendees, and the camaraderie that’s always part of our reunions, and we feel confident you’ll be counting the days!
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Ainsley Cohen Henriques
“From Sepharad to Jamaica Over Half a Millennium:
The Uncertain Road of Return”
Jamaican Jewish history comes alive in Kingston, Jamaica, where images of families, art and ritual artifacts are found at the Jewish Heritage Centre. Jamaican genealogist Ainsley Cohen Henriques researched his own family tree and helped found the Jamaican Jewish Archives at the Center. He further founded the Jamaica Jewish Genealogical Society in 1999; a database with 25,000 names. Henriques’ first Jamaican forebearer, a Hebrew teacher, arrived from Amsterdam in 1745, followed by others in his Bellanfante family line. He is English, German, Sefardic and Ashkenazi. His last name is Portuguese.
In 2010, Henriques co-chaired The Jewish Diaspora of the Caribbean International Conference, attended by 200 scholars. Essays from the conference—on history, art, slavery, cemeteries, archaeology, architecture and religious authority—have been gathered in The Jews in the Caribbean (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization), edited by conference co-chair Jane S. Gerber, director of the Institute for Sephardic Studies at the Graduate Center of the City, University of New York.
MARTIN SOSIN ADDRESS*
David A. Wacks, Ph.D.
“Crypto-Judaism and the Question of Human Agency
in 16th Century Jewish Thought”
This year’s speaker for The Martin Sosin Address to Advance Scholarship in the Crypto-Judaic Arts is Dr. David A. Wacks,associate professor of Spanish and acting head of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon. His talk, «Crypto-Judaism and the Question of Human Agency in Sixteenth-Century Jewish Thought,» addresses how the experience of living as a Christian openly and as a Jew inwardly during the 16th century left a profound impact on Jewish thought, and how human action, not mere providence, drives the historical process.
FEATURED SPEAKER
Ruth Behar
“The Jews of Cuba: A Journey from Crypto-Judaism to the World Stage”
Known for her writing about the search for home in our global era, Ruth Behar is the author of The Presence of the Past in a Spanish Village; Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story and The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart. She is the co-editor of Women Writing Culture, a classic text on women’s literary contributions to anthropology. Writing in both English and Spanish, and always aware of her Jewish roots, she explores the convergence of cultures in ways that open new avenues for self-expression, especially for those who find themselves “in the between,” searching for meaning in diasporas and exiles.
OVERVIEW (subject to change)
All Panel Speakers and Sosin Artists
| Kathleen Alcalá Eugenio Alonso Jo Ann Arnowitz Stacy N. Beckwith Susana Behar Sonia Bloomfield Corinne Joy Brown Leonel Antonio Chevez Fuentes Jonatas Chimen D. DaSilva-Benayon Joshua Comenetz |
Schelly Talalay Dardashti Yehonatan Elazar-DeMota Harry A. Ezratty Marcia Fine Neil Manel Frau-Cortes Annette B. Fromm Anthony Garcia Bennett Greenspan Abraham Gross Gustavo Adolfo Guerra Reynoso |
Silvia Hamui Sutton Jesús Jambrina Yitzhak Kerem Marilyn Lande Abe Lavender Joseph R. Maldonado Genie Milgrom Yliana Tuck Enrique Valle Matthew Warshawsky |
SUNDAY ARTISTS PANEL*
Marilyn Lande and Jonatas Chimen D. DaSilva-Benayon
Visual artist Marilyn Lande is an active member of the Denver Jewish community as an educator and cultural arts specialist. As an accomplished sculptor and mixed-media artist, her goal is to broaden the view of what can be considered Jewish art.
“The Haggadah Transcending Time – The Story of Sephardic Jews” is Lande’s art book created to tell a story of Sephardic Jewish life in Spain and Portugal from the 10th century to today, reflecting where Jews and conversos lived creating positive Jewish lives. Montages and photographs from this book share her perspective of the past as seen from today. Lande is also known for her «Jewish History in Miniatures,» a view into Islamic life in the 1100s as well as Doña Gracia’s home in the 1500s.
Jonatas Chimen D. DaSilva-Benayon is a painter, sculptor, and performance artist. One of his main subjects is the Sephardic displacement of XV Iberian Peninsula and its contemporary consequences. He is also a published writer, with articles focusing on the crypto-Jewish experience. He is a contributing writer to the Journal of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian Crypto-Jews.
“An Artist’s Representation of the Crypto-Jewish Narrative: Displacement, Memory, and Legacy – 1500s to 2015 & Far Beyond” provides a memoir-style chronicle of the crypto-Jewish legacy of migration, persecution, adaptation, and return. Jonatas uses his own family as a starting point in the narrative, combining his family’s archives, memory, painting, sculpture, photos and performance-art into one installation piece.
MONDAY NOON CONCERT*
Neil Manel Frau-Cortes
“Lights and Shadows in the Songs of Sepharad”
Performance artist and scholar Neil Manel Frau-Cortes specializes in the Jews of Sepharad, their literature and music. His recital is a journey through the life of those who lived and loved, those who yearned, those who were lost in time, and those who struggled through the night without losing their identity and their connection to the Divine. From centuries of peace and prosperity to years of hiding and fear, the history of the Sephardic Jews has been marked by lights and shadows. Through the songs of these Jews, we will walk the path of exile and discover our own life in their experience.
JUDY FRANKEL MEMORIAL CONCERT – SUNDAY EVENING
Susana Behar
“Judeo-Spanish songs of life, love and longing:
A musical journey from Spain to the Ottoman Empire and beyond”
The Judy Frankel Memorial Concert highlights artists whose music has been influenced by their conversoexperience. For 2015, this favorite concert features vocalist Susana Behar. A world renowned recording artist and performer at prestigious music and folk life festivals, her captivating style ranges from intimate to engaging intensity. A rich Cuban/Turkish/Venezuelan heritage fuels Susana’s passion for her ancestral music: the old Ladino language, the harmonies and rhythms of island music, and the echoes of exile of faded Sephardic songs. This heritage demonstrates that all members of diasporas use music to remember who they are and that music has the power to unite cultural influences, innovations, traditions — and hearts. The public is invited.
*Made possible by grants from the Martin Sosin-Stratton-Petit Foundation.
WELCOME TO MIAMI!
Miami, a city that never sleeps, alive with Latin rhythms and big city sophistication, while offering every luxury of a world-class resort. Known for its beaches, its architecture, the art scene, its grand hotels, designer fashion, international cuisine and posh neighborhoods, this historic place has blossomed into a sophisticated community that’s full of visitors no matter the season.
Come early and make a vacation out of this conference. You can take a stroll on the edge of the beach; wake up in an ocean-front boutique hotel in a restored art deco building, or treat yourself to a full-blown resort. Later, visit museums (the Jewish Museum is worth seeing) and take a walk or a jog in a park with 360-degree views of the Atlantic Ocean.
Play 18 holes at a nearby golf course. The food everywhere is spectacular; the seafood caught daily. Sophisticated kosher restaurants abound too. If you’re ready to turn in early, we understand, but if your evening is just starting when the sun goes down, you can find a party every night.
Miami has evolved into an urban metropolis with all the amenities of a beach town and a big city; a grand mix of vibrant cultures surrounded by a natural wonderland with turquoise waters and skyscraper palms. Discover for yourself why Florida is the dream of many. Explore our treasures and see for yourself.
Go to cryptojews.com/miami2015 and register now for the 2015 SCJS annual conference, July 19-21.
