UW Sephardic Studies events – FEB-MAR 2018

As the Ladino refran, or proverb, tells us: Un anyo mas, un sehel mas. Another year, another piece of knowledge. We write today with an update about our new undertakings this year. For highlights from 2017, please check out our report here.

Featured Program:

Sunday, 2/25, 1 pm: Scholar Devin Naar in conversation with musician Sarah Aroeste about Ladino culture across the generations 

Find out what drew them to the exploration of Sephardic culture and what their visions for the future are. Part of the Seattle University «Search for Meaning» Book Festival; sponsored by Maureen and Joel Benoliel. Free and open to the public. Details here. RSVP requested — for a reception featuring Sephardic treats!

Sunday, 2/25 at 7 pm: Sarah Aroeste will be performing Ladino songs live at the Summit First Hill in Seattle. Hosted by the Seattle Sephardic Network. Limited space; free, but reservations required. Details here.

Monday, 2/26 at 10 am: Sarah Aroeste will perform her kids Ladino songs at Temple Beth Am in Seattle. Get the little ones dancing and singing in Ladino. Sponsored by the SEED Early Childhood School and the Seattle Sephardic Network. Open to the public. Contact SEED at Beth Am for more information here.

Upcoming Events:

Monday, 2/26, 12:30 pm: «Sephardic Culture: Music, Language, & Literature from Spain to Seattle,” a session by UW Stroum Center graduate student fellows Molly FitzMorris, Vivian Mills, and Sarah Riskind.

Presentations on the use of Turkish in Ladino; medieval Spanish Jewish moral poetry; and Sephardic music for the modern choir. HUB room 145, UW campus. Light lunch will be served. More details and RSVP here.

Sunday, 3/11, 1 pm: Screening of Trezoros for the Seattle Jewish Film Festival’s Sephardic Spotlight; followed by a discussion between director Lawrence Russo and Professor Devin Naar (biskochos served!).

A new documentary film that illuminates the little known lives of the Sephardic Jews of Kastoria, Greece; featuring interviews filmed on location in Greece, Israel, and the United States. Co-sponsored by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies. Details and tickets here.

For friends in the Midwest:

Thursday, 3/1, 7 pm: Prof. Naar will present «From the Ottoman Empire to Auschwitz: The Sephardic Experience of the Holocaust.» The Henry & Gretl Ward Lecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Details here.

For Friends in LA:3/14-3/15: UCLAdino 7th Annual Judeo-Spanish Symposium featuring keynote speakers David Bunis (formerly a visiting professor of Ladino here at UW) and Adriana Brodsky. Details here.

Sephardic Studies News

The UW Sephardic Studies Program has been awarded the prestigious Common Heritage Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a program to take place at Garfield High School, «Seattle’s Sephardic Legacies.» The program will explore the history of Seattle’s Sephardic Jews in the context of the multiracial environment of the Central District. Announcement from the Jackson School of International Studies here.

Test your Ladino knowledge here with these handy expressions put together by Devin Naar and Ty Alhadeff for My Jewish Learning.

Deepen your repertoire of Ladino proverbs with this post by Devin Naar and Ty Alhadeff with the WJC (already more than 25k views!).

Prof. Naar’s interview was named one of the «Top Ten» episodes of 2017 on the Ottoman History Podcast

«Removing the Shroud of Oblivion from Greece’s Jews,» a review of Prof. Naar’s lecture at Rutgers University.

Purim

In anticipation of Purim, check out these two pieces by Sephardic Studies Research Coordinator Ty Alhadeff that profile texts housed in our Sephardic Studies Digital Collection:

Sephardic Purim Customs from the Old World to the Pacific Northwest (republished in part on MyJewishLearning)

Dancing and jumping or laughing and singing? Sephardic Purim songs and customs

More Info

For more information about upcoming programs and events in the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, visit the website here.

We always enjoy hearing from you – if you have comments or questions for the UW Sephardic Studies Program, do not hesitate to reach out.

Kon salud buena—

Devin E. Naar, The Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies

Ty Alhadeff, Sephardic Studies Research Coordinator

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