Read the full paper at: http://www.alfassa.com/purim.html

by Shelomo Alfassa

By Shelomo Alfassa / February 11, 2010

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jewish Music Research Centre has released a new Jewish music treasure for the 21st century, songs learned in the 19th century and preformed in the 20th century by Haim Behar Menahem, known more commonly through the use of the Turkish title of honor, Effendi. The four-CD album is entitled: 'An Early 20th-Century Sephardi Troubadour: The Historical Recordings of Haim Effendi of Turkey.' This enormous four CD set contains 59 songs in both Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish (Ladino).

Haim Effendi was born in Europe, in Adrianople (Edirne), Ottoman Turkey in 1853. His Judeo-Spanish recordings reflected songs that were popular among the various Spanish Jewish communities in places such as Adrianople, Constantinople, Smyrna and Salonika. His Hebrew recordings focused on the shabbat and high holiday liturgy in the traditional Turkish style.

The first two CDs are made up of liturgical and paraliturgical music including songs sung and prayers recited on shabbat that were recorded between 1911-1922. This includes Haim Effendi's recitation of Kiddush, singing Avinu Malkenu, etc. The third and forth CD contains songs in Judeo-Spanish. These songs were recorded between 1907 and 1922 and include commonly known songs such as 'Avre tu Puerta,' 'Al Dio Alto,' 'La Serena,' and 'Los Bilbilicos,' but also includes many songs that have not been heard in decades such as 'Boulissa,' 'El Parto Feliz ,' 'Maldicha es la mi Vida,' and 'Muero yo de Amor.' While some tracks are clear, others are scratchy yet authentic. All songs however contain that lovely haunting yet melodic Turkish-style of singing.

The set is visual appealing as all four CDs have been created to look like miniature 78 rpm albums. Enclosed is a superb 89 page book edited by Edwin Seroussi, professor of musicology and director of the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The book is in English and Hebrew, and all song lyrics are provided in Judeo-Spanish with English and Hebrew introductions and backgrounds. Research on the recordings contained in the book was conducted by Joel Bresler who researches and collects (rescues!) old fragile Sephardic 78 rpm record albums. His research is showcased on his Website where he focuses on over 100 years of recorded Sephardic music.

Haim Effendi's music was surely played in the now long-gone Sephardic kavanes, coffee houses, of New York City's Lower East Side where Greek, Turkish, Bulgaria and Syrian men would mingle, smoke, eat, and talk. His music was both liturgical and secular and the latter was extremely influential to other musicians. While Haim died in 1938 at Alexandria Egypt, it was said that his music was played on Radio Cairo until 1956.

No Judeo-Spanish music collection would be complete without authentic songs such as these. These are not some modern rock & roll remake of Sephardic songs, these are not another boring artsy cover band's interpretive version of the old Spanish songs, this is the real deal-the songs of the Spanish Jews sung by a Jew who's family arrived in the Ottoman Empire from Spain. These are old and once much-loved songs, sung in the now extinct Ottoman Jewish style, but that can once again be treasured.

The four CD set is available through the
American Sephardi Federation in New York City.

This review is located at http://www.alfassa.com/effendi.html

by Shelomo Alfassa

(January 3, 2010) - They stand on the bustling street corners from Los Angeles to New York City and all places in between. While distributing literature to the passersbys, they joyfully declare "the messiah is here- the messiah is here." But these are not the stealthy anti-Jewish Christian missionary organization Jews for Jesus, these are hasidic Jews who now follow a new upward developing religion of Schneersonism. This break-away religion of Schneersonism, a modern daughter of Judaism not unlike Christianity or Islam, is a new and developing religion-a new and genuine religion.

Schneersonists have a Temple for their adherents, located at the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. This is the address of the large synagogue and attached former residence of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe amongst his hasidim. On the inside of the large synagogue is a banner bearing the slogan "Long Live our Master, our Teacher, and our Rabbi, King Messiah, for ever and ever." The phrase is often printed on pamphlets and posters which also have a photo of Schneerson. The phrase itself, a politically and emotionally charged one, is chanted by many Lubavitch hasidim around the world-it is the mantra of their new religion.

A house in Midwood Brooklyn on a prominent street / January 3, 2010

Schneerson was a prominent hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last spiritual leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement which started in Europe. When he died, he left behind no children to take over for him and continue his legacy. Immediately upon his death some 15 years ago, some of his followers started to pronounce that he was the long-awaited mashiah (messiah) of which the Jewish religion has long been waiting for-but who has not yet come. Since he died, a generation of Lubavitch children have grown up (many of whom never met Schneerson) and today these men go around, in Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, French and English, proclaiming "the messiah has arrived." About 2000 years ago a group of Jews acted exactly like the Schneersonists. After their leader (Jesus) died, they worshiped his dead body-and have not stopped since.

Billboards have been established around the country in cities where Jews live, proclaiming "The Messiah is Here!" Jewish music concerts are being promoted with posters where in Hebrew it proclaims "King Messiah" is alive. Utilizing a fleet of 10 Ford vans topped with loud speakers, flanked with yellow flags and a large image of Schneerson on the side, they drive around tourist areas in Miami, Houston, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Denver and New York City passing out religious tracts reporting "messiah is here." Last April, Schneersonists drove a whopping 59 RV's in procession through New York City. The words "messiah is here" were written on the RVs in various languages such as English, French, Arabic, Russian and others. And this is not only a U.S. phenomenon, Schneersonists are across the globe spreading Schneersonism with anyone who will listen, this includes to the non-hasidic Jews.

When people make contact with these men wearing black suits and black hats and immediately conclude they are traditional hasidic Jews who dress and follow the traditions of their European ancestors, what they don't know is that they are actually making contact with men that are at the genesis of a new religion--they are speaking with people that whether they know it or not, are the founders of the beginning of an entirely distinct religion, one based on the worship of a dead human being, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Rabbi David Berger, Ph.D., professor of history at Yeshiva University and visiting professor at Harvard and Yale, says that the Lubavitch who feel Schneerson is the messiah, are virtually identical to those of the early Hebrew-Christians. Schneersonism is growing closer to Christianity and distancing itself from Judaism - why - because Judaism has no place for messiah worship or the worship of a dead man. It is categorically anti-Jewish to worship a dead man. Yet, in this case of the Schneersonists, much like the Christians, are conducting messiah worship and the worshiping of a dead person. At the very core of the Schneersonist belief system, is the Christian concept of the Second Coming of the messiah. Because the Hebrew word "mashiah" (messiah) literally means "the anointed" (Christ) in Greek, as strange as it may sound, Schneersonists are effectively supporting "Jews for Menachem Mendel Schneerson Christ."

Lubavitch Jews as well as inline politically correct Jews (especially young ones) are quick to attack anyone who feels that part of Chabad has evolved into the new religion of Schneersonism. However, their emotional responses don't equate for the seemingly millions of dollars spent on Schneersonism propaganda and the overwhelming and quite visible representation of the Christian concept of the Second Coming of the messiah. There is a large and growing campaign, not by all Lubavitch hasidim but by a clear majority, to get people to believe in their belief system-that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson is the living messiah who has returned. With Lubavitch conducting such a high rate of outreach, the newly religious Jews are being educated in this paradigm of desiring a dead man to return and be the messiah.

Families that have grown up in Chabad or that Chabad has "made religious" won't put much emotional or intellectual capital into understanding the scope of the problem, they just issue a knee-jerk reaction saying that those that warn the Jewish people and those that seek to expose Schneersonism for what it is, are just people who hate other Jews. They very often minimize the problem, saying "there is no problem." They respond with criticism saying the informers are committing the prohibition of "Lashan Hora" (evil speech), while they themselves overlook the grave sin Schneersonists are committing, the idolatry of worshiping a dead man. The heresy that most Chabad-Lubavitch have committed by their formation of Schneersonism seems to blind those that only see Chabad-Lubavitch as a place for free Friday night meals, overnight hospitality for shabbat, and free Torah education. These are the very people which are blinded by the "good" that Chabad-Lubavitch does; they are most commonly the newly observant and those that are at the low margin of understanding the history of the Jewish people and the seriousness of the messiah concept in Judaism. Most Jews don't understand how over at least one dozen false messiahs have come and gone throughout Jewish history, nor the damage they have done to the Jewish people.

The large established Jewish organizations, most of which have Chabad members among them, are afraid to speak out of this topic-they won't go near it. However, in the past, the Lithuanian Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel has spoken out against Chabad heresy. As did (with vehement opposition) the Rabbinical Seminary of America (Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva) in New York, and the Rabbinical Council of America who issued a weak but import response aimed to Lubavitch. Rabbi Aharon Feldman, dean of Yeshiva Ner Yisrael: Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland, wrote a widely-disseminated letter in 2004 which stated that Orthodox Jews should avoid praying in Chabad synagogues that avowed a belief in the Rebbe as the messiah. In 2008 a man from Israel who seemed like an sincere convert to Judaism was rejected by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate because the man professed that Rabbi Schneerson was the messiah. The Jerusalem Post reported a source in the State Conversion Authority said that at least two leading religious Zionist rabbis ruled that messianic Chabad was beyond the pale of normative Jewish belief. "They [messianic Chabad Hassidim] attribute to him supernatural powers years after he passed away. That is not Judaism. It's something else."

The problem is you can no longer tell which Lubavitch hasidim are Schneersonists and which are not. Chabad schools have an overwhelming culture where children grow hearing that Schneerson is the messiah; Chabad leadership seems to be mainly made up of Schneersonists, especially those men and almost all of the thousands of worshipers at the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Posters of Rabbi Schneerson are plastered all over Brooklyn New York with the word"messiah" posted underneath his image. This writer attended Shabbat at 770 Eastern Parkway and saw men calling for the messiah. There were men wearing the yellow "messiah" flag lapel pin, the symbol of the Schneersonists. There were men and boys worshiping Menachem Mendel Schneerson's empty red velvet chair, and saw there were men bowing to a table where Rabbi Schneerson used to sit. These men were singing the revered mantra of the Schneersonists, "Long Live our Master, our Teacher, and our Rabbi, King Messiah, for ever and ever" as they danceed fervently with their yellow crown-emblazoned flags. To be sure, the "World Headquarters" of Lubavitch is a center for Schneersonists who worship the dead rabbi and who have made him the center of their new religion.

Originally posted at http://www.alfassa.com/schneersonism.html

Islamists Erase Jewish Identity from Ezekiel's Tomb in Iraq

By Shelomo Alfassa

The Iraqi news agency Ur news has revived fears that under pressure from Islamic political parties, the original Hebrew inscriptions and ornamentation on the walls around the tomb of Ezekiel are being (or have been) removed, this under the pretext of restoring the site. According to sources, the Antiquities and Heritage Authority in Iraq has been pressured by Islamists to historically cleanse all evidence of a Jewish connection to Iraq--a land where Jews had lived for over a thousand years before the advent of Islam.

Four months ago a German-based Iraqi journalist tipped off the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq in Israel that plans were afoot to build a mosque on the site of the shrine of the Jewish prophet Ezekiel at al-Kifl, this was first reported on the "Point of No Return" news blog. The rumours were investigated by a philo-Semitic Iraqi Shi'a, Dr. Jabbar Jamal al-Din, a lecturer in Jewish Thought at the Kufa University. They were denied by the shrine's director. Now a report by Ur News revives fears that in the absence of Jews on the ground, nothing, not even UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), stands in the way of politically-motivated plans to erase all Jewish traces of this ancient holy site.

Drastic changes taking place currently at the tomb of Ezekiel will change its character and prompt UNESCO to delete it as a protected site on the World Heritage List, similar to what happened to the historic city of Babylon, where old buildings were demolished and new layers of construction added.

Prof. Shmuel Moreh, the Chairman of the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraqi, Israel Prize Laureate in Arabic Literature and emeritus Professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has indicted that the Arabic news stories have tipped him that the Archeological Authority in Iraq has started a campaign to erase the Jewish aspects of the tomb of the prophet Ezekiel and the original inlay Hebrew inscriptions have been destroyed and covered by new Arabic inscriptions and Islamic symbols. 

• PHOTO COURTESY OF IRAQIJEWS.COM

Through the cities of the Rhine and the Main and also the Danube, they either utterly destroyed the execrable race of the Jews wherever they found them or forced them into the bosom of the Church...They rose in a spirit of cruelty against the Jewish people scattered throughout these cities and slaughtered them without mercy, especially in the Kingdom of Lorraine, asserting it to be the beginning of their expedition and their duty against the enemies of the Christian faith. This slaughter of Jews was done first by citizens of Cologne; they destroyed the houses and synagogues of the Jews and divided among themselves a very large amount of money... Breaking the bolts and doors, they killed the Jews, about seven hundred in number, who in vain resisted the force and attack of so many thousands. They killed the women, also, and with their swords pierced tender children of whatever age and sex. The Jews, seeing that their Christian enemies were attacking them and their children, and that they were sparing no age, likewise fell upon one another, brother, children, wives, and sisters, and thus they perished at each other's hands. Horrible to say, mothers cut the throats of nursing children with knives and stabbed others, preferring them to perish thus by their own hands rather than to be killed by the weapons of the uncircumcised. From this cruel slaughter of the Jews a few escaped; and a few because of fear, rather than because of love of the Christian faith, were baptized.

Not a congregation within their reach did the inflexible Crusaders spare...In one short day it was wiped out of history, and the few crowded streets in which generation after generation of men had lived, hoped, pined and died, was a wreck of masonry piled with mangled corpses. 'The Rhine,'[river]...was thick with the corpses of murdered Jews. All the cities of the Danube, of Austria and Hungary resounded with the cries and swam with the blood of Jews, the vast number of them scornfully rejecting all terms fairly spitting and cursing the images and crucifixes held up to them for idolatrous adoration. "The Lord is our God" [the Shema] was in one their answer and their dying utterance for they were immediately hacked to pieces or severed piece-meal. Sad indeed is the story of the Jews, breathing in one the most frightful horrors and the most unflinching heroism...Town after town was visited and the same scenes of blood repeated. Jews were ripped open, disemboweled alive, torn asunder by wild horses driven in opposite directions, their flesh scraped off their bones, sawn in halves.

[I am happy to report that recent advocacy work to get the USHMM to admit that Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem conspired in North Africa to kill Jews there, as well as in the Middle East, is one reason why this conference will indeed take place in June 2010. 

                It's very sad that the USHMM had refused to admit this until I held a press conference in January of 2006 at the National Press Club in Washington DC. Later that night, in front of a standing room only crowd, a colloquium my colleagues and I organized was held at The National Synagogue, where several prominent Jewish leaders met to discuss remedies to the USHMM's failure to document the role Islamic groups played in the Holocaust. The speakers included Rabbi Avi Weiss, NY Times best-selling author Edwin Black,  Carol Greenwald, board member of Holocaust Museum Watch, Congressman Elliot Engle and myself.

                Let's hope this conference next year is a huge success and the USHMM continues to right the many wrongs it carries. This includes changing the mission statement of the USHMM itself which is erroneous. It reads in part: "The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany....." But what is WELL-KNOWN and ESTABLISHED, is that the Holocaust turned out to be a state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of Jews not only in Europe, but also of Jews in North Africa and Asia. In addition, historians know that Hitler had no plans to only kill "European Jews" - but all Jews - everywhere.]

regards,

Shelomo Alfassa
www.alfassa.com

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PROGRAM: A June 2010 workshop on Sephardic Jewry and the Holocaust will take place at the USHMM in Washington, DC. The application deadline is November 23 (see below).

It is sponsored by the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS) of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) which is seeking applications for the workshop, planned for June 16-25, 2010 at the USHMM. Up to 14 applicants will be accepted.

It will be led by two leading scholars in the field, Aron Rodrigue and Daniel Schroeter. There are two parts, seminar and research.

The seminar will address interdisciplinary issues, such as Ladino language and Sephardic identity; the Sephardic experience in ghettos, camps, and transports; resistance and rescue; and the experience of North African Jews before and during the war. Geographic areas are Southeastern Europe (Balkans, Bulgaria, Greece) and North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco).

The research section will consist of orientation, exposure, and guided research in the Museum's extensive archival and other collections concerning North Africa, Croatia, Greece, Serbia, the Jewish community of Monastir, newly acquired collections in Ladino and Judeo-Arabic, and selected collections of Sephardic-survivor oral testimonies and Sephardic music.

The goals are to acquaint emerging scholars with the breadth of this rich and diverse subject matter; expose them to new scholarly research on Sephardic Studies and the Holocaust; and provide them with the background knowledge, archival resources, and scholarly networking necessary to initiate or continue work in this underrepresented area.

USHMM will accept up to 14 scholars from among advanced graduate students, doctoral candidates, post-doctoral scholars, and early career academics who are currently conducting or considering research on Sephardic Jewish Studies, Holocaust Studies in Sephardic countries or communities, or area studies in countries in which Sephardic Jews resided.

Candidates must be affiliated with an accredited, degree-awarding institution (baccalaureate, the equivalent, or higher) in North America.

Applications, which must be submitted electronically (or postmarked) in English by November 23, include a current CV, a statement on the scholar's interest and background, a supporting letter from an advisor, department chair or dean. Non-local attendees receive lodging for the workshop and $1,000 towards travel and incidental expenses. Local attendees receive $200 for the two weeks.

NEW WEEKLY TORAH PORTION WITH THE GREAT SEPHARDIC MASTERS

FREE: Subscribe Now -- to the all new 'Mivhar Ha-Peninim'

The Mivhar Ha-Peninim ('A Selection of Pearls') is a brief weekly commentary on the parashat ha-Shavua, the Torah portion of the week. It also includes a selection on Jewish history. It is read by Jews across the world each week.

The Mivhar Ha-Peninim focuses on the words and understanding of the Torah, from great rabbis such as Hakham Yishak ben Moshe Arama (1420-1494) of Spain; Hakham Moshe Alshech (1508-1600) of Ottoman Turkish (Safed) and others.

SUBSCRIBE HERE:  http://www.alfassa.com/torah.html

Published and edited by Shelomo Alfassa of the Sephardic community of New York.

May 26, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor NOT the first Hispanic for US Supreme Court

The media is making a huge mistake reporting that Sonia Sotomayor, chosen by President Obama, will be the first Hispanic to be chosen for the US Supreme Court. Yet, Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (1870-1938) was the first Hispanic Justice in the US Supreme Court. Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew, served on the Supreme Court from 1932 until his death. He was born in to a Jewish family which immigrated from Portugal via the Netherlands and England to America.  He was a long time member of the 'Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue' in New York City, home to 'Congregation Shearith Israel,' which was founded in 1654. Cardozo was a cousin of the poet Emma Lazarus whose poem "...Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..." resides on the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of legal immigration into the United States of America.

Shelomo Alfassa is author of "A Window into Old Jerusalem." He is the former executive director of the 'International Sephardic Leadership Council' and today is the US Director of 'Justice for Jews from Arab Countries,' which is based at the 'American Sephardi Federation' in the 'Center for Jewish History' in New York City.

www.alfassa.com