SYNAGOGUES CONNECTED TO PORTUGUESE  AND
SPANISH JEWS OF IBERIA/SEPHARAD
(List compiled in part by Joshua de Sola Mendes for the Foundation for the Preservation of the Western Sephardic Tradition)

(for list of synagogues in Portugal and Spain see separate post)

Amsterdam   /   The Portuguese Synagogue   /   www.esnoga.com/content_home.html

Bayonne   /   Nefoutsot Yehouda   /   www.communautedebayonne.org

Bordeaux   /   Grande Synagogue   /   www.synagogue-bordeaux.com

Florence   /   Comunita Ebraica di Firenze   /   www.moked.it/firenzebraica/

Gibraltar   /   Esnoga Grande   /   www.jewishgibraltar.com/synagogues.php

Jerusalem   /   Shaare Ratzon-Istanbuli Synagogue /   www.esek/com/sr/

Livorno   /   Comunita Ebraica   /   www.moked.it/livornoebraica

London   /   Bevis Marks Synagogue   /   www.bevismarks.org.uk

London   /   Holland Park Synagogue   / www.hollandparksynagogue.com/

London   /   Lauderdale Road Synagogue   /   www.lauderdaleroadsynagogue.org

Montreal   /   The Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue   /   www.thespanish.org

New York   /   Congregation Shearith Israel   /   www.shearithisrael.org

Newport   /   The Touro Synagogue   /   www.tourosynagogue.org

Paris   /   Temple Buffault   /   www.buffault.net/Temple_BUFFAULT/Accueil.html

Philadelphia   /   Congregation Mikveh Israel   /   www.mikvehisrael.org

Pisa   / Comunita Ebraica di Pisa   /   www.pisaebraica.it/cms

Santo Domingo / Beth HaMidrash HaSefaradi Nidhe Israel / www.nidheisraelrepdom.org

Venice   /   Venezia Ebraica   /   www.moked.it/jewishvenice/

Aruba   /   Beth Israel   /   www.haruth.com/jw/JewsAruba.html

Barbados / Bridgetown Synagogue / www.haruth.com/jw/JewsBarbados.html

Charleston   /   Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim   / www.kkbe.org

Curacao   /   Congregation Mikveh Israel-Emanuel   /   www.snoa.com/snoa.html

New Orleans   /   Touro Synagogue   /   www.tourosynagogue.com

Jamaica   /   United Congregation of Israelites   /   www.ucija.org/main.html

Panama   /   Congregacion Kol Shearith Israel   /   www.congksi.blogspot.com

Recife   /   Kahal Zur Israel   / www.kahalzurisrael.com/en/index.html

Savannah   /   Mickve Israel   /   www.mickveisrael.org

St. Thomas   /   St. Thomas Synagogue   / www.onepaper.com/synagogue/

Surinam   /   Neve Shalom Synagogue   /   www.suriname-jewish-community.com

Jodensavannah in Surinam

New York   /   Kehila Kedosha Janina   /   www.kkjsm.org

Orange Country / Orh Yisrael Sephardic Congregation / www.nogah.com/OhrWeb-SSI/home.shtml

Seattle / Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation / www.sbhseattle.org/Home.htm



Centro Sefardi Isaac Abrabanel de Cartagena, Colombia

Nidhe Israel República DominicanaPrimer Bet Midrash Sefardí de República Dominicana

SEPHARDIC JEWS 

The Term Sephardic Jew 

by Sarina Roffé
sarinaroffe@aol.com

Sarina Roffé is a career journalist and holds a masters in Jewish Studies. She has researched numerous genealogies including the Kassin and Labaton rabbinic dynasties ans is considered an expert in Aleppan Jewry. She is a member of Brooklyn's Syrian Jewish community and the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. of New York.

Many researchers believe the term "Sephardic" originally referred to Jews living in and later expelled from Spain in 1492. Today the term "Sephardic" has come to be accepted as a reference to the Jewish exiles and their descendants who settled in countries along the Mediterranean Sea, North Africa, the Balkans, Italy, Syria and Palestine, as well as indigenous Jews who already lived in these places. Some of these Jews fled to Brazil, Holland and the Jewish communities of the New World, including New Amsterdam (New York), Mexico and Curacao in the Caribbean. Sephardim of the Iberian Peninsula (what are now Portugal and Spain), spoke Ladino, a combination of Hebrew and Spanish.
There is debate in academic circles about the definition of the term "Sephardic Jew."
Is a Sephardic Jew a descendant of Spain and the Iberian Peninsula? Are Syrian Jews, many of whom came from Spain in the 16^th Century, all Sephardic? The issue revolves around the fact that Jews were indigenous to the Middle East for centuries before the birth of Christianity and later, Islam.

The official definition of Sephardic according to Rabbi Marc Angel of Sephardic House, is "almost any Jew who is not Ashkenazi."		The official definition of Sephardic according to Rabbi Marc Angel of Sephardic House, is "almost any Jew who is not Ashkenazi. Although there are wide cultural divergences within the Sephardic world, common liturgy and religious customs constitute underlying factors of unity."One issue is whether it is possible to bring under
one heading Jews who spoke Ladino for generations and those who never set foot on Spanish land who spoke various Oriental languages, such as Arabic and Persian. Further complicating the issue is what to call the indigenous Jewish populations of the Middle East and North Africa, where a majority of the Jews expelled from Spain settled.

Daniel Elazar, the first President of the American Sephardi Federation and a distinguished scholar, said

"For Jews, what is most important as a distinguishing characteristic is not the specific culture acquired in any particular country of exile by any particular Jewish population but the broader issues of halakhah and mishpat (Jewish law), community organization, and cultural patterns from food to synagogue rituals. In these respects, the Sephardi world is one, from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans, significantly influenced by its location within Islamic civilization."

Another issue concerns the Talmud and is expressed by S. Alfassa Marks.

"The Crusades which started in the beginning of the last millennium virtually destroyed Jewish intellectual life. It was suppressed and almost brought an end to the Jewish creative process in the middle European countries and the Holy Land. It was during this period that the further development of the Talmud passed to Jewry living in Iberia and North Africa. Our Talmud, the base of how we interpret Jewish law, came to Spain from Babylon (Iraq) and the Middle East. It was not developed there; it went there with Rabbi Saadia ibn Joseph Gaon, Rabbi Chanoch ben Moshe and Rabbi Hananel ben Hushiel in the 10^thand 11^th centuries. These rabbis were born in North Africa. These three rabbis fueled Rabbi Yitzhak Alfassi (born in Algeria, raised in Morocco), who later became one of the highest recognized Talmudists in history. He later lived his life in Cordoba and Lucena, Andalusia."

Marks notes that it was common for Jews, especially traveling merchants, to travel and have homes in more than one place and on more than one continent. Rabbis commonly thought of as Sephardic settled and lived in many places. In one reference, Marks notes that Rambam lived most of his life in North Africa, not in Spain.
According to references in Genesis, 10.3 and Obadiah, 1.20, the lands calledSepharad were located in areas north of the Holy Land, and were not necessarily in Spain and the Iberian peninsula, as the term is generally understood. Joseph A. D. Sutton contends that Jews in Spain, also known as Sephardic Jews, lived there for many centuries, but were descendants of Middle East ancestors who came to the Iberian Peninsula in stages from Egypt, Baghdad, North Africa, Palestine and Syria. Arabic was the principal language in large sections of Spain until the Christian conquests and was used by the Jews for daily communication and religious works.

"In effect, Jewish Spain was merely an extension of the Middle East, to all extents and purposes, the Sephardim did not substantially differ from their brothers in the Fertile Crescent, in language, religious practices and endeavors."

Today, many religious leaders in Israel consider themselves as Sephardic and identify with the founders of the Babylonian Talmud, who went to Spain and were considered ‘saved’ in the West. Marks states that the Babylonian Talmud was written by their ancestors in what is today Iraq, and codified in Iberia. In sending the Talmud to the West, many believe that Judaism flourished and survived.
Joseph A. D. Sutton contends that since the Jews of Spain originally came from the Middle East and their descendants went back to the Middle East, it is reasonable to categorize all of these Jews as Sephardim.

Sarina Roffé
Brooklyn, New York, USA
NYCuedSpC@aol.com

The Foundation for the Preservation of the Western Sephardic Tradition (facebook group)

David Ramirez

Suggestions for the Preservation of Western Sephardic Tradition

To all Jews for the Preservation of Western Sephardic tradition,

My apologies for not paying attention to this, William, as other current objectives has kept me away from this very important subject. After recently reviewing the posts in this group, I want to contribute with my suggestions, all of which can only be enacted by a concerted group effort among us who really have in their heart to rescue our traditions from oblivion. I want to say all the following in the most unapologetic straightforward manner, and not without the intention to offend anyone, but to show truth wherever I find it.

Before I proceed to give my suggestions, I want to give my opinion about how we got to the stage of disrepair we are currently experiencing. First of, the Spanish & Portuguese Jewish (hereto on referred as “S&P”) communities were never very numerous to begin with, and being that our kehilót were relatively wealthy, this in part contributed to the low birth-rate among us. The decline of new Converso arrivals during the 18th c., coincidently the epoch when the Inquisition was abating their activities, further declined the constancy of a S&P majority.

Adding to our faulty demographics, the crisis of belief during the 19th century also brought with it a separation and dilution of the S&P tradition in several communities, especially across the Americas. Less and less we acted with the cross-continental unity that once characterized us, and our mutual logistic and economic fraternity that once were markers of our strength. With the exception of Amsterdam, all other communities sought to keep afloat by accepting more and more Forasteros into our kehilót, which slowly changed their constituencies and therefore the objectives and support of native S&P institutions of education and ssedaqá. In the post-WWII era, much of the remaining S&P moved outside their communities in search of better economic opportunities or made Aliyáh moved by our ancient desire to live in Israel.

The evil Nazi regime shot a deathblow to the still stronger Amsterdam community, and Sephardic rabbis everywhere sought to smooth out our differences with our more numerous and ever more influential Ashkenazi coreligionists – thus enabling our religious assimilation to them, which coupled with the nationalists priorities of the nascent State of Israel, completely disbanded the last institutions of religious learning we had left.

The results of these both voluntary and involuntary historical circumstances have left the remaining S&P communities as shells of their former selves, an entire generation of rabbis not trained in natively-grown Sephardic institutions with traditional Sephardic prerogatives; a dispersed S&P Jewry, much of whom are not religiously committed, and a lot more ignoring both the history and traditions of S&P Jewry; some even ashamed of originating from this tradition, and worse yet, a cynicism informing the tradition has no chance of surviving.

So why is it important to come to its rescue, and how do we begin to remedy the situation?

After the Expulsions from Iberia, two distinct Sephardic traditions sprung from those Jews first settling elsewhere in Europe – more specifically in Italy –, and those settling through the Levant and the Maghreb. Those Sephardim remaining in Europe were more inclined to the traditional Talmudist and rationalist schools of thought akin to Maimonides’ own, whereas for Eastern and North African Sephardim were more influenced by Zoharic-mystical thought.

The S&P tradition, which started just with a handful of returning Conversos, developed mostly under the tutelage of Italian Sephardim, and soon created more communities across the Netherlands, northern Italy, Germany, and eventually England, France and the Americas, with some outpost in Africa and East Asia. Being part of the ebullient mercantile and intellectual scene of late Renaissance Europe, the S&P communities became the most successful of Jewish communities of their time, both in economic and intellectual terms.

The two things above mentioned rendered a tradition that continued the Middle-Path approach to Toráh of old Sefarad and, uncharacteristic of Jewish communities before or since, formed a vast global network of S&P communities united in common bonds of custom, fraternity and purpose. This tradition was able to successfully navigate the changing currents that modernization brought, while clinging to traditional Jewish prerogatives, just as we have done elsewhere in our history.

In our current environment of assimilation to a fierce secularism or obtuse religiosity, S&P tradition offers solutions that meet evolving challenges, through the study of its communal and rabbinical legacy. This answers why we should come to its rescue, which should not only be seen in terms of nostalgia, but essential to Jewish survival.

To begin to remedy our state of disrepair, first and foremost we need to create awareness. Being that our problems stem much from our dispersion as much for the lack of knowledge, we lack proper support and the sense that preserving S&P tradition is of any necessity.

These suggestions take the shape of creating awareness, which leads to interest, which leads to support, which leads to the creation of bigger and more concrete projects and demands for and to institutions, common unity and future growth. This without alienating any current idiosyncratic ways communities or individuals may have, but through fomenting the very value of the S&P tradition and the impact this can have in enhancing or presenting better alternatives to what they currently have and experience. All without loosing sight that the heart and essence of the once successful S&P tradition lies in the spiritual guidance that our rabbinical and communal leaders were able to create and sustain for over three centuries.

For the stage of awareness (A), I recommend the following:

1a. As it has been already suggested, the creation of a central website is a great idea, where Jews for the Preservation of the Western Sephardic tradition can upload any type of written, auditory or visual material pertaining to this tradition, and which can be essential for the education and know-how of communities and individuals. Ideally, this should be done through the website of the Ets Haim Library-Livraria Montezinos in Amsterdam, and if not, in the beginning through an independently created website for that purpose.

2a. To create a dedicated YouTube site, where to load video presentations created for the very purpose to disseminate vignettes and key features of the S&P tradition, relating its history, major personalities – their works and contributions, customs and music. Besides being informative, this material in turn can serve to give on the fly presentations to educational institutions, philanthropists, or to anyone able to contribute in any shape or form, to garner more value-added support.

3a. To start disseminating the idea at the grassroots level among those already belonging to the historic and existing S&P congregations to create an umbrella organization, formed as a League of S&P Congregations or the Federation of S&P Communities, where we can once again start connecting the international bonds we once had among all communities, S&P and philo-Sephardim worldwide.

If and when interest (B) is created through the promotion of awareness, the tentative schedule emanating from the very historic communities, working independently or in tandem, is suggested as follows:

1b. To begin documenting, organizing and cataloguing all surviving textual, audio and visual material of each and every community, and perhaps scanning key material – like homilies, responsa or community resolutions – to be put on line.

2b. To start making a campaign, and funding support, for the digitalization of all or at least important works contained in the Ets Haim-Livraria Montezinos, for easy on-line access and study of all interested.

3b. To form committees that will speak to major educational institutions in their respective countries, fomenting the inclusion of this material in their already existing Jewish Studies departments (if available), or to create separate chairs of Western Sephardic studies for the learning and investigation of this very material as it pertains to their locale or region, with the addition of offering scholarships for this very purpose.

Once having created the interest that leads to support (C), the quality of our leadership will only be reflected by the quality of those who choose them. In other words, a well-informed community of its past, and the value of such past, can and will be able to demand better institutions of learning and communal framework.