Ladino Kabbalat Shabbat

About the Presenters

Rabbi Nissim Elnecavé is an active rabbinic educator in the New York Sephardic community and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, the national umbrella organization for the Ladino-speaking Sephardic community. He was born in Mexico City to a family descendant from the Sephardic communities of Istanbul and Salonica. He received his rabbinical formal training in Jerusalem at the Shehebar Sephardic Center and Yeshivat Porat Yosef, focusing on the customs of the Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews of Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans.

Determined to help bring Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) culture to a new generation, Sarah Aroeste, an international Ladino singer/songwriter, author and cultural activist, draws upon her Sephardic family roots from Greece and Macedonia (via Medieval Spain) to present traditional and original Ladino songs with her unique blend of rock, pop, and jazz. In addition to writing music, Aroeste has published numerous articles and essays about Sephardic cultural preservation, and pens Sephardic-themed books for children. Her most recent book, Buen Shabat, Shabbat Shalom (Kar-Ben and PJ Library), was published March 2020.

Devin E. Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies and Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he founded and directs the Sephardic Studies Program. Naar received his PhD in History from Stanford University and served as a Fulbright Scholar in Greece. His first book, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece, won a 2016 National Jewish Book Award and the prize for the best book from the Modern Greek Studies Association. Naar’s great grandfather served as a rabbi in Salonica and subsequently as the first ordained spiritual leader of Congregation Etz Ahaim in Highland Park, New Jersey.

Cosponsors

Thank you to the following promotional partners: American Sephardi Federation | Hunter Hillel