Next week, from Monday, November 4 to Wednesday, November 6, the 7th edition of Sephardic Culture Days will take place in Bucharest. This annual event, now a staple of Romanian cultural life, welcomes prominent figures in Sephardic culture from Romania, Israel, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
This year’s event will be hosted at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania – Mosaic Faith (Popa Soare St. 18). Public access is free, with invitations available via https://forms.gle/7hAsqdDtjs6jH9TH7.
Over three days, attendees are invited on a captivating journey through Sephardic culture, delving into the history, traditions, and influential figures of the Sephardic world. The event will explore the heritage of Spanish Jews, featuring powerful storytelling and traditional Ladino music.
The 7th edition is organized by the B’nai B’rith Forum “Dr. David Moses Rosen” Romania, together with the Hebrew Studies Center at the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Letters, in partnership with the Embassy of Israel in Romania, the Jewish Community Center, and the Menachem H. Elias Family Foundation, and with support from the Ministry of Culture.
PROGRAM:
November 4, 2024:
- 6:00-6:30 PM: Opening of the 7th Sephardic Culture Days
- Remarks
- Presentation of the exhibition, “In the Footsteps of Jacques Menachem Elias: Documents, Images, and Testimonies of a Forgotten History” (curated by Felicia Waldman and Anca Tudorancea, under the Menachem H. Elias Family Foundation, 2023)
- 6:30-8:00 PM: Roundtable Discussion – “Sephardic Figures Who Shaped Their Societies Through Significant Contributions in Diverse Scientific Fields”
- Speakers: Laura Albani (Director, Dimitrie Leonida National Technical Museum, Bucharest), Metin Delevi (Writer and Journalist, Istanbul, Turkey), Leah Davcheva (Intercultural Consultant and Ladino Culture Researcher, Sofia, Bulgaria), Sylvia Herscovitz (Postdoctoral Researcher, Tel Aviv, Israel)
- Moderator: Felicia Waldman (Coordinator, Hebrew Studies Center, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, President of the B’nai B’rith Forum Romania)
November 5, 2024:
- 6:00-7:15 PM: Film Screening – “Between the Stone and the Flower: The Duality of the Conversos”
- Directed by Genie Milgrom (USA, 2024, 70 min, Romanian subtitles)
- This documentary presents Milgrom’s personal journey, tracing her family’s roots back 22 Jewish generations from Havana, Cuba, to Spain and Portugal in 1405.
- 7:15-8:00 PM: Q&A with the Director (via Zoom)
November 6, 2024:
- 6:00-6:30 PM: Book Launch – “The Halfon Saga,” by Felicia Waldman (Integral Publishing, 2024), an account of the rise and fall of the Sephardic aristocracy in Romania
- Participants: Author Felicia Waldman, Director Alexander Hausvater, and Integral Publishing Director Costel Postolache
- 6:30-8:00 PM: Ladino Music Concert by Sefardito from Hungary
- The repertoire includes traditional songs from Morocco, Rhodes, Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
- 8:00-8:30 PM: Tasting of Sephardic Cuisine – Traditional Dishes, History, and Interaction