Sofie Shefia Stephanie Cohen is a child of the universe, nature, All That Is, born and raised in a large, predominantly Syrian Sefardic community in Brooklyn, New York. Her grandparents came to the United States from Syria, Egypt and Iraq.
She is most at home in New Mexico where she’s lived in Albuquerque for the past almost 50 years, as a facilitator in the healing arts, leaving behind a full scholarship at art school in NYC.
She found Nahalat Shalom in 1986, which felt like another homecoming. After having her adult Bat Mitzvah in 1991, she took her paternal grandmothers Jewish Arabic name and soon after, began lay leading Shabbat services.
It took living in NM for over 30 years before she understood what the word Sefardic meant, and that her ancestors were from Spain, as well as so many in New Mexico with Conversó or Crypto-Jewish roots, hidden for so long.