Sefardic Ceremonies

Friday Evening Potluck Shabbat

Every second Friday from 6:30-9:00PM we celebrate Shabbat with an evening of good food, personal sharing, a bilingual poetry reading, and prayers and songs in Ladino, Hebrew and Spanish.

The vibe is informal, friendly and welcoming.

Led by Stephanie Sofie Shefia Cohen

Poetry curated by Héctor Contreras López

Translation by Héctor Contreras López and Marciel Romero

POETRY DURING SEPHARDIC SHABBATS

During the following weeks, we are going to continue exploring Mizrahi poetry. This month (November 2025) we are going to translate and read three poems by Adi Keissar, who was born in Jerusalem in 1980. Her father’s family migrated from Yemen in 1882. Adi Keissar has published three collections of poems in Hebrew, but none of them has been translated into English (Black on Black, 2014; Loud Music, 2016, and Chronicles, 2018).

Several translations of her poems can be found on poetryinternational.com.

During 2026 we will be exploring Karaite, Romaniote and Japanese American poetry. In the section of Special Guests, to be held during the Summer, we will read poetry written by Japanese American poets who were victims and witnesses of the concentration camps were Japanese Americans were confined during the years of the Second World War. The selection will be made by poet Mary Oishi.

The Karaite poets we will be translating and reading are Salmon ben Jeroham, who was born in Palestine or Irak around 910; Moses ben Abraham Dar’i, a member of a Spanish family, was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and lived during the second half of the twelfth century, and Moses ben Samuel of Damascus, who was born in Safed, Palestine, and moved to Damascus around 1354. We now can have access to their poems thanks to Leon

Nemoy’s Karaite Anthology: Excerpts from the Early Literature (1952).We are still working on Romaniote poetry. So far, we have located the poems of Albert Cohen (Corfu, Greece, 1895-Geneva, Switzerland, 1981), whose prose works are very well known. That is not the case with his first book, Paroles juives (1920), a volume of poems in French that has not been translated into English. With the collaboration of Samantha Specht,

we are in the process of translating several of these poems into English and Spanish.

Saturday Morning Shabbat Torah Ceremony

Live music by Las Flores del Valle and other musicians! These embodied Sefardic celebrations are led by members of the Sefardic community and include dance, poetry and live music. The torah is placed in the center of the room for all to experience.
10:00am-Noon, followed by an Oneg

Four ceremonies are planned in 2026:
~January 31 Celebrating Tu b’Shevat, and the fruits of the lands of exile.
~May 23 During Festival Sefardí 17, celebrating Shavuot and customs of culture preserved by women.
~July 18 Celebrating Tisha b’Av with vision and healing.
~September 19 Celebrating Shabbat Shuva during the High Holidays