Jews under Moroccan Skies tells the story of Jewish life in Morocco, describing in realistic detail how Jews and Muslims interweaved their lives in peace for centuries. The authors give us the rich history of Berber Jews, the Moroccan tzadikim, and Jewish mysticism in the country. They also describe the cultural differences between the Judeo-Spanish communities of the North, the Francophone urban Jews, and the Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Berber traditions. No chapter in the long history of the Jewish people has more power and more relevance to our contemporary world than Moroccan Jewry. And it is the least known, by far This wonderful book will draw you into its mystery, captivating and capturing your imagination. If you don't want to be tempted to travel, don't read this book. You will never be satisfied until you see it with you own eyes accompanied by the unparalleled teacher and guide, Raphael David Elmaleh People all over the world have been waiting for Raphy to put his words down on paper. This magnificent book is the result. It is a gem -- Peter A. Geffen, Founder and Executive Director KIVUNIM Founder, The Abraham Joshua Heschel School, New York

Guardians of Hidden Traditions is a historical novel narrating the experiences of generation after generation of crypto-Jews, beginning in Spain in the late 1300's and ending in New Mexico in the early 1800's. It tells the stories of mothers, daughters, and their families as they hide from the Inquisition and migrate to new lands seeking freedom and peace. Isabelle Medina-Sandoval draws from stories and research about her own family to create this novel. The story is built around a real core of events, and she includes historically rich details about the lifestyles of the various time periods. Guardians of Hidden Traditions is a fascinating and moving story of a people that held on to deep traditions and culture through tremendous trials and tribulation. Dr. Medina Sandoval has woven into this work the beautiful story of our ancestors. The work provides a deep sense of belonging for a group that survived in the hearts and minds of individuals with deep faith in something omnipotent. This work is something that we as a people need to pass on to our young people in our educational systems. The culture and traditions portrayed in this work is really part of our Land of Enchantment. The Rosa de Castilla and the many traditions are part of New Mexico and its people. --Dr. John Mondragon, Professor, University of New Mexico

At one time Spain was the center of Jewish life in Europe. Most European Jews were Spanish Jews. The most important scholars and yeshivas were there. But, Spain turned against its Jews, who had been there for a 1,500 years or more, even before the Muslims and before the Christians. Medieval Catholicism snuffed out the light of the Jews, leaving only the flickering flames of Jews in hiding. Eventually even they left Spain for fear of their lives, and their descendants survived, still hiding, in remote colonies in the Americas.

For many in the United States, crypto-Judaism has been shrouded in memory, and for others it has become an imagined past that might have been, often with little information about the actual history or heritage. Today, in the American Southwest and in parts of Latin America there is a movement to reclaim Jewish identity, and people are describing remnants of Jewish practice in their families. That has sparked interest in learning more about Sepharad, the Spain of the Jews, and the Diaspora of Spanish Jews and their cousins, the crypto-Jews.

Myths have grown around the concept of Sepharad sometimes obscuring the realities of what it was. There was a golden age for Jews in Spain during the early Muslim period, but as the reconquest heated up and Christian rule replaced that of Muslims, the Jewish experience turned dark until the last light of the Jews was put out in Spain.

Evangelicals and MAGA is a historical case study of the Fulton Cotton Mill neighborhood in Atlanta where Christian nationalism took root in the late 1960s and 1970s as people transitioned out of the Jim Crow era. During the transformative decades between the 1954 (Brown vs Board of Education) and 1973 (Roe vs Wade), the Federal government banned segregation, Bible reading and prayer in schools, and discrimination against women and minorities, producing a White backlash and re-alignment of American politics. I was doing research in Cabbagetown during that time, looking at at racial attitudes, churches and religious life, and gender and family. I saw the messaging of Evangelical leaders becoming more politicized as they protested those bans on their traditional values and called to make America great again by returning to traditional Evangelical values. Preachers used the Christian ontology of good and bad, God and the Devil, as a framework to understand the changes. They saw their lifestyle as God given and good; the changes were bad. Their calls for Christian leadership in government to enact laws based on the Bible would later emerge as elements in the Christian nationalism movement and MAGA.

Counting the Omer is a Kabbalistic meditation guide to understand the in-depth meanings of each of the forty-nine days between Pesach (Passover) and the Shavuot celebration of the revealing of the Torah. Rabbi Kantrowitz follows Kabbalistic guidelines to show how the unique values of the sephirot interact each day, giving the reader insight into the strengths of the day. Through this guide the reader is led to meditate on the mystical qualities of life and self.

Converso is a story of crypto-Jewish life in a small town in northern New Mexico during the 1870's, the time of Bishop Lamy. Abran Espinosa along with his uncle, Don Mois s Espinosa, discover their Jewish birthright through an old family journal. The newly-appointed priest, Father LaSalle, mistakenly suspects them of sorcery, leading to a confrontation and Abran's exile from the local church. The resulting story is compelling and surprising. Mario X. Martinez uses stories from his family to create this historical novel of powerful Dons, dashing young men, beautiful women, and the foreign priest who did not understand New Mexican life and culture. This combustible mixture leads to conflict, revenge and the suspicious demise of the priest as he was conducting mass. This is a story that Willa Cather would have understood about life and death and the secrecy by which crypto-Jewish families lived and protected their identity.

Pioneer Jewish Families in New Mexico challenges the simplistic myth of the tri-cultural composition of New Mexico history, focusing on the contributions of German and Eastern European Jews to late 19th and early 20th- century New Mexico. Based on oral history interviews with descendants of these pioneers, supplemented with impeccable archival research, and richly illustrated with photographs, the authors of these family histories weave a rich tapestry documenting the historical contexts in Europe, which motivated young Jewish men and women to embark on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, followed by the difficult overland trek by wagon train and rail to the US Southwest. The contributors to this volume contrast the closed, and oftentimes anti-Semitic culture of Europe with the more tolerant, and welcoming environment of New Mexico. This book is a must for inclusion on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the multiethnic history of the state.

Stanley M. Hordes, Ph.D., Former New Mexico State Historian and author of To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico (NY: Columbia University Press, 2005)

Rabbi Stephen Leon's book, The Third Commandment and the Return of the Anusim: a Rabbi's Memoir of an Incredible People, stands as not only a testimony of faith, but also as a symbol of religious tenacity.
Anusim is the Hebrew word first employed by fifteenth century Spanish Jews to describe their co-religionists who were forced either by the sword or other means to convert to Christianity. These people were often called by many other names, some complimentary and others carrying a disparaging nuance. These names included marranos, conversos, and nuevos cristianos. Jews, however, used but one word: anusim: meaning those who had been spiritually violated.
Fifteenth and sixteenth century Spanish Jews saw these people as the victims of a spiritual assault. Although it is true that some of these people, once converted, did become loyal citizens of Christendom, others, despite the trials and tribulations maintained a schizophrenic split religious personality. That is to say, that on the outside these anusim by law were practicing Christians, but in the interiors of their homes and souls, they remained loyal to the faith and people of Israel.
These forced conversions changed the social structure of Spanish Jewry. Where once there had been a single and united Jewish politic within the various nations that composed the Iberian Peninsula, now Jewry was divided into four separate subcategories:
(1) Jews who were practicing members of the people of Israel,
(2) Jews had converted to Christianity due to issues of spiritual assault but despite the legal and economic hurdles remained at least in private loyal to their faith and people,
(3) Jews, who were forced to convert, decided to adapt themselves to their new situation and became loyal Catholics and
(4) a small number of Jews who for personal reasons had freely chosen Christianity.

Rabbi Stephen Leon's book, The Third Commandment and the Return of the Anusim: a Rabbi's Memoir of an Incredible People, stands as not only a testimony of faith, but also as a symbol of religious tenacity.
Anusim is the Hebrew word first employed by fifteenth century Spanish Jews to describe their co-religionists who were forced either by the sword or other means to convert to Christianity. These people were often called by many other names, some complimentary and others carrying a disparaging nuance. These names included marranos, conversos, and nuevos cristianos. Jews, however, used but one word: anusim: meaning those who had been spiritually violated.
Fifteenth and sixteenth century Spanish Jews saw these people as the victims of a spiritual assault. Although it is true that some of these people, once converted, did become loyal citizens of Christendom, others, despite the trials and tribulations maintained a schizophrenic split religious personality. That is to say, that on the outside these anusim by law were practicing Christians, but in the interiors of their homes and souls, they remained loyal to the faith and people of Israel.
These forced conversions changed the social structure of Spanish Jewry. Where once there had been a single and united Jewish politic within the various nations that composed the Iberian Peninsula, now Jewry was divided into four separate subcategories:
(1) Jews who were practicing members of the people of Israel,
(2) Jews had converted to Christianity due to issues of spiritual assault but despite the legal and economic hurdles remained at least in private loyal to their faith and people,
(3) Jews, who were forced to convert, decided to adapt themselves to their new situation and became loyal Catholics and
(4) a small number of Jews who for personal reasons had freely chosen Christianity.

Sephardic women's writings present invaluable information about the marginalization and silencing of the Jewish experience in France and North Africa. These stories offer testaments of a generally excluded human experience that belongs in the diverse and hybrid collection of post-colonial stories of displaced peoples. Once their narratives are located and appreciated for their literary and historical value, it becomes clear that they need to be incorporated into a larger movement within the Jewish historical and cultural trajectory. These stories by seven different women afford an opportunity to (re-)discover the voices and experiences of the North African Jews.

All Breathing Life Adores Your Name is a book of prayers composed as poetry by the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. This English language book of prayers introduces the reader to Jewish mysticism in contemporary life. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner has said that Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's ideas and stories have profoundly altered the landscape of American Judaism. And, it is in his tradition of originality and spiritual centeredness that Reb Zalman has opened a door for our souls with these prayer/poems. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, the author of both Jewish Literacy and A Code of Jewish Ethics, says of this book, It is hard to pray for more than a few sentences in Hebrew if you don't know what you're saying. And it's hard to pray for more than a few sentences in English if the prayers don't touch and teach your heart. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the master davvener of our age has delivered a vital book, one that enables people to actually davven, not just pray, in English. Many have promised such a book, but this one delivers. Rodger Kamenetz, the author of both Burnt Books and The Jew in the Lotus, says, One is grateful to Reb Zalman for bringing into English these Jewish prayers that have lived a long life in him. Indeed, his introductory notes show how these prayers have provided him solace, guidance and inspiration at key moments to a unique man of prayer, so that we can begin to understand not only what the words say but how they speak in the heart.

Historically the plants of the Bible have been of great interest for botanical studies, for their medicinal qualities, for cooking, for building gardens, for inspiration, and as metaphors for teaching.

The Bible often provides both social and symbolic meanings for plants, but sometimes the ambiguity of language means that the species mentioned cannot be specifically identified. The Bible was written in Aramaic and Hebrew, it was first translated into Greek in the second century B.C.E., into Latin in the fourth century C.E., and later into the many languages of the world. As we will see, the story of those translations has affected our understanding of the plants.

In this book I include the Hebrew name and the Latin scientific name for each of the plants, as well as the common name in English. Along with the images, I include a biblical reference to the plant with my interpretation of the verse, focusing on the five most mentioned plants: fig, grape vine, olive, date palm and pomegranate.

The generic Hebrew term for fruit (peri) is used throughout the Bible. In many cases the reference is to the olive, fig, or grape the three most important fruits to the Israelites after they left Egypt. Isaiah predicts that the descendants of Jacob will blossom and fill the world with fruit, making Israel a gift to the world.

In the days to come Jacob's descendants will take root, Israel will sprout and blossom, and they will fill the entire world with fruit.

Isaiah 27:6

The Hebrew word seed (zera) is regularly mentioned in reference to a grain crop, not being clear whether the reference is to wheat, barley, spelt or millet. Since wheat was the most highly esteemed and valuable, it was the most common seed. Wheat is clearly identified in many biblical verses: They have sown wheat and harvest thorns... (Jeremiah 12:13) Wheat is also depicted in Egyptian monuments and apparently in the dream of Pharaoh, which Joseph was asked to interpret.

In another dream, I saw seven full and ripe clusters of grain growing on a stalk. Coming up behind them were seven other clusters shriveled, thin and damaged by the east wind.

Genesis 41:22-23

Seeds like coriander are identified in Exodus 16:31.

Israel called it manna. It was like a white coriander seed, and it tasted like a wafer made with honey.

For the Israelites it was specifically forbidden to mix seeds of various grains ...you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed... Leviticus 19:19

The Jewish historian Josephus in the first century C.E. described the land of Israel as a garden of God because of the beauty and lusciousness of the amazing variety of trees and orchards.

This harmony and beauty of plants, the plentiful seeds, fruit trees, herbs and grasses made the land a paradise.

In The Mountain, the Desert and the Pomegranate Vanessa Paloma looks at the mysteries and complexities of life beyond simple physical observation. Spirituality and felt perceptions influence what we see, hear, and do. From coyotes that join in a chorus backing up the soprano singing in the desert to the pomegranate and the Berbers who live in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and geckos that live in towers in Casablanca life is full of mysteries. From Jewish rituals redeeming the first born son to the hospitality of a Jewish-Arab family in Marrakesh, Ms. Paloma explores the promise in life. Vanessa Paloma is the Nightingale of Moroccan Jewish Music -- Le Journal, Casablanca. Vanessa Paloma, performer, writer, lecturer on Maghrebi life, is a specialist on Judeo-Spanish traditions and music. She is a Research Associate of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University and former Senior Fulbright Research Scholar, currently living in Casablanca.

Eli Wiesel, Primo Levi and others have written notably about the horrors of the Holocaust, the loss of life, and the personal costs of cruelty. Ted Lehman adds a uniquely intimate, autobiographical view of that experience with day-by-day accounts of his life. His descriptions of the people and the personal interactions that drove that system are compelling and memorable. He has written for young adult readers because we can never forget. In Defying Odds Lehman narrates his life as a teen-age Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz and SS slave labor camps. Instead of having a Bar Mitzvah or going to high school, he learned to navigate the maze way of the Nazi death camps. As he clung to life, his family and friends were peeled away from him one by one and sent to the gas chambers. He shows unerringly how the Nazi demonization of Jews demoralized Jew and non-Jew alike, narrating the inhumanity and barbarism of the German death camps perpetuated by a supposedly civilized nation. In this book Lehman describes the loss of moral direction by one of Europe's most powerful countries, it is also a story of hope by a young man who defied that nation's will and won.

Creativity and Inspiration is about Abella Ballen's creative process, including drawings and notes from her notebooks with linkages to images that resulted from those ideas. She says it best, How do I get ideas that result in art? What do we call art? How does

art communicate and to whom does it communicate? These are questions

that are always posed to artists.

As artists we are members of a particular group influenced by the

environments we inhabit whether they be physical, social, cultural,

psychological, or artistic, and this becomes the source of our artistic

interests and visual responses.

The imaginative and intellectual work I do in the studio is a form of

research, an exploration of a particular subject to be developed in a

personal visual manner. The development of visual expression, when

using the imagination, often draws from memory, which is tinged by

feelings.