Magen David Yeshivah High School recently launched their Sephardic Heritage Program by gathering the entire student body and staff together to view the documentary film produced by our communitys own Mr. Joseph Sitt. Three thousand community members had the opportunity to attend the premiere of the inaugural film last year at Lincoln Center and since then thousands more have seen it at several other venues.
Rabbi Joey Haber planned the event and worked diligently with both MDYHS staff and The Sephardic Heritage Foundation to put together an incredible program. To supplement the film, the school invited a panel of prestigious guest speakers to attend the screening and to answer questions from the audience.
The program began with Rabbi Joey Haber telling our children that as proud Sephardic Jews, they must know all about their communitys past.
Before viewing a film about the challenges our community faced when immigrating to America and entering the confusing world of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, students were reminded that many Syrian Jews were sent here on their own at a very young age, some as young as 12, by their parents who remained behind. The founders of our community were, in many cases, as young as the students in the audience.
Once the movie began, the crowd of 700 were captivated as they learned their own history from community leaders and from the interviews captured on film.
Addressing the students, Mr. Joseph Sitt explained his goals for The Sephardic Heritage Foundation. His ongoing projects include, producing a series of documentaries, building a museum with thousands of artifacts and writing textbooks for use in our community schools. Inspiring the students with his commitment to preserving our past, Mr. Sitt spoke about the pride that each and every one of us must have as members of the world-renowned Sephardic community.
After viewing the documentary, the distinguished panel took their places on stage and took turns answering questions from the students.
The panel consisted of Steven Ashear, the great-grandson of Hazzan Hayyim Ashear AH, who composed many of the pizmonim that our community continues to sing today; Fred Bijou, one of the founders of Sephardic Bikur Holim; Harry Catton, son of Sam Catton AH, who was responsible for the publication of all of our communitys prayer and pizmonim books; Joe Faham, whose family was responsible for bringing The Aleppo Codex, out of Syria. The Codex is believed to be the most valuable piece of our heritage dating back over eleven hundred years; Ralph Shamah, son of Haham David Shamah AH, who attended the first classes in the Magen David Talmud Torah on 67th street in 1932.
The students lined up to ask the panel questions about the community. The panel responded with stories about life in Besonhurst, the inspiration for making the first siddur, the important role hesed plays in the community and the remarkable story of the escape from Syria with the Aleppo Codex.
One highlight was when Steven Ashear was asked to sing one of his grandfathers songs. As he began to sing, the other four panelists began to mouth the words of the song they grew up with. What an incredible opportunity for our students to watch history come to life.
MDYs commitment to our heritage, our traditions and our history was the impetus for the Sephardic Heritage Program that the school initiated this year. The staff of Magen David HS, led by Audrey Nasar, along with Rabbi Elinatan Bitton, Rabbi David Elnadav, and Sally Mishanieh, and under the guidance of Mrs. Sabrina Maleh, designed a special year-long program for the 10th grade.
In addition to charting their own family trees and exploring their own family histories, the students have been divided into 26 groups to study various elements of our community. Through interviews, interactions with the phenomenal staff or the Sephardic Heritage Foundation, and archival research, the students will create exhibits on themes such as life in Aleppo, immigration from the Middle East, the Syrian rabbinate, etc.
The project will culminate in an expo that will take place in the spring and which will feature a full museum designed and produced entirely by the students. It is with pride in our past that we will ensure that the future leaders of our community continue to be guided by the noble Sephardic tradition.
We thank Mr. Sitt and the entire staff of The Sephardic Heritage Foundation for their outstanding work and for ensuring that future generations will know the story of our amazing community.
