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Shanah Tovah!
The fall is a time of transition and change — the end of our year and the beginning of the new one. Our words and prayers in synagogue and the family gatherings in our homes will be spoken in every tongue, a celebration of the diversity of the Jewish people. We will also speak in Hebrew, a celebration of unity of the Jewish people. We at Be’chol Lashon wish you a good and sweet year, one that builds both our diversity and our unity.

Michelle Obama Has a Rabbi in Her Family
By Anthony Weiss, September 2, 2008, The Forward.com

While Barack Obama has struggled to capture the Jewish vote, it turns out that one of his wife’s cousins is the country’s most prominent black rabbi — a fact that has gone largely unnoticed. Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago’s South Side and Michelle Obama’s paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were brother and sister. Read on...
Editor's Note: Rabbi Capers Funnye is the Associate Director of Be'chol Lashon.

Who Is an African Jew?
By O. Stav Hillel, September 29, 2008, The Jerusalem Report

Last July, in the city of Nabugoye, in Eastern Uganda, the group of Jews known as the Abayudaya ("People of Judah" in the native Luganda language) convened for the installation of Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, Uganda's first chief rabbi and the first black sub-Saharan rabbi to be ordained by an American rabbinical school. Read on...

An Evening With Rabbi Sizomu
By Masada Siegel, September 5, 2008, The Jewish Advocate

The African drum beat was combined with the violin, clarinet and myriad musical instruments. The energy in the room was overwhelming and the room was filled with a sea of white faces, with dots of color interspersed. All eyes were on Ugandan Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, his brother JJ and his son, all wearing colorful African kippoth. They were surrounded by musicians from the Scottsdale (Ariz.) community. Read on...

Rethinking Racial Progress
By Jonathan Kaufman, August 28, 2008, The Wall Street Journal

To many civil rights leaders, the 1980s brought setbacks to racial issues ... But the changes since the 1980s were profound ...As a result, the ethnic and racial diversity inside American families has surged. More than 20% of Americans now say they have a relative married to someone of another race, according to a 2005 Pew Research Center poll. That kind of diversity includes the two presidential candidates: Sen Obama with his mixed-race background and Sen. John McCain with his daughter adopted from Bangladesh. Read on...

Canadian Participates in Israel Hoops Peace Program
By Rhonda Spivak, September 11, 2008, The Canadian Jewish News

Nine-year-old Winnipegger Dov Corne had the thrill of a lifetime when he took part in a special basketball clinic last month conducted by the Los Angeles Laker’s Jordan Farmar for Israeli and Palestinian children. The clinic was part of a “Twinned Peace Sports Schools” program organized by the Shimon Peres Center for Peace. Read on...

Actor Louis Gossett Jr. Gives Shabbat Sermon
By Aaron Leibel August 26, 2008, The Canadian Jewish News

When this reporter spelled his last name for Louis Gossett Jr.’s publicist last week, she began laughing. “Leibele is his Yiddish name,” she said. Lou Gossett Jr. has a Yiddish name?

It’s true, confirmed the African American actor, who couldn’t recall the origins of his nickname.
“Maybe it’s because I used to take off Jewish holidays” from school, quipped Gossett, who delivered the Shabbat morning sermon in late August at Ohev Sholom – The National Synagogue in Washington, D.C., discussing his connection to Jews and Judaism and his nonprofit, The Eracism Foundation (www.eracismfoundation.org). Read on...

Escape, Exile, Rebirth: Iranian Jewish Diaspora Alive and Well in Los Angeles
By Karmel Malemed, September 3, 2008, The Jewish Journal

Thirty years have passed since the massive and violent demonstrations against the Shah of Iran that began in September 1978, and for many, the start of that country's bloody revolution might seem a faded memory. Yet I have carried those shattering events with me all of my life: I was born on in Tehran on Sept. 11, 1978, as chaos unfolded on the streets outside. My family's story is no different from that of thousands of other Jews who fled Iran during and after the revolution, many of whom now live in Southern California, New York, Israel and elsewhere worldwide -- the Iranian Jewish diaspora. Read on...

Younger Persians Seeking Greater Role in Community
By Karmel Malemed, September 3, 2008, The Jewish Journal

Many of Los Angeles' young Iranian Jews arrived in the United States as small children or were born here to immigrant parents. Now young professionals in their 20s and 30s, they have fully embraced life in America and are championing greater political activity for the Iranian Jewish community in Southern California. Read on...

Joon
By Shelly R. Fredman, July 17, 2008, Forward.com

Joon means "darling" or "sweetheart" in the Persian language. The sheer quantity of joons in Iranian Jewish speech points to some of the deeper differences between Los Angeles' Iranian and non-Iranian Jewish communities. The obvious one is language, which can reinforce a sense of separateness and strangeness. Read on...

Eric Wong Showcases New Documentary on Capoeira

Bay Area Be’chol Lashon member, Eric Wong, recently completed a full-length film documenting an incredible international capoeira event in Brazil last year.  Capoeira Sul da Bahia - 3º Encontro Internacional was a week-long event with over 600 participants from 16 countries, and was shot entirely on location in Bahia, Brazil.  Eric has been involved with capoeira for over 7 years and his group, Capoeira Sul da Bahia, leads fun energy-filled workshops and performances at many Bay Area Be'chol Lashon events.

More info on Capoeira Sul da Bahia in San Francisco at www.suldabahiasf.org and available for purchase here.

"Petropolis"
Reviewed by Poornima Apte, August 5, 2008, Mostlyfiction.com

Sasha Goldberg, the smart protagonist of Anya Ulinich's debut novel, Petropolis, is a biracial teen growing up in a small rundown town in Siberia. The town which was originally called Stalinsk and built as an administrative center for the Gulag has long since sunk into dire poverty and is now known merely called Asbestos 2 after the mineral that was discovered there. Asbestos 2 in fact, was named after Asbestos, “a larger town in the Ural Mountains, where asbestos was also mined, the weather was milder, and one could occasionally buy beef in stores,” Ulinich writes.

Buy the book here

Save 10% - Sign up Now! Bay Area Be'chol Lashon Retreat 2008

The time has come to gather around in the great outdoors for an extraordinary adventure with family and friends. Give thanks for the fall harvest and celebrate the festive holiday of Sukkot.

You are invited to the 5th Annual Bay Area Be’chol Lashon Retreat for ethnically and racially diverse Jews, family, and friends. Sign up online!

Questions? Email Esther@JewishResearch.org

History of Moroccan Jews

Be'chol Lashon, JIMENA, and Emanu-El present: Raphael David Elmaleh, founder of the Museum of Moroccan Jewry in Casablanca and Morocco's sole remaining Jewish guide. Raphy has traveled the length and breath of his native land, gathering artifacts, costumes, photos, books, manuscripts and stories and continues to restore abandoned synagogues in small villages throughout the country. Raphy's stories and slides will intrigue and inspire you. Please join us for teh unique experience.

For more information, click here.

Arial Sabar: My Father’s Paradise:
A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq

For more information, click here.

Exploring Race in Contemporary Jewish Life: A Symposium on Jewish Diversity

October 6, 2008, Paley Library Lecture Hall, Temple University, PA

Guest participants include John L. Jackson, Jr. of the University of Pennsylvania, Edith Bruder of the University of London, and Avishai Mekonen and Shari Rothfarb Mekonen, who will show and discuss their film 400 Miles to Freedom. Temple University participants include Zain Abdullah, Rebecca Alpert, Jane Gordon, Lewis Gordon, Laura Levitt, and Terry Rey. Click here for flyer