Newsletter
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Please support Sephardic Heritage International (SHIN-DC) with a tax-deductible donation.
SHIN-DC represents Sephardic and other underrepresented Jewish communities, and engages in cultural diplomacy by working closely with the Embassies and the US Congress.
As antisemitism surges world-wide, the bridge-building work of SHIN is crucial NOW more than ever.
Please support SHIN-DC in creating a Washington DC-based museum that highlights Jewish diversity and will help connect more people to our cultural and bridge-building initiatives.
Aims

  • Exhibit artwork and host concerts that express multicultural Jewish narratives and link them to African, Asian, Hispanic and American communities.
  • Highlight art that facilitates community programming and embassy and congressional engagement.
  • Build a program for artists of diverse backgrounds to explore multiple cultural identities in the United States.

Artists and private collectors have already donated scores of artworks to MJAM. Other pieces are in the process of procurement. Jews with roots in or personal connections to Africa, Asia and the Americas have also offered to donate diverse family pieces to the museum, including Judaica and ephemera.


Your generosity in support of MJAM is much needed
as we ring in the 2024 new year.
Enjoy a taste of MJAM with exhibitions from our permanent collection, as we fundraise for the museum.

Exhibition 1 at the Congressional Holocaust Commemoration:
Coming Out of Hiding, January 17

Experience MJAM's first exhibition while joining survivors, Members of Congress, the diplomatic community, the Congressional Holocaust Commemoration Committee, and our other partners at the upcoming annual Congressional Holocaust Commemoration.
This program connects people on the Hill and in communities to SHIN's crucial work of fighting hate and antisemitism, while celebrating arts and culture in the nation’s capital.
Exhibition 2:
A Fundraiser for MJAM
SOME HIGHLIGHTS
On November 14, SHIN leaders and community members from DC and across North America stood proudly with some 300,000 supporters who came together in DC for #AmericansMarchforIsrael to #MarchAgainstAntisemitism and demand to #BringThemHomeNow:::
Many of you also showed your support on October 15 by joining us at SHIN’s Sephardic table at DC’s Turkish Festival, where our Festival colleagues continued to make us feel welcome and embraced:
On October 3 – four days before the Hamas terrorist attack that started the ongoing war – SHIN-DC sponsored a Sephardic music concert featuring Israeli Paytanit (Liturgical Artist) Shir Malka Ifrah in partnership with the Embassy of Israel to show them our love and to inspire unity and hope more broadly.

This concert at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue included songs in Hebrew, Arabic and Ladino performed by musicians from Israel, the USA, Morocco, and Australia:
In September, we had a beautiful concert featuring Lily Henley performing Ladino Americana at Daughters of the American Revolution with DAR tours and Sephardic style meze cuisine and drinks:
In 2023, we hosted DC's Fifth Annual Congressional Holocaust Commemoration, established and organized by SHIN-DC, and traditionally co-sponsored by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle in both the House and Senate each year.
 
At the 2022 Commemoration, Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez noted that Sephardic Jews in Europe and the Mediterranean were also targeted by Nazi Germany’s efforts to systematically eradicate all Jewish people, and were among the 6 million Jewish lives extinguished during the Holocaust.
 
“We must pledge to speak out against antisemitism, hatred and bigotry in all of its forms, and we must honor the memories of the 6 million Jews lost by educating future generations about the horrors that are unleashed when hatred goes unchecked,” Menendez said. “That is how we turn our solemn promise of ‘never forget’ into a vow, ‘Never Again.’”
More memorable events from our recent past:
In 2023, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, US Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Antisemitism, joined us for SHIN-DC's Annual Mimouna Festival of Good Neighbors at the Smithsonian, featuring Moroccan Israeli liturgical artist Shir Ifrah, with partners the Embassy of Israel and the Embassy of Morocco, other members of the diplomatic community, the Offices of DC’s Mayor and the Governor of Maryland, and over 1,000 diverse participants.
 
Our April 2021 Mimouna festival achieved a major milestone when it became the first Mimouna in the world that included government representatives from both Israel and Morocco, an excellent example of how the arts helped bring two countries together.
Renowned Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, a Sephardic Jew from Greece, shared his family's tragic story during the Holocaust, for the first time ever, publicly, with SHIN-DC at our 2021 Commemoration.
In December 2021, SHIN-DC hosted a Hanukkah-themed program, "Collaboration for the good brings more light into the world," highlighting artistic collaborations between Muslim and Jewish musicians. Opening remarks were made by Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Chili Tropper and Emirati Culture Minister Noura Al Kaabi.
Please donate today to help SHIN-DC to continue our work and to build the Multicultural Jewish Arts Museum (MJAM)
"MyJAM" - A Jewish museum for everyone.
SHIN's Director visited our newest SHIN member, mashala, on his two-month birthday. Before he was born, our newest member attended his first Mimouna at the Smithsonian and his first Congressional Holocaust Commemoration.

He embodies the multiculturalism that SHIN represents. He is the reason we do the work that we are doing today. His mother is on our museum fundraising committee.

An investment in MJAM is an investment in future generations and the multiculturalism that our Sephardic and underrepresented heritages offer to the multicultural world in which we live. #SHINfamily #Multicultural #Jewish #BridgeBuilding #MJAM
Right now it is more important than ever to build bridges of understanding, so please click here to donate to SHIN-DC today; or click here to become a member or renew membership.

SEPHARDIC HERITAGE INTERNATIONAL (SHIN) / SHIN-DC: SHIN is a pluralistic 501(c)(3) organization that builds intercultural bridges and understanding, while raising awareness of Sephardic and other under-represented Jewish heritages, and the cultures, arts and history of the Middle East, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, and Asia. Through a focus on celebrating Sephardic and other underrepresented Jewish heritages and their potential for cross-cultural bridge building, we engage in cultural diplomacy by bringing together members of the diplomatic community, members of Congress, and diverse communities.