Two upcoming programs continue Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU's look at 'global Jewish communities'

CONTACT: Prof. Tudor Parfitt, Florida International University: tparfitt@fiu.edu
Expanding its scope and worldview well beyond Jewish life in the Sunshine State, the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU will host two upcoming programs that explore Jewish communities in Morocco and Ethiopia.

"How Are Jews Remembered in Morocco?" will take place Sunday, April 6 at 2 p.m. at the museum, located at 301 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. The program, so named because the Jewish population there is all but gone, will look at the centuries-old, once-vibrant Jewish communities of Meknes, Fez, Marrakesh, Rabat and Casablanca that in 1947 began to empty, opting for new lives in Israel, France and other destinations. Telling their story will be Emanuela Trevisan Semi, a professor of modern Hebrew and Jewish studies at Ca'Foscari University in Venice, Italy, whose most recent work looks at how the Jews of Meknes are remembered by the Muslim population there and how they themselves remember their ancestral home. Following her talk, Semi will join a panel discussion of local scholars in the field, including Henry Green from the University of Miami, and Annette Fromm, Galit Shashoua and Tudor Parfitt, all from Florida International University.

The next evening, on Monday, April 7 at 7 p.m., Semi will speak at the museum about "The Jews of Ethiopia," offering both insider and outsider perspectives of the community, based on her many years as president of the Society for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry and published works on the subject.

Both programs are free and open to the public. Presented by FIU's Jewish Studies Initiatives, they are co-sponsored by the Initiative for Global Jewish Communities and the President Navon Professorship of Sephardi Mizrahi Studies.

Since joining FIU in 2012, the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU has hosted numerous events and academic programs that explore a variety of Jewish experiences - from those of African-American Jews and Muslim-Jewish relations, to diaspora communities in Africa and Asia - that are the result of FIU's recently-launched Initiative for Global Communities. In addition to the museum's ongoing programs about Jewish life in Florida, plans call for more offerings on "global Jewish communities."

For more information about the April 6 and April 7 programs, contact the museum at 786-972-3175 or info@jewishmuseum.com.

April 6:

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April 7:

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