Ari Afilalo- Sephardic Jews and food customs

Sephardic Jews are the large and diverse group of Jews who belong to the particular region of Spain, Middle East, Egypt, North Africa, Turkey and Italy. The cuisine is influenced by the place of Jewish origin. Sephardic Jews arrived in NYC in 1654 by the way of sea. 

Jewish food customs: 

Kosher Food

Jews eat kosher food. Kosher food is the food that is fit to eat and is prepared according to the customs in accordance with Jewish Laws. 

Traditions and Shabbat

With an entire day of not cooking, Jew cuisine got innovative as the dishes need to be kept warm overnight. 

Innovative Passover cooking

Cooking at Passover needs to be innovative as eating chametz is forbidden. 

Relocations and cultural innovativeness

As the Jews moved from their origin to new places, their food has touched a lot of communities and is influenced by a lot of them. 

There is a large Sephardic Jewish community in the New York City. Ari Afilalo is a Sephardic Jew of French Moroccan ancestry. He is an expert on the internal trade laws and is the author of The New Global Trading Order.

Little Marrakesh on the Upper West Side

On a recent Saturday night, I sat in my Upper West Side Sephardic synagogue watching my French cousin and the ensemble that he founded sing the traditional Baqashot, to the beat of North African drums.  In doing so, they not only perpetuated but also transported a centuries-old tradition.  The Baqashot, literally “supplications,” are songs and chanted poems on themes related to the week’s Parsha.  They were sung in winter nights in Morocco, Syria, and other Sephardic communities.  On Saturday night, when Shabbat ended early, the community would prolong its spirit with an evening of music and spirituality.

New York Hevrat Baqashot,  

My cousin founded the New York Hevrat Habaqashot, the New York Baqashot Ensemble, when he immigrated from France.  The Hevra’s members, all young professionals by day, research text, compose musical accompaniment, rehearse tirelessly, and have revived the custom in New York City.  This was their sixth annual performance.  They delighted the audience, Ashkenazic as well as Sephardic, and as I watched my cousin lead the group it occurred to me that our common ancestors shared the same experience in Marrakesh for centuries, until the Moroccan Jews started leaving about 60 years ago.

That got me thinking about the resilience and portability of Jewish culture and life through our successive Exiles. I grew up in Paris, France, a few miles away from my cousin’s community.  Our synagogues were made up primarily of North African Jews, who left Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia after the establishment of the State of Israel and the independence from France. It is not easy to be an easily identifiable Jew in Paris these days. The kippa goes off or is hidden under a hat, and we do not readily advertise who we are.

Source Link-: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/little-marrakesh-on-the-upper-west-side/

Shemot’s Rebels with a Cause: What Makes Might?

The Book of Exodus starts with contrasting narratives of fear-mongering and cruelty, and courageous acts of compassion.  A new Pharaoh rises to rule Egypt.  He chooses to ignore that Yosef the Hebrew turned Egypt into the world’s sole superpower.  Instead, Pharaoh convenes the Wannsee Conference of the day, to plot the annihilation of the Children of Israel.  Pharaoh’s indictment of Israel contains no accusations of misconduct, only the fear that “they could multiply and join with our enemies in case of war.”  From there, enslavement and true ethnic cleansing, the killing of baby boys at birth, ensues.

The first recorded acts of rebellion come from resisting midwives refusing to kill newborns and then from Batya, Pharaoh’s own daughter.  Seeing Moshe in the Nile, the text tells us, Batya immediately realizes that he is a Hebrew child and “has compassion for him.”   She not only saves Moshe but sends him back to his mother among the Hebrews to be nursed.  When he grows up and is brought to Pharaoh’s palace, Batya names him Moshe because “I brought him out of the water.”  The very name Batya gives him connotes her continued defiance of the Pharaonic policies.

The Midrash, enamored with Batya, tells us that she went on to marry a Hebrew man named “Mered,” or “Revolt,” who was in fact Caleb ben Yefuneh.  Caleb was of course, along with Yehoshua, one of the dissenters from the ill-fated mission and fear-based report of the 12 Spies.  Both Batya and Mered are rebels, the Midrash says.  They had the courage to stand up to the prevailing beliefs in their society, and therefore deserved each other.

Owing his life to an Egyptian rebel, Moshe embodies his adoptive mother’s courage and compassion, on behalf of his own people as well as strangers.  Instead of living a comfortable princely life, Moshe rebels and kills the Egyptian taskmaster savagely beating a Hebrew slave.  And as he runs away from Pharaoh’s wrath, alone in a foreign land, Moshe’s first act is to come to the rescue of Yitro’s daughters, harassed by hostile shepherds.

It is no coincidence that the Book of Exodus opens with stories of cruelty and compassion.  The Book will then move on to a long narrative dominated by themes of power and conflict, pitting Pharaoh, the commander in chief of the world’s most powerful army, and the unleashed might of G-d coming to the rescue of the oppressed. The powerful Egyptian armies wind up drowned in the Red Sea as the Empire falls. The lessons are clear:  Might is not enough.  It must have as its basis a foundation of compassion in order to endure and prevail. One rebellious act of compassion has set in motion a great historical movement of liberation, whereas policies devoid of humanity triggered self-destruction — even for the mightiest in the world.

Source Link-: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/shemots-rebels-with-a-cause-what-makes-might/

Moving Forward After Nationalist and Populist Movements

Research by two Rutgers Law School professors traces the economic and cultural roots of populist and nationalist movements in the United States and Europe, including the United Kingdom’s “Brexit” vote to withdraw from the European Union, the rise of the extreme-right parties in France and Germany, and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Ari Afilalo and Dennis Patterson suggest that throughout the Western world, and especially in the United States, people are angry that they haven’t benefited from globalization.

In the United States and other Western countries, Afilalo and Patterson say there has emerged what they call a “chronically excluded class” that has lost the economic security that it enjoyed in the 20th century. Afilalo and Patterson say the “chronically excluded” have reached the boiling point, and they’re angry because there are currently no opportunities to regain economic security.

“People have a right to be angry because they have not benefited from globalization in a way that the top tier of society has,” says Patterson, the Board of Governors Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School’s Camden location.

Afilalo and Patterson say the U.S. government is failing to provide its people with social and economic security because it uses obsolete policy tools from the 20th century. They cite the federal government’s policies after World War II, when the government delivered economic security by relying and legislating around a base of corporate employers providing a massive supply of stable careers in manufacturing, services, and other jobs.

“It used to be that you go to work for a corporation and you were a loyal employee for your whole life, you got a pension and you were good. That paradigm is gone and it’s not coming back,” says Patterson. He says part-time work, platform economy, and moving from one job to another will replace the old workplace model. Patterson says the federal government should be working on a plan to create security for people in that environment.

According to Afilalo and Patterson, the Western nation-state is in crisis because manufacturing and retail jobs were traded away to emerging economies. They also point to other changes, such as automation and the platform "gig" economy eroding the career-based model of work, the skills gap between the new type of jobs created in large quantities and the declining middle-class workforce, and the fact that more than 90 percent of new entrants in the global middle class come from Asia and other emerging markets.

Afilalo says half of the world is now middle class. “If I am in Indonesia, I’m happy to become a member of the middle class. I get my basic goods that I did not have before. If I am the same person in Appalachia, then I am going down,” says Afilalo. “They are going from manufacturing to the retail services industry, which is being devastated with the advent of technology.”



Afilalo’s and Patterson’s findings are a part of a decade-long research project on the role of a nation-state as the provider of economic security and opportunity in globalized markets.

They say the U.S. government needs to revamp the way economic policy is structured. They want a government that enables economic opportunity for the chronically excluded and provides social protection that is not dependent on a career-type, long-term job. Examples include a portable social account that would be a vehicle to enable business in the gig economy, and public-private partnerships to create jobs programs that train and link the chronically excluded to the skilled job openings that abound in the United States.

Patterson and Afilalo say that some reforms to the trade system are necessary, but that a return to protectionism would harm U.S. interest. “If President Trump has his way, the economy will be far worse off than it is now,” says Patterson. “Protectionism has never resulted in economic growth.”

The results of their research will be included in a book by the Rutgers–Camden scholars that’s scheduled for release in the fall of 2018.

Patterson is teaching a course on contracts this semester. In the spring, he’s teaching a seminar with former Rutgers Law School Dean Ray Solomon on the changing nature of work and regulation, which will cover globalization.

Afilalo teaches a contracts course this semester, and will teach a globalization-heavy course in international trade and business transactions in the spring that covers the international trade system, international financial and investment rules, and the private law of cross-border transactions.

For students interested in international law, Patterson suggests that they study economics and political theory, and to travel widely. Patterson spent the last eight years living in Italy while he was on leave from Rutgers Law School and learned more about Europe and the European Union. Afilao recommends that students learn one foreign language. “Spanish and French are obvious candidates,” says Afilalo, “But I also think that to the extent practicable a student should strive to speak any language used in the Arab or Asian markets; that would give her or him a great comparative advantage.”

Click Here To Read Full Article-: https://law.rutgers.edu/news/moving-forward-after-nationalist-and-populist-movements

Get To Know About The Important Facts About Latino Jews

Ari Afilalo is a professional who has every minute detail about the Sephardic community. Once you go through the writing of Afilalo, you will come to know about the cultural values of the Sephardic people. Latino Jews used to call with different names such as:

• Sephardic Jews
• Spanish Jews
• Arab Jews

A Glimpse Of Light On The Identity Of Latino Jews

When we discuss about the Latino Jews, they were basically the descendants of those people who practiced Jewish religion in Iberia for a very long time and now the below mentioned regions:

• Spain
• Portugal
• North Africa

All About The Religious Practice Of Hispanics

They were blindly following Jewish traditions without knowing even the ABC of it. There was a Jewish association in New Mexico that pointed out the following practices majorly disconnected from consciousness of a Jewish past:

• Candle Lightening on Friday night
• Observing the Sabbath on Saturday

• No To Eat Pork

There is a lot to know about this enriching heritage of Sephardic people. Once you start learning about Sephardic culture, you will be anxious to know more and more.

The Biblical transition of power from Moses to Joshua

 The Biblical transition of power from Moses to Joshua provides a blueprint for how much involvement outgoing President Obama should have in national policy after the election. Moses famously was denied entry to the Promised Land. A close reading of the text, however, shows that Moses was only denied entry as the leader of the Israelites. But he could have passed the baton to Joshua and tagged along as a citizen.


The reason Moses refused to do that is a testament to his great leadership. Moses did not want the people, in the inevitable dissensions over major decisions, to challenge Joshua’s leadership before him. The aura of leadership that Moses had accrued over decades of power and unique encounters with the Divine, would be too much for Joshua to overcome. When it was time to go, Moses disappeared from the national scene entirely.


This is what all former Presidents have done in recent history, as we witnessed most recently with President Bush’s retreat to Texas. A “shadow president” is not good for the country or for the loyal opposition. His presidential aura should not be put to work to challenge his successor, regardless of any misgivings about his positions. Few men have occupied the Oval Office; respect for that office demands that they leave it to other loyal opposition to challenge the current occupant.

A New Insight Towards The Global Trading Order

Professor Ari Afilalo has taken on the existing state of affairs across various international institutions which govern the trade across the globe. His work in the book The New Global Trading Order is of high importance and caters to various concerns associated with WTO and GATT leading to the unsatisfactory response to the changing scenario of global trade.

The author has laid down the fact the it is not easy to understand the trading order that prevails in the world today without getting complete knowledge and understanding of the statecraft and trade whilst focusing on their relationship. The author puts forth all the information in a very comprehensive and easy to understand while depicting the changing scenario of the state.

According to the author the world is experiencing change in the trade mechanisms as the age old notions of welfare, sovereignty and world powers are gradually eroding giving way to a more fair and strategic world. The postmodern state demands a lot more than what the existing institutional structure can offer.  

His work discusses various practices and methods that can be implemented in order to reach a new post modern global trading scenarios. It advocates cross-border relationships and suggests the ways of achieving the goals which also include measures to recreate new institutions for domestic and international trade replacing the old ones.

The New Global Trading Order throws light on current perceptions about the trade scenarios and also highlights the misperceptions existing with the same. Therefore, this book is a must read for all the people who are willing to learn about broken concepts and are looking forward towards creating a groundwork to fix the situation.

Influential Factors In Sephardic Music- Ari Afilalo

Sephardic music is a term which is used for the Sephardic Jewish music. Sephardic Jews is a term used to refer to the exiled Jews from Spain. In Sephardic secular tradition, usually the music is in dialects of Judeo-Spanish and other other languages such as Greek, Turkish and Hebrew including the local languages of the diaspora are used. 

Liturgical and para-liturgical traditions are preserved by Sephardim. Their music repertory have a unique flavor that centres primarily around the Mediterranean basin. Following the beginning of Sephardic music recordings on the commercial level and the revival of the folk music revival, the discovery of Sephardic music and the world music led to gargantuan changes in the performance, repertory and commercial practices.

For sephardic communities, Judeo-Spanish, Ladino was an important marker of the culture. Most performers from the Sephardic community were Ashkenazi or non-Jewish. With increasing music recordings in the fusion or rock-influenced categories, the recordings are marketed as critical part of the early music.

The obscure music of sephardic community slowly spread throughout the world which is now performed in every imaginable style. The music has evolutionized to a great extent since the pre-Biblical times. The religious music regarding the Exodus and Solomon’s Temples started in the early middle ages. Salamone Rossi’s work exhibits the early emergences of Jewish musical themes.

Jewish music has been found by some observers in Gershwin’s some 800 songs. The learners do not miss the synagogue ideas and themes in Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin. The famous Israeli composers of Sephardic music are Yitzhak Yedid, Tsippi Fleischer, Betty Olivera, Chaya Czernowin and Mark Kopytman.

Ari Afilalo is an artist and musician who has keen interest in musical heritage and studies the musical themes of the Sephardic culture. He is also part of the French Moroccan community in New York.

The Basic Understanding Of The Changing Trading System- Ari Afilalo

Ari Afilalo is a tenured professor of law, who has published many books on the legal matters related to GATT, NAFTA and many more. Ari has done a post graduation degree in law from a very prominent school in the United States.                   

“The book named ” The New Global Trading Order” gives a wonderful glimpse of his writings and this book is a real contribution to the thinking about the international trade order. This book is written in a fantastic way and can arouse a great interest to those who are highly concerned with international trade law, economics and the problems of globalization.

The main concern of the author is only to show that how the post-war Bretton Woods system was predicted on the basis of the state that no more holds. The prediction was done just for regulating the global economic order.

To promote the global economic opportunity and growth for citizens of developed and developing countries, they focus on developing an original thesis for radical institutional redesign of the existing trade regime. 'The New Global Trading Order is said to be the thought-provoking work, which made an astonishing  contribution to an emerging body of literature.

This book focuses on world trade and considers the past of global institutions and proposes the possible solutions to all the issues of global trade. The book is all about the political theory and an analysis of policies.

To understand the global trading order, it is very essential to uncovering the relationship between trade and the state. The modern trade order mainly focuses on the liberalization of trade in goods and services. In this way, the seamless story of the book moves around the changing nature of the state and the frequent changes in the international trading system.

Ari Afilalo – A Law Professor Research and Innovation in Sephardic

Ari Afilalo, a law professor specializing on trade who has co-authored ‘The New Global Trading Order: The Evolving State and the Future of Trade’ with Dennis Patterson, a book published by the Cambridge University Press. He has for many years nurtured an interest in the social and economic integration of Sephardic Jews in Israel and their patterns of political allegiance.

As a senior writing his thesis at Harvard in 1988, Ari Afilalo studied in depth the causes of the overwhelming Sephardic support for Menahem Begin and his Likud Party, who won for the first time in 1977 the Israeli elections after decades of Labor dominance. Ari Afilalo had previously studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he was able to access at Harvard archives containing a rich collection of materials pertaining to Sephardic voting.

Ari debunked at the time the commonly held view that Sephardic voters, hailing from Arab countries where they had faced a politically turbulent if culturally rich history, were attracted to the more hawkish policy of the Likud. He instead traced the voting patterns to the initial clashes between the Labor establishment “anti-Levantinization” policies and the Sephardic immigrants, and the more traditional outlook of Prime Minister Begin, as distinguished from the secular Labor leaders.

Today, Ari Afilalo examines social, economic and political issues affecting the children and grand-children of the 1977 Sephardic first Likud wave.

Ari Afilalo – Research and Innovation in Sephardic

Ari Afilalo is a law professor by day, who has co-authored ‘The New Global Trading Order: The Evolving State and the Future of Trade’ with Dennis Patterson, a book published by the Cambridge University Press. He is also an avid researcher and consumer of Sephardic texts, poetry, music and religious interpretations.

Ari Afilalo has started several projects that he plans to complete over the summer, present at his synagogue, the West Side Sephardic Synagogue, and other venues. The first project is a compilation of traditional blessings given to congregants called to the Torah in a Sephardic synagogue.

Ari stumbled upon the job of giving the blessings when the then Rabbi of his community, who had been in charge, moved to a new congregation. Instead of using the traditional, fixed text that has been developed by the compilers of the Moroccan prayer book used in the shul, Ari developed his own blessings (brahot) based on the needs of each congregant: children, marriage, a better living, good health.

His new project blends the text that Ari developed with the traditional text of the blessings canon, and comments on the sources that he uses for this project.