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Month-long celebration of Sephardi culture debuts in NYC

The new Festival Sefarad will join the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival in spotlighting diverse Sephardic culture

June 6, 2025 16:00
Reymond Amsalem.jpg
Recognition: Israeli actress Reymond Amsalem wins a Pomegranate Award at last year's New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival. (Photo: American Sephardi Federation)
3 min read

Festival Sefarad, a month-long celebration of Sephardic Jewish culture, is debuting in New York City this month, expanding upon the popular New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival by adding a movable feast of diverse cultural events to the much-beloved cinematic programme.

“Especially after October 7, we thought: the more ways to connect, the better,” said Jason Guberman, Executive Director of the American Sephardi Federation (ASF).

With the support of the UJA Federation of New York, ASF is launching a series of intellectual, cultural and communal events across New York City as part of a festival named and styled after the eponymous Festival Sefarad de Montreal, all in service of spotlighting the distinct beauty of Sephardi life.

“The overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community is Ashkenazi, so expressions of culture are going to tend to be Ashkenazi,” said Guberman. “And unfortunately, that means that the Sephardic experience often gets left out.”