[Meeting] The Holocaust and Sephardic Jews of the Balkans and North Africa (Thousand Oaks, CA, April 1, 2012)

[publ...@jgscv.org]

Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County*
(JGSCV) (*and surrounding areas)
will hold a general meeting, co–sponsored with Temple Adat Elohim, on
Sunday, April 1, 2012 at Temple Adat Elohim, 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive,
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362 from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

This program will commemorate Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day),
which is April 19th.

The Program:The Holocaust and Sephardic Jews of the Balkans and North
Africa

Much has been written and many documentaries and dramas have been made
concerning the Holocaust. Overwhelmingly, these deal with the horrors
experienced by the Jews of Eastern Europe. Less well known is the
plight of the Sephardic Jews of the Balkans and North Africa. Arthur
Benveniste’s talk will focus on the story of the Jews of Greece,
Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and North Africa. He will include the personal
stories of people he has known from Salonika, Athens, Rhodes and
Morocco, and will cover the policies of Fascist Italy, Franco Spain,
Vichy France and the kings of Bulgaria and Morocco.

Speaker Arthur Benveniste's parents were from the Island of Rhodes
where his ancestors lived for four hundred years. He grew up in a
community of Ladino speaking Jews from Rhodes. For many years, he has
been interested in tracing the roots of Sephardic culture. Arthur has
been active in the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies since 1993, where
he was president of the society from 2001 to 2003. He served as the co-
editor of Halapid, the newsletter of the society. Mr. Benveniste has
visited Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Peru, Italy, Morocco, Turkey and
Greece. In 1992, he was invited by King Juan Carlos to return to Spain
to commemorate the quincentennial of the expulsion of Jews.