WORLD SEPHARDI FEDERATION

Since the establishment of the Zionist movement, efforts have been made to organize the Sephardi communities throughout the world in support of settlement in the Land of Israel, and were accelerated after World War i and the Balfour Declaration. Various organizations were formed, particularly among the youth, and a Conference of Sephardi Communities was held during the World Zionist Congress in Vienna in 1925. Many Sephardi leaders opposed this on the grounds that it would give rise to separation between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewry. Mr. Picciotto, a Syrian Jew who lived in London, was elected chairman. As a result of his efforts, a number of agricultural settlements of Sephardi Jews were established, including Kefar Ḥittim, Zur Moshe, and Beit Ḥanan. However, the organization was dissolved after a short time.

In 1947 an organization of Sephardi Jews in the Land of Israel was set up under the leadership of E. Eliyashar, who visited South America to establish links between the Sephardi communities there and the yishuv in the Land of Israel. In 1950 contacts were also made with Sephardi communities in France, England, and the United States. A preparatory meeting was convened in Paris to establish a Sephardi World Congress, and among its members were David Sitton, Ovadiah Kimhi, Mr. Kaxbalko of London, and Simian Nissim of the United States.

The Congress was held in Paris in November 1951, and A. Ben-Roy of London was elected president with E. Eliyashar and Bekhor Shitrit (then Israel's minister of police), Elias Taubal of South America, and the Ḥakham S. Gaon of the English Spanish and Portuguese Congregation, as vice presidents.

Headquarters were established in London, but because of the opposition of the Left Sephardi workers in Israel, an attempt to make it a worldwide organization failed.

During the Second Sephardi Congress held in Jerusalem in May 1954, additional efforts were made to reach an understanding between the two parties, but they failed. As a result of this crisis, Mr. Ben-Roy resigned, and Mr. Sebag-Montefiore of London was elected. The new president, a non-Zionist, opposed joining pro-Zionist organizations in general and the Zionist Federation in particular. Both the Left and the Right in the Israeli branch tried in vain to persuade him to change his attitude. As a result, Sebag-Montefiore resigned and two months later Eli Nachmias, of the Sephardi community of Paris, was elected president. Though he warmly endorsed all cultural activities in Israel, he refused all contact between the Federation and any Zionist organizations. This attitude was strongly criticized by Sephardi Zionists both in the Diaspora and in Israel, and as a result Mr. Nachmias resigned.

After 1967, a new leadership emerged under Eliyahu Eliyashar of Jerusalem and Edgar Abravanel of Paris. The dynamic director-general Gad Ben-Meir in London added much vitality to the World Sephardi Federation. Emphasis was placed on scholarships for disadvantaged Oriental youth in Israel, and strengthening programs that would help them finish high school, pass matriculation exams, and advance to university.

In February 1973, Nessim David Gaon, a leader of the Sephardi community in Switzerland, was elected fourth president of the Federation. His activity on behalf of the economically distressed and his support for educational institutions in Israel were well known and appreciated, and he was highly regarded by the heads of the state and of the Zionist movement. His election gave the Federation considerable power.

Even before his election, during the 28^th Zionist Congress held in Jerusalem in February 1972, the Sephardi Federation had been accepted as a member of the Zionist Organization, which gave the Federation new status in the eyes of Sephardi Jewry. In response to a request by the Federation's delegates to the Congress – which numbered 15 members from Israel and abroad – a special department of the Zionist Organization was established to deal with their problems on an international basis. As a result, delegates were sent to Sephardi communities in the United States, Canada, France, and England. For the first time in the history of Zionist activities among Sephardi Jews, youth groups from the United States, Canada, France, S. America, and Iran participated in special seminars organized for them in Israel. This youth, hitherto dissociated from Zionism and the building of the Jewish State, began to absorb the Zionist doctrine, and on their return became enthusiastic supporters of the State of Israel. The activities in Israel were concentrated mainly in the field of education. Thanks to the initiative of the Federation's president, a special fund was established for students and the economically underprivileged. It was agreed to establish a special course at the University of Haifa for the training of public leaders from among the inhabitants of development towns and distressed areas. The course opened with 90 students who were chairmen of councils and heads of departments in development towns. It was agreed to establish similar courses in the universities of Beersheba, Bar Ilan, Tel Aviv, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and by the end of 1977 a total of 800 students participated. At the end of the 1970s funds were made available to establish an institute for Sephardi studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem called Misgav Yerushalayim, which now publishes scholarly works on Sephardi and Oriental Jewry in literature, history, and language, and organizes large-scale international conferences every four years.

At a plenary conference held in Geneva in 1979, a new structure was decided upon for the Federation, whereby the presidium was to consist of ten representatives each, from Israel and the Diaspora, the former including four delegates from the Likud, three from the Labor Alignment, two from the religious parties, and one independent, while the latter would have two delegates each from the U.S., Latin America, and France, and one each from Britain, Canada, Spain, and the rest of Europe.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the World Sephardi Federation was dormant. By 1985 the budget of the Department of Sephardi Communities of the Jewish Agency was cut to such an extent that it had no funds for activities and only paid salaries. By and large the World Sephardic Federation failed to deal with issues of Sephardi identity, education, rabbinic training, intermarriage and assimilation in the Diaspora, and Sephardi/Mizraḥi poverty and alienation in Israel. The organization remains closed to the outside world and to the Sephardic public in the Diaspora and Israel, and has failed to cultivate or attract young leadership, admit women, and include and unite the extremely fragmented Sephardi/Mizraḥi public consisting of more than 70 diverse ethnic groups throughout the Diaspora and in Israel.

The World Sephardi Federation has since moved its headquarters to Israel. Since the death of Shelomo Abutbul, who was the head of the Va'ad Edah ha-Sefardit of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, the archives of the World Sephardi Federation have remained in a warehouse in Tel Aviv and off-limits to the public and interested researchers.

[David Sitton /

Yitzchak Kerem (2^nd ed.)]