Thursday, July 1, 8-9PM (ET) via ZOOM
IF YOU MISSED IT, PLEASE EMAIL IN**@SH****.ORG FOR THE RECORDING.
The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family in Early America
- Opening Remarks: His Excellency Noel Anderson Lynch, Ambassador of Barbados to the United States
- Speaker: Dr. Laura Arnold Leibman
- Moderator: Lauren Levy, Esq.
- Neal Rechtman will share some brief remarks on behalf of the Barbados Jewish Community and Nidhe Israel Synagogue and Museum
Hosts: Sephardic Heritage International in DC (SHIN-DC) & the Embassy of Barbados in the United States
Co-hosts: CUNY Brooklyn College and Atlanta Jews of Color Council
Born a slave in colonial Barbados in 1798, Sarah Brandon Rodrigues’ distinguished Sephardic roots grant her passage to freedom and membership to New York’s white and Jewish elite. Sarah’s children with Ashkenazi husband Joshua Moses go on to marry into the family of Gershom Mendes Seixas (the famed hazzan of Shearith Israel) and serve as presidents of this S&P synagogue. They would also serve in the Mexican-American War and become Civil War heroes.
One of Sara’s sons became a surgeon, the first descendant of slaves to graduate from what would become Columbia Medical School (not that the administration appeared aware of the milestone). Her half brother, also born in Barbados, was a judge, an activist, and a Grandee of the San Francisco Jewish community who in 1877, publicly protested Jews being excluded from the Saratoga, NY Hilton Hotel.
This new book release documents a true story that seems particularly relevant at a time when Jews grapple with the construct of “whiteness” and Jews of color insist on their rightful place in Jewish life.
DR. LAURA ARNOLD LEIBMAN is a professor of English and Humanities at Reed College and has also been a Fulbright scholar at the University of Panama and Utrecht University (Netherlands). MODERATOR LAUREN LEVY, ESQ. is an immigration attorney. She is a multiethnic and Caribbean/Jamaican Jewish woman of color who identifies as a citizen of the world.