Ken Blady, M.A.
Jewish Educator, Writer, Translator
1305 Evelyn Avenue · Berkeley, CA 94702 · Tel 415.264.4110 · kenbee13@live.com
Ken is available for lectures, seminars
and classes on the following subjects:
Exotic Jewish Communities Around the World -- Mizrachi (Oriental)
Jews on the African and Asian Jewish Geographical Periphery:
- North and South Yemen
- Persia (Iran)
- Kurdistan
- Crimea
- Republic of Georgia
- Daghestan/Chechnya/Azerbaijan
- Central Asia (Tajiki Jews of Bukhara)
- Afghanistan
- Cochin and Bombay, India
- Kaifeng, China
- Atlas Mountains of Morocco
- Island of Jerba, Tunisia
- Cave-dwellers of Tripolitania, Libya
- Ethiopia
Jewish Communities In Islamic Lands: A Lecture/Slide/Video Presentation:
This lecture deals with aspects of the history, religious life, and material culture of Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews living in an Islamic milieu in various part of West Asia, the Caucasus, the Crimean Peninsula, Central Asia and North Africa.
Jewish life under Islam may have been less onerous than in Catholic Europe but in certain times and places and especially in Shiite Muslim lands (Yemen and Iran) the Jews were subjected to all kinds of indignities, abuses, and institutionalized contempt.
The Jews were very similar in physical appearance, cuisine, lifestyle, customs, and even in language (which was normally a variant of the local language mixed with Hebrew words) with the indigenous Muslim peoples whom they lived among, which challenges the concept of Jews as a race.
Some topics to be discussed in this lecture:
- The Shariya (Islamic laws) vis-a-vis the dhimmi (Subject Peoples of the Scriptures)
- Jewish life under Shiites and Sunnis compared and contrasted
- Islamic Marranos: the Daggataun of the Sahara, the Chala of Bukhara and the Djedid al-Islam of Meshed, Persia
- Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire
- The Jew as chattel in Kurdistan and Southern Morocco
- The issue of reparations for the mass expulsions of Middle Eastern Jewry from Muslim lands in modern times (post-1945)
The History of the Sephardim and Crypto-Judaism:
- Xuetas of Majorca, Spain
- Anusim of Belmonte, Portugal
- Conversos of American Southwest
- Verhaver of Bahia, Brazil
Spurious and Controversial Jewish Communities:
- Karaites
- The Samaritans: The World's Smallest Religion (with Samaritan leader Benyamim Tsedaka)
- Lemba of Zimbabwe
- Qemont of Northwest Ethiopia
- African-American Jews and Hebrew Israelites of Dimona, Israel
- Rastafarians of the West Indies
- Ashanti of the Gold Coast
- The Mavumbu of the Loanga Coast
- Shin Lung (Bnai Menashe) of Mizoram, India
- Karen of Burma
- Mestizo Jews of Venta Prieta, Mexico
Proselyte Communities:
- Queendom of Adiabene (50 CE)
- Kingdom of Himyar (525 CE)
- Kingdom of Khazaria (750 CE)
- Sabbotniks of the Ukraine
- Peasant Converts of San Nicandro, Italy
- Abayudaya of Uganda
- Inca Jews of Peru
The World of Our Great-Great-Grandparents: The Early History of
Eastern European Jewry
From Nebishes to Allrightniks: Jewish Immigration to NYC (1875-1925)
Jewish Immigration to America: Sephardic, German, Eastern European
The American Immigration Experience: Irish, Italians and Jews
A History of the Jews of San Francisco:
- The Jews in the California Gold rush
- The Lovable Loony: Joshua Abraham Norton, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico
- Profiles of Some Prominent S.F. Jewish Familes: Gerstles, Haases, Choynskis, Zellerbachs, Steinharts, de Youngs, and Meyers
- Profiles of Some Prominent Early S.F. Jewish Politicians: Gov. Washington Bartlett and Major Adolf Sutro
- Why Wyatt Earp is buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Colma
- The San Francisco Earthquake and Its Impact on the Jewish Community
- Tammany by the Bay: Shenanigans of the infamous boodle majordomo, "Boss" Abe Reuf
- America's first Jewish Congresswoman: Florence Prag Kohn
- Some Prominent Jewish Musicians: Yehuda Menuhin and Isaac Stern
- Hippies, Yippies, "Red Diaper Babies" and Groupies: The S.F. Jewish Component of the 60s Counter-culture
The World of Jewish Fundamentalism: Chassidim and Misnagdim
From Bible to Belter: The Jewish Boxers' Hall of Fame (lecture/slide presentation/book reading)
The Jewish Baseball Players Hall of Fame
Jews in the Mob
The World of Chabad-Lubavitch: Beyond the Hype
Jews, Slaves and the Slave Trade
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