Videos
Discover captivating webinars, classes, and films that highlight the rich Jewish culture, traditions, and cuisine from around the world, inviting you to explore their remarkable heritage.
Discover captivating webinars, classes, and films that highlight the rich Jewish culture, traditions, and cuisine from around the world, inviting you to explore their remarkable heritage.
Virtual Tour of El Ghriba Synagogue, Tunisia - JIMENA's friends on the ground in Tunisia create this beautiful video of the famous El Ghriba Synagogue
Virtual Tour of Essaouira, Morocco - JIMENA hosted a virtual where participants visited Bait Dakira, which is a spiritual research center and museum focused on Jewish-Moroccan history and cultural coexistence.
Presentation at JIMENA's Journey to the Mizrah Workshop.
A conversation between JIMENA's Matthew Nouriel and Sharon Nazarian covering the current political climate in America, campus antisemitism, and the Iranian conflict.
Presented by Massachusetts Antisemitism Synagogue Task Force in Partnership with JIMENA for Mizrahi Heritage Month 2025.
Understanding the Reality in Iran - March 2026 Join JIMENA for a timely conversation examining the current conflict involving the regime in Iran, the realities inside the country, and what this moment may mean for the Iranian people. Hosted byMatthew NourielDirector of Community Engagement, JIMENA FeaturingKhosro IsfahaniResearch Director, National Union for Democracy in Iran Monday, March 9, 20263 PM PST | 6 PM EST About the Guest Speaker Born and raised in Tehran, Khosro Isfahani has spent over seventeen years working as a journalist and human rights defender. He left Iran in 2021 and now serves as Research Director at NUFDI. His research on Iran has included work with UC Berkeley and UCLA.
For the first session of JIMENA’s Journey to Kurdistan, participants ket with award-winning Israeli journalist Efrat Lacher to learn about this unique region. Between 2015-2017, Efrat was sent to Iraq to cover the war and document the kidnappings of Yazidi women and was the only Israeli journalist who joined the Kurdish forces and documented their battles over Mosul.
Journey to Morocco with Rabbi Daniel Bouskila and Mustapha Ezzarghani Participants met with Director of the Sephardic Educational Center Rabbi Daniel Bouskila and Mustapha Ezzarghani
Mimouna is a traditional festival celebrated by Moroccan Jews the day after Passover, marking the return to eating chametz (leavened foods). Families open their homes to neighbors and friends, and fill their kitchen tables with an abundance of delicious sweets symbolizing fertility, joy, success, health, and prosperity.
In 1945 there were one million Jews living in the Middle East and North Africa. For over two millennia they lived under varying rulers as part of the diverse fabric of peoples native to the region. Yet, in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel, Jewish life in other countries in the region dramatically began to disappear. Anti-Jewish riots in reaction to the failure of the attempts of Arab armies to eliminate the infant state of Israel, as well as the rise of post-colonial pan-arabist movements set off a massive wave of Jewish immigration from the region. From Casablanca to Baghdad, Jews abandoned their ancestral homelands often leaving behind their homes, communities and livelihoods suddenly becoming refugees. For decades, many Jews who fled their native homelands never shared their experiences of being forced into exile but in “The Forgotten Refugees” for the first time, stories of several Jewish Refugees including JIMENA co-founders Joseph Abdel Wahid from Egypt and Gina Waldman from Libya are told. Directed by Michael Grynszpan and produced by Avi Goldwasser, the Forgotten Refugees won the “Best Featured Documentary” award at the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival and the “Best Documentary Film” award at the 2007 Marbella Film Festival. “The Forgotten Refugees” is an excellent film that seeks not to indoctrinate but to educate. The interviews with many Mizrachi Jews make clear that the question of identity and allegiance is still a troubling one for many of them. The viewer sees the pain of people scorned by their longtime Muslim neighbors. Understandably, these Jews continue to feel a deep connection to their traditional Arabic food, music and language. The contemporary footage of crumbling synagogues and empty Jewish quarters throughout the Arab world is a sad record of the complete eradication of once vibrant communities and the separation of these Jews not only from their land and possessions but also, in many respects, from their own identities. “The Forgotten Refugees” should be required viewing for those who preach about the plight of refugees in the land of Israel.”
JIMENA presents a celebration of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish heritage activists, law students and descendant of Moroccan Jews.