SEFARAD: THE UNTOLD STORY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

 

JHA Sefarad Learning Center teams up with CAJE, The Center for Advancement of Jewish Education, to launch and deliver the first of its kind Sefarad legacy adult educational programming.

The Sefarad experience is a far-reaching segment of Jewish and world history with profound consequences. Yet, despite its enduring importance, this segment of history seems to have escaped the annals of history. Join Dr. Isaac Amon, Director of Academic Research of JHA, on a journey across time and space as he delivers his classes on "SEFARAD: The Untold Story that Changed the World" (June 12,19,26, 2025).

 

Course Description:

The Iberian Jewish or Sephardic legacy is more than recounting a history; it is a far-reaching segment of Jewish and world history with profound consequences unfolding today. Yet, despite its enduring importance, many, if not most, Jewish communities do not have a clear understanding of the relevance, significance, and impact of these events and experiences. Join Dr. Isaac Amon, a descendant of the 1492 Spanish Exiles, on a journey across time and space.

Week I: In the Beginning: From King Solomon to the Ends of the Earth

Week II: Challenging Religious Authority: The Birth of Heresy and the Inquisition

Week III: In the Footsteps of the Crypto-Jews: A Story of Agony, Survival and Redemption

Thursdays, 12:00 - 1:30 pm (ET)

Dates: June 12, 19, 26

 About the Instructor:

Dr. Isaac Amon is an attorney and counselor at law, Adjunct Professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, and Director of Academic Research at Jewish Heritage Alliance, an educational platform dedicated to promoting the legacy of Sefarad, or Iberian Jewry. He was a Legal Fellow at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Legislative Director at the Missouri Department of Corrections, and an ISIS war crimes investigator. In Summer 2024, he was a scholar in-residence at Oxford University through the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). The grandson of Ashkenazi, Sefardi, and Mizrahi immigrants to the United States in the 20th century, he often speaks on the law, international criminal justice, and Jewish memory, including antisemitism, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust.