We hope you enjoyed our interview with Danielle and Galeet Darsdashti. We wanted to be sure that you followed up with the full "Nightingale of Iran" podcast, so listen here to the first episode and continue listening through www.nightingaleofiran.com.

Please help support our podcast and other programs through tinyurl.com/JUniTDiDonate

Drora and Dalya talk to Michel Gordon about what it means to him to be part of the Jewish story and his travels to find out more about the greater Jewish world.

Michel Gordon is a Brazilian photographer who has traveled several times to Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, searching for Jewish heritage in those places. He published his first book about Jews in Islam in 2009 (in Brazil) and the last one in 2023 (in the Netherlands).

Between these works, he published a book about his perspective as a photographer in Tehran, in 2015. He is a graduate in Physics, with an MSc in Physical Oceanography and MA in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. As a hobby, he works ten hours a day in a bank, as a market and liquidity risk manager.

For more about Jewish Unity Through Diversity: https://www.unitytdiversity.com/

Donate to support this and other JUTD projects: http://tinyurl.com/JUniTDiDonate

About the Podcast:

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive producers: Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Intro music by Vanessa Paloma

Drora is joined by Professor Yitzchak Sabban to discuss growing up in Libya, living in Israel and coming to the US.

For more about Jewish Unity Through Diversity: https://www.unitytdiversity.com/

Donate to support this and other JUTD projects: http://tinyurl.com/JUniTDiDonate

About the Podcast:

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive producers: Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Intro music by Vanessa Paloma

Dalya and Drora speak with Sarah Sassoon, an author and educator about her Iraqi heritage and discovering her family history through her writing.

Sarah Sassoon is an Australian, Iraqi Jewish writer, poet and educator. She is the author of the award winning children’s picture book Shoham’s Bangle and online poetry chapbook This is Why We Don’t Look Back. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and her work has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Lilith, MER, Ruminate and elsewhere. Her forthcoming picture book This is Not a Cholent is forthcoming in 2024 with Kar-Ben Publishing.

Sarah’s writing follows her curiosity exploring her Iraqi Jewish history, the story of refugees and resilience, the rich, layered 2600-year-old culture of Babylonian Jews, with a special interest in Middle Eastern women’s experience.

Sarah currently lives in Jerusalem with her four boys and a Belgian Malinois she found at her local coffeeshop.

For more about Sarah and her writing: https://sarahsassoon.com/

For more about Jewish Unity Through Diversity: https://www.unitytdiversity.com/

Donate to support this and other JUTD projects: http://tinyurl.com/JUniTDiDonate

About the Podcast:

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive producers: Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Intro music by Vanessa Paloma

Drora and Dalya speak with Danielle and Galeet Dardashti about growing up un-Persian, discovering their family's story and the personal impact of their new podcast, The Nightingale of Iran.

For more about Danielle and Galeet's podcast, The Nightingale of Iran: https://www.nightingaleofiran.com/

For more on Galeet's album, Monajat: https://www.galeetdardashti.com/monajat

Danielle Dardashti is an Emmy award-winning documentary writer/producer, a former on-air TV news reporter, and a storySLAM champion who has been featured on NPR’s Moth Radio Hour. She is the co-author of the Jewish Family Fun Book (Jewish Lights) and co-founder/Creative Director of live storytelling show Storyboom. Danielle leads corporate storytelling workshops all over the world.

Dr. Galeet Dardashti is a renowned musician and anthropologist of Middle Eastern Jewish culture. In her new release, Monajat, she sings and composes around samples of her famed Iranian grandfather - The Nightingale of Iran - with an acclaimed ensemble of musicians. She has held Assistant Professor positions at JTS and NYU and is currently a Fellow at University of Pennsylvania’s Katz Center.

For more about Jewish Unity Through Diversity: https://www.unitytdiversity.com/

Donate to support this and other JUTD projects: http://tinyurl.com/JUniTDiDonate

About the Podcast:

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive producers: Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Intro music by Vanessa Paloma

Drora and Dalya speak with Dóra and Sebastian, co-founders of Qesher. We talk to them about where they grew up, how they got to starting their enlightening initiative and what they've learned along the way, about other Jewish communities and about themselves!

Dóra Koranyi is a psychologist and tour guide in the Jewish quarter of Budapest. After completing her studies in Israel, Dóra returned to Hungary where she worked actively in different Jewish organizations and also took an active role in a grassroots, egalitarian Jewish community.

Originally from Venezuela, Sebastian Mizrahi has lived most of his life between Israel and Europe. He studied Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and History and Tourism in Salamanca, Spain. Sebastian is currently based in Budapest, Hungary.

For more about Jewish Unity Through Diversity: www.unitytdiversity.com

Donate to this and other JUTD projects: http://tinyurl.com/JUniTDiDonate

About the Podcast:

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive producers: Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Intro music by Vanessa Paloma

Drora speaks with Beejhy about arriving and growing up in Israel, becoming a wandering Jew, and finding her home in an Ethiopian-Israeli cafe in Harlem.

Beejhy is an Ethiopian-born and Israeli-raised chef and activist who has called Harlem home for the past 20 years. She's a proud Ethiopian, a proud Jew, and a proud black woman. She is also the founder of BINA, Beta Israel of North American Cultural Foundation. She now celebrates her vast heritage through the food and events at Tsion Cafe https://www.tsioncafe.com/

For more about Jewish Unity Through Diversity: www.unitytdiversity.com

Donate to support this and other JUTD projects: http://tinyurl.com/JUniTDiDonate

About the Podcast:

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive producers: Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Intro music by Vanessa Paloma

Ethiopian Shabbat song https://youtu.be/D60G7Zd3jYo?si=NYEngyDFR75OQ79e

Roz Kohen was born and raised in İstanbul, Türkiye. She attended the Jewish Lycée, B'nai B'rith in the Galata region and graduated from the American College for Girls in İstanbul. She has a graduate degree in Library Science. She retired recently after working as manager of one of St. Louis County Library branches in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

Roz shares with us her life growing up in Istanbul, making her way to Israel and then the US, finding out along the way what it means to be "Sephardic."

Interviewer: Dr. Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive Producers: Dr. Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Musical attributions:

Vanessa Paloma - "Avrom Avinu" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqizmoj9n74&list=PLGhpKVCbiejTOe6Y1QYxiPWwg2mZt2R4w&index=2

Vanessa Paloma - "Moses Salio De Misrayim" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM1qeR-NV30&list=PLGhpKVCbiejTOe6Y1QYxiPWwg2mZt2R4w&index=1

Samuel Torjman Thomas - Judeo-Muslim Soundscapes in Morocco: A Tradition of Musical Dialogue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_gLMmJEfko&list=PLe9MY0_QNmDr8hsh2cae_RXuw9vhWqRF7

Samuel Torjman Thomas - Uncommon Commonalities: Music and Piyyut as Dialogue https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lBlcpUPxZ0WpI0VqeAtfodBAojegWoQV/view?usp=sharing

Manashe Khaimov is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SAMi which focuses on the Leadership Development of under-served Jewish communities on college campuses and in their communities in North America. Manashe is a fourth-generation community organizer, serial entrepreneur, and social innovator who builds and consults organizations on Jewish diversity. Manashe is an Adjunct Professor in Jewish Studies, with a specialty in the History and Culture of the Central Asian Jews at Queens College. In his previous role as a Director of Community Engagement and Development at Queens College Hillel, he focused on creating Sepharadi and Mizrahi Leadership at five CUNY Hillel campuses. Manashe sat on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee at Hillel International and served as a facilitator of the Mizrahi and Sephardi Hillel Professionals resource group. In 2022 Manashe received “Person Of The Year 2020-2021” the highest award and recognition in the Bukharian Community in the USA and Canada.

He shares with us here his life growing up in Uzbekistan, adapting to life in the US and giving the next generation tools to build communities of Jewish heritage and pride.

Interviewer: Dr. Drora Arussy

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive Producers: Dr. Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Musical attributions:

Vanessa Paloma - "Avrom Avinu" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqizmoj9n74&list=PLGhpKVCbiejTOe6Y1QYxiPWwg2mZt2R4w&index=2

Vanessa Paloma - "Moses Salio De Misrayim" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM1qeR-NV30&list=PLGhpKVCbiejTOe6Y1QYxiPWwg2mZt2R4w&index=1

Samuel Torjman Thomas - Judeo-Muslim Soundscapes in Morocco: A Tradition of Musical Dialogue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_gLMmJEfko&list=PLe9MY0_QNmDr8hsh2cae_RXuw9vhWqRF7

Samuel Torjman Thomas - Uncommon Commonalities: Music and Piyyut as Dialogue https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lBlcpUPxZ0WpI0VqeAtfodBAojegWoQV/view?usp=sharing

Rachel Amado Bortnick is a Sephardic Jew, a Ladino speaker, born and raised in Izmir, Turkey. She came to the United States in 1958 on a scholarship from Lindenwood University in Missouri, from which she received a BA in Chemistry. Now, Rachel resides in Dallas, and is retired after teaching ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) for 35 years. For many years Rachel has been active in the preservation and promotion of Judeo-Spanish language and culture. In the San Francisco Bay Area she founded and was president of Los Amigos Sefaradis. She is featured in the documentary film, "Trees Cry for Rain: a Sephardic Journey," produced in 1988 by Bonnie Burt. In 1999 Rachel founded Ladinokomunita (https://ladinokomunita.groups.io/g/main) a Ladino correspondence group on the Internet, which now has over 1400 members from 38 countries. She has served as the president of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society, and as the secretary of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies.

Rachel shares with us her life growing up in Izmir, coming to the US and "finding" and maintaining her Sephardi heritage through the preservation of Ladino.

Interviewer: Dr. Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy

Producer: Moshe Singer

Executive Producers: Dr. Drora Arussy and Dalya Arussy Di Veroli

Musical attributions:

Vanessa Paloma - "Avrom Avinu" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqizmoj9n74&list=PLGhpKVCbiejTOe6Y1QYxiPWwg2mZt2R4w&index=2

Vanessa Paloma - "Moses Salio De Misrayim" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM1qeR-NV30&list=PLGhpKVCbiejTOe6Y1QYxiPWwg2mZt2R4w&index=1

Samuel Torjman Thomas - Judeo-Muslim Soundscapes in Morocco: A Tradition of Musical Dialogue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_gLMmJEfko&list=PLe9MY0_QNmDr8hsh2cae_RXuw9vhWqRF7

Samuel Torjman Thomas - Uncommon Commonalities: Music and Piyyut as Dialogue https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lBlcpUPxZ0WpI0VqeAtfodBAojegWoQV/view?usp=sharing