This Saturday evening April 27th / 23 Nisan, as Passover comes to an end, the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) Mizrahi/Sephardi Caucus will host a leftist community Mimouna in Brooklyn, NY. Mimouna is a North African Jewish tradition, in which families mark the end of Passover by opening up their homes to their neighbors and eating an abundance of (leavened) sweets, like the Moroccan crepe-like sweet, Mofletta. In Morocco, the tradition was for Jewish families to invite their Muslim neighbors to join, who would bake bread and sweets to bring to the celebration. Mimouna thus represents an important historical example of Muslim-Jewish solidarity and coexistence, debunking the myth that Jewish and Muslim communities have always been at odds.
The JFREJ Mizrahi/Sephardi Caucus (founded in April of 2014 with an inaugural Seder) envisions the Mimouna as a way to share and celebrate Mizrahi and Sephardi tradition and identity, and Muslim-Jewish solidarity. In the face of global white supremacy, antisemitism, and Islamophobia, as well as Ashkenazi-centrism and Zionist co-optation and erasure of Mizrahi and Sephardi culture in our Jewish communities, celebrating Mimouna is a strong statement from Mizrahim and Sephardim that our voices and histories will not be silenced, distorted, or appropriated. With music, art, dance, storytelling, solidarity, and joy, we will challenge reductive mainstream narratives that pit our communities against each other.
The night will include a live band and a radical Moroccan DJ, dancing, storytelling, visual art, and of course sweets. For more details on the art and artists involved, click here. If you’ll be in New York on April 27, register here!
Unruly will be speaking more soon with JFREJ Caucus members about the Mimouna and reclaiming and sharing Mizrahi and Sephardi traditions and practices in cultural work, so stay tuned.