How to share your artifacts with the Sephardic Studies Program

Do you have one of the following artifacts that you’d like to share with the Sephardic Studies Program?

Letters (in English, Ladino, French, Greek, or other languages)
Postcards
Photographs (especially with inscriptions!)
Published Ladino books
Immigration documents (from countries in the former Ottoman Empire, or elsewhere in the Mediterranean and the Middle East)
Audio/video recordings of personal histories, songs, or Sephardic family events
Textile artifacts (jewelry, clothing, housewares)

Sharing your artifact for potential inclusion in the Sephardic Studies Digital Collection can be completed in one of two ways depending on the format of your artifact.

My artifact is already digitized, or is a born-digital piece

If you can digitize an artifact on your own with a high quality scanner (producing an image no less than 300 dpi), or if you have an artifact that is born digital (like a video, audio recording, etc.), then sharing is easy!

1. Email sephstud@uw.edu with the subject line “Artifact from [your name]”

2. In the body of the email, please include the following details:

Your name
Your place of residence
A simple title or description of the artifact (i.e.: Photo of the wedding of Joe and Betty Varon)
Anything you know about the artifact: Where did you get it? Do you know anything about the contents? What is your relationship to this artifact?
For photographs: Who is in the photo? When and where was the photo taken?
If it is a family piece, where your family is from

3. After evaluating the artifact, we will respond to your query with a Document Release Form for you to sign in order to confirm the artifact’s inclusion in our digital collection.

I have a physical artifact

If you have a physical artifact, or a large collection of materials that would be too cumbersome to scan on your own (i.e., cache of family letters), you may ship them directly to the Sephardic Studies Program at the address below:

Devin Naar
Chair of Sephardic Studies, Jackson School of International Studies
Thomson Hall
2023 Skagit Lane
Box 353650
Seattle, WA 98195-3650

We will be in touch with you via email to sign a Document Release Form to confirm the artifact’s inclusion in our digital collection. For the subsequent scanning of physical artifacts, we welcome donations to the Sephardic Studies Program in recognition of our preservation efforts.

I still have questions about how to submit an artifact. Who do I contact?

Email sephstud@uw.edu and we will do our best to coordinate your submission!

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⇒ Learn more about the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington, our Sephardic Studies Program, or our Israel Studies Program.

Note: The opinions expressed by faculty and students in our publications reflect the views of the individual writer only and not those of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.

About the Author: Makena Mezistrano

Makena Mezistrano is the Assistant Director of the Sephardic Studies Program. She is a native of Seattle and a member of the local Sephardic community. She holds a B.A. in English literature and an M.A. in Jewish studies, both from Yeshiva University. Her family is from Salonika, Greece.