Si Kere El Dio
Winner, general category. A conscripted husband miraculously reunites with his pregnant wife after fighting in the Balkan Wars in the Ottoman army — the great-grandfather and great-grandmother of author Nuia Menda Malki.
Las Validjas
Winner, student category. Liza Cemel tells the story of her family's history, first across cities in Turkey, then across countries, bringing their validjas of memories and relationships with them.
Yogurt in Sephardi Life
Runner up, student category. Nesi Altaras recounts summers spent on the island of Buyukada, close to Istanbul, and the "traditional but extremely practical" feeling of being Sephardic in Turkey.
A descendant of a crypto sect of converts to Islam is challenging notions of Jewish identity
Reclaiming Jewishness can be difficult for people whose families converted long ago — especially for descendants of the "Dönme" in Turkey, writes graduate fellow Sasha Marie Ward.
A Turkish Jew in Nazi Germany: A family’s incredible story of survival, and a museum in a suitcase
While researching Jewish refugees of Nazi Germany, graduate fellow Joana Bürger uncovered the incredible story of a Sephardi-Catholic-German-Turkish family's survival during the Holocaust.
The religion of law and the law of religion: A 16th-century Ottoman murder mystery shows the rich history contained in Jewish and Muslim legal “questions and answers”
Religious legal scholars' explanations of their reasoning, called "questions and answers" in Hebrew, are a valuable source for historians, writes graduate fellow Elyakim Suissa.
Bailar a la Turka: 78 rpm Records in Seattle Sepharadi Households
Maureen Jackson investigates Turkish music in Sephardic Seattle with artifacts, audio, and more.