“The Future is Sephardic” with Mijal Bitton
5/20/202640 min
Are we are venturing into the twilight of an American Jewish era?
In a recent SAPIR essay, Dr. Mijal Bitton makes the case that it’s time to reimagine Jewish flourishing for a new age -- one based on a Sephardic model of preservation rather than the liberal Ashkenazi dream of social acceptance, which defined the previous century. In a wide-ranging conversation, host Rabbi David Wolpe joins Bitton to explore whether the next century will be as welcoming to our descendants as it was to our ancestors. And how to create a more resilient Jewish future in America.
Read Mijal’s essay in SAPIR**, The Future is Sephardic**: https://sapirjournal.org/aspiration-ii/2026/the-future-is-sephardic/
Questions or comments? Send us a note at info@sapirjournal.org
Music from #Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove
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First 90 secondsMijal Bitton· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] We're not just here to serve customers, we are here to actually stand for certain values, and those put Jewish people who run family at the center. We have the capacity to have other golden ages, which might reflect a different Jewish experience.
David Wolpe· Host0:17
Friends, welcome back to Sapir Conversations, where we discuss the very best ideas for a thriving Jewish future. I'm your host, Rabbi David Wolpe. You know the old Jewish joke, what's the difference between a pessimist and an optimist? The pessimist says it can't possibly get worse than this, and the optimist says, "Well, of course it can." Okay, I admit [laughs] it's not that funny, but it does capture something real about how some Jews understand our past and our future. The historian Salo Baron famously criticized what he called the lachrymose, or the tearful conception of Jewish history, that we read Jewish history as a chronicle of suffering and persecution. And Baron thought that that account was distorted, and to a large extent, I think that he's right. There have been tremendous accomplishments, achievements, and glory in Jewish history. Nonetheless, a kind of historical radar sharpened by centuries of exile, persecution, pogroms, and of course, the Holocaust, has activated the Jewish instinct again and again and again. And since October 7th,