Interview with Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network founder Ruben Shimonov

Ruben Shimonov is the National Director of Sephardi House and Young Leadership at the American Sephardi Federation. He is also the founder of the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network, a space for queer Jews of Sephardic and Mizrahi backgrounds, as well as a talented calligrapher whose art reflects his multicultural upbringing. He joined Mishkan's Rabbi Steven fascinating conversation with Rabbi Steven about queer identities, Ashkenormativity, and how Sephardic and Mizrahi communities have contributed to Jewish history and liturgy in often unsung ways.

This episode is an excerpt from our Friday Night Shabbat on January 21st, 2022. For full recordings of Friday services, click here. For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar.

Learn more about Mishkan Chicago. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast for updates on new episodes, and please leave a review. We want to hear from you!

Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

[00:17] Producer
Welcome to Shabbat Replay, where we serve up a little slice of Shabbat during the week. Today’s episode is an excerpt from our Friday Night service on January 21st. Rabbi Steven was joined by Ruben Shimonov, the National Director of Sephardi House and Young Leadership at the American Sephardi Federation. Ruben is also the founder of the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network, a space for queer Jews of Sephardic and Mizrahi backgrounds, as well as a talented calligrapher whose art reflects his multicultural upbringing. We think you’ll enjoy this fascinating discussion of queer identities, Ashkenormativity, and how Sephardic and Mizrahi communities have contributed to Jewish history and liturgy in often unsung ways.

[01:00] Rabbi Steven
So I'm so excited to be joined by Ruben Shimonov, who's a phenomenal activist, educator and artists, we're going to have a conversation for a little while to talk a bit about the work that he does in the Jewish community and also the work that he produces as a calligrapher, an artist. So welcome. The last time I saw you, you were working with a Sephardi, Ms. Rafi Q network, and we're both in New York. So catch me up a little bit. Both. Where are you now? What are you doing with your life? And how did you get involved in working in the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network community?

[01:37] Ruben Shimonov
Thank you, Rabbi, first of all, for having me, thank you Mishkan for having me. It's always a lot of fun and a joy to be welcomed into new Jewish spaces and to connect to the beautiful tapestry of the Jewish world. So I'm really excited to be here. So yeah, I, when we last spoke in earnest, I was very deeply involved and engaged in this organization that has been near and dear to my heart, the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network, I'll say a little bit more about in a second. And but I'm, and I'm still very much committed to our mission and to our work. So the journey continues, and I wear other hats as well, besides being the founding executive director of the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network, and we can talk about that in a second as well. But in terms of SMQN it's, I think it's a great place to start because it gives a glimpse into my my own work as an as an educator, as a community builder, as a social entrepreneur, it gives a glimpse into my own personal identity and into the things that deeply resonate with me. SMQ Network began, actually, this February will be the fifth year anniversary of our first gathering, we're a little bit older than that, but in terms of the first time we came together in person, was almost five years ago. And we began out of a sense of urgency, we emerged because of a realization that those of us at the crossroads of Sephardic and Mizrahi identities, and, and what I mean by that is there are a lot of, there's a deeper discussion to have about about that, as their deeper discussions to have about all identities that are fluid and ever changing and dynamic and mean different things for different people, but on one foot, when we talk about Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, we're talking about Jews with deep roots in North Africa, in the Middle East, also known as West Asia, and Central Asia. It extends beyond that as well. But, but that is, I would say, a big chunk of the Sephardic Mizrahi world, our Jews who have lived for centuries, millennia, actually, in this part of the world, and Jews who have lived largely under Islamic empires, so we're often called also like Jews of Islamic world. This is a community or communities whose stories are a deep, deep part of the Jewish story, an important part of the Jewish book. But these are chapters that have often been relegated to the margins, in, in the US, in other ways, in Israel. And, and there are strides that have been made to move the needle forward. But there's a lot of work to be done in celebrating, and understanding more deeply our experiences and our stories. This is before even the LGBTQ plus piece. This is just talking about the story of essentially, non-European Jews, I hate to just paint it with a broad stroke. Because we also know that Jews in Europe were often very much seen as the Other as well and faced their own persecution, marginalization. Having said that, specifically in American context, there's still a certain more myopic notion, I would say, of who a Jew is, what a Jew looks like. Those things are changing, but that's very recently they're changing. And I'm very proud to be a part of that, of that change of understanding that our collective identity as a Jewish people is deeply eclectic, and diverse and beautiful. And we're all better off for it for lifting that up for lifting of the beautiful stories and they were a series of Ashkenazi sisters and brothers and siblings, but also celebrating the full rich tapestry of the Jewish experience, which includes Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Jews of Color, and beyond — even those don't encompass all of the Jewish identities. And so the SMQN was born out of this understanding this realization that not only are Sephardic and Mizrahi stories, often on the margins, but as queer folks, we are kind of a minority within a minority within a minority, and are often often find ourselves checking different parts of our identities at the door, whether it's checking our queer identities in more traditional spaces of our communities, or whether it's checking our Sephardic and Mizrahi identities deeply rooted North African, Middle Eastern Central Asian West Asian identities, and checking those in well intentioned queer Jewish spaces, but Jewish spaces that are — as the term that has emerged, I don't use them too often, because buzzwords have their limits, but I will say it right now, in spaces that can be Ashenormative, meaning assuming that Ashkenazi experienced is the de facto typical Jewish experience. And that can exist in the queer Jewish world as well. And so with this realization, that we didn't really have a space where we can bring all parts of who we are, and all layers of identity, we realize there's a real urgency in doing something about it. And so we created the SMQN, which is the space to hold up, uplift, elevate, celebrate, and more deeply understand the experiences of queer Sephardic mazaraki Jews. SMQN is a movement that seeks to create this vibrant, supportive and dynamic space for those of us at the intersection of these identities. But furthermore, Rabbi, it's a space for folks from other backgrounds to also connect to our work in addressing something that I think is just a Jewish peoplehood issue, which is celebrating the beautiful, eclectic mosaic of the Jewish people. And so we really feel like our work both empowers some of the most vulnerable segments of the Jewish population, but also enriches the entire Jewish world. 

[08:39] Rabbi Steven
Absolutely, you know, I think something that's always attracted to me so much the work that you do, that other people the Sephardic Mizrahi community does is that it does create space for Jews a different experience, not only members of those communities, but certainly Jews of Color, and also converts as well by people who may be might even have a European background, but not the same kinds as their Ashkenazi siblings. So that's really powerful. I think something that I'd love for you to share, because you mentioned how Sephardi Mizrahi stories are so integral to the Jewish story. And I've started to discover this, but there's a lot more, I think, Sephardi Mizrahi influence in what we think of as kind of normative Jewish practice than most people know. Before, before we hopped on to record this, we were talking a little bit about even some liturgy that's super common that actually finds its origin in the Sephardi Mizrahi world. And I'm curious if you know some good examples. 

[09:40] Ruben Shimonov
Oh my gosh, yeah, I could share about this forever! So I will give a few examples. First I want to say I appreciate what you said…Not only does it empower the communities that might have not felt seen and heard, but it actually can empower other communities on the margins as well. Because ultimately, it conveys the message that we want to dig deeper into the mosaic of our people and so other folks, other Jewish folks who might have experiences that have been relegated a little bit more to the margins, or to the periphery, I have found have been really inspired by what we do, which is why our community is intersectional and just have these transcendental effects. And more deeply, folks also who are coming from maybe the more classical American third or fourth generation Ashkenazi experience — which itself again, not a monolith — but from so many of them also, I have received some incredible love. Amazing love and support from folks who are are thirsty and hungry to learn more, most of the work that we do is for LGBTQ plus folks of different backgrounds so they can all connect to what we're doing. But we also do have more public-facing events. And in my capacity as the National Director of Sephardi House and Young Leadership for the American Sephardic Federation, it's a whole other role. Even more so, that work is both to enrich the lives and experiences of Sephardic in this Rafi and folks but to also deeply enrich the Jewish world, in celebrating and understanding  the diversity of our people. And as you said, part of that, in a part of that broader work of engaging the Jewish world at large, and by the way, also the world beyond the Jewish realm, Muslim Jewish interfaith work other bridge building, that supporting Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews really can add a lot to. A lot of that work requires or allows us to see, as you said, the deep ways in which Sephardic and Mizrahi wisdom and narratives and stories have been an intrinsic part of the Jewish experience. So a couple of examples, just a couple. Number one, we just had Tu Bishvat. Right? So it's becoming very kind of in vogue thing now to have a Tu Bishvat seder. Well, the Tu Bishvat seder is modeled after the Passover Seder and was actually championed by and developed by  Sephardic mystics, Kabbalists, in the land of Israel in the 1500s, places like Tsfat Safed in northern Israel has been an important spiritual and mystical center. And one of the main ways it has become that important center and one of the four holy cities is by the influx and migration of Jews from Spain, which was, in many ways, for a big chunk of its history, really more a part of North Africa in the Middle East, and it was part of Christian Europe. But there was a refugee crisis after 1492 of Jews being expelled from Spain, under during Catholic rule, and a big chunk of that community, they come to different parts of the Middle East or North Africa, and a significant amount, comes back to at that point, it's the Ottoman Empire, to the land of Israel under Ottoman rule, and kind of breathed new life, into Jewish life in the land of Israel. And so Tsfat is one of those centers where this new life was being breathed into by the Sephardic thinkers. And they introduce these rituals like the Tu Bishvat seder. Another person from that same time period and region, a  Sephardic Jew who is very much a part of Jewish liturgy is Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, who was a poet, a liturgical poet, and a spiritual leader who authored Lecha Dodi, one of the central parts of our Kabbalat Shabbat, welcoming in the Shabbat service, sort of the the peak of a service — I'm trying to think of another word, but it's it's kind of the pinnacle, climax, everything kind of leads this beautiful part of the service, and that liturgical song Lecha Dodi was composed by a Sephardic mystic…Two other quick things. Purim, the story of Jews in Persia, that doesn't exist in a vacuum and then Jews of Iran, Persia went away. My ancestry I am part of the Judeo Persian world, which includes us of Iran, of the Caucasus and Central Asia, I’m from Uzbekistan, that's where I was born. And so this is part of our story. It's part of the Jewish story. And it's also more specifically part of the Persian speaking Jewish story. And there is a reason, it's no coincidence, that Esther holds particularly deep significance among Iranian Jews and Persian speaking Jews. And so this date, the tomb of Esther and Mordechai, the protagonist of the Purim story, this tomb in Hamadan in Iran is visited by Jews who still live in Iran, there's a small minority of Jews that live there. And then finally, the Talmud, the rabbinic collection of discussions and debates and law that was redacted and compiled. There were two of them as you know, there was the Jerusalemite one, Talmud Yerushalem, and then there was the Babylonian one. And actually, the one that gained supremacy was the Babylonian one. Oh, where is Babel? Where's Babylon? It's modern day Iraq, and then Iraq, Sumer, and later Baghdad. I mean, these were Jewish centers and influenced all of world Jewry, right? These are centers that produced the Talmud. These are centers that had the most essential academies that the Babylonian Geonic academies that influenced Jewish communities around the world. And so we have to understand that these stories are a deep part of the Jewish experience. I love that people are now more excited about Sephardic and Mizrahi stories nd and lifting up Jewish diversity, but it still breaks my heart when people think well, you know, but that's some exotic footnote right or “yay, check, I learned that but that's still kind of other.” They other-ize it, they exoticize it. I don't think that’s doing any of us any good. We need to honor these stories for what they are and their distinct cultures. And in doing that, also see the ways in which they are part of the broader Jewish story in a way that they have contributed to the larger saga of the Jewish people.

[17:38] Rabbi Steven
Yeah, amen to that. I think it's just remarkable. And thank you for sharing those examples. Because even from something…like a piece of liturgy, or maybe it's in the foods that we enjoy now, to more foundational examples like the Talmud, which is actually what our evolving interpretive tradition stands on, right? Because we're not, you know, we're not biblical Jews. We are rabbinic Jews. And we're big Jews because of the Talmud. And the Talmud we use, as you mentioned, is the one that was produced right from the Sephardic Mizrahi community from Babylon.

[18:19] Ruben Shimonov
And that's where the story of our diaspora begins, and our Judaism develops in the diaspora. Sorry to say, you know, I know that's provocative to some people, but it does. And we can still have a deep connection to the land of Israel in our own ways, but our story both  temporally and geographically develops in the diaspora. And what does that ask for begin, it begins “Mizrah,” east of the Land of Israel, in Babylon, and even before that a little bit earlier with even the Assyrian exile, which most of that story we don't know anymore, because it's about the 10 Lost Tribes but there are Jewish communities to this day like the Kurdish Jews, the Jews of Kurdistan say, “Our story began even before the Babylonian exile.” And so to understand Jewish history, we have to actually start with the Mizrahi, Eastern, part of the story, and connect the way in which then from Babylon the baton gets passed on in a very beautiful and seamless way to Spain, this whole other side of the Islamic world. But we have evidence of thinkers going from Iraq, by way of North Africa to Al Andalus, or Sefarad (Spain), and kind of becoming heir to that tradition and moving it forward. So yes, as much as it's wonderful to see the ways that things connect in terms of food or music, and this is not to say those are superficial, but there are deeper, more profound ways in which our stories are all connected…I lead this fellowship for college students called the Sephardi House Fellowship, which is an opportunity for college students around the nation, to explore the depth, wisdom, and vitality of the greater Sephardic world as an integral part of the Jewish experience. And we just finished looking at the unparalleled, stunning Hebrew poetry that emerges 1000 years ago in Sefarad (Spain), in Iberia, during what is often known as the Golden Age…a flourishing of cultural intellectual flourishing of life there. And this poetry, it is both a deep source of pride for the greater Sephardic world and Sephardic diaspora, but it also should be and is becoming a more of a source of pride among just Jews. People like (Solomon) Ibn Gabirol, Yahuda Halevi, Ibn Ezra — these are incredible literary figures of the Jewish tradition. And so I am always thinking about this, about how our stories really fit into this bigger saga, the novel of the Jewish people.

[21:21] Rabbi Steven
Absolutely, I mean you could do a whole class on that, right? The influence of Sephardi liturgists. Essentially, if it's not borrowed from a psalm directly, it is liturgy that was shaped by the way that they revolutionized Jewish poetry.

[21:41] Ruben Shimonov
…I also want to just say…coming full circle to LGBTQ+ identity, that there's so much in this poetry coming out of Sefarad, that can be very affirming, and be very empowering for those of us who hold LGBTQ+ identities, right? This was in the poetry homoeroticism is in the poetry. And in the classic Sephardic tradition, there was this understanding of a balanced approach. I don't want to use the word moderate, but an approach that was deeply engaged with the world around us, because we were able to, by and large — not always — but very often interact in very deep ways with our surroundings, with the societies and cultures around us, which were largely Islamic cultures. Whereas during that most of that time, our Ashkenazi siblings were being brutally persecuted under Christian rule. Again, not to say that it was all shadow under Christendom and all light under Islamic rule. But there's something to be said about the kind of sensibilities that emerged in the Sephardic world that allowed for more of that interaction with the world and promoted people to be versed in secular studies. Maimonides was a physician and astronomer and a rabbi. He wrote in Arabic andhe wrote in English. He knew his Islamic theology. So that’s the same world that also then produces some of this poetry that is — the word queer would not have been used then — but is definitely pushing some of those boundaries. It's also the same world that produces the first woman rabbi, Rabbi Osnat Barzani from Kurdistan in the 1600s. And amazing women figures like Farha Sassoon of the Iraqi Jewish community, these are women who we should all know about. And so again, so much to unpack, but they benefit us all.  

[23:55] Rabbi Steven
I do want, though, to now transition to share some of the amazing work that you've done. Because in addition to all of the education advocacy that you do, you're also a stunning artist.


[24:09] Ruben Shimonov
My artistry, my passion for calligraphy, has really emerged as a natural expression of my Sephardic Mizrahi identity. As someone who is a Jew coming from a community that has really developed against the backdrop of Islamic society around us, it is a very natural expression of my Jewish identity to be in Muslim-Jewish interfaith spaces. And I feel it's not only comfortable, it's natural, it's organic. Our intersections or bridges between Jews and Muslims isn't just that we're part of the Abrahamic tradition, but actually, many of us live side by side with our Muslim neighbors.  

[25:08] Rabbi Steven
Well, amen / ameen to that. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your amazing work with us. And for those who want to see more, we'll be sharing ways to follow your socials or be connected to the different organizations that you're a part of. But for now, shabbat shalom, thank you so much, and we'll see you around.