Concert: “Treasures of Sephardic Song” - July 25 at 3pm

Touro Synagogue Foundation, Newport, Rhode Island, in association with Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, will present a free, virtual concert of Sephardic music by Gerard Edery on Sunday, July 25 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time, to be streamed live via Zoom. “Treasures of Sephardic Song” is the third in this year’s Judah Touro Series of virtual programs and has been made possible through a generous grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

A master singer, guitarist and leading musical folklorist, Gerard Edery is regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts in the music of the Sephardic Diaspora. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Edery is a recipient of many awards and grants, including the Sephardic Musical Heritage Award. He regularly performs in concert halls and festivals throughout the world.

The first Jews who came to the New World in the 1630s were Sephardic –meaning from the Iberian Peninsula - and most had ancestors who were driven out of Spain and Portugal in 1492 or forced to convert to Catholicism by the Inquisition. These families scattered throughout Northern Europe, the Caribbean, and South America, but a small group of them learned of Rhode Island’s “Lively Experiment” in freedom of religion and ventured to Newport in search of a sanctuary from persecution. The music Edery will present in this concert has its roots in this Jewish culture of Spain and Portugal, but it also draws on Moroccan and other North African and Turkish sources, and he will explain those influences during his concert.

There is no fee to participate in this virtual concert, but reservations are required to receive the Zoom login information. Register via this link: https://tinyurl.com/2ck72s2t

For more information, please contact Meryle Cawley at meryle@tourosynagogue.org or
(401) 847-4794, extension 207.

About Touro Synagogue Foundation
The Touro Synagogue Foundation is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit, nonsectarian organization, dedicated to maintaining and preserving Touro Synagogue, the colonial Jewish cemetery, Patriots Park, and to promoting and teaching religious diversity, colonial Jewish history, and the history
of Touro Synagogue.

Touro Synagogue, America’s oldest surviving synagogue, is a National Historic Site located in Newport, R.I. The Touro Synagogue Foundation operates public programs in partnership with the National Park Service, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and is a project of Save America's Treasures. For more information, visit tourosynagogue.org.