Sephardic Heritage International

“The 990 is reviewed and approved by the board of directors prior to filing.”

“The board of directors reviews and approves the salary of the executive director. The executive director is not involved in those discussions.”

“Arts and Humanities Program 1: Mimouna Art Program: SHIN-DC's Mimouna celebration speaks directly to the organization's mission: celebrating the arts, building bridges, and raising awareness of Sephardic and other underrepresented Jewish heritages. Mimouna is a African Jewish tradition most associated with Morocco and Moroccan Jewry. This interfaith and neighborly festival marks the end of the Jewish holiday of Passover with the first leavened foods, festive sweets, music, and wishes for a successful season. SHIN-DC's Mimouna at the Smithsonian program focuses on the arts of North Africa in the context of Jewish culture and the diversity of Moroccan music. Mimouna has become a symbol of co-existence in both Morocco today and throughout the Moroccan Jewish diaspora. The program helps raise awareness of the unique cultures of the Sephardic/Moroccan Jews and their Muslim counterparts and demonstrates the companionship between these diverse communities - the face that shared music, culture, art, and food help to bring people together rather than tear them apart. SHIN-DC's Mimouna is now an established, well-respected, and highly anticipated clebration that has grown to include our Muslim neighbors. Each year we strive to build bridges, raise awareness, and increase the number of participants in this exciting and historic event. In 2024, over 1,500 people joined us for SHIN-DC's annual Mimouna Festival of Good Neighbors at the Smithsonian, almost triple the number from 2022. An additional 500 watched the livestream. Audience serviced: 2,000”

“Arts and Humanities Program 2: Multicultural Jewish Arts Museum (MJAM): This program involves creating a museum - the Multicultural Jewish Arts Museum (MJAM) which has the following aims: exhibit and maintain art and host concerts that express multicultural Jewish narratives and links them to other diverse African, Asian, Hispanic, and American communities, bring the art forward through community programming, as well as embassy and Congressional engagement, build a program for artists to explore multiple cultural identities in the United States, provide a dedicated space for Sephardic Jews and Jews of Color to create and share art inspired by their diverse and multicultural narratives, provide more arts and humantieis space for underrepresented populations with multicultural narratives, serve as a model for expressing diversity in the Jewish community. In 2024, MJAM was selected by the US Department of State to do an exhibition on Jewish Diversity in the Arts for Jewish American Heritage Month at the Harry S. Truman Federal Building. Audience served: 30,000”

“Arts and Humanities Program 3: Holocaust Education: This program serves to remember those who perished during the Holocaust and survivors who are no longer with us, as well as honor survivors who are still with us today. In January 2024, we hosted our annual Congressional Holocaust Commemoration, including survivor testimonies and musical memorial, in the House of Representatives with over 300 participants in person and 6,000 people online. This commemoration also included an art exhibit, as part of the soft launch of SHIN-DC's Multicultural Jewish Arts Museum project. Speaker Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, Chair of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum praised our work stating, "Thanks to the work of SHIN-DC, the Claims Conference recognized the Holocaust was not only an Ashkenazi catastrophe but also Sephardic communities...were destroyed." Audience served: 6,300”

“Arts and Humanities Program 4: Ladino Diplomacy: This program highlights the Ladino language by presenting bridge-building arts, music and dance that relate to and connect the experiences, narratives and histories of Jews and non-Jewish counterparts in the Balkans and Turkey. In 2022, The Embassies of Greece, North Macedonia and Bulgaria partnered with SHIN-DC on their first joint cultural program, despite political challenges, an excellent example of how music and the arts helped bring two countries together. Audience served: 5,000”

“World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants”