Our next Sunday meeting in the JGSGB Meeting Programme is a Dutch & Sephardic Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting by Zoom.

• Date: Sunday 17^th November 2024

• Time: 14.00 London, 09:00 New York, 06:00 San Francisco, 16:00 Jerusalem

• Title: "GeoSefarad - Mapping the Routes of our Sephardic Roots"

• Speaker: Dr. Jose Gregorio Lepervanche Valencia

• Description: GeoSefarad, Geolocations of Sefarad's Jewish Quarters and of Expulsion Routes of Sephardic Jews, uses Story Maps to integrate maps, images, text, and videos to locate and document small and unknown Jewish Quarters, rivers and ports used by Sephardic Jews to leave Sefarad, and the land and maritime routes used to reach other countries in Europe, Asia, Northern Africa and the Americas. Some of your ancestors may have come from these places and followed these routes.

.

The case we will be focusing on in this presentation, we can track the Sephardic roots of Jose's “Semah de Valencia” family from Spain, to the Netherlands, across the Atlantic Ocean to Curacao, Venezuela and the United States until his subsequent return to Spain. After more than 500 years of exile, a descendant of the Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492 has returned as a Spaniard to Sefarad. A “Semah de Valencia” has come home to Valencia.

.

Dr. Jose Gregorio Lepervanche Valencia is a descendant of the "Semah de Valencia" Sephardic family and Professor of Information Systems at Colorado State University Global and Florida State College at Jacksonville. He has used geographic information systems to geolocate, photograph, and document places of educational interest in the 54 countries he has visited. After geolocating more than 250 Jewish quarters in Spain, he has now expanded GeoSefarad's geolocations to the ports of the 1492 expulsion, maritime routes of Sephardic Jews, churches, hermitages and sanctuaries, and cultural routes.

Jose is President of Tarbut Sefarad Sagunto and the founder of GeoSefarad, an educational project to publicize the locations and highlight small and until now unknown Jewish Quarters of ancient Sefarad. See his work at https://europeanjewishquarters.wordpress.com

After the talk, there will be an opportunity for Q&A on the talk. We will then take a 15 minute tea break, followed by a Dutch & Sephardic workshop where you may share your successes and brick walls and ask any questions you might have.

If you have problems joining, please email chair@jgsgb.org.uk, preferably in the 15 minutes before the meeting proper starts.