nation / world
Jewish Woman to be Knighted for
Helping Sephardic Jews Gain Spanish
Citizenship Doreen Alhadeff was the fi rst American Jew granted
Spanish citizenship under Spain’s 2015 law to repa-
triate Sephardic Jews from around the world. Now
she is going to be knighted by Spain’s monarchy for
helping others obtain that same citizenship, JTA
reported. Alhadeff , a 72-year-old real estate agent from Seattle,
will be knighted under the order of Queen Isabella the
Catholic in October, the Seattle Times reported.

Since earning Spanish citizenship in 2016, Alhadeff
has helped guide people around the world, from Greece
to Hong Kong, through the application process.

Alongside synagogue leadership and the Spanish
Jewish community federation, or FCJE, she also
helped members of Seattle’s Congregation Ezra
Bessaroth, an Orthodox Sephardic congregation that
“holds fast to the traditions of the Island of Rhodes,”
certify their heritage research.

Brazilian Jews and Arabs Hold Hummus
Championship Brazilian Jews, Christians and Muslims celebrated
their peaceful coexistence in Latin America’s largest
nation with a competition centered on one of the
Middle East’s signature foods, JTA reported.

Th e Hebraica Jewish club in Sao Paulo orga-
nized and hosted an inaugural Abrahamic Hummus
Championship on Sept. 21, timed to the United
Nations’ International Day of Peace. Around 150
people attended the event, and yarmulkes shared the
room with keffi yehs and other types of Arab scarves.

Ariel Krok, one of the event’s organizers, compared
the contest to a “soccer-friendly match.” Brazil is
home to nearly 10 million people of Arab descent, the
largest such population in the Americas, while more
than 100,000 Jews call Brazil home, including around
60,000 in Sao Paulo.

Team Sahtein, composed of three Christian Arab
women, was declared winners by the technical jury.

Kandinsky Painting Returned to Jewish Family
as Netherlands Shifts Approach to Looted Art
A Dutch committee charged with assessing and act-
ing on claims about artwork stolen from Jews before
and during the Holocaust has determined that a
painting by Wassily Kandinsky should be returned
to the family of the Jewish woman who likely owned
it before the Holocaust, JTA reported.

Th e family of Johanna Margarethe Stern-Lippmann,
who was murdered in 1944 at Auschwitz, should
regain possession of “Blick auf Murnau mit Kirche,”
or “View of Murnau with Church,” an abstract work
that the Dutch city of Eindhoven has owned since
1951 and has displayed at its art museum, according
to the Dutch Restitutions Committee.

Yom Kippur Student Absences Could Cost
Michigan Schools State Funding
Th e holiest day of the Jewish calendar couldn’t come
at a worse time for Michigan public schools this year,
JTA reported
Yom Kippur fell on Oct. 5 — which is also the
state’s “student count day,” the one day a year when
the number of students who attend school deter-
mines how much that district will receive in state
funds the following year.

By Michigan law, count day is on the fi rst
Wednesday of October, and superintendents typi-
cally go to great lengths to entice students to attend.

Districts have coaxed students to attend on the days
using raffl es, basketball tickets and zoo trips. Th is
helps them ensure at least $9,150 in state funding per
student, according to Chalkbeat Detroit.

Some public school districts in the state that enroll
many Jewish students close their schools for Yom
Kippur, allowing them to apply for waivers to move
their count days; fi ve districts have done so this year.

But other districts with signifi cant numbers of Jews are
staying open, meaning that their student tallies could
be depressed on the day that counts for state aid. JE
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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