Using film, music and scholarship, on August 5th, speakers will explore the Mizrahim (Eastern Jews):

• Are the Jews of the Middle East/North Africa as Arab or Iranian as their host nationalities?
• How were they received in Israel?
• Are the Mizrahim/Sephardim a missing link to Middle East peace?

Author, historian and documentary filmmaker Sami Shalom Chetrit presents the film he co-directed with Eli Hamo, "The Black Panthers (of Israel) Speak." After the screening, Chetrit will review the Mizrahi narrative, discussing the uprooting of Jewish communities throughout the Middle East and North Africa who either emigrated to Israel or other countries of choice. Garrett Nada talks about Mizrahi music and how it has become a sub-culture on the Israeli pop music scene. Moderated by Jordan Elgrably of Levantine Cultural Center.

Film, panel and refreshments at BCC, 6000 W. Pico Blvd., LA 90035 (corner of Stearns). Art exhibit at LCC, 5998 W. Pico Blvd. (across the street). Tickets $10, $8 for members.

Professor Sami Shalom Chetrit (Ph.D.) was born in 1960 in Morocco and grew up in an immigrant working class neighborhood in the port city of Ashdod, Israel. His published poetry includes Poems in Ashdodians, poems from 1982-2002 (Andalus, 2003). Several of his poems appear in English translation in the anthology Keys to the Garden (City Lights 1999), edited by Ammiel Alcalay. Professor Chetrit now resides in NYC where he is the head of the Hebrew Studies Program at Queens College CUNY. He writes and publishes poetry, prose and research, and makes documentary films.

Chetrit's new book Intra-Jewish Conflict in Israel: White Jews, Black Jews, will come out by Routledge, London & New York, in September 2009. His recent books: Yehudim (Jews), a poetry book, 2008, by Nahar Books, Israel (will come out in English soon); Ein Habuba (Doll's Eye), a novel, 2007, by Hargol-Am Oved publishers, Israel (English translation in progress). His next research project is about the Mizrahi voice in Israeli poetry, and he's also busy writing a new play and a novel.

Chetrit recently finished his second documentary film "Azi Ayima" ("Come, Mother") (Israel 2009), about his mother's classmates in Morocco from 60 years ago. The film has been selected to the DocAviv and Darom film festivals in Israel, summer 2009. His first film, which he wrote and co-directed, "The Black Panthers (in Israel) Speak." (Israel, 2003), is about the Israeli Mizrahi social uprising during the 1970s. The film was selected to many festivals around the world. His next film project will explore the concept of "Jewish Statehood" throughout Jewish history.

Garrett Nada is a rising senior originally from Irvine, California now studying at Brandeis University just outside of Boston, double majoring in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. He spent the first half of 2009 in Israel studying at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Shev'a. Garrett's academic interests lie in the personal and group identities of minorities and the politics of conflict in the Middle East. This led him to conduct research on Bedouin students in Beer Shev'a and to get involved with Brandeis' partnership with Al-Quds University, a liberal Palestinian university in the West Bank. In his spare time he enjoys playing and listening to Middle Eastern music. For him, music is an important form of cultural expression that can facilitate dialog, traverse borders and open minds.

Levantine Cultural Center is interested in the cross-pollination of cultures and how identity is shaped by the diaspora experience. Founded in 2001 by several Americans of Middle Eastern/North Africa heritage, the center's mission is to present the literary, visual and performing arts of cultures from Casablanca to Kabul in the context of dialogue and discovery.

Beth Chayim Chadashim is a progressive and diverse community of people who come together to celebrate Jewish faith and culture. Started in 1972, it is the world's first synagogue founded by, and with an outreach to, lesbians and gay men.

Be'chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) is an organization supporting the growing community of Jews of color. It proposes to strengthens the Jewish people through ethnic, cultural, and racial inclusiveness. Be'chol Lashon advocates for the diversity that has characterized the Jewish people throughout history, and through contemporary forces including intermarriage, conversion and adoption.