Branching Out from Sepharad - Solving a Converso Mystery

Co-Sponsored with the American Sephardi Federation and the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society

Sarina Roffé, author of Branching Out From Sepharad, outlines the history of Jews in Spain, the 1492 Expulsion, their history in Syria, and their immigration to the Americas. She will discuss the ancestry and significance of the Kassin rabbinic dynasty, which dates to the 12th Century, and the 50-year leadership of Chief Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin, who led the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn. At the same time, she solves a Converso mystery. Rabbi Kassin's ancestor arrive in Aleppo in 1540. Sarina solves the mystery of the time gap from 1492-1540.

Sarina Roffé is a professional genealogist, editor of DOROT, and founder of the Sephardic Heritage Project. She is also the author of Backyard Kitchen: Mediterranean Salads, a cooking app called Sarina’s Sephardic Cuisine, available in the Apple Store, as well as hundreds of articles. She is responsible for the translation and databasing of marriage and brit milah records on JewishGen. While on the Board of Governors of JewishGen, she acquired several databases of Sephardic records including cemetery records from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba and Argentina. Sarina presents often at IAJGS Conferences and has completed over a dozen genealogies, through her genealogy consulting business, Sephardic Genealogical Journeys. She is Co-chair of the Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative, the first organization to document Brooklyn’s Jewish past.