About
This website was created by Raif Melhado, a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York City. After falling in love with Keter Shem Tob, he began to dream of sharing Rabbi Gaguine's Torah with the wider Jewish world, and thought that the best way to achieve this would be to make the text more accessible to English speakers. By lowering the barriers to entry through the translations and resources on this site, he hopes to bring a widening audience to a unique masterpiece that was overlooked during the lifetime of its author.
Acknowledgements
While much of the day-to-day work of managing the site and penning the translations falls to Raif, ketershemtob.com could not be what it is without the help and encouragement of many friends, well-wishers, and underwriters:
Direct supporters: We are grateful to the Institute of Jewish Ideas and Ideals for funding our domain name and hosting services, to Yeshivat Chovevei Torah for creating the "Haburah Seder" slot in which our sedarim and classes take place, and to an anonymous donor on the board of Congregation Shearith Israel for ordering copies of the book to YCT for our use. Finally, credit is due to Senhor David Gaguine Saul, who provided a number of original archival sources including the photographs on this site, as well as generally being a font of supportive feedback.
Direct supporters: We are grateful to the Institute of Jewish Ideas and Ideals for funding our domain name and hosting services, to Yeshivat Chovevei Torah for creating the "Haburah Seder" slot in which our sedarim and classes take place, and to an anonymous donor on the board of Congregation Shearith Israel for ordering copies of the book to YCT for our use. Finally, credit is due to Senhor David Gaguine Saul, who provided a number of original archival sources including the photographs on this site, as well as generally being a font of supportive feedback.
|
|
Congregation Shearith Israel
|
Advisers: occasional tough points in the translations are resolved in consultation with the rabbinic staff at YCT (Raif takes ownership of all errors), while the Shamash of Congregation Shearith Israel, Senhor Zachariah Edinger, has been a gracious contact about the Spanish and Portuguese minhag in New York. Further anecdotal evidence about the current minhagim of other cities is supplied in the comments to our postings on the Facebook group, for the founding of which we are grateful to Rabbi Martin Van Den Bergh, and fellow Gaguine enthusiast Roy Shasha is a supportive personality behind the scenes.
Haburah: the "classes" tab is enriched by everyone who has participated in the Haburah since the fall of 2012: Joel Dinin, Benjamin Elton, Daniel Epstein, Jack Herzfeld, Paul Nahme, Gabriel Seed, Benjamin Shefter, Yarden Soffer, and Ari Weber.
Haburah: the "classes" tab is enriched by everyone who has participated in the Haburah since the fall of 2012: Joel Dinin, Benjamin Elton, Daniel Epstein, Jack Herzfeld, Paul Nahme, Gabriel Seed, Benjamin Shefter, Yarden Soffer, and Ari Weber.
Contact
|
Email: westernsephardim "at" gmail.com Mail: KST Haburah Seder (Attn: Raif Melhado) 3700 Henry Hudson Pkwy, 2nd Fl. Riverdale, NY 10463 |
Shemtob Gaguine, 1930s
|