Conference of Sephardic Rabbis in New York City

by Manashe Khaimov

Sephardic Rabbinic Conference, New York City, August 17-18, 2026.

In 2025, when Avi Garson reached out and invited our organization to become one of the supporters of the Sephardic Rabbinic Conference, I immediately said yes. This gathering was long overdue, and I was grateful that someone was willing to take the lead and bring our diverse Sephardic communities together under one roof.

Future of Sephardic Education Panel — (L to R) Sina Kahen, Habura as moderator, Zack Zav, SAMi Philly (2025)

Last year, Zack Zav, Regional Director of SAMi Philadelphia had the privilege of representing SAMi Students on a panel and speaking about Sephardic Jewish life on college campuses nationwide. We shared what we were seeing every day: a new generation of Sephardic and Mizrahi students looking for ways to connect with their heritage, find community, and take their place as leaders in Jewish life.

This year felt different.

I was honored to be among more than 150 Sephardic rabbis, scholars, educators, and communal leaders representing 12 countries, 13 U.S. states, and communities from across the Sephardic world. Sitting in that room, I kept thinking about how rare this really was. Syrian, Persian, Greek, Turkish, Moroccan, Iraqi, Bukharian, Spanish and Portuguese Jews, and so many others were gathering to talk about not our differences but our similarities. We were gathering to think about what we can build together.

For me, that was the most meaningful part.

As a Bukharian Jew, I grew up knowing how rich our individual communities are, but also how often we operate in our own spaces. We have different melodies, different foods, different histories, and even different Minhagim - customs. Yet when we come together, you begin to see that those differences are not a weakness. They are part of the strength of the Sephardic Jewish story and Jewish community as a whole. 

As I looked around the room, I also thought about the students we serve through SAMi around the country. What will Sephardic Jewish life look like 20 years from now? Who will carry these traditions forward? Who will become the rabbis, educators, philanthropists, scholars, and communal leaders of the next generation?

That is why gatherings like this matter to me personally. We cannot expect the next generation to value a community they do not see us investing in ourselves. If we want young Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews to build together, then we as leaders have to model what that looks like.

I left the conference proud, energized, and also challenged. Proud of how far we have come. Energized by the people I met and the conversations we had. And challenged by how much more there is still to build.

This year’s conference, themed “The Art of Leadership,” was made possible through the leadership of conference co-chairs Avi Garson of Habura and Ethan Marcus of the Sephardic Brotherhood of America, together with the support of UJA-Federation of New York.

SAMi was proud to support it from the beginning, and I am personally grateful to have been part of it this year.