Presented by Carlos Zarur

Old questions like Jewish identity, self-definition, ethnicity, racism against, in, and within the Jewish community, have received different answers over the centuries, countries, and continents. Being a Jew in Medieval Germany had a different meaning than being Jewish in 2022 Pandemic America. Babyboomers, X-generation, Millenials, Z, and Alpha Generations don't share the same vision of what Judaism is meant to be. Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews have encountered themselves in a Post-Modern world where the term "ethnicity" has lost its meaning for a more "universal" definition of the multi-ethnic Jewish community in the 21st century but, are those old questions and issues really left behind? Terms like  "Ashkenormativity", "Mizrahi Jews", "Jews of color", "Pop Jews", "Jews by choice", "Conversos", "Anusim", "Crypto-Jews", and many others have emerged to name those very same old questions that remain unanswered and sometimes proposedly redefined by just one sector of the community. Anthropologist Carlos Zarur, presents an honest and realistic analysis of these Jewish "realities" that sometimes, -just sometimes-, nobody dares to talk about but he does.

Born in a Syrian-Turkish Sephardic family, Carlos has lived in several countries throughout his life (USA, Morocco, India, Mexico, Israel, Canada, and Brazil).

Carlos has Rabbinical Studies and holds Masters' Degrees in the areas of Jewish Studies,Western and Eastern Sephardic Culture, Customs and History, Middle Eastern Jewries, Culture, Customs and History, Peripheral Jewish Communities and Marranism Studies (Crypto Judaism). He also has field research in Crypto-Judaism, Syrian Jews, and the Jews of India and holds his Ph.D. in Anthropology.

As a professor, he has taught at the University of Colorado in the Anthropology Department and The Jewish Studies Program.

As a presenter, Carlos has participated in numerous local and international presentations and conferences involving various Jewish themes: Crypto-Jews, Syrian-Lebanese Jewries, Sephardic Jews, and the Spanish & Portuguese Jewish Communities in Amsterdam, London, Hamburg, USA and the Caribbean and Jewish Diversity among many other Jewish topics.

As a Jewish Educator, Carlos has been teaching in the Boulder-Denver area and internationally for over 15 years. Some of the courses that Carlos has taught are ”Evolution of Judaism”, “The Genesis of the Sephardic Jews”, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) Language, “Jewish Diversity, Racism and Discrimination in and within the Jewish Community in the USA”, “Jewish Communities Around The World-Documentary Series” and many more.