Rachel Benaim-Abudarham Receives Award

A special congrats to one of our PhD Candidates, Rachel Benaim-Abudarham, for being awarded the Southern Jewish Historical Society Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Grant for her research on Mizrahi Jews in Florida.

Rachel's research, supported by the Southern Jewish Historical Society, explores the life and legacy of Moses Elias Levy, a pioneering Moroccan-Jewish abolitionist, utopian thinker, and early advocate for interfaith dialogue in the American South. Tracing her own roots to Essaouira, Morocco, and Gibraltar, Rachel brings a deeply personal lens to uncovering Levy’s transatlantic vision of justice, dignity, and coexistence. Her work sheds new light on how non-Ashkenazi Jewish histories intersect with American and global struggles for liberation and belonging.