Sherifa Zuhur / Samrah AzZuhur Arabi is a Racial Fraud
Sherifa Zuhur/ Samrah AzZuhur Arabi falsely claims to being Arab-American or of Arab descent ( usually Lebanese) due to her father’s lineage. She also consistently claims to be “brown and white” or “br white” Sometimes she simply disputes coming from a Jewish family.
Sherifa Zuhur is an academic. She studies and dances under the name Samrah AzZuhur Arabi. None of this is a secret. I expose nothing by linking the two names. She often posts about both names/aspects of her life on her various social media.
Her life in dance and academia is legitimately rich in lived experience and research. That is not in doubt.
She believes I have been involved in blackmailing and blacklisting dancers. She has targeted and harassed many BIPOC who she believes are unfairly persecuting her.
I understand the hypocrisy in laying out all this in the name of wanting her to stop harassing others. But this is a world where we're finally learning to give additional weight to marginalized/source voices when matters of concern to them are being discussed. She uses her claimed racial identity at times in the MENHAT dance community in ways to pull rank in and silence disagreement.. She has extensive travels, experience in ME countries, study, and academic credits. She shouldn't need to lie about her race. She shouldn't hide behind a lie while harassing BIPOC dancers in America .
What the following will show:
Robert Cecil Blum and Margot Helmuth married September 9th, 1951 in Marin, California. They had two children, Paul and Sherifa. Sherifa was born in Aug 31, 1953. Paul Helmuth Blum was born Apr 30th 1955. Robert and Margot divorced in July of 1965. Neither parent was of Arab descent. Sherifa is NOT of Arab descent.
Her claim that Demon U.S. Bellydancers are sluring her by saying her father was Jewish.
Claiming to be Lebanese
One of many claims of being bi-racial
When I first wrote this there HAD been a video interview with Samrah AzZuhur Arabi by Cairo Shimmy Quake that included the claims that her father and grandfather introduced her to Middle Eastern culture and music due to their background and discussed her mother more in depth. It also covered her mother remarrying and moving to Rhode Island....Sherifa also used the G slur to refer to the musicians her grandfather would hire. In June the video had been removed from the site
Sherifa Zuhur's Mother: Margot Helmuth Blum Schevill.
First let’s establish who Sherifa Zuhur/Samrah Azzuhur Arabi’s mother is. In interviews in the dance community Sherifa has mentioned that her mother was an opera singer when Sherifa was born and that this led to many family travels. She’s shared pictures of her mother and a link to a youtube video of her mother wishing the Merola Opera many more years on their 60th anniversary.
From her twitter, @SherifaZuhur Mar 17, 2020 The image is a sepia photo of a woman with an opera costume and makeup on. nThe text reeds "I'm trying to enjoy quarantine by writing a bio of my mom- who had 2 long, interesting careers-operasinger and anthropologist. Here as Dora bella in Cosi Fan Tutti
April 6, 2019 @SherifaZuhur twitter post discussing what's in her room. Text; My room is full of my mother's art and objects from Guatemala, with my photos of Cairo covering all the other wall space, my rug from Saudi Arabia-maximalist"
Sherifa Zuhur's mother is Margot Helmuth Blum Schevill. She was born Margot Carolyn Helmuth on Aug 15, 1931 in San Joaquin, California. She is still alive as of when I’m posting this. She’s an opera singer turned academic anthropologist specializing in South/central American textiles
Margot’s Parents/ Sherifa Zuhur’s Maternal Grandparents:
From Margot's entry on everybodywiki . The first husband has also been confirmed on Ancestry
“She was born in Stockton, California, on August 15, 1931, the second childof Ruth Carolyn Zuckerman Helmuth and Gay Frederick Helmuth.
Her mother moved to San Francisco, and remarried twice, to Samuel Glichberg, and to Emile Hartmann. She had an elder brother, James (Jimmy) and younger half-brother, George.”
The August 11th, 1951 wedding announcement for Margot Helmuth and Robert Cecil Blum and marriage records for the September marriage.
Please note that in the wedding announcement Robert C Blum is noted to be "the son of the Jean Blums of Hillsborough"
Margot Helmuth Blum Scheville's own words about her life in the 1950's
Here’s a link to an article about Sherifa’s mom, Margot including with first hand accounts her life.
Books: Threads of the Life of a Singer, Anthropologist, Author
By Dorothy Bryant
Tuesday April 25, 2006
From Dorothy Bryant's article Books; Threads of the Life of a Singer, Anthropologist, Author:
In 1951 she began singing on high holy days at Temple Emanuel. Soon she was hired to sing at services on all Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. At about the same time she married and became Margot Blum. The next five or six years became the classic juggling act of the woman artist—she had two children, and sang with ensembles of all kinds, including the Civic Light Opera’s 1957 production of South Pacific.
It was Mary Martin who stopped her after a rehearsal and said, “Why are you wasting your time here?!” She gave Margot the courage to audition for the Merola Program, which grooms promising young soloists for the San Francisco Opera. She was one of the chosen few accepted into the intensive program, which includes free coaching in languages and stage deportment. “You know, like, how to fall and die gracefully.”
Margot had almost arrived. Almost.
“There was one problem I already knew about: my voice wasn’t big enough for the San Francisco Opera House. My best chance in opera was to build a career in Europe, where there were many companies and many fine smaller houses.”
Margot shakes her head. “Impossible.”
In those days, barely a decade past the Holocaust, the idea of an American Jewish couple raising their children in Europe was unacceptable.
“It was time to give up my ‘golden ambition’ to do opera.”
But not to give up singing. Margot hired an agent who kept her busy during the early 1960s, singing at concerts and on radio, performing with numerous ensembles, large and small.
(end quote)
Please note that Margot Helmuth Blum Schevill stresses the fact that her family with Robert was an American Jewish family and that is why she did not build her career in a post Holocaust Europe.
Sherifa D Zuhur was born on August 31, 1953
Born Aug 31, 1953, Sherifa Zuhur’s birth name was Danna Carolyn Blum, her mother's maiden name was listed as Helmuth. She seems to have still had that name when she married her first husband in 1973. Samrah/Sherifa would have had her first married surname, Jenkins, when starting in the Bay Area dance scene.
It is legal to change one’s name. I don’t need to know if she’s always been Sherifa or if she became Sherifa later on. The obituaries of her father Robert C Blum and of her stepfather James Scheville respect the name Sherifa Zuhur.
Just in case you wondered if Robert Blum and Margot were still together in 1953
In 1953, the year of Sherifa's birth, Margot H and Robert C are listed as residing together in the city registry of San Francisco county register published by R L Polk
Public Registry for San Francisco County
And Sherifa’s brother Paul H Blum was born April 30th 1955
Sherifa’s Father and Margot’s first husband: Robert C Blum
Instagram post from azzurhurabi. B&w picture of a small girl and a man. Text: My lovely dad died on Easter and ALS took this wonderful person from us.
Robert C Blum was 73 when he died of ALS April 15 2001. This date was also Easter of that year.
Robert C. Blum, an expert in philanthropy who with his wife developed fund-raising strategies that are now used by universities and nonprofit organizations throughout the world, died April 15 in Kentfield from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 73
The following are screenshots of his whole obituary by Mark Martin. it can also be found here.
Written By
Mark Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Also from his obituary:
"Mr. Blum is survived by his wife of 34 years, Joan Blum of Kentfield; two sisters, Shirley Levine of Beverly Hills and Barbara Semelman of Atherton; two sons, Chris Blum of San Rafael and Paul Blum of Lincoln, Neb.; three daughters, Louisa Lucie-Smith of London, Sherifa Zuhur of Beersheva, Israel, and Marty Blum of Greenbrae; and 10 grandchildren."
There are Sherifa Zuhur and her brother Paul Blum.
From the obituary, "for more than 50 years, Mr. Blum also was a member of the Austral-Asian Fundraising Association, Lake Merced Golf and Country Club and Lake Tahoe Yacht Club, and was a Knight of the Order of Saint Stanislas in Poland.”
The lake Merced Golf and Country Club was historically a Jewish golf club.
The obituary also notes that “He was president of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives in the early 1980s.”
I found a photo of him from a 50 year history that group, identifying him as the president in 1980-1981, the group was called the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2010 . That photo can be easily compared to a public facebook post in which Sherifa identifies her father.
Robert C Blum's Parents/ Sherifa's grandparents.
In interviews Sherifa Zuhur claims her Middle Eastern lineage is through her father, so her father's parents are important.
Robert C Blum was born in San Francisco. His obituary notes "A native of San Francisco, Mr. Blum graduated from Lowell High School and Stanford University."
Robert Cecil Blum born 17 Nov 1927, mother's maiden name Edises
1940 Census Data
He was 12 when the San Francisco 1940 census was taken. You’ll see his two sisters, Shirley and Barbara, listed in the census. They are also mentioned in his obit with their married surnames Shirley Levine and Barbara Semelman .
Robert was listed as white but that doesn’t mean not Arab …there’s no category for MENA in the census so we need to know more about his parents. Luckily they are in the same census.
Robert C Blum’s mother, Mildred Blum, was listed as having been born in Russia.
His father, Jean Blum, was listed as having been born in Romania.
And the wedding coverage of Jean Blum to Mildred Edises at the Temple Beth Isreal from the Oct 7th 1912 San Francisco Call newspaper.
Robert's parents, Mr and Mrs Jean Blum were locally active in the community and politics.
I asked you to note that Robert Blum was said to be of the "Jean Blums of Hillsborough". I found a 1952 article about Mr and Mrs Jean Blum throwing a party at her Seabury road estate (that's in Hillborough) for the first American Ambassador for Israel, James G McDonald. Mrs. Jean Blum was also a member of Hadassah the Women’s Zionist Organization of America a religious organization for promoting and upkeeping Jewish social and religious values in the US and to strengthening ties between U.S. and Israeli Jewish communities. In fact she was the president of the Central Pacific Coast Region for Hadassah.
This is NOT a Lebanese/Arab family.
Sherifa's step father/ Margot's second husband:James Erwin Schevill
Who Sherifa Zuhur's step-father is shouldn't matter.
Sherifa's own mother identifies herself and her first husband as a Jewish couple AND her father's parents are from Romania and Russia so they are not Syrian/Middle Eastern AND there are records of the Margot and Robert having a daughter on the day Sherifa was born
Yet Sherifa Zuhur/Samrah AzZuhur Arabi consistently claims that all confusion about her racial identity (Br/white/biracial/notwhite/not Jewish) is because people confuse her father with her step-father. So let's differentiate who her step-father James Erwin Schevill was.
The marriage between Robert C Blum and Margot Helmuth Blum ended in 1965. Margot married her second (and last) husband James Schevill in 1966 or 1967 in Framingham, Massachusetts to become Margot Helmuth Blum Schevill. Robert C Blum went on to marry his second (and last) wife Joan.
From the Dorothy Bryant article about Margot Helmuth Blum Schevill regarding her life in the 60's:
Around that time her marriage was unraveling, as was Jim’s. They fell in love and were married in 1966. By 1968 they were settled in Providence, Rhode Island, where, for the next twenty years, Jim Schevill was to teach and write poetry and plays at Brown University.
At that point Margot’s story could have become that of the faculty wife with a few music pupils, an occasional singing gig, and—like the vast majority of our best practitioners of all the arts—occasional twinges of regret for the fame and fortune bestowed on the lucky few. Instead, she made a surprisingly smooth turn in a new direction.
(I'm aware that the marriage archives I found said 1967 and the Bryant Article says 1966
Twitter @SherifaZuhur Mar 19, 2020. Sepia photo of a man, woman, and guitar.Text: My father wouldn't move to Stuttgart, and she remairred- to a poet. in her 40s she went back to college and graduated in Brown's first class that included women. She was singing Spanish and Portuguese music to guitar & vihuele, then got into "new music" (20th c experimental)
From the Everybodywiki
“In 1967, she returned to Europe and then moved to Providence, Rhode Island after marrying poet/playwright James Schevill who became a faculty member at Brown University. While there she sang with the New Music Ensemble funded by the governor of R.I., taught music in the public schools and returned to college to graduate in the first class that included women at Brown earning a BA in Music and Spanish. She then obtained a Masters in Anthropology and began a second career as a museum anthropologist specialist in textiles.”
Sherifa Zuhur's step-father is James Erwin Schevill. Sherifa Zuhur and her brother Paul are listed in James Schevill's obituary as his step-children. The photo above is Margot with a musician, not her second husband the poet.
From James Shevill's Obituary:
Professor Schevill is survived by his second wife, Margot , of the family home in Berkeley; two daughters, Deborah Schevill of New York City, and Susie Schevill of Berkeley; a stepson, Paul Blum of Lincoln, Neb.; a stepdaughter, Sherifa Zuhur of Carlyle, Pa.; three grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.
And that is the family Sherifa Zuhur/Samrah Azzuhur Arabi was born into as far as I can find.
I don't care who she eventually married or divorced or what countries her marriages may have allowed her to gain citizenship in. That has no effect on her ethnicity/racial identity. I’m only concerned with who her parents and grandparents were.
Sherifa has written a lengthy post refuting this on facebook. Here is the link. You are a freethinker. You can judge for yourself. You've got this here and that there.
I generally trust that people are honest about their ethnic identity and I don't question if someone who is white passing, or any other hue, says an identity I didn't expect. When I make a mistake, like assuming someone is white and they're just ligfht skinned, I try to apologize quickly when I learn of my mistake. These are best practices.
I've also known a scammer who did misrepresent her identity to be more interesting. I've known people who've claimed false relatives/false kinship. I've followed the scandals in acedemics and organizing groups of white people who have posed as Black, Afro-Latinx and Latinx. That it happens at all is enraging. It's not something that can be allowed to go unexamined.
