Bulgarian Sephradian Jews and the Ladino Language in the Kaleidoscope of Identities

Review of Lea Davcheva's book „Kaleidoscope of Identities. Personal stories of Sephardic Jews in Bulgaria about the Ladino language“. Lea Davcheva's book is an anthropological study which examines the community of Bulgarian Sephardim through the prism of the special interaction between the cultural and ethnic identity of the community and its Ladino language.

The Portrayal of Muslims and Christians in the Traditional Sephardic Tales of Northern Morocco

The Portrayal of Muslims and Christians in the Traditional Sephardic Tales of Northern MoroccoThe article analyzes the representation of Muslims and Christians in the folktales of the Sephardic Jews of northern Morocco. The stories are selected from the collection of Arcadio de Larrea Palacín, Cuentos populares de los judíos del norte de Marruecos, published in 1952 and 1953. A very brief historical background of Moroccan Jews will be given in order to better understand the perception that the Jews, as a minority group, had of their Muslim and Christian neighbours. This perception is based on the historical and emotional memory of the Jews as well as their daily coexistence with the other religious groups. We also examine how the tales fulfill an essential function of folklore, which is to preserve and reinforce the collective identity and moral values of the narrating group. Obraz muzułmanów i chrześcijan w tradycyjnych opowieściach sefardyjskich północnego MarokaW artykule poddano analizie sposób przedstawienia muzułmanów i chrześcijan w opowieściach Żydów sefardyjskich z północnego Maroka. Opowieści zostały wybrane ze zbioru Cuentos populares de los judíos del norte de Marruecos, opracowanego przez Arcadia de Larrea Palacína i opublikowanego w dwóch tomach w 1952 i 1953 r. W celu lepszego zrozumienia sposobu postrzegania chrześcijan i ich muzułmańskich współobywateli konieczne było zwięzłe omówienie tła historycznego dotyczącego Żydów marokańskich. Postrzeganie to oparte było zarówno na historycznej i emocjonalnej pamięci Żydów, jak i na analizie ich faktycznego współistnienia z innymi grupami religijnymi. W tekście badano również, w jaki sposób opowieści spełniają fundamentalne dla folkloru funkcje, to jest zachowanie i wzmocnienie tożsamości zbiorowej oraz wartości moralnych wypowiadającej się grupy.

A Preliminary Study of the History of Sephardic Theatre in Italy

This article presents the results of a preliminary inquiry into the theatrical activity of Sephardic Jews in Italy from 1492 to the 18th century. Through archival investigation conducted on catalogues of manuscripts and published books from Italian libraries, as well as on documents produced by Sephardic communities, the study focuses on three case studies: the communities in Venice, Naples, and Tuscany. Concerning the Venetian community, literary witnesses to the dramatic activity in the Ghetto are collected and analyzed, including Ester by Salomon Usque and Leon Modena. Concerning the Neapolitan community, the reasons for the absence of Sephardic cultural traces are clarified. The only extant Judeo-Spanish plays produced in Italy come from Pisa and Livorno, testifying to the prolific activity of Iberian Jews in Tuscany. Finally, a list of Hebrew dramatic works written by Italian authors of Sephardic origin is provided in order to reflect on the very categories of ‘Sephardic’ and ‘Italian.’

The Attitude of Jewish Sephardic Ladino Writers in the El Maccabeo Journal in Thessaloniki at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century towards the Situation of the Jews in the Various Parts of the Diaspora

The contribution of the Sephardic-Jewish communities to historic-literacy processes shaping the image of the Jewish people was also expressed in periodicals. Ladino-speaking writers wrote in important newspapers in the Balkan lands and Eretz-Israel, and also published and edited their own newspapers. The purpose of this article is to introduce the topics featured in the El Maccabeo journal – published in Thessaloniki as an annual in the early twentieth century (1914-1931) – that discuss, identify and demonstrate solidarity and empathy with the situation of the Jews in other countries, particularly Europe, and compare their situation to that of the Jews in Thessaloniki. It can be learned from reading El Maccabeo that Sephardic Jews were well acquainted with the situation faced by the Ashkenazic Jews in their various communities, and their feelings about their Ashkenazic brethren wavered between pity and respect. They viewed them as their brothers with the phrase “our brothers” featuring in almost every article.

Intergenerational Transmission of Ladino: Three Generations of Speakers in the Twenty-First Century

This study examines language socialization among five women of a single family who all speak Ladino, an endangered language spoken by Sephardic Jews. These women, ranging from 32-88 years of age, represent three generations raised in different countries and exposed to a number of languages, including Turkish, Hebrew, Ladino, Spanish, and English. Given the rarity of intergenerational transmission of Ladino over the past century, this study asks the following research questions: 1) how the women in this study have been able to preserve their heritage language, Ladino, in spite of contact with other languages, and 2) how said contact with other languages has affected their production of Ladino. To address these questions, each informant participated in a sociolinguistic interview and a lexical elicitation task. An analysis of data reveals the unique circumstances that have allowed for the grandmother’s relative monolingualism in Ladino, and the different trajectories the language has taken among subsequent generations. Despite relative stability vis-à-vis proficiency in Ladino, data indicate points of contact between Spanish and Ladino among the youngest informants who acquired both varieties simultaneously during childhood. This research was conducted in 2018 among informants in both (Florida) United States and (Bat Yam) Israel.

Papiamentu and the Brazilian Connection Established through the Sephardic Jews

This study examines the linguistic contact between Papiamentu and Brazilian Portuguese established when the Sephardic Jews were expelled from Dutch Brazil and some of them relocated in Curaçao. Three lexical items of PA (yaya, ‘nanny, nursemaid’; bacoba, ‘banana’; and fulabola‘fore nger, index nger’) are analysed and put into their historical contextto show that their presence in Papiamentu can be attributed to the contact between Brazil and Curaçao due to the forced migration of the Sephardic Jews and their servants.

Virtually Sephardic? The Marketing and Reception of the New Iberian Laws of Nationality in Israel

The relations between Iberia and its Sephardic diasporas have undergone innumerable reversals and revivals as Spain and Portugal experienced processes of nation-state building. These relations reached a climax with the 2015 New Nationality Laws for Sephardic Jews, that allow them to become Portuguese or Spanish citizens. Given an unexcepted worldwide interest, the governments provided different redefinitions of the criteria of the process. Initially seen as a symbolic act, the attribution of nationality to Sephardic Jews raises questions not just about culture and collective memory, but, above all, about economy, diplomacy and realpolitik in the Iberian countries as much as in the Israeli society itself.