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unusual facts about Judaeo-Spanish folklore



Abraham and Isaac

Binding of Isaac, a Judaeo-Christian story where God orders Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac

Belgrade Synagogue

At that time Belgrade boasted a strong Jewish Ladino-speaking Sephardic community mostly settled in the central Belgrade neighborhood called Dorćol.

Judaeo-Spanish

Notable music groups performing in Judaeo-Spanish include Voice of the Turtle, Oren Bloedow and Jennifer Charles' "La Mar Enfortuna" and Vanya Green, who was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for her research and performance of this music.

In 2001, the Jewish Publication Society published the first English translation of Judeo-Spanish folk tales, collected by Matilda Koén-Sarano, Folktales of Joha, Jewish Trickster: The Misadventures of the Guileful Sephardic Prankster. A survivor of Auschwitz, Moshe Ha'elyon, issued his translation into Ladino of the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey in 2012, in his 87th year, and is now translating the sister epic, the Iliad, into his mother tongue.

Films partially or totally in Judeo-Spanish include Mexican film Novia que te vea (directed by Guita Schyfter), The House on Chelouche Street, and Every Time We Say Goodbye.

Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow from the New York-based band Elysian Fields released a CD in 2001 called La Mar Enfortuna, which featured modern versions of traditional Sephardic songs, many sung by Charles in Judeo-Spanish.

Liat Cohen

In 2007, Buda Music released the album Variations Ladino, with music from 15th century Spain to the present day, comprising solo and chamber pieces based on the Ladino tradition.

Matilda Koen-Sarano

Matilda studied in the Jewish Community School of Milan, and also studied Languages at the Bocconi University in Milan and also Italian Literature and Judaeo-Spanish literature and Judaeo-Spanish folklore at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mazalozo / mazaloza

mazalozo (masculine) / mazaloza (feminine) are Judaeo-Spanish words meaning “lucky” and is used as is Mazal bueno or the Yiddish expression of Mazel tov.

New Klezmer Quintet

The group is also a neo-klezmer ensemble performing klezmer music while incorporating elements of modern Israeli folk music, ladino, jazz, Swing music, Latin music, and rock and roll styles.

Ocho Kandelikas

The song has been recorded and performed by the Portland-based lounge orchestra Pink Martini, the multilingual rock group Hip Hop Hoodios, the London-based jazz flamenco group Los Desterrados, the female a cappella ensemble Vocolot, Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi ("the Pavarotti of modern Jewish cantorial music") and Yasmin Levy, an Israeli singer-songwriter of Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) music.

Oleg Platonov

In his work The History of the Russian People in the Twentieth Century, Platonov treats the February and October revolutions of 1917 as handiwork of Judæo-Masonic conspirators, the agents of the Entente and of the German Empire.

Yocheved

Jochebed or Yocheved, the mother of Moses in Judaeo-Christian tradition


see also