WHY LEARN LADINO?

WHY LEARN LADINO?

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Books - El Meam loez de Cantar de los cantares edited by Rosa Asenjo, La Odisea by Homer, Los Misterios de Pirei by Jak Luria, Vieja Nueva Tiera by Theodor Herzl, Djoha edited by Matilda Koen Sarano, Kuentos del folklor de la famiya Judeo-espaniola by Matilda Kohen Sarano, Konsejas I Konsejikas edited by Matilda Koen Sarano, Sefardic Proverbs & Sefardic Stories edited by Isaac Moscona. Romansero Sefardi edited by Moshe Attias, Los dos mellizos by Pilar Romeu Ferre, En los kampos de la muerte by Moshe Ha-Elion.

Judaeo-Spanish (also Judeo-Spanish and Jud?o-Spanish: Judeo-Espa?ol, Hebrew script : ????????-??????????, Cyrillic : ?удео-Еспа?ол), commonly referred to as Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish . Originally spoken in the former territories of the Ottoman Empire (the Balkans , Turkey , the Middle East , and North Africa ) as well as in France , Italy , Netherlands , Morocco , and the UK , today it is spoken mainly by Sephardic minorities in more than 30 countries, most of the speakers residing in Israel . Although it has no official status in any country, it has been acknowledged as a minority language in Israel, Turkey and France. The core vocabulary of Judaeo-Spanish is Old Spanish and it has numerous elements from all the old Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula , such as Old Aragonese , Astur-Leonese , Old Catalan , Old Portuguese and Mozarabic . The language has been further enriched by Ottoman Turkish and Semitic vocabulary, such as Hebrew , Aramaic , and Arabic , especially in the domains of religion , law and spirituality and most of the vocabulary for new and modern concepts has been adopted through French and Italian . Furthermore, the language is influenced to a lesser degree by other local languages of the Balkans - Greek , Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian .

Historically, the Rashi script and its cursive form Solitreo have been the main orthographies for writing Judaeo-Spanish. However today, it is mainly written with the Latin alphabet, though some other alphabets such as Hebrew and Cyrillic are still in use. Judaeo-Spanish is also locally known by many different names, major ones being: Espa?ol/Espanyol, Judió/Djudyo (or Jidió/Djidyo), Judesmo/Djudezmo, Sefaradhí/Sefaradi and ?aketilla/Haketia. In Israel, the language is called (E)spanyolit and Ladino. In Turkey and formerly in the Ottoman Empire, the language has been traditionally called Yahudice, meaning the Jewish language . Judaeo-Spanish, once the trade language of the Adriatic Sea , the Balkans and the Middle-East and renowned for its rich literature especially in Thessaloniki , today is under serious threat of extinction . Most native speakers are elderly and the language is not transmitted to their children or grandchildren for various reasons. In some expatriate communities in Latin America and elsewhere, there is a threat of dialect levelling resulting in extinction by assimilation into modern Spanish. However, it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardic communities, especially in music .

The first book I read in Ladino in 1962 was Romeo i Julieta in an old translation in Rashi letters. I speak many languages, but I enjoy most speaking my mother tongue Ladino. What is special in Ladino, is that you can speak it with a high percentage of Turkish words, French words or Hebrew words, or speak it almost exclusively in old Spanish, the language that the Jews took with them when they were expelled from Spain in 1492. Unlike Yiddish, that has a high percentage of Hebrew words, Ladino is a versatile language with many similar words in Turkish, French, Hebrew, Greek, Spanish. When I decided to translate (with Ladinokomunita) and edit the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I chose to take the Spanish version as the basis of my translation because I didn't want that Ladino speakers who don't speak Turkish or Hebrew would not understand the translation. To illustrate how versatile Ladino is, I bring here a saying that my mother, Pauline, used to tell me in Ladino that: Nosotros los povres no tenemos mazal, ma los rikos tienen shans, mazal i ventura. We, the poor people, don't have "mazal" (luck in Hebrew and Ladino), but the rich people have "shans/chance, mazal i ventura" (in Turkish, French, Hebrew and Spanish). All those words are legitimate in Ladino, as anything goes.

I initiated to give as a present a computer manufactured by the high tech company, where I was VP Sales, to the Israeli President, Itzhak Navon, the first Sephardic president of Israel. This computer could type simalteneously in two languages (which was unique in those times), and I chose the Ladino Romance En el vergel de la reina/In the Queen's Orchard, one of the most renowned romances. Navon was delighted, I was interviewed also on the Ladino radio station on computers, the first high tech interview in this language, and I became a Ladino "celebrity":

?????En?el?vergel?de?la?reina ,?????????hay?crecido?un?bel?rozal.

??2??La?raíz?tiene?de?oro????????y?la?cimiente?de?un?bel?cristal.

??????En?la?ramica?más?alta,?????????un?ruxibón?sentí?cantar.

??4??El?cantar?que?va?diziendo,?????????gloria?es?de?lo?escuchar.

??????La?reina?estaba?labrando????????y?la?hija?durmiendo?está.

??6??—Alevantéx,?la?mi?hija,?????????del?vuestro?dulce?folgar.

??????Venid,?veréx?como?canta????????la?serenica?de?la?mar.

??8??—No?es?serena,?mi?madre,???????sino?es?el?conde?Alimar,

??????que?con?mí?quijo?reire????????y?que?con?mí?quijo?burlar.

10??—Si?es?esto,?la?mi?hija,?????????yo?lo?mandaré?matar.

??????—No?lo?matéx,?la?mi?madre,????????ni?lo?quijerex?matar.

12??El?conde?es?ni?o?y?muchacho,????????el?mundo?quiere?gozar.

??????Desterrarldo?de?estas?tierras,??????de?aquí?no?coma?pan.—

14??La?reina,?que?de?mal?tenga,????????presto?los?manda?a?matar.

??????Matólos?y?degoyólos??????y?los?mandó?a?enterrar.

16??El?se?hizo?una?graviyina;????????eya?se?hizo?una?conjá.

??????La?reina,?desde?que?lo?supo,???????presto?los?mandó?arancar.

18??Arancólos?y?deshojólos???????y?los?mandó?echar?a?volar.

??????Eya?se?hizo?un[a]?paloma????????y?él?se?hizo?un?gavilán.

20??La?reina,?desde?que?lo?supo,????????presto?los?mandó?aferrar.

??????Aferrólos?y?degoyólos???????y?los?mandó?echar?a?la?mar.

22??Eya?se?hizo?una?perquia????????y?él?se?hizo?una?cara?sazán.

??????La?reina,?desde?que?lo?supo,???????presto?los?mandó?a?pexcar.

24??Pexcólos?y?degoyólos????????y?los?metió?a?cozinar.

??????Al?fin?de?la?mediodía,??????????los?quitó?por?almorzar.

26??Las?espinas?que?salieron,?????????las?enterró?en?su?portal.

??????Eya?se?hizo?una?culebra?????????y?él?se?hizo?un?alacrán.

28??En?el?cueyo?de?la?reina,?????????se?le?hue?asarrear.

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A prayer in Rashi letters – Ombre mortal porke duermes: Mortal man, why are you sleeping?:

In Latin letters: Ombre mortal porke duermes? Es tiempo ke rogues i te koniores. Az orasion, implora el pardon del Sinior de los Siniores! Antes ke tus dias se terminen, korijate de tos ovras peores. El Dio del Sielo te aliudara, si onde el kon prisa kores. Fuie de revilios i malisias, pensa ke ay kastigo i dolores. Dio! Kudia de tu puevlo Israel, tus fideles i tus servidores.

In English (translated by the "repentant" Jacques Cory): Mortal man why are you sleeping? It is time to pray and complain. Make a prayer, implore the pardon of the Master of all Masters! Before you end your days, mend your worst actions. God of Heaven will assist you, if you run fast towards him. Avoid offences and misdeeds, think that there are punishment and pain. God! Take care of your people Israel, your believers and servants.

The Ladino lullabies are the sweetest of all, but this is of course subjective, although I heard as a baby lullabies in many languages – French, Italian and Ladino. Durme, durme mi angelico , is probably the best lullaby, and its words accomapanied me throughout my life – Ah, cortaron las mis alas y mi boz amudicio – My wings were cut and my voice died away. That is what I felt when my friends betrayed me and I lost almost all my savings in one of the worst scams in Israel, when all the minority shareholders were wronged, and nothing could be done, in spite of all my endeavors. I enclosed this lullaby in my play "Nelly's Choice", with other references to Ladino, as the protagonist of my Odyssey – Uly/Ulysses Doron was from a Sephardic/Greek descent. But I recovered from the ashes and started a completely knew career in Business Ethics, in order to prevent such unethical scams in the future, and I succeeded to fly once again.

Durme, Durme mi angelico

Sleep, sleep

Hijico chico de tu nacion

Little child of your nation –

Criatura de Sion

Child of Zion

Por que nombre, ah me demandas,

Without knowing pain

Por que no canto yo?

You ask me why do I not sing –

Ah, cortaron las mis alas y mi boz amudicio.

My wings were cut and my voice died away

Ah, el mundo de dolor.

Ah, what a world of pain …

Sephardi Jews originate from the Iberian Peninsula – Spain (Sepharad in Hebrew) and Portugal. They were expelled from their countries or forced to convert to Catholicism towards the end of the fifteenth century. They spoke Ladino, deriving from Old Spanish with Hebrew words, as well as Turkish, Greek, French, Italian, Bulgarian, etc. words. North African Sephardim consist of the descendants of the expellees from Spain who also left in 1492, but since the nineteenth century they ceased to speak Ladino and Haketia (influenced by Maghrebi Arabic). There are today about a hundred thousand Ladino speakers. The Sephardim settled throughout the years in North Africa, Italy, all over America, the Netherlands, France, England, Poland, Israel, Egypt, Syria, some of them even returned to Spain and Portugal, but most of them settled in Turkey, Greece and the Balkans. They reside today mainly in Israel, France, the United States, Argentina, Turkey, Colombia, Morocco, Greece, Tunisia, Bosnia, and most of the Balkans countries.

Well known 12 distinguished Sephardi Jews are – Maimonides, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Judah Halevi, Baruch Spinoza, Camille Pissarro, Jacques Derrida, Emma Lazarus, David Ricardo, Moses Montefiore, Benjamin Disraeli, Amedeo Modigliani, Israeli president Itzhak Navon, and 12 Nobel Laureates – Tobias Asser (1911, Peace, Netherlands, formation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the First Hague Conference), Boris Pasternak (1958, Literature, Russia, Doctor Zhivago), Emilio Segre (1959, Physics, Italy/US, group leader for the Manhattan Project), Rene Cassin (1968, Peace, France, drafting the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Salvador Luria (1969, Medicine, Italy/US, replication mechanism and genetic structure of viruses), Baruj Benacerraf (1980, Medicine, Venezuela/US, discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes), Elias Canetti (1981, Literature, Bulgaria/Austria/UK, modernist novelist and playwright, books – Auto-da-Fe,?Crowds and Power), Franco Modigliani (1985, Economics, Italy/US, originator of the life-cycle hypothesis, which attempts to explain the level of saving in the economy), Rita Levi-Modigliani (1986, Medicine, Italy, nerve growth factor), Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (1997, Physics, France, research in methods of laser cooling and trapping atoms), Serge Haroche (2012, Physics, France, experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems), Patrick Modiano (2014, Literature, France, books – les boulevards de ceinture, rue des boutiques obscures). Taking into consideration the very low number of Sephardi Jews (speaking Ladino or originating from Spain and Portugal) the Sephardim had an important cultural impact throughout history in Spain, France, Europe, Israel, and America – with eminent personalities such as Maimonides, Pissarro, Modigliani, Spinoza, Lazarus, Ricardo, Montefiore, Disraeli, Itzhak Navon, Cassin, Canetti, and other Nobel laureates, ?etc. Speaking of Nobel laureates, we should mention also two Cori who received the Medicine prize in 1947 for their discovery of how glycogen is broken down and resynthesized in the body for use as a store and source of energy: Carl Ferdinand Cori, a Czech/American biochemist, and his wife Gerty Cori who was born into a Jewish family in Prague (her mother was a friend of Franz Kafka, who was also a Jew). Gerty converted to Catholicism, enabling her and Carl to marry in the Roman Catholic Church, but did Carl Cori have a Jewish ancestry?

I visited most of the countries of the Sephardic diaspora, including Turkey, Greece, France, US, Netherlands, and the Balkans countries, enjoying very much beautiful Croatia and Slovenia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. I was moved when my cousin Jak Kori took me early in the morning of Saturday to an Istanbul synagogue with Sephardic ritual in Hebrew and Ladino. The same ritual is practiced in Istanbul synagogues since 1492 and it is probably the original ritual. I do not go to synagogues as I am not relgious and didn't have a Bar Mitzvah (but my sons had it at the request of my wife and her parents), so I was quite curious to discover the rituals. All went well until when the Rabbi asked the honorable guest from Israel Jacques Cory to an aliyah (calling him for a segment of reading from the Torah). I did not know what to do and whispered to the Rabbi that it is my first time, but the Rabbi told me that as I read Hebrew it should not be a problem and I have just to read a few lines of the Torah. I did that with pleasure, but this was my first and probably last time, since I did not go to a synagogue since then, except in my visits abroad.

Most of the Sephardim were zionists , settled in Palestine, mainly in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, Tiberias, and even tried to found a Jewish entity in Palestine. In the middle of the 16th century Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi and her nephew Joseph Nasi , with the support of the Ottoman Empire, tried to gather the Portuguese Jews, first to Cyprus , then owned by the Republic of Venice, and later to Tiberias. This was the only practical attempt to establish some sort of Jewish political center in Palestine between the fourth and 19th centuries. In the 17th century Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) announced himself as the Messiah and gained over many Jews to his side, forming a base in Salonica. He first tried to establish a settlement in Gaza, but moved later to Smyrna. After deposing the old rabbi Aaron Lapapa even the Jewish community of Avignon prepared to emigrate to the new kingdom in the spring of 1666. The readiness of the Jews of the time to believe the messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi may be largely explained by the desperate state of European Jewry in the mid-17th century. The bloody pogroms of Bohdan Khmelnytsky had wiped out one-third of the Jewish population and destroyed many centers of Jewish learning and communal life. Finally, Joseph Nasi was forced by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV to visit him and, to the surprise of his followers, in the presence of the Sultan he converted to Islam.

Sir Moses Montefiore , famous for his intervention in favor of Jews around the world, including the attempt to rescue Edgardo Mortara , established a colony for Jews in Palestine. In 1854, his friend Judah Touro bequeathed money to fund Jewish residential settlement in Palestine. Montefiore was appointed executor of his will, and used the funds for a variety of projects, including building in 1860 the first Jewish residential settlement and almshouse outside of the old walled city of Jerusalem—today known as Mishkenot Sha'ananim . Laurence Oliphant failed in a like attempt to bring to Palestine the Jewish proletariat of Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and the Turkish Empire (1879 and 1882). In the 1890s, Theodor Herzl infused Zionism with a new ideology and practical urgency, leading to the First Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897, which created the World Zionist Organization (WZO). Herzl's aim was to initiate necessary preparatory steps for the attainment of a Jewish state. Herzl's attempts to reach a political agreement with the Ottoman rulers of Palestine were unsuccessful and other governmental support was sought. The WZO supported small-scale settlement in Palestine and focused on strengthening Jewish feeling and consciousness and on building a worldwide federation.

Finally, I would like to end this chapter with a personal note, emphasizing more than anything else how Ladino is a sentimental link to tradition for all the Sephardic Jews. I had a friend, one of the most ethical and best men that I have ever met – Harry Recanati. He came from a very wealthy family, the Recanatis, originating from the Italian town Recanati, moving to Saloniki in the Ottoman Empire/Greece, and then to Israel. His father Leon Recanati founded the Discount Bank in Israel, one of the three largest banks, with Bank Hapoalim (Bank of the Workers) and Bank Leumi (National Bank). Discount bank hired mostly Sephardic Jews and its clientele was mainly Sephardic. Harry, as the eldest son, managed the Bank after his father died quite young. He told me and wrote in his book "Recanati, father and son" that he had to leave the management in view of an ethical conflict with his brothers on how to run the bank. The Israel Discount Bank added the international merchant banks of Ralli Brothers to its portfolio of private banks, and Harry Recanati left when the other Directors chose to list the banking group publicly on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange , in 1970. The Israel Discount Bank became insolvent in 1983 and was controversially nationalised by the Treasury of the Government of Israel. Harry Recanati had retained ownership of the Swiss private bank of Ralli Brothers (Bankers) S.A. which he later sold to Security Pacific Bank of California , using the proceeds to found a number of public museums. These Ralli Museums are free, non-profit galleries, of contemporary Latin-American art. We used to meet in his apartment in the Caesarea Ralli Museum whenever he came to Israel (he lived in the Ralli Museums all over the world), and to mourn for the lack of ethics in Israel. He read my ethical academic books and novel (which had many Sephardic motives) and I read his book, the first book on ethics in banking that was written in Israel. Both of us spoke Ladino.

When Harry was almost ninety he had a stroke and he was brought to his apartment in the Rally Museum of Caesarea, where nurses took care of him day and night. The manager of the Museum, a remarkable and very talented woman, told me that Harry cannot communicate and does not understand what is told to him. I told her that nevertheless I want to visit him with my wife (he also met before my son Yossi who is an architect, as he was very interested in architecture). We came one morning, and noticed that indeed he could not communicate with any of the persons who were there, nurses, the manager and friends. I started to talk to him in Ladino, like we used to before. I told him: "Kerido Harry, saves ke otrun poko avemos Pesah i vamos a meldar la Agada kon toda nuestra familia. Te akodras komo kantavas en Ladino kuando estavas chiko kon tu papa i tu mama i toda tu familia? Es pekado ke no puedes estar kon nosotros, ma vamos a pensar a ti kuando vamos a kantar (i kanti): "Este es el pan de la afriision ke komieron muestros padres en tierra de Ayifto. Todo el ken tiene ambre venga i koma. Todo el ken tiene de menester venga i paskue. Este anyo aki, a el anyo ke viene en tierra de Yisrael. Este anyo aki, siervos, a el anyo ke viene en tierra de Yisrael ijos fo-o-o-ros…" When Harry heard me singing the famous Pesah song "ha lahma anyaa" in Ladino, as he used to sing when he was a kid, he burst out crying and large drops of tears came down his cheeks…

In English: "Dear Harry, you know that in a short while we'll have Pesah/Passover and we'll read the Agada with all our family. You remember how you used to sing in Ladino when you were a kid with your father and your mother and all your family? It is unfortunate that you'll not be able to be with us but we'll think about you when we'll sing (and I sang): This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat of it; all in need come and celebrate Passover. This year we observe it here; next year may we be in the Land of Israel. This year we are slaves in exile; next year may we be free men in the Land of Israel." In Aramaic: "A lakhma anya di ahalu avatana beara demitsrayim, kol dikhfin yeteh veyehol, kol ditsrikh yeteh veyifsakh, ashata aha leshana abaa beara deyisrael, ashata avdeh, leshana abaa beara deyisrael beneh horin." Written in Aramaic alphabet and translated into Hebrew:

ARAMAIC - "??? ??????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??????????? ?????????? ???????????. ???? ????????? ?????? ?????????. ???? ?????????? ?????? ?????????. ????????? ?????. ???????? ???????? ?????????? ????????????. ????????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ?????? ???????". HEBREW - "??? ??? ????? ????? ??????? ???? ?????. ?? ???? ???? ?????, ?? ????? ???? ?????? (????? ????? ??? ). ???? (???) ???, ???? ???? ???? ????? , ???? (???) ?????, ???? ???? ??? ?????."