Kerensiozo jurnal "Los Muestros" de los mis suenios,
Flory Jagoda, ke es una de mis nonas, eskriviyo komo antes diez anios una kantika ke se yama "La Yave de Espania." La kantika se trata de la leyenda segun la kuala, mientres la Ekspulsion de los Judios de Espania, se avian traido kon eyos las yaves de suz kazas, kon la esperansa ke un diya ivan a retornar a "Sefarad". Es un poko difichile de entender esta kantika, siendo ke mi Nona es de Sarayevo i su Ladino es diferente del Ladino de mis otros nonos, Ham Avraham i Bula Satula, ke eran Selaniklis. Ama sientela i mira de entender las ermozas palavras de mi Nona Flory:(3)
Onde esta la yave ke estava in kashun?
Mis nonus la trusherun kon grande dolor,
De su kaza de Espania,
Suenios de Espania...
Onde esta la yave ke estava in kashun?
Mis nonus las trusheron kon grande amor,
Disheron a luz fijus, estu ez il korason,
De muestra kaza de Espania,
Suenios de Espania...
Onde esta la yave ke estava in kashun?
Miz nonus la trusheron kon grande amor,
La dijeron a luz nietus a meterla a kashun,
Muestra yave de Espania, de Espania.
Suenios de Espania...(4)
Yes, we have dreamed of Spain, ...a dream that has endured hundreds of years. And how could we not dream of this distant land? Our very language, our "romances" (romantic ballads), much of our cuisine, and even our names are evocative of this far away land. We are Sefaradim, from the Hebrew word for Spain, "Sefarad."
Funny thing is, Spaniards have also dreamed about us. It seems that a few centuries after our Expulsion, we were missed. What a great, gaping hole we must have left behind. After all, Jews had lived in Spain for nearly 15 centuries--since the time of the Second Temple(5)-some even maintain that we first arrived there during the First Temple! (6)
Whichever is the truth, what is certain is that our presence was deeply engraved upon the Spanish landscape--both literally, through our synagogues and juderiyas(7), as well as figuratively--in the Spanish mind and memory. The Spaniards, reflecting on the Jewish imprint on their history and nation, wanted us back.
In the early 20th century, the Spanish government launched an enthusiastic repatriation campaign to bring the Sephardic Jews back to Spain. Representatives of the Spanish American community, particularly those affiliated with New York's Spanish periodical, "La Prensa" (published from 1913 to 1918), parti cipated in Sephardic social gatheringsand published articles translated into Judeo-Spanish in the New York Ladino press, entreating us to return. If we were, in the words of the Spanish senator, Angel Pulido, "espanoles sin patria,"(8) his successors were absolutely determined to reverse this state of affairs.
Yet, along with dreams come nightmares. Many Sephardim in early 20th century New York were tormented by their traumatic memories of Iberia, particularly the Inquisition and the Expulsion of 1492. These memories led them to distance themselves from their Hispanic heritage and to seek identification with the Jewish people as a whole and with Jewish nationalistic movements. Many forswore any spiritual connection with Spain. In the teens, for example, Moise Gadol (1874- 1941), editor of the first American Ladino tabloid, "La Amerika", vehemently rejected overtures by the Spanish American press and the Spanish Ambassador in Washington to repatriate Sephardim to Spain. Gadol's response to these campaigns was that Sephardim had still not forgotten the bitterness of the "cruel and barbaric" Inquisition, and that the only land of resettlement for all Jews was Palestine.
Even Joseph Gedalecia, President of New York's Federation of Oriental Jews, wondered how Spain could expect Turkinos (9) to "return to the land which had burned, massacred and hunted down their ancestors." "The Jews of the Orient," he emphasised in 1915, "though they have no feeling of resentment or animosity against Spain, have not forgotten the sufferings of their ancestors."(10)
Reflecting on these sufferings, Moise Gadol went so far as to spurn the Ladino language itself! He claimed that Sephardim spoke Ladino against their will, and only because their ancestors had failed to revive the ancient Hebrew language. "La lingua espaniola ke mos desho los mas tristes rekordos de la oto-da-fe deve murir enteramente," he wrote in 1910. (11) Rejecting all national ties with Spain, Gadol asserted that the only remedy for Sephardim was to "work for the honour and dignity of our nation under the new national Jewish ideal, Zionism."(12)
And yet, as desperately as some Sephardim attempted to untangle themselves with any connections with Spain, they were inextricably intertwined. In the early 20th century, Sephardim interacted with Hispanics in the business world, in everyday life within their immigrant neighbourhoods, in the intellectual sphere, and even...in love.
Many Sephardim formed ties with Hispanic communities through economic channels, by studying modern Spanish in order to establish lucrative import-export business with Central and South America. In the intellectual sphere, Dardanelles-born Mair Jose Benardete (b.1895), long-time Professor of Spanish and Sephardic Studies at Brooklyn College, and Hispanist Federico de Onis, who founded Columbia University's Hispanic Institute (Casa Hispanica) in 1920, are well-known for effecting a reconciliation between Hispanics and Sephardim in America. Benardette, whose dissertation, *Hispanic Culture and Character of the Sephardic Jews*, was first published by the Hispanic Institute in 1953, became Director of the institute's Sephardic Studies Section (Seccion de Estudios Sefardies) in the late 1920's. Under Benardete's direction, the Sephardic Section sponsored lectures on Sephardic civilisation, generated articles for the institute's *Revista Hispanica Moderna*, published a Ladino/Spanish commemorative volume on the medieval Spanish-Jewish poet, Yehuda Halevi, and even staged dramatic performances in Judeo Spanish. Sephardim even formed romantic liaisons with Hispanics, particularly in East Harlem, where a burgeoning Sephardic community coexisted with Puerto Ricans, the largest Latin American community in New York City.
For Sephardim, Spain is a nostalgic vision, but also a traumatic vision. And yet its memory clings to us, and we to it, like an idyllic dream violently disrupted, to which we yearn to return, kon los kualos kedo, durmiendo i soniando, tu Amiga Serena.(13)
Copyright by Amiga Serena 1999 Amiga Serena owns the copyright on all "Penserios de Nieta" instalments, past and future, appearing in "Los Muestros" and in the "Sephardic House Newsletter."
(1) - "Anxieties of a Granddaughter." All translations are from the Ladino, except where noted.
(2) - "Dreams of Spain..."
(3) - "Dear Los Muestros of my dreams, Flory Jagoda, who is one of my grandmothers, wrote a song some ten years ago called, "The Key of Spain." The song deals with the legend that the Sephardim, during their Expulsion from Spain, brought with them the keys to their houses, in hopes of one day returning to "Sefarad." It is a little difficult to understand this song, being that my Grandmother is from Sarajevo and her Ladino is different from the Ladino of my other grandparents, Ham Avraham and Bula Satula, who were Salonicians. But listen, and try to understand the beautiful words of Grand mother Flory."
This song, "La Jave De Espanja," appears on Flory Jagoda's recording, "Memories of Sarajevo: Judeo-Spanish Songs From Yugoslavia" (Global Village Music, 1991.) With Nona Flory's permission, Amiga Serena has slightly changed the Slavic orthography to preserve the consistency of this column. The translation below is copied directly from the cassette's insert.(4)
"Where is the key that was in the drawer?
My forefathers brought it with great pain,
>From their house in Spain.
Dreams of Spain...
Where is the key that was in the drawer?
My forefathers brought it with great love.
They told their sons, this is the heart,
Of our house in Spain.
Dreams of Spain...
Where is the key that was in the
drawer?
My forefathers brought it with great love, They gave them to their grandsons for them to keep it in the drawer
Our key from Spain, from Spain,
Dreams of Spain..."
(5) -The Second Temple period dates from c. 519 B.C.E. ("Before the Common Era" to 70 C.E.)
(6)- The First Temple dates from c. 966 B.C.E. to 586 B.C.E.
(7) - Jewish quarters
(8)- Angel Pulido, *Espanoles Sin Patria y la Raza Sefardi*,Madrid, 1905.
(9) - "Turkinos" is the word Ladino- speaking Sephardim applied to themselves.
(10) - Joseph Gedalecia, "Spain and the Jews," in "The American Hebrew", 2 July 1915, p.7.
(11) - "The Spanish language, which left us the most melancholy memories of the auto-da-fe, should be completely annihi lated." Moise Gadol, "Por la Lingua," in "La America", 9 December 1910, p.1.
(12) - Moise Gadol, "La America", 25 June 1915.
(13) - "With which I remain, slumbe ring and dreaming,
Amiga Serena is profoundly grateful to Dr. Aviva Ben-Ur for much of the historical information cited in this column. Amiga Serena is also deeply beholden to Nona Flory for her exquisite Ladino music and for her kind permission to discuss her beautiful song.
Amiga Serena tamien rengrasia al Tiyo i ala Tiya Yerushalmi de ayudarle en kestiones de Ladino.
All Spanish and Ladino diacritical marks have been removed due to the technical difficulties associated with their transmission from New York to Belgium.