Ladino
Like Ladino, Haketiya grew out of the Spanish of Jews exiled from Spain. Like Yiddish, it has a range of loving, spiteful, sarcastic, ironic, anxious, and superstitious expressions.
The Izmir Jewish festival.
Alter Leyb Robinson and his friend, Shabbos.
Now the spirit of Salonika rests in Israel.
For kosher salami and pastrami, naturally.
Ḥasidic songs, and much else, will be known to the world thanks to his work.
And the traditional importance of Maimonides’ principles of faith.
A bygone Sephardi metropolis.
And the story of its repression.
Composing silabarios to prepare for apocalypse.
With some help from a congregant.
An ancient community, destroyed by Hitler.
And the current state of Jewish life there.
A nostalgic, farewell portrait of a world that was fast expiring.