Part III-vol.8 PDF

Damta LeTamar
Studies in Honor of Tamar Alexander

El Prezente, Studies in Sephardic Culture
Mikan, Journal of Hebrew and Israeli
Literature and Culture Studies
Editors
Eliezer Papo, Haim Weiss, Yaakov Bentolila, Yuval Harari

El Prezente, vol. 8-9 / Mikan, vol. 15
Part III
May 2015
HEKSHERIM
Moshe David Gaon Center

for Ladino Culture
Ben-Gurion University
of the Negev
Naime & Yehoshua Salti Center

for Ladino Studies
The Research Institute

for Jewish and Israeli
Literature and Culture
The National Authority for Ladino

and its Culture
Editorial Council: Rifat Bali, Albert Benveniste Center of Studies and Sefardic Culture, EPHE,
Sorbonne, Pars, and The Ottoman-Turkish Sephardic Culture Research Center, Istanbul; David
M. Bunis, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Winfried Busse, Freie Universitt. Berlin;
Paloma Daz-Mas, CSIC, Madrid; Oro Anahory-Librowicz, University of Montreal; Alisa
Meyuhas Ginio, Tel Aviv University; Laura Minervini, University of Napoli Federico II;
Aldina Quintana, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Rena Molho, Pantheon University,
Atens; Shmuel Refael, Bar-Ilan University; Aron Rodrigue, University of Stanford;
Minna Rozen, University of Haifa; Beatrice Schmid, University of Basel; Ora (Rodrigue)
Schwarzwald, Bar-Ilan University; Edwin Seroussi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem;
Michael Studemund-Halvy, University of Hamburg
Published with the support of

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev:
The Presidents Office
The Rectors Office
The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Moshe David Gaon Center for Ladino Culture
National Authority for Ladino and its Culture
Naime & Yehoshua Salti Center for Ladino Studies
Mishael Ben-Melech, Jerusalem
Editorial Coordinator: Maayan Mangoni

Language Editors: Yitzhak Recanati (Hebrew), Fern Seckbach (English), Orna Stoliar (Spanish)
Graphic Design: Sefi Graphics Design
Print: BGU Print Unit
Cover photo: Ketubah, Rome, Italy (1627), with the courtesy of Israel Museum, Jerusalem
ISBN 978-965-91164-4-7
All rights reserved 2015
Moshe David Gaon Center for Ladino Culture
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva
Israel
Table of Contents
Yaakov Bentolila

Cmo se trokan los proverbios
David M. Bunis

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb and Saying: A Look from Within
11
Paloma Daz-Mas

Actitudes de los espaoles hacia los sefardes: descripciones

de las costumbres de boda de Marruecos en libros y peridicos

publicados en Espaa (1873-1971)
55
Michal Held

Ansina pueden dizir loke keren (This way they can say whatever

they wish) Expressions of Gender in the Personal Narratives

of Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) Speaking Women Storytellers
75
Aviad Moreno

An Insight into the Course of European-oriented Modernization

among Oriental Jewries the Minute Book of the Junta of Tangier
95
Grard Nahon

Les Pqide-Qusha, les Officiers pour la Terre sainte dIstanbul

face aux markalim, les Surintendants dAmsterdam, 1827-1828
121
Eliezer Papo

Iberian Catholic Elements in Bosnian and Moroccan Judeo-Spanish

Refraneros
143
Aldina Quintana

Cuatro fragmentos de otros tantos cuadernos inditos con recetas

de medicina y farmacologa sefardes de la coleccin de la Genizah

del JTS
161
Pilar Romeu

Aproximacin a la filmografa sobre los sefardes: Apuntes para

el estudio de un gnero en gestacin
191
Ora (Rodrigue) Shwarzwald

Personal Names, Toponymes, and Gentile Nouns in Ladino

and Spanish Translations of the Bible
209
Michael Studemund-Halvy

Obsessed with the Theater: The Translator and Amateur

Author Rafael Farin
229
List of Participants (Part III)
245
Yaakov Bentolila

Yaakov Bentolila
Universidad Ben-Gurion del Negev
A Tamar,
de quien tanto he aprendido
en materia de refranes
El ttulo de este artculo se inspira en una ancdota. Mi mam tena una amiga, la Sra.
Afumado, que era oriunda de Turqua, en paz descansen ambas. Se hablaban en francs,
pero la charla, cuando el tema o los nimos lo motivaban, resbalaba al espaol. La una,
nacida en Tetun, hablaba espaol con algunos giros en jaqueta, la otra utilizaba el ladino
(judezmo) turco, y se entendan de lo mejor. Un da estuvo mi madre ensendola unas
fotos antiguas, donde resplandeca en toda la belleza de su juventud. La reaccin de su
amiga fue: Cmo se trokan las personas! Trokar, en ladino, significa simplemente
cambiar, o sea, lo que quiso decir fue: Cmo cambian las personas! Pero en
jaqueta el sentido es cambiar para peor o desmejorar. Cun desagradable fue para
mam el or lo que muy bien saba, que la edad tiene sus efectos: Cmo desmejoran
las personas! Comentar el incidente fue una ocasin para analizar el fenmeno de faux
amis en las correspondencias semnticas entre dos lenguas emparentadas
El propsito de este artculo es analizar los cambios, o las variantes, que se han
manifestado en algunos proverbios jaquticos, y que supongo hayan ocurrido en el
curso de las transmisiones interpersonales. Este anlisis podra ofrecer intuiciones
sobre algunos temas lingsticos, al mismo tiempo que dejar traslucir caractersticas
de las personas que suelen usar los refranes. El corpus que sirve de base a mis
observaciones son refranes de los que hemos editado, Tamar Alexander y yo, en
nuestro libro La palabra en su hora es oro (Alexander y Bentolila 2008).1
1
Tamar Alexander y Yaakov Bentolila, La palabra en su hora es oro. El refrn judeoespaol en el Norte de Marruecos, Instituto Ben-Zvi, Jerusaln 2008.
1
El repetido uso de refranes en boca de individuos diversos resulta en actuaciones

diferentes. La mayora de stas son simples variaciones banales, de vocabulario, de
pronunciacin, de cdigo lingstico (jaqueta versus espaol), etc. A continuacin
doy un ejemplo de esta clase de variaciones triviales:2
(1.229) a

b

c

d

e

f

g
De que par, bocado geno3 no com

Desde que par, bocado bueno no com
Desde que par, ojo de luz no mir4
Desde que par, ojo bueno no mir, bocado bueno no com y sueo
bueno no durm
De que par, oo bueno no mir, bocado bueno no com y sueo
bueno no durm
Desde que me ca, bocado bueno no com
Desde que te conoc, bocado bueno no com
Esas variaciones personalizadas se distinguen por aadiduras; disminuciones; fraseos

diferentes, que a veces presentan mensajes diferentes, incluso contrarios; que optan
por vocabulario distintos, por gusto o por incultura.
1 Aadiduras y disminuciones
Los casos de aadidura se distinguen fcilmente de los de disminucin. Por lo
general, se trata de refranes donde se disciernen dos partes, una primera que contiene
2

3
4
Los ejemplos estn numerados de la siguiente manera: entre parntesis, un ordinal seguido
de un punto y luego el nmero con el que estn registrados el refrn y sus variantes en
nuestro libro La palabra en su hora es oro; las variantes las designamos con letras. La
transcripcin de voces jaquetiescas presentes en los refranes citados es la siguiente:
= [] de API (1989), o sea la sibilante prepalatal sonora, como en francs jour [ur].
= [z] de API, o sea la sibilante alveolar sonora, como en francs maison [mez]; la
usamos para designar esta pronunciacin en palabras espaolas, donde reemplaza a una [s]
sorda normal.
= la fricativa larngea [h] sonora
= la fricativa farngea sorda
sh = [] de API, o sea la sibilante prepalatal sorda, como en francs marcher [mare]
cc = consonante geminada
geno = bueno
mir, durm = mir, dorm
2
Yaakov Bentolila
el mensaje5 completo y una segunda parte, o apdosis, que lo que aade son detalles
de poco inters, ilustraciones del mensaje, observaciones de ndole particular, etc.
Segn esos criterios se puede considerar como aadiduras lo indicado en negrita en
los siguientes ejemplos:
(2.188) a Cuando yo tena todos me queran

b Cuando yo tena todos me queran y ahora que no tengo al ro me
echaran
(3.336) a El muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo

b El muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo y viene el Di y lo arsa6 todo
(4.461) a Guay7 del da de las alabanzas8

b Guay del da de las alabanzas y guay del da que diga era, era, era

y era
Obviamente, los mensajes estn ya en las variantes (a), lo que sigue es pura ampliacin.
El refrn clsico se distingue por su fraseo sucinto; hay aadidura cuando se incrementa
el tema con detalles que no modifican considerablemente la significacin bsica del
mensaje, por ejemplo:
(5.706)

(6.862)

a
b
a
b
Casamiento y mortaja del cielo baja

Nacimiento, casamiento y mortaja, del cielo baja
Quin alaba a la novia? Su madre la tioa
Quin alaba a la novia mocoa? Su madre la tioa
Cuando una novia es alabada por una persona conocida y no por extraos, cuyo juicio
impersonal garantiza la sinceridad, se entiende que no presenta muchos motivos de
elogio; la palabra mocoa puede haber sido incorporada para que rime con tioa.
6
7
8
Denominamos mensaje a la significacin ideal, o metafrica, del refrn, mientras que

el tema corresponde a su significado literal, siempre explcito, puesto que sobresale
directamente del texto como tal. Cf. Tamar Alexander y Yaakov Bentolila, Elementos
hispnicos y jaquticos en los refranes judeo-espaoles de Marruecos, en Judit TargaronaBorrs y ngel Senz-Badillos (eds.), Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth 20th
Century, Proceedings of the 6th EAJS Congress, vol. 2, Judaism from the Renaissance to
Modern Times, Brill, Toledo 1999, pp. 421-429.
arsar = alzar
guay = interjeccin de pena o de dolor
Interpretacin: Recela el da de la muerte, cuando te elogiarn.
No obstante, (6a) puede ser un ejemplo de disminucin; la rima ha sido siempre un

elemento valioso en la composicin de refranes.9
Los casos de disminucin se deben generalmente a una estrategia de la conversacin,
segn la cual basta con una evocacin parcial del refrn, cuando el hablante sabe de
seguro que su interlocutor conoce la continuacin.10 El ejemplo siguiente lo ilustra:
(7.280) a El almerez11 y el anafe12 se cayeron al poo

b El almedrez y el anafe se cayeron al poo. El almedrez dijo me

arshe13 y el anafe qu va a decir?14
La variante (a) no dira nada a quien desconoce a (b).
A veces podemos concluir que hay disminucin sobre la base de una versin extensa
registrada en fuente antigua o remota, como en los ejemplos siguientes:
(8.267) a Donde comen tres, comen cuatro

b Donde comen tres, comen cuatro aadiendo ms en el plato
La antigedad de la versin (b) est garantizada por la presencia del proverbio (c) en
el Vocabulario de Correas:15

c Donde comen tres, comern cuatro, aidiendo (sic!) ms en el plato.
(9.864) a Quien bien te quiere, te har llorar

b Quien te quiere mal, te har rer; quien te quiere bien, te har llorar
9 Cf. Alexander y Bentolila, La palabra en su hora... (nota 1), p. 30.
10 Chtrit, Yosef, Hmrh happigm kamrh al-eqsl hah lappigmm
el yehy mrq [en hebreo: El dicho proverbial en tanto que dicho supra-textual.
Ojeada sobre los refranes de los judos marroques], Masorot 9-10-11 (1997), pp. 557-577.
Chtrit compara el repertorio de refranes en una comunidad con el caudal lxico que est
a su disposicin (p. 558). La evocacin parcial o total de un proverbio es una estrategia
que supone un saber comn por parte de los participantes en el acto de habla. Tanto las
aadiduras como las disminuciones tienen por objeto enfatizar el punto de vista del hablante,
en el cuadro de lo que Chtrit llama la funcin semntico-pragmtica de la conversacin.
11 almerez, almedrez = almirez
12 anafe = hornillo de carbn, redondo y de barro
13 me arshe = me rall, me rasp
14 Interpretacin: Ante un mismo accidente, el fuerte grita a voz en cuello por un dao ligero,
mientras que el flojo se arruina completamente sin lamentarse.
15 Maestro Gonzalo Correas, Vocabulario de refranes y frases proverbiales y otras frmulas
comunes de la lengua castellana en que van todos los impresos antes y otra gran copia
Yaakov Bentolila
Una versin que corrobora a (b) se encuentra en (c):16

c El quen te quere bien te hace llorar, el quen te quere mal te hace rer
2 Mensajes diferentes
La simple sustitucin de una preposicin puede alterar el mensaje de un refrn:
(10.533) a La mujer compuesta quita al marido de otra puerta

b La mujer compuesta quita al marido por la otra puerta
Si en (a) se entiende que el marido aludido frecuenta culpablemente casa ajena, lo que
dice la variante (b) no est muy claro: se puede suponer, por ejemplo, que una valiosa
esposa le libera de un percance.
La modificacin puede ser de ndole tal que produzca mensajes opuestos:
(11.638) a

b
(12.301) a

b
(13.415) a

b
Si negra fue la culpa, ms negra es la disculpa

Ms negra es la culpa que la disculpa
Da el Di la manta asegn el fro
El Di da el fro asign la manta
El agua de abril se puede poner en un barril
En abril cada gota llena un barril
A veces las sustituciones lexicales cambian el tema del refrn dejando ms o menos
intacto su mensaje, como en los ejemplos siguientes:
(14.41) a Al hombre y al sol no ha menester seliot17

b Para la nia y el sol no es menester seliot18
que junt el Maestro Gonzalo Correas, Tip. de la Rev. de archivos, bibliotecas y museos,
Salamanca/Madrid 1924, p. 163. El Vocabulario data de 1627.
16 Leonor Carracedo y Elena Romero, Refranes publicados por Yaacob Yona, Estudios
Sefarades 4 (1981), p. 544, refrn 264. Esta versin no se ha registrado en Alexander y
Bentolila, La palabra en su hora... (nota 1).
17 Interpretacin: No hay que preocuparse demasiado por asuntos que acabaran por
solucionarse a su debido tiempo.
18 seliot = Oraciones por las que se implora perdn
(15.127) a

b
(16.31) a

b

c
(17.13) a

b
(18.105) a

b
Caar, caar19 que la landra20 viene21

Come, come que la landra viene
Agudos me maten y no bobos me den la vida
Agudos que me maten y no burros que me den vida
Sabio que me mate y no tonto que me d la vida
A la vejez, sarampin
A la vejez, sabaones22
Cada pasharito tiene su nidito
Cada pasharito tiene su corazonito23
Eso ocurre tambin en las traducciones, cuando se sustituye un trmino espaol por
su equivalente jaqutico (< rabe o hebreo). Tanto el mensaje como el tema quedan
iguales, pero la formulacin distinta evoca un ambiente local ntimo.
(19.51) a

b
(20.264) a

b
(21.883) a

b
Quien madruga el Di le ayuda

El Di fuquea24 al que sobea25
A quien Dios no dio hijos, el diablo da sobrinos
Dios no le dio hijos, pero el Shed26 le dio sobrinos
Quien mucho habla, mucho yerra27
Quien mucho adrea28, mucho yerra
19 caar = casarse
20 landra = peste, epidemia
21 Interpretacin: Crtica de quien hace las cosas con prisa, sin tener en cuenta las
consecuencias.
22 Interpretacin: Cuando se hace algo en un momento inoportuno, o cuando se comporta uno
de manera incongruente.
23 Interpretacin: Cada uno se siente bien en su lugar, o con sus comodidades propias, etc.
24 fuquear = ayudar, sacar de apuro
25 sobea = madrugar
26 Shed = diablo (del hebreo)
27 yerrar = errar
28 adrear = hablar, charlar
Yaakov Bentolila
3 Fraseos corrientes
En su trnsito hay refranes que acaban en boca de hablantes rsticos que los
desmantelan de sus fraseos poticos para traducirlos en lenguaje ordinario, como lo
muestran las versiones (b) de los ejemplos siguientes:
(22.388) a

b
(23.358) a

b
El que roba a un ladrn, tiene cien aos de perdn

Un ladrn que roba otro ladrn, tiene cien aos de perdn
A el que diere sus bienes en su vida, que le vengan unas amaras29
de seguida
El que da sus bienes en su vida merece palos
4 Actuaciones errneas
Las versiones toscas revelan casos en los que el hablante manifiesta no haber
comprendido el tema ni, por consiguiente, el mensaje:
(24.295) a El da que no escombr, vino quien no pens30

b El da que nos escombr, vino lo que menos lo pens
Obviamente el complemento nos y el sujeto lo en (b) no cuadran con ninguna
imagen o idea coherentes.
Hay desviaciones que resultan de una insuficiencia de audicin; un hablante que no
habr bien odo un refrn inaugura una versin aproximativa, basada en sustituciones
de ndole fontica, que desfigura ms o menos la que suponemos haber sido la original:
(25.66) a Ande va la barca, va Bachicha

b Donde va la vaca, va la bachicha
Quien produjo (b) dijo vaca en vez de barca, no comprendi que Bachicha es
un nombre propio,31 e invent una palabra, bachicha, sin tener idea de lo que puede
significar, sino algo o alguien susceptible de ser atrado por una vaca
29 amaras = no he conseguido enterarme del sentido de esta palabra en el contexto del
refrn, pero se entiende que refiere a alguna pena o castigo.
30 escombr, pens = escombr, pens
31 La Sra. Orna Stoliar, editora lingstica, sugiere una interpretacin interesante de este
refrn: En la Argentina y otros pases de Amrica Latina, Bachicha es el apodo despectivo
7
En los proverbios siguientes rey, en (a), ha sido mal odo y sustituido por regar,
en (b), y este en su turno por un derivado de beber. Los temas cambian, el mensaje
no tanto (no siempre logra uno llevar a cabo por completo sus proyectos); pero su
mejor aderezo est desde luego en (a), probablemente el original.
(26.284) a El rey va hasta donde puede, no hasta donde quiere

b El regar hasta donde puede y no hasta donde quiere

c El beba hasta donde puede y no hasta donde quiere
En el ejemplo siguiente, la frase cedacito nuevo, mal entendida, se transform en la
locucin enigmtica ser sito nuevo:
(27.128) a Cedacito nuevo, hoy al clavo, maana al suelo

b Cedaito nuevo

c Esprate, ser sito nuevo
La variante (c) intenta reproducir (b), que es disminucin de (a).
El caso ms curioso de refrn trokado, es aquel que se transform, creo yo, en el
transcurso de tres etapas, la primera por desconocimiento de un trmino, combinada
con la segunda, sustitucin fontica, y la tercera por simple antojo; as propongo
analizar la diferencia entre las dos versiones siguientes:
(28.339) a El ocio madre de todos los vicios

b El seis madre de todos los vicios
El refrn, tal como est fraseado en (a), se comprende muy bien, tanto en el plan del
tema como del mensaje. Las tres etapas son las siguientes:
1) Un primer hablante desconoce la palabra ocio
2) Por sustitucin fontica la cambia por ocho
3) Otro hablante, habiendo odo ocho, numeral que no tiene ninguna responsabilidad
en la promocin de vicios, puede ingenuamente haberlo sustituido por cualquier
otro numeral, seis en la circunstancia, lo que nos da la versin (b).
con que se designa a los inmigrantes italianos. En ese caso, el significado de Ande va la
barca, va Bachicha podra ser que los italianos estn tan interesados en emigrar de Italia
que no les importa demasiado el lugar de destino. Es muy probable que este refrn haya
sido incorporado al repertorio jaqutico por intermedio de judos de Marruecos Espaol,
que emigraron a Amrica Latina en gran nmero.
Yaakov Bentolila
Conclusin
Casi todos los refranes presentan variantes. stas reflejan no slo el aspecto de
originalidad e inspiracin (as se trokan los proverbios, en el sentido que tiene este
verbo en ladino turco), sino tambin el de las equivocaciones, los fallos e incluso los
disparates de los usuarios de proverbios (as se trokan los proverbios en jaqueta).
10
David M. Bunis
On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb and Saying:

A Look from Within*
David M. Bunis
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Lok es la mas buena koza en el ben adam? La luenga! I lok es la mas negra koza?
La luenga! Mved vehayim beyad lashn (What is the finest thing man possesses?
His tongue! And the worst thing? His tongue! Life and death are in the power of the
tongue)
Rabbi David Ha-Lewi of Bucharest, 1860.1
1. Terminology for Jewish folklore genres

Like many other Jewish subgroups forced to migrate from one region to another,
the Jewish Ibero-Romance speakers who arrived in the Ottoman Empire following
the late fifteenth-century expulsions from Iberia created a vibrant new folk culture
in the realm of the sultans. Ottoman Sephardic folk culture arose as a synthesis of
elements brought from Iberia, elements selectively incorporated from the cultures of
the new ethnic groups with whom the Sephardim came into contact, and elements
from the Jewish religious core culture which had been inherited from earlier
generations, reaching back long before the Jews set foot on Iberian soil. What made
the Ottoman Sephardic folk culture in its totality more than just the sum of these
disparate parts was the unique creative spirit and philosophy of life that embodied this
Jewish subculture group, and its distinctive filtering processes, by means of which all
*
1
This research was undertaken with support from Israel Science Foundation grant no.
1105/11.
David Ha-Lewi, Sefer ov w-yaf, Bucharest, f. 16a.
11
On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb
potential folklore elements ultimately adopted by the group became integral parts of
its unified, internally cohesive cultural world.
The folklore traditions of the Jews of modern timesthose of the Judezmospeaking Sephardim, of the Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazim, of the Judeo-Arabicspeaking Macaravim and Mustcarabim, and of other Jewish subculturesbegan to
receive scholarly scrutiny in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the birth
of Jewish studies. But the orientation, methodology, and lines of development of
research on the folklore of those diverse subcultures were not all of one kind. The
most striking divergence is perhaps to be found in the analytical approach brought to
the study of Yiddish folklore, on the one hand, and that assumed by many of the most
prominent researchers of Judezmo folklore, especially those active in the twentieth
century, on the other.
Among scholars interested in Yiddish folklore there were some, particularly the
Austrian ethnographer and folklorist Friedrich S. Krauss (1859-1938), editor of Am
Ur-Quell and Anthropophyteia, who argued that the folklore of Yiddish speakers
should be analyzed as a component of German folkloristics. But this approach was
ultimately rejected by the majority of Yiddish folklorists, most of whom themselves
belonged to Jewish communities in Germany and Eastern Europe. While taking into
consideration the medieval German roots of some elements of Yiddish folk traditions,
these scholars sought to establish Yiddish or Jewish folkloristics as an independent
field of inquiry, the aim of which was to study all facets of Jewish folklore, reflecting
all of its diverse sources. The early Yiddish folklorists, such as Abraham Tendlau
(b. Wiesbaden, 1802, d. 1878),2 generally wrote in German. In 1898, Rabbi Max
Grunwald (b. Zabrze, 1871, d. Jerusalem, 1953),3 who lived in Hamburg, Vienna, and
Jerusalem, established a society for the study of Jewish folklore, with its own journal,
Mitteilungen (der Gesellschaft) fr Jdische Volkskunde, which continued to appear
through 1929.4 In their works in German, the early Yiddish folklorists tended to employ
the folklore terminology commonly used by German scholars in analyzing Germanic
folk traditions, such as Redensart folk saying, Mrchen fable, and Volksmrchen
2
3
Tendlau authored Sprichwrter und Redensarten deutsch-jdischer Vorzeit, Heinrich

Keller, Frankfurt am Main 1860, and other pioneering Yiddish folklore collections.
On him see Dov Noy, Dr. Max GrunwaldThe Founder of Jewish Folkloristics, in Max
Grunwald, Tales, Songs & Folkways of Sepharadic Jews, Dov Noy (ed.), Magnes Press,
Jerusalem, 1982, pp. ix-xiv.
The journal is available online: http://www.compactmemory.de/.
12
David M. Bunis
folktale.5 But in the writings of later Yiddish folklorists, especially those who wrote
in Yiddish, English, and other languages, the German folk-genre denotations were
often abandoned in favor of the native terminology and internally generated technical
neologisms, such as vertl folk saying, moshl fable, and flksmayse folktale.6
From an examination of the Yiddish folkloristics literature one forms the impression
that the texts which were of greatest interest to the Yiddish folklorists were those
which, in form and content, were most characteristically Jewish, by which I mean
rich in Hebrew-Aramaic lexical items and directly connected with distinctively Jewish
religious and social life.
The study of Judezmo folklore started off on a somewhat different footing.
The authors of some of the earliest collections of Ottoman Judezmo folk literature
and their analysis were not members of the speech community itself, but Western
European specialists in the literature and folk traditions of the Hispanic world. These
scholars tended to see Ottoman Sephardic folklore through the prism of Hispanic folk
traditions, and applied the terminology and categorizations accepted among scholars
of those traditions to the folk culture of the Ottoman Sephardim. In choosing the
specific genres of Sephardic folklore on which they chose to focus their attention, too,
the European scholars were influenced by their school of research, investing almost
all of their efforts in the investigation of genres which they recognized as having a
historical connection to Western European, especially Hispanic, folklore traditions.
5
6
Cf. Max Grunwald, Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft fr Jdische Volkskunde 1 (1898), pp.
46, 72.
Cf. Uriel Weinreich, Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary, YIVO, New
York 1968. See also the folklore terminology employed in Uriel Weinreich and Beatrice
Weinreich, Yiddish Language and Folklore: A Selective Bibliography for Research, Mouton,
The Hague 1959. Internally derived Yiddish folklore terms and genre categorization are
presented in the handbook, Voz iz azoyns yidishe etnografye? (hantbikhl far zamler) (What
Is Jewish Ethnography? [Handbook for Collectors]), published by the YIVO Institute
for Jewish Research, New York, in 1929 (esp. pp. 16-30). For discussion, see Beatrice
Silverman-Weinreich, Toward a Structural Analysis of Yiddish Proverbs, YIVO Annual of
Jewish Social Science 17 (1978), 1-20, and the following articles by Barbara KirshenblattGimblett: Problemen fun yidisher folklor-terminologye, Yidishe shprakh 31 (1972), pp.
42-48; Problems in the Early History of Jewish Folkloristics, World Congress of Jewish
Studies 10.D2 (1990), pp. 21-32; and Folklore, Ethnography, and Anthropology, The
YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.
aspx/Folklore_Ethnography_and_Anthropology).
13
The Hispanists essentially ignored those components of Ottoman Judezmo folklore

adopted from the peoples of the Ottoman regions, alongside whom the Sephardim had
lived since their arrival in the empire following the expulsions from Iberia, and they
also paid little or no attention to elements of Judezmo folklore having specifically
Hebrew or Jewish roots. To use the term introduced by sociologist William Graham
Sumner (d. 1910), the approach followed by many of these scholars exemplified
the ethnocentrism characteristic of their school and times, and ran counter to the
fundamental anthropological principles guiding the contextual study of culture, or
cultural relativism, later established by Franz Boas (d. 1942) and others.
The earliest Judezmo folk ballad to appear in a European scholarly journal was a
single stanza included in the brief article Los judos espaoles de Oriente: Lengua
y literatura popular, published in 1885 by Haim [Moshe] Bidjarano (1850-1931) in
the Boletn de la Institucin Libre de Enseanza (Madrid).7 Rabbi Bidjarano, who
in 1920 would be appointed chief rabbi of Turkey, was himself a native Judezmo
speaker who enjoyed great prestige in the Jewish community. His knowledge of
Judezmo folk traditions was also appreciated by Hispanists. In fact, he was appointed
a corresponding member of the Real Academia de la Lengua Espaola, and sometimes
used the Castilian name Enriqueordinarily never used among Judezmo speakers
in his timeinstead of Hebrew-origin Haim. As was to become characteristic of
most other Sephardim of the Levant who devoted themselves to Judezmo folklore
documentation and research, in his pioneering publication Bidjarano revealed his
acceptance of the folklore terminology and categorizations of the Hispanists with
whom he was in contact as being applicable to Judezmo. For example, although the
hero of the ballad the stanza of which he published in his article is known in its
Judezmo variants primarily by names such as Don Argilis, Doverdjeli, Doverchile, or
Underdjile,8 Bidjarano referred to the ballad as a canto concerning Don Vergil,
thus bringing it under the Virgilios ballad type by which its Spanish analogues are
known among Hispanists. Judezmo does not have an exact analogue to Spanish canto;
7
8
Vol. 9, pp. 23-27. I am pleased to thank Elena Romero and Aitor Garca Moreno for
supplying me with a copy of this rare article.
E.g., see Moshe Attias, Romancero sefaradi, Jerusalem 1961, p. 72; Margaret Sleeman,
Estrea Aelion, Salonica Sephardic Tradition and the Ballad of Imprisoned Virgil, in
Philip E. Bennett and Richard Firth Green (eds.), The Singer and the Scribe: European
Ballad Traditions and European Ballad Cultures, Rodopi, Amsterdam-New York 2004,
pp. 153-168.
14
David M. Bunis
the closest words denoting types of songs are kante, kantar, and kantiga/-ika.9 Rabbi
Bidjarano also agreed with Hispanists of his time who classified the language of the
Ottoman Sephardim as a kind of jargon; in an introductory letter at the beginning
of his article addressed to the Spanish man of letters, Joaqn Costa (1846-1911), to
whom the article was dedicated, Bidjarano wrote Ya en otra ocasin, en la carta
que vi la luz en el nm. 149 del Boletn, me lament de que el dialecto espaol
en Oriente estuviese tan lejos de la verdad, que nos cuesta gran trabajo entendernos
reciprocamente.
Showing still greater acceptance of Hispanist terminology, subsequent folklore
collectors who emerged from the Judezmo speech community, such as Abraham
Danon (1857-1925) and Abraham Galante (1873-1961), referred to the Judezmo ballad
genre by the term romance,10 the Modern Spanish word used by contemporaneous
Hispanistssuch as Antonio Snchez Moguel,11 Marcelino Menndez y Pelayo,12 and
Ramn Menndez Pidal,13 who at the turn of the twentieth century took a great interest
in the ballad tradition cultivated by the Sephardim of the Ottoman Empirealthough
Judezmo speakers generally refer to an epic song of this kind as a romansa (cf.
Old Spanish romana) or romanso.14 The same deference to the terminology of the
prestigious European Hispanists was later to be seen in the use by scholars from the
Judezmo speech community, such as Alberto Hemsi (1898-1975), of the Spanish term
copla for the rhymed verse genre more commonly known among Judezmo speakers as
9 Joseph Nehama, Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol. CSIC, Madrid 1977, pp. 266-267.

10 E.g., Abraham Danon, Recueil de romances judo-espagnoles chantes en Turquie,
Revue des tudes Juives 32 (1896-97), pp. 102-123, 263-275; 33, pp. 122-139, 255-268;
Abraham Galante, Quatorze romances judo-espagnols, Revue Hispanique 10 (1903),
pp. 594-606.
11 E.g., A. Snchez Moguel, Un romance en el dialecto de los judos de Oriente, Boletn de
la Real Academia de la Historia 16 (1890), pp. 497-509
12 E.g., M. Menndez y Pelayo, Romances castellanos tradicionales entre los judos de
Levante, Antologa de poetas lricos castellanos 10, nos. 45-56 (Madrid 1900), pp. 303357.
13 E.g., Ramn Menndez Pidal, Catlogo del romancero judeo-espaol, Cultura espaola
no. 4 (1906), pp. 1045-1077; no. 5 (1907), pp. 161-199.
14 E.g., see Nehama, Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol (Note 9), p. 483 s. romnsa; and the
texts reproduced in Samuel G. Armistead and Joseph H. Silverman, The Judeo-Spanish
Ballad Chapbooks of Yacob Abraham Yon, University of California, Berkeley 1971,
pp. 389, 419.
15
kompla;15 and the use by Moshe Attias (1898-1973) and others of Castilian cancionero
for a collection of songs, where Judezmo has no such word.16
Following the late nineteenth-century beginnings of the Hispanist school of
Ottoman Sephardic folklore research, its orientation, terminology, and methodology
tended to be adopted, consciously or unconsciously, by most subsequent Ottoman
Sephardic folklore scholars, particularly those who were native speakers of Spanish.
In doing so these scholars rejected the communitys own folklore lexicon and
genre categorizations, often without even raising as a methodological problem the
discrepancy between the terminology they preferred and that used by the community
whose folklore they were studying.
Few scholars have departed from this strictly Hispanic-oriented ethnocentrism.
One was Baruch cUziel, who immigrated to Israel from Salonika and in 1927 began
to contribute pioneering articles on Judezmo folklore to the Hebrew-language Jewish
folklore journal Rumot, founded by H. N. Bialik, A. Druyanov, and H. Ravnitski,
and other periodicals.17 Preferring the native Judezmo terminology to that of the
Hispanists, cUziel employed konseas and maasiyod for various types of folktales
and rabbinical legends,18 eas de Djoh for the tales involving the folk hero Djoha,
romansas to denote the traditional ballads, komplas (de purim, del felek, etc.) to
designate the rhymed strophes on Jewish themes, kantigas (de novya, de parida, etc.)
for the lyric songs (sung to brides, new mothers, etc.), and ir kode and pizmonim
for various religious song genres.19
15 E.g., Alberto Hemsi, Coplas sefardes, Alexandria 1932.
16 E.g., Moshe Attias, Cancionero judeo-espaol, Jerusalem 1972.
17 cUziels collected works have been published as Min hafolklor el hasifrut bi-yhudit-sfaradit
(ladino), in Shmuel Refael (ed.), Hamaxon l-eqer Yahadut Saloniki, Tel Aviv 1988.
18 Baruch cUziel, Ha-folklor el ha-yhudim ha-sfaradim, Rumot 5 (1927), pp. 332,
334. Citations here transcribed in romanization from Hebrew-letter Judezmo sources are
presented in italics. The vocalization in the romanizations is based on the Judezmo dialects
of the major cities, such as Salonika, Istanbul and Izmir. Note the phonetic values of the
following special characters: ch = [], d = [d], d (denoting dalet unmarked by a diacritic or
syllable-final taw) = [] and (denoting dalet marked by a diacritic) = [] (in the dialects in
which this sound occurs, otherwise = [d]), dj = [], g = [g], g = [] (in dialects in which this
sound occurs, otherwise = [g]), h = [x], j = [], s = [s], sh = [], u = [u] or, when functioning
as a glide adjacent to a vowel, [w], v = [v], z = [z]. Stress is ordinarily penultimate in words
ending in a vowel or -n or -s, and ultimate in words ending in other consonants; irregular
stress is marked with an acute accent over the stressed syllable.
19 See cUziel, Ha-folklor el hayhudim hasfaradim (Note 18), pp. 359, 363 and 368,
375, 395.
16
David M. Bunis
Another such scholar is Tamar Alexander-Frizer. Whether documenting and

exploring the Judezmo folktale (Alexander-Frizer 1999, Alexander 2008a), the proverb
(Alexander 2004, Alexander-Frizer & Bentolila 2008b), healing incantations,20 or
other genres of Judezmo folk literature, Alexander-Frizer, and those younger scholars
whose work she has influenced, have always taken into consideration the myriad
sources of the Sephardic texts, and the culture bearers own perceptions of them.
2. Native qualifications of the Judezmo proverb and proverbial saying

One of the folklore genres highly appreciated by Judezmo speakers throughout the
ages, and one which still plays a prominent role in their everyday conversational as
well as written language, is that of the proverb and saying. By these terms I mean
short, pithy statements in widespread use among members of the culture, generally of
anonymous authorship. Stating a general truth or practical precept, or offering wise
advice, the succinctness of the proverb and saying makes them easy to remember, and
convenient to insert at opportune moments. Yehuda Hatsvi, a native of Salonika living
in Israel, offered the following remarks on the use of proverbs and sayings among
Judezmo speakers:
<... entre los sefaradim en todos los niveles de edukasion o intelijensia, uzar los
refranes era una parte integral de los moabetes i de las konversasiones, i en las
derashot en las kehilot ... Los refranes eran tan konosidos por el puevlo, ke ni se
nesesitava sitar el refran entero mientras avlando. Basta de pronunsiar una sola
parte del refran; porke todos konosian la segunda parte del refran... Dunke, el
refran era (i pekado ke ya no es mas) komo una palavra dizidera ke se kulaneava
en kada nada. En la kreensia del puevlo, refran mentirozo no ay, i el refran era
komo la esensia de una saviduria kolektiva.>.21
among the Sephardim of all levels of education and intelligence, using
proverbs was an integral part of chats and conversation, and sermons in the
20 E.g., Tamar Alexander and Eliezer Papo, On the Power of the Word: Healing Incantations
of Bosnian Sephardic Women, Menorah 2 (Belgrade 2011), pp. 57-117.
21 Personal communication from Yehuda Hatsvi dated 30 April 2012, for which warm thanks
are hereby expressed. Textual citations originally appearing in the Roman alphabet are
here enclosed within angular <> brackets.
17
synagogue. The proverbs were so well known by the people that it was not even
necessary to cite a proverb in its entirety while speaking. It was sufficient to say
just a part of it; because everyone knew the rest ... Thus the proverb was (but,
unfortunately, no longer is) like a wise word that was used at every opportunity.
The popular belief is that There is no false proverb, and the proverb captures
the essence of a collective wisdom.
Among Judezmo speakers, the Jewish or Sephardic quality of the proverbs and
sayings in common use by the speech group is sometimes alluded to by referring
to them as refranes djidys (Jewish proverbs)22 or <refrn sefarad> (Sephardic
proverb).23
Although in fact widely used by men, women, and children, the Judezmo speech
communityespecially its malestend to attribute the use of proverbs and sayings
to women in particular. In a fictional dialogue from turn of the twentieth-century
Izmir, for example, a Europeanized Sephardi is portrayed as congratulating a friend
on a forthcoming joyous event by means of a French expression probably learned in
school; but then smiling and changing his tone, he adds familiar sayings in Judezmo,
as the women say:
Rishar: Anfn, bonjur, e me felisitasyn os!24 [Trokando de tono i sonriendo] Para
munchos anyos, komo dizen las mujeres, ugurla i bereketla! Alberto: Mers.25
Richard: And so, good day, and my best wishes too! (Changing his tone and
smiling) For many years to come, as the women say, with luck and plenty!
Alberto: I thank you.
When the earliest substantial collection of proverbs began to appear in the Judezmo
press at the turn of the twentieth century, it was entitled Refranes de mujeres
(Womens Proverbs).26 Around the same time, in connection with their reactions to
El Rizn 12, no. 12 (Salonika 1937).
Yehuda Hatsvi, 5 February 2012, http://www.esefarad.com/?p=30707.
Fr. Enfin, bonjour, et mes flicitations aussi!
Alexander (=Gavriel) Benghiatt, El Trezoro de Yerushalyim, Jerusalem 1901, pp. 145152 (republished from the Izmir Judezmo periodical El Meseret).
26 El Trezoro de Yerushalyim 1, Jerusalem 1901, pp. 135-136, 143-144, 160, 176, 182-184,
192; the collection is reproduced in romanization in David M. Bunis, Una introduccin
a la lengua de los sefardes a travs de refranes en judezmo, in Neue Romania 12 =
Judenspanisch 1 (1992), ed. Winfried Busse, pp. 7-36.
22
23
24
25
18
David M. Bunis
a certain popular newspaper series, historian Abraham Galante made the following
comparison between Judezmo-speaking women of the older, culturally more traditional
and often illiterategeneration in the Ottoman regions, and their younger, more
westernized and highly literate counterparts:
En la mujer apartenyendo a la vyeja djenerasyn, ... eya komenta segn su
pensar, i segn saver lo ke eya sinty meldar, i adjunta en vezes algn refln o
alguna ekspresyn endjenyoza. En la lektrisa de la nueva djenerasyn, egziste el
plazer de meldar i remeldar ..., de komentar las ekspresyones djudas, sin abordar
akeyas turkas i gregas.27
In the woman belonging to the older generation, ... she comments according to
how she thinks, and based on her knowledge of what she has heard [someone
else] read to her, and sometimes she adds some proverb or ingenuous expression
[of her own]. In the woman reader of the newer generation, there is the pleasure
of reading and re-reading [the series installment herself], ... commenting on the
Jewish expressions, without touching on those of Turkish and Greek origin.
In the Judezmo press one notes numerous other instances in which the use of proverbs
and sayings is ascribed to (Jewish) women, for example:
Las mujeres djuias dizen ke Enverano es kolcha de prove The Jewish
women say that Summer is the blanket of the poor (El Djugetn 5, no. 16
[Istanbul 1913], p. 4).
Las mujeres dizen Enverano tyene ojos: no es komo envyerno, ke too est
tapao i naa no se ve The women say Summer has eyes: it is not like winter,
when everything is covered up [by clothing] and nothing is seen (El Djugetn 6,
no. 50 [1914], p. 5).
Las mujeres uzan a dezir un proverbyo: Loke se uza non se eskuza The
women are accustomed to saying a proverb: What is customary cannot be
abandoned (El Punchn 2, no. 74 [Salonika 1924], p. 3).
Esto es loke28 dizen las mujeres: Mazal de perro This is what the women
call A dogs luck (El Djugetn 21, no. 20 [1929], p. 5).
27 Abraham Galante, El Meseret 8, no. 20 (Izmir 1904), p. 4.

28 A middle dot () will be used to separate words which are written separately in modern
Judezmo but appear as a single word in the cited text.
19
In a satirical series published in Salonika between the world wars, a cantankerous old
husband accuses his wife of constantly peppering her conversation with proverbs; she
answers by arguing that there is no other way of making her meaning clear to him:
BOHOR: Ke vamos akomer oy?
DJAMILA: Loke trushites. Non saves lo ke dizen, Komed kon dos loke traysh
kon vos?
BOHOR: En kada palavra metes un refrn.
DJAMILA: Otra manera se puede dar a entender kon ti?29
BOHOR: What are we going to eat today?
DJAMILA: Whatever you brought. Dont you know what they say? Eat, you
two, what you bring with you!
BOHOR: You never say a sentence without adding a proverb.
DJAMILA: Is there any other way to make myself understood by you?
In a brief overview of the folklore genres cultivated by Judezmo speakers, Dora
Niyego offered the following comments on the proverb and saying, at the same time
citing some of the native terms used today to denote them:
<Los proverbos sepharadis ke pasaron de boka en boka son muy presiozos porke
kontienen muncho saverisyo en pokas palavras. Los sepharadis dizen refraniko
mintirozo no ay. Munchos de estos refranes son vinidos de la Espanya. Puedemos
sitar unos kuantos Ken mas tiene, mas kere, Mas vale un pasharo en la mano,
ke sien bolando, Ken bien te kere, te aze yorar.
Ay otros proverbos i dichas ke entraron al judeo-espanyol de los puevlos ke
tuvieron relasyones kon los Sepharadis. Por egzamplo, los Sepharadis de Romania
utilizan el proverbo Azete amigo kon el guerko, fin ke pasas el ponte. De las
dichas ebreas, la maksima rabinika ke es sitada en Pirke Avot Si no yo para mi,
ken para mi? es muy konosida. Ay refranes ke tienen komo sujetos los uzos i
kostumbres de los Sepharadis. Todos konosemos la dicha Duspues de Purim,
platikos.>30
The Sephardic proverbs which passed by word of mouth are very precious
because they contain much wisdom in a few words. The Sephardim say There is
29 Mesajero 5, no. 1557 (Salonika 1940).

30 alom gazetesi, 9 January 2008 (http:www.salom.com.tr/news/print/3447-La-kulturapopular-de-los-Sepharadis.aspx).
20
David M. Bunis
no false proverb. Many of these proverbs came from Spain. We can cite a few:
The more one has, the more one wants, A bird in hand is worth more than 100
in flight, One who loves you makes you cry.
There are other proverbs and sayings which entered Judeo-Spanish through the
peoples with whom the Sephardim interacted. For example, the Sephardim of
Romania use the proverb Make friends with the devil, until you cross the bridge.
Of the Hebrew sayings, the rabbinic maxim cited in Ethics of the Fathers, If I
am not for myself, who will be for me?, is very well known. There are proverbs
that have as their subjects Sephardic habits and customs. We all know the saying
After Purim, little plates [of food given as gifts are an anti-climax].
Matilda Koen-Sarano contributed the following remarks on the categorization of the
Judezmo proverb and saying:
<Munchos i mas grandes de mi en este kampo krearon kategorias, komo
Alkalay, Perahya, Kolonomos i Gaon. Otros los dieron en orden alfabetiko,
komo Saporta y Beja i Moscona. Ay ken dio solo reflanes, komo Gaon. Ay i ken
metio adientro dichas, komo Moscona. Ay ken metio adientro de todo, komo
Perahya. Mi tendensia es de divizarlos en kategorias: reflanes, dichas, bindisiones
i maldisiones, ekspresiones verbales i mas. Todos estos apartienen al mundo del
reflan, mizmo si no lo son>.31
Many [scholars], greater than me in this field, created [typological] categories,
such as [Arye] Alkalay, [Klara] Perahya, [amila] Kolonomos i [Moshe David]
Gaon. Others, such as [Enrique] Saporta y Beja and [Isaac] Moscona, gave
them in alphabetical order. Some, such as Perahya, put sayings of all kinds in
their collections. My tendency is to divide them into [the following] categories:
<reflanes> [proverbs], <dichas> [sayings], <bindisiones> [blessings] and
<maldisiones> [curses], verbal expressions and more. All of these belong to the
world of the proverb, even if they are not such.
As in the collection Erensya Sefaradi, collected and edited in Istanbul, 1994, by Klara
Perahya and other women,32 Niyego and Koen-Sarano distinguish primarily between
31 Matilda Koen-Sarano. El reflan djudeo-espanyol: Espejo de las komunitas sefaradis, Aki

Yerushalayim 75 (2004), http://www.aki- yerushalayim.co.il/ay/075/075_08_reflan.htm
32 Klara Perahya et al. (eds.), Erensya Sefaradi (Proverbos i Dias), Gzlem, Istanbul 1994.
21
two principal sub-genres, the proverbfor which they use the seemingly synonymous
terms proverbo, refrn/refln, and diminutive refraniko, and the sayingdenoted by
dicha and maksima. Koen-Sarano adds additional categories. In fact, the terms cited
by these authors are but a few of those which have been used by Judezmo speakers
and by the scholars who have attempted to analyze their folk culture. The following
paragraphs offer a critical look at the scholarly and popular terminology used to
denote the Judezmo proverb and saying.
3. External (scientific or scholarly) terminology

In his 1885 article cited above, Haim Bidjarano also included 155 Judezmo proverbs
and sayings;33 a much larger collection he had compiled still remains in manuscript.
Again conforming to the terminology accepted among Hispanists, Bidjarano referred
to his proverbs and sayings as proverbios, mximas, and refranes. The first scholar
to publish a major collection of Judezmo proverbs as collected from native speakers
was Rabbi Meyer Kayserling (1829-1905), who in Budapest, in 1889, published a
small volume entitled Refranes o proverbios espaoles. As its title demonstrates,
Kayserling, too, used the two terms most widely employed by Hispanists in denoting
examples of this genre: refrn and proverbio. His collection was soon followed by
that of the French Hispanist, Raymond Foulch-Delbosc (1864-1929), who employed
similar terminology in his article Proverbes judo-espagnols, published in 1895 in
the Revue Hispanique (vol. 2, pp. 312-352). So, too, did folklore collectors from the
Judezmo speech community itself, who adopted the Hispanists terminology, or their
equivalents in various European languages, in collections which, together, were to
establish a rich paremiological data base.34
33 Haim [Moshe] Bidjarano, Judos espaoles de Oriente, Boletn de la Institucin Libre de

Enseanza (1885), pp. 26-27.
34 The early proverb collections by Judezmo-speaking scholars included: A. Moscuna,
Spaniolische Sprichwrter (aus Tatar-Bazardzyk in Ost Rumelien), Der Urquell 1
(1897), pp. 84-86, 204-205; Joseph Passy, Spaniolische Sprichwrter aus Philippopel,
Der Urquell 1 (1897), pp. 205-206; Abraham Galante, Proverbes judo-espagnols,
Revue Hispanique 9 (1902), pp. 440-454; Abraham Danon, Proverbes judo-espagnoles
de Turquie, Zeitschrift fr romanische Philologie 27 (1903), pp. 72-96.
22
David M. Bunis
In one of the most recent works devoted to the subject,35 the Judezmo proverb
repertoire is referred to as refranero sefard, although in Judezmo refranero
traditionally denotes a frequent user of proverbs rather than a collection of proverbs,
as in Spanish.36 The works Spanish author characteristically refers to the proverb
traditions of Judezmo speakers as una pieza clave en la evolucin cultural espaola
(emphasis mine). The author concedes that nuevas voces [] fueron incorporndose
a este espaol singular debido a las influencias recibidas por las distintas comunidades
sefardes, although he felt no need to specify any of the sources of those influencias
recibidas; nor did he make any mention of the fact that numerous proverbs and
expressions were original creations arising within the speech group, and some others
were translations or adaptations of Hebrew and Aramaic antecedents.
In prefaces to their proverb collections and analysis, Tamar Alexander Frizer,37 and
her predecessor, Isaac Jack Lvy,38 devoted considerable attention to the terminology
used by scholars to distinguish between various types of proverbs and sayings. Lvy
in particular discussed the popular and scientific terms used by speakers of Castilian to
denote types of proverbs and sayings. But, perhaps because of their literary-folkloristic
rather than linguistic orientation, neither of them analyzed the internal proverb and
saying terminology used by Judezmo speakers themselves. As a complement to the
paremiological scholarship of Alexander Frizer and her colleagues, the remainder
of this article will be devoted to an examination of the Judezmo lexicon for the
proverb and saying, on its own terms and in comparison with the terminology used
by Hispanists, in order to focus attention on this tradition as viewed from within.39
35 Jess Cantera Ortiz de Urbina, Diccionario Akal del refranero sefard, Ediciones AKAL,
Madrid 2004.
36 See, for example, Nehama, Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol (Note 9), p. 469.
37 Tamar Alexander, Words Are Better Than Bread, Ben-Gurion University Press and BenZvi Institute, Beer Sheva and Jerusalem 2004, esp. pp. 17-19, 20-22, 25.
38 Isaac Jack Lvy, Prolegomena to the Study of the Refranero Sefard, Las Americas, New
York 1969.
39 A few basic works on the proverb genre include: Archer Taylor, The Proverb, Peter
Lang, Bern 1985; Wolfgang Mieder and Alan Dundes, The Wisdom of Many: Essays on
the Proverb, University of Wisconsin Press, Garland, Madison 1994; Wolfgang Mieder,
International Proverb Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography, Garland, New York 19822001; Wolfgang Mieder, Proverbs: A Handbook, Greenwood Press, Santa Barbara, CA.
2004.
23
4. Internal (native, folk, or popular) terminology

In accordance with the distinction made by Perahya et al., Koen-Sarano, Dora Niyego,
and other researchers belonging to the contemporary Judezmo speech community, the
following discussion will be subdivided into sections dealing with the proverb, and
the saying.
4.1 PROVERB
4.1.1 Proverbyo, proverb
In the sixteenth century, the term proverbyo (or proberbyo, , cf. Sp. proverbio
<Lat. proverbum) appears in Moshe Almosninos philosophical treatise, Hanhagat
ha-ayyim ... Rejimyento dela vida (Salonika 1564). Almosnino used the term
and only this termto designate both well-established popular sayings, and popular
sayings supposedly derived from legal sources or Talmudic dicta, which served in his
community as pithy maxims, usually of a metaphorical nature:
... el proverbyo antigo ... dize Kyen es tu enemigo, el ke es de tu ofsio the
old proverb says Who is your enemy? He who is of your same profession
(Almosnino 1564, 111a).40
traen un proverbyo antigo en nuestro talmud ke dize ke esto es loke los ombres
komn mente dizen ke Asegn es el game(l)yo, ans es la karga41 they bring
an old proverb in our Talmud which is like that which people commonly say,
that According to the [capability] of the camel, such is the weight [he is able to
carry] (Almosnino 1564, 72b).
It must be noted, however, that Moshe Almosnino was a member of a small elitist
group of intellectuals in Salonika, some of whom were linguistically de-judaized
conversos who had returned to Judaism there. His work was written in a variety
of language which evidently exemplified the style used by this elite group, which,
40 For lack of space I am forced to do what would be unthinkable in serious folkloristic
research: I list proverbs without offering any context. I hope to rectify this error in an
expanded version of the present article.
41 In the margin of Almosninos text he offers the Hebrew equivalent of the proverb,
, which is attributed to Rabbi Yishmacel (Talmud Bavli, Massekhet Soa,
Pereq 1, f. 13b).
24
David M. Bunis
unlike the everyday Judezmo speakers of more humble origins in contemporaneous

Salonika, tended to look toward contemporaneous literary Spanish as its linguistic
model. Members of this elitist group tended to refer to their language as romane
(), whereas the name appearing in sixteenth-century works more closely
resembling the variety of language used by the popular sector of Ottoman Sephardim
was ladino ().42
A parallel to this terminological divergence is to be seen in the traditional Jewish
calque Ladino versus former converso Spanish translations of the Hebrew word
( mile, the construct plural of [ maal] exemplum, parable, proverb),43 in
the opening sentence of the Book of Proverbs. From the sixteenth century into the
modern era, the traditional Ladino calque translations published by the Jews of the
Ottoman Empire translate mile as enshen-/enshemplos.44 This is similar to the form
<ensienplos> appearing in the fifteenth-century Bible translation, often known as the
Biblia de la Casa de Alba, directed by Rabbi Moshe Arragel of Maqueda, and to the
form <enxenplos> offered in the fifteenth-century Hispanic translation known as the
Biblia Escorial or E3, which follows the Hebrew canon.45 The Judezmo term may be
42 E.g., Livro (l)yamado en lashn hakdesh shulhn (h)apanim i en ladino meza de el alma
Book Called in the Language of Holiness [=Hebrew] Table of Showbread and in Ladino
Table of the Soul, Salonika 1568, title page.
43 Mile is the first word of the phrase ( Mile lomo ben Dawid
melex Yisrael) The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel, with which
Proverbs begins.
44 E.g., the translation published in Salonika 1572 (the text is reproduced, without vocalization,
in Moshe Lazar (ed.), The Ladino Scriptures: Constantinople Salonica [1540-1572],
Labyrinthos, Lancaster, CA 2000, vol. 2) and in that in Yisrael Bxar ayyim (ed.), Sefer
arbaca w-esrim ... eleq rvici ... ktuvim cim ... targum ladino, Vienna 1816.
45 The Latin Vulgate instead offers parabolae. It should be noted that, from the sixteenth
century on, Judezmo enshemplo was used primarily in the sense of example, parable,
exemplum, e.g., Deprende aleer turkesko i fars i a (h)azer koplas ametro i trovas
i kantos i adevinasyones agudas i enshenplos maravi(l)yozos Learn to read Turkish
and Persian and to compose couplets in meter and verses and songs and sharp riddles
and marvelous proverbs (Baye ben Yosef ibn Paquda, ovat halvavot ... en ladino,
Yosef Formn (trans.), Salonika c1568, 2:67a). See also Nehama, Dictionnaire du judoespagnol (Note 9), p. 177; and the analysis of the use of enshemplo in Almuth Mnch,
lomo ben Yacaqov Hakohen: eeq lomo (Mecam locez, Qohelet), Yerualayim 1893:
Aspectos retrico-poetolgicos de la obra, in David M. Bunis, Languages and Literatures
of Sephardic and Oriental Jews, Misgav Yerushalayim & Mossad Bialik, Jerusalem 2009,
pp. *319-340.
25
compared with Old Spanish enxemplo, from Latin exmplum, which was one of the
terms for proverb or saying used before the word proverbio became popular.46
However, similar to Almosninos terminology for the proverb, the 1553 Ferrara
Bible, published by former conversos in a variety of language differing in important
respects from the traditional Jewish Ladino calque translation language, instead uses
<parabolas o prouerbios> in the title, and <prouerbios> in the text itself.47 The latter
word is also used in most of the pre-Expulsion non-Jewish Hispanic translations: E8/
E6 (13th c.), GE (13th c.), E5/E7 (copied fifteenth c.), EV (copied fifteenth c.), E4
(copied fifteenth c.),48 as in the Christian Spanish Bible translations published from
the sixteenth century on.49 In Almosninos Hanhagat ha-ayyim, the Book of Proverbs
is itself called Proverbyos (1564, 123b), while in Judezmo works in more traditional
language from that and later periods, Hebrew-origin Mishl is used instead;50 for
example:
...el rey delos savyos disho en Mishl ke La mujer savia fragua su kaza, i ke
la loka kon su mano la deroka the king of the wise men said in Proverbs
that The wise woman builds her house, and the insane one with her own hand
destroys it (cAtias, La guerta de oro, 1778, p. 54b).51
Following the sixteenth century, proverbyo does not seem to appear in Judezmo
texts until the late eighteenth century, offering support for my hypothesis that it did
46 Joan Corominas and Jos A. Pascual, Diccionario crtico etimolgico castellano e hispnico,
Gredos, Madrid, vol. 2 (1984), p. 548, s. ejemplo, and p. 939, s. fraccin (refrn).
47 Biblia en lengua espaola, Ferrara 1553, p. 31.
48 In BNM, <prouerbios> is used in the title, and <[e]xemplos> in the translation of mile
in Proverbs 1:1 itself. For the exact forms in the pre-Expulsion texts, see http://corpus.
bibliamedieval.es/.
49 E.g., the Casiodoro de Reina edition published in Basel, 1569 (<prouerbios>), and the
Reina-Valera 1995 edition (Santa Biblia: Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento, Sociedades
Bblicas Unidas, n.p.: 1995) (<proverbios>).
50 For examples of the use of Hebrew-origin Mishl in Modern Judezmo see David M. Bunis,
A Lexicon of the Hebrew and Aramaic Elements in Modern Judezmo, Magnes Press,
Jerusalem 1993, no. 2727.
51 On this proverb see Tamar Alexander Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters: Between
Sephardic Proverbs and the Hebrew Canonic Source, in David M. Bunis (ed.), Languages
and Literatures of Sephardic and Oriental Jews, Misgav Yerushalayim & Mossad Bialik,
Jerusalem 2009, *284-285.
26
David M. Bunis
not originally constitute a part of everyday popular Ottoman Judezmo. At the end
of the eighteenth century we suddenly find the word in La guerta de oro (Livorno
1788), by David Bxar Moshe cAtias, where it appears in the phrase Proverbyos o
sean refrann, serving as the title placed over a column of Judezmo translations of
Italian proverbs, themselves headed Proverbi (f. [ii]a). cAtiaswho was born in
Sarajevo but had established himself in Livornoknew Italian and was familiar with
and influenced by Western European literary terms and concepts, presumably used
proverbyos under Italian influence (cf. It. proverbio), but felt the need to explain its
meaning for the everyday, unwesternized Judezmo reader, unacquainted with Italian,
by means of another, apparently more familiar term for proverb used in popular
Judezmo, refrn. Over a century later, Daniel Balans of Izmir, who translated the
Thousand and One Nights into Judezmo, used a variant of the same word to explain
proverbyo, suggesting that the word had still not become an integral part of Judezmo:
El fue enganyado i el se repenta agora de averse kredo tan presto a las palavras
de este indyano. Ma, era tadre! Komo dizen un proverbyo (refln) en turko, Son
pishmn, fayd etmz, Despus ke akontese una dezgrasya, repentirse no aze
ningn provecho He had been deceived and now he regretted having believed
so quickly the words of this Indian. But it was too late! As they say in a Turkish
exemplum (proverb), After a mishap occurs, regretting what might have been
does no good (Daniel Balans [trans.], Los mas enteresantes kuentos dela
ermoza estorya de mil i una noche, Izmir 1913, p. 31).52
We will return to the term refrn/refln in section 4.1.2.1 below. Of cAtias translations
or adaptations of the Italian proverbs into Judezmo as we [speak it] (or in the words
of cAtias, syertos lakirds i refrann deklarados palavra por palavra komo nos otros
certain conversations and proverbs explained word for word as we [speak them], f. 11a),
one of them actually seems to be a Judezmo proverb preceded by an Italian translation:
[Italian:] <Avanti che tammogli, guarda quel che fai> [= Judezmo:] Antes
ke te kazes, mira lo ke azes Before you marry, watch what youre doing
(cAtias, La guerta de oro, p. 13a).
The appearance of proverbyo became more frequent in Judezmo publications in the
second half of the nineteenth century when, with the beginnings of the Europeanization
52 Cf. Tk. Son pimanlk fayda etmez. It is too late for repentance.
27
of the ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empireincluding its Jewsthe folklore

terminology used in the modern languages of Europe, especially in Italian (proverbio)
and French (proverbe), were adopted in more popular Judezmo throughout the
Ottoman regions and beyond. Primarily after the publication in European academic
journals of Judezmo proverb collections, with which the Judezmo authors might
have been familiar, the form proverbyo, reflecting Italian or Spanish, began to enjoy
popularity in the European-influenced Judezmo press and popular literature with
reference to proverbial sayings in Judezmo, Hebrew, Turkish, and other language.53
Examples of its use include:
... asign el proverbyo En midrsh bel hidush,54 ans no ay estanpar koza sin
renovar ... just as the proverb says There is no treating of a subject without
disclosing something new, so there is no publishing of a book without some
innovation (Moshe David Alkalay, innux lon civri, Belgrade 1871, [iv]a).
La mujer en el proverbyo, i el livro para reir Women in the proverb, and the
book for laughing (=title of an anonymous anthology of proverbs, jokes and
humorous stories published in Ruse in 1893). Proverbyos en versos ebrikos
(Proverbs in rhymed Hebrew) (El Trezoro de Yerushalyim 1 [Jerusalem 1901],
p. 64).55
La okazyn aze al ombre ladrn, dize un proverbyo Opportunity makes a
man a thief, says a proverb (El Meseret 8, no. 24 [Izmir 1904], p. 5).
Proverbyos espanyoles; Proverbyos turkos (Yacaqov Avraham Yona, Romansos,
Salonika, before 1909, pp. 7-11 [104 proverbs]; pp. 11-13 [46 proverbs]).56
Yo no entend byen este proverbyo ke disho mi pap i le rog de esplikarme
I hardly understood this proverb which my grandfather used, and I asked him
53 See also the entries in Nehama, Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol (Note 9), p. 454; Klara
Perahya et al., Diksyonaryo Judeo Espanyol, Gzlem, Istanbul 1997, p. 184.
54 Heb. .
55 This collection, with linguistic comments, is reproduced in Bunis, Una introducin a la
lengua (Note 26).
56 The text is reproduced in Armistead and Silverman, Judeo-Spanish Ballad Chapbooks
(Note 14), pp. 462-468. It should be noted that, on the title page, the same proverbs are
depicted as refranes ... en espanyol i en turko. For a study of the proverbs published
by Yona, see Leonor Carracedo and Elena Romero, Refranes publicados por Yacacob
A. Yon (edicin concordada) y bibliografa del refranero sefard, Sefarad 41 (1981),
pp. 389-560.
28
David M. Bunis
to explain it (El Djugetn 1 [Istanbul 1909], p. 313). Eyos se ulvidan del

proverbyo ke dize: O kadar par, o kadar boy (Este karar de pars por este
karar de boy) They forget the proverb that says: That amount of money [buys]
that amount of paint (El Marto 1, no. 3 [Salonika 1914], p. 2).
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Judezmo variant proverbo became popular as
well, especially among westernized speakers. This form derives from French proverbe,
with final -e in masculine nouns replaced by -o, as is the rule in the incorporation of
Gallicisms into Judezmo (e.g., Fr. lve > Jud. elevo pupil [esp. in a secular-oriented
school]); for example:
No se ava araygado byen este proverbo bef aberiyod This proverb had not
become deeply rooted in popular speech (Y. Y. D. Abba, Sefer leem Yuda,
Izmir 1891, p. 95a).
Tu entenders en las profetas lo ke es dicho kon alegoria (remez), lo ke es en
figurado (medjz) i en proverbos You will understand in the Prophets what is said
allegorically, what is figurative (metaphoric) and what in the form of proverbs
(H. B. Arye, Kestyn djuda: Estudyos, vol. 1, Sofia 1900, p. 10).
El proverbo dize, Un loko kita syento, un rash, un masid umadah kita mil
The proverb says, One crazy person is enough to make a hundred others crazy,
and one villainone instigator and seduceris enough to incite a thousand to evil
(El Djugetn 1 [1909], p. 2).
Esta semana tyene ke venir el haham nuevamente engajao por la komunia
de Kirklisya Aran muy bueno akeos ke no partisipavan alas orasyones
mesmo en shabad i profitar dela okazyn delas fyestas, komo dize el proverbo,
Sheytann ayag kirmak i azersen djuys fin alkavo This week the rabbi ...
just hired by the community of Krkkilise is scheduled to arrive ... Those people
who have not participated in the prayer services even on the Sabbath would do
well to take advantage of the opportunity of the holidays and, as the saying goes,
to finally decide to do something after a long interval and become Jews in the
end (El Djugetn 5, no. 28 [1913], p. 4).57
Le azamos konoser el proverbo del poeta Shelom, Al tomar lereah leh vashuv
umahar etn We acquainted him with the proverb of the poet, King Solomon:
57 Cf. Tk. eytann ayan krmak (literally, to break Satans foot).
29
Say not to thy neighbor, Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give (El
Djugetn 5, no. 45 [1914], p. 1).58
Proverbos turkos al sder lef bed Turkish proverbs in alphabetical order (El
Djugetn 21, no. 18 [1929], p. 5).
Ay un proverbyo popular ke dize: Te kyeres vengar? La ora de la shak
Theres a popular proverb that says: You want to take revenge? Do it when
people are telling jokes (Aksyn 10, no. 2719 [Salonika 1938]).
A frequent user of proverbs is described in a text by a westernized writer as an ombre
a proverbyos.59
As illustrated above in Niyegos observations, proverbo is still used in contemporary
Judezmo. In 2008 eli Gaon wrote in the Istanbul Judezmo periodical alom about:
<... los proverbos, dichas i refranes i los desenes (izim)>.60 And yet, unlike most of
the other Judezmo words used to denote proverbs, no diminutive form of proverb(y)o
seems to be documented, suggesting that this term remained somewhat literary in
register, never being fully absorbed into the informal, popular spoken register.
Although most of the proverbs documented in the collections appearing in the
Judezmo press and popular literature beginning in the late nineteenth century were
in Judezmo (or espanyol), it should be noted that the number of Turkish proverbs
which evidently formed part of the Ottoman Judezmo speakers proverb repertoire, and
which also received some documentation in the Judezmo press, was not insignificant.
Nor were the proverbs in the collections necessarily segregated by language: for
example, in the collection entitled Proverbyos o dichas appearing in the literary
58 Cf. Proverbs 3:28.

59 La Gata (series 2) 8, no. 44 (Salonika 1931), 2, reproduced in David. M. Bunis, Judezmo:
An Introduction to the Language of the Ottoman Sephardim [in Hebrew], Magnes,
Jerusalem 1999, p. 220. Nehama (Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol [Note 9], p. 469) offers
refranro and refransta in that sense; but the latter, like his entry refranro in the sense
of proverb collection, would seem to be an ad hoc incorporation from Castilian based
on the terminology used by Hispanists. In this connection Yehuda Hatsvi kindly sent me
the following remark: <En mi umilde opinion, refranista es una palavra inventada en
vano, i no djugava ningun rolo entre los djidyos sefaradim (al menos los ke biviyan aki en
Erets Yisrael en los anyos 30 i 40> (e-mail dated 30 April 2012).
60 La ventana de vuestra ermana / Limmud (http://salom.com.tr/news/print/10220-Laventana-vuestra-ermana--Limmud.aspx).
30
David M. Bunis
periodical El Kismet Poeta (1, no. 9 [Izmir 1909], pp. 3-4), edited by Alexander
Benghiatt (c1863-1924), the 21 Judezmo and 7 Turkish proverbs are intermingled.
4.1.2 Refrn/Refln and variants
In the first half of his dissertation on the Judezmo proverb, Isaac Jack Lvy (1969)
noted the distinction sometimes made in Spanish between proverbio, used in certain
contexts to denote a learned dictum, and refrn, denoting a more popular saying.61
The learned, literary, and somewhat foreign nature of proverb(y)o in Judezmo was
already alluded to in the preceding section of this article. Of the Judezmo reflexes
of Romance proverbio/proverbe and refrn (cf. Sp. refrn < Occitan refranh, Fr.
refrain),62 refrnand its variants, re-/rifln and le-/lifrnare the more popular,
spoken and widespread.63
As noted above, paralleling one of the uses of refrn in the eighteenth-century
La guerta de oro of cAtias, the variant form refln was used parenthetically by a
nineteenth-century author to explain the meaning of proverbyo, with which he
evidently suspected some readers would be unfamiliar:
Era tadre! Komo dizen un proverbyo (refln) en turko, Son pishmn, fayd
etmz, Despus ke akontese una dezgrasya, repentirse no aze ningn provecho
It was too late! As they say in a Turkish proverb, After a mishap occurs,
regrets over what might have been do no good (Balans, Los mas enteresantes
kuentos..., p. 31).64
One of the earliest occurrences of refrn in a Judezmo text is in the anti-Christian
polemical work Fuente klara (Salonika 1595), in which we find:
... dize el refrn ke Muchas vezes el ortelano avla buenas sentensias ... the
proverb says that Many times the gardener speaks wise words (6a).65
61 Cf. also proverbio sentencia, adagio o refrn vs. refrn dicho agudo y sentencioso de uso
comn [my emphasis] (Diccionario de la lengua espaola, 22d. ed. [http://buscon.rae.es/]).
62 Cf. Corominas and Pascual, Diccionario crtico etimolgico (Note 46), vol. 2, 1984, p.
939, s. fraccin (refrn).
63 E.g., Nehama, Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol (Note 9), p. 469; Perahya, Diksyonaryo
Judeo Espanyol (Note 53), p. 187.
64 Izmir 1913.
65 For a romanized edition, see Pilar Romeu Ferr (ed.), Fuente clara (Salnica 1595),
Tirocinio, Barcelona 2007.
31
In the eighteenth century the term occurs several times in David Atias La guerta de
oro (1788) to denote popular sayings; for example:
... el refrn dize ke Kyen avla la verdad perde la amistad ... the proverb says
that One who speaks the truth loses friendship (5b).
... el refrn dize De la manyana se ve el buen da ... the proverb says One
sees a good day from the morning (38a).
... el refrn ... dize Vende i arepyntete ... the proverb ... says Sell and
regret (42b).
In his manual Atias also illustrates the use of the plural of refrn formed with the
Hebrew morpheme - (-im > -n): refrann (Atias, La guerta de oro, f. iia refrann
savyozos, also f. 13a). Perhaps this plural marker was attracted to the word because of
its formal resemblance to words of Hebrew origin with -n in the singular, -anim in the
plural (e.g., lamdn learned man, pl. lamdanim; zemn time, pl.
zemanim). Refrn with pluralizing im continued to be used into the twentieth
century, both in the Eastern and Western dialect regions of Ottoman Judezmo; for
example:
... en refranim o meshalim in proverbs or wise sayings (Bxar ayyim, Sefer
arbaa w-esrim ... eleq lii ... nviim, f. 2b).
<No avia ovra ke el venerable def[o]nto [Abraham Cappon] no eksponia a mi
modesto gjuzgamiento literario. El Angustiador, los proverbios versifikados,
sus refranim arabos trasladadosjo tuve la dia de los konoser antes de muos>
There was not a work which the venerable deceased [Abraham Cappon] did not
expose to my modest literary evaluation. El Angustiador, the rhymed verses, his
Arabic proverbs in translationI had the fortune to become familiar with them
before many others did (Jevrejski glas 6, no. 43 [Sarajevo 1932], p. 6).
Although seemingly less popular among the rabbinical writers of the eighteenth
century than mashal, refrn was prominent in the nineteenth-century rabbinical
Judezmo of Yehuda Papo; for example:
... komo dizen en el refrn El ke no se konsyente no vyene de djente, i lo kita
a unto de enoshiyut ... as they say in the proverb, One who does not voice
his opinion obviously comes from a common family, and he is not considered a
person (Yhuda ben Elicezer Papo (trans.), Elicezer ben Yiaq Papo, Pele yoce
... trezladado en ladino, [vol. 1.], Vienna 1870, p. 108).
32
David M. Bunis
Lo toman por mash el refrn ke dize La linpyeza es medya rikeza They

make full use of the proverb that says Cleanliness is half of wealth (ibid., p.
203).
Dize el refrn Konushea kon los buenos i sers tu uno de eyos The proverb
says Speak with good people and you will be one of them (ibid., p. 272).
Al ken le dyo el She[m] yid[barah] el byen, ... si eskarsea de dar en todas las
kozas ke est enkomendado de los syelos de dar, es komo el refrn ke dize Los
amos lo dan, los esklavos lo yoran, Sayb verir, telal verms, El patrn ya se
kontenta darlo, el telal no lo da. I dize otro refrn Ata el azno onde te dize el
patrn He to whom the Name Blessed Be He has given wealth, ... if he refrains
from giving generously to all things which he is commanded by heaven to give,
it is like the proverb that says, The owners give it, the slaves cry about it; The
owner is willing to give it up, but the auctioneer wont. And another proverb says
Tie the donkey where the owner tells you (ibid., p. 220).
In the twentieth century refrn was widely used in the titles of modest collections of
popular proverbs, and in citations of proverbial sayings, Jewish and otherwise; for
example:
Refranes akojidos por Shelom Yisrael Sherezl Proverbs collected by Salomon
Israel Cherezli (Jerusalem 1903).
Refranes ... en turko muy djaveres Very precious proverbs in Turkish (Yona
[before 1909], p. 1).
Ya savsh muncho byen el refrn de vyejo: Setam tinyozo es venturozo You
are very familiar with the old saying, Someone who is just mangy is lucky (El
Djugetn 1 [1909], p. 70).
El refrn dize Ninguno kyere sentir la eshkav del padre, ma el hazn se la
echa The proverb says No one wants to hear the funeral oration for his father,
but the cantor recites it over him (El kirbach 2, no. 19 [Salonika 1911], p. 2).
Un refrn franko dize: Tu pas, tu kas, tu las,66 ke kyere dezir, de djidy a
djidy: Todo pasa en este mundo A French proverb says Everything passes,
everything breaks, everything wears out, which means, speaking from one Jew
to another [in plain Judezmo]: Everything passes in this world (El Kulevro 5,
no. 48 [Salonika 1923], p. 3).
66 Cf. Fr. Tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse.
33
<Ves, yo yevi muo en mi vida, i nunka no avli, komo tu konoses tu akel refran:
Por esto akea viea no se kio murir> You see, Ive borne a lot in my life, and
I never complained, as [expressed in] that proverb you know For that reason the
old woman didnt want to die (Jevrejski glas 2:34 [Sarajevo 1929], 9-10).
... bueno dize el refrn ke Kyen aspera, se dezespera ... the proverb puts it
well that One who is forced to wait becomes desperate (Aksyn 10, no. 2570
[Salonika 1938], p. 2).
<... segun dize el refran: Todo lo ke azes kon plazer es kolay> ... as the proverb
says: Whatever you do with pleasure is easy (Benni Aguado, Ladinokomunita,
6 April 2012).
4.1.2.1 Refln (pl. reflanim)
In Spanish historical texts, the variant refln is extremely rare, as it is in modern
Spanish.67 In Judezmo, however, the occurrence of this form, and of its plural with
Hebrew-origin -im/-n, became increasingly documented from the early twentieth
century; for example, in the popular writings of journalist Alexander Benghiatt:
Bizim yib adamlar kreemos en reflanes, komo kreer en aperkantar i otros
bedugilikes ansina People like us believe in proverbs, like believing in magic
spells and other such imprecations (El Meseret 8, no. 9 [Izmir 1903], p. 5).
Es komo el refln ke dizen, Enriva pendones i debasho ad, bendn yelmesn
[i.e., razgones/remendones] Its like the proverb they say, On the outside,
penants; on the inside well, let it not come from me! [i.e., rags] (El Meseret
8, no. l9 [1904], p. 4).68
Ay de estos reflanim ke, por mil ke pase tyempos i anyos, kon todo esto eyos
estn en sus lugar... Nunka no me vo burlar de los reflanim There are some of
these proverbs thatthough times may change and years may passcontinue
67 Spanish refln occurs in the anonymous Cancionero de Pero Guilln (written not later
than 1492), Brian Dutton (ed.), Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca 1990, f. 195r. (also
plural reflanes, ibid., f. 534v); and in Cantalicio Quirs y Miterio Castro, written in a style
representing local rural speech, written in 1883 by the Uruguayan Antonio Lussich (Jorge
Luis Borges & Adolfo Bioy Casares (eds.), Fondo de Cultura Econmica, Mexico 1955, p.
556) (REAL ACADEMIA ESPAOLA: Banco de datos (CORDE). Corpus diacrnico del
espaol. <http://www.rae.es> [2.5.2012]; no examples are provided in CREA).
68 Cf. Tk. ad benden gelmezsin.
34
David M. Bunis
nevertheless to be appropriate... Ill never make fun of the proverbs (El Meseret
9, no. 19 [1904], p. 5).
The form refln is the only one cited by Jos Benoliel for Moroccan aketa,69 and the
form re-/rifln is still current among Judezmo speakers, as demonstrated by citations
such as <36 pajinas de reflanes djudeo-espanyoles kon la traduksyon en lashon>
(36 pages of Judeo-Spanish proverbs with a translation into Hebrew) and the variant
proverb <Reflan mintirozo no ay>, which appeared on the internet site esefarad.
com in November 2011.70 The expression <riflan dulse> (sweet proverb) appeared
in the 20 October 2006 issue of the Istanbul Judezmo periodical <El amaneser>.71
Matilda Koen-Sarano offered the following comment with regard to Judezmo refln:
<El reflan djudeo-espanyol es una fraza lapidaria, de forma fiksa, munchas vezes
en rima, ke puede deskrivir una situasion o traer una similitud, enunsiar una idea
o niegarla, kritikandola i burlandose de eya, para trokarla. El reflan puede ayudar,
puede konsolar, puede amonestar, puede meter en guardia i puede azer riyir>
The Judeo-Spanish proverb is a lapidary phrase, of fixed form, often in rhyme,
that can describe a situation or make a comparison, express an idea or negate it,
while criticizing and poking fun at it, in order to change it. The proverb can help,
console, annoy, put one on guard, and make one laugh.72
A further evolved variant, le-/lifrn, is documented from 1914:
Sivda sin estorya es venturoza, dize el lefrn A city without a [sordid]
history is fortunate, says the proverb (El Djugetn 5, no. 43 [Istanbul 1914], p. 3).
4.1.2.2 Diminutive Refraniko
One of the markers of the popular nature of the term refrn/refln in Judezmo is the
existence of the diminutive form refraniko.73 A fictional character with a propensity
for the use of proverbs, who was regularly featured in a Judezmo satirical series
appearing between the world wars in several Salonika Judezmo periodicals, prefaced
69
70
71
72
73
Jos Benoliel, Dialecto judeo-hispano-marroqu o hakita, 2d ed., Madrid, p. 243.

Edmond Cohen, Reflanes de Matilda (http://www.esefarad.com/?p=27812).
www.scribd.com/doc/50018833/Nnumero-20-Oktubre-2006.
Koen-Sarrano, Reflan djudeo-espanyol (Note 31).
E.g., <refraniko> appears in the subject of a message uploaded to Ladinokomunita by Erik
Calderon on 23 October 2009.
35
critical remarks about a westernized character in the series with the statement: Tyene
razn ... un refraniko ke dize, Delos mios no kyero dezir, ma no kyero ni sentir
Very true ... is the little proverb that says, I want neither to talk about those close
to me, nor to hear them spoken about (Aksyn 10, no. 2582 [Salonika 1938], p. 8).
The well-integratedness of refln/refrn and diminutive refraniko in popular
Judezmo is also illustrated by the use of the word in several variants of a proverb
already noted above, which attributes supreme veracity to the proverb genre in
general, and to a specific proverb of Turkish origin in particular:
este bayle es ala franka Si lo bushkvamos de antes, no topvamos este
bayle, i sin bushkar lo topimos. Es por esto ke Refln falso no ayAramakln
bulunms, inl rastyelir ... this dance is in the European style... If we had
looked for such a dance from the start wed never have come up with it; and
without looking for it we found it. Its for that reason that There is no untrue
proverbIf you were to look for such a thing you wouldnt find it; it only
happens by chance (El Meseret 8, no. 9 [1903], p. 5).74
Another variant of the first proverb, with the diminutive form, appears in a recent
issue of the Jerusalem Judezmo periodical Aki Yerushalayim: <Refraniko mentirozo
no ay.>75
Refrn is also used in the saying:
En tus apuros i afanes, toma konsejo de los refranes In your worries and
cares, seek advice from the proverbs.76
4.1.3 Mashal/Masal
Although in Hebrew ( maal) is often used in the sense of a parable, exemplum,
or brief story used to make a point in an argument or to illustrate a moral truth, in the
biblical Book of Proverbscalled in Hebrew ( Mile), which is the construct
plural of maalit denotes a proverb, or short, pithy saying expressing a basic truth
or practical, general precept. In the same way, in popular Judezmo rabbinical works
74 Cf. Tk. Aramakla(n) bulunmaz, ill rastgelir.

75 www.aki-yerushalayim.co.il/.../004-elrefran.htm
76 See discussion in Marc Shanker, Traces of Sepharad, in Marc Shanker, Antonio Muoz
Molina, and Theodore Anthony Perry, Traces of Sepharad (Huellas de Sefarad Etchings of
Judeo-Spanish Proverbs), Gravity Free Press, New York 2008, pp. 33-39
36
David M. Bunis
from the eighteenth century on, as well as in some journalistic and other essentially
secular writing, mashalor, as the word is often pronounced popularly, masalis the
term often used for a proverb or proverbial saying.77 There may be influence here from
cognate Arabic-origin Turkish mesel (or darbmesel) proverb. Although Judezmo
writings of various types offer numerous illustrations of the use of mashal/masal
in the sense of proverb, the term is not discussed in the research literature on the
Judezmo proverb by scholars from outside the community.78 Of those emerging from
within the community itself, only Baruch cUziel noted the use of this term. In fact,
c
Uziel stated: It is worth noting that, for the concept proverb, the Sephardic Jews
use the Hebrew word mashalin the plural meshalim or mishlays (with a Spanish
suffix)and only rarely, the Spanish word refrn (cUziel 1927: 325). But fifty years
later, cUziels fellow Salonikan, Joseph Nehama (Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol,
p. 349, s. masl) cited only the other, more widespread sense in which the word is
used in Hebrew and Judezmo, conte, allgorie The absence of the other meaning
in Nehamas dictionary was noted, with no little chagrin, by Yehuda Hatsvi, an active
77 See also discussion of Judezmo mashal in cUziel, Ha-folklor el hayhudim ha-sfaradim

(Note 18), p. 325, and mashal and enshemplo in Mnch, lomo ben Yaaqov Hakohen
(Note 45). Singular <masal> is documented by Nehama (Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol
(Note 9), p. 349), and <mashal> by Isaac Moskona (About One of the Components of the
Language Djudezmo, Annual [of the Social, Cultural, and Educational Association of
the Jews in the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria] 6 (1971), p. 203); the documented plural
forms are mashalim (Yaaqov Altara, Trezoro di Yisrael, vol. 4, Belgrade 1894, p. 263),
meshalim (cUziel, Hafolkor el hayhudim hasfaradim, p. 325), masaln (Aksyn 4:922
[Salonika 1932], p. 3), <mashales> (with Hispanic-origin -es) (Isaac Moskona, Pnine
Sfarad, Macariv, Tel Aviv 1981, p. 46); diminutive masaliko was recorded by Michael
Molcho (Millim civriyyot ba- safa ha-sfaradit-yhudit, cEdot 3 (1948), p. 85).
78 In 1927 Yiaq Yezqel Yhuda published a collection of 139 Judezmo proverbs under
the title ( Mile espanyolit-yhudit) in the Hebrew journal iyyon
2, pp. 80-96. Max Grunwald used the term ( mile-am) folk proverbs in a brief
collection of Judezmo proverbs from Sarajevo which he published in Rumot (new series)
2 (1946), 191-195; but when Grunwalds article was republished in his posthumouslyissued collected works (Grunwald, Tales, Songs & Folkways of Sepharadic Jews [Note 3],
pp. 209-213), the editor changed the term to ( pitgme-am), which was more in
keeping with the Israeli Hebrew folklore terminology current at the time. In any case, both
Yhuda and Grunwald used malim to denote proverbs in their own Hebrew discussion
of the Judezmo proverbs, but they did not raise the issue of how the Judezmo speakers
themselves referred to those proverbs.
37
contributor to the contemporary Judezmo press and internet sites. In a message to

Ladinokomunita dated 24 August 2011 Hatsvi wrote:
<El biervo ebreo mashal no es solamente fabula, ma tambien un kuento
imajinario o alegoriko, aforizmo i proverbo. El diksionario ekselente de Nehama
lo ekspliko bien, en parte, ma, me suvieron los fumos a la kavesa de notar una
vez mas la lakuna del autor en la kultura judia: Nehama eskrive en su diksionario
ke el biervo masal derive del turko. I ande desho i abandono Nehama al Rey
Shelomo ke peno i eskrivio, i mos regalo el livro de MISHLE, ke entro a la
Biblia?
De toda manera, me akodro de los selaniklis viejos ke konosia yo en mi chikez;
eyos raramente kulaneavan los biervos proverbio o refran. Eyos dizian:
mashaliko. Oy no topo esta palavra ni en los diksionarios
Al kuaderno de YYY (Yitzhak Yehezkel Yehuda) el total de los mashalikos ke mos
trae el autor es 139. En akea epoka del siglo 20, kada mujer de las muestras savia i
empleava en sus konversasiones algunas sinko vezes mas de esta kantidad>79
The Hebrew word mashal means not only fable, but also an imaginary or
allegorical story, or an aphorism or proverb. Nehamas excellent dictionary
explains it well, in part, but fumes rose to my head when I saw once again the
gaps in the authors knowledge of Jewish culture: Nehama writes in his dictionary
that the word mashal derives from Turkish.80 Where and why did he abandon
King Solomon, who strove and wrote and bequeathed to us the Book of Proverbs,
a part of the Biblical canon...?
In any case, I remember the elderly Salonikans whom I knew in my youth; they
rarely used the words proverbio or refrn. They said: mashaliko. Today I dont
even find that word in the dictionaries...
In the proverb collection published by Yiaq Yezqel Yhuda, the total
number of proverbs the author brings us is 139. In that [early] part of the twentieth
century, every one of our women knew and used in their conversations five times
that number...
79 https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/mashaliko/131fbc3d397726be
80 Actually, it is possible that the Spanish editors of Nehamas dictionary, which was published
posthumously, were responsible for the erroneous etymologies proposed for many of his
entries. From Nehamas other writings, there is every evidence that he had a thorough
grounding in Jewish sources and traditions.
38
David M. Bunis
The earliest examples of the use of mashal in connection with Judezmo proverbs are
in Hebrew. In the marginal notes in Hebrew used by Moshe Almosnino to summarize
the lengthier vernacular discussion in his Hanhagat ha-ayyim ... Rejimyento de la
vida (1564), he used ( maal hedyo, or proverb of common people) to
characterize two proverbs cited in the body of the text:
Suelen dezir No kon kyen nases sin kon kyen pases They are used to saying
It is not among whom you are born but among whom you spend your time
(14b).
... un komn i vulgo proverbyo sakado delos djuris konsultos havlando del ofiio
del pretor o djuez ke dize La mucha konveraion es ramo de menospreio
... a common and popular proverb taken from the attorneys of law speaking
about the office of the pretor or judge says Much conversation is a kind of scorn/
disrespect (35a).
In another Hebrew marginal note, Almosnino denoted the proverb used in his vernacular
text as ( ha-maal ha-qadmoni) the early proverb, and he added a
Hebrew analogue, also used in Judezmo: "" []' " []
(The early proverb said: aar rabi[m] ai nama A sorrow shared by many is
half a consolation):81
... el proverbyo antigo komn en todas las nasiones ke dize Mal de muchos es
k[o]nsuelo ... the old proverb common in all nations that says The sorrow of
many is a consolation (108a).
Interestingly, the phrase ( maal hedyo) is also used to introduce two
Judezmo proverbs cited by Rabbi Yom ov ahalon (or Maharia, b. Safed, 1559
d. after 1638) to bring home points of Jewish law raised in his responsa collection
(1694):
"( " Because it is a

proverb of common people: Ken no adova gotera adova kaza entera [He who
does not fix a leak fixes a whole house])82
81 The Hebrew variant , appearing for example in Giin 58b, Maharsha 4, is
employed in the context of rabbinical Judezmo in Rfael iyya Pontrmoli, Sefer me-cam
locez Ester, 2d ed., Constantinople 1899, p. 258.
82 Yom Tov ahalon, Responsa (old series), Venice 1694, no. 74.
39
" '
( "And everyone should warn his fellow man, as they said in the common
proverb: Mas veen kuatro ojos ke dos [Four eyes see more than two]).83
ahalon introduced another Judezmo proverb by means of the cognate Aramaic

expression ( mtalin mitla) they use the proverb:
"( " They use the proverb: De
basho demi manto ael rey mato [Under my cloak I kill the king]).84
In texts in Judezmo itself, the use of mashal/masal in the sense of proverb continued
from that time into the modern era. Numerous occurrences are found in the three
volumes of the exegetical composition Me-cam lo locez authored by Rabbi Yiaq
Magriso, where it is generally preceded by expressions stating that the cited expression
is a mashal ke dizen (la djente) proverb which they (the people) say. For example:
Esto es el mashal ke dizen la djente Ken la myel menea, algo se le apega
This is [like] the proverb that the people say One who mixes honey, some of it
sticks to him (Yiaq Magriso, Sefer me-cam locez eleq eni mi-sefer mot ...
en ladino, Constantinople 1746, p. 109b).
Era komo el mashal ke dizen la djente Ati te lo digo, nuera; yelo tu suegra
This was like the proverb that the people say I say it to you, daughter-in-law;
hear it, mother-in-law (Yiaq Magriso, Sefer me-cam locez eleq lii, sefer
wa-yiqra ... en ladino, Constantinople 1753, 39a).
... el mashal ke dizen la djente El vyejo en kaza, entronpeso es en la kaza; la
vyeja en kaza, trezoro es en la kaza ... the proverb that the people say An
old man in the house is an obstacle in the house; an old woman in the house is a
treasure in the house (Magriso, Sefer me-cam locez eleq lii, 181a).85
I esto es el mashal ke dizen la djente El She[m] yid[barah] mos de byen i un
lugar onde meter And this is the proverb that the people say May the Name
Blessed Be He give us good things and a place to put them (Magriso, Sefer mec
am locez eleq eni, p. 27b).
83 ahalon, Responsa, no. 240.

84 ahalon, Responsa,, no. 231.
85 On variants of this proverb, see Alexander, Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters (Note 51),
p. *294.
40
David M. Bunis
Ans es el mashal ke dizen la djente La nave ke tyene munchos reizes, su kavo

es de undirse Thus is the proverb that the people say The ship that has many
captains is destined to sink (Magriso, Sefer me-cam locez eleq eni, p. 63b).
Esto es el mashal ke dizen A la abizba, ni de tu myel ni de tu punchn This is
the proverb that they say To the bee, [I want] neither your honey nor your sting
(Magriso, Sefer me-cam locez eleq eni, p. 110a).
Esto es el mashal ke dizen la djente El pozo ke bevistes agua, no eches pyedra
enel This is the proverb that the people say Into a well from which you drank
water do not cast a stone (Magriso, Sefer me-cam locez eleq eni, p. 146a).86
In the Judezmo rabbinical literature produced by rabbis in diverse parts of the Ottoman
Empire, the term mashal/masal continued to enjoy use in the sense of proverb or
popular saying into the modern era; for example:
Asemeja a el mashal El djidy no tyene nada otro ke sus enemigos It
resembles the proverb ... The Jew has nothing but his enemies (Yosef ben
Mair Sason and Yiaq Bxor Amarachi, Sefer darxe ha-adam, 2d ed., Salonika
1849, p. 45b).
Segn dizen mashal la djente Achakes de lo seko se kema lo verde As the
people say in the proverb, Because of the dry (wood), the green burns (Raamim
Mnaem Mitrani, Sefer me-cam locez e[leq] a[lef] cal sefer Yhouac, Salonika
1849, p. 104a).
Mashal dizen la djente, Dale a bever un poko de vino al soytar del rey i te
alavar onde el rey The people say a proverb Give the kings clown a little
wine to drink and hell praise you to the king (Avraham Fintsi, Sefer leqe hazohar en ladino, Belgrade 1859, p. 157a).
Mashal dizen la djente El pato non se aparta del fuego; ezmola el kucho, vale
detrs The people say a proverb The duck doesnt move far from the fire;
sharpen the knife, and go to it from behind (Fintsi, ibid., p. 141b).
In the twentieth century, the form masal ( )was also employed by the popular
Judezmo journalist Alexander Benghiatt of Izmir to denote proverbial expressions
used by Judezmo speakers, whether they were perceived to be of European origin, as
for example:
86 For discussion of a variant of this proverb see Alexander, Cast Thy Bread Upon the
Waters (Note 51), pp. *289-290.
41
Buyuk sozum tov,87 valla ke tyenen razn los frankos ke dizen un masal Ken
apromete, en devda se mete I hate to talk big, but by God the westerners are
right to use the proverb, He who makes a promise acquires a debt (El Meseret
8, no. 7 [Izmir 1903], p. 5; cf. Fr. Qui promet, en dette se met; Sp. Quien fa o
promete, en deuda se mete).
or of Turkish/Ottoman origin, as for example:
Dushuneo i digo de no eskrivir mas, no sea ke kachiree algn lakird demaza
i me venga algn hal ala kavesa, porke ay un masal ke dize: Buyuk lokm ye,
buyuk lakird soylema I think about it and say I wont write [for the press]
any more, just in case I make some blooper and bring a problematic situation
on my head; because theres a proverb that says: Dont be too sure of yourself
[literally, Eat a big mouthful of food, but dont take a big word in your mouth]
(El Meseret 8, no. 16 [1904], p. 5).88
Un masal dize Ne suy dayn, ne kari inn A proverb says Neither hold
water nor believe an old woman (El Meseret 8, no. 24 [1904], p. 5).89
The longer Hebrew-origin expression, ( mashal edyot), too, was employed
in Judezmo texts into the modern era; for example:
Sus kazas estn yenas de todo lo bueno, ke por esta razn no kreen a el prove,
komo dizen el mashal edyot, Asavea en maamn ed araev, El arto non kree
a el ambrento Their houses are full of plenty, and for this reason they do not
believe the poor; as the popular proverb says, A man who is full does not believe
a man who is hungry, The sated man does not believe the hungry man (Rfael
Yiaq Mair Benveniste, Me-cam locez cal mgillat Rut, Salonika 1882, p. 167).
Like refln/refrn, the well-integrated status of mashal in popular Judezmo is
demonstrated, among others, by its use in the diminutive form, mashaliko, as insisted
upon by Yehuda Hatsvi, and as demonstrated by its appearance in a variant of the
popular proverb emphasizing the truth of proverbial statements: Mashal mentirozo
non ay (Baruch cUziel, Ha-folklor el ha-yhudim ha-sfaradim, Rumot 5 (1927),
p. 326 no. 1).
87 Cf. Tk. Byk szme tvbe!
88 Cf. Tk. Byk lokma ye, byk lakrd/sz syleme.
89 Cf. Tk. Ne suya dayan, ne karya inan.
42
David M. Bunis
4.1.4 Pasuk, mizv

Another two terms, also of Hebrew origin, connect the popular Judezmo proverb
or saying with verses in sacred sources such as the Bible and Talmud which bear
a resemblance to the proverb in structure and character: pasuk (Heb. /pasuq)
and mizv (Heb. /miwa). In some instances the Judezmo proverbs are actually
adaptations of verses in the sacred-sources. For example, a volume of the Me-cam
locez series offers the second part of the original Hebrew text of Proverbs (14:1) with
its Judezmo adaptation. For a section of La guerta de oro, the Judezmo translations of
Proverbs 1:8 and 14:1 are sufficient, and then the text of Proverbs 18:22 is presented in
Hebrew only. A popular periodical from Salonika advises readers to heed the message
expressed in Avot 2:5, presented in Judezmo translation. In each of these texts, the
proverbial statement is denoted as a pasuk:
Dize el pasuk W-iwwelet b-yadeha tehersennu () , kere
dezir ke La loka kon sus manos deroka su kaza The verse says But the foolish
plucketh it down with her hands [=JPS], meaning that The insane woman with
her own hands destroys her house (Magriso, Sefer me-cam locez eleq eni,
p. 82a).
En dita letra se deklara el pasuk ke dize Oe mi ijo kastigeryo de tu padre, i non
deshes ley de tu madre ... [En] dita letra ... se deklara el pasuk ke dize Mujer
savia fragua su kaza, i la loka kon su mano la deroka, komo tambyn el pasuk ke
dize ( Maa ia maa ov) In this letter is explicated the verse
that says Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching
of thy mother [=JPS] [In] this letter is explicated the verse that says Every
wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands
[=JPS], as well as the verse that says Whoso findeth a wife findeth a great good
[=JPS] (Atias, La guerta de oro, [iib], 55b-56a).
No saves ke el pasuk dize: I no djuzges a tu haver asta ke ayeges a su lugar?
(Dont you know the verse that says, Do not judge your fellow man until you
have been in his position?) (El Rizn 13, no. 15 [Salonika 1938]).
In the popular satirical press the same term is also used, perhaps facetiously, to denote
Judezmo folk proverbs and even international political mottoes bearing no direct
relation to verses in sacred texts. In some instances the apparent irony is intensified by
referring to adherence to the message of the proverb as afirmar la mizv del pasuk (to
fulfill the commandment of the verse). For example:
43
El pasuk disho Ija fuetes, mare sers, loke azes resivirs90 Los masadjs
kijeron este anyo afirmar la mizv del pasuk: Ni pan ni agua por mano de
djuy The verse said You were a daughter, you shall be a mother, what
you do you will receive ... The matzah bakers wanted to fulfill the commandment
of the verse Neither bread nor water from the hands of a Jew (El Djugetn 6,
no. 5 [1914], p. 4).
Este chiko negosyo est muncho reushendo grasyas ala ahadud de sus aderentes;
por esto disho el pasuk: La unyn aze la fuersa This little business is thriving
thanks to the unity of its members; for this reason the verse said In unity there is
strength (El Djugetn 6, no. 11 [1914], p. 8; cf. Fr. Lunion fait la force).
El pasuk dize Alado de lo seko se kema i lo vedre (The verse says: Near dry
wood, green wood too will burn) (El Rizn 13, no. 7 [1938]).91
In some contexts this phrase is abbreviated to (la) mizv (de), which then functions as
a denotation for a proverbeven one of Turkish origin; for example:
Kersh afirmar la mizv de Kuando vesh el igito, apareja el vestiiko Do
you want to fulfill the commandment of When you see a little fig, prepare the
little suit [to give to children of the poor]? (El Djugetn 5, no. 24 [1913], p. 4).
Kijimos afirmar la mizv de Ya ich, ya uch We wanted to fulfill the
commandment of Either nothing or everything (El Djugetn 5, no. 1 (13), p. 3).92
4.1.5 Literary terms of restricted use
In addition to the terms for proverb discussed thus far, there are several denotations
which are restricted to literary Judezmo. The first of these terms is already documented
from the turn of the seventeenth century, and appears in the writing of an author
whose language was influenced by contemporaneous Castilian. The other terms are
documented from the end of the nineteenth century or later, and are found in the
writings of authors influenced by modern Western European languages and literatures,
from which they probably borrowed them:
90 For discussion of variants of this proverb, see Alexander, Cast Thy Bread Upon the
Waters (Note 51), pp. *287-288.
91 Note that, in an example in the preceding section, a variant of this proverb was referred to
by a rabbinical author as a mashal.
92 Cf. Tk. Hi , or Ya , ya hi.
44
David M. Bunis
4.1.5.1 Sentensya
This may be compared with Castilian sentencia (< Lat. sententa), denoting a succinct,
sober statement:
... loke dize el refrn, ke Muchas vezes el ortelano avla buenas sentensias
what the proverb says, that Many times the gardener speaks wise words)
(Fuente klara 1595, 6a).
Probably under the influence of French sentence, Spanish sentencia or Italian sentenza,
the word appears again in the modern era; for example:
<sentensyas dogmatikas i refleksyones de vyejos savyos> (dogmatic sentences
and reflections of old sages) (Perahya 2008).
4.1.5.2 Adadjyo
Given the presence of word-medial -dj-, the term probably reflects Italian adagio:
Por dezir ke una persona persiste en su idea, en sus demandas, dizen Est en
sus tredje. No es solamente onde los djudys espanyoles ke emplean este adadjyo,
ma tambyn en los kristyanos dela Europa, onde los almanos partikolarmente
To say that a person persists in maintaining his own idea, or his own demands,
they say He keeps to his thirteen.93 It is not only the Spanish Jews who use
this adage, but also the Christians of Europe, and especially the Germans (El
Enstruktor 1:18 [Constantinople, 9, August 1888], 171).
4.1.5.3 Mksima
The term is apparently a late-nineteenth century learned borrowing from Spanish
(mxima), perhaps with influence from French maxime or Italian massima:
Sharl Limozn, Kontra el antisemitizmo: mksimas i refleksyones, imitado por
un eskrivano djudy Charles Limousin, Against anti-Semitism: maxims and
reflections, adapted by a Jewish writer (title of a book published in Vienna,
1889).
Mi buketo ... dichas de oro, mksimas i proverbyos (My bouquet ... golden
sayings, maxims and proverbs) (title of a folklore collection published in Salonika
c1920).
93 Cf. the Thirteen Articles of Faith of Maimonides.
45
4.1.5.4. (pl.) Refleksyones

Seemingly an adaptation of French (rflexions) or Spanish (reflexiones), perhaps with
influence from Italian riflessioni.94
Sharl Limozn, Kontra el antisemitizmo: mksimas i refleksyones, imitado por un
eskrivano djudy (title of a book published in Vienna 1889).
4.1.5.5 Aforizmo
Apparently a twentieth-century adaptation of French aphorisme, Italian aforismo/-a,
or Spanish aforismo.
<El biervo ebreo mashal no es solamente fabula, ma tambien un kuento
imajinario o alegoriko, aforizmo i proverbo> The Hebrew word mashal means
not only fable, but also an imaginary or allegorical story, or an aphorism or
proverb.95
4.1.5.6 Ekspresyn
This is a general term for an expression of various kinds, and may be compared with
French expression, Italian espressione, and Spanish expresin.
<... muchos de mozotros konosen bien la ekspresion ke dize: Ya vendio el
kezo!> ... many of us well know the expression that says: Now hes sold the
cheese (Yehuda Hatsvi, Ladinokomunita, 26 August 2011).
4.2 SAYING
In this section we discuss Judezmo terms for concise expressions of wisdom or truth,
as well as various types of idioms.
4.2.1 Dicha
To denote a saying, Castilian generally uses masculine dicho, the past participle
of decir to say, and this is the term used in the sixteenth century by Rabbi Moshe
Almosnino of Salonika, whose literary language, as was noted, represented that of the
small elite group of his time which saw Castilian as its normative model. For example:
94 Cf. Klara Perahya et al., Diksyonaryo Judeo Espanyol (Note 53), p. 187 s. <refleksyones>.
95 Yehuda Hatsvi (https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/mashaliko/131fbc3d397726be).
46
David M. Bunis
... el vulgo dicho El tyempo pasado paree mejor ke el prezente ... the
common saying Past times seem better than the present (Almosnino 1564:
44b [=45b]).
... el dicho del vulgo, ke komun mente (l)yaman kruel a el muy airado ... the
saying of the popular sector, who commonly call a very angry person cruel
(Almosnino 1564: 88b).
Masculine plural (mis) dichos is also used as the translation of Hebrew ( maray)
my words (or sayings) in Proverbs 2:1, in the Bible translation published in Ferrara,
1553, by former conversos, as it had been in the pre-Expulsion Hispanic Bible
translations E5/E7, EV, E4, BNM.
In the traditional Jewish translations of Proverbs, however, the feminine gender
of Hebrew ( imra) word, saying instead led to the innovative use of feminine
dicha, for example, mis dichas in Proverbs 2:1 (dichas also appears as the translation
of maray in Proverbs 4:10 and 4:20) in the Ladino calque translation published in
Salonika, 1572,96 and in that edited by Yisrael bxar ayyim in Vienna, 1816. Dicha
continued to be employed among Judezmo speakers to denote a (proverbial) saying
into the modern era,97 for example:
Proverbyos o dichas Proverbs or sayings (El Kismet Poeta 1:9 [Izmir 1909],
3-4).
<Siempre estava kon lu uno i lo esteso komo ke de eia veniva akeja dia: La
viea kon sus tarajinas> She was always preoccupied by the same thing, as
if it were about her that the saying arose, The old woman with her noodles
(Jevrejski glas 2:5 [Sarajevo 1928], 4).98
Mi buketo ... dichas de oro, mksimas i proverbyos My bouquet ... golden
sayings, maxims and proverbs (title of a folklore collection published in Salonika
c1920).
<Ay otros proverbos i dichas ke entraron al judeo-espanyol...> There are
other proverbs and sayings that entered Judeo-Spanish... (Dora Niyego, alom,
9 January 2008).99
96
97
98
99
Reproduced, without vocalization, in Lazar, Ladino Scriptures (Note 44), vol. 2.

Cf. Perahya, Diksyonaryo Judeo Espanyol (Note 53), p. 82 s. <dia>.
It is a pleasure to thank Eliezer Papo for providing me with a copy of this source.
alom gazetesi (http://www.salom.com.tr/news/print/3447-La-kultura-popular-de-losSepharadis.aspx).
47
4.2.2 Palavra, byervo

The use of the terms palabra (< Lat. parabla) and verbo (< Lat. vrbum), literally
denoting word, in the sense of saying or expression, is old in Spanish.100 The use
of corresponding Judezmo palavra and byervo probably has a long history as well,
although documented examples seem to appear only in the modern era; for example:
Palavra
Varda es una palavra ke signifika dar el paso a uno ke est koryendo; i ke los
arabadjs de Bey ogl, en pasando, gritan Varda despus ke ya echan en basho
a las personas Varda [Look out! Keep clear! Cf. Tk. varda < It. guarda] is
a saying which means to give way to someone who is running, and which the
wagon drivers of Beyolu [Constantinople] shout after they have deboarded their
passengers) (El Tyempo 1, no. 75 [Constantinople 1873], p. 17).
Avlimos por la kriatura ke se top sola en su kamareta i ke su mare se
diverta en la kaza de djugo Syertos ombres dezan ke si se mury la kriatura,
no es la kavza del djugo si no ke su mazal, la ora, ke le vino; i kon una palavra
byen dicha en turko: Edjil mish, edjil! We spoke about the child who [died
when he] was left in his bedroom while his mother was enjoying herself in a
gambling casino. Some people said that if the child died, it wasnt because of the
gambling, but rather his fate, his time, had come; and using a well-formulated
saying of Turkish origin, His hour of death had come (El Djugetn 5, no. 13
[1913], p. 2).
Byervo
Enkoyamal ... dizen este byervo kuando avlan de alguna koza triste o de algn
muerto i se boltan agora adresndosen a un amigo. Entonses le dizen En kuyo
mal, lo ke kere dezir en espanyol puro: en akel est el mal. El byervo enkoyamal
lo dizen tambyn en vezes por burla. Entonses el depende del lashn akdesh
im ko yomar, lo ke iguala a sozum yaban Enkoyamal ... they say this
expression when someone speaks of something sad, such as a death, and then
he begins to address his companion. In pure Spanish en cuyo mal means may
misfortune be upon him. But sometimes enkoyamal is said in jest. Then it reflects
Hebrew [ im ko yomar], meaning the same as Turkish szm yabana
[pardon the expression] (El Meseret 8, no. 52 [Izmir 1904], p. 5).
100 Cf. Corominas and Pascual, Diccionario crtico etimolgico (Note 46), vol. 4 (1985), s.
palabra; ibid., vol. 5 (1986), s. verbo.
48
David M. Bunis
No saves... el byervo ke dize ke Kuanta mas eskura est la nochada, mas deprisa
amanese? Dont you know ... the saying that says The darker the night is, the
earlier the day dawns? (Mesajero 4, no. 1069 [Salonika 1939]).
4.2.3 Palavra de-/dizidera
This phrase designates a turn of phrase, manner of speaking, or common saying,
not to be taken literally, or a proverb or wise saying:101
< Esta mare kit al mundo bul de fios; palavra deziera: tyene oo kriaturas>
This mother produced a flood of children; thats just a manner of speaking: she
has eight children (Nehama, Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol, p. 138 s. deziera:
palavra deziera).
<...el refran era ... komo una palavra dizidera ke se kulaneava en kada nada>
... the proverb was like a wise saying that was used at every opportunity
(Yehuda Hatsvi, e-mail dated 30 April 2012).
4.2.4 Memr
This Hebraism in Judezmo denotes a saying or expression and is documented in the
early-twentieth-century manuscript dictionary of Nissim de Yehuda Pardo of Izmir:
Una memr de fulano Someones expression.
4.2.5 Fraza/Fraze
Another term for expression or saying which was probably part of the language of
the elite Hispanizers in the sixteenth century and then disappeared from Judezmo, only
to re-emerge in the modern era under the influence of Italian frase, French phrase, or
Spanish frase is fraza or fraze:
Yo veo kon mis propyos ojos ke too el ke melda mis artkolos se topa muy
kontente, i la fraze ke kita despus de eskapar es estos byervos: Bueno darsa
si[nyor] haham, si ay ken lo oya.
I see with my own eyes that everyone who reads my articles is very content, and
the expression he utters after finishing them consists of these words You lecture
well, honored Rabbi, but is anyone listening? (El Djugetn 5:13 [1913], p. 1).
<El reflan djudeo-espanyol es una fraza lapidaria, de forma fiksa...> The
101 Cf. lomo Rosanes, Divre yme Yisrael b-Togarma, vol. 1, Dvir, Tel Aviv, 1930, p. 291.
49
Judeo-Spanish proverb is a lapidary phrase, of fixed form... (Koen-Sarano, 2004,

El reflan djudeo-espanyol: Espejo de las komunitas sefaradis, Aki Yerushalayim
75 (http://www.aki-yerushalayim.co.il/ay/075/075_08_reflan.htm)
4.3 Expressions of Vox Populi, the Voice of the People
In both speech and writing, proverbs and proverbial sayings are perhaps most often
introduced not by stating terms denoting the genre, but rather by employing various
phrases expressing the fact that they are statements reflecting the vox populi, what
we, or they, or the people say. Some of the most frequent of these formulations
in Judezmo are the following:
4.3.1 Dizen They say / Uzan a dezir They are accustomed to saying / Me dizen
They tell me
Kuando keren dezir por algn ombre ke es muy vyejo, dizen Fulano tyene los
anyos de Trah When they want to say of some man that he is very old, they
say, So and so is as old as Terah (Xul 1730: 95a). Me dizen ke Non kale
despertar akyen durme They tell me that One should not wake someone who
is asleep (cAtias, La guerta de oro, f. 48b).
Dizen ke Las pars tyenen alas. Beem ke es vedr They say that Money
has wings. Really it is true (Jacques Danon, La Epoka 28, no. 1373 [Salonika
1903], p. 9).
<De ay es ke dizen: Guadrarse en las aldas de la madre> It is from this
that they say To hide/take refuge under your mothers skirts (Rachel Amado
Bortnick, Ladinokomunita, 8 October 2011).
When an author disagrees with the lesson apparently taught by a saying, he may refer
to its users as algunos dezmeoyados senseless people or some other derogatory
expression; for example:
... algunos dezmeoyados ... dizen, Los males no kaminan por las montanyas, ...
esta es una avla muy fea ... some senseless people ... say, Troubles dont travel
through mountains, ... this is a very ugly expression (abbtay ben Yaaqov
Vitas, Sefer mivat nefe, vol. 1, Constantinople 1743, p. 50b).
50
David M. Bunis
4.3.2 Komo/Asegn/Konforme dizen (la djente / el olam / el mundo) As they (the

people / the world) say(s)
Komo dizen la djente, El ke tyene enforkado en su mishpah, no le digan,
Enklgame este peshkado (As the people say, To one who has had
someone in his family hanged, they should not say, Hang this fish for me)
(Avraham ben Yiaq Asa (tr.), Yiaq Abohav, Sefer mnorat ha-maor en
ladino, Constantinople 1762, p. 28a).
Lo medyano es syempre lo bueno, asegn dizen la djente; Emsa shalem
( ) The middle road is always best, as the people say; The middle
road is perfect) (Yiaq Magriso, Sefer me-cam locez eleq lii, sefer wa-yiqra
... en ladino, Constantinople 1753, 129a).
Segn dizen la djente, Kuando el Dyo est kon tigo no te espantes de tu
enemigo As the people say, When God is with you, do not fear your enemy
(Mitrani, Sefer me-cam locez e[leq] a[lef] cal sefer Yhouac, p. 29b).
Konforme dizen la djente, En pleyto no se desparte konfites sin malas
kuchiadas As the people say, In a fight one does not distribute hard candies but
piercing words (Mitrani, Sefer me-cam locez e[leq] a[lef] cal sefer Yhouac,
p. 114b).
Ya dizen la djente, Dela manyana ya se vee el buen da The people say,
From the morning a good day is seen (Eliezer ben em ov Papo, Sefer
Dammeseq Eliezer, vol. 1, Ora ayyim, Belgrade 1862, p. 41b).
Komo dizen A la bizba, ni tu myel ni tu punchn As they say, To the bee, [I
want] neither your honey nor your sting (Fintsi, Sefer leqe ha-zohar en ladino,
180b).
Biva en Bagdad un buen ombre ke No tena katilak, komo dizen, kon
ninguno There lived in Baghdad a good man who, as they say, Wanted nothing
to do with anyone (Balans [trans.], Los mas enteresantes kuentos de ..., p. 339).
<... dizen la djente ke El kamino al Gan Eden esta basho de los pies de la
mujer> ... the people say that The road to heaven is under the feet of a
woman (Eliezer Papo, esefarad.com, 11 December 2011).
4.3.3 Es verdad loke dizen Its true what they say
La tos i el balgam ke nos sala por la narz era a karar ke no poamos yorushear
kon ningn adam hay De kuando meldimos el avizo por el rak ke vende
si[nyor] Ventura, mandamos a tomar kon bilik, i kon poko ke bevimos mos
51
alegra, i birdn bir mos se kurt la tos. Es verda loke dizen: Ne versan
on alirsin, ekmek istersan ekmekchidn al The coughing and the phlegm that
came out through our nose was such that we couldnt speak with a living soul.
But since we read the advertisement for the rak that Mr. Ventura sells, we send
for it by the demijohn; and with the little that weve drunk, it gladdened us, and
all at once our cough stopped. Its true what they say: Whatever they give, take,
if you want bread, buy it from the baker (El Djugetn 5, no. 4 [1913], p. 7).102
<Es verdad lo ke dizen los turkos, ke El guerko se meskla en todo lo ke se aze
kon adjele> Its true what the Turks say, that The devil mixes into everything
that one does with haste (Rachel Amado Bortnick, Ladinokomunita, 7 March
2012).
4.3.4 Komo/Segn dezimos As we say
Komo dezimos kuando keremos loar alguna ovra, Bendichas manos ke tal
fizyeron As we say when we want to praise some work, Blessed are the hands
that did such a thing (Fuente klara 1595, 49a). No egziste ke un solo rgano
seryo ke Syerve por patah i por kams, komo dezimos vulgarmente Theres
only one periodical thats Worth its salt, as we say in the vernacular (Aksyn
[Salonika 9.2.1936], p. 1).
4.3.5 Non dezir One shouldnt say
... non dezir Asprikos i diavlikos non pueden estar solikos, ni menos dezir ke
El ganar enbeza ala persona agastar ... one shouldnt say Little money
and little devils shouldnt be alone, nor should one say Earning money teaches
a person to spend (cAtias. La guerta de oro, 57a).
4.3.6 Es ditado It is said
The spoken-language character of the Judezmo proverbial saying is also alluded to in
introductory remarks such as es ditado it is said; for example:
Es ditado, Asegn sale el hamn i el yerno It is said, How ones Sabbath stew
and ones son-in-law turn out [is a matter of luck] (Asa 1733: 81b)
102 Cf. Ne verirsen onu alrsn, ekmei istersen ekmekiden al.
52
David M. Bunis
In introducing sayings, verbs of expression other than say, such as responder to

reply, are also used; for example:
Si me responder alguno ak ke Kyen non se resyente, non vyene de djente, le
dir ... If someone here replies to me that One whose voice is not heard is not
of respectable background, I shall say ... (cAtias, La guerta de oro, 25a).
5. Concluding remarks
The present article has focused on some significant divergences between the
terminology denoting Judezmo proverbs and sayings used by members of the Judezmo
speech community, and that employed by Hispanists who have collected and studied
this Sephardic folk genre. For over a century, Hispanists have analyzed Judezmo folk
traditions in terms reflecting Hispanic culture and its accepted academic lexicon and
categorizations. But demonstrating a cultural independence of their own, Judezmo
writers today, like Baruch cUziel in the 1920s, increasingly employ terminology and
categorizations rooted in the folk traditions of the Judezmo speech community itself,
for example, the denotation of the proverb as refln by Matilda Koen-Sarano, as
mashaliko by Yehuda Hatsvi, and as proverbo by Dora Niyego, and of the saying
as dicha by all. Perhaps one day scholars too will honor the bearers of this culture
by analyzing its folk genres using the terminology and categorization preferred
by Judezmo speakers, thereby adhering to a fundamental principle in the study of
anthropology and culture.
53
54
Paloma Daz-Mas
Actitudes de los espaoles hacia los sefardes: descripciones

de las costumbres de boda de Marruecos en libros y
peridicos publicados en Espaa (1873-1971)
Paloma Daz-Mas
CSIC, Madrid
Es casi un tpico afirmar que la primera guerra de frica produjo el descubrimiento

de los sefardes por parte de los espaoles. El establecimiento de la administracin
espaola en Tetun (1860-1862) y luego el Protectorado (1912-1956) propiciaron que
militares, funcionarios y periodistas de Espaa tomasen contacto con un otro que era
observado a un tiempo como extico y como propio, como lejano y como prximo.1
Los sefardes eran exticos y lejanos no slo por ser judos, sino tambin por ser
percibidos como orientales, ya que en la poca y hasta por lo menos la primera mitad
del siglo XX Marruecos, ese extremo sudoccidental del Mediterrneo, era considerado
Oriente desde la mentalidad europea; por ello se proyectan sobre los sefardes muchos de
los tpicos del orientalismo, frecuentemente en combinacin con prejuicios antijudos.2
1
Sobre el reflejo de los primeros contactos con los sefardes en la literatura y la prensa
espaolas puede verse Uriel Macas, El primer encuentro de los espaoles con los sefardes
en la Guerra de frica, en Tamar Alexander et al. (eds.), History and Creativity in the
Sepharadi and Oriental Jewry, Misgav Yerushalayim, Jerusaln 1994, pp. 333-351; Uriel
Macas,Los cronistas de la Guerra de frica y el primer reencuentro con los sefardes, en
Uriel Macas et al. (eds.), Los judos en la Espaa contempornea, Universidad de CastillaLa Mancha, Cuenca 2000, pp. 45-60; Pablo Martn Asuero, El encuentro de los espaoles
con los sefardes de Marruecos a la luz de Pedro de Alarcn, El Presente: Estudios sobre
la cultura sefard, 2 (2008), pp. 67-80 y Aldina Quintana, El Mellah de Tetun (1860) en
Aita Tettauen (1905) de Benito Prez Galds: Cambios de actitud frente a los estereotipos
antisemitas en la Espaa de la Restauracin, El Presente, 2 (2008), pp. 81-110.
El libro clsico sobre la visin de Oriente desde Occidente es el de Edward Said,
Orientalismo, que hemos consultado en su edicin espaola: Debate, Madrid 2002. Sobre
55
Actitudes de los espaoles hacia los sefardes
Pero los sefardes fueron tambin percibidos como algo propio o cercano
precisamente porque hablaban judeoespaol (haketa, en el caso de los de Marruecos),
una lengua que los espaoles identificaban con un espaol arcaico, primitivo e incluso
infantil, balbuciente. Pese a esa actitud un tanto paternalista (tambin muy propia de
la visin de lo oriental como primitivo, arcaico y no evolucionado), lo cierto es que
la afinidad lingstica propici que los ocupantes encontrasen ms fcil comunicarse
con los sefardes del norte de Marruecos, con los que compartan una lengua comn,
que con los musulmanes o berberes de la misma zona, produciendo una impresin
de proximidad que a veces se tie de sentimentalismo patritico en los relatos de
espaoles.
La imagen que Espaa ha tenido de los sefardes del Norte de frica ha estado
durante ms de un siglo intermediada por la presencia colonial espaola en Marruecos.
En este artculo pretendemos ofrecer algunas observaciones sobre la actitud de
los espaoles hacia los sefardes, tomando como ejemplo las descripciones de las
costumbres de boda judas marroques que se publicaron en Espaa para un pblico
lector espaol.3
El porqu hemos elegido precisamente las costumbres de boda merece alguna
explicacin. En principio, nuestro inters vino suscitado por el hallazgo del artculo
periodstico que se public en el diario El Globo de Madrid en 1877, que editamos en
Texto 2. Pero, adems, en las costumbres de boda se mezclan una serie de elementos
que facilitan un anlisis de la visin del otro sefard desde la perspectiva del nosotros
el antisemitismo es fundamental el libro de Gonzalo lvarez Chillida, El antisemitismo en

Espaa: la imagen del judo (1812-2002), Marcial Pons, Madrid 2002. Para las visiones
orientalistas de los judos aporta interesantes observaciones (aunque no trata de los
sefardes) el libro de Ivan Davidson Kalmar y Derek J. Penslar (eds.), Orientalism and the
Jews, Brandeis University Press, Hanover y Londres 2005. Sobre las visiones orientalistas
desde Espaa, Jos A. Gonzlez Alcantud (ed.), El orientalismo desde el Sur, Anthropos,
Barcelona 2006; Vctor Morales Lezcano, Africanismo y orientalismo espaol en el siglo
XIX, Universidad Nacional de Educacin a Distancia, Madrid 1988; y Gonzalo Fernndez
Parrilla y Manuel C. Feria Garca (eds.), Orientalismo, exotismo y traduccin, Universidad
de Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca, 2000. Especficamente para la produccin literaria y la
prensa africanista espaolas es til la gua bibliogrfica de Vicente Moga Romero, La
cuestin marroqu en la escritura africanista, Edicions Bellaterra, Barcelona 2008.
Este artculo es producto del proyecto de investigacin FFI2012-31625 Los sefardes ante
s mismos y sus relaciones con Espaa III del Ministerio de Economa y Competitividad
de Espaa.
56
Paloma Daz-Mas
espaol. La boda es al mismo tiempo un acto religioso, un rito de paso en el ciclo

vital, una manifestacin de las relaciones sociales y familiares y de la moral sexual,
un compendio de usos y costumbres que abarcan desde la indumentaria hasta la
gastronoma, la msica y la danza, la poesa epitalmica o los gestos rituales de magia
protectora. En la descripcin de todo ello por y para un pblico ajeno, no sefard y
no judo, se trasluce la mentalidad de los creadores de ese discurso, sean fillogos,
musiclogos, periodistas o propagandistas y, por tanto, puede ser un buen caso de
estudio para analizar algunos aspectos de la actitud espaola hacia los sefardes.
La labor de fillogos y musiclogos durante los ltimos aos del Protectorado

La obra ms conocida de un espaol sobre la boda sefard es un trabajo filolgico:
la edicin de Manuel Alvar de su coleccin de cantares de boda,4 libro que, aunque
publicado en 1971, es producto del trabajo de campo realizado en dos viajes a
Marruecos durante los ltimos aos del Protectorado espaol, cuando Alvar era
profesor en la Universidad de Granada:
Mis materiales son de 1949-50 (Tetun) y 1951 (Larache). En 1953 recib, gracias
a la amable gestin de la Srta. Blanco Tonda, un cuaderno de Melilla. Slo hemos
logrado saber que el cuaderno es copia de otro. Sus textos proceden, sin duda, de
Tetun (Alvar 1971, xviii).
El ncleo central del libro es la edicin filolgica de los cantos de boda, que se
acompaa de un estudio lingstico y literario. Pero, como no poda ser menos,
incluye tambin una descripcin del ritual del matrimonio sefard en el captulo Los
cantos de boda sefardes y su determinacin folklrica (27-39), que va precedido
por otros sobre Los cantos de boda en la tradicin literaria peninsular. Referencias
medievales a las costumbres judas (11-18) y Los cantos de boda en las costumbres
peninsulares (19-26). Se establece as una comparacin entre el folclore peninsular
Manuel Alvar, Cantos de boda judeo-espaoles, CSIC, Madrid 1971. Datos biogrficos de
Manuel Alvar en http://bib.cervantesvirtual.com/bib_autor/manuelalvar/ y en Jos Mara
Enguita et al. (eds.), Jornadas internacionales en memoria de Manuel Alvar, Institucin
Fernando el Catlico (CSIC)-Gobierno de Aragn, Zaragoza 2005, consultable en http://
ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/25/32/_ebook.pdf.
57
y el folclore sefard, sugiriendo paralelos que apuntan a pervivencias de costumbres

hispnicas y medievales en la tradicin juda marroqu.
Por otra parte, ni Alvar ni ninguno de los espaoles que tratan de las costumbres de
boda distingue qu usos son cumplimiento de prescripciones religiosas del judasmo
(halaj) y cules son simplemente costumbres (minhag). Es posible que muchos de
los sefardes del momento no fuesen tampoco capaces de establecer con claridad qu
partes del ritual eran cumplimiento de la halaj y cules minhag; pero desde el punto
de vista de los espaoles, el resultado de no diferenciar entre normativa religiosa y
costumbre es que todo el ritual de la boda se presenta como folclore. Un folclore muy
ritualizado, como muestra el intento de Alvar de identificar cada paso de la boda con
un cantar concreto de su coleccin. El editor parte de la base de que todos y cada uno
de los cantos de boda que ha recogido se entonaban con una funcin especfica en una
fase de la boda (y slo en sa); cosa que si es que alguna vez fue as no parece que
se ajustase a la realidad en la poca en que Alvar realiz sus encuestas, en la que, por
lo que sabemos, los cantos de boda se entonaban sobre todo en la fiesta del saftarray
(el sbado anterior a la boda), en la celebracin que las mujeres hacan en torno al
bao ritual de la desposada, o en la noche de novia, vspera del matrimonio, y solan
cantarse mezclados sin seguir un orden preciso.5
Pese a haber hecho trabajo de campo para recopilar sus cantos epitalmicos, en la
descripcin de las costumbres de boda Alvar no indica haber usado testimonios de
primera mano, sino que remite a un pasaje de una narracin de Isaac Benarroch,6 a
algunos datos ofrecidos en una de las entregas del artculo de Jos Benoliel sobre la
haketa7 y a las informaciones de Manuel Ortega (de quien hablaremos ms adelante)
y de Michael Molho,8 que se refieren a las costumbres de Salnica. Resulta llamativo
que Alvar no mencione haberse servido de la descripcin de las costumbres nupciales
6
7
8
Vase Sarah Leibovici, Nuestras bodas sefarditas: Algunos ritos y costumbres, Revista
de Dialectologa y Tradiciones Populares, 41 (1986), pp. 163-188. Una grabacin
documental en la que se cantan unidos varios cantos de boda sin seguir un orden preciso
puede escucharse en Susana Weich Shahak, Cantares y romances tradicionales sefardes
de Marruecos, Tecnosaga, Madrid 1991, pista.7.
Isaac Benarroch, El indiano, el kadi y la luna, Editora Marroqu, Tetun 1951, pp. 70-76.
Jos Benoliel, Dialecto judeo-hispano-marroqu o haquita, Boletn de la Real Academia
Espaola, 32 (1952), pp. 255-289.
Michael Molho, Usos y costumbres de los sefardes de Salnica, CSIC, Madrid 1950.
58
Paloma Daz-Mas
que haba publicado aos antes Arcadio de Larrea Palacn,9 pero su reticencia a usar
como fuente a Larrea puede explicarse por lo que seala en una nota:
Tales textos [los cantos de boda publicados por Larrea] son de Tetun y coinciden
muchas veces con los mos: es inevitable, ya que busc las mismas recitadoras que
yo haba tenido. (Cuando en abril de 1951 di varias conferencias en Marruecos
sobre literatura tradicional de los sefardes, el seor Larrea colector entonces
asisti a mi lectura de Tetun. Un ao antes, estaban elaborados algunos de mis
materiales, segn es pblico y notorio, vid. Endechas p. 184, nota 7). Creo, sin
embargo, que la repeticin de los poemas no ser intil para futuros investigadores,
pues los trabajos de Larrea y los mos suelen ser de naturaleza dispar. (Alvar
1971, p. 6, nota 21)
Larrea (1907-1985) fue autor de estudios etnomusicolgicos sobre la tradicin de
Aragn y sobre el flamenco; realiz su recoleccin de romances, canciones y cuentos
sefardes mientras trabajaba en la Seccin de Estudios Musicales del Instituto
General Franco de Investigacin Hispano-rabe de Tetun.10 Pese a su orientacin
primordialmente musicolgica, como introduccin a la edicin de los textos y las
msicas de los cantos de boda ofrece una descripcin bastante detallada del ritual
del matrimonio (Larrea 1954, 13-19), advirtiendo que en su mayor parte se trata de
costumbres ya cadas en desuso por la introduccin de costumbres modernas:
La boda que aqu se describe ha pasado, en gran parte, a ser un simple recuerdo,
vivo todava afortunadamente en muchas personas [...] del complicado ceremonial
que se expone tan slo se celebran, adems de los ritos estrictamente religiosos,
las fiestas del apalabramiento y de la boda propiamente dicha y, a veces, el da del
pescado, suprimido con la mayor frecuencia por causa del viaje de los novios. (13)
En general, la bsqueda de la antigedad etnogrfica de forma que muchas veces lo
que se describe no es una costumbre viva, sino unos usos periclitados que slo viven
Arcadio de Larrea Palacn, Cancionero judo del norte de Marruecos: Canciones rituales
hispano-judas, Instituto de Estudios Africanos del CSIC, Madrid 1954, pp. 13-19; edita
textos y msica de cantos de boda en pp. 20-122.
10 Una semblanza de Larrea puede verse en el artculo de Javier Lacasta, Carlos Gonzlez
Sanz y lvaro de la Torre, Arcadio de Larrea, in memoriam, Rolde: Revista de cultura
aragonesa, 103 (2003), pp. 9-16; todo ese nmero de la revista es un monogrfico Dossier:
Arcadio de Larrea Palacn.
9
59
en la memoria de los ms ancianos es una tendencia comn en la mayora de los

estudios filolgicos y etnogrficos de ese momento (y aun de muchos aos despus),
se refieran o no a los sefardes.
En sus viajes a Marruecos, Manuel Alvar sin duda se relacion con Juan Martnez
Ruiz (1922-1992), quien desde 1946 era profesor del Centro Oficial de Enseanza
Media espaol en Alcazarquivir. Posteriormente Martnez Ruiz ocup otros cargos de
la administracin espaola en Tetun (donde fue inspector de enseanza media desde
1956) y en Melilla (1958-1974), como catedrtico de lengua y literatura espaolas en
el Instituto Hispano-Marroqu de Bachillerato, del que fue tambin director. A partir
de 1974 volvi a la Pennsula como profesor en la Universidad de Granada.11
Martnez Ruiz aprovech sus aos de residencia en Alcazarquivir para, como
dialectlogo, estudiar la lengua y las manifestaciones de cultura oral de esa comunidad
sefard, hasta entonces poco explorada. Resultado de ello fue su tesis doctoral Lengua
y literatura de los judos sefardes de Alcazarquivir (dirigida precisamente por el
profesor Alvar) que se defendi en la Universidad de Madrid en 1952 y de la cual
derivaron varios artculos, dos de los cuales contienen textos relacionados con la
boda sefard: en uno edita, con algunas notas, varios cantos de bodas, endechas y,
sobre todo, romances.12 Otro es un artculo dialectolgico en el que edita y estudia
varios testimonios orales de sus informantes de Alcazarquivir sobre temas como
la celebracin de Psah, Prcticas de hechicera y el que nos interesa aqu la
descripcin de Una boda en Alcazarquivir (pp. 107-113).13
Aqu Martnez Ruiz ofrece la transcripcin del texto y no lo interpreta ni lo comenta
salvo en sus aspectos estrictamente lingsticos, por lo que su intervencin es mnima
y concede totalmente la voz a su informante sefard, de cuya narracin se deduce que
en Alcazarquivir ciudad ms pequea y tradicional que Tetun pervivieron durante
ms tiempo algunos usos, que adems en esta comunidad tenan caractersticas
especficas, bastante diferentes de las tetuanes.
11 Un perfil biogrfico de Juan Martnez Ruiz en Juan Paredes Nez, (ed.), Estudios
dedicados al profesor Juan Martnez Ruiz, Universidad de Granada, Granada 1991, pp.
11-31.
12 Juan Martnez Ruiz, Poesa sefard de carcter tradicional (Alcazarquivir), Archivum, 13
(1963), pp. 79-215.
13 Juan Martnez Ruiz, Textos judeo-espaoles de Alcazarquivir (Marruecos), Revista de
Dialectologa y Tradiciones Populares, 19 (1963), pp. 78-115; pp. 107-112.
60
Paloma Daz-Mas
Testimonios de los primeros aos del Protectorado: Africano Fernndez

y Manuel Ortega
Frente al carcter acadmico, de orientacin filolgica o musicolgica, que tienen esas
descripciones de la boda sefard, en los primeros aos del Protectorado encontramos
relatos de los usos y costumbres sefardes insertos en testimonios de viajeros y
residentes, y entre ellos algunos en libros francamente propagandsticos.
Merecen especial mencin, por su delicadeza carente de prejuicios, las observaciones
sobre la boda sefard como modelo de moral sexual publicadas por Csar Juarros y
Ortega (1879-1942), eminente psiquiatra que fue mdico militar en Marruecos.14 Pero
aqu queremos centrarnos en otros dos testimonios propagandsticos de distinto signo.
El primero es el incluido en Espaa en frica y el peligro judo, de Africano
Fernndez, seudnimo del franciscano espaol Ramn Fernndez Lestn.15 Su libro
es un dechado de los ms rancios tpicos del antisemitismo religioso (por ejemplo,
da por verdaderas las calumnias sobre crmenes rituales y afirma que la matz de
Psah se amas muchas veces con sangre de cristianos), unido a una visin colonial
de Marruecos como tierra de misiones (uno de los apartados del libro, en pp. 2129, se titula Por qu no se convierten?, refirindose a los musulmanes), con
encendidos elogios a la labor de los misioneros espaoles y de la Accin Catlica,
de las conferencias de San Vicente de Pal, del apostolado femenino y la adoracin
del Santsimo. Su postura es ampliamente antisemita (no slo antijuda): el rabe es
afeminado, muelle y voluptuoso mortal (p. 24) y por tanto entregado a la indolencia
14 Csar Juarros y Ortega, La ciudad de los ojos bellos (Tetun), Mundo Latino, Madrid 1922,
pp. 166-168 y 185-187. Su visin de los sefardes y, en especial, la descripcin de la boda,
han sido analizadas por Jacobo Israel Garzn, Los judos de Tetun, Hebraica Ediciones,
Madrid 2005, pp. 177-206, donde tambin comenta el tratamiento del tema de los sefardes
de Marruecos por parte de algunos otros escritores y pintores orientalistas espaoles. Datos
biogrficos sobre Juarros en Pedro Sambls Tilve, Csar Juarros y el Tratamiento de la
morfinomana: cura u ortopedia?, Frenia, I.1 (2002), pp. 123-137 y, del mismo autor,
El Dr. Csar Juarros (1879-1942) y la Escuela Central de Anormales, en Jos Martnez
Prez et al., La medicina ante el nuevo milenio: una perspectiva histrica, Universidad de
Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca 2004, pp. 539-550.
15 Africano Fernndez, Espaa en frica y el peligro judo, El Eco Franciscano, Santiago de
Compostela 1918. La identificacin con Fernndez Lestn se debe a lvarez Chillida, El
antisemitismo... (nota 2), pp. 277-278.
61
y al vicio; en cuanto a los judos, son traidores y vengativos, dominadores, tiranos

y absorbentes (248), no olvidan ni perdonan (201) pues es el odio, caracterstica
de la raza hebrea (328); dedica numerosas pginas a atacar la tarea de las escuelas
de la Alliance Isralite Universelle en Marruecos, institucin a la que califica de
anticatlica y antiespaola, y critica duramente la campaa prosefard del senador
ngel Pulido y a sus seguidores.
Pero al final incluye un captulo titulado Los judos por dentro (pp. 261-302) en
el que ofrece aunque sea para denigrarlos datos de inters etnogrfico, descritos
en una poca (1918) en que seguan vigentes muchas de las costumbres que pocas
dcadas despus haban desaparecido. Tras la observacin de que el judo no es
piadoso, porque no se le ensea la piedad verdadera; es nicamente ritualista porque
as se le educa: amor a Dios y odio al goi, es la frmula de sus relaciones humanas
(269), pasa a describir las juderas, la sinagoga, la celebracin del shabat y lo que l
llama Ritualismos domsticos, para acabar con un captulo dedicado al Folklore
sefardita marroqu (303-323) en el que ofrece el texto y algunas notaciones musicales
de romances y endechas. En la parte de los ritualismos hay unas pginas dedicadas
a Bodas y entierros (274-281), en las que describe cmo el pueblo judo conserva
con amor sus ritos, pueriles, a veces, acaso ridculos, en parte, pero majestuosos,
impresionantes, tradicionalmente venerables siempre (276). En el caso de la boda,
describe de forma bastante minuciosa las distintas fases desde el jueves anterior a la
boda hasta los ocho das despus de celebrado el matrimonio y ofrece informacin
sobre detalles como la cuanta de las dotes segn la clase social. Incluye tambin una
fotografa con el pie Hebreas: traje tpico de ceremonia (p. 279), que representa a
dos mujeres, una vestida a la occidental y otra con el traje de paos o de berberisca
propio de las novias sefardes de Marruecos.
Su informacin, abordada desde la distancia de un observador que es a la vez
colonialista y antisemita, tiene el valor de estar tomada, segn parece, de testimonios
de primera mano, cuya veracidad se hace especialmente evidente en los puntos en que
el autor muestra no entender bien lo que le han contado. Por ejemplo, describe que la
habitacin de la casa del novio donde est el tlamo al que se conduce a la novia se
adorna con el Mapa del Sefer, o sea la cubierta de los rollos del Pentateuco que se
lee en la sinagoga o eznoga; el enigmtico mapa es, naturalmente, la map, funda o
envoltura de tela bordada que arropa los rollos de la Tor en la sinagoga y con la que,
en efecto, se engalanaba a veces la sala donde iba a celebrarse el matrimonio. Pero su
error de interpretacin indica indirectamente que sigue una fuente oral fiable, que l
reproduce sin entenderla.
62
Paloma Daz-Mas
Cabe preguntarse si no fue como respuesta a Fernndez Lestn como se gest uno
de los ms conocidos libros sobre los sefardes de Marruecos: el de Manuel Ortega,16
que apareci al ao siguiente (1919) y que se reedit por lo menos en 1929 y en
1934.
Manuel Ortega Pichardo (1888-1943)17 era periodista y fundador de la Compaa
Iberoamericana de Publicaciones, una editorial financiada por Ignacio Bauer,
representante de los Rothschild; vivi durante varios aos en Tnger, donde fund
en 1925 el peridico El Heraldo de Marruecos. Tambin fund otros peridicos
en Espaa y dirigi la Revista de la Raza, que se public entre 1915 y 1930. Su
perfil es, por tanto, el de un periodista y publicista liberal, cercano a las incipientes
comunidades judas espaolas y seguidor de las tesis de ngel Pulido, sobre quien
tambin escribi un libro.18 Por su ideologa y por su actividad profesional parece, por
tanto, la contrafigura de Fernndez Lestn.
Los hebreos de Marruecos es tambin un libro opuesto a Espaa en frica y el
peligro judo, del que en algunos aspectos parece seguir la estructura, ponindola al
servicio de ideas contrarias. Ofrece una descripcin laica y liberal de la accin de
Espaa en Marruecos, presenta la accin de la Alliance Isralite Universelle como
un modelo que Espaa debera imitar, defiende las tesis de Pulido con respecto a
los sefardes y acaba con una Parte segunda: Estudio Social (pp. 137-346), en la
que incluye observaciones sobre la lengua, la familia, los usos y costumbres y los
viejos romances de Castilla, con edicin de una buena coleccin de textos. La parte
dedicada a la boda (177-186) empieza con la observacin de que:
Las ceremonias de casamiento son interesantes. En la actualidad muchos israelitas
marroques, especialmente los de las clases elevadas que habitan en las ciudades
de la costa, influenciados por las costumbres de Europa, suprimen el antiguo
aparato, que es, sin embargo, el que generalmente usan en sus bodas los hebreos
de las clases media y proletaria.
16 Manuel Ortega, Los hebreos de Marruecos, Editorial Hispano Africana, Madrid 1919;
reed. Compaa Ibero-Americana de Publicaciones, Madrid 1929; 3 ed., Ediciones
Nuestra Raza, Madrid 1934. Hay edicin facsmil en Algazara, Mlaga 1994.
17 Pueden encontrarse datos sobre su biografa en el artculo de Julia Sez-Angulo Manuel
Luis Ortega Pichardo, periodista, escritor y editor de la Compaa Iberoamericana de
Publicaciones CIAP, accesible en http://www.euromundoglobal.com/noticia/46188/ y
http://lamiradaactual.blogspot.com/2011/01/manuel-luis-ortega-pichardo-periodista.html.
63
Y a continuacin describe, en un discurso objetivo y sin valoraciones, las distintas

fases del ritual, incluyendo tambin una traduccin de la ketub al castellano, que
debi de proporcionarle alguno de sus amigos judos. Ese inters por el texto del
contrato matrimonial establece, como veremos ms adelante, un paralelo con la
descripcin de la boda que cuarenta aos antes se haba publicado en el peridico
liberal El Globo, aunque la versin de la ketub de Ortega y la del peridico madrileo
difieren, por lo que hay que suponer que se trata de dos traducciones independientes.
Dos testimonios periodsticos de 1873 y 1877

Entre la primera guerra de Marruecos y la poca del Protectorado hay alguna otra
descripcin de la boda marroqu, como el breve apunte del mdico Felipe Ovilo
Canales en 1881;19 en ese perodo se sitan tambin los dos testimonios inditos que
presento aqu.20
El ms antiguo es un grabado (vase en Imagen) que se public en La Ilustracin
Espaola y Americana, revista que apareci desde 1869 hasta 1921 y que constituye la
representante ms conspicua de la prensa ilustrada en Espaa;21 en todos los nmeros,
adems de las imgenes que acompaaban a las informaciones, se incluan grabados
artsticos con un pequeo texto explicativo.
El Texto 1, que editamos, acompaa a nuestro grabado, obra segn se indica
all del malogrado Bcquer, es decir, del pintor y grabador Valeriano Domnguez
18 Manuel Ortega, El doctor Pulido, Editorial Ibero-Africano-Americana, Madrid 1922.

19 Felipe Ovilo Canales, La mujer marroqu: Estudio social, Imprenta Manuel G. Hernndez,
Madrid 1881. Vase Francisco J. Martnez Antonio, Miradas y reflexiones de mdicos
espaoles sobre la realidad marroqu a finales del siglo XIX, Miraguano, Madrid 2009, pp.
248-249 y biografa del autor en pp. 22-30.
20 Utilizo los ejemplares de la Hemeroteca Digital de la Biblioteca Nacional de Espaa,
http://www.bne.es/es/Catalogos/HemerotecaDigital/.
21 Era continuadora de El Museo Universal (publicado entre 1857 y 1869). La pionera de
las revistas ilustradas fue la britnica Illustrated London News, que se public como
hebdomadario desde 1842 hasta 1971, pero en la gran difusin de este tipo de publicaciones
por toda Europa influy el xito de dos francesas, LIllustration (que se public desde 1843
a 1944) y Le Monde Illustr (aparecido desde 1857 hasta 1948, ao en que se fusion con
France Illustration). Tambin en Italia existi una Ilustrazione Italiana y en Alemania el
Illustrierte Zeitung.
64
Paloma Daz-Mas
Bcquer (Sevilla 1833-Madrid 1870), hermano del famoso escritor romntico Gustavo
Adolfo Bcquer (y autor del retrato ms famoso de ste). Domnguez Bcquer recibi
en 1864 un encargo del Gobierno espaol para realizar una serie de pinturas que
reflejasen las fiestas populares, las costumbres y los trajes tpicos de las distintas
regiones espaolas, proyecto que se frustr luego por falta de financiacin; los
grabados de las dos mujeres marroques, juda y musulmana, se encuadran por tanto
en la tradicin de la pintura costumbrista que le resultaba familiar; familiar incluso en
el sentido ms literal de la palabra, ya que su padre Jos (1805-1841) y, sobre todo, su
to Joaqun (1817-1879) fueron tambin conocidos pintores costumbristas.
El texto explicativo que en La Ilustracin acompaa al grabado no ofrece apenas
informacin acerca de lo que la imagen representa, hasta el punto de que, si no fuera
por el pie que reza Hebrea en traje de boda, los lectores de la revista no podran
imaginar que la indumentaria de la mujer juda es un vestido de novia. Pero, pese a
la inanidad del comentario, hay algn detalle significativo de la visin que la mirada
espaola arroja sobre la imagen de la novia sefard (y de la mujer musulmana en traje
de fiesta que le sirve de pareja), cuando alude a las blancas gasas, finsimos vestidos
de seda bordados de colores brillantes, joyas ricas y de gusto oriental, y otras prendas
propias de cada una de las dos razas, pero no menos lujosas en la una que en la otra,
en donde se encarnan los tpicos del Oriente lujoso, extico y sensual, de incitantes
mujeres slo apenas veladas por gasas y sedas. Un discurso que con toda evidencia
contradice lo que en el grabado se ve: la hebrea lleva el traje de novia de berberisca,
con sus gruesos tejidos y su pesada falda de terciopelo, que obligan a su portadora
a adoptar una pose envarada y un tanto rgida; las blancas gasas y los finsimos
vestidos de seda no estn ni en la realidad ni en la imagen del grabado, sino slo en
la mente del comentarista.
Por lo que respecta a nuestro Texto 2, se public en 1878 en El Globo, un diario
madrileo fundado en 1875 que sigui publicndose hasta 1930, aunque con
varios cambios en su trayectoria. Durante las primeras dcadas fue un peridico
liberal, portavoz de la corriente llamada posibilista del republicanismo moderado,
cuyo mximo representante fue Emilio Castelar (seguidores de Castelar eran, por
ejemplo, Joaqun Costa22 o el propio ngel Pulido). En los aos setenta del siglo XIX
22 Para las relaciones de Joaqun Costa con los sefardes vase Jacobo Israel Garzn Joaqun
Costa, la Revista de Geografa Comercial y los judos, Races: Revista juda de cultura
55-56 (2003), pp. 31-34.
65
se distingui por su postura a favor de la ley de libertad religiosa, en oposicin al

movimiento integrista Unidad Catlica, que defenda la confesionalidad del Estado.
Como peridico liberal, otra de sus caractersticas era no ser antijudo en una
poca de auge del antisemitismo en Europa. En las pginas de El Globo se incluyen
con cierta frecuencia noticias, editoriales o colaboraciones literarias en las que los
judos aparecen retratados positivamente, entre ellas algunas informaciones sobre los
sefardes de Oriente.23 Ocasionalmente aparecen tambin informaciones sobre los
sefardes de Marruecos, en especial en las cartas de un annimo corresponsal que
escribe desde Tnger.
Una de ellas contiene la descripcin del ritual de una boda sefard de Marruecos y
la traduccin del texto de la ketub que damos a conocer aqu (Texto 2).
La carta se public cuando haca ms de quince aos que haba terminado la
ocupacin espaola de Tetun y faltaban todava casi treinta y cinco para que se
estableciese el Protectorado. Es un perodo en el que, como ha sealado Vctor
Morales Lezcano:24
La poltica marroqu de los gobiernos de Madrid oscil entre la tentacin de
intervenir ms a fondo en el Norte de Marrruecos, e incluso en Fez y su comarca,
y el mantenimiento escrupuloso del statu quo, es decir, de la soberana del Majzn
y de la integridad de su territorio.
De una parte, se repiti en Espaa, hasta la saciedad, que la frontera meridional
de la Pennsula se encontraba en las montaas del Rif, cuando no en la cordillera
del Atlas. Esta fue la expresin geopoltica ms rotunda de una proclividad
intervencionista que nunca pas, en el siglo XIX, de ser una formulacin
ocasional a la que, muy pronto, se opusieron los africanistas hispanos, partidarios
de un rapprochement mercantil y cultural con Marruecos canalizado pacfica y
civilmente.
23 Vase Paloma Daz-Mas, El judeoespaol en la prensa espaola de la Restauracin:

informaciones en el diario El Globo, en Yvette Brki, Manuela Cimeli y Rosa Snchez
(eds.), Lengua, Llengua, Llingua, Lingua, Langue. Encuentros filolgicos (ibero)
romnicos. Estudios en homenaje a la profesora Beatrice Schmid, Peniope, Munich 2012,
pp. 190-202.
24 Vctor Morales Lezcano, Espaa y el Norte de frica: El protectorado en Marruecos
(1912-56), Universidad Nacional de Educacin a Distancia, Madrid 1984, p. 19.
66
Paloma Daz-Mas
Acorde con esa ambigedad de la poltica espaola, la carta del corresponsal de

Tnger empieza con unas consideraciones sobre el apego a sus tradiciones, a su
sistema de gobierno y a su peculiar manera de ser de los marroques y su enemistad
hacia toda clase de reformas que tengan un colorido, aunque sea levsimo, de algo
que a civilizacin y progreso se parezca. Es decir, la imagen del pueblo oriental
como tradicional, atrasado y renuente al progreso, pese a la cercana fsica con
respecto al mundo civilizado (no se encuentra separado de Europa ms que por unas
cuantas millas) y a tener trato frecuente en esta ciudad con un gran nmero de
europeos. A continuacin viene una defensa de lo que constituy uno de los mayores
problemas para la soberana de Marruecos, el rgimen de protecciones consulares que
las potencias occidentales otorgaban a algunos nacionales del pas
a fin de sustraerlos a los malos tratos que en nombre del Sultn muchas veces se
les da por los bajaes o gobernadores: malos tratos que unas veces son corporales y
otros [sic] pecuniarios, en proporcin a sus medios de subsistencia, y sin que para
aplicarlos haya habido nunca otra ley que el capricho de los gobernantes.
La carta insiste en las arbitrariedades cometidas por el gobierno de Marruecos contra
sus naturales, para acabar con una declaracin de la superioridad poltica de Espaa:
basta de esto, de lo cual a Dios gracias y a la Constitucin nos encontramos libres.
Y a continuacin, y sin solucin de continuidad, se pasa a describir una boda sefard,
con la entradilla:
Das pasados, asist a un casamiento de hebreos, que por lo curioso y nuevo para
m de sus ceremonias, y porque en una de ellas se dedica un recuerdo a nuestra
patria, har de l una sucinta descripcin.
La concatenacin de las consideraciones acerca de la tirana del gobierno marroqu
sobre sus sbditos, la necesidad del sistema de protecciones consulares y la descripcin
de la boda de hebreos pone de relieve la condicin de los judos como minora
sometida por el gobierno de su pas y necesitada de la proteccin de las potencias
coloniales (y, por tanto, como aliado potencial de los estados occidentales). Una
minora que, al mismo tiempo, presenta algunas de las caractersticas que la visin
del orientalismo colonial atribuy tradicionalmente a los pueblos orientales: el atraso,
ejemplificado en la falta de higiene (el bao al que no son las judas muy aficionadas)
y en el apego casi supersticioso e infantil a las tradiciones y preceptos (algunos []
en extremo pueriles).
67
Por otra parte, la justificacin del corresponsal para ofrecer una descripcin de la
boda sefard y una traduccin del texto de la ketub muestra la doble consideracin
de lo sefard como otro extico y como prximo: por lo curioso y nuevo para m de
sus ceremonias versus en una de ellas se dedica un recuerdo a nuestra patria (el
recuerdo a nuestra patria es la mencin que en la ketub se hace de las leyes []
que regularon y establecieron las comunidades que fueron expulsadas de Castilla).
Ese discurso dplice, difundido en este caso a travs de un peridico liberal y
republicano, defensor de la libertad religiosa, constituye una buena muestra de la
ambigedad del discurso espaol con respecto a los sefardes desde la poca de la
primera Guerra de frica hasta el final del Protectorado y aun despus.
Imagen
La Ilustracin Espaola y Americana, ao 17, nm. 13 de 1 de abril de 1873, p. 205
68
Paloma Daz-Mas
Texto 1
[La Ilustracin Espaola y Americana, ao 17, nm. 13 de 1 de abril de 1873, p. 196,
dentro de la seccin Nuestros grabados]:
Costumbres de Marruecos. Mora y hebrea en traje de gala.
Tipos completamente diferentes, en religin, en idioma y en costumbres, suelen
ser los que representan nuestros dibujos de la pg. 205; pero los dos se igualan, por
decirlo as, al menos en las familias acomodadas de Marruecos, cuando tratan de
presentarse en traje de fiesta, y procura siempre el uno superar al otro.
Blancas gasas, finsimos vestidos de seda bordados de colores brillantes, joyas
ricas y de gusto oriental, y otras prendas propias de cada una de las dos razas, pero
no menos lujosas en la una que en la otra, son los detalles especialsimos de los trajes
de fiesta que usan en ocasiones solemnes las hijas de Mahoma y las hijas de Abrahan
[sic] que moran en el imperio de Marruecos.
Y como existe entre estas dos razas una rivalidad antigua e inextinguible, tal
vez nacida de la diferencia de religiones, lo mismo las moras que las hebreas hacen
esfuerzos prodigiosos para salir vencedoras en esa especie de justa que libran la
coquetera, la riqueza y el buen gusto de las mujeres de Marruecos parecidas a todas
las mujeres, en punto a satisfacer sus caprichos de tocador.
Los dos grabados que citamos, dibujo del malogrado Bcquer, darn a nuestros
lectores una idea exacta de los trajes de fiesta que visten las moras y las hebreas de
Marruecos.
Texto 2
[El Globo, ao 3 (segunda poca), nmero 651 de 23 de julio de 1877, p. 2, cols. a-c]
Cartas a El Globo.
Seor director de El Globo:
Tnger 15 de Julio de 1877
Muy seor mo: Parece imposible que un pueblo que no se encuentra separado de
Europa ms que por unas cuantas millas ocupadas por el Estrecho de Gibraltar, y
teniendo trato frecuente en esta ciudad con un gran nmero de europeos, sea tan
apegado a sus tradiciones, a su sistema de gobierno y a su peculiar manera de ser, y
69
tan enemigo de toda clase de reformas que tengan un colorido, aunque sea levsimo,
de algo que a civilizacin y progreso se parezca.
Constantemente se han visto obligados a luchar en este pas los gobiernos europeos
que tienen en l representantes, con la especie de esclavitud en que los sbditos
marroques se encuentran en sus relaciones con el Sultn, habiendo sido indispensable
que a muchos de ellos se le dispensase por los representantes aqu acreditados una
proteccin decidida, a fin de sustraerlos a los malos tratos que en nombre del Sultn
muchas veces se les da por los bajaes o gobernadores: malos tratos que unas veces son
corporales y otros pecuniarios, en proporcin a sus medios de subsistencia, y sin que
para aplicarlos haya habido nunca otra ley que el capricho de los gobernantes.
Claro es que estas protecciones no se han dispensado nunca arbitrariamente, sino
que han estado sometidas a ciertas reglas y condiciones, tales como los servicios
prestados por el protegido a la nacin protectora, u otros hechos anlogos que han
obligado a considerar al sbdito marroqu como perteneciente en cierto modo o
naturalizado en el pas extranjero, cuya bandera la ampara en adelante.
Las arbitrariedades del gobierno marroqu y la ciega dependencia en que todos los
sbditos se encuentran respecto a l han hecho que sean muy solicitas las protecciones
extranjeras, y esto ha dado margen a que por algunas naciones se cometan abusos,
concedindoles a algunos que no llenaban las condiciones que para ello son necesarias,
abusos que, aun cometidos con la buena intencin de sustraer vctimas a la accin del
gobierno de Marruecos, han obligado a ste a reclamar contra tales abusos, a fin de
hacer que las protecciones se ajusten a los lmites que deben tener y se disminuyan
todo lo posible.
A dilucidar este asunto parece que estn encaminadas unas reuniones de todos
los representantes extranjeros, que se estn celebrando en estos momentos, y cuyas
decisiones esperan con impaciencia multitud de hebreos acaudalados, comerciantes
todos, y cuyo comercio ha podido ejercerse en grande escala, merced a estar protegidos
los unos por Italia, otros por Francia, Espaa, etc., etc.; pues todos ellos convienen en
que una vez quitadas tales protecciones, tendrn que meterse en su choza, por temor
a que el gobierno se eche sobre sus caudales, obtenidos a costa de tantos sacrificios.
Porque el sistema usado por el Sultn o por los bajes en nombre de aquel o en el suyo
propio, es ya conocido: necesita el Sultn o un baj cualquiera dinero; sospecha que
Fulano o Mengano lo tiene, manda un par de soldados de rey que lo llevan a la crcel,
y no sale de ella hasta que entrega la cantidad que le piden, tngala o no la tenga, y
hasta otra vez en que se repita la misma operacin.
70
Paloma Daz-Mas
Basta de esto, de lo cual a Dios gracias y a la Constitucin nos encontramos libres.

Das pasados, asist a un casamiento de hebreos, que por lo curioso y nuevo para
m de sus ceremonias, y porque en una de ellas se dedica un recuerdo a nuestra patria,
har de l una sucinta descripcin, y copiar la traduccin, que me he procurado, del
documento que por el sabio se lee como fa del acto.
Dos das antes del fijado para la ceremonia, se sumerge a la novia en un bao, tal
vez con el propsito de limpieza, a la que no son las judas muy aficionadas.
La vspera del casamiento, la visten con el traje clsico, que consiste en una falda
de terciopelo bordada de oro, cuerpo de lo mismo, grandes pendientes y alhajas
riqusimas al cuello, y una especie de tiara o diadema de terciopelo, tambin bordada,
que se coloca en la cabeza, teniendo especial cuidado en llevar la cabellera suelta,
ltima vez que se permite a la desposada lucir sus galas naturales, pues en lo sucesivo
llevar la cabellera cubierta con un pauelo de seda, porque slo el esposo tendr
derecho, segn la ley, para disfrutar de esa vista.
Observan los hebreos con tanta exactitud estos preceptos, algunos de los cuales son
en extremo pueriles, que aquellas cuyos gustos les hacen vestir el traje europeo y usar
sombrero como nuestras damas, se cubren su cabello natural con una peluca, la que,
unida al sombrero hace parecer enorme su cabeza.
Desde las dos de la tarde de la vspera de la ceremonia, ha de estar la novia
vestida como hemos descrito, sentada en un sitio elevado del saln, rodeada de todas
sus amigas y de los convidados, que al comps de la extraa msica rabe, hacen
desaparecer sendas bandejas o bateas, como ellos las llaman , de empalagosos dulces
de fabricacin domstica; mientras la protagonista, cubierta con un tupido velo y con
los ojos constantemente cerrados, presencia impasible tan desoladora escena.
A las ocho de la noche es trasladada en una carroza cerrada, con acompaamiento
de hachones encendidos y una numerosa comitiva, a la casa del novio, en cuya sala
principal se ha dispuesto de antemano una especie de trono que llaman tlamo, al
que la conducen despus de pasearla un momento por la habitacin. Despus que
ha estado un buen espacio de tiempo sentada en el tlamo, con cuyo acto ha tomado
ya posesin de su nueva casa, se acuesta en el lecho nupcial, donde pasar la noche
acompaada de su madre y de su ms ntima amiga.
Al da siguiente, a las nueve o diez de la maana, llegan todos los convidados y,
estando la novia en el tlamo, tambin en la misma actitud que en la tarde anterior,
esto es, con los ojos cerrados, se verifica la ceremonia del casamiento, que consiste
en beber los dos novios vino en una copa, que se rompe a continuacin, y en leer, o
71
salmodiar, mejor dicho, el sabio rabino el documento que, con ligeras variantes segn
los casos, copiamos a continuacin:
En tal da de tal ao de la creacin del mundo, Fulano, hijo de Mengano, habl
a la joven X, hija de Z, y la dijo: s a mi como mujer, segn la ley de Moiss y
de Israel, y con el ayuda de Dios, yo te mantendr y te vestir como es costumbre
entre los hebreos, trabajar, y honrar, y mantener, y vestir sus mujeres en toda
seguridad. Yo te dar la dote de tu virginidad y adems veinticinco monedas de
plata; yo proveer a tu manutencin y a todo aquello que necesitares, como es
costumbre en el mundo.
Y la novia consinti en este arreglo y fue su mujer.
Luego el novio fue aadiendo de su propia voluntad a la suma principal antes
citada, hasta formar un total de tantas onzas de plata, de moneda corriente en esta
ciudad. Adems, el novio se comprometi tambin, por promesa legal, a dar a su
joven esposa tantas onzas de la misma moneda antes mencionada.
Despus de recibir el ajuar que la novia le ha trado de casa de sus parientes,
consistente en efectos de vestir, de cama, alhajas, etc., el novio declar aceptarlo
todo por su cuenta, mediante el valor de tantas onzas, lo que constituye, tanto
en principal como en aumento, regalos y ajuar, la suma total de tantas onzas en
monedas de plata, valor corriente del pas.
El referido novio se comprometi formalmente a no tomar otra mujer al lado de la
suya, y a no sacarla de esta ciudad para habitar en otra parte, sin su consentimiento.
Si faltare a este compromiso, si tomase otra mujer al lado de la suya, o si quisiese
hacerla salir del lugar para establecerse en otras partes contra su voluntad, la
pagar aquello en que se ha convenido ms arriba y la devolver en el acto, por
divorcio.
Estas estipulaciones tendrn fuerza y vigor, como las condiciones que se
establecieron entre los hijos de Rubn y los hijos de Gad.
Y el referido novio asumi la responsabilidad de lo contenido en este contrato:
esto es, principal, aumento, regalos y ajuar sobre s mismo y sobre sus herederos
despus de l, y sobre sus bienes, propiedades e inmuebles, etc, que ha comprado
o que compre con arreglo a la ley.
Y el referido novio ha dado su palabra sagrada de atenerse rigurosamente a la letra
de la presente acta, despus de declarar que los usos, las condiciones y las leyes
en ella citadas estn en un todo conformes con las que regularon y establecieron
las comunidades que fueron expulsadas de Castilla. Que Dios se apiade de
72
Paloma Daz-Mas
sus almas y proteja y se digne mirar con ojos de misericordia, los restos de sus
descendientes, desterrados ahora y para siempre!
Aceptadas las condiciones, el ajuar entr en la posesin del novio antes citado.
Todo esto es claro y es formal.
Hasta aqu el documento, despus de cuya lectura queda terminada la ceremonia y se
sirven esplndidos almuerzos y comidas durante ocho das consecutivos.
Suyo afectsimo. El corresponsal
73
74
Michal Held
Ansina pueden dizir loke keren

(This way they can say whatever they wish)
Expressions of Gender in the Personal Narratives
of Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) Speaking Women Storytellers
Michal Held
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
For Tamar Alexander, who opened a gate for many
Sephardic womens voices and paved a path for their
understanding. Best of luck in the paths to come: Una
puerta se serra, sien se avrin (when one door closes, a
hundred doors open).
Introduction: Conceptual and Methodological Keys

The womans voice, and the way in which it is expressed and interpreted in the Personal
Narrative,1 has recently received growing attention in Israeli folkloristic research. For
example, both Ilana Rosen, focusing on the PNs of Hungarian female Holocaust
survivors,2 and Nili Arye-Sapir, dealing with the PNs of women who belonged to
the pioneering generations of Zionism and the shaping of Israeli society,3 aim at
deciphering the feminine voice and the messages it carries. Similar concerns are being
1
2
In short PN.
See Ilana Rosen, Sister in Sorrow: Life Histories of Female Holocaust Survivors from
Hungary, translated & edited by Sandy Bloom, Detroit 2008; idem, Women and Time in
the Life Histories of Female Holocaust Survivors of Austro-Hungarian Origins, Cadernos
de Lngua e Literatura Hebraica, vol. 4 (2004), pp. 36-48; idem, Personal Historical
Narrative Shaping the Past and Present, in European Journal of Jewish Studies, 3:1
(2009), pp. 103-133.
See Nili Arye-Spir, Collective Messages in the Personal Narrative of Leah Horowitz [in
Hebrew], Sadan 6 (2007), pp. 65-80; Nili Arye-Sapir, A Proverbial Dialogue between
75
dealt with in the research of written personal narratives (diaries and autobiographies)
of Zionist and Israeli women by researchers of literature4 and of communications.5
Within the wider context of which these works form a part, the following essay shall
ask whether the PNs of Sephardic women stepping out of traditional society and
earning acceptance as equal members of modern society may be defined as feminine
manifestos, and furthermore, if they may be regarded as a distinctly feminine genre.
Questions such as these are central to the exploration and interpretation of the PNs of
the Judeo-Spanish6speaking women storytellers with which this essay is concerned.7
Created and performed in the linguistic and cultural climate of contemporary Israel,
in an ethnic language that is ceasing to exist as an essential communications tool, the
narratives evoke the constantly changing process of reconstructing their narrators8
understanding of themselves, their lives, and the world. They may be regarded as
5
6
a Pioneers Daughter and her Mother [in Hebrew], Massechet 5 (2006), pp. 69-81; Nili
Arye-Sapir and Michal Held, Queen Esther of the Tel Aviv Purim Carnival A Personal
Narrative in its Cultural Context [in Hebrew], Massekhet 8 (2008), pp. 97-116.
See, for example, Tamar Hess, The Confessions of a Bad Reader: Embodied Selves,
Narrative Strategies, and Subversion in Israeli Womens Autobiography, Prooftexts, 27:1
(2007), pp 151-187; Yaffa Berlovitz, ed., A Wounded Bird: Dora Bader Diary (1933-1937)
[in Hebrew], Tel Aviv 2011.
Esther Schely-Newman, Our Lives Are But Stories: Narratives of Tunisian-Israeli Women,
Detroit 2002.
Judeo-Spanish is mainly a Romance language with embedded Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic,
Turkish, and Balkan components. Originating in medieval Spain, it became a widespread
Jewish language when the descendants of Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in
1492 continued to use it in oral and written form in their newly established communities in
the Ottoman Empire and Northern Morocco. The language received various names down
the centuries, including the term Ladino, which originally referred to the dialect used in
the translation of the Bible and other sacred Jewish texts from the sixteenth century on.
This dialect differs from the spoken and written language used by Sephardic Jews. The
language used in the personal narratives analyzed in this paper is thus referred to as JudeoSpanish (and in short JS), and the culture it represents is referred to as Sephardic. The
term Ladino is used only when quoted directly from the storytellers as such.
For further information and analysis, see Michal Held, Let Me Tell You a Story / Ven te
kontare: The Personal Narratives of Judeo-Spanish Speaking Storytelling Women, An
Interdisciplinary Study [in Hebrew], Jerusalem 2009.
The informants are members of a group of Judeo-Spanishspeaking storytellers: women in
their sixties, seventies, and late eighties who since 1986, mainly in Jerusalem, have been
meeting once a month for over twenty years to tell each other folk tales in Judeo-Spanish
76
Michal Held
identity formation mechanisms, consisting of a fusion of realistic, fictional, and

folkloric materials. Their dialogic nature is also central to their definition.
The following analysis shall focus on the way in which Sephardic women conceive
themselves while creating their PN in their ethnic language, using the PN as a vehicle
for understanding the feminine awareness that is being voiced through it, as well as
the other worldviews and values that the narrators (consciously or unconsciously)
convey.
Prior to the close reading of the PNs, an organizing phenomenon at work in all
of them should be presented. Traditional formalist theories, such as the influential
model of Vladimir Propp9 and his followers in the study of folklore, are based upon
an analysis of the internal aspects of folk literature: plot, characters, etc. In the PN,
more components, such as material culture and intertextuality, are at work. Looking
at several recurring characteristics appearing in the corpus of PNs I studied led to the
definition of the narrative package, which is characteristic of the PN and includes
both internal/fictive and external/realistic categories.
The specific narrative packages identified and analyzed in my research of the PNs
of Sephardic women storytellers are the following: Story and the storyteller; Loss of
a meaningful other; Birth and giving birth; Geographical locations and the movement
between them; Womanhood and independence; Match-making and marriage; War
and traumatic historical events; Sephardic characteristics/traits (language, culture,
ethnicity); Objects of material culture; Food and recipes; Intertextuality; Childhood;
Past and present. Each of these packages illuminates the individual and collective
messages channeled through the PNs.
Three of these packages were studied in depth: Birth and giving birth demonstrating
how plot is dealt with in the PN; Loss of a meaningful other demonstrating psychological
notions at work in the PN, and intertextuality demonstrating the way in which
their mother tongue. Many of their folktales were transcribed and published by the groups
founder, Matilda Koen-Sarano, born in Milan, Italy, in 1939. The other storytellers who
contributed to the research are (in alphabetical order of their last names) Ester Levi, born in
Jerusalem in 1920; Sol Maymaran, born in Jerusalem in 1915, died in Jerusalem in 2000;
Miriam Reymond, born in Milan, Italy, in 1945, Malka Simha, born in Seres, Greece, in
1914, died in Jerusalem in 2010; Levana Sasson, born in Jerusalem in 1942; and Ester
Ventura, born in Izmir, Turkey, in 1930, died in Jerusalem in 2014.
Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale, ed. Laurence Scott, trans. Louis A. Wagner,
Austin 1968.
77
different textual materials (especially folktales, proverbs, and idio-proverbs)10 are

interwoven and utilized in the PN. The following discussion focuses on questions of
gender expressed through two relevant narrative packages: Birth and giving birth, and
Match-making and Marriage.
1. The Feminine Voice and the Question of Gender

Traditional Jewish society differentiates between female and male folkloristic and
canonic genres and performances: roughly, women deliver babies, while men commit
the act of circumcision; women cook while men say the blessing over the food;
women lament for the dead, while men study the Torah in their memory. Studies of the
role of women in the different fields of folklore in many human societies support the
understanding that it is characterized by the duties that are associated with the woman
in the framework of the family and the working cycles in which she functions.11
It is in this context that we should ask ourselves whether the narratives that this essay
sets out to explore may be defined as a feminine genre. Folklore genre scholarship,
especially that which is concerned with the PN, acknowledges the fact that genres
are not neutral classification systems, but part of the politics of interpretation in
which meaning and the authority to propose and ascribe categories is contested.12 In
most cases, the PN of a man or a woman may be defined as masculine or feminine
respectively, as aspects of gender often occupy a central place in the identity of the
individual who creates it.
Ilana Rosen explains the mechanism enabling the PNs of Jewish women to become
a powerful tool for feminine identity formation:
Men tend to discuss communal tradition, especially its religious components,
whereas women tend to private discourse, which enables them to tell their own
experiences. Men present the collective, whereas women present the personal,
10 Short phrases created by the narrators that follow the traditional characteristics of proverbs.
For detailed definition and analysis see Note 7, pp. 198-218.
11 See, for example, Linda Degh, Narrative in Society: A Performer-Centered Study of
Narration, Helsinki 1995, pp. 62-69.
12 See Amy Shuman, Gender and Genre, in Feminist Theory and the Study of Folklore, ed.
Susan Tower Hollis et al., Chicago 1993, p. 71.
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Michal Held
men express authority and norm, whereas women describe specific events and
their affective impression upon their consciousness. Men describe their bygone
world in its glory, whereas women recount its destruction.13
To connect these observations to our corpus, we should point out that women have
rarely played an active public role in the communities that form the Sephardic
narrators social background. Their PNs compensate for this social situation enabling
them to construct a feminine identity while illuminating questions such as womanhood
and independence, match-making and married life, birth and birth giving. On another
hermeneutic level, the storytellers use the PNs to negotiate and understand the place
that their individual identity occupies within their collective identity and memory.
Moreover, the identification of the PNs we are looking at as a feminine genre
derives from the fact that the women who created them were active members of an
exclusively feminine storytelling group. The definition of the group as a territory
inaccessible to men influences the narrators tendency to conceive their traditional
folktales (and indirectly their PNs too) as feminine. An example of this conception is
found in the PN of Matilda Koen-Sarano:
Michal: Porke ay solamente mujeres en el hug?
Matilda: Esto es mijor. Muncho mijor. Porke ansina pueden dizir loke keren. I no
te digo loke sale afuera! De mil kolores, de mil kozas! Porke son viejas, somos
viejas, no mos emporta nada. No tenemos busha, komo se dize I despues, los
ombres no vienen a estas kozas. Ke ombre vas a traer? Traimos un musafir, ma
no es ke tenemos ombres ke partisipan en esto. Los ombres, a los ombres no les
va a agradar I los ombres kontan kuentos mui diferentes ke las mujeres. No
son los mizmos kuentos. Munchos kuentos de mujeres les paresen patranyas a los
ombres: todos los kuentos de mazal, todas las konsejas, de reyes, de bodas i esto
todo. Para los ombres no son emportantes. Eyos tienen kuentos morales, kuentos
del Meam Loez, kuentos del kal, kuentos de... si. Mi padre kontava kuentos de,
de Kere dizir kuentos de estados, de reyes kon kozas de polotika, estas kozas
kontava. Ma no, no estos kuentos. Estos son kuentos de otra manera.
(Michal: Why are there only women in the group?
Matilda: This is better, much better because this way they can say whatever
they wish. And I cant tell you what comes out! In thousands of colors! Thousands
13 See Note 2, item 2, p. 4.
79
of things! Because they are old, we are old ladies, we dont care about anything.
We have no shame, as they say. And men dont come to these sorts of things. What
man will you bring? We brought a [male] visitor, but it doesnt mean that we have
men who participate in this [regularly.] Men are not going to like this And men
tell stories that are different than the ones women tell. These are not the same
stories. Many womens stories seem to men like lies: all those stories of luck, the
folktales about kings, weddings etc. They are not important for men. They have
their moral tales; tales from the Meam Loez, stories from the synagogue, stories
yes. My father used to tell stories of, of of estates, of kings with political things.
This sort of things he used to tell. But no, no, these are other kinds of stories).
Another example of the conception of the group as a feminine territory is given by
Ester Levi, an active participant in the storytellers activities since it was founded:
Ester: Ombres no ay ande mozos.
Michal: Porke? Ay kuentos de mujeres i kuentos de ombres?
Ester: El kuento ke kotni yo de la zona no es ermozo de kontar al lado de ombres.
Ya lo oites?
Michal: Si. Son diferentes, los kuentos de los ombres.
Zehava: Porke no ay ombres? Es meanyen.
Ester: Ay, mira, todas son bivdas a lo mas. Munchas bivdas vienen, munchas
(Ester: There are no men with us [in the group].
Michal: Why? Are there tales of women and tales of men?
Ester: The tale I told about the whore, it is not nice to tell it next to men. Did you
hear that tale?
Michal: Yes. Are mens tales different than womens?
Zehava: But why are there no men [in the group]? It is interesting.
Ester: Look, they [we] are all widows. Most [of us]. Many widows come, many )
Tamar Alexander-Frizer explained the importance of inter-feminine folktales:
The existence of stories about women in womens circles proves that the audience
of women [] needs an art that reflects an internal group point of view and
reinforces it. In this case, the common dominator of the group is gender.14
14 Tamar Alexander-Frizer, The Heart Is a Mirror: The Sephardic Folktale, translated by

Jacqueline S. Teitelbaum, Detroit c2008, p. 376.
80
Michal Held
Borrowing her insight for the understanding of the PN, we can see how the views
expressed by Matilda and Ester convey the fact that gender is a central factor in the
formation and manifestation of the self and the collective identity of the women whose
PNs were addressed to me, a woman myself, within a feminine network.
Thus, the PNs with which we are concerned may be defined as a feminine, and I
shall now try to decipher the feminine voice that is heard through them. According
to the Talmudic proverb, Out of ten measures of talking that were brought down to
the world, women took nine (Tractate Kiddushin 49a). Based on a male dominance,
the traditional Jewish canon de-legitimizes the right of women to express themselves
in elevated contexts, regarding their speech as useless conversation. Rachel Elior
studied a wide range of traditional Jewish texts in which the voice of women had
been muted.15 Missing in her model is folk literature, which enables women to
express themselves in a relatively free and uncensored way outside the cultural canon.
According to Galit Hasan-Rokem, the folk narrative is a creative field that allows
a co-existence of a multitude of voices, including those of women. She goes on to
claim that the folk narrative is a dialogue between paternalistic views and those that
undermine them within the boundaries of the same text.16 Similarly, the PNs explored
here are hermeneutic tools for representing reality through a set of feminine voices
and consciousness.
2. Match-Making and Marriage

Exploring womanhood in the PNs of the Sephardic storytellers I analyzed evokes a
situation more complex than that of liberating the womans voice. The complexity
may be demonstrated through the narrators interpretation of issues such as female
independence, match-making and marriage. Matilda Koen-Sarano recalls her refusal
to give up her wish to study literature at the university, when her mother, portrayed
15 See Rachel Elior, Present but Absent, Still Life and A Pretty Maiden who has No
Eyes: On the presence and absence of women in the Hebrew Language, in Jewish Culture
and in Israeli life, in Streams into the Sea: Studies in Jewish Culture and Its Context,
Dedicated to Felix Posen, eds. E. Reiner and R. Livneh-Freudenthal, Tel Aviv 2001, pp.
191-211.
16 Galit Hasan-Rokem, The Web of Life Folklore in Rabbinic Literature: The Palestinian
Aggadic Midrash Eikha Rabba [in Hebrew], Tel Aviv 1996, pp. 121-123.
81
in her PN as the more traditional female character, expected her to acquire a practical
profession or terminate her studies altogether and get married:
I kuando skapi el liseo, mi mama keria ke vo a estudiar alguna koza de
komersial. Porke no somos rikos, porke, porke. Ma yo kijo estudiar literatura,
estudios umanitikos, i me fui yo i me skrivi a los umanistikos malgrado ke mi
madre no kijiera. Kijo una koza fasil para lavorar. Ma yo no entyendo destas
kozas komersyalas. Kiji estudiar literatura i latino, sovre todo latino, muncho
latino. I linguas. I me skrivi a linguas. No, no izi kuento Kuando skapi el liseo
me skrivi al universidad. [Kuando] Aaron vino a Milano i la prima vez ke mos
konosimos, le tomo un anyo i medio para konversarme a mi, porke no tenia la mas
chika entensyon de kazarme. Yo keria studiar.
(And when I finished high school, my mother wanted me to study something
commercial. Because we are not rich, because, because. But I wanted to study
literature, humanistic studies. And I went and registered myself for the humanities
despite of what my mother wanted. She wanted something easy that would enable
me to work. But I dont understand these commercial things. I wanted to study
literature and Latin, more than anything Latin, lots of Latin, and languages, and
I registered myself for languages. I didnt make a story [=a big deal] When I
finished high school I registered for university. [When] Aaron came to Milan and
the first time we knew each other, it took him a year and a half to convince me [to
marry him], because I didnt have the slightest intention to get married. I wanted
to study).
Surprisingly, the meeting with her future husband is the only event that the same
narrator who insists on pursuing her higher education and not giving it up for married
life refers to as a story in its own right when reconstructing it in her PN: Te kero
dizir de la primera vez ke lo vidi [a Aaron], porke esto es un kuento, si? (I want to tell
you [about] the first time that I saw him, because this is a story, yes?) The importance
of meeting the potential husband and raising a family justifies the choice Matilda
eventually made to give up her studies for marriage.
Female independence and Match-Making and Marriage are two contradictory narrative
packages that eventually balance in Matildas PN, as they do in the narratives created
by some of the other members of the storytellers group she leads. The conglomerate of
these narrative packages employed in the PN of Malka Simha evokes a tension between
social attempts to make a match for marriage for the narrator and her wish to take control
of her life. She addresses the dilemma at an early stage of her narrative:
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Michal Held
Vino una tia mia, una ermana de mi mama, en Gresia, para vijitarmos despues de
esta desgrasia [de la muerte de mi ermano]. I kijo ke me fuera kon eya a Stambol
[...] Teniamos un vizino, un manseviko ke me keria bien [...] vino un dia el padre,
esta diziendo a mi padre: Yo keria a Rejin, la dieras para mi ijo. Avlare kon eya.
Yo, en entandant, prometia a mi tia ke me vo a Stambol. Ijika, kere trokamiento!
Dishe Me kero ir a Stambol! [...] Tenia un tio. Era kunyado de mi papa [...] lo
yamimos una noche, ke me [???] el pasaporto. O me vo o me kedo es otra koza.
(An aunt, my mothers sister, came to Greece to visit us after this disaster [of my
brothers death]. And she wanted me to go with her to Istanbul. In Greece, we
had a neighbor. A young guy who wanted me very much [] One day the [=his]
father came, saying to my father: I want Rejin, give her for my son. I shall
speak to her. I, while waiting, promised my aunt that I would go to Istanbul. A
young girl wants a change. I said: I want to go to Istanbul! [] I had an uncle, a
brother-in-law of my father. We called him one night so that he [takes care] of my
passport. If I go or stay is another thing).
The theme develops as the narrator recalls a folktale her uncle told her:
Kunado vino para tomar el pasaporto mio, me esta diziendo: Rejin, te vo a kontar
una storia, no se si te la vas a kreer [...] Avia una, una ija mui ermoza, desido de
partir. Akel tiempo otomobil no avia, era kon karrosa. Bueno. Ke se asovio ala
karrosa, vino un mansevo, la demando a kazarse kon el. I akea, sabasho de la
karrosa, se fue. Dishe: la konseja viene mui ermoza. Kualo es este klonso? Ke va
asperar ke se va ir, asuvir a la karrosa para ir? [...] Tu deshas estas reflikasiones.
Esto todo te lo esto kontando porke vini a demandar al primero tu opinion. Ke vo
ir ande tu padre a avlar, ke kero, te kero a ti para mi ermano.
(When he came to pick up my passport, he is saying to me: Rejin, I will tell you
a story. Dont know if you will believe [] There was a girl, a very pretty girl,
[who] decided to leave. In that time there was no car, it was in a carriage [that she
had to travel]. Good. When she got into the carriage, some guy came, asked her to
marry him. And she got off the carriage, went [with him]. I said: The story goes
very well. What is this nonsense? To hope that I shall leave? That I shall get in
the carriage for leaving? [] You let go of these reflections. I am telling you all
this because I came to ask for your opinion first. That I am going to speak to your
father, [to tell him] that I want you for my brother).
83
As the story progresses, we learn about the decisive sense of independence of the
narratorthen a very young woman in an early twentieth century traditional
Mediterranean society:
Yo le dishe a mi padre: Yo kale ke me vo a Stambol para pensar. Yo no puedo
desidirme ansina [...] Al manseviko le dire ke me sto indo a Stambol. [...]
Shimon, mira le dishe, Yo sto mui trista agora para pensar a espozar [...] Yo
me sto indo a Stambol por kinze, vente dias, dayi vo mandar la repuesta. Me
disho: Estos ojos ke te stan viendo agora, no te van a ver mas!17 Ke me estas
mladiziendo? le dishe. No ayi nada en el mundo, me sto indo por kinze dias, no
puedo ir kinze dias... Yo sto sintiendo aki ke no vas a tornar.
(I said to my father: It is necessary that I go to Istanbul to think. I cannot decide
like this [] I shall tell the young guy that I am going to Istanbul. Shimon,
look I said to him, I am going to Istanbul for fifteen, twenty days, I shall send
the answer from there. He said to me: These eyes that see you now, are never
going to see you again! What are you cursing me? I said to him. There is
nothing in the world, I am going for fifteen days, cant I go [for] fifteen days I
feel that you are not going to come back).
Interwoven into the narrative packages relating to womanhood at this stage are those
of geographical locations and the movement between them; and that of war and
traumatic historical events:
No torni. No me kazi no kon uno ni kon el otro. Todos fueron deportados. I yo
kedi biva en Estambol. No es el destino de la persona? Son unas kozas mui, mui
delikadas ke no se puede olvidar la persona. Mi padre sta sperando [la] repuesta
[...] Ya me espozi en Estambol. i ansina kedo el echo. No los vidi mas. Eyos se
fueron. Vino la gerra, se serarron los kaminos. Yo kedi en Estambol, eyos kedaron
en Gresia [...] Tengo los papeles, para ansi demandavan a Yad VaShe, de todas las
personas de la famiya. Sien personas de mi famia de fueron deportar.
(I did not return. I did not marry nor the one neither the other. Everybody got
deported. And I stayed alive in Istanbul. Isnt that a persons destiny? These are
very, very delicate things that one cannot forget. My father is waiting for the
answer []. I already married in Istanbul, and this was how the business ended. I
did not see them again. They went. The war came, the roads were closed. I stayed
17 The proverb was first recited by the narrator in Greek and then repeated in JS.
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Michal Held
in Istanbul, they stayed in Greece [] I have the papers, because this is what they
asked for in Yad VaShem [=the Israeli Holocaust Memorial], of all the people of
my family. A hundred people of my family who got deported.)
What initially was planned to be a short stay with relatives in Turkey eventually, as
an outcome of the Holocaust and the total destruction of Greek Jewry, turned into a
horrible separation that has influenced the narrator ever since then. The juxtaposition
between her insistence on maintaining her independence and on controlling her own
life on the one hand, and the helplessness she expresses in this paragraph on the
other, conveys that she beholds life as a multi-faceted system reflected in her PN
and modifying it. This example reinforces the fact that Malka Simha and the other
hand Sephardic women whose PNs I analyzed do not rebel against the rules of the
traditional world in which they grew up, but make them flexible, proving that wise and
resourceful women may benefit from tradition by implementing their independence
within its boundaries.
At yet another level stands the PN itself, enabling the women who create it to speak
up and interpret their lives after having inspected the values out of which they grew.
Under the surface of the corpus of PNs that this essay focuses on exists, therefore,
an intuitive (as opposed to formal, political, etc.) feminist manifesto based upon a
freedom to express independent thinking.
Our narrators have incorporated into their PNs materials that in their society
represent male dominance, such as prayer and liturgy books in Hebrew and Ladino
they independently chose to read out to me. Importing into their narratives a male
territory and adopting it naturally, they implement a change in the traditional consensus
by refusing to narrow themselves down to the little tradition, and becoming instead
equal to the owners of male voices that form the great tradition, as was explained
by anthropologist Robert Redfield18 and adopted to Sephardic culture by Levy & Levy
Zumwalt.19 Thus, the contemporary feminine Sephardic PN becomes a field where
women are no longer limited by patriarchal restrictions, but make their voice heard by
adopting male tools and readjusting them for conveying their own messages.
18 For a detailed discussion of Redfields model see Milton Singer, Robert Redfields
Development of a Social Anthropology of Civilizations, in John V. Murra, ed., American
Anthropology: The Early Years, 1974 Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society,
St. Paul 1976, pp. 208-215.
19 Isaac Jack Levy & Rosemary Levy Zumwalt, Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women,
Urbana and Chicago 2002, p. 5.
85
Two important insights derive from the interpretation of womanhood and

independence in the three PNs of Sephardic women studied here. The freedom of
expression provided to them when creating their PN in old age allowed them to
reconsider the values that were characteristic of the traditional society from which
they emerged and re-design their traditional world in their narratives. Reconsidering
the rules of the old world, they make them flexible enough for proving that a
wise, innovative woman may make the most out of it without revolting against its
fundamental values.
As already mentioned, the PNs we read may also be seen as statements in their
own right rather than as mere reflections of the lives that they reconstruct. The very
existence of such narratives represents an unconscious revolt of the women who
created them. They speak up and interpret their lives through their narratives, while
adopting a conceptual stand point that enables them to question the traditional values
of the society out of which they grew. The process represents a new kind of freedom
of thought and speech that women were deprived of in earlier generations. Therefore,
under the surface of the PNs of the contemporary Sephardic women that we are
looking at a feminist awareness exists.
In this context it should be re-emphasized that as opposed to the fact that our
narrators define the activity of the storytelling group as a feminine territory limited
to the performance of female tales, in their PNs they include intertexts whose nature
is masculine (or at least is regarded as such by the norms of the traditional society to
which the narrators belong): Jewish paraliturgical works, excerpts from prayers and
from classical Ladino worksa process that we shall now proceed to analyze.
3. Books shifting from Male to Female Territory

The PN is a linguistic attempt to represent life, yet language is naturally incapable of
fully conceptualizing reality, which makes the embedding of objects into the narrative
an act of validation, introducing parts of the narrators actual life into the narrative
and thus validating her story and the identity it reflects. Anthropologist Janet Hoskins
reports that:
I could not collect the histories of objects and the life histories of persons
separately. People and the things they valued were so complexly intertwined
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Michal Held
they could not be disentangled [] An object can become more than simply a
metaphor for the self. It becomes a pivot for reflexivity and introspection, a tool
of autobiographic self-discovery, a way of knowing oneself through things.20
Her observation reinforces the question of gender in the PNs studied here. A book has
a double presence: the physical object and its textual system of meanings. Bringing
books into their PNs, the storytellers use the object as a symbol for the world views
they wish to convey. Moreover, once specific books that mark a male dominance are
included in the oral feminine PN, they are anchored in a canonical meta-narrative. An
example of how this process links the narrators individual views with their collective
Jewish and Sephardic values and enables them to set foot in a world traditionally
limited to men by performing paraliturgical and Midrashic texts is given by Malka
Simha who chose to open her narrative with a description of her father, a leading
cantor in the community where she grew up.
The narrator builds up her own identity in relation to her father and her husband,
who shared both his folktales and religious books with her. Out of her own choice
and without being asked to do so, she brings into the storytelling event of her PN
a copy of Meam Loez, which is considered to be the most important and influential
Sephardic Midrash composed in JS. Malka reads out of the first volume of this Bible
commentary series, published by Yaakov Khuli in 1730:
Lo tengo el Meam Loez aki. Meldavamos kada semana kon mi marido. La perasha
es kurto enfrente de todo ke es eskrito en el Meam Loez [] No tyenes visto el
Meam Loez en Ladino? [] Ay munchas kozas de meldar ayi en el Meam Loez.
Si, lo tengo, i esto es mui viejo.
(I have the Meam Loez here. We have read every week with my husband. The
perasha is short in front of everything that is written in the Meam Loez []
Havent you seen the Meam Loez in Ladino? [] There are many things to read
in the Meam Loez. Yes, I have it, and this one is very old.)
Following this introduction, she goes on into reading out loud from this book that
is associated with her father and her husband; she uses the book as a metonymy
of her own self interacting with the two influential men of her life. Following the
above quoted definition of Janet Hoskins, we might say that books enable Malka to
20 Janet Hoskins, Biographical Objects: How Things Tell the Stories of Peoples Lives, New
York 1998, pp. 2, 198.
87
reach an autobiographic self-discovery quite unusual for a woman from a traditional

background like hers. Her incorporating this confident use of the traditional book in
the contemporary feminine PN is especially striking since, as Alisa Meyuhas Ginio
demonstrated, the specific volume of Meam Loez that the narrator reads from supports
the exclusion of women from the Sephardic cultural scene in the past.21
A similar use of the books physical and textual form was made by Sol Mymaran,
who introduced her fathers prayer book into her PN. The father, she said, used to
sing to her and to her brothers and sisters from this book La ketuba de la ley a
traditional Ladino liturgical work for the holiday of Shavuot.22 The book represents
the father as well as the traditional process of transmitting the traditional text while
indicating its decay in the present, when the narrator claims that her children and
grandchildren cannot understand it anymore:
Mi padre, Shavuot, mos asentava todos i mos kantava la ketuba de Shavout.
Kuando se murio mi padre, mi ermana Matilda mos asentava i mos kanto [] Yo
lo kero kantar a mis ijos. No entyenden. Aval alguna vez les digo Atem rotzim
lishmoa shel Shavuot? Keren, aval no, no se stan entendiendo.
(My father, Shavout, sat all of us down and sang the ketuba of Shavuot for us.
When my father died, my sister Matilda sat us down and sang to us [] I want
to sing to my children. They dont understand. But each time I tell them Do you
want to hear [the song] of Shavuot? They want, but no, they dont understand).
Having told me that, Sol opens the book and performs a long portion of the work,
which was restricted in the past to men who performed it during the Shavuot prayers in
the synagogue and repeated it at home. Incorporated into the contemporary feminine
PN, the traditional Piyyut becomes part of the narrative and enables Sol to locate
herself as an equal part of the traditional chain to which she belongs and from which
women had been excluded in the past. The words of the traditional text function in her
21 Alisa Meyuhas Ginio, Esklava de su marido: A View of the Daily Life of the Sephardic
Woman according to Rabbi Yaakov Khulis Meam Loez, in Tova Cohen and Shaul
Regev, eds. Woman in the East, Woman from the East: The Story of the Oriental Jewish
Woman, Ramat-Gan 2005, pp. 25-33. [in Hebrew]
22 La Ketubah de la Ley is a Ladino Kopla appearing in the Sephardic Shavuot prayer book
and performed during the services of this holiday. Composed in Salonika in the eighteenth
century by Yehuda Bar Leon Kalai, the song describes Moses descent from Mount Sinai
and the giving of the Torah.
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Michal Held
contemporary PN as an intertext reflecting various levels of creativity and awareness.

The book out of which they are read is an object that shapes individual, family, and
collective memory. Through the object and the text held in it, Sol expresses her view
of the traditional Sephardic culture that is ceasing to exist. Her freely performing the
text that in the past could not have been performed by women is a part of her message
regarding her feminine independence and the ability of women to defy the decay of
the JS text in particular, and Sephardic culture in general.
4. Exchange and Reflexivity

The PNs performed for my research were created by women for a woman, in a
situation that encourages the shaping of feminine messages on both the personal level
and on that of the conception of womanhood in general. The wider discussion from
which this essay derives offers an elaborated view of the researchers position in the
research.23 Unfortunately it may not be further investigated within the limits of the
present analysis, which, nevertheless, cannot possibly be completed without at least
shortly referring to it. Being a woman from a Jerusalem Sephardic family made me
an ingroup researchera definition offered and closely analyzed in the context of
Sephardic studies by Tamar Alexander-Frizer).24
One of the many points of reference used in my research of the PNs of Sephardic
women included an attempt to understand the reflexive dynamics on which it is based.
Vincent Crapanzano discusses the epistemology of hermeneutics and his method of
looking at a narrative through the dimension of depth:
What mediates between the possibility and impossibility of a best reading is the
notion of depth: a plunge, downward to some archi-text, deep structure,
unconscious significance or true meaning. The metaphor of depth is compelling.
Reading, interpretation and understanding become archeology or philology.25
The downwards movement into the text and the attempt to extract a deep structure from
it are relevant to the creation and analysis of the PNs presented here. Consciously or
23 For full analysis see Note 7, pp. 127-147.
24 See Note 14, pp. 579-586.
25 Vincent Crapanzano, Hermes Dilemma and Hamlets Desire: On the Epistemology of
Interpretation, Cambridge 1992, p. 120.
89
unconsciously, the narrators extract from their narratives a deep structure, through
which they understand themselves and transmit their self-image and set of values to
their addressee, who, on her part, forms her own deep structure in response to theirs.
Anthropologist Ruth Behar described a similar interaction she was involved in while
writing the book based upon fieldwork she conducted with a Mexican woman:
As the one who is no longer expanding her capacities to listen, but sitting here
snipping and snipping at the historias Esperanza told me, only to sew them back
[] as a life history, I fear I am somehow cutting out Esperanzas tongue. Yet
when I am done cutting out her tongue, I will patch together a new tongue for her,
an odd tongue that is [] the language of a translated woman.26
In the case of the PNs of Sephardic women I studied, the process worked both ways:
like my informants, I too acquired a new tongue as a result of the interaction that
evolved around the narratives I received. One example of this dynamics is a poem
I wrote in response to the fieldwork with the women who created their PNs for the
research.27 The decision to expose the poem within an academic discourse has to do
with my seeing no other way to look at the complex cultural phenomenon of the PNs
I heard from elderly women storytellers. Only a careful fusion of the intellectual and
the emotional perspective may, I believe, allow us to reach the most inclusive possible
understanding of a human experience transformed into a narrative.
Originally written in Hebrew with some JS phrases embedded in it, the poem
echoes a traditional Sephardic folk song opening with the line Arvoles yoran por
luvias i montanyas por aires (Trees are crying for rain and mountains for air). The
traditional folk songs fictional narrator laments his or her fate, while wandering far
from their beloved to die in foreign lands. It was re-versed and performed during
World War II, when Balkan Sephardic Jews transported to the death camps by the
Nazis found its words particularly relevant. The echoing of it in the contemporary bilingual poem captures the double dialogue that I maintain, as both a researcher and a
participant in the Judeo-Spanish culture, with the women who unfurled their personal
narratives for my research and kindly took me into their world.
26 Ruth Behar, Translated Woman, Boston 1993, p. 19.

27 See Appendix for the poem in English translation.
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Michal Held
Closing remarks
Dov Noy defined the feminine folktale according to its internal and external
characteristics as a story told by women to women, and containing a message referring to
women.28 His definition is applicable to the PNs investigated here, too, yet the answers
to the questions regarding the narrators feminine messages posed at the beginning of
this essay are rather complex. According to Tamar Alexander-Frizer, even in folktales
of women who encourage other women to be active, the system of traditional social
conventions is still operational.29 Similarly, our narrators declare in their PNs that their
voices should be heard and their independence be allowed, but they also imply in the
hermeneutic interpretation of their lives that feminine freedom should be achieved
within the traditional social setting rather than in rebellion against it.
The above reading of their PNs leads to the understanding that their unresolved
conception of themselves moving between independence and surrender to traditional
boundaries should not be disentangled, for it is the heart of the process of their
individual (each one reflecting her own life in her PN) and collective (as active
members of the storytellers group) negotiation for feminine identity.
In her analysis of the PN of a woman who belonged to the Biluim, the first group of
Zionist immigrants stepping out of traditional society to create a modern one in Eretz
Israel, Nili Arye-Sapir demonstrated the complex process of a narrators negotiating
for her identity and womanhood through many levels of individual and collective
awareness and the links between them.30 Her context is, of course, quite different than
the one of our narrators, yet the process itself is similar.
The women who created their PNs for this study represent the turn from a
traditional Sephardic society to a modern Israeli one, with JS their ethnic language
marking the vanishing traditional world. By the very creation of their PNs they make
heard a feminine voice that has been silenced in previous generations and enable
the expression of an individual and collective feminine identity and the interaction
28 Dov Noy, Folktales in the Jewish Tunisian Family [in Hebrew], in Hagut Ivrit be-Artzot
Ha-Islam: Studies on Jewish Themes by Contemporary Jewish Scholars from Islamic
Countries, ed. Menachem Zohori et al, Jerusalem 1981, pp. 181-188.
29 See Note 14, p. 391.
30 See Note 3.
91
between them that have not been legitimate in the past.31 This tendency implies that
their narratives are forming a feminine discourse.
The PNs investigated in this essay form a genre of folk literature that enables women
to present and interpret life using their own voice and consciousness. Central to all of
them, the narrative package of womanhood and independence reflects the narrators
attempt to decipher themselves as women without being subjected to the boundaries
that their socio-cultural environment imposes on their voices. The PNs of women who
grew out of a traditional society tending to silence their voice have a special status, as
they provide their narrators with an uncensored channel of feminine expression.
Tamar Hess argues that Israeli autobiography has provided a space, albeit a
narrow one, in which ethnic, class, national, and gender borders are channeled and
refigured [] and allows subversive voices to he heard.32 The PNs of Sephardic
Israeli women form a similar zone, which may even be more powerful, as the orally
transmitted narrative is free of the traces of the self-editing convention at work in a
written autobiography. The narratives I collected and interpreted center around the
heroine who created and performed them. Through her PN, she becomes capable
of portraying her world as she understands it, free of the traditional dependence on
an authoritative male point of view. A new stage is created within the framework of
the PN: one on which the womens voice is not threatened by any external factor
whatsoever.
The women whose PNs were explored in this essay may be struggling to define
the boundaries and capabilities of their voice. Yet, the voice itself is heard loudly
and clearly, and the messages it conveys are exposed even when shaped in JS,
the Sephardic language that changes its status from a collective, social tool to an
individual-emotional one that I defined in a previous study as personal ethnicity.33
31 Yael Azmon discusses the exclusion of women from Jewish public life and the silencing
of their voices from the middle ages on and points out that this tendency still exists in
contemporary Israel. Nevertheless, she demonstrates the creation of social islands in
which women may create and express their identity (see Yael Azmon, Judaism and the
Exclusion of Women from the Public Sphere, in Yael Azmon, ed., A View into the Lives
of Women in Jewish Societies: Collected Essays [in Hebrew], Jerusalem 1995, pp. 13-46).
The storytellers group with which we are concerned, and their personal narratives, is an
example of such an island.
32 See Note 4, p. 176.
33 Michal Held, Contemporary Literary Creation in Judezmo and Its Meaning, MA thesis,
The Hebrew University, Jerusalm 1995, p. 108-125.
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Michal Held
The process confronts the silencing of the feminine voice in the traditional society
from which the narrators emerged, and sets free their independent expression in the
modern society in which they live today.
Appendix - The poem written in response to the research

Tree / Arvoles34
A Ladino song torno i digo ke va ser de mi
Wandering i ask what shall become of me
In the song trees cry for rain and mountains for air
arvoles yoran por luvias i montanyas por aires
In the song an angel stands upon me beholding me with his eyes
and i beg to cry
but cannot
And you in the song are draped in
white
white flowers are dropping from you
from your beauty
When i sing this song once chanted by Sephardic women
draped in white and shedding white flowers
in Izmir and Salonika in Jerusalem and Tangiers
When i sing this song
trees cry tears of rain and mountains tears of air
cry for you singing women who have vanished from
the world leaving your song inside me
deserting me to wander and sing ke va ser de mi
what shall become of me and to seek

the angel
34 Michal Held, Over the Face of the Waters: Poems, Jerusalem 2009, p. 27 (in Hebrew);
Translated by Michal Held.
93
94
Aviad Moreno
An Insight into the Course of European-oriented

Modernization among Oriental Jewries
the Minute Book of the Junta of Tangier1
Aviad Moreno
Tel-Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Having had the affairs of this community, may God protect it, neglected and [since
we are] desiring to adopt and imitate the good conditions of the communities of our
brethren of Europe, the notables and majority of this community have been invited to
attend a general Junta [assembly] .2
This study is based on an interpretive reading of the Minute Book of the Governing
Junta of the Hebrew Community of Tangier, which was written during a momentously
historical time, between 1860 and 1875, in the city of Tangier.3 The Minute Book
provides a novel insight into what is commonly identified as the process of Europeanoriented Modernization among Eastern societies through the viewpoint of a few of
its local agents in one of its most central locations during the nineteenth century.
1
2
3
This article is based on my MA thesis conducted under the guidance of Prof. Tamar
Alexander and Prof. Dror Zeevi during 2008. A full and renewed, Hebrew version of the
MA thesis was published earlier this year, as the first volume of a new series by the BenZvi Institute named Peamim Supplement (see: Aviad Moreno, Europe from Morocco:
the Minutes of the Leadership of Tangiers Jewish Community (the Junta), 1860-1864,
Peamim Supplement, vol. 1, Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem 2015 [Hebrew]).
Retrieved from the initial protocol in the Minute Book [hereinafter in the notes MB]
depicting the Juntas inauguration; MB 1.1 (22.10.1860)
I cite here the transcribed MB edition published in 2010: Libro de actas de la Junta
selecta de la comunidad hebrea de Tanger 1860-1975 transcripcion por Gladys Pimienta
y Sidney Salomon Pimienta, JEM, Paris-Jerusalem 2010. I kindly thank the siblings
Gladys and Sidney Pimienta for allowing me access to this valuable material previous to
its publication.
95
This single manuscript, which is in fact restricted in its scope and description of the
broader and complex historical events, proposes a new theoretical and methodological
approach for reconstructing the history of the imperative period of time of European
expansion.
At first glance, the local leaders of the Junta, who started the Minute Book with a
public declaration of their desire to adopt and imitate Europes Jewish communal
organizational norms, demonstrate a supposed internalization of this positivist
Eurocentric narrative. This narrative depicted the adoption of ready-made European
organizational models as fundamental when modernizing the backwards Oriental
societies. Further examination of the motivations for composing the Minute Book
while employing a pro-European discourse, reveal some deeper implications
embedded in the Juntas declaration.
Through the perspective of the Minute Book and the circumstances of its writing
and subsequent publishing, I propose looking at the historical process of Europeanoriented modernization as the result of changing ontology and epistemology among
local power elites who benefited from promoting the process. In this study, I
specifically point to the internal discourse reflecting and sustaining the evolving selfperceptions among the Junta, the local newly established governing committee of the
Jewish community of Tangier. I confine myself to the first four years of the Juntas
activity and their documentation through the Minute Book, mainly around 1863. This
was a crucial period of time with the 1864 founding of the first European school of the
Alliance Isralite Univeselle (AIU) in the city, which consisted of its second branch
in the entire world and would become a symbol of European-oriented modernity and
westernization among Oriental Jewries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Historiographical Framework

My historiographical approach correlates with neither conservative positivist
historiography nor with its common revisionist critics. Rather, I change the focal
viewpoint from the relationship between the large binary categories West and East,
to the smaller resolutions of the historical process generating the categories and their
conceptions through the evolving encounter between people and ideas across the
world. In the following section, I shall elaborate on this historiographical contribution.
The transition taking place throughout the Middle East and North Africa in the
context of growing European influence during the nineteenth century gave birth to two
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Aviad Moreno
central, opposing schools of thought. The first approach, which dominated academic
discourse until the 1970s, generally depicted a positive process of benevolent European
intervention that was essential for breaking the traditional cachets of local societies
through the adoption of the models of enlightened Europe. The second school of
thought, gaining greater influence since the 1970s under the banner of postcolonial
revision, highlighted the dark side of the uneven power relations between east and
west embedded in the colonial process and its antecedent manifestations in European
imperialism. According to scholars associated with this often Marxist-oriented school
of thought, European models modernized local societies while positioning them as
inferior in the set economic and power dogmas dominated by Europe. 4 This perception
was highly supported by the intellectual revolution led by Edward Said who identified
the cynical practices through which the colonial west placed a dichotomy between
itself and the east as a discursive tool for the management of the colonial project. 5
This critique paralleled, in many aspects, the vigorous discussion among scholars
who focused on the modernization of Oriental Jewries. With regard to Moroccan
Jewries as an example, the classic approach towards the modernization of this group
highlights the eminent role of European intervention on behalf of Moroccan Jews
for their salvation from the traditionally oppressive Islamic regimes. The adoption
of European modernity was fundamental for breaking the status of pariah Dhimma
(covenant) and leading the local Jews towards European-oriented emancipation and
enlightenment. This notion was most typically expressed in the concept of mission
civilisatrice (the civilizing mission of non-Western society) originally embedded in
the narrative of the AIU.6
Toward the 1980s, scholars who were probably influenced by Said and subscribed
to the conceptual revolution of the postcolonialist school of thought suggested revising
4
5
6
Dror Zeevi, Back to Napoleon? Thoughts on the Beginning of the Modern Era in the
Middle East, Mediterranean Historical Review 19 (2004), pp. 67-85.
Edward Said, Orientalism, Pantheon Books, New York 1978.
The relevant studies are too many to enumerate, a few examples being Michael M. Laskier,
Aspects of the Activities of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in the Jewish Communities
of the Middle-East and North Africa: 1860-1918, Modern Judaism 3, no. 2 (1983), pp.
147-171 and S. Leibovici, Chronique des juifs de Tetouan:1860-1896, G.-P. Maisonneuve
& Larose, Paris 1983. For other references, see Daniel J. Schroeter and Joseph Chetrit,
The Transformation of the Jewish Community of Essaouria (Mogador), in Harvey E.
Goldberg (ed.), Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries: History and Culture in the Modern
Era, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1996, pp. 100-101.
97
the conservative narrative by focusing on the European intervention itself as the cause
for turmoil in the relatively stable and sound relationship maintained between Jews
and Muslims in Morocco.7 Nevertheless, the historiographical query on modernitys
roots is still left unsettled.
A new stage in the efforts to create alternative paradigms for the conceptualization of
local modernity has emerged as a new critique regarding the generalized postcolonial
approach. Said developed a counter-narrative that reduced complex local histories no
less than the colonial-oriented Eurocentric narrative he had so severely criticized. 8 In
this context, and yet not necessarily in direct correspondence, other voices of critique
were expressed. Schroeter and Chetrit criticized the general tendency to depict the
modernization process of Moroccan Jewries as equated with westernization through
a determinist dichotomy between tradition and modern. They alternatively
identified aspects of orientalization embedded within local responses to exogenous
influence.9 In the course of turning Moroccans from historical objects into active
subjects, this study and others reflect an attempt to reduce the historical position of
The Moroccan historian Jirman cAyyash argued that while comparing their situation to
European Jewries, some historians presented a twisted image of Moroccan Jewries. See
Jirman cAyyash, al-Aqaliyya al-yahudiyya fi maghib ma qabl al-istimar, Majalt Dar
al-Niaba 12 kharif (1986), pp. 6-23. For other studies pointing at stable relations between
Jews and Muslim on the eve of colonialism, see, for example, Yehoshua Frenkel (JewishMuslim Relations in Fez at the turn of the 19th Century in Light of Juridical Documents,
The Maghreb Review 29 [2004], pp. 70-77); Daniel J. Schroeter, Royal Power and the
Economy in Precolonial Morocco: Jews and the Legitimation of Foreign Trade, in In the
Shadow of the Sultan: Culture, power and Politics in Morocco, Rahma Bourqia and Susan
Gilson Miller (eds.), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999, pp. 74-102; Susan
Gilson-Miller, Apportioning Sacred Space in a Moroccan City: The Case of Tangier,
1860-1912, City & Society 13, no.1 (2001), p. 64.
For more on the broader historiographical problmatique embedded in the postcolonial
concept of modernization among oriental Jewries, see Yaron Tsur, The Israeli
Historiography and the Ethnic Problem, in Benny Morris (ed.), Making Israel, University
of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2007, p. 159.
Schroeter and Chetrit, Transformation of the Jewish Community (Note 6), pp. 100-101.
For another study by these two scholars that supports this notion regarding the colonial era,
see Daniel J. Schroeter and Joseph Chetrit, Emancipation and Its Discontent: Jews at the
Formative Period of Colonial Rule in Morocco, Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture,
Society 13, no.1 (2006), pp. 170-206.
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Aviad Moreno
European influence on local modernization, rather than enhance its pro-active role in
an ongoing global transformation.
Within this context of dispute over the roots of modernity in the region, Zeevi
suggests a third option. Rather than grasping the west as the source of change and the
east as the receptacle for modernity, or on the other hand, rather than undermining
the historical influence of European models on local modernity, he focused on the
emerging encounter between what we identify as west and east as a historical
phenomenon per se. According to this approach, modernity and colonialism are
inseparable, and yet they are not created in the west and brought to the east but rather
take shape throughout a set of conceptual, technological, and organizational changes
taking place across the world being effected by and affecting Europes expansion. 10
It seems that Zeevis concept of modernity would benefit from further sociopolitical examination once cross-read vis--vis Foucauldian discourse analysis.
According to Foucault, the way we view reality is shaped by and confined to our
language, which is per se the result of the dynamics of power relations in our society.
Inspired by these two general notions, I propose that significant aspects of what we
have been identifying as European-oriented modernity is constantly shaped by the
discourses generated by power elites across the world that gradually learn about the
political advantages of the overall process. Thus, this study is not simply an insight
into local manifestations of global change, but an insight into one of the numerous
fragments shaping the broader process taking place in the world intensively since the
nineteenth century. In this study, I focus on the roots of the process using the case of
the power elite of the Junta and the way it was choosing to represent realities, playing
their small and yet imperative part in promoting and feeding the broader project of
European-style modernity gradually taking shape.
Thus, similar to Saids notion, I suggest that European modernity is indeed
embedded in new sets of power relations and their representations during the period of
European expansion. Yet differently, I highlight the foundation of the process across
the world and among a variety of local power relations coming about in the light of
colonialism.
10 Dror Zeevi, Back to Napoleon? (Note 4), pp. 73-94.
99
An Outlook onto Changing Power Relations

The nineteenth century marked the beginning of a new peak in the the transformation
of power relations between Morocco and its European neighbors. The processs
roots may be traced back to the Spanish Reconquista. In the course of reaction to
growing European power, since the seventeenth century, the Moroccan sultans were
defined as Sharifs, a term not only associating them genealogically with the Prophet
Muhammad, but moreover granting them the status of Baraka, innate holiness. The
Moroccan sultans promoted the concept that the state existed to wage the jihad
as the principal sign of their right to rule. Under the growing impact of European
imperialism, especially from the French invasion of Algeria in 1830 and onward, jihad
dialectics gained further significance.11
Yet, a series of Moroccan military defeats fed the emerging notion among the
local intellectual and governing elite of Moroccan inferiority and the disadvantages
of launching a direct holy war.12 The climax of this process came after a Moroccan
defeat to the declining European power of Spain that occurred during the SpanishMoroccan War of 1859-1860. This war ended with a Moroccan indemnity to Spain
which subsequently drained Morocco of its gold and silver reserves.13 The makhzan
(a nickname for the central government) and the governing elite sought to deal with
the changing circumstances through a set of military, economic, and political reforms,
which tremendously impacted greater society.14
The growing penetration of European elements, which within the context of
perceivably and objectively changing power relations had begun to grasp themselves
as superior, brought about a series of economic treaties. In 1856, a most-favored
nation treaty was signed with Great Britain and served as a model for subsequent
similar arrangements with other European powers. The treaties became a subject of
abuse by the European community in Morocco. In this context, European merchants
11 Amira K. Bennison, Jihad and Its Interpretations in Pre-Colonial Morocco, Taylor &
Francis, London, 2002, pp. 9-11.
12 Kenneth L. Brown, People of Sal: Tradition and Change in a Moroccan City 1830-1930,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1976, p. 81.
13 Edmund Burke, Prelude to Protectorate in Morocco: Pre-Colonial Protest and Resistance,
1860-1912, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1976, pp. 19-21.
14 Ibid., pp. 31-33.
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Aviad Moreno
facilitated commerce by working with local Moroccan assistants and granting them
protection by European governments. These locals were known as protgs, and they
soon developed into a new powerful class of a semi-independent, quasi-Europeanized
notable bourgeoisie affecting the change of old local socio-economic and sociopolitical values.15
Parallel to some extent to the events that transpired under the rule of the Ottoman
Empire, the social strata that was most heavily affected during the aforementioned
social dislocation was the ethno-religious minorities of ahl al-dhimmah (people of
covenant); namely Jews in the Moroccan context. Over the course of several generations
there was a tendency to employ Jews in professions that were generally despised in
Muslim culture and society, such as cleaning cesspits or hanging the individuals who
had been condemned to death. Religious minorities also were appointed to professions
that required contact with infidels such as banking, diplomacy, and foreign trade.
Under the new circumstances, however, the Jewish minoritys traditional role was
reshaped. The sultans trade with Christian Europe was justified for the purpose
of furthering the kingdoms readiness for jihad and was supported by the religious
elite. Correspondingly, in adhering to religious norms, the sultans initially fostered a
group of religious minorities, comprising mainly Jews, to handle global commerce.16
Towards the end of the century, this process further evolved with the establishment of
the AIU French-Jewish schooling system which joined large parts of the local Jewish
population with European interests.17
In the context of the evolving economy, urbanization rapidly increased, mainly in
Moroccos coastal towns. New opportunities in such port cities, which acted as the
gateways for European infiltration, attracted large numbers of rural migrants and a
new workforce from the countrys interior wishing to try their luck in the new exportoriented economy. An extraordinary case in Morocco was the city of Tangier. This
process began as early as the last part of the eighteenth century as the Moroccan
Sultan transferred the diplomatic corps from the city of Tetuan, further inside
Moroccos interior, to Tangier, at the northwest corner of the kingdom. The city of
the consuls situated just few miles away from European shores became one of the
15 Ibid., p. 44.
16 This elite was called tujjar al-sultan (the Sultans merchants). Daniel J. Schroeter, Royal
Power (Note 7), pp. 85-94.
17 Burke, Prelude to Protectorate In Morocco (note 13), p. 37.
101
main centers of the European expansion. Towards and during the nineteenth century
Tangiers port became among the most important centers of commerce in the region.
As a result, it served as a gateway for European missionaries, merchants, diplomats,
and adventurers.18 Tangier enabled its newcomers to integrate quickly into the newly
transformed city. At the same time, Tangier became a safe haven for Jewish minorities
seeking European protection.19
Tangiers subsequent development generated a large wave of internal migration
from surrounding Riff towns, which were some of the poorest in the entire sultanate,
as well as from other towns in the inland region.20 As a result, Tangiers population
increased sharply in just a few decades.21 Simultaneously, a wave of Jewish
immigration to the city began with notable families from Tetuan, Meknes, and Sal
arriving in Tangier. The Jewish community, including the newcomers, constituted
more than a third of the population, 5,000 out of a total of 14,000.22 At the top of the
Jewish populations social pyramid, a few neo-aristocratic oligarchic families engaged
in banking, diplomacy, and foreign trade.23 This also had a tremendous impact on the
local socio-political fabric.
Similar to the general events in the course of Moroccos developing relations
with Europe, the start of the 1860s was a turning point in the history of the Jews
of Morocco, and in particular the Jews of Tangier. Following the Spanish-Moroccan
War (1859-1860), during which many locals from Tangier sought refuge in the
18 Susan Gilson-Miller, Kippur on the Amazon: Jewish Emigration from Northern Morocco
in the late Nineteenth Century, in Harvey E. Goldberg (ed.), Sephardi and Middle Eastern
Jewries: History and Culture in the Modern Era, Indiana University Press, Bloomington,
1996, p. 109. Khalid Bin al-Saghir, Al-Kharaka al-Tijariyya bi-Marsa Tanja fi-al-Nisf
al-Thani min al-Qarn al-Tisa cAshar, in Tanja fi al-tarikh al-muasir: 1800-1956, Jamiat
Muchammad al-Khamis. Kulliyat al-Adab wa-al-Ulum al-Insaniya and Jamiat Abd alMalik al-Sadi Madrasat al-Malik Fahd al-Ulya lil-Tarjama (eds.), al-Nashr al-cArabi alIfriqi, Cairo 1991, p. 91.
19 Graham H. Stuart, The International City of Tangier, Stanford University Press, Stanford,
CA, 1955, p. 16.
20 C. R. Pennell, Review: The Discovery of Moroccos Northern Coast, British Journal of
Middle Eastern Studies 20, no. 2 (1993), p. 227.
21 Burke, Prelude to Protectorate in Morocco (Note 13), pp. 24-25.
22 Joseph Bengio and J. L. Miege, La Communaut Juive de Tangier dans les annes 1860,
Les Actas, Maroc Europe 6 (1994), pp. 152-54, 157.
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Aviad Moreno
proximate British-dominated enclave of Gibraltar, European elements developed a

growing interest in subventioning them. The phenomenon of Jews seeking European
protection dramatically increased. One symbolic event was a circular sent by Sir
Moses Montefiore to the wardens of vestry of the British synagogues in which he
noted that an event so unforeseen and so appealing as this calls for the most liberal
demonstrations of our sympathy. As a result more than 40,000 was raised. During
the same year, a Moroccan Relief Fund was founded and the Board of Deputies of
British Jews sent Moses H. Picciotto as a commissioner to report the conditions
of Moroccan Jews. 24 In Paris, the AIU was established. A few years later, the AIU
opened its first two world branches; the first in the proximate northern Moroccan city
of Tetuan (1862) and the second in the city of Tangier (1864).25 It was in this context
of change that the new communal committee of the Junta was founded during October
1860.
Promoting European power

The process brought about and was fed by the broad mutual conceptual change in the
way both parties learned to perceive each other. Historical developments in Europe
during the nineteenth century, which indirectly were affected by European expansion,
changed, similarly to the Moroccan events, the destiny of many local Jews. For the
first time in many centuries, they attained influential positions in their countries
of dwelling. The newly developed class of European Jewish bourgeoisies adopted
a paternalistic approach towards their backwards brethrens in the east believing
that their own efforts for emancipation should be implemented also on them. The
local Jewish press, which fulfilled the demands of Jewish intellegentsia in Europe,
fed this notion constantly while contributing to the discourse on the poor conditions
of Jewries in distress. The Minute Book implies that such developments were not
23 Susan Gilson-Miller, Apportioning Sacred Space (Note 7), p. 64.

24 Tudor Parfitt, Dhimma Versus Protection in Nineteenth Century Morocco, in Tudor
Parfitt (ed.), Israel and Ishmael: Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations, Curzon, Richmond
2000, pp. 142-43.
25 Eliezer Bashan, Yahadut Maroqo: cAvarah ve-Tarbutah, Hakibbutz Hameuhad, Tel Aviv
2000, pp. 43-47.
103
one-sided and occurred simultaneously among the leaderships of these Jewries in

distress as a result of the evolving dialogue between the parties.
One of the first missions the Junta had taken upon itself was disseminating
information concerning its founding, particularly to the emerging philanthropic bodies
in Europe developing in light of the events of 1859-1860. One dispatch was sent to
Sir Moses Montefiore and the second was directed to Albert Cohen, chair of the AIU.
Interestingly, the decision came about only two months after the Juntas founding.26
The two-month deliberation period comprised a series of internal discussions
regarding the conditions of hardship following the Spanish Moroccan war. The Junta
was also preoccupied with collecting the Jizya (poll tax), which had not been paid to
the authorities during the war, presenting the local leader with a precious gift, dealing
with mounting kosher meat prices as well as financially supporting the local rabbi.27
In this context, it is no wonder that the newly emerged elite that gained status in
the context of growing European hegemony over Tangier pinned their hope on the
emerging philanthropic organization in the north. This hope was embodied in the
initial idea of forming the Junta following the post-war crisis.
As soon as Montefiores response arrived, the Junta expressed great satisfaction
with their ability to forge ties, mentioning it clearly in the protocol. 28 It appears that the
Junta realized they had a partner for their ambitious plan to reorganize the communal
framework. The reaction and support of European elements became essential in
sustaining their sense of mutual interests.
The influence of communication with the European parties soon became apparent.
For example, it was a fundamental element in one of the key projects of European
intervention. During its very first weeks of operation, the Junta set sight on reforming
the field of communal education. 29 Several years before the inauguration of the local
branch of AIU, and parallel to the emerging call for an AIU branch in Paris, the Junta
raised funds within the community and beyond for promoting a European-imported
educational framework. Following the Juntas initial activity in this realm until the
schools official opening and beyond, the Junta hosted a series of correspondences for
the sake of promoting the idea of a new European-supported school.30
26
27
28
29
30
MB 6.2 (1/11/1860); Ibid 9.5 (18/12/1860).

Ibid., 4.1, 4.4, 4.5 (29/10/1860); 5.2 (1/11/1860); 6.1 (1/11/1860).
MB 20.1 (13/3/1861).
Ibid., 29 (8/10/1861); ibid., 34 (25/10/1861); ibid., 54(29/8/1862).
See, for instance, the initial discussions: ibid., 14.5 (31/12/1860); ibid., 16.2 (15/1/1861);
ibid., 18.2 (1521/2/1861; ibid. 22.4 (26/4/1861).
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Aviad Moreno
The Junta learned about the potential benefits of such institutions during its
correspondence. Imperative to this effort was a dispatch from the proximate Junta of
Tetuan with which it shared common cultural background and maintained a tightly knit
network. Tetuan was the location where the initial branch of the AIU was launched
in 1862. In August 1863 the Junta read and discussed the content of the dispatch
summarizing its impression in the following words: Our colleagues present us
with the benefits resulting from the [activity of the] society of the Alianza Isrealit
Universal established in Paris .
The content left a very good impression on the Junta that sought to improve the
deteriorating local education system. The protocol of the assembly describes how the
Junta nominated two of its members to present the idea to those among the public
who would be capable of paying the tuition of the respectable society.31 The Junta
also discussed the need to conduct outreach to the lower strata of the community. The
Junta corresponded with the Morocco Relief Fund in London for assistance on the
matter and in November, the Junta received the MRFs positive response, expressing
agreeing to help fund the school. The communication also contained the agreement
of the MRF to the Juntas suggestion to include the school and its staff under British
diplomatic protection. The Junta expressed in its Minute Book great satisfaction with
this success story, writing: this Junta left extremely satisfied with and thankful to this
consideration of the council [MRF] as one hopes that this honorable venture would
have good results and will prosper for many happy years.32
The Junta then contacted the management of the AIU, with the mediation of the
Junta of Tetuan, and began searching for a qualified teacher. During the following
month, the Junta received a response which demonstrated, as the Minute Book notes,
his high qualification. According to the Minute Book, the Junta wanted to find out
further information. During the same meeting, Junta member Moses Pariente took the
initiative to contact the community of Gibraltar searching for a female teacher to serve
at the girls school they were interested in founding as well.33
Another critical element contributing to the discourse surrounding philanthropic
Europes local involvement was the Safi Affair. A Spanish recadador had been
31 Ibid., 82.1 (24/8/1863). This dispatch was preceded by another one, dated December 16,
1862, in which the Junta was informed of the news of the inauguration of the first branch
of the AIU in Tetuan (see ibid., 66.1 (26/1/1863)).
32 Ibid., 97.1 (8/12/1863).
33 MB, 102, 1; 102.2 (28/1/1864).
105
found dead in the city of Safi and the Spanish Minister accused his Jewish servant
in connection with the murder, demanding that the local authorities execute him.
The Jewish servant was indeed publicly executed by order of the Sultan. During his
investigation the poor Jewish servant, who was only 14 years of age, gave the name
of another Jew who was allegedly involved, and he in turn contributed to the arrest
of two other Jewish men. One of the suspects was transferred to Tangier and was
subsequently publicly executed.34 The Junta was outraged by this local incident which
had been taking place in their city of operation, especially due to the fact that the
other two Jewish people were awaiting a similar sentence. Their solution, documented
in the Minute Book was as follows: The Junta decided not to allow this outrage to
pass in silence and agreed to address our brethren in Europe. 35 The aforementioned
brethren were, namely, Sir Montefiore and Albert Cohen.
Three weeks later, the Junta published the reaction of Sir Montefiore in which he
declared he was adamantly working for the release of the two imprisoned Jews. The
same minute also describes the reaction of Albert Cohen and the activity of Mayer
Alphonse James Rothschild from Paris, with regards to the matter. The relevant article
in the Minute Book ends with an exclamation mark illustrating the great influence of
this reaction to the Juntas request upon its members.36 Montefiore was on his way to
Tangier from where he planned to travel to Marrakesh to meet the Sultan, as a result
of the efforts of the Junta, at least as it is reflected in the Minute Book.
In anticipation of Montefiores arrival, the Junta discussed at length in the same
protocol the appropriate way to greet their honored guest. Moshe Nahon, one of the
wealthiest among the Juntas members volunteered to prepare a house and a personal
chef who would adhere to the demands of Montefiore. The Junta expressed their
admiration for the willingness of Nahon to undertake this important mission on
behalf of Moroccan Jewries with a round of applause.37 The members of the Junta
agreed to meet at the port at the appropriate dock where Montefiores ship was due to
anchor. 38 The Minute Book does not spare details about this contact with Montefiore,
34 M. Mitchell Serels, A history of the Jews of Tangier in the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries, Sepher-Hermon Press, New York 1991, pp. 28-29; Bashan, Yahadut Maroqo
(Note 25), pp. 45-47.
35 MB, 87.1 (18/9/1863).
36 Ibid., 90.2(8/10/1863) .
37 Ibid., 95.1 (23/11/1863).
38 Ibid., 94 (9/11/1863).
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Aviad Moreno
illustrating the great impact of this event on the developing pro-European discourse.
The Safi affair further invoked the Juntas discourse on the significant role European
intervention played in the emancipation of local Jews, or in the words of the Minute
Book: the terrible galut (literally exile) that our brethren in inland Morocco suffer.39
Simultaneously, other diplomats strengthened their ties with the Junta. This was
obviously a result of the diplomats own evolving aspiration to gain influence through
contact with other local agencies such as the Junta. Yet the Juntas book presents
these developments rather differently. For instance, the Minute Book describes how
the British Minister in Tangier, Sir John Drummond Hay, summoned the president
and vice-president of the Junta following two dispatches he had received from the
governments of Netherland and Austria concerning their strong recommendation to
grant Moroccan Jews their consular protection. The Minute Book emphasized the
importance of this development adding, So that they [the Jews of Morocco] would
not be inflicted with injustices in the future.40
The next protocol boasted the results of the mission of Montefiore; a Dhahir
(Royal Decree) that awarded equality to the religious minorities in Morocco. The
Junta mentioned in its Minute Book that Montefiore wrote to the Junta, Since there is
no doubt regarding this decrees influential power, the Junta shall do good if it would
make it public allowing the improvement of the situation of our brethren in Morocco.
The letters content, as reflected from the Juntas correspondence with Sir Hay, most
typically expressed the discourse. It gave the impression that the persecution of local
Jews was entirely a result of their status as subjects to the jurisdiction of Moroccan
authorities and that the salvation of the civilized powers was the only solution to
their miserable conditions.41
While this decree was nothing more than a fine-sounding statement of the status quo,
it had a tremendous effect on the self-perceptions of those investing in its attainment.42
The Minute Book entry discussing the need for benevolent European intervention on
behalf of the well-being of Moroccan Jewry, which was associated by many scholars
with colonial representations, appears here as rooted in the evolving discourse of
the local Junta leadership. Throughout their ongoing contact with Europe, the Junta
39
40
41
42
Ibid., 98.1 (13/1/1864).

Ibid., 102.1 ( (28/1/1864.
Parfitt, Dhimma Versus Protection (Note 24), p. 150.
Ibid., p. 151.
107
developed and maintained a discourse on the benefits of European intervention, which

was constantly translated into pro-active attempts to forge further ties and promote
advanced European-oriented modernization.
Reading the Junta

The internal political system of Jewish communities in the Maghreb had never been
tightly bound by a set of defined rules. It used to be a common practice, however, for
the wealthy upper class notables, called in Hebrew Yeide Qehila (the notables of the
community), or Anshe ha-Macamad (the men of status), to provide for the communitys
necessities. By looking after the poor, the notables earned the right to govern the
various communal affairs. The system was based on the religious obligation to give
charity to the poor, but soon turned the community into an oligarchic political system
in which the affluent systematically gained control over communal institutions.43
At the same time, the official commissioner of the community before the local
authorities was the Nagid (or the sheikh), who in addition to other community
services, was charged with collecting the Jizya. The Nagid was appointed based on
the nature of his set of connections with the local authorities. Most often the Nagid
had the blessing of local notables but there were incidences where he was nominated
against the will of the wealthy communal leaders. 44
In October 1860, following the Spanish-Moroccan War, the new body of communal
leadership, the Junta, was established. The Juntas name itself implied its innate aims
to conduct a broad reorganization in the old apparatus. The Juntas members came
from the most honorable families in town and the vast majority of them (nine out
of ten) were active employees of the diplomatic corps.45 Aharon Abensur, the first
secretary of the Junta, served for example, as the interpreter of the British Consul
in town, and later on was employed as Denmarks consul. A portion of the Juntas
members were among the outstanding merchants in Morocco. For example, Moshe
43 Bashan, Yahadut Maroqo (Note 25), pp. 76-78.

44 Shlomo Deshen, Tsibbur ve-Yeidim: Sidre evra bi-Qehillot Yehude Maroqo ba-Mea
ha-18-19. Misrad ha-Bitahon, Tel Aviv 1983, pp. 77-78.
45 Joseph Toledano, La saga des familles: les juifs du Maroc et leurs noms, Editions Stavit,
Tel Aviv, 1983, pp. 14, 184, 265, 328.
108
Aviad Moreno
Pariente, the Juntas vice president was famous for founding the first bank in Morocco
in 1840.46
Furthermore, in traditional Jewish Moroccan communities, being the owner of a
synagogue was a sign of wealth and also a source of political power in a society
based on patron-client relations. The privilege of owning a synagogue was reserved
to the very wealthy, thereby creating a highly oligarchic society, in which the rich
prevailed.47 Many among the Juntas members owned such synagogues.48 Likewise,
many members of the Junta, being the richest in town, demonstrated their superior
status by heading evrot (social welfare organizations), which for generations were
considered to be exclusive and imbued their members with great honor.49 Those
involved with the evra de Biqur olim (Society for Visitation of the Sick), headed
by Yosef Eshriki, and the evra de Gemilut asadim (burial society), headed by
Yaacob Toledano, came from the most respected and notable families in the city. In
addition, they were some of the outstanding members of diplomatic personnel in the
city.50
In this context, the nomination of the Juntas member did not lack political tension.
The new leadership body of the Junta, which was controlled by the oligarchic Jewish
bourgeoisie of Tangier, caused anxiety on the part of the Nagid; the time-honored
representative of the community. The tension evolved not only around official
recognition by the authorities, but also around the control over the communal financial
resources. For instance, the Nagids responsibility to levy taxes on kosher meat was
disputed, as this was a central resource for the livelihood of the Nagid himself. This
dispute ended up with the intervention of the local authorities that sided with the Junta,
ultimately subjugating the Nagid to the Juntas control, simultaneously strengthening
the newly established Juntas mandate and self-esteem. 51
46 Ibid., 158.
47 Shalom Bar-Asher, Bate Keneset Peraiyyim ve-Horashat Tafqidim Datiyyim beMaroqo, Zion 51, no.3 (1986), pp. 2-3.
48 Bashan, Yahadut Maroqo (Note 25); Gilson-Miller, Apportioning Sacred Space
(Note 23).
49 Bashan, Yahadut Maroqo (Note 25), pp. 99-100.
50 MB, 2.3, 6 (22/10/1860).
51 MB, 77.1 (4/8/1863); ibid. 78.1 (9/8/1863); the Nagid continued to play a symbolic role
while the Junta took advantage of this position. For instance, the Junta employed him
in the crucial task of collecting the Jizya following the war years crisis (see MB, 14.2
(31/12/1860)).
109
This growing self-confidence was embodied in the Juntas initiatives to amend

wrongdoings and promote a general well-being in the community under its leadership.
For instance, during the first weeks of activity to improve the public order, the Junta
addressed the unjustified increase in the price of kosher meat in town. The Junta
reorganized the price structure by classifying meat according to its quality and
supervising its pricing, imposing penalties on disobedient butchers.52 In another case,
when a member of the elite approached the Junta with a request to raise funds for a
poor girl wishing to marry, perhaps a relative of one of his acquaintances and under
his patronage, the Junta refused claiming that no young woman deserves more than
another five others in the community waiting in line to receive funds for the same
purpose.53
Despite their ambitious aspirations for political absolutism, the motivation for the
Juntas initiative and activity were mainly rooted in the perceived elitist commitment
of its notable members to promote welfare and equality among the lower classes of
the community. The Junta was perceived by its members as a leadership body that
had been granted political power by the broad elite of the community based on their
appreciation of the Juntas capability to manage communal affairs to their best overall
interest.
In this context, from the beginning of their activity the Junta members decided that
every Rosh odesh (the first day of the month in Jewish tradition) two commissioners
would visit the sick at the local hospital and observe the management of the parnas,
the person in charge. Subsequently, the Junta decided to send two members each week
to collect the tamid, or the charity traditionally collected on the eve of Sabbath.54
The Junta members provided vital services to the community with funding for
their activity from their own pocket. The Junta members donated bedding to the local
hospital, publishing each contribution in their Minute Book.55 Once when a shortage
occurred, the Junta members individually distributed personal funds to charity for
the holiday of Sukkot, listing their contributions in the Minute Book.56 They also
personally underwrote the organizations expenses, including the stenographer and
52
53
54
55
56
Ibid., 4.2 (29/10/1860).

Ibid., 9.4 (18/12/1860).
Ibid., 9.3 (18/12/1860); ibid., 59.4 (27/10/1862); 63.4 (9/12/1862).
Ibid., 27.2 (27/8/1861).
Ibid., 28.2 (23/9/1861).
110
Aviad Moreno
other associated services.57 In March 1864, the unrevealed criticism and gap between
their actual willingness and self-representation was exposed only to further support
their entries on their aspiration to promote public commonwealth. The Minute Book
mentioned that members of the Junta who tended to be absent from meetings with no
good reason would be fined, stating:
[T]his neglect caused major parts of the affairs of the Junta to be delayed one
cannot see any other remedy than to create those regulations that would [allow] the
affairs to be conducted well as is required from Juntas that bear responsibility
similar to ours; not only to take care of the public affairs of our city, but rather the
responsibility of [maintaining] a continuous and vivid correspondence with all
the communities of Morocco and all the respectable Juntas of Europe.58
While reading the Juntas initiatives displaying their concern for the common mans
well-being, it is important to take into account the Juntas perception of the Minute
Book in which such entries were documented. The Juntas charter outlined the need
for a Minute Book in the following way:
The Junta shall be required to maintain a book for documenting all the minutes
that were agreed on in the [meetings of the] Junta for the sake of our affairs and
decisions being conducted in order and by authority.59
The Junta sought to define and reinforce its control over the community through circulars
distributed throughout the local synagogues; they comprised recent announcements,
decisions and rules.60 Its officially published communiqus were perceived as influential
tools of communication. One clear example is the very first announcement regarding
its founding, stating, for the sake of reinforcing our authority, all the above-written
had been declared and published throughout all the synagogues and became acceptable
with no resistance.61 This was also one of the unique cases in which an entry was
recorded in official Hebrew, aimed at enforcing their authority with religious-based
command. Overall, the book was composed in a formally condensed outline and in
57
58
59
60
61
Ibid., 33.3 ((24/10/1861.

Ibid., 110.2 (20/3/1864).
Ibid., 2.11 (22/10/1860).
Ibid., 38,1 (3/1/1862); 52.2 (31/7/1862); 83.2 (2/9/1863); 109.4 (15.3.1864).
Ibid., 1.3 (22.10.1860).
111
high language promoting an aura of official authority among its readers.62 The Junta
did not hide its aspiration for formality, forbidding its members to publicly discuss the
affairs of the Junta outside of its official forums.63
The available historical manuscript was composed by an employee of the Junta
who had copied a summarized sequence of events narrating the Juntas final decisions,
most often in third person past tense. While the narrative is documented in the form of
recollections, the book reflects observations made within days of each of the Juntas
meetings. In this context, the Junta omitted from the summarized narrative elements
that were seen as inappropriate for documentation and emphasized others that were
deemed worthy and beneficial for promoting its goals, while many aspects remained
open for further discussion.64
Due to its narrative quality, the manuscript might be grasped by some as
historiographically frail and incomplete. Yet, in fact, it may provide unique and
productive insights for interpretative research on the viewpoints and priorities shaping
the common discourse within power elites such as the Junta at this critical time and
place during expanding European influence in the region. That being the case, I propose
analyzing the Minute Book while bearing in mind its subjective quality embedded not
merely in its literal content but also encompassing its changing graphics, its editing
stylesincluding many deviations along the wayas well as the terminology and
the circumstances of its writing per se. All of these elements serve as testimony to
the evolving discourse among the Junta which reflected and sustained its members
collective notions.65
One may conclude that the Minute Book itself was part of the Juntas aspiration for
control, and it served simultaneously as a tool for actualizing this goal. Throughout
the Minute Book, the Junta presented, and at the same time reflected, its evolving
orientations and discourse on the essentialness of its broad reorganization. The Minute
Book thus provided a unique insight into the broad course of its changing mindset, which
gave birth to what we identify as modernity during the age of European hegemony.
62
63
64
65
Moreno, Europe from Morocco (Note 1), pp. 68-74.

MB, 2.10 (22/10/1860).
Moreno, Europe from Morocco (Note 62).
Iris Agmon, Family & Court: Legal Culture and Modernity in Late Ottoman Palestine,
Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, 2007.
112
Aviad Moreno
Photograph by Philip Abensur 66
The Motivations behind the Pro-European Orientation

During the era of growing European intervention in Morocco and the acquisition of
additional rights by local groups (i.e., the transformation from Dhimmis to protgs),
an unprecedented change had occurred in the concept of patron-client relations. In
a society where many would fall under the political custody of a local notable (who
under pre-colonial circumstances was mainly a Muslim), the power elite of protg
Jews was seen as the ultimate patron. 67
The unique location of the Junta, in the city of consuls and a port of global
commerce, shaped the esteem awarded it in the eyes of its members as well as in
the eyes of others. Community leaders in inland Morocco addressed the notables of
the Junta from the very first months of their operation. For instance, in the protocol
summarizing the assembly on April 12, 1861, the Junta dealt with two major issues,
the first of which was a letter sent by the Board of Deputies in London, in which the
66 The Minute Book measures 25.5 cm x 38.5 cm. The binding is hard cardboard and the book
contains 251 pages out of which 235 contain the records of the Protocols and 16 are an index.
67 Daniel J. Schroeter, Trade as a Mediator in Muslim-Jewish Relations: Southwestern Morocco
in the Nineteenth Century, in Mark R. Cohen and Abraham L. Udovitch (eds.), Jews Among
Arabs: Contacts and Boundaries, Darwin Press, Prinston, NJ 1989, pp. 122-127.
113
Board offered the MRF partial annual support for financing a local physician and
medical supplies for the community of Tangier. The Junta decided to refuse stating
that since the money was raised by the MRF during the Spanish Moroccan war for the
Jews of Tangier, they have the right to decide what to the with the money.
The second issue was a dispatch sent by two residents of Rabat for the Junta to
discuss, concerning the unjust extradition of one Jew to the local Muslim authorities
by a British protg Jew named Benatar. The Junta decided to take action, approaching
the local consul who was the figure in charge of Benatar. The Minute Book mentioned
that its president and vice-president kindly accepted their duty to pass this message to
the British Minister.68
This protocol illustrates the political benefits the Junta gained by initially taking
upon itself the task of mediating between the benevolent European figures and
the suffering Jews of Morocco as the Minute Books pro-European orientation
consistently depicts. In this context, addressing powerful European figures on behalf
of the well-being of Moroccan Jewries was obviously calculated against the potential
cost and benefits for the Juntas well-being. The Junta approached European figures
with injustices, constantly bearing in mind its own reputation.
The edited Minute Book apparently did not refer to such requests, which were
considered incongruous, yet reading between the lines of several protocols may reveal
the Juntas concealed intentions. For instance, soon after its founding, the Junta was
addressed by the community of Tetuan to help them relieve the harsh living conditions
under the newly established Spanish regime. The Junta avoided intervening in that
matter, clearly justifying its decision that they were not equipped to address the
authorities on such matters.69
It seems that the Junta understood that stirring the inter-European empirical pot
by addressing one European element in a request to intervene in the matters of
another would be politically unproductive, and potentially politically damaging.
This attitude would change dramatically during the following few years. As its selfconfidence as a powerful mediating body grew, and obviously along with Europes
constructively positive reactions, the Junta gained further courage to address freely
the representatives of various European powers. Positive results further sustained the
organizations ability to represent itself as a crucial mediator in bringing welfare to the
underprivileged among Moroccan Jewry.
68 MB, 21.1, 21.2 (12/4/1861).
69 Ibid., 28.1 (23/9/1861).
114
Aviad Moreno
Perhaps the most influential event in supporting the Juntas standing at the time
was the above-mentioned Safi Affair. The visit of Montefiore not only impacted the
perception of European power as beneficial for the well-being of Moroccan Jewries
but more importantly had reinforced the Juntas ability to represent itself as an ultimate
mediating factor.
Even though the meeting with the Junta of Tangier was a minor event in Montefiores
schedule, the members of the Junta referred to his visit to Morocco as their own
success story. The series of correspondence with Jewish communities in inland
Morocco leading up to and following Montefiores visit were crucial in supporting
and sustaining this notion. In this context, it is no wonder that the European-oriented
terminology, which would be grasped as Eurocentric positivism, appears again in
all its glory. For instance, the Junta described in great detail the reasons the Jewish
community of Fez originally contacted them for assistance, stating:
[The Fez Community] had known about the arrival of the venerable gentleman
Sir Moshe Montefiore to this [town of Tangier], and they presented succinctly
the lamentable situation of that community and the horrible galut (exile) that our
brethren suffer in the interior of the Macarav (Morocco) and they earnestly beg
this Junta to turn to the gentleman and provide the necessary explanations so that
he would lobby [for achieving] some relief to the yoke of the galut under which
they suffer today.70
During its meeting in August 1863, the Junta discussed the chain of responses that it
had received from philanthropic Jewish bodies in Europe in reply to its own requests
regarding the Safi Affair. It was at this specific meeting that the Junta referred for the
first time in its Minute Book to the possibility of approaching the local diplomatic
corps in Tangier so as to obtain their intervention on behalf of the well-being of
Moroccan Jewry as a whole. Following a letter from the representatives in Mazagan
regarding the imprisonment of two local Jews, the Junta decided to approach the local
British consul in Tangier. The Junta phrased its intentions as follows: [T]hat this
gentleman would favor us writing his honorable words to the British vice consul in
Mazagan for the sake of obtaining the liberty of the two boys in prison.
The important message of that protocol exceeds the simple idea of facilitating
benevolent European intervention. The protocol clearly states that three respectable
70 Ibid., 96.1 (8.12.1863).
115
members of the Junta suggested taking care of this obligation by addressing this figure,
once again marking their crucial role in the endeavor for European intervention.
The next item in the same entry further reveals the Juntas growing role as a
powerful body. The issue concerns a rebellious member of the Junta who had
established an independent welfare society (strictly prohibited by the Junta during its
formative stages). Since that member was a French protg, the French consul sided
with him in this internal quarrel, writing to the Junta on his behalf. The Junta decided
to write back to the consul in confrontation with this senior member.
The next and last item described the Juntas intention to write to the community of
Tetuan informing it about the good news aforementioned, referring to its ability to
recruit Montefiore and Albert Cohen for intervening in the Safi Affair.71 It seems that
Juntas changing self-perception as crucial mediator following the Safi Affair altered
to some extent its accessibility to and relationship with leading European figures.
During its handling of the Safi affair the Junta strengthened its relationship with
these global bodies in an unprecedented way. The direct result of this conceptual shift
is reflected throughout its activities. Beginning with the first letter sent to Montefiore
in September 1863 and continuing with correspondence through the end of 1864,
an unprecedented preoccupation with external affairs involving direct contacts with
Europe is documented in the Minute Book, comprising almost half of all matters
documented. The shift is even marked in an administrative remark. During May
1864, the Juntas clerk had demanded a raise in his salary owing to the increase in
correspondence and the Junta subsequently agreed.72
Even before it had become clear that Montefiore had notably succeeded in his
mission to acquire equality of non-Muslims in Morocco, the Junta foresaw a great
advantage in thanking all the world Jewish bodies involved in finding a solution
to the affair.73 The unfolding events obviously inflated the Juntas self-perception,
supporting the self-esteem and self-representing narrative found in the Minute Book.
As their success stories accumulated, the Junta gained additional prestige which
further sustained its discourse.
The Juntas contact with the local consular representatives in Tangier concerning
the well-being of Moroccan Jews also reached its peak during the period. The notable
71 MB, 90.3, 90.5, 90.6 (22/10/1863).

72 Ibid., 120.3 (17/5/1864).
73 Ibid., 99.4 (19/1/1864).
116
Aviad Moreno
members of the Junta reported their successful meetings with the Portuguese and
Italian representatives, stating that the latter had promised to lobby for the well-being
of Moroccan Jewry. The Junta members then felt confident to lobby the Italian consul
to promote a policy of granting local Jews Italian protection. The Junta reported the
response in which the consul promised to take the required actions.74
During this period, the Junta was somewhat apprehensive to disturb the delicate
balance maintained in local power relations. A week after their report on the successful
meeting with the European consuls, the Junta members dealt with a letter received
from Tetuan discussing violations of the Sultans decree granted to Montefiore under
the open eye of the local Basha. The Junta addressed the British Consul in Tangier
asking him to contact his representative in Tetuan and command him to warn the
Basha. The Junta dealt subsequently with the response of the Tetuan communitys
depiction of the Bashas apology and promise to guarantee their safety.75
The Junta clearly displayed its ability to manipulate the local authorities by
addressing the European elements in Tangier. The unfolding events were all described
in the same protocol through hindsight, illustrating the narrative quality of this
description, which further fed the discourse on the need for benevolent European
intervention and most importantly the Juntas imperative role within the process.
Following this event, the Junta recorded a series of other successful meetings
of its members with local consuls. For instance, a week after the Junta wrote about
the positive results obtained from addressing the local British Consul on the Tetuan
affair, the Junta reported about its successful meetings with the Spanish and American
representatives, during which the latter promised to have its other representatives
along the coastal towns of Morocco lobby for the well-being of local Jews as well.
The Junta proved both to itself and to the readers of the book that this promise indeed
came through. Moshe Pariente, a Junta member and an interpreter at the American
Consulate of Tangier, reported that indeed such a request had been sent and that one
cannot expect better results.76
It was in this context and at this point that the Junta decided to reinforce its contacts
with the community under its leadership and make its documented achievements
more accessible. At the peak of its attained political success as a worthy communal
74 Ibid., 109.2, 109.3 (15/3/1864).

75 Ibid., 111.2, 111.4 ((25/3/1864.
76 Ibid., 113.13 (1/4/1864).
117
leadership in this time of European hegemony, and after reinforcing its ties with
such elements, the Junta recruited two additional members and published in the local
synagogues their names along with the entire list of names of the Junta members.
In addition, it publicized its records, allowing the public to address the Junta with
suggestions for discussions in upcoming Junta meetings.77
Considering the ensuing political crisis, perhaps the Junta exaggerated its selfconfidence while proposing this reform. Yet, this decision can only reflect the impact
of the evolving communication with Europe on its self-perception and simultaneously
on the hopes it had for its self-representation as a powerful and critical entity serving
as mediator during this specific time of geopolitical evolution.
Conclusion
An initial reading of the Minute Book, which opens with the Juntas ambition to
imitate and adopt the superior values of European communities, challenges the
common revision regarding the essence of European-oriented modernization and
simultaneously embraces Eurocentric positivist perception. It strongly suggests that
importing ready-made European models or the need for European intervention for the
sake of amending Oriental societies was internalized by the local leadership group.
Going a step further, the course of European-style modernization appears to
be rather complex and grants the local agents with a proactive role in the course
of change, not merely locally but rather globally. On the one hand, not merely
had the process of European intervention and its sustaining discourse been crucial
in generating modernity among eastern societies, but moreover, some of the most
influential local community members proactively promoted it, insisting to forge ties
with Europe and strengthening its perceived standing as an almighty empire. The Junta,
a local leadership apparatus, generated and sustained the essence of the positivist
Eurocentric discourse on the value of the benevolent intervention of Europe on behalf
of the underprivileged Oriental Jewish pariah, as repeatedly stated in its Minute Book.
On the other hand, one should not perceive the Juntas aspirations for European
intervention as an internalization of an imported colonial discourse generated in the
west and absorbed by the eastern societies, nor should the essence of the process be
77 Ibid., 109. 4-5 (15/3/1864).
118
Aviad Moreno
understood as an arousing encounter between two opposing cultural structures. An

in-depth reading of the Minute Book reveals that the ongoing pro-European discourse
as well as its maintenance was no less a creation and an aspiration of power elements
among the receptive east. This aspiration and its evolution reflected the new interests
taking shape during the age of European hegemony among those who most benefited
from the process around the world, thus further sustaining it.
As it appears, the Junta promoted a discourse depicting the benevolent European
intervention through which it granted itself unprecedented opportunities to represent
itself as a crucial mediating body. As successes stories mounted throughout the various
encounters with Montefiore, the AIU, local diplomats, and Jewish Philanthropic
bodies, it constantly fed this notion, affecting in return the Juntas discourse as well
as their overall orientation. (Other cases of perceived failure were often employed for
other political aspirations, which exceed the scope of this essay).
The inherited by-product discourses of these changing epistemologies and
ontologies were embodied in a variety of sources that serve as our historiographical
basis for retracing the related course of change. As historians, we ought to carefully
read them and perceive their underlying motivations to better understand what they
may entail below the surface.
While the Minute Book provides an incomplete picture of historical developments,
it does allow an in-depth insight into microscopic and yet essential historical fragments
not only depicting but generating the broad historical change during this period. The
Juntas declaration regarding its aspiration to imitate and adopt the customs and
stature of European communities in October 1860 was one component in the lengthy
and reciprocal process of evolutionary epistemological and ontological change that
laid the foundations of European intervention in the context of changing interests and
reality as understood by the powerful elite. As the encounter evolved, it altered the
way influential elements, such as the Junta, thought and wrote about reality, further
sustaining the encounter, and so forth.
The case of the Junta of Tangier is an exemplar, yet it constitutes one of the most
imperative cases, particularly for the study of the modernization of Oriental Jewries.
It implies that the very first branches of the AIU as well as the notion of civilizing
mission or European philanthropy, the symbols of European-oriented modernization
across these societies, were not a ready-made French idea that was granted to the east
or imposed on it at certain time. The Minute Book, while solely providing a gaze into
the daily operations of the Junta, offers an insight into an evolving inspiration that
took shape, ultimately corresponding with the constructed notion of west versus
119
east as the encounter developed. Cases of discontent among the local society were
part of this multifaceted evolution of European-oriented modernity and require further
research that exceeds the scope of Juntas epistemology and ontology as described
here.
120
Grard Nahon
Les Pqide-Qusha,
les Officiers pour la Terre sainte dIstanbul
face aux markalim, les Surintendants dAmsterdam,
1827-1828
Grard Nahon
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne
Depuis 1726, le Waad Pqide Ere Israel b-Qusha, le Comit des Officiers de la
Terre Sainte Constantinople, cr linitiative de Mordekhai Alfandari, un notable
fortun dIstanbul, centralise les secours financiers destins aux communauts juives
de Terre Sainte. Il collecte de fonds venus de lEmpire Turc et dautres pays. Il
accrdite les missaires de la Terre Sainte qui parcourent la diaspora afin dobtenir
des dons pour Jrusalem, Hbron, Safed et Tibriade. Il opre le transfert des fonds
qui lui parviennent vers la Terre Sainte. Le Waad opre lui-mme dans lempire
ottoman dit Turkia dans les sources rabbiniques. Les dons provenant de lOccident
europen appel Frankia dans ces mmes sources, ou de lAmrique, parviennent
la Nation juive portugaise dAmsterdam. Celle-ci envoie ces fonds Istanbul. Une
correspondance concernant ces oprations relie ainsi Amsterdam Istanbul et plus
gnralement lOccident lOrient autour des secours destins la Terre Sainte.1
La source majeure est le Pinqas du Waad, conserv au Jewish Theological Seminary of

America New York, ms 4008 (0151) = Jrusalem Ben Zvi Institute, microfilm 1857,
partiellement dit et magistralement exploit par Jacob Barnai, Pinqas dont une dition
complte demeure un desideratum. Il contient la correspondance au dpart du Waad
plus de cinq cents lettres envoyes entre 1741 et 1771 ainsi quune lettre de 1729 . Sur
la fondation et le fonctionnement de cet organisme, cf. Izhak Ben-Zvi, Ere Israel under
Ottoman Rule; Four centuries of History, Jrusalem, Yad Ben Zvi 1969 [en hbreu], pp.
265-270 et les recherches neuves partir du registre des Pqide Qusha de Jacob Barnai,
121
Les Pqide-Qusha
Dans le courant du mois de kislew 5570, dcembre 1809, les banquiers ashknazes
dAmsterdam Isaac Breitbart (Gutaiende), Abraham Prins et Zvi Hirsch Lehren fondent
un organisme nouveau, les Pqide wa-markale de Are ha-Qodesh, les Officiers et
Surintendants des cits saintes. Cet organisme se fixe pour objectif de collecter des
fonds pour la Terre Sainte dune manire mthodique, grce un systme de comits
locaux oprant dans des dizaines de localits hollandaises ainsi quen Belgique, en
France, en Allemagne et dans les pays scandinaves. En 1824 les rabbins de Jrusalem
reconnaissent les Pqide wa-markale de Are ha-Qodesh comme lorganisme exclusif
de collecte des fonds pour la Terre Sainte et lui dlguent le pouvoir de traiter en leur
nom. Sous la direction des frres Zvi-Hirsch Lehren (1784-1853), Jacob-Mir Lehren
(1795-1861) et Aqiba Lehren (1795-1876) fils du banquier Abraham-Mose Lehren,
ce dernier originaire de Lehren-Steinfeld en Wurtemberg, les Pqide wa-markale
de Are ha-Qodesh reprennent sur des bases neuves les objectifs et les ambitions du
Waad Pqide Ere Israel b-Qusha, fonctionnant Istanbul depuis prs dun sicle.
Les administrateurs hollandais dirigeront dsormais la collecte des secours pour la
Terre Sainte en Europe Occidentale, et dabord en Hollande, en Angleterre, en France,
en Allemagne et dans dautres pays ensuite.2 Cependant, afin dacheminer leurs
Pekidei Erez Israel be-Kushta, Encylopdia Judaica, Year-Book 1974 Jrusalem 1974,
pp. 248-249, The Jews in Ere Israel in the Eighteeenth Century under the Patronage
of the Constantinople Committee Officials of Ere Israel, Jrusalem, Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi
Publications 1982 [en hbreu], pp. 129-154, The Jews in Palestine in the Eighteenth
Century under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine, translated
by Naomi Goldblum, Tuscalosa Alabama, The University of Alabama Press 1992, pp. 84102. Sur la correspondance entre Amsterdam et Istanbul au XVIIIe sicle, cf. G. Nahon,
Les relations entre Amsterdam et Constantinople au XVIIIe sicle daprs le Copiador
de Cartas de la Nation juive portugaise dAmsterdam, Jozeph Michman & Tirtsah Levie.
d., Dutch Jewish History, Proceedings of the Symposium on the History of the Jews in
the Netherlands, November 28-December 3, 1982, Tel Aviv-Jerusalem. Jrusalem 1984,
pp. 157-184. Jai prsent une premire communicationreste inditesur ce thme
intitule Les Pqid-Qusha, Officiers de Terre sainte Istanbul et le poste de pilotage
dAmsterdam, communication qua bien voulu lire en mon absence Riva Castoriano au
colloque The Jewish Communities in the Balkans and Turkey in the 19th and 20th centuries
through the End of the World War II, Tel Aviv University, Diaspora Research Institute (5-8
juin 1995).
Sur les fondateurs, cf. Jozeph Michman, Lehren, Encylopdia Judaica, vol. 10 col. 184185, Mordechai Eliav, R. Akiva Lehren: the Man and his Work, Dutch Jewish History.
Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on the History of the Jews in the Netherlands 7-l0
december l986Tel Aviv Jerusalem 1986, vol. II, d. Jozeph Michman. Jrusalem-Assen
122
Grard Nahon
envois dargent et leurs lettres Jrusalem, Hbron, Safed et Tibriade comme

pour en recevoir des informations indispensables, les frres Lehren restent tributaires
du concours de leurs homologues dIstanbul, les dirigeants du Waad Pqide Ere
Israel b-Qusha. Entre le rseau occidental mis en place et contrl par la nouvelle
institution ashknaze hollandaise dune part, et la Terre Sainte dautre part, le Waad
Pqide Ere Israel b-Qusha dIstanbul demeure un intermdiaire incontournable,
dautant quil contrle toujours la gestion financire des communauts juives de la
Terre Sainte.
Comment ragirent ces dirigeants dIstanbul face laction, aux initiatives, aux
directives, la politique du nouvel organisme dAmsterdam? Quels problmes
daccommodation se posrent entre les deux organismes ? Les ashknazes dAmsterdam
se substiturent-ils entirement aux Portugais dAmsterdam ou ceux-ci poursuivirentils leur collaboration et leur correspondance avec Istanbul? Plus gnralement se pose
la question des changements introduits par les nouveaux interlocuteurs ashknazes
l989, pp. 207-217 et du mme Mordechai Eliav, Ere Israel and Its Yishuv in the 19th
Century 1777-1917. Jrusalem, Kter 1978 [en hbreu], pp. 118-125. Sur lorganisation
et son activit, cf. Jacob Barnai, Vaad ha-Pqidim ve-ha-markalim, Encylopdia
Judaica, Year-Book 1974 Jrusalem 1974, pp. 270-271, Arieh Morgenstern, The Pqidim
and markalim of Amsterdam and the Jewish Community in Palestine 1810-1840, Ph.
Thesis, Hebrew Univ. 1981 [en hbreu]. J. S. Hirsch, Les premires annes de lassociation
des Pqidim et markalim Amsterdam, Zion 47 1982, pp. 83-88 [en hbreu],, Jozeph
Michman, The Emergence of Pqidim and markalim of Amsterdam, Cathedra, 27 1983
pp. 69-84 {en hbreu]. Pour une perpspective densemble Jozeph Michman, Hartog Beem,
Dan Michman, Pinkas Hakehilot Encyclopdia of Jewish Communities, The Netherlands,
Jrusalem, Yad Vashem 1985, pp. 32-33. Sur la correspondance cf. Joseph Joel et Benjamin
Rivlin, Letters of the Pqidim and markalim of Amsterdam 5586-5587, Jrusalem 1965,
Letters of the Pqidim and markalim of Amsterdam 5588, Jrusalem 1970, Letters of
the Pqidim and marcalim of Amsterdam 5589 Introduction dIsrael Bartal, Jrusalem
1978 [en hbreu], Arieh Morgenstern, The correspondance of Pqidim and markalim
of Amsterdam as a Source for the History of Erez Israel, dans Cathedra 27, mars 1983,
pp. 85-108 [en hbreu], trad. anglaise dans Dutch Jewish History. Proceedings of the
Symposium on the History of the Jews in the Netherlands. November 28-December 3, 1982
Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem, Editor Jozeph Michman, Tirtsah Levie, Tel-Aviv-Jrusalem 1984, pp.
433-463. Sur limpact du nouvel organisme sur lessor de la Terre sainte au XIXe sicle,
cf. Arieh Morgenstern, Rdemption par une voie naturelle dans les crits du Gaon de Vilna
et de ses disciples, recueil darticles [en hbreu], Elqana, Mikhlalat Orot Israel, s.d. pp.
277-300, du mme auteur, Hastening Redemption. Messianism and the Resettlement of the
Land of Israel, trad. Joel-A. Linsider, Jrusalem, the Shalem Center 2006.
123
Les Pqide-Qusha
sur le plan de la langue de communication comme celui des objectifs et des mthodes
daide financire la Terre Sainte. A la lumire des changements survenus dans
le rapport existant depuis un sicle au moins entre Istanbul et Amsterdam et des
relations entre les deux organismes, peroit-on une stratgie spcifique des leaders
stambouliotes face la volont dhgmonie des Ashknazes dAmsterdam?
Nous proposons ici de dresser un tat du problme: Istanbul face Amsterdam entre
1827 et 1828. Si les archives propres des Pqidim et des markalim dAmsterdam
quelque 11.000 picessont dposes la Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana de lUniversit
dAmsterdam, nous disposons des registres des lettres envoyes par les Pqide wamarkale de Are ha-Qodesh dAmsterdam ou de La Haye entre 1826 et 1870, soit
quinze registres couvrant 6700 pages, aujourdhui conservs lInstitut Ben Zvi
Jrusalem. Trois volumes comprenant les lettres envoyes entre 1827 et 1829 ont
t publis et leur exploitation sest montre extrmement fconde. Plusieurs articles
ainsi quune thse de doctorat ont t consacrs aux Pqide wa-markale de Are haQodesh partir des registres publis et de ceux rests indits.3 Ne disposant pas de
la correspondance au dpart dIstanbul, nous avons tent de la reconstituer en partie
daprs le courrier que les Pqide we-markale de Are ha-Qodesh amstellodamois
adressrent leurs ans du Waad Pqide Ere Israel b-Qusha stambouliote. De la
sorte avons-nous identifi dix-huit lettres du Waad aux Pqidim entre 1824 et 1828,
lettres cites dans les rponses des Pqidim ( 82, 87, 120, 158, 159, 183, 219, 231,
249, 260). Pour quelques unes de ces lettres dates selon le calendrier hbreu, nous
indiquons leurs dates selon le calendrier civil dans la liste figurant en appendice.
I. Istanbul face aux freres Lehren:

Pour cette priode nous ne connaissons que trois dirigeants du Waad stambouliote:
Isaac Hattim, Poliqaron Yerushalmi et Isaac Chelebi Bekhor Carmona tragiquement
dcd le 15 juillet 1826. Ce dernier, chef de la communaut, financier influent, tait
un intermdiaire efficace auprs de la Sublime Porte. Sa disparition rduira le pouvoir
3
Cf. Moshe Davis, The Letters of the Communal Leaders from Amsterdam: A New Source
Concerning the Relationship between American Jewry and Eretz Yisrael, Salo Wittmayer
Jubilee Volume on the occasion of his Eightieth Birthday, Hebrew Section, Jrusalem,
American Academy for Jewish Research, New York et Londres 1974, Columbia University
Press, pp. 91-109.
124
Grard Nahon
effectif tant du Waad que de la communaut stambouliote.4 Le Waad Pqide Ere

Israel b-Qusha contrle encore le systme des secours la Terre Sainte. Il confirme
les accrditations des missaires envoys dans le monde par les cits saintes de
Jrusalem, Hbron, Safed et Tibriade pour collecter des sommes dargent. Abraham
Chalom Mizrahi est ainsi dsign comme missaire vers lAllemagne vers 1827.5 Le
Waad supervise les transferts de fonds vers ces villes et contrle leur distribution.
Les besoins financiers de la Terre Sainte avaient augment par suite dune importante
immigration ashknaze. Aussi le Waad Pqide Ere Israel b-Qusha. confirme-til en 1810 la dcision des rabbins de Jrusalem de reconnatre au nouveau Comit
hollandais le droit de lever des fonds en leur nom.
Dans la pratique le Waad Pqide Ere Israel b-Qusha envoie des missairesquteurs dans la diaspora. Il adresse aux Pqide wa-markale de Are ha-Qodesh
des lettres dcrivant, voire exagrant, la misre des juifs de Terre Sainte. Il reoit
dAmsterdam la confirmation quune somme dargent est disponible son intention.
Il tire alors sur les frres Lehren une polissa, cest--dire une lettre de change
correspondant cette somme. Ainsi apprend-t-on par une lettre de 8 mars 1827 au
dpart de La Haye que le Rishon l-iyyon, le Grand Rabbin Salomon-Mose Suzin6
a tir une polissa (en italien) sur les Pqidim hollandais. Largent est encaiss
Istanbul par les banquiers Abraham et Nissim Foa. Les Pqidim transmettent alors la
somme reue Jrusalem avec un plan de ventilation ou luqqa aux pauvres et aux
talmide khamim, les pensionnaires des yshivot. Les cits saintes doivent adresser
Istanbul des accuss de rception et des rapports sur lemploi des fonds.7 Le cas
chant Istanbul envoie des coureurs spciaux en Palestine: une lettre envoye de
4
Une lettre du 5 mai 1827 part sans la signature de Polikaron Yerushalmi. Letters of the
Pqidim and marcalim of Amsterdam 5586-5587, Jrusalem 1965, 120 t. I pp. 261-264.
Sur la mort de Carmona et son impact sur les juifs de lEmpire cf. Document infra et Esther
Benbassa, Une diaspora en transition Istanbul, XIXe-XXe sicles, Paris, Editions du Cerf
1993 p. 18.
Lettre s.d. indiquant lenvoi de lmissaire Raphal-Abraham Chalom Mizrahi en
Allemagne; sur cet missaire, cf. Abraham Yaari, Emissaires de la terre Sainte. Histoire
de la mission du pays vers la diaspora de la destruction du Second Temple au XIXe sicle.
Jrusalem 1951, rimpression 1977 [en hbreu] pp. 603, 713.
Sur cet minent rabbin qui fut aussi missaire en Turquie, Cf. Moshe David Gaon, Oriental
Jews in Ere Israel, Past and Present, Jrusalem 3me d. 2000 [en hbreu], p. 478 et
Abraham Yaari, cit supra pp. 567-568.
Lettre de La Haye, Letters of the Pqidim 79, t. I, pp. 146-147.
125
Les Pqide-Qusha
La Haye le 24 fvrier 1828 demande ainsi quon expdie un courrier par le premier
coureur en partance pour la Terre Sainte. Istanbul transmet enfin Amsterdam les
documents issus de la Terre sainte.8
Le secrtariat du Comit dIstanbul rdige la correspondance en italien si lon
en croit le Comit hollandais , mais dans un italien truff de mots espagnols et
quon ne comprend ni La Haye ni Amsterdam.9 Rappelons ici que Zvi Hirsch
Lehren se trouve exil dAmsterdam La Haye de 1823 1232 pour avoir ouvert
une synagogue prive de rite Sefard: la gestion des markalim bass Amsterdam
est de ce fait plus lourde. Il faut faire traduire les lettres reues dIstanbul. Une lettre
partie dIstanbul 10 juin 1828 arrive assez rapidement le 9 juillet Amsterdam,
mais huit jours seront ncessaires pour la faire traduire en hbreu.10 Pour sa part, le
Lettre de La Haye Simon Bresler, en yiddish, Letters of the Pqidim 200, t. II pp. 120-121
Sur une correspondance en italien reue La Haye, Letters of the Pqidim, 159 t I pp.
36-41. Les relations commerciales de lEmpire Turc avec lItalie expliquent en partie cet
emploi de lItalien par les Pqidim dIstanbul, cf. Minna Rozen Strangers in a Strange
Land: the Extraterritorial Status of Jews in Italy and the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth
to Eighteenth Century, dans In the Mediterranean Routes. The Jewish-Spanish Diaspora
from the the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, Tel Aviv University, Chair for the History
and Culture of the Jews of Salonika and Greece, 1993, pp. 24-64 [en hbreu]; une allusion
labsorption de litalien et du Yiddish dans le Judo-espagnol par Ilber Ortayli, Ottoman
Jewry and the Turkish Language, dans Minna Rozen d., The Late Ottoman Century and
Beyond. The Jews in Turkey and the Balkans 1808-1945, t. II, Tel Aviv University, The
Chair for the History and Culture of the Jews of Salonika and Greece, 2002 p. 132; le 11
octobre 1798, Mos de Daniel Burla se fait dlivrer par le charg daffaires de lambassade
de Grande Bretagne Istanbul une lettre de protection en italien, lettre publie par Eliezer
Bashan, A Jewish Economic Elite in Eighteenth-Century SalonikaNew documents on
the Burla Family (1763-1793) dans Minna Rozen d., The Days of the Crescent. Chapters
on the history of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire, Tel Aviv University, The Chair for the
History and Culture of the Jews of Salonika and Greece, The Diaspora Research Institute
1996, p. 231. En fait llite de la socit juive dIstanbul, les Francos venus pour la plupart
de Livourne au XVIIIe sicle, pratiquaient autant litalien que le judo-espagnol, cf.
Abraham Galante, Histoire des Juifs dIstanbul, Istanbul 1942 t. 2 pp. 213-314, Attilio
Milano, Storia degli Ebrei italiani nel Levante, Florence 1949, Simon Schwarzfuchs,
Sulam Saloniki, Sefunot 15, 1971-1981, pp. 79-69. Cf. Aron Rodrigue Abraham de
Camondo of Istanbul: the transformation of Jewish Philanthropy, dans Frances Malino
et David Sorkin, d. From East and West: Jews in Changing Europe 1750-1870, Oxford
Basic Blackwell 1990, pp. 45-56.
10 Lettre cite dans Letters of the Pqidim 249, t. II pp. 218-220.
8
9
126
Grard Nahon
Comit hollandais sastreint crire en hbreu, en employant la cursive dite Rashi

pratique par les Spharades. Il faut compter entre deux et trois mois pour quune
lettre partie de Hollande parvienne en Turquie. En fait Istanbul utilise ses propres
rseaux de communication tandis quAmsterdam se sert de la poste. Une dizaine de
lettres par an circulent dans les deux sens. Entre 1822 et 1827, le nouveau Comit
semble navoir pas crit Istanbul. Aussi le 29 mars 1827 Hirsch Lehren envoie-t-il
de La Haye un long rapport sur laction des annes coules. Le Comit dIstanbul
pourra ainsi prendre connaissance des ralisations de lorganisme dont il assume la
direction.11
A la correspondance entretenue avec Amsterdam sajoutent des relations directes
avec des agents des markalim de passage Istanbul comme le rabbin SalomonZalman Shapira ou Simon Bresler.12 Le premier ngociera avec le Waad leur garantie
des traites signes au profit des Ashkenazim de Jrusalem et plus gnralement les
conditions du retour des Ashkenazim bannis de Jrusalem depuis lassaut contre leur
quartier en 1720. Une lettre que lui adresse de La Haye Hirsch Lehren le 2 eshwan
5588 lui indique trs longuement les enjeux et les voies de la ngociation mener
auprs du Waad spharade.13 Plus que toute autre, cette lettre montre quel point les
markalim ont conscience du pouvoir et des moyens dont dispose le Waad.
Les Pqidim dIstanbul rpondent brivement aux longues lettres et aux demandes
des Pqidim hollandais. Ils ne se privent pas dexprimer, le cas chant, leur colre
contre les dcisions ou les choix de leurs lointains correspondants occidentaux. A
cet gard une lettre en italien de mars 1828 Hirsch Lehren sans signature de
Poliqaron Yerushalmi , tire une police de 650 fl. En faveur de Tibriade signe
Isaac Hattin lordre de J. Comondo [sic] & Compagnie, Leon Adut Vienne,
Aernickel & Gulcher Vienne et Coudrid & Branteer Amsterdam. Cette lettre
expose les malheurs de la Terre Sainte. Elle exhale sa colre, refuse de confirmer le
pouvoir de Lehren, ncrit pas les noms des destinataires dAmsterdam, renvoie
la prochaine gnration larrt du systme des missaires. Comme le remarque fort
justement Israel Bartal Les Pqidim de Constantinople soumirent leur domination
11 Ce rapport relate la mort dIsaac Chelebi Carmona, lettre du 19 mars 1827, Letters of the
Pqidim 82, pp. 162-170.
12 Abraham Salomon Zalman Shapira, disciple de Hayim de Volozin fut missaire des
Perushim de Jrusalem; Istanbul il semploya obtenir lannulation de la dette ancienne
des Ashkenazim de Jrusalem, cf. Yaari, cit supra pp. 762, 770, 772, 782.
13 Letters of the Pqidim 143 t. II, pp. 14-22.
127
Les Pqide-Qusha
le systme des missaires mais ne labolirent point.14 Conscients de leur capacit

irremplaable dintervention auprs de la Sublime Porte en faveur des juifs de Terre
Sainte, les Pqidim soulignent lintention des leaders ashknazes amstellodamois
le fait quils ont dbours 100 dummim pour lobtention dun firman autorisant des
ashknazes de Russie vivre Jrusalem, ils informent ces mmes leaders de leurs
dmarches Istanbul auprs du ministre de Prusse.15
II. Istanbul et la Communidad Judaica Portugueza dAmsterdam

Les dirigeants dIstanbul ont en face deux une organisation qui reprsente un trs
grand nombre de communauts europennes, donc financirement plus puissante que
la Nation juive portugaise dAmsterdam, leur interlocutrice depuis un sicle. Ils ont
pratiquement affaire Zvi Hirsch Lehren seul qui rside La Haye tandis que le sige
des Pqide wa-markale de Are ha-Qodesh se trouve Amsterdam: cest un rapport
trs personnalis. Mais, la diffrence des relations entretenues autrefois avec la Nation
juive portugaise, il existe au niveau du langage une difficult de communication dont
se plaint Zvi Hirsch Lehren Salomon Zalman Shapira. Hirsch Lehren ne comprend
pas les lettres italiennes dIstanbul et leur traduction ne le satisfait pas: Ne nous
crivez pas dans la langue italienne que nous ne comprenons pas et nous avons besoin
dun traducteur. Il vaudrait mieux que vous ordonniez au secrtaire dcrire en langue
sainte crit-il le 11 juillet 1827.16 Il revient sur cette demande le 23 dcembre 1827,
prcisant que son bureau amstellodamois dispose dun secrtaire italophone, mais
les lettres venues dIstanbul sont truffes de mots espagnols: ce nest pas du bon
italien pur que lon connat dans notre pays. De grce ne nous crivez dsormais
quen langue sainte.17 Quant la Nation juive portugaise dAmsterdam, elle reoit
la lista justifiant lemploi des sommes envoyes la Terre sainte, maiscrit Lehren
le 11 juillet 1828les Pqide wa-markale de Are ha-Qodesh ne reoivent aucune
somme dargent des Portugais. Cependant ils transmettent une copie de cette lettre
14 Joseph Joel et Benjamin Rivlin, Letters of the Pqidim and marcalim of Amsterdam 5589
Introduction dIsrael Bartal, Jrusalem 1978 [en hbreu] p. 15.
15 La Haye, 21 iyyar 5588, Letters of the Pqidim 219, t. II, pp. 149-152.
16 La Haye, 15 tammuz 5587, Letters of the Pqidim 107, p. 239.
17 La Haye, 5 evet 5588, Letters of the Pqidim 159, II p. 38.
128
Grard Nahon
ces mmes Portugais et les invitent sassocier leurs efforts au profit de la Terre
sainte. Les Parnassim des Portugais rpondent positivement et envoient une polissa.18
Par ailleurs ces mmes Parnassim adressent trois lettres aux Pqidim dIstanbul,
lettres dont la teneur figure dans le Copiador de Cartas de la Nation juive Portugaise
dAmsterdam.19 Le 17 aot 1827 une premire lettre signe par Mozes Lopes Salzedo
et J. Buenos de Mesquita annonce un envoi de fonds pour les quatre cits saintes
provenant dun legs dAb[raha]m et de Sara Pereira. Elle dclare avoir protest une
lettre de change en faveur de la yshiva Magen David de Jrusalem, mettant en doute
son authenticit.
Cette mme lettre aborde un sujet dlicat relative la candidature du rabbin
Abraham Belais la chaire rabbinique des Portugais dAmsterdam. Son savoir
tant reconnu tant par des attestations dminents rabbins, par des recommandations
octroyes par Isaac Chelebi Bekhor Carmona, lautorit communautaire par excellence
dIstanbul et mme par des chrtiens, des mchants bruits courent sur ses murs. Les
Parnassim dAmsterdam prient le Waad dIstanbul de les clairer. Par une demande
du mme ordre poste par markalim le 26 aot 1827 Istanbul, il appert quun
soupon dhomosexualit, voire daffiliation la Franc-maonnerie pserait sur le
personnage.20 La convergence de ces demandes des markalim ashknazes et de la
Nation Portugaise dAmsterdam dmontre que les Pqidim dIstanbul exercent encore
en dernire analyse sur les uns et pour les autres une pr-minence inconteste: ils
dtiennent le vrai.
18 La Haye, 11 av 5588, Letters of the Pqidim 249, II p. 218.
19 Sur le Copiador de Cartas, cf. G. Nahon, Une source pour lhistoire de la diaspora sefarade
au XVIIIe sicle: le Copiador de Cartas de la communaut portugaise dAmsterdam,
Proceedings of the First International Congress for the Study of the Sephardi and Oriental
Jewry. Jrusalem 1981, pp. 109-122. Mme Odette Vlessing a bien voulu rechercher mon
intention dans les registres du Copiador ces lettres adresses Istanbul et men adresser
les photocopies: je lui en exprime ici ma trs vive reconnaissance.
20 Amsterdam Stadsarchief Pa 334. 100 p. 402, infra document 1. Lettre des markalim du
3 lul 5587, Letters of the Pqidim 120, t. I pp. 261-264. Sur la brillante carrire et les
publications dAbraham Belais, cf. David Cazes, Notes bibliographiques sur la littrature
juive tunisienne Marseille, Editions Jazyber 1988 (rdition de louvrage paru Paris en
1893, avec une Prface de Charles Haddad et de Ady Steg), pp. 20-28. G. Levi, Rassegna
Mensile di Israel 12 n 3-4, 1937, pp. 129-162, Albert-M. Hyamson, The Sephardim of
England. A History of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Community 1492-1951, Londres
Methuen 1951, 19912. pp. 208-209, 291, David Corcos, Belais(h), Abraham ben Shalom
(1773-1853), Encyclopdia Judaica 4 col. 412. Sur des Odes et prires hbraques
129
Les Pqide-Qusha
Une deuxime lettre des Portugais dAmsterdam du 7 ab 5588, rpond aux

reproches formuls par les Pqidim dIstanbul. Ils rclament des secours substantiels
en faveur des rabbins de Jrusalem accabls dune atroce misre. Les temps ont chang:
dune partcrivent-ilsnous navons plus le pouvoir dexiger une contribution
financire ad hoc des membres de la communaut portugaise, dautre part nous ne
pouvons puiser dans la caisse que pour le secours partiel de nos pauvres. A la suite des
changements politiques conscutifs la main mise franaise sur la Hollande et la fin
de lautonomie de la Nation juive, son pouvoir sur ses membres samenuise en mme
temps que la misre saccroit dans la communaut dAmsterdam:
Por lo que toca la representacion nos hizieron Vmds differientes vezes del
miserables estado de los dichosos Hahamim, en Jerusalaim, sentimos con dolor
de coraon; pero hoy en dia no es como en tiempo passados, no pudimos pretender
de los individuos de nuestra quehila, que contribuyessen por collecte o otra via
para socorrer a estes miserables, pues los que antigam[en]te podian dar, lo que
tienen no abasta para los pobres de la communidad, y de la caxa de la sedaca, no
esta en nuestras manos, sino para ajudar en parte a nuestros povres, que aun es
limitado bastante, de suerte que de ni una manera nos es possivel de dar a Vmds
una respuesta favorable a su dezeo.21
Le comit stambouliote rappelant lordre la Nation portugaise dAmsterdam traduit
sa ferme volont de conserver son interlocuteur et son bailleur de fonds portugais,
alors que les markalim ashknazes imposent leur nouveau systme de secours la
Terre sainte et leurs exigences. Un sicle de collaboration entre les Pqidim dIstanbul
et les Portugais dAmsterdam a cr des habitudes et des liens troits en dpit des
distances et des diffrences culturelles. Conscients de la rduction de leurs capacits
financires et du dclin de leur pouvoir communautaire, lune expliquant lautre, les
Parnassim des Portugais J. Mendes da Costa et M. Teixeire de Mattos rpondent
ngativement aux objurgations dIstanbul. Cette lettre du 7 ab 5588 [18 juillet 1728]
traduites en franais en lhonneur de S.M. Louis Philippe, Roi des Franais, ainsi que de
toute sa famille, par son serviteur Abraham Belais, ex-trsorier du Bey de Tunis, grand
rabbin dAlger et de Nice en 1835 [Paris, Bibliothque Nationale de France Ya 971], cf.
Jean-Marc Chouraqui, Emancipation politique et tradition juive: quelques usages de la
Bible et du Talmud au XIXe sicle daprs les rabbins de France, dans Danile IancuAgou et Carol Iancu dir., Lcriture de lhistoire juive, Mlanges en lhonneur de Grard
Nahon, 2012 pp. 546-547.
21 Amsterdam Stadsarchief, Pa 334, 101 p. 35, infra doc. 2.
130
Grard Nahon
met pratiquement fin leur prise en charge europenne du secours la Terre sainte.
Implicitement la Nation portugaise dAmsterdam cde le gouvernail aux markalim
ashknazes dAmsterdam qui sen taient empar de facto dix-huit ans plus tt. Bon
gr mal gr, les Pqidim dIstanbul nont dautre choix que de se soumettre la tutelle
des markalim. Leur correspondance avec les markalim dont lcho nous parvient
travers les rponses de Zvi Hirsch Lehren traduit autant leur mauvaise humeur que
leurs difficults et leurs rticences cooprer avec leur nouvel interlocuteur et en
adopter les mthodes. Sur deux points ils maintiennent leurs positions: lusage entt
de litalien dans leurs lettres, le soutien aux missaires dont les markalim entendent
supprimer les tournes pour une meilleure efficacit financire.
Le 13 eshwan 5589 [21 octobre 1828], une troisime lettreen fait B[aruch]
Texeira de Mattos la signe seulannonce un virement de 603 florins, plus un reliquat
de 180 florins sur le legs prcdemment cit dAb[raha]m et de Sara Pereira. Teixera
de Mattos. La lettre stend aussi longuement sur la manire dadresser le courrier. Elle
rcuse lappellation Diputati de Terra Santa accole aux noms des Parnassim Moseh
Teixeira de Mattos et Jacob Mendes da Costa, ainsi que lindication nominative des
destinataires des lettres dIstanbul, elle requiert lintitul exclusifnouveau depuis
la disparition de la Nation conscutive lexportation de la Rvolution franaise en
Hollande de Parnassim de la Communidad Judaica Portugueza.22 Mauvaise humeur
motive par la cration en Hollande dun organisme ashknaze auto-proclam pour
la Terre Sainte? Amertume davoir perdu un pouvoir financier et politique? Par del
les motivations possibles, cette mise en garde formelle trahit un fait brut: en refusant
jusqu la qualit de Diputati de Terra Santa, les Parnassim cdent explicitement
leur fonction sculaire.23 Entre ces lignes, les Pqidim dIstanbul liront leur abandon
explicite au profit des frres Lehren qui justement se sont arrog le titre et la fonction.
Une divergence majeure spare bientt les nouvelles autorits ashknazes
dAmsterdam et celles dIstanbul. Elle concerne la cheville ouvrire des collectes
dargent, les missaires de la Terre Sainte, ces rabbins chargs de solliciter partout
des secours pour les villes saintes. Ces voyages cotent trs cher et la dpense vient
22 Amsterdam Stadsarchief Pa 334, 101 p. 50.
23 Sur la perte de pouvoir des Parnassim de la communaut portugaise et sur la pauvret
Amsterdam cf. R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Enlightenment and Emancipation from c. 1750 to
1814 et Arduous Adaptation, 1814-1870, dans J.C.H. Blom, R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld and
I. Schffer, The History of the Jews in the Netherlands, Oxford, Portland, Oregon, The
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization 2002, pp. 164-229.
131
Les Pqide-Qusha
en dduction des sommes parvenant effectivement en Terre Sainte. Au XVIIIe sicle

dj plusieurs communauts avaient adopt des rglements pour limiter et dcourager
les tournes des missaires. Elles proposaient de remplacer ces missions par des
transferts bancaires afin de rserver aux cits saintes tout largent recueilli. Dans cette
veine, Hirsch Lehren dcide de supprimer purement et simplement les tournes des
missaires palestiniens en Europe. Il communique cette dcision aux responsables
de Terre Sainte ainsi quau Comit dIstanbul. Pour des raisons videntes, les cits
saintes rejettent sa dcision et Istanbul ne rpond pas aux longues lettres de Lehren
ce sujet. Mieux, dans une lettre crite vers la fin de lanne 1826lettre cite dans
une lettre de La Haye du 29 mars 1827Istanbul annonce lenvoi en Allemagne de
lmissaire Raphal-Abraham Chalom Mizrahi, un kabbaliste spharade fils de Isaac
Mizrahi et petit-fils de Shalom Sharabi. La mission prvue tourne court car le rabbin
meurt Jrusalem le 25 kislew 5587.24 Dans une lettre du 15 novembre 1828 les
Pqidim dIstanbul rcidivent et envoient de nouveaux missaires avant mme de
rpondre aux arguments dAmsterdam au sujet de ces missions.25 Pour Amsterdam,
lenttement des Pqidim rsulte dune rsistance oppose par les scribes dIstanbul
qui gagnent leur vie en crivant les lettres daccrditation des missaires: ils tirent
profit de lcriture de la lettre des missaires et du traitement de leurs actes.26
Le 8 novembre 1826, mcontents des dcisions unilatrales de Hirsch Lehren, les
rabbins de Jrusalem dclarent explicitement quils ne le reconnaissent plus comme
leur fond de pouvoir. Lehren proteste contre leur attitude et bloque le dpart vers
Istanbul des sommes dargent promises jusqu ce que Jrusalem change dattitude.27
Cependant le Comit dIstanbul prsentesans le visa dAmsterdamla polissa
lencaissement. Lehren procde au paiement mais menace de laisser la prochaine
traite impaye si Jrusalem et Istanbul ne reviennent pas sur leur position.28
25 dcembre 1826, Letters of the Pqidim 82 pp. 162-170.

Cite dans une lettre dAmsterdam du 17 janvier 1728 183, t. I pp. 66-68.
Letters of the Pqidim 159 p. 37.
Lettre de Jrusalem cite dans une lettre de la Haye du 1er tammuz 1728., Letters of the
Pqidim 236 pp. 189-197 n236 refusant de confirmer les pouvoirs dAmsterdam.
28 Dans la lettre publie dans les Letters of the Pqidim 260 t. II pp. 235-237.
24
25
26
27
132
Grard Nahon
III. Les pqid Qusha et les mthodes askhknazes

Le systme des dons volontaires transmis Jrusalem par lintermdiaire des Pqid
Qusha continue dans la relation entre les Pqid Qusha et les Portugais dAmsterdam.
Le systme spharade nest donc pas compltement abandonn. Cependant voit le
jour un nouveau rseau de communauts ashknazes dirig par les frres Lehren. La
nouvelle organisation fonde des comits locaux, rationalise et centralise les appels
de fonds pour la Terre Sainte. Linitiative de lorganisation de laide financire sest
dplace vers lOccident sous un leadership ashknaze.
Le fonctionnement du systme durant les annes 1827-1828 se ressent dobstacles
imputables aux distances, la langue, au poids des habitudes, aux diffrences de
mentalits. Les markalim entreprennent de rationaliser et dacclrer leurs mthodes
de collecte et de transfert des fonds et des informations. Afin de gagner du temps et
amliorer la comprhension entre Amsterdam et Istanbul ils veulent employer lhbreu
comme langue unique de correspondance. Istanbul fait la sourde oreille et continue
de faire rdiger son courrier en italien, tout en exigeant quHirsch Lehren crive en
caractres Rashi, cest--dire dans la graphie spharade dans la correspondance leur
intention. Il obtempre mais confesse quil sy habitue difficilement. Afin dobtenir
une rduction des dpenses,29 les markalim senttent abolir le systme des
missaires, lequel tablissait en fait une relation physique entre la Terre Sainte et les
communauts de la Diaspora.
Face cette stratgie offensive de lOccident, lOrient rpond en manifestant une
activit redouble jointe une certaine inertie. Le Comit stambouliote rclame des
secours de plus en plus consquents, exagrant au besoin la misre de la Terre Sainte.
Il transmet les polices et les fonds et prsente ses traites lencaissement sans trop se
soucier des formes requises. Est-ce le mme comit ou des personnalits influentes
du judasme stambouliote qui interviennent efficacement en faveur des Ashknazes
de Jrusalem?
29 De lexigence des markalim sur lemploi exclusif de lhbreu dans la correspondance

tmoignent plusieurs lettres dont celles du 159, II pp. 35-41, exigeant des lettres
hbraques en criture Rashi, quIstanbul ncrive pas en italien truff despagnol
que nous ne comprenons pas, et celle La Haye du 22 juillet 1828, arguant engager un
scribe hbrophone crivant en Rashi lexemple des Pqidim de Terre Sainte, 249. II
pp. 218-220.
133
Les Pqide-Qusha
Un malheur supplmentaire sabattit sur la Sainte Communaut des Ashknazes

de la Ville Sainte Jrusalem quelle soit rebtie bientt et de nos jours du
fait quils taient depuis longtemps lombre des ailes du consul de Russie. Or
une dissension sest produite entre le Togar [lempire ottoman] et la Russie et
lon a voulu les chasser de la Ville Sainte. Grce au Ciel, [les juifs ou le Waad]]
sentremirent Constantinople auprs du ministre de Russie [pour obtenir] un
firman ou un arrt du vizir du Sultan [permettant aux Ashknazes de rsider
paisiblement en la Ville Sainte]. Dieu soit lou, ils parvinrent leurs fins, mais il
leur fallut dpenser pour cela Istanbul plus de cent dummim.30
Dautre part Istanbul continue crire en italien, moins que ce ne soit en espagnol.
Istanbul remet rgulirement des lettres de crances aux missaires en partance pour
lEurope, en ignorant le refus dlibr du nouveau Comit hollandais et des comits
affilis de les recevoir et de leur remettre de largent.
De part et dautre, on use de menaces et de mesures de rtorsion. La prise en
mains des besoins matriels des cits saintes par lEurope Occidentale commence
se concrtiser dans lincomprhension, les oppositions, les rapports de force. Dans
la perspective dune luqqa augmentant obligatoirement, les deux comits sont
condamns sentendre. Istanbul a besoin des ressources financires dsormais
contrles par Amsterdam. Amsterdam est tributaire dIstanbul relais incontournable
entre lOccident et la Terre Sainte. Certes dans le long terme, comme le soutient
Israel Bartal la puissance de lorganisme des Pqidim de Constantinople saffaiblit
considrablement31 mais dans le court et le moyen terme, conscients des atouts
quils dtiennent, les Pqidim opposent une rsistance efficacedans des termes
parfois violentsaux tentatives des markalim pour imposer leur hgmonie et leur
programme.
30 Letters of the Pqidim du 28 sivan 5588, 10 juin 1828, adresse au rabbin berlinois JacobJoseph, t. II 234, p. 188. Selon Jacob Barnai, en 1756 107 dummim correspondaient
429 piastres, The Jews in Ere Israel [hbreu] cit supra p. 299. Selon Izhak Ben-Zvi,
Ere Israel under Ottoman Rule, Jrusalem 1969 p. 466, il sagit du ducat vnitien et
florentin dit en hbreu dom-zahav, rouge-or.
31 Joseph Joel et Benjamin Rivlin, Letters of the Pqidim and markalim of Amsterdam 5589
Introduction dIsrael Bartal, Jrusalem 1978 [en hbreu] p. 13.
134
Grard Nahon
Lettres envoyes par les markalim dAmsterdam Istanbul

Les numros renvoient ceux de ldition Joseph Joel et Benjamin Rivlin, Letters of
the Pqidim and markalim of Amsterdam 5586-5587, I et II Jrusalem 1965 et
1970.
79, pp. 146-157, 9 dar 5587, 8 mars 1827, La Haye.
Istanbul achemine les lettres vers Jrusalem; Salomon-Mose Suzin tire une polissa
(en italien) sur les Pqidim, paiement en franais.
82, pp. 162-170, fin dar 5587, 29 mars 1827, La Haye.
Zvi Hirsch Lehren: long rapport. Mort dIsaac Chelebi Bekhor Carmona le 15 juillet
1826. Annonce de limpression dune lettre des rabbins hollandais.
87. pp. 189-190, 13 nisan 5587, 10 avril 1827.
Les banquiers Abraham et Nissim Foa envoient un coureur en Palestine; ils acheminent
les lettres imprimes venues dAmsterdam.
107. pp. 238-239, 16 tammuz 5587, 11 juillet 1827 La Haye.
Istanbul prsente une polissa sans visa, crit ses lettres en italien; requis dcrire en
hbreu, nadresse pas daccuss de rception.
120. pp. 261-264, 3 lul 5587, 26 aot 1827, La Haye.
Aux Pqidim dont Isaac Hattim. Requte dinformation sur le rabbin Abraham Belais;
les Pqidim ne se servent pas de la poste. Istanbul refuse son accord la suppression
des tournes des missaires.
[143], II, pp. 14-22, 2 eshwan 5588, 23 octobre 1827 La Haye.
Lettre Salomon Zalman Shapira correspondant Istanbul; que les Pqidim
contresignent les traites des spharades
[158]. II p. 35, 5 teve 5588, 23 dcembre 1827.
A Simon Bresler, correspondant Istanbul.
[159], II pp. 35-41, t 5 teve 5588, 23 dcembre 1827 La Haye.
Lettre Salomon Zalman Shapira; Istanbul a dissimul une rponse de Jrusalem.
Istanbul exige des lettres hbraques en criture Rashi. Istanbul nadmet pas la
position dAmsterdam sur larrt de la mission. Leur sofer dfend son gagne-pain.
QuIstanbul ncrive pas en italien truff despagnol que nous ne comprenons pas;
dlais trop longs: 1er tammuz-1er lul; le trajet dune lettre dure normalement deux
mois, un temps qui peut se rduire vingt jours.
135
Les Pqide-Qusha
183. II pp. 66-68, 1er shva 5588, 17 janvier 1828.

On demande Istanbul de formuler correctement ladresse du destinataire de la
correspondance; que cette correspondance soit rdige en hbreu.
[185], II pp. 72-73, 5 shva 5588, 21 janvier 1828.
Lettre Salomon Zalman Shapira. Zvi Hirsch Lehren fait savoir Istanbul le
mcontentement de ses collgues; il se fatigue crire en criture Rashi, la cursive
spharade.
[200], II pp. 12-121, 7 dar 5528, 22 fvrier La Haye.
Lettre en yiddish Simon Bresler.
201, II, pp. 121-122, 9 dar 5528, 24 fvrier 1828 La Haye.
Sur le premier coursier charg de lettres pour la Terre Sainte.
219, II pp. 149-152, 21 Iyar 5528, 15 mai 1828, La Haye.
Obissance exige.
236. II pp. 189-197, La Haye.
Lettre Salomon Zalman Shapira. Amsterdam retiendra largent tant que Jrusalem
naura pas restaur sa nomination. On a crit longuement au Waad dIstanbul sur
labolition de la mission, et, en attendant, lespacement des tournes de dix ans en
dix ans. Tout largent rcolt entre dans la caisse de Terre Sainte Istanbul (p. 191).
Istanbul doit arbitrer entre Jrusalem et Amsterdam. Shapira achte des livres pour
Lehren.
249. II pp. 218-220, 11 av 5588, 22 juillet 1828 La Haye.
Lehren rclame encore un courrier hbraque. Le scribe stamboulite ne comprend
pas nos lettres; engagez un scribe hbrophone crivant en Rashi lexemple des
Pqidim de Terre Sainte; le courrier aller-retour dure deux mois; exagration de la
misre des rabbins de Terre sainte .
260. II pp. 235-237, 12 lul 5588, 22 aot, Amsterdam.
Colre contre Istanbul qui tire des polices sans permission.
136
Grard Nahon
2
Lettres envoyes par le Waad dIstanbul aux markalim, cites dans les
prcdentes
1. 12 siwan 5584, 8 juin 1824, (dans 82).
La Waad rclame et obtient un rapport dactivit depuis de 1821-1822; citation de
cette lettre considre comme exagre dans le 159 II p. 36.
2 s.d. (dans 82).
Lettre annonant lenvoi lenvoi de lmissaire Raphal-Abraham Chalom Mizrahi
en Allemagne.
3. e s.d. (dans 82).
Lettre exprimant lirritation dIstanbul.
4. 10 mai 1827 (dans 107).
Envoi de deux polissas sans visa.
5. 8 iyyar 5587, 5 mai 1827 (dans 120).
Manque la signature de Poliqaron Jerushalmi.
6. 1er tammuz 5587, 30 juin 1827 (dans 120).
7. 1er av 5586, 4 aot 1826 (dans 120).
8. Fin iyyar 5587, 28 mai 1827 (citation dans t. II 159 p. 37).
Sur la suppression des tournes des missaires: Istanbul a consult ce sujet les quatre
cits saintes.
9. 1er av 5587 25 juillet 1827 (dans 158).
Lettre de Simon Bresler.
10. 25 septembre 1827(dans 159) arrive le 20 kislew, 20 dcembre 1827.
Lettre rpondant au n 17 en italien transmettant les plaintes de Jrusalem. Rponse 183.
11. 8 eshwan 5587, 8 novembre 1826.
Lettre de Jrusalem cite dans 236) refusant de confirmer les pouvoirs dAmsterdam.
12. 25 eshwan 5588, 15 novembre 1828 (dans 183).
Le Waad envoie des missaires mais ne rpond pas un mot aux reproches
dAmsterdam.
13. 10 et 26 moi [?] mars 1828 (dans 219).
Lettres en italien adresses Amsterdam ou La Haye Zvi Hirsch Lehren, sans la
signature de Polikhron Jerushalmi. Le Waad tire une police de 650 fl. pour Tibriade
32 Il sagit du frre ain dAbraham de Camondo, Isaac qui dveloppa la banque dans les
premires annes du XIXe sicle, cf. Aron Rodrigue, art. cit. supra n. 18
137
Les Pqide-Qusha
signe Isaac Hattin lordre de J. Comondo32 & Comp., Leon Adut Vienne,
Aernickel & Gulcher Vienne, Coudrid & Branteer Amsterdam. Cette lettre
dcrit les malheurs de la Terre sainte. Elle exprime sa colre et refuse de confirmer
le pouvoir de Lehren. Ninscrit pas les noms des destinataires dAmsterdam et
dclare: la prochaine gnration cessera lenvoi des missaires.
14. s.d. extraits dans 231 p. 175, 234 p. 188.
Sur la lettre sur la dtresse de Jrusalem; on a pay 100 dummim pour obtenir
un firman autorisant les ashknazes de Russie vivre Jrusalem, dmarches
Istanbul avec le ministre de Prusse.
15. & 16. 25 avril et 27 mai 1828 (dans 249).
Dans la deuxime lettre la lista [des bnficiaires des envois de fonds en Terre sainte]
concerne en fait la communaut portugaise laquelle on a crit.
17. 10 juin 1828 arrive le 27 tammuz, 9 juillet (dans 249).
Huit jours de traduction de cette lettre. Recherches sur Simon Bresler; dcs de
Raphal Poliqaron.
18. 1828 s.d. (dans 260).
Les Pqidim ont tir sans notre aval des polissas sur nous pour la Terre Sainte se
plaignent des Pqidim: vous dpouillez les pauvres pour les rduire votre
volont.
138
Grard Nahon
3
Lettre de la communaut portugaise dAmsterdam au Waad dIstanbul
Amsterdam, Stadsarchief Pa 334.100 p. 402.
Amsterdam, 17 agosto 1827
A los Yllustrissimos S[eo]res Pkidim de T[ierr]a S[ant]a en Constantinopola
Muy Yllustres S[eo]res,
A vuelta de la presente hallaran Vmds la cuenta de los legados y reditos que
prosseden del ao bissexto 5586 que pone a su buena disposicion f. 597, 80 c para las
quatro Quehilot. Igualmente pueden Vmds disponer del legado de Ab[raha]m y Sara
Pereire f. 180. 40.
Havera algunos mezes nos fue presentada una lettra de fl. 300 del legado de Magen
David, pero falta de avizo, la dexamos protestar por ignorar se era authentica.
Devemos ahora, S[eo]res nuestros, importunar a Vmds para que sean servidos de
nos render un gran servicio, visto que se halla en nuestra cidad un rabino que se llama
Ab[raha]m Belais, nacido em Tunis y que fungio como Rab en la quehila de Nissa
durante siete aos y, segun por las attestaciones parece, es hombre de gran capacidad
y gran Talmid Haham; dicho rabbino dezea occupar este eminente cargo en nuestra
Santa Quehila, y por cierto nos seria de gran consuelo de verlo occupado por una
persona digna della, y pudiera ser que le hallariamos en este sujeto; pero, no obstante
que sea munido de las mejores attestaciones de Hahamim, de particulares judios y
mismamente de Christianos, personas de grande distinccion, nos fue advertido que
su character moral no es tan limpio, como necessita ser para servir tan eminente
cargo, y experimentamos, que la mas grave accusacion relative su moralidad es
que, antes de partir de Constantinopola, adonde estuve, havera diez o doze aos el
B[ien] A[venturado] y exelentissimo S[eo]r Carmona33 se vide reduzido a echarlo
de su caza por motivo de grande importancia vileza, y que lo que mas admira es
33 Tchlbi Bhor Isaac-David Carmona banquier influent dIstanbul sous le rgne de

Mahmoud II qui le fit assassiner le 15 juillet 1826: un mouvant pome en judo-espagnol
relate sa fin tragique, Moise Franco, Essai sur lhistoire des Isralites de lEmpire Ottoman
depuis les origines jusqu nos jours. Paris 1897, pp. 131-139, Salomon A. Rozanes
Histoire des Juifs de Turquie et du Moyen Orient, Tel Aviv-Sofia-Jrusalem 1945 t. VI,
pp. 64-67 [en hbreu]. Inform du drame, Hirsch Lehren fait part de son motion aux
Pqide Qusha en dar 5587, mars 1827, Letters of the Pqidim and marcalim, I 82,
pp. 162-170.
139
Les Pqide-Qusha
que dicho Rabbino produxo tres cartas, mui recommandables, firmado por dicho
S[eo]r Carmona, de suerte que no sabemos lo que pensar desto, y tenemos menester
delucidacion de parte vuestras mercedes para saber con certeza lo que hay del cazo,
y ansi les rogamos, con toda veneracion, sean servidos de aclarar nuestros ojos, afin
de descubrir si es la imbidia y blasphemia que saca mala fama, o si estas advertencias
sean bien fundadas y communicadas por amor de la verdad, afim de prevenir que un
indigno no sea realeado [?] en posto tan eminente por desdicho de la quehila, y lo
que es de nuestra obligacion de prevenir. Perdonen sus mercedes nuestro importuno,
Vmds mismos sentiran el pezo del cazo, y nos diran con toda la impartialidad lo que
sucedio, sea para bien, o para mal por cuja merced nos favoreceran al extremo y
imploramos al D[io] Bendito por la conservacion de sua dignas personas y familias
por muchos y largos aos.
Veneradores de Vmds como Parnassim de la Communidad Judaica Portugueza,
Mozes Lopes Salzedo J. B[uenos] de Mesquita.
140
Grard Nahon
4
Amsterdam, Stadsarchief PA 334, 101 p. 35.
Amsterdam 7 ab 5588 [18 juillet 1828]
A los Illustres seores Pequidim de T[ierr]a S[sant]a en Constantinopola
Muy dignissimos s[eo]res,
La prezente sirve para les enviar la quenta de los legados para las quatro quehilot
del a[] 5587 montante f. 603, 22 corriente de Hollanda, de cujas sommas Vmd
puede disponer como accustumbrado segun su voluntad, ansi mismo de f. 30. 40 del
legado de Ab[raha]m y Sara Pereira.
Por lo que toca la representacion nos hizieron Vmds differientes vezes del
miserable estado de los desdichosos Hahamim en Jerusalaim, sentimos con dolor de
coraon; pero hoy en dia no es como en tiempo passados, no pudimos pretender de los
individuos de nuestra quehila que contribuyessen por collecte o otra via para socorrer
a estes miserables: pues los que antigam[en]te podian dar, lo que tienen no abasta para
los pobres de la communidad, y de la caxa de la sdaqa, no esta en nuestras manos,
sino para ajudar en parte a nuestros povres, que aun es limitado bastante, de suerte que
de ni una manera nos es possivel de dar a Vmd una respuesta favorable a su dezeo.
D[io]s se apiade de lo infelices y buelbe la afflicion y gran necessidad en alegria y
prosperiad y guarde a Vmds y sus nobles familias por muchos aos como le dezean
con toda veneracion.
Servidores de Vmds como Parnassim
R.J[acob]. Mendes da Costa
M[oseh]. Teixeire de Mattos
141
Les Pqide-Qusha
5
Amsterdam, Stadsarchief Pa 334, 101 p. 50.
En 15 heshvan 5589 [23 octobre 1828]
A los Yllustres S[eo]res Pkidim de T[ierr]a S[ant]a a Constantinopola
Muy dignissimos s[eo]res,
Despues de haver avizado a Vmds por carta de 7 Ab A[o] p[assado] que podian
disponer sobre nosotros de f. 603, 22 segun la cuenta para las quatro quehilot, que
enviamos al mismo tiempo, y mas f. 180, 40 del legado de Ab[raha]m y Sara Pereira,
nos fue communicado por el s[eo]r Moseh Teixeira de Mattos que Vmds sacaran una
letra de f. 783, 62 sobre dicho s[eo]r y Jacob Mendes da Costa, como Diputati de
Terra Santa, y siendo que esto es una cosa estraa a dichos s[eo]res que no tienen tal
titulo, y aun menos la minima relacion con los assuntos de Tierra S[an]ta ni con Vmds,
dexaron passar protesto de acetacion y pagamiento lo que mucho sentimos oir, aun
que sea originado por haver Vmds olvidado lo que repetidas veces les avizamos de
dirigir las cartas que nos escriben y las lettras que nos sacan, sin nombre de personas,
pero solamente a nuestro titulo de Parnassim de la Communidad Judaica Portugueza,
[y no] observando esto, semejantes desapuntos no podran succeder en lo futuro.
Dichos S[eo]res Mendes da Costa y Teixeira de Mattos nos dexaron tomar lectura
de la carta los dirigieron Vmds em 8 7bro 1828, y vimos por ella que se hallan Vmd
en ignorancia de los pagamientos hizimos de los aos 5584 y 5585 causado por
indisposicion del diffunto escrivano, pero devemos observar a Vmds que yeron en
esto, siendo que pagamos por el ao 5584 f. 115, 72 ; 5585 617, 65; 5586 597, 80.
De suerte que las cuentas ultimam[en]te enviadas son verdaderamente del ao
5587, no dudamos que, despues de haver hecho perquisicion, seran persuadidos de la
veracidad desta informacion.
Y bolviendo a recommendar a Vmds que observan lo que acabamos de prevenirles
tocante la direccion de sus lettras y cartas a nosotros, afin de no estar expuesto a
encuentros desagradables, rogamos al Dio Bendito g[uar]de a Vmds por muchos y
felices aos como les annuncian.
Veneradores de Vmds,
Parnassim de la Communidad Judaica Portugueza
F[irmado] B. Teixeira de Mattos
142
Eliezer Papo
Iberian Catholic Elements in

Bosnian and Moroccan Judeo-Spanish Refraneros
Eliezer Papo
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Introduction
Following the 1492 expulsion from Spain, the Spanish (later in the text Sephardic)
Jews scattered all over the world, carrying with them (among other things) their
Iberian oral culture. Many of the expellees found a safe haven in the provinces of
the then ever-growing, new worlds superpower, the Ottoman Empire, which happily
embraced the influx of this eminently urban, highly professional, and skilled manpower as an unexpected blessing from Heaven. Others expellees opted for the
immediate vicinity, migrating to northern Morocco (which will prove to be a better
choice than neighboring Catholic countries) or to Portugal (where they were forcefully
converted a few years later, this time even without the option of leaving the country
to remain in ones faith). Both groups that were spared forced baptism to Catholicism,
namely the Ottoman and the North Moroccan Sephardim, have kept their distinctive
Judeo-Hispanic character until our own times. This has been, primarily, through the
preservation of their vernacular daily language and through the perpetuation of its rich
oral culture.
One of the oral genres that has remained dominant in Sephardic culture to
this very day is, certainly, the genre of refranes or proverbs. During their fivehundred-year-long separation, both Sephardic groups, the Ottoman1 and the
For an exhaustive study on Ottoman Sephardic refranero see, for example, Tamar
Alexander, Words are better than Bread: Studies in Ladino Proverbs Ben-Gurion
University Press and Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem 2004 [in Hebrew]
143
Iberian Catholic Elements in Bosnian and Moroccan JS Refraneros
North-Moroccan2 Jews produced many new proverbs. Some of these were a JudeoSpanish translation or an adaptation of local (Balkan or Moroccan) sayings, while
others were produced by the ethnic group itself. Yet, the overwhelming majority of
proverbs in both traditions stem from their common Iberian roots, some of which
are shared with all speakers of different Iberian (especially Castilian) dialects, while
others were particular to the Jewish population of the peninsula (to this category
belong translations of non-biblical Hebrew and Aramaic proverbs deriving mostly
from Rabbinic literature).3 Some of the mentioned common Iberian elements have an
apparent Catholic origin, and the sole role of this study is to analyze the appearance
of these eminently Catholic proverbs among the Sephardim in the Muslim Morocco
and in the Muslim-dominated Ottoman Empire. As representative of the extensive
Ottoman refranero, one single tradition was chosen as a point of reference: the
Bosnian. Being the most northern autochthonous Sephardic tradition and also being
an eminently continental one (Bosnia of the time did not have ports and Bosnian
Jews did not live in them), Bosnian Sephardic common masses did not have much
contact with their Moroccan brethren or with their common country of origin. No less
important, during the first few centuries of Sephardic presence in Bosnia most of the
Jews were concentrated in Sarajevo, where they have developed strong relations with
the two biggest local communities: Muslims and Orthodox Serbs (whose liturgical
language is Church Slavonic and not Latin). Catholic Croat presence in Sarajevo was
not that numerous until the Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1878. Moreover, even
the Catholics who lived in Sarajevo and were acquainted with Bosnian Sephardim
were of Slavic stock and did not speak any Roman language (even if they prayed
in Latin, without understanding much of what they said). Therefore, any residual
Catholic elements in traditional Bosnian Judeo-Spanish refranero should be seen as
traces of pre-Expulsion traditions and not as a result of local influences. Consequently,
a comparison of these two Jewish ex-Iberian proverbial traditions might provide us
with a usable criterion for a more precise dating of the absorption of Catholic elements
in different Sephardic proverbial repertoires, helping us better define which of its
2
For a thorough study of the North Moroccan Sephardic refranero see, for example, Tamar
Alexander and Yaakov Bentolila, La Palabra en su hora es oro: El refrn judeo-espaol
en el Norte de Marruecos, Instituto Ben Zvi, Jerusalem 2008 [in Hebrew and Spanish].
For the relations between the Ottoman Sephardic refranero and Hebrew/Aramaic sources,
see, for example, Alexander (Note 1), pp. 207-257. For the relations between the Moroccan
Sephardic refranero and Hebrew/Aramaic sources, see, for example, Alexander and
Bentolila (Note 2), pp. 51-72.
144
Eliezer Papo
elements could and should be seen as pertaining to some common, pre-exile Iberian
tradition and which should be viewed as a result of post-exilic linguistic and cultural
contacts of certain Sephardic communities (primarily the Moroccan one, due to
geographic proximity) with their old Iberian motherland.
As far as Bosnian Sephardic refranero is concerned, I have consulted more than
1,500 proverbs presented in eight different collections which embody this tradition.
For the examination of Moroccan Sephardic tradition I have used 1,200 proverbs
that were provided to me by Prof. Tamar Alexander and Prof. Yaakov Bentolila, even
before their monograph on the subject was completed. I use this opportunity to thank
both for their academic altruism.
At the beginning of this study, I assumed that there should exist a firm shared
base of Catholic Iberian elements in both refraneros, which would prove that most
of them (if not all of them) were incorporated in these two traditions before their
separation, in other words before the Expulsion. However, during the research Ive
discovered that my assumptions and the reality were not even remotely related. First
of all, in both refraneros, in a corpus of almost 3000 proverbs Ive discovered only
ten proverbs of an evident Catholic origin or inspiration. To my great surprise, none
of them coincided in both traditions. Out of ten mentioned proverbs, three were found
in Bosnian Sephardic refranero and additional seven were found in the Moroccan one.
Catholic elements in Bosnian Sephardic Refranero

One of the most Christian proverbs in Bosnian Sephardic proverbial tradition says:
Salir de Herodes y entrar en Pilatus.4
To get out from Herod and enter to Pilatus.
Its Iberian parallel, attested by Gonzalo Correas igo, in his famous Vocabulario de
refranes y frases proverbiales from 1627 reads as follows:
Andar de Herodes a Pilatos.5
4
5
To go from Herod to Pilatus.
amila Kolonomos, Proverbs and Sayings of the Sephardi Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, Belgrade 1976, proverb 1026.
Gonzalo Correas, Vocabulario de refranes y frases proverbiales (1627), Edicin de Louis
Combet, revisada por Robert James y Mate Mir-Andreu, Editorial Castalia, Madrid 2000,
proverb 1837, p. 86.
145
The proverb is accompanied by the following explanation by Correas:

Cuando se anda a negociar con
diferentes personas en diversas partes;
y si con juez, letrado, procurador y
escribano, viene mejor acomodada la
metfora de la Pasin.
When going to negotiate with different

people, in different parts; and if it is with
a judge, man of letters, procurator and
notary, the metaphor of the Passion is
quite adequate.
Both variants refer to two new-testamental personalities: Herod, the Tetriarch, and
Pontius Pilatus, the Roman Procurator of Judah and to their role in the trile of Jesus.
In Herods palace Jesus was condemned to a capital punishment. Later, Jesus was
taken to an additional trile, at Pilatus, where the same punishment was confirmed. In
Bosnian Sephardic tradition this proverb is used to describe perpetual deterioration.
The mere fact that this proverb (at least until recently) was frequently used amongst
Bosnian Sefaradim shows that one does not need to understand the meaning or know
the ethimology of all the elements of a proverb in order to use it in a proper manner
and context. Until the XX century, and the modern western education which it brought
about, most of Bosnian Sephardim did not really know who were Herod or Pontius
Pilatus. However, though, this did not prevent them from applying the proverb in
proper situations. It is arguable that those Bosnian males who were versed in Rabbinc
literature might have known who the King Herod was, but even they would have
dificulties in recognising the other protagonist of the new-testamental story on Jesuss
trial. Still, hoewever, this evidently Catholic proverb was used in an eminently Jewish
microculture in a predominantly Muslim context.
Two other Bosnian Sephardic proverbs of an apparent Catholic origin represent
references to Latin liturgy. The firsty one reads:
Al fin se canta la gloria.6
[Only] At the end the Glory is sung.
Both, Correas and Sebstian de Horozco (in his El libro de los proverbios glosados),
brings identical wording, followed by these two explanations:
Porque al fin de cada salmo se canta
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto
por ordenacin de San Dmaso, papa
Kolonomos (Note 4), proverb 40.
146
Because at the end of every Psalm Gloria

Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, is sung, by
ordination of San Damaso, Spanish Pope;
Eliezer Papo
espaol; por metfora se aplica el

premio despus del trabajo y semejantes
cosas.7
Al fin de cada psalmo se canta en la
iglesia, Gloria Patri et Filio etc.,
de donde provino este vulgar que al
fin se canta la gloria el qual se dize
y aplica, porque al fin de la vida de
cada uno se le ha de dar la gloria y
honor de las buenas obras que hizo, o
el vituperio de las malas porque, all
es quando se vee y sabe si el hombre
fue bueno o malo. Y as este proverbio
en latn dize, Exitus acta probat, El
fin, remate y salida del hombre o del
negocio prueba las obras y les da aquel
valor y quilate que merecen. Y as se
dice, Quod nemo est laudandus in vita,
Que ninguno ha de ser loado en la
vida, porque la muerte y fin suyo le
ha de dar la loa o vituperio...8
metaphorically it means: the premium is

received after the job is done etc.
In the church, at the end of each Psalm
Gloria Patri, et Filio, etc. is sung, and
from there came this popular saying:
At the end the glory is sung, which
means that by the end of persons life,
everyone receives the glory and the
honor for his good deeds, or the rebuke
for the bad ones; because it is then that
it is seen and known whether a person
was good or bad. Thus this proverb in
Latin says: Exitus acta probat, The end,
the finish and the result of a person or
of a transaction prove the acts, giving
them the value and the prize that they
deserve. In this same manner it is said:
Quod nemo est laudandus in vita, None
should be praised in life, because (only
his) death and end will give him the
prize or the rebuke.
Given the fact that this proverb refers to one of the most famous Latin Christian
doxologies: Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto (Glory to the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit), one has to ask himself to what extent Bosnian Sephardim, who used
the proverb in a mostly Muslim or Christian-Orthodox-Slavic context, were aware
of the fact that the word Glory refers to a passage form the Latin liturgy. As for its
context, this proverb is used among Bosnian Sephardim as a warning that one should
not pride himself about having accomplished anything before actually bringing it to
a successful end. Once again, we see how the lack of information about the original
7
8
Correas (Note 5), proverb 1227, p. 57.

Sebstian de Horozco, El libro de los proverbios glosados 1570-1580, Edicin del
manuscrito, introduccin y notas de Jack Weiner, Edition Reichenberg, Kassel 1994, two
volumes, vol. 1, proverb 199, pp. 259, 260.
147
meaning of the components of the proverb does not prevent its oral carriers from using
it in proper manner in well-known contexts.
The last Bosnian Sephardic proverb of an eminent Iberian Catholic origin also has
to do with the Christian dogma of Trinity, and it is used in reference to a person who
does not have anyone to rely on in this world:
No tiene ni padre ni madre ni Spiritu
Santo.9
He does not have a father, or mother or

a Holy Sprit.
Unlike in the previous two examples in which there is no pun concerning the Christian
faith (and, consequently, I tend to see them as examples of bona fidae usage of
Iberian Catholic proverbs whose Christian origin, context, and significance were long
forgotten), the last one might be seen as a deliberate parody on the common Christian
formula that is uttered while making the sign of the cross over ones upper body, at
the beginning of any prayer or any endeavor: En el nombre del Padre del hijo y del
Espiritu Santo! Amen! (In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!), and
(as such) a continuation of a conscious usage of an originally Catholic expression,
parodied with the purpose of mocking the rival religion.
This notion is doubly reinforced by the fact that Correas attests in his Vocabulario
the following variant, which might have well served as a base for the Bosnian
Sephardic parody:10
Ni tengo padre ni madre, ni perro que
me ladre.
I do not have a father, a mother or a dog

to bark me.
To be honest, Bosnian Sephardic tradition contains many such traditional parodic

distortions of expressions related to Catholic/Iberian beliefs and practices. As a
notorious example I shall bring a passage from the Bosnian version of the Ladino
translation of the Macase Rav (a Great Tale), which tells the story of how the famous
Ribbi Moe ben Naman was introduced to qabala macasit (practical Kabbalah).
Originally, this story was written in Hebrew by Ribbi Gedalya Ibn Yaya, in his
famous alelet haQabala.11 Later it was translated into Judeo-Spanish by AM Ribbi
Yiaq ben elomo Amariyo, in his Sefer Lel emurim:12
9
10
11
12
Kolonomos (Note 4), 83.

Correas (note 5 above), proverb 332, p. 556.
Gedalya Ibn Yaya, alelet haQabala, Venice 1586, p. 126-128.
Yiaq ben elomo Amariyo, Sefer Lel emurim, Thesalonica, 5632/1872, p. 40.
148
Eliezer Papo
Macase Rav from Sefer Lel emurim
A Great Tale
from the Book of the Guarding Night13
Kuando se fueron aechar a dormir, le

disho el axam ael zaqen: Una koza le
kero a kavidar asu mersed, ke lo tenga
de avizo, ke aki ay una maldicha kaleja
de carelim, ke la tienen por muy santa
enhermada, ke Djidyo ke pasa por
eya, lo aferan en su punto i lo meten
en karsel, para kemarlo, en dia de
abat davka. Ino pasa redja en esto,
ni moneda, ke ansi tienen esta mala
uzansa enkonada, ke tienen a la Maria
zona i ael Taluy en esta kaye, el [em]
Yit[barah] kelos ateme Amen!
While they were getting ready to lie

down, the axam told the old man:
[There is] one thing that I wanted to
warn His Mercy, to have in mind, that
here there is a damned street of the
uncircumcised, which they esteem as
very holy, [may it be] cursed, that a Jew
who passes through it, they catch him
immediately and put him into a prison,
in order to burn him, on the day of
Shabbath itself. And the presents do not
help in this, or money, as they have this
evil and impure custom, having there
Mary the Prostitute and the Hangingone [Jesus], may the Blessed God bring
them to an end Amen!
Amariyos translation of the story was copied by the famous Bosnian Sephardic
traditional pharmacist, Tio Avram Papo, in the following distorted and mocking way:14
Kuando se hueron a echar a dormir, le disho el rav al zaqen: Una koza le kero
akavidar a su mersed, ke lo tenga de avizo, i es ke aki en esta sivdad ay una kaleja
maldicha de carelim, ke la tienen por muy chanta enhermada, ke Djidyo ke pasa
13 According to popular belief, the night before the circumcision (which is traditionally
performed on male children on the eighth day after the birth) is the most dangerous one
for the newborn, as Lilith (a main female demon) might try to prevent him from entering
Abrahams Covenant and attaining the divine protection accompanied by it. Consequently,
during this night the newborn is not to be left alone. Rather, he is surrounded by adult males,
who engage in learning, for protective purposes. The night is called Lel emurim, the Night
of Guardianship, and various special books with texts to be read on it were published in the
Sephardic world, Sefer Lel emurim being one of the most famous in the genre.
14 For more information about this manuscript and its, author, see Eliezer Papo, Healing the
Sick, Subjugating the Spirits, Fighting the Magic and the Evil Eye: A Glance at Medical
Lore of Bosnian Sephardic Men, in preparation.
149
por eya, lo aferan en su punto i lo meten en prezo, para kemarlo, dia de abat
davka. I no pasa redja en esto, ni moneda, ke ansi tienen esta mala uzansa, ke
tienen ayi a la chanta Maria, zona, i a el Taluy en esta kaleja, el [em] Yit[barah]
kelos ateme Amen!15
The first time the word santa (holy) was used in reference to a street held holy by
Catholics, even though the adjective is immediately followed by the derogatory term
enheremada (cursed), the Bosnian Sephardic author changes the adjective santa for the
Turkish anta (bag). Until World War II, there were still elderly pious Jews in Sarajevo
who would never use the term santo/santa in relation to anything Christian. To avoid
what they saw as a dangerous, eventual veneration of foreign deities, they would replace
the adjective santa with the noun anta, creating thus a mocking distortion. If am Ribbi
Yiaq ben elomo Amariyo (unlike Tio Avram Papo) was ready to use the adjective
santa in relation to a street venerated by the Catholics of Gerona as holy, when referring
to Maria he calls her Maria zona (a prostitute), without the usual Christian honorific
Santa, that precedes any mentioning of Mary. Yet, in his copy of the story, Tio Avram
Papo, knowing that the name Maria is always preceded with the honorific adjective
Santa, replaces it with anta for the second time: chanta Maria, zona.
These anti-Catholic puns were not reserved to the rabbinical or male population
only. Thus in the play Pasensia Vale Muo (Patience Is Worth a Lot), written by the
most prolific Bosnian female Sephardic playwright, Laura Papo Bohoreta,16 one of
the central female characters of the play, Grasia, says:
Las kaas vazijas de augar para las
fitias y la kavesa me se vazja i me se
ezvanese de tanto avlar y ijar kon los
salantonjos.17
The cases with the dowry for the

daughters are empty and my head is
emptied and void of so much talking and
screaming with the saint-anthonies.
15 (Tio) Avram Papo, Livro de Refua, unpublished ms., ca. 1840, p. 45 [38].
16 For the biography of this prolific Sephardic dramatist, see Eliezer Papo, Entre la modernidad
y la tradicin, el feminismo y la patriarquia: Vida y obra de Laura Papo Bohoreta, primera
dramaturga en lengua judeo-espaola [Spanish: Between Modernity and Tradition,
Feminism and Partiarchy], Neue Romania 40 (2010), pp. 97-117. For her bibliography, see
Eliezer Papo, Estado de la investigacin y bibliografa anotada de la obra literaria de Laura
Papo Bohoreta, Sefarad 72 (1) (JanuaryJune 2012) pp. 123-144, as well as Eliezer
Papo, BohoretaKommentierte Bibliographie, Transversal (accepted).
17 Laura Papo Bohoreta, Pasensia Vale Muo, unpublished ms., p. 6, 7.
150
Eliezer Papo
Referring to her disobedient children, Grasia calls them salantonjos, in other words:
San Antonios (Saint Anthonies). The pun of the metaphor is quite apparent: just
like the statue of Saint Anthony does not hear when spoken to, thus the disobedient
children do not hear. Just like the statue of Saint Anthony does not extend a hand to
help to those praying to it, thus disobedient children are not helpful to their elders.
This tendency to mock Catholic saints was not typical only to Bosnian Sephardim.
In an age that was not marked by religious tolerance, it seemed to be cherished by
all the Ottoman Sephardim. Thus, for example, in his Coplas de Ysf ha-addq
(Constantinople 1732), Avraham Toledo puts following words into the mouth of
Zevulun, when reproaching the paid professional lamenter Manaka:
Who brought her here
What devilish devil
Go away from here
Daughter of a saintpaul.
Qun la acarre aqu

Cal gerco endiablado
Arremtate de aqu
Ia de un sanpavlo.18
Here, the name of an even more important all-Christian Saint, Saint Paul, is used as a
pejorative: Ija de un sanpavlo Daughter of a saintpaul. The indefinite article un (a)
shows that the personal name of the saint is seen by the Sephardim as a noun, even
as a derogatory one. On other occasions the expression: Ijo/a de un ... (son/daugther
of a ...) is used in combination with such nouns as mamzer (bastard) or tal (anyone).
In the compla Bejor Carmona, Yehezquel Gabay y el armenio Duz Ogl, edited
recently by Elena Romero,19 one can show that the term sanpablo can be used in JudeoSpanish as an adjective, noting the fact that it is preceded by a quantitative muy (very):
Su pecado le alcanz del arur el malo
Porque era un haber con este diablo
Salio muy sanpablo se truo en este hal
a udos ya hizo mal
le pag el Dio presto a l y al resto.
His sin has reached him the cursed and

evil one
Because he was a friend of this devil
He came out as very saintpaul
bringing himself to this condition
To the Jews he already caused evil [things]
God paid him rapidly to him and [to] the
rest.
18 Re-published by Moshe Lazar in Joseph and His Brethren: Three Ladino versions,
Labyrinthos, 1990, p. 184, verses 1280-1283.
19 Elena Romero, Entre dos (o ms) fuegos. Fuentes poticas para la historia de los sefardes
de los Balcanes, CSIC, Madrid 2008, pp. 218, 219.
151
Julius Subak, one of the first investigators of Balkan spoken Judeo-Spanish, registered
a Sephardic curse in which Saint Paul and the Devil act together: El grko i el Sam
Pvlo ke se lo yve (May the Devil and the Saint Paul take him).20
The analyzed examples seem to show that Ottoman Sephardim in general, and
those from Bosnia in particular, after living for centuries in Ottoman urban centers,
dominated by Islamic culture and concepts and without too much (if any) exposure to
Catholic world and culture, developed a special sensibility (if not aversion) towards
the Catholic concept of saints. The further away from Spain they were, the more the
concept of veneration of statues and images seemed to them increasingly strange,
abhorrent, and abominable. Interestingly, a well-known and very popular Bosnian
Sephardic proverb asserts that Jews who live outside the greater Ottoman urban
centers, in smaller towns, exposed to the popular culture of the Christian peasants, are
themselves half-Christians:
[A Jew] in a small town, half a Christian.
Al kazalito medio blahito.21
Catholic Elements in Moroccan Sephardic Refranero

Unlike their Bosnian brethren, the North Moroccan Sephardim did maintain different
levels of contact with the peninsula from the time of their expulsion on. With the
Spanish occupation of Northern Morocco, these contacts were deepened and
accelerated, until they brought about the total adoption of the Iberian Castilian language
among this Sephardic branch; and, consequently, gradual but total abandonment of
akitia (Moroccan Judeo-Spanish). Aware of these historical circumstances, I was not
surprised to find more Iberian-Catholic elements in the North-Moroccan tradition than
the Bosnian. I was quite surprised, however, by what can be seen as thematic unanimity
of these elements in the Moroccan Sephardic refranero. Out of seven proverbs, only
the following one does not deal with the phenomena of veneration of saints:
Hay quien va a misa todos los dias y
comete los mismos pecados.22
There are people who go to a mass every

day, and always commit the same offense.
20 Julius Subak, Zum Judenspanischen, Zeitschrift fr Romanische Philologie 30 (1905),

pp. 129-185
21 Kolonomos (Note 4), proverb 32.
22 Alexander and Bentolila (Note 2), proverb 475.
152
Eliezer Papo
The message of the proverb is quite simple: the mere performance of religious duties
of ritual character (such as attendance of a mass) is not enough for ones perfection. In
order to attain divine favor (and/or salvation), one needs to observe the moral demands
of religion as well (refrain from sin). Similar ideas can be found in Jewish ethical
literature, too, but the usage of the term misa (mass) as a representative for the ritual
aspect of religious duties discloses the undisputable Catholic origin of the proverb.
Interestingly, Moroccan Sephardim use this Catholic proverb in the same context and
with the same meaning, thus ascribing to the word misa (mass) the positive status of
the representative act of religious percepts of ritual nature.
As already stated, all other proverbs from the Moroccan Sephardic refranero that
refer to Iberian Catholic concepts and practices are related to the veneration of saints
(a theme totally unheard of in Bosnian Sephardic refranero). Only one of them, to the
best of my knowledge, is not recorded in the Iberian Catholic tradition:
Wooden saints make no miracles.
Santos de palo, no hazen milagros.23
And even this seems to be for a good reason. The proverbs strong opposition to the
very idea of expecting intervention and intercession from the wooden statues of saints
makes it much more likely that this particular proverb was produced in Jewish circles,
rather than in Christian ones. Even more importantly, it was probably inspired by the
Psalm 115:
Sus idolos de plata i oro, ovra de
manos de ombre.
5
Boka a eyos, i non avlan; ojos a eyos,
i non ven.
6
Oidos a eyos, i non oyen; naris a eyos,
i non guezman.
7
Sus manos, i non apalpan; sus pies, i
non andan, non avlan kon su garganta.
4
Their idols are silver and gold, the work

of mens hands.
5
They have mouths, but they speak not;
eyes have they, but they see not.
6
They have ears, but they hear not; noses
have they, but they smell not.
7
They have hands, but they handle not:
feet have they, but they walk not;
neither speak they through their throat.
4
Two additional Moroccan Sephardic proverbs, both unattested in Iberian Catholic

tradition, seem to reflect Jewish criticism of the Catholic belief system. The first one
proclaims:
23 Ibid., proverb 916.
153
Ms cercano est el Di que los santos.24
God is closer than the saints.
and, according to the informants it actually laments the arrogance of the functionaries,
as sometimes it is easier to obtain a solution for ones problems from the highest
instances then from lower level clerks.
Another one reflects an eminently Christian idea, the idea of the celestial hierarchy
of saints, but it also seems to be critical of it:
Si no es este santo, sera otro mas alto.25
If it is not this saint, there will [surely] be

another one, even greater.
as one could argue that the content of the proverb is making fun of the multitude of
Catholic saints, treating them in a dismissive and disrespectful manner.
The rest of four saint-related proverbs in the Moroccan Sephardic refranero, all
have Iberian Catholic parallels, all reflect Catholic beliefs and practices, and all are
used in the same contexts with the same messages, without any special Jewish twist
or addition.
Thus, for example, the proverb
Santo que mea, maldito sea.26
The pissing saint, may he be damned.
has many parallels in Luis Martnez Kleisers Refranero general ideologico espaol,
all of which reflect the same idea: A person who claims sainthood should first elevate
him/herself above regular corporal needs:
De santo que mea a la pared nunca me
fi.27
En santo y santa que mea nadie crea.28
Santa que mea, arimale una tea. 29
I never believed in a saint who pisses by

the wall.
No one should believe in a saint who
pisses.
A pissing saint, a torch she should get.

26 Alexander and Bentolila, manuscript of the study (Note 2). This proverb was not included
in the final version of the book.
27 Luis Martnez Kleiser, Refranero general ideologico espaol, edicon facsmil, tercera
reimpresin, Editorial Hernando, Madrid 1989, proverb 57-443 (recorded by Francisco
del Rosal, Refranes, ms. 1560; Juan de Mal Lara, La Philosofa vulgar, 1568).
28 Ibid., proverb 57-444 (recorded by Rosal and Mal Lara, see above).
154
Eliezer Papo
The function of urination has been chosen as a fitting representation of anything

corporal, as it is commonly perceived as one of the lowest and most degrading
corporal functions.
Some other Iberian Catholic versions refer, in this context, to other bodily functions,
such as eating or drinking:
Santo que come y bebe, hacer peores
cosas puede.30
Santo que come y bebe, a mas se
atreve.31
A saint who eats and drinks can do even

worse things
A saint who eats and drinks will dare to
do even worse things
This demand upon all candidates for sainthood to overcome their physical nature is
deeply Christian in its very nature. This popular Catholic preconception of a saint as a
superhuman entity is well represented in the following Iberian proverb:
Santo que come y bebe, Dios o el diablo
se lo lleve.32
A saint who eats and drinks, either God

or Satan should take him.
Conversely, the Jewish saints (venerated rabbis and kabbalists) were not really
expected to overcome their human/corporal aspects as a conditio sine qua non in
order to be recognized as saintly. Perhaps the most blatant example of the built-in
humanity of Jewish saints is to be found in the fact that not only does Rabbinic
Judaism not preach celibacy for its spiritual elite but, rather, Jewish candidates for
sanctity are expected to marry and procreate. If they do not, it will seriously damage
their public image; and, consequently, their claim to sanctity. From the many variants
of this proverb existent in the Iberian Catholic refranero, as well as from its complete
absence in the Ottoman Sephardic refraneros, one can deduce that the proverb: Santo
que mea maldito sea (The pissing saint, may he be damned) reflects Catholic and
not Jewish concepts. However, in both communities, the Iberian Catholic and the
Moroccan Sephardic, it is used to convey the same message: people who claim a
higher level of spirituality should not be caught engaging in mundane things.
A similar discrepancy between rhetoric and behavior on the part of a religious
hypocrite is the main subject of another Iberian Catholic proverb incorporated in a
Moroccan Sephardic refranero:
155
Palabras de santo y uas de gato.33
Words of a saint and nails of a cat.
This proverb appears in Kleisers collection in the same form, followed by few
additional variants:
Uas de gato y habitos de beato.34
Nails of a cat and costumes of a beatified

man.
A beading of a beatified man and nails
of a cat.
Beatified, beatified, but she scratches as
a cat.
Cuentas de beato y uas de gato.35

Beata, beata que rascua como gata.36
In all the variants, the term santo (saint) is replaced by the term beato/beata (blessed
or beatified), a technical term from Catholic hagiology.
At the same time, another Moroccan Sephardic proverb
Lo que Dios no quiere, santos no
pueden.37
What God does not want, saints cannot

[do].
teaches that if the highest instance decides not to grant a certain petitionthen the
lower instances cannot do anything about it.
Also this proverb has an Iberian Catholic parallel, attested by Kleiser:
Cuando Dios no quiere, los santos no
pueden.38
When God does not want, the saints

cannot [do].
Interestingly enough, rabbinical tradition teaches quite the opposite. The famous
anthology of classical rabbinical homilies known by the name of Midrash Bamidbar
Rabbah39 elaborates the biblical verse from Qohelet/Ecclesiastises (12:11), The
33 Alexander and Bentolila (Note 2), proverb 793.
34 Kleiser (Note 27), proverb 57-478 (recorded in Hernn Nez, Refranes o proverbios,
1555).
35 Ibid., proverb 57-479.
36 Ibid., proverb 57-484 (recorded in Sebastian de Horozco, Teatro universal de proverbios,
1616).
38 Kleiser (Note 27), proverb 18-600 (recorded in Pedro Valls, Libro de Refranes, Zaragoza
1549, Nez (Note 34), Rosal (Note 27) and Mal Lara (Note 27).
39 Bamidbar Raba, Vilna edition, peraa 14, incipit Bayom haevici.
156
Eliezer Papo
words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies,
which are given from one shepherd, by stating the following: In the same way that
nails fastened in the gate maintain the wings of the door, thus when the addiqim pass
their judgment, the Holy One Blessed be he affirms it. Often, however, many times
common Jewish masses are better versed in the popular culture of their immediate
environment then in the writings of the rabbinical elite.
Consequently, an eminently Catholic proverb, such as
Desnudar a un santo para vestir a otro.40
Denude one saint to clothe another.
is used among the Moroccan Sephardim as a way to criticize futile actions which
while solving one problem create another of the equal rank.
Correas brings a very similar version of this proverb:
Quitar de un santo para darlo a otro
santo.41
To take from one saint to give it to

another.
Conclusion
The few Iberian Catholic elements attested in the traditional refranero of Bosnian
Sephardim seem to belong to pre-Expulsion times, having survived in the oral
patrimony of Bosnian Jews until modernity mostly because they were not necessarily
recognized as such. As already stated, a person unacquainted with New Testament
personalities such as Herod and Pilatus can proceed to use the proverb Salir de
Herodes y entrar en Pilatus, as if referring to imaginary people, such as ana (from
the proverbs ana detras de Mohulu,42 Si negra ana mas negra su ermana,43 or
from the expression ana la pensadera),44 udara (from the proverb Viste udara
lo de Shabat en simana),45 uro (from the proverb Izo uro loke no izo ninguno),46
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
Alexander and Bentolila (Note 2), proverb 245.

Correas (Note 5), proverb 919, p. 703.
Kolonomos (Note 4, proverb 526.
Ibid., proverb 1054.
Ibid., proverb 527.
Ibid., proverb 1166.
Ibid., proverb 544.
157
Marta (from the proverb Muera Marta, al menos arta),47 none of which refers to
any actual people. Similarly, a person unacquainted with Latin mass would not
recognize the Christian base of the proverb En fin se canta la gloria. In contrast, the
proverb No tiene ni padre, ni madre ni Spiritu Santo might have been recognized by
Bosnian Sephardim as a parody on the Christian Trinity and as such perpetuated in the
community for reasons of religious mockery.
At the same time, the dominant Iberian Catholic elements of the Moroccan
Sephardic refranero are refranes de santos, proverbs related to the Catholic concept of
veneration of saints. One of them (Santos de palo, no hazen milagros) is derogatory,
while two others (Ms cercano est el Di que los santos and Si no es este santo, sera
otro mas alto) seem to refer to the Catholic concept of veneration of saints in a critical
manner. Consequently, all three proverbs seem to have originated in Jewish circles.
Another five proverbs of apparent Iberian Catholic origin, attested in Moroccan
Sephardic refranero but unknown in the Bosnian refranero (or in other Ottoman
Sephardic traditions), seem to be borrowed from Iberian Catholic refranero and used
by Moroccan Sephardim in the same way and same contexts they are used by their
Spanish neighbors. One of them (Hay quien va a misa todos los dias y comete los
mismos pecados) sees the Catholic mass in a positive light, while another four (Santo
que mea, maldito sea, Palabras de santo y uas de gato, Lo que Dios no quiere,
santos no pueden, Desnudar a un santo para vestir a otro) reflect the centrality of
the cult of saints in Iberian Catholic culture, as well as the ease with which Moroccan
Sephardim borrow these apparently Catholic proverbs and quote them in their own
proverb anthologies, without any change or intervention on their part.
Conversely, in the Bosnian Sephardic refranero, there is not a single proverb,
derogatory or affirmative, that relates to the Catholic cult of saints. Even more
importantly, in traditional Bosnian Sephardic culture, the names of certain Catholic
saints (San Antonio or San Pablo) were used as pejoratives and derogatory nicknames,
while the Spanish adjective santa (saint) on many occasion would purposely be
distorted into Ottoman Turkish anta (bag), just to prevent the application of the
adjective to a Catholic saint.
It seems that vivid, direct, and constant contact with Spanish culture, with its
deeply rooted veneration of the saints, attenuated among the Moroccan Sephardim the
traditional Jewish reservations regarding the Christian concept of saints. Consequently,
158
Eliezer Papo
in time, Moroccan Sephardim felt more and more at ease using the Iberian Catholic
proverbs as semantic units, conveying agreeable and desirable messages, without
paying too much attention to the question of the halakhic legitimacy of their content.
At the same time, living in an Ottoman urban setting, dominated by Islamic concepts
and culture, only fortified traditional Jewish reservations towards Christian veneration
of saints, and especially towards their graphic or three-dimensional presentation. It
should be noted, that Ottoman Sephardic tradition is much more puritan even when
it comes to veneration of saintly rabbis and addiqim, so typical of Moroccan Jews,
of Mustcarabim, however, much more than of akitia-speaking Sephardim of North
Morocco.
It seems, however, that even among Moroccan Sephardim these proverbs related
to Christian saints are quite recent, as one would expect the mechanisms of mental
self-protection of these two Sephardic sister-communities not to be all that different.
Apparently, the Spanish occupation of Northern Morocco, the gradual westernization
and secularization of akitia-speakers and their ever-growing identification with the
potent and progressive West, created an environment in which the newly heard Spanish
Catholic proverbs could penetrate traditional Moroccan Sephardic refranero and be
absorbed into it, even before this group opted for definitive linguistic assimilation
into Modern Spanish. Thus, the Iberian Catholic elements in the Moroccan Sephardic
refranero reflect the gradual but ever-increasing absorption of the Spanish language,
including its traditionally Catholic refranero, among the akitia-speakers.
159
160
Aldina Quintana
Cuatro fragmentos de otros tantos cuadernos inditos

con recetas de medicina y farmacologa sefardes
de la coleccin de la Genizah del JTS
Aldina Quintana
Universidad Hebrea de Jerusaln
1. Introduccin
Entre los documentos manuscritos en judeoespaol de la coleccin de la Genizah
conservada en el Archivo del Jewish Theological Seminary de Nueva York (JTS) se
encuentran varios folios de papel, escritos por las dos caras, que contienen fragmentos
de ocho unidades codicopaleogrficas cuyo contenido es la medicina y la farmacologa,
herederas de la tradicin judeo-medieval espaola de races greco-rabes, adems
de la descripcin de algunas prcticas mgicas. Los folios en cuestin, sin duda
fragmentos de los que pudieron constituir ocho cuadernos de remedios medicinales
empleados en la prctica popular, estn catalogados con las signaturas Ena 2712.049;
Ena 2799.002-008; Ena 2948.010; Ena 3232.008; Ena 3338.003-004; Ena 3672.001;
Ena Ns 42.002 y Ena 2713.017 y Ena 2815.008. Los dos ltimos pertenecen al mismo
cuaderno. Excepto el folio Ena 3232.008 que, sin duda, forma parte de la obra mayor
de un rabino, el resto corresponde a copias o anotaciones realizadas por personas con
escasa formacin, quienes probablemente ejercan la profesin de curanderos, segn
se deduce de la caligrafa, de las incongruencias ortogrficas y de la transcripcin de
las palabras hebreas de acuerdo a principios fonolgicos y no etimolgicos.
*
Este trabajo se ha realizado en el marco de mi proyecto de investigacin From Old Spanish

to Judeo-Spanish: Formation of New Linguistic Varieties Not Subjected to Standardizing
Pressure in the Context of Migration (16th-17th Centuries), con el soporte de la Israel
Science Foundation (Grant No. 473/11), y me complace dedicrselo a la Profesora Tamar
Alexander quien tanto ha aportado y seguir aportando al estudio de la cultura sefard, en
general, y a la mdico-farmacolgica en particular.
161
Cuatro fragmentos de otros tantos cuadernos
Comunes en todos estos fragmentos resultan, adems del contenido, el uso del
espaol o judeoespaol aunque dos de ellos tambin contienen algunas partes en
hebreo as como su pertenencia a la denominada literatura de listas, caracterstica
del gnero.
Me ocupar aqu de cuatro de estos documentos: Ena 2712.049; Ena 2713.017 y
Ena 2815.008 que forman parte de la misma unidad codicopaleogrfica; Ena 2948.010
y, por ltimo, Ena 3338.003-004. Aparte de su inters lingstico, en especial lxico,
dado que en ellos se recogen nombres de enfermedades, de plantas, de minerales y
de otras categoras de componentes que han desaparecido o han sido remplazados
por otros nombres en el diccionario sefard, cabe destacar su valor cientfico mdicofarmacutico, puesto que los remedios y parte de los componentes que los integran no
se encuentran an documentados en el repertorio mdico sefard.
2. Caractersticas de los cuatro documentos seleccionados

2.1 La escritura y la lengua
La escriturade los cuatro cuadernos corresponde al tipo de letra cursiva hebrea
tpicamente sefard sin influencias orientales. La lengua espaola utilizada vara de
un documento a otro, aunque siempre se ajusta a las caractersticas lingsticas del
judeoespaol temprano (siglos XVI y XVII). Sus autores muestran no ser expertos en
la escritura, lo cual se pone de relieve en la caligrafa en la que predominan las letras
de tamao desigual, los renglones torcidos, la ausencia de margen en la parte izquierda
del texto y, en especial, en la inconsistencia ortogrfica tanto en la representacin de
ciertos sonidos por ejemplo [b] y [v] (sebo, sevo, cabesa, cavesa, oliba, oliva) o las
parejas de fricativas predorsodentales [s ] y [z] y apicoalveolares [s ] y [z] (mansebo por
manebo, cabesa por cabea, basa por baa, rozada por rosada, sumo por umo), que
entonces se confundan, excepto en el primer documento. La inconsistencia domina
igualmente la separacin de palabras en dos fragmentos (por ej.,1 en corporado, car
1
Abreviaturas empleadas: r. = rabe; r. cls. = rabe clsico; r. hisp. = rabe hispano

o andalus; arag. = aragons; aram. = arameo; cast. med. = castellano medieval; cat. =
cataln; ej. = ejemplo; esp. = espaol moderno; fol(s). = folio(s); gr. = griego; heb. =
hebreo; jesp. = judeoespaol; lat. = latn; lat. vulg. = latn vulgar; Lev. = Levtico; ln(s). =
lnea(s); lit. = literal; pl. = plural; port. = portugus; port. ant. = portugus antiguo; s.v. =
sub voce; trad. = traduccin de la autora; tur. = turco.
162
Aldina Quintana
aturas, un tele, un gente), y la unin de otras (quele, quest, sinestar, deyo) en las
que, sin duda, se representa su pronunciacin en la cadena hablada. Destaca tambin
la representacin ortogrfica de la terminologa rabe y hebrea que, por lo general,
se aleja del principio etimolgico que primaba entre los sefardes cultos, y sigue
el principio fonolgico caracterstico en la grafa de los elementos romances en la
que se trata de representar la pronunciacin. Otros rasgos comunes en la escritura
de todos los documentos que reflejan, sin duda, la pronunciacin sefard del lugar
del que provenan los anotadores de estas unidades, son la intrusin de una vocal
esvarabtica, es decir, las secuencias formadas por oclusiva + lquida + vocal crean
entre sus dos primeros componentes un elemento voclico de timbre similar al de la
vocal que les sigue (ej., belanca por blanca, fereir por freir, sanguere por sangre,
landere por landre, ferente por frente, curudo por crudo, quiriatura por criatura),2
o la omisin de oclusivas [b, t, k] en posicin explosiva precedidas por consonante
nasal o sibilante y seguidas de lquida (omre, ombre, omros, temlor, lomrizes, amosrar,
meslado).3 Estos rasgos reflejados a travs de la ortografa de los autores o anotadores
de los cuadernos ponen de manifiesto la ausencia de contacto con las tradiciones
cultas sefardes, al tiempo que dejan entrever su contacto con el rabe. De ellos se
deduce que los fragmentos proceden de un lugar en el que el judeoespaol hablado se
encontraba bastante arabizado, lo que hace suponer que los autores materiales de estos
fragmentos eran bilinges con el rabe como lengua dominante.
Otra caracterstica de la lengua de estos fragmentos es su escasa coherencia: los
predicados verbales pocas veces llegan a formar clusulas completas, y estas son simples.
Las recetas suelen ir redactadas en segunda persona de imperativo si es que
las unidades van directamente dirigidas a los practicantes; as se pone de relieve
en aquellas que contienen tratamientos que se han de administrar a nios o en las
2
Este sonido, carente de valor fonolgico y de representacin grfica en espaol y

judeoespaol, era percibido y marcado en la escritura por los mudjares y moriscos, como
consecuencia de que el rabe no permite los comienzos de slaba con dos consonantes
o como consecuencia de que reproducan el castellano hablado (Ana Labarta Gmez,
Una pgina aljamiada hallada en Torrellas (Tarazona), Tvriaso, 3 (1982), p. 231. En los
fragmentos que tratamos aqu, se reproducen, sin duda, las caractersticas acsticas del
espaol hablado por las personas que los copiaron.
Se podra sugerir que la grafa de estas palabras representa una pronunciacin etimolgica.
Sin embargo, lomrisez (lat. vulg. lumbrces) o amosrar (lat. monstrre) muestran
claramente la elisin de [b] y [t] respectivamente, lo cual tambin habra ocurrido en las
dems palabras de origen castellano.
163
prcticas mgicas (Ena 2712.049). Pero, por lo general, las indicaciones a seguir
en la preparacin de los remedios y en su aplicacin estn dirigidas a una clientela
no determinada, es decir, a quien tiene la necesidad de recurrir a ellas, por lo que
predomina el uso del tiempo futuro en tercera persona (Ena 2713.001 y Ena 2815.008;
Ena 2948.010), o del infinitivo (Ena 3338.004r), la forma menos personalizadora.
Estos usos verbales coinciden con los que presenta el castellano en este tipo de textos
o en las recetas culinarias.
2.2 El lxico especializado
En todos los documentos predomina la fusin de terminologa lingstica de origen
diverso, reflejo de la simbiosis cultural que caracterizaba esta literatura. En los
remedios y medicamentos en los que la base es el castellano, son abundantes los
trminos de origen rabe, tanto hispano como local, y hebreo. En aquellos redactados
en hebreo, se observa igualmente la presencia de terminologa romance. Dado que
volveremos al lxico de cada uno de los fragmentos editados ms adelante, no
entramos aqu en ms detalles.
2.3 La estructura de las unidades mdico-farmacolgicas
Por lo general, cada unidad mdico-farmacolgica abre con la descripcin sumaria
de la enfermedad: suele comenzar con la preposicin para o su equivalente hebreo
[- ]en las anotadas en este lengua seguida del nombre de la enfermada o molestia
(malaria, clera, disentera, bronquitis, hemorragias, hernia, paos y cataratas, pujos,
infeccin de heridas externas, temblor de manos, dolor de cabeza y jaquecas, tia,
landre, sarna, arestn, furnculos y cualquier tipo de granos, as como remedios contra
lombrices, para bajar la fiebre o para evitar la gestacin y lo contrario) para la que se
ofrece el remedio que seguidamente se detalla. Este suele consistir en la enumeracin
asindtica de una serie de componentes (aceites, zumos, azcares, aguas, semillas,
races, hojas, resinas, extractos y limaduras; grasas, leches y quesos, huevos, huesos
y dientes, excrementos y orinas; polvos) derivados de vegetales (almendras, limones,
cidras, algarrobas, cebollas, loes, laurel, violetas, malvas, jengibre, boj, ruda,
manzanilla, perejil, comino, canela, manzanilla, azafrn, pimienta, crtamo, apio o
ssamo), animales (vaca, asna, gallo, liebre, gato, cerdo, cabrn o ansarn) y minerales
(calamita, oro, plomo, verdete y cardenillo), pocas veces con sus correspondientes
cantidades (quilates, dracmas), y el estado o forma en que se ha de administrar
(ungentos o pomadas, electuarios, pldoras, jarabes, mechas o polvos). Cada unidad
164
Aldina Quintana
suele terminar igualmente con una frmula de cierre que en judeoespaol contiene
el adjetivo bueno: (Ena 3338.003r, ln. 10; Ena 2815.008v, ln. 17); el participio
perevado probado (Ena 2713.017v, ln. 17) o la afirmacin [e]s bueno muncho (Ena
2948.010v, ln. 4). Las mismas frmulas de cierre pueden aparecer en las unidades
recogidas en hebreo: tv (Ena 2948.010v, ln. 20; Ena 3338.004, ln. 11); bdq
(Ena 2712.049v, ln. 8). Frmulas similares se encuentran en los recetarios judos,
mudjares y cristianos del siglo xv,4 en los que, en muchas ocasiones, se aduce el
nombre del mdico a quien pertenece la autora de la receta o de la cura.5 La ausencia
de dicha informacin se puede interpretar como el resultado de la popularizacin de la
medicina profesional que pas a ser practicada por personas que carecan de autoridad
frente a los mdicos con reconocimiento profesional.
A continuacin ofrecemos una descripcin ms detallada de cada uno de los
documentos, con su anotacin en la columna de la derecha, y con su transcripcin
en la columna de la izquierda. En esta ltima se aaden las letras que se omiten en el
original en algunas palabras. Las partes del texto afectadas por la mutilacin del papel,
por manchas de tinta o por haberse borrado sta y que han podido ser reconstruidas, se
indican en parntesis cuadrados.
Descripcin y transcripcin de los documentos

3.1. Fragmentos del recetario 1 (fol. Ena 2712.049)
De este documento se conserva solamente un folio (Ena 2712.049) de 115 x 166
mm, deteriorado en la parte superior. El texto ocupa 95 x 147 mm y est escrito a
una columna de 25 (recto) y 20 (verso) renglones. Contiene frmulas de remedios en
4
Para los recetarios judos, ver Cynthia Crews, A Judeo-Spanish Medical MS (ca. 14001450), Vox Romanica 22-2 (1963), p. 207, s.v. bdq, cuyo equivalente castellano en el
mismo manuscrito es cosa probada y melezina probada. Entre los recetarios de autores
cristianos se puede consultar la Traduccin del Libro de recetas de Gilberto. Madrid,
Biblioteca Palacio 3063 (1471), Mara Teresa Herrera y Mara Estela Gonzlez de
Fauve (eds.), Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Madison 1997, en Real Academia
Espaola: Banco de datos (CORDE) [en lnea, 13.12.2012]. Corpus diacrnico del espaol
<http://www.rae.es>), en los que se encuentran frmulas de cierre como prouada cosa
(8v), maravillosa cosa (9v), presiosa cossa (9v), Espirenia (9v), cosa maravillosa &
prouada (9v), espirenia prouada (9v), cosa prouada (9v) entre otras.
Por ej., ...cosa prouada & verdadera por maestre pedro de spannja petrus yspanus. Ibd.,
fol. 11r.
165
hebreo (lns. 1-19 del recto) y en espaol o judeoespaol (20-25 del recto), incluido
un sahumerio en el que se ha de quemar un talismn6 (1-8 del verso), as como la
descripcin en hebreo de una segunda frmula mgica (9-20 del verso). Aqu me
ocupar nicamente de las partes del texto en espaol.
La lengua de estas recetas no posee rasgos, ni gramaticales ni lxicos, por los que
pueda ser identificada con el judeoespaol de Oriente o del norte de frica, sino que es
puro castellano de la poca de la expulsin. Contiene algunas palabras hebreas (emen
eqdm, tarneglm, bssm), en cuya grafa se sigue el principio etimolgico.
La conservacin de f- inicial (far, fecho, fgado, fars) y la presencia de //
en ixico (ln. 20 del recto), en lugar de la forma estndar sefard ijico [i'iko], son
indicadores de un texto sefard temprano, probablemente de la poca de la expulsin.7
Ello se ve respaldado por la presencia de ciertas formas lxicas como meanilla (ln.
24 del recto), en lugar de maanilla que es una de las variantes frecuentes en los
documentos medievales, y la palabra caraturas (lns. 2, 6 del vuelto) caracteres, a las
que se atribuyen poderes mgicos. Si bien esta variante se encuentra en un documento
castellano de principios del siglo xv,8 es evidente que las fuentes escritas muestran
una indudable preferencia por la variante carateres.9
6
La diferencia entre amuleto y talismn la describe Ana Labarta en la introduccin a su

edicin del Libro de dichos maravillosos (Miscelneo morisco de magia y adivinacin).
CSIC, Madrid 1993, p. 0.32. Segn esta especialista, el talismn es artificial, se basa en
procesos de abstraccin y asociacin lgicas y requiere durante su confeccin especiales
condiciones; su utilidad, adems, est especializada Generalmente el talismn es una
imagen de metal a la que se le transfieren poderes astrales mediante una ceremonia, unos
sahumerios, unos encantamientos.
La desonorizacin de las sibilantes es un proceso que se inici ya en la Edad Media, aunque
en los textos castellanos no se comience a manifestar hasta los primeros aos del siglo xvi
(Rafael Cano Aguilar, Cambios en la fonologa del espaol durante los siglos xvi y xvii,
en Rafael Cano (coord.), Historia de la lengua espaola, Ariel, Barcelona 2008, p. 853).
Este vocablo est solamente documentado en una traduccin annima de Lanzarote
del Lago, ...e aquella su aya hera vna duea vieja Que mucho sauia de caraturas e de
encantamentos... (fol. 200r) y ...que algun cauallero que andaba alas abenturas yazia
folgando y luego llamo dos dueas que yban conella y la vna hera morgai hermana del
Rey artur y la otra hera sevilla y estas tres heran las dueas del mundo que mas sauian de
encantamientos de caraturas saluo la Reyna de norgales y la duea del lago... (fol. 299v)
(Cf. Annimo, Traduccin de Lanzarote del Lago (c 1414), Harvey Sharrer (ed.), Hispanic
Seminary of Medieval Studies, Madison 1999, en CORDE [12.12.2012]).
Fuera de la literatura artrica, la variante empleada ya en el siglo xv era carateres: Lo
quarto es de guardar que con las palabras diuinas non se mezclen algunas cosas vanas &
166
Aldina Quintana
Especialmente relevante para la datacin del documento es el uso del futuro analtico
con el auxiliar pospuesto y con cltico intercalado entre el infinitivo y el verbo auxiliar
tirarle a (ln. 19) (cast. med. tirarle ha; esp. le tirar). Todas estas peculiaridades en
el texto sugieren que este documento incluso podra haber sido anotado en Espaa
antes de 1492 o que lo ha sido poco despus de la expulsin de 1492. Como en los
textos espaoles,10 en los que ya son muy escasas en el siglo xvi,11 estas formas
analticas de futuro con cltico interpuesto entre ambos, se pueden encontrar tambin
en documentos sefardes, como cartas privadas, responsa e incluso textos literarios,
pero ya no se documentan en el siglo xvii, excepto en textos fosilizados, como las
traducciones ladinas de la Biblia.
En cuanto a su contenido, el sahumerio (lns. 1-8 del verso) es la recepta que ofrece
mayor inters, a pesar de que el mal estado de la parte superior del folio no permita
leer ms que las dos ltimas palabras del primer rengln del verso; por tanto, no es
posible deducir contra qu dolencia estaba indicado el sahumerio. La receta incluye las
instrucciones para la preparacin de la tinta con la que se han de escribir los caracteres
en tres trozos de tela que se han de quemar para producir el sahumerio.12 Esta se
jlliitas. Asi commo figuras o carateres sy non sola mente la seal dela cruz (Lope de
Barrientos, Tratado del dormir y despertar y soar. Ms. Escorial h.iii.13 (c 1445), Mara
Isabel Montoya (ed.), Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Madison 1995, fol. 58v, en
CORDE [12.12.2012]) o ...comen hazer muchos signos y carateres y embocaciones y
conjuros tan fuertes y espantosos... (Jernimo Fernndez (1547), Belians de Grecia, Lilia
E. F. de Orduna (ed.), Reichenberger, Kassel 1997, p. 456, en CORDE [12.12.2012]).
10 Estas perfrasis de futuro analtico con el cltico intercalado desaparecen del espaol a
finales del siglo xvi y primera mitad del xvii, cuando se fijaron los tiempos compuestos.
Ver Concepcin Company Company, Tiempos de formacin romance II. Los futuros y
condicionales, en Concepcin Company Company (dir.), Sintaxis histrica del espaol:
La frase verbal, vol. 1, FCE y UNAM, Mxico 2006, pp. 367-368.
11 Por ej., en El tratado de la oracin y meditacin de Pedro de Alcntara que vivi entre
1499 y 1562, se encuentran 246 formas de futuro de indicativo de las que solamente dos se
formulan a travs de esta construccin perifrstica romance, tenida por arcaica en el siglo
xvi (Raquel E. Lpez Ruano, Anlisis del paradigma verbal a partir de un texto en prosa
del siglo xvi, Archivum lxi-lxii (2011-2012), pp. 262-263).
12 Segn Labarta, Libro de dichos maravillosos (nota 6), p. 0.32-0.35, la prdida de la
conexin que antiguamente exista entre los planetas y los metales a la hora de crear los
talismanes, permiti la introduccin de otro tipo de soportes materiales de los poderes
mgicos, como el papel, la tela o el pergamino. En estos se escriban los sellos, frmulas
mgicas, invocaciones o pasajes de textos sagrados, dando lugar a un objeto con unos
167
har de azafrn y blsamo mezclados con agua rosada, componentes que recuerdan
la tradicin musulmana de la tinta utilizada en la escritura de los talismanes.13 Los
caracteres se realizarn sobre un soporte de tela, tres trozos de la propia camisa del
paciente que servirn como mechas para ser quemadas y producir el sahumerio,
combinando as el poder de la palabra con el efecto purificador del fuego que tendr
sus efectos el tercer da que se inhale el humo.
Caracteres que se encuentran en la parte superior izquierda de Ena 2712.049v
Este folio contiene tambin los caracteres. Estos aparecen en su parte superior
izquierda, a la altura del segundo rengln del vuelto del folio, y son denominados
caraturas (lns. 2, 6) y htmt en hebreo en el propio manuscrito (ln. 1). Los
caracteres consisten en cuatro letras con anteojos, llamadas as porque llevan en los
extremos pequeos crculos.14 En tres de los caracteres se entrecruzan dos lneas, y el
cuarto consiste en una lnea curvada.
caracteres portadores de energa mgica. Este se poda utilizar de distintas maneras; una de
ellas consista en trasferir la energa mgica a otro elemento, que entrara en contacto con
el cuerpo del paciente, por ejemplo a travs del humo. En este caso, se quemaba el escrito,
de modo que el poder mgico de los caracteres se combinaba con el poder purificador del
fuego, produciendo el sahumerio su efecto al ser inhalado.
13 bd., p. 0.35.
14 bid., p. 0.38.
168
Aldina Quintana
Ena 2712.049r
18. Para bajar la convulsin febril toma mustia15
y ans hechos polov y diluido con vino
19. y orine antes de que llegue la convulsin,
y la cantidad que pueda de esto [trad.]
20. [far] al ixico sudar y sanar. Toma
y ntale los pechos con
21. emen eqdm y de violetas y manteca
de baca y enxundia
22. de tarneglm y tosinos de baca
encorporado, fecho engente
23. [y] untado. A la quartana, umo de
perejil y de
24. meanilla con azeite posto16 en el
fgado; tirarle a
25. part[e] de la calentura.
[] .18

.19
" []
['] .20
'
[] .21

.22

: [] .23
'
.24

[] .25
Terminologa de la jerga de la medicina popular y farmacopea sefardes:

emen eqdm (21)17 aceite de almendras (heb. ) . Aceite del fruto del
prunus amigdalus.
enxundia (21) enjundia, es decir, unto o gordura de ganso o de ave, en general18 (lat.
axnga grasa de cerdo19); cast. med. enxundias;20 jesp. enshundia.21
tarneglm (22) pollos (heb. , pl. ;)jesp. poyos.
enxundia de tarneglm (21-22) gordura de pollo. Ver enxundia.
tosinos de baca (22) sebo de vaca.
engente (22) ungento.
15 Probablemente se refiere al saco (lat. sabcus), puesto que en diversos recetarios aparece
recomendado, junto con el ans, como diafortico o sudorfico.
16 La forma verbal posto se podra interpretar como de origen portugus, aunque tambin
podra ser un arcasmo castellano o incluso un simple error achacable al copista.
17 El nmero hace referencia a la lnea o rengln del texto.
18 Joseph Nehama, Dictionanaire du judo-espagnol, CSIC, Madrid 1977, p. 177, s.v.
enndya.
19 Joan Corominas, Diccionario etimolgico de la lengua castellana, Gredos, Madrid 1987,
p. 235, s.v. enjundia.
20 Cf. Traduccin del Libro de recetas de Gilberto (nota 4), fol. 7v, en CORDE [13.12.2012].
21 Matilda Kon-Sarano, Diksionario Ladino-Ebreo, Ebreo-Ladino, Zack, Yerushalayim
2007, p. 129, s.v. enshundia.
169
quartana (23) fiebre quartana (heb. qaddaat revt):22 un tipo de paludismo o

malaria en la que los paroxismos de fiebre se producen segn un patrn repetitivo
de dos das consecutivos seguidos de un da de remisin. El nombre est ocasionado
por la reaparicin de fiebre al cuarto da. Es la forma empleada en la lengua hablada,
y figura en el manuscrito hebreo-espaol del siglo xv editado por Crews,23 que es la
traduccin del nombre cientfico Quartana febris que menciona Nebrija,24 y sta del
nombre original griego .
meanilla (24) manzanilla (cast. med. maanilla).
Ena 2712.049v
1. [o los caracteres]
2. o caraturas de zafran,
3. bssm [mesc]lado con agua rozada
4. y fars tres mechas de aquel pedao de su
5. camiza y en cada mecha escrevers estas
6. [cara]turas; y pon a arder cada una en su
7. noche en candil nuevo y a la terera noche
8. vern.
] .............................] .1
.2
]] .3
'' .4
' .5
][ .6
' '.7
. .8

caraturas (2) caracteres, es decir, seales o figuras mgicas.
zafran (2) azafrn (heb. ). Estigmas de crocus sativus. Jesp. asafrn,25 safrn.26
bssm (3) blsamo (heb. ).
bdq (8) probado, comprobado (heb. ): jesp. prevado. Ver perevado (Ena
2713.017v, ln. 17).
22 De acuerdo al manuscrito editado por Crews, A Judeo-Spanish Medical MS, p. 197

(nota 4).
23 dem.
24 Elio Antonio de Nebrija, Dictionarivm medicvm (El Diccionario mdico de Elio Antonio
de Nebrija) [Amberes 1545], introduccin, edicin y glosario. Avelina Carrera de la Red,
Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca 2001, p. 123, s.v. Quartana febris.
25 Nehama, Dictionnaire (nota 18),p. 58, s.v. asafrn.
26 Kon-Sarano, Diksionario (nota 21), p.364, s.v. safrn.
170
Aldina Quintana
3.2. Fragmentos del recetario 2 (fols. Ena 2713.017, Ena 2815.008)

Los folios Ena 2713.017 y Ena 2815.008 de esta coleccin del JTS pertenecen al
mismo cuaderno. No solo la caligrafa coincide en ambos, sino tambin la lengua y
el estilo de la descripcin de los remedios. El tamao del primer folio es de unos 114
x 163 mm y el texto ocupa 96 x 147 mm, mientras que las medidas del segundo son
113 x 162 y 98 x 135 mm, y estn escritos a una columna que oscila entre los 18 y 20
renglones. Su buen estado de conservacin facilita la lectura.
Su escritura es particularmente interesante: destaca el empleo del principio
fonolgico para grafiar las palabras hebreas (evilah, kelet) y rabes (blgam, mariq
dahabi, far), en contra de la tradicin sefard culta. Particularmente significativo es
el empleo de ayn con valor consonntico en palabras hebreas (aqarah , zera
)y rabes (maaun ,afur ), lo cual documenta su pronunciacin
farngea que confirma que nos encontramos ante un texto redactado en un rea
judeoespaola en contacto con el rabe, probablemente Tierra Santa o Egipto. Ello
se corrobora, adems, a travs de la grafa del imperativo castellano kayentaldo
(Ena 2815.008v, ln. 1), grafiada con kf en lugar del convencional qf. Estos son
fenmenos bastante frecuentes en textos sefardes redactados en las comunidades de
las reas mencionadas.27
La lengua de este recetario, adems de lxico hebreo integrado (evilah,aqarah,
zera, kelet), rabe hispano (maaun, blgam, afur, anait) e iberorromance de
origen rabe (quirates), contiene tecnicismos rabes (mariq dahabi, tayyib, far, gindi).
Por lo que al elemento hispano se refiere, el rasgo ms destacado es el uso de he (h en
la transcripcin) en lugar de f- inicial excepto ferevir hervir sin que haya un solo
caso antietimolgico. Ello sugiere que la aspiracin de f- podra ser un rasgo del habla
de la persona que anot las recetas o incluso del espaol hablado en su comunidad.
Tambin se debe mencionar qual se quer (Ena 2815.008r, ln. 1) y qual quer (Ena
2815.008v, ln. 10), jesp. kualseker/ kualsekier cualquier, formas documentadas
como qual quer en otro texto de similares caractersticas de finales del siglo xvi.28
Los remedios descritos varan desde los recomendados para el tratamiento contra
el temblor de manos, contra el dolor de las sienes, de muelas y de la parte superior de
27 Cf. Aldina Quintana, From the Masters Voice to the Disciples Script: Genizah Fragments
of a Bible Glossary in Ladino, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 6 (2008), pp. 211-212.
171
las espalda, contra el clera y hasta para teir tejidos. Los remedios contra el pelo de
la teta, contra la tia y para bajar la fiebre de los nios (Ena 2815.008v, lns. 12-17)
se encuentran recogidos tambin en el recetario Ena 2948.0 (lins. 5-12).
Ena 2713.017r
1. Para el temlor de las manos, que le
2. colguen un pedaso de calamita en3. sima y se le quitar el tembelor.
4. O tomar cabesa de lebre y la
5. fereir bien con azeite de oliva hasta
6. que se queme. Y aquel azeite se tar29 las
7. manos o los pies quando temlaren.
.1
.2
.3
.4
.5
.6
.7
8. Para el que est quebrado, comino

9. con vinagre fuerte remojado y pimienta
10. belanca y jengibre y canela y ruda y
11. sern las partes iguales, y miel en curudo
12. y dos quirates30 de oro hecho maaun,
y lo comer,
13. y le har garande porovecho.31
[echa agua /de sanre\]
.8
.9
'' .10
.11
' '.12

'.13
]/[ \
14. Pldoras para el blgam y la sapra,

ant
15. y gindi, sin estar32 amasado, con azeite
de oliva,
16. hecho maaun, y antes que lo coma
ir al bao,
17. y comer de eyo dos deramas aquea noche.
18. Para una quiriatura que tiene mal de boca,
19. ntele la boca con leche de asna.
.14
.15

' .16

'.17
.18
' .19
28 Cynthia Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes in Judeo-Spanish of ca 1600, Revue des
tudes Juives 126 (1967), p. 213.
29 Untar.
30 En concreto, la forma quirate se encuentra documentada en el annimo Secuestro de
bienes [Inventarios de bienes moriscos del Reino de Granada] (1563). Juan Martnez Ruiz
(ed.), CSIC, Madrid 1972, p. 270, en CORDE [11.09.2012].
31 Provecho.
32 En el texto synytr debido al cambio de orden de algunas letras.
172
Aldina Quintana

calamita (2) calamita, calamida, imn (r. qaram, del gr. ): Relativo a la
caa, nombre dado al imn en la Edad Media, porque los navegantes lo ponan sobre
un trozo de caa en un recipiente con agua para que indicase el Norte.33
lebre (4) liebre (port.); jesp. lievre.34 Cabesa de lebre, probablemente se refiere a los
sesos de liebre. En un manuscrito morisco se recomienda miollo de la liebre o del
conello contra el temblor de manos.35
quebrado [estar] (8). Se dice de quien padece quebradura, es decir, hernia.36
quirates (12) quilates (port. ant. quirate; cat. quirat, r. hisp. qir; r. cls. qr;
gr. peso de cuatro granos): Unidad de peso que en Espaa equivala a
0,199 g37 entre los droguistas y los joyeros. En Turqua un krat equivala a la doceava
parte de una dracma,38 por lo que su peso deba ser algo inferior.
maaun (12, 16) electuario (r. man): medicamento pastoso o slido de uso oral,
compuesto de varios ingredientes, casi siempre vegetales, y cierta cantidad de miel,
jarabe o azcar.39
deramas (17) dracmas (cast. med. dramas). En Espaa, como medida de peso para
drogas y otros productos qumicos, una dracma equivala a 3,594 gramos,40 es decir,
a un octavo de una onza.41
blgam (14) flema o cualquier secrecin que se deposita en la faringe, la laringe, la trquea
o los bronquios. Probablemente del r. hisp. en el que blgam designaba la mucosidad
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
Diccionario RAE, 22o edicin, Espasa, Madrid 2001, s.v. caramida.

Kon-Sarano, Diksionario (nota 21), p. 251, s.v. lievre.
Ver Labarta, Libro de dichos maravillosos (nota 6), p. 16.
Diccionario RAE, s.v. quebradura.
Mara Comern Ramos, Historia de la medida. Extremadura, [en lnea, 10.01.2013],
http://centros4.pntic.mec.es/ies.zurbaran/REPERCUTEC/Actividades/Medidas/Historia_
de_la_medida.htm; Mara Eugenia Corts Islas y Francisco Pablo Ramrez Garca, Rescate
de antiguas medidas iberoamericanas, Boletn del Instituto Mexicano del Petrleo, [en
lnea, 10.01.2013],http://www.smf.mx/boletin/Ene-98/articles/medidas.html.
Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 28), 253, s.v. qilae.
bid., pp. 245-246, s.v. man; Diccionario RAE, s.v. electuario.
Comern Ramos, Historia de la medida [en lnea, 10.01.2013)]; Corts Islas y Ramrez
Garca, Rescate de antiguas medidas iberoamericanas, [en lnea, 12.01.2013].
Crews, A Judeo-Spanish Medical MS (nota 4), p. 209, s.v. dr.
173
pegajosa que se arroja por la boca, procedente de las vas respiratorias.42 Tambin uno de los
cuatro humores en que la medicina antigua divida los del cuerpo humano.43
safra (14) clera (tur. safra bilis, hiel, clera44) y este del r. afr bilis
(amarilla)45; jesp. colora (cast. med.), otro de los cuatro humores en que la medicina
antigua divida los del cuerpo humano. Ver heles. El origen andalus de sapra no debe
descartarse, una vez que esta raz est presente en el adjetivo portugus aafrado
colrico y en el extremeo cefrao rendido, agotado.46
anait (14) asa ftida (r. alatit47), lat. ferula assafoetida. Gomorresina de esta
planta que se usa en medicina como expectorante en las enfermedades bronquiales,
entre otros muchos usos.
gindi (15) ssamo, ajonjol, lat. sesamum indicum. Normalmente en los textos
sefardies aparece como indi.
Ena 2713.017v
1. Para dolor de pulsos, tome muchocas y
2. las laba con vino. Las labars, y majadas,
3. firitas con azeite de oliva, y ser engente
4. y untar los pulsos. Y tanbin es bueno
5. para lasangriya la sanguira que sangararon
6. y la enconaron, untarlo.48.Le sanar. Que le
7. encon la vena y que le duele los ervos
8. y los tiene teravados, los espander.
9. Afl49 que sean ervos de las piernas, se es10. pandern.
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
' .1
'.2
.3
: .4
.5
.6
.7
.8
.9
.10
Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 18), p. 234, s.v. balgam.
Diccionario RAE, s.v. flema.
Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 18), p. 253, s.v. qolora.
Federico Corriente, Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Gredos,
Madrid 1999, pp. 79-80, s.v. aafrado.
Ibd.
alatit es la forma que figura en un glosario hebraico trilinge que ha sido editado por
Jos Ramn Magdalena Nom de Du, Un glosario hebraico aljamiado trilinge y doce
aqrabadin de origen cataln (siglo xv), Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona 1994, p. 14.
En el manuscrito aljamiado, escrito que se podra leer unfarlo, es decir, jesp.
unflarlo incharlo, pero untarlo tiene ms sentido en este contexto. Por lo tanto, parece
una errata del copista.
Heb. incluso.
174
Aldina Quintana
11. Para dolores de omros, tome gesos

12. de muerto, que seyan de omre, y lo[s]
13. maje y los beba con vino.
.11
] [.12
' .13
14. Para lo mezmo, tome quezo viejo de vaca

y lo
15. amase con sevo de puerco o de anansarn
16. hecho engente y se untar todos los
17. lugares que le duelen y se le quitarn.
Perevado.
' .14

.15
' .16
. .17
18. Para dolor de muelas y dientes, verdito

y vino
19. ferevido bien, ejaguar los dientes.
.18

' .19

pulsos (1) sienes (arag. pulso), significado que solo posee en la locucin dolor de
pulsos. Es voz usada todava en Aragn.50
muchocas (1), probablemente las hojas o las semillas del boj ordinario o bujo comn
(cast. med. box), un arbusto silvestre que crece en la costa del Mar Mediterrneo y
del Mar Caspio, cuyo nombre cientfico es buxus sempervirens. Se usa desde tiempos
antiguos en medicina para la fabricacin de lociones o lavados, entre otros remedios
medicinales. En algunos pueblos del Pirineo aragons a este arbusto se lo llama
bucho,51 tal vez la forma que precede al nombre mucho y a su derivado muchocas a
travs de la nasalizacin de la bilabial [b].
enconaron (6) infectaron(lat. Inquinre manchar, contaminar).
sevo (15) sebo, grasa slida y dura que se saca de los animales que derretida se usa
en la fabricacin de velas, jabones, etc. (esp. sebo; lat. sebum).
sevo de puerco (15) tocino de cerdo. Jesp. hanzir y hazir. Ver sevo, tosinos de baca
(Ena 2712.049r, ln. 22) y sebo de cavrn (Ena 3338.004v, ln. 9).
anansarn (15) ansarn, ansarino, pollo del nsar (esp. ansarn), lat. anser
domesticus. Con notacin de la vocal esvarabtica [a], pero sin la consiguiente
50 Mara Moliner, Diccionario de uso del espaol, H-Z, Gredos, Madrid 1984, p. 884, s.v.
pulso.
51 Flora Vascular, s.v. Buxus semperviren, [en lnea, 12.01.2013], http://www.floravascular.
com/index.php?spp=Buxus%20sempervirens, y http://www.biodiversidadvirtual.org/
herbarium/Buxus-sempervirens-L-img137401.html.
175
epntesis de la nasal, se encuentra en otros textos judeoespaoles;52 en espaol, en la

frase proverbial pato, ganso y ansarn, que tres cosas suenan y una son.53
perevado (17) probado, comprobado. Jesp. prevado. Ver bdq (Ena 2712.049v,
ln. 8).
verdito (18) verdete, verdigrs, acetato de cobre que se emplea en la pintura (esp.
verdete). Cuando est compuesto de carbonato bsico de cobre, recibe el nombre de
cardenillo. Ver verdete (Ena 3332.004v, ln. 2).
ejaguar los dientes (19) enjuagar los dientes. (cast. med. enxuagar); jesp. enshaguar.54
La forma en s es portuguesa o aragonesa.55
Ena 2815.008r
1. Para blandar qual se quer llaga, y si es que
2. a de abrir, se abre. Y si no se ensorve, toma
3. hojas de violetas y hojas de malvas, y
4. cochas bien, y puesto ensima. ______
5. Para detener la sanguere, mariq dahabi
6. limado en azeite ayyib y la masar de en la
7. la maana y la tadre, y se cortar la
sanguere.
.1
.2
' ' .3
______ ' .4
.5
.6
.7
][
8. Para la mujer que no se enperee. Tome

noche de la
9. evilah una derama de limadura de
dien[te de]
10. elefante masado con ascar rozado y
he[cho]
11. sopa y lo ponga. Todo tiempo que l[o yeva]
no se
12. perea. ______________
' .8
'
.9
][
.10
]['
] [.11
______________ ] [.12
52 Cf. Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 18), p. 233, s.v. an[a]saron.
53 Cf. Agustn de Rojas Villadrando, El viaje entretenido (1603); Jacques Joset (ed.), EspasaCalpe, Madrid 1977, p. 9, en CORDE [14.12.2012].
54 Cf. Nehama, Dictionnaire (nota 18), p. 177, s.v. enagwr.
55 La misma forma est ampliamente documentada en textos aragoneses y portugueses. Para
los primeros, se puede consultar Labarta, Libro de dichos maravillosos (nota 6), p. 207.
176
Aldina Quintana
13. Qelet para la [nuve],56 tomar una bas[]a

de alatn
14. y [la] inchir de vino belanco y lo dejar
24 t,
15. y [des]pus la vasiar en otra bas[a]
de latn
16. [y] lo dejar 24 oras tapado y despus
cojer e[l]
17. moho, y ir ha[zi]endo ans munchas vezes,
y cojer
18. el moho y lo ju[ga]r al [sol], y alcolohar
con l.
] [] [.13
[] ' '.14

[] [].15
[] ' .16
]' [
[] ' .17
'
'[] [] .18

mariq dahabi (5) xido de plomo (PbO).57
ayyib (6) bueno, a punto para comer (r. ayyib).58
azeite ayyib aceite de buena calidad. Ver tayyib.
masar (6) amasar, har masa.
enperee (8) empree, conciba, quede preada.
evilah (9) inmersin del cuerpo en agua con el fin de liberarse de impurezas.
Especialmente prescrito a la mujer por la ley juda (heb. ).
kelet (13) polvo que se colocaba sobre los prpados como remedio contra las
cataratas u otra enfermedad de los ojos (heb. sombra de ojos, derivado de
o azul, antimonio, trmino empleado en hebreo para designar todos los
polvos finos de color similar que se empleaban tanto para sombrear los ojos como para
curarlos). El color azul se sola obtener a partir de antimonita y galena. En el Antiguo
Egipto, esta ltima se utilizaba molida como base del kohl, un compuesto en forma
de polvos que desde antiguo se empleaba en el tratamiento de enfermedades oculares
56 En el manuscrito aljamiado, est escrito con un solo vav, por lo que se podra hacer tambin
la lectura nue, es decir, jesp. nuve, con omisin de [v] provocada por el contacto con el
rabe ([nwe] <[nuwwe] < [nuve] < [nue]).
57 Cf. Yael Buchman y Zohar Amar, Practical Medicine of Rabbi Hayyim Vital (1543-1620).
Healer in the Land of Israel and Vicinity, Unit of the History of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University,
[Ramat-Gan] 2006, p. 299, s.v. , de acuerdo a la escritura de Hayim Vital.
58 Corriente, Diccionario de arabismos (nota 45), p. 443, s.v. tabair/la.
177
as como en la cosmtica y como maquillaje.59 La relacin de kelet con kohl (r.

kul) es evidente, y con este significado apareca ya en el Talmud Yerushalmi (Moed
Qatan 1, 7 y en Tosefta, Shabat 9,13). La grafa con qof en kelet ( )muestra la
pronunciacin sefard de /k/ enftica como /k/, por lo que debemos considerar que
esta era una palabra integrada en judeoespaol.
nuve (13) catarata.60 Panno, nube o mansilla son tres enfermedades de los ojos que
se mencionan en la Traduccin del Libro de recetas de Gilberto.61 Hayim Vital habla
de nubes de los ojos de color blanco62 [trad.]. Ver pao (Ena 3338.004r, ln. 1).
basa (13) bacina (cast. med. baca), es decir, vasija para contener lquidos. Era la
vasija que antiguamente usaban los barberos.
alatn (13), variante antigua de latn (15).
moho (16, 17), jesp. mofo.
jugar al sol (18) secar al sol, variante del cast. med. esxugar. Jesp. enshug(u)ar.
alcolohar [con kelet] (18) curar los ojos con alcohol. Futuro de alcoholar con
mettesis (cast. med. alcoholar, alcofolar). Crews afirma que significa lavar los ojos
con alcohol o con otro colirio, para limpiarlos o curarlos63 [trad.]. Sin embargo, aqu
se refiere a un tratamiento con kohl, es decir, con polvos.64 En la medicina medieval, se
denominaba con el trmino alcohol (r. hisp. kul, depluralizado del r. cl. kul, pl. de
kul, nombre de la galena, el antimonio y sustancias susceptibles de uso y preparacin
similar)65 a cualquier polvo destinado al tratamiento de enfermedades de los ojos. Ver
su relacion con kelet.
59 Cf. Amir Ashur y Efraim Lev, New Genizah Documents: Three Fragments on Practical
Medicine in Medieval Egypt, Ginzei Qedem. Genizah Research Annual 9 (2013), p. 19.
60 Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 18), p. 147, s.v. nube.
61 Traduccin del Libro de recetas de Gilberto (nota 4), fol. 11v, en CORDE [13.12.2012].
62 Buchman y Amar, Practical Medicine (nota 57), p. 116.
63 Cf. Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 18), p. 231, s.v. alkoolarse.
64 En Nebrija, Dictionarivm medicvm (nota 24), p. 33, s.v. alcohol, este es un polvo muy
sotil. Una descripcin de cmo se administra un qelet se encuentra en la Traduccin
del Libro de recetas de Gilberto (nota 4), fol. 11r, en CORDE [13.12.2012] en una seccin
en la que tambin se describen diversos preparados empleados en el tratamiento de
enfermedades de los ojos: ... & toma los dichos poluos & echalos dentro & mesclalos
mucho con vna cuchar de madero nueva & guarda esto bien et usa por ello ponjendo en los
ojos muy sotilmente con vna aguja de plata commo la muger quando se alcofola ...
65 Corriente, Diccionario de arabismos (nota 45), pp. 140-141, s.v. alcohol.
178
Aldina Quintana
Ena 2815.008v
' .1
Para teir, guarde afur y limones.
][
Cayen[taldo]
2. ters das, y despus lo hervir, y teir. _ _ .2
'.3
3. Para hazer aun omre66 o a una mujer,
][
q[ue es]
' .4
4. aqarah, que no engendere toda su vida,
][
tomar [la]
5. la far del gato y lo quemar y se la dar [a] ] [.5
6. comer la seniza dela far entere la comid[a]_ _ ] [.6
.7
7. Para el arestn de las quiriaturas, ntele
8. zera de omre enla cavesa delaquiriat[ura] ] [] [.8
9. cada semana una vez, y no tern arestn. _ __ .9
] [] [.10
10. [Pa]ra qual quer gerano, afl panars67, [n-]
__ [] .11
11. tele con zera de omre, yse secar. __
] ' [.12
12. Para el pelo de la teta de la mujer, ta[n-]
] [.13
13. bin ntele zerade omre, y se le c[o]
][
r[tar la]
] [] [] [.14
14. dolor y para la tia: cada dos d[as] s[e]
____ .15
15. arrapar y se untar, y sanar. _____
] [] [] [.16
16. Y para una quiriatura que [re]bata, nte[le]
.17
17. todo [s]u68 cuerpo con zerade omre.
_____
Bueno. ______
1.

afur (1) alazor, crtamo (r. hisp. alafr; r. cls. ufur), lat. carthamus tinctorius.69
Planta anual de la familia de las compuestas, de medio metro de altura, con ramas
espesas, hojas lanceoladas y espinosas, flores de color azafrn que se usan para teir.
66 En el texto est escrito obere. Lo corrijo por omre hombre como dice en las lns. 8, 11, 13 y 17.
67 Contra panariz: conuiene saber quando se hazen en derredor de la llaga algunas pustulas
\ o vexigas blancas: toma ensundia vieja sin sal: & vnos gusanos que se llaman cient
pies: & picalos muy bien con la ensundia: & con aquel emplastro vntalas bien: & quitara
el dolor & bsol; & curara las dichas vexigas & pustulas en la traduccin del siglo xv del
Compendio de la humana salud de Johannes de Ketham. Madrid, BN I51. Mara Teresa
Herrera y Mara Estela Gonzlez de Fauve (nota 4), 29v, en CORDE [17.12.2012].
68 Corrijo un lapsus calami: tu por su.
69 Corriente, Diccionario de arabismos (nota 45), p. 107, s.v. alaor; Crews, One Hundred
Medical Recipes (nota 18), p. 260, s.v. ufr.
179
Ena 2815.008v
Esta imagen se reproduce por cortesia de la Biblioteca
del Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Nueva York
180
Aldina Quintana
aqarah (4) estril (heb. ;)jesp. maniera.

far (5, 6), probablemente pelaje (r. cl. farru pelaje, piel).
arestn (7, 9) arestn, cardillo corredor (esp.); lat. eryngium tenue; jesp. usagre
afeccin cutnea que se presenta ordinariamente en la cara y alrededor de las orejas
durante la primera denticin.
zera (8, 11, 13, 17) esperma, semilla (heb. ).
panars (12) furnculo (cast. med. panariz).
rebata (16) arrebata, contrae fiebre.
quiriatura que rebata (16) nio, criatura que tiene fiebre. Ver rebata.
bueno (13), ver Ena 3338.003r, ln. 10, tv (Ena 2948.010v, ln. 20; Ena 3338.004, ln.
11) y Es bueno muncho (Ena 2948.010v, ln. 4).
3.3. Fragmentos del recetario 3 (fol. Ena 2948.010)
De este cuaderno se conserva solo un folio de 108 x 154 mm de los que el texto
ocupa una superficie de 89 x 123 mm, escrito a una columna de 17 lneas el recto
y 14 el verso. Contiene la descripcin de dos prcticas mgicas anotadas en hebreo
en el recto, y cinco unidades mdico-farmacolgicas escritas en judeoespaol en el
verso. En la segunda de las prcticas mgicas, el encantamiento (jesp. prekante) o
frmula usada en el hechizo, est en espaol70 y contiene elementos de la tradicin
cristiana: santita (ln. 5 del recto), as como ngel y su variante italiana ngelo (ln.
14). Lamentablemente el encantamiento est incompleto a causa de la mutilacin del
folio en su parte inferior izquierda.
La caligrafa que muestra el texto de este documento es prcticamente igual a
las de los documentos dos y cuatro. Pero ofrece una peculiaridad lingstica en la
representacin ortogrfica de la palabra hebrea semen como [zerax] (lns. 7, 9, 11
del verso), pronunciacin caracterstica de los sefardes de Salnica.
70 Sobre el encantamiento, vase Tamar Alexander y Eliezer Papo, Te aprikanto i te

diskanto: La medisina tradisional de las mujeres sefards de Bosna, Judenspanisch x (=
Neue Romania 35) (2006), p. 25.
181
Ena 2948.010r
10. Para la topadura, toma una boteyica y ynala
de agua
11. de la fuente antes de la salida del sol
y cuando quieras
12. azer esto, toma tres velas
13. alderedor de la boteyica y despus[. [trad.]
14. ngelo santo, ngel belan[co...
15. santita y por la m[
16. amosrar en cuuer[po .
17. redoma bosm[
________________________________
71 .10
.11
][
...............[ ' .12
..............[ .13
..............[ ' ' .14
.....................[ .15
.................... [.16
............................[ .17
________________________________

bosm (17) blsamo (heb.)
Ena 2948.010v
1. Para la tos, cuexcos de alarrobas
2. remojado hasta que se deshagan y
3. hecho xarope y se desayunar con
4. eyo cada maana. Es bueno muncho.
_____________________________
5. Para la tia, arrapar la cavesa
6. cada dos das y la untar con
7. zera de ombere, y sanar. ____
_____________________________
8. Y tanbin para el pelo de la teta:
9. untar la teta con zera. Tv.
_____________________________
10. Para qu]al quer quiriatura que no
11. u]ntar con zera su
12. ..]
______________________________
13. ..] untar un
14. ..] ensima.
______________________________
.1
' .2
' ' .3
'.4
_____________________________
.5
.6
____ .7
_____________________________
.8
.9
_____________________________
] .10
] ....... .11
]............... .12
_____________________________
] ......................... .13
_____ ] ......................... .14
_____________________________
71 La meiah es el nombre hebreo de la topadura, una prctica mgica sefard cuyo objetivo
consista en hallar a una persona o un objeto perdidos.
182
Aldina Quintana

alarrobas [alxarobas] (1) algarrobas, frutos del algarrobo (r. hisp. alarrba), lat.
ceratonia siligua.
cuexcos de alarrobas (1) cuescos, semillas de las algarrobas. Ver alarrobas.
xarope (3) jarope, jarabe (cast. med. xarope; r. hisp. arb); jesp. sharope.
zera (7, 9, 11) semen, esperma. Presenta la particularidad de reflejar la pronunciacin
sefard, conocida en Salnica, con la pronunciacin velar sorda del ayn en posicin
final de palabra, es decir [zerax].72 Ver zera (2815.008v 8, 11, 13, 17).
bueno (4): Es bueno muncho. Ver bueno (Ena 3338.003r, ln. 10; Ena 2815.008v, ln.
17) y tv (Ena 2948.010v, ln. 20).
tv (9), ver bueno (Ena 3338.003r, ln. 10; Ena 2815.008v, ln. 17) y tv (Ena
3338.004r, ln.10).
3.4. Fragmentos del recetario 4 (fols. Ena 3338.003-004)

Estos son los dos nicos folios que se conservan de este cuaderno que, sin duda, era
bastante ms largo, puesto que ambos llevan anotado el nmero de folio en su parte
superior izquierda, 42 y 41 respectivamente. De ello se deduce que el nmero de
pgina en el catlogo del JTS es el inverso al orden real de los mismos. Sus medidas
son 108 x 156 mm de los que el texto ocupa 101 x 139 mm, escrito a una columna de
entre catorce y dieciocho renglones. Su estado de conservacin es bueno.
La escritura es muy similar a la de los documentos dos y tres,y contiene algunas
correcciones intencionadas: Probablemente el propio copista tach el final del primer
remedio (lns. 5-6 de Ena 3338.004r). Con objetos diferentes a la pluma empleada en la
escritura de los remedios se tacharon tambin las dos unidades contra la sarna (lns. 7-10
de Ena 3338.003r y 11-18 de ENA 3338.003v). En cambio, el propio copista complet,
despus de haber anotado toda la relacin, una unidad indicada contra la tia (ln. 3 de
Ena 3338.004v) con las palabras engente, arrapar, auntar, que hacen referencia al
tipo de preparado y a su administracin. A diferencia de los recetarios descritos arriba,
ste pocas veces facilita informaciones relativas a la preparacin y administracin
del medicamento, limitndose a enumerar los componentes de cada preparado que se
recomienda para tratar la enfermedad previamente sealada, por lo que resulta bastante
72 Nehama, Dictionnaire (nota 18), p. 607, s.v. zraj.
183
deficitario desde el punto de vista del contenido. Por todo ello, se puede deducir que
estos remedios no han sido copiados de otro recetario, sino anotados de una fuente oral.
Tambin las caractersticas lingsticas son anlogas a las de los recetarios dos y
tres, como el empleo de h- en lugar de f- etimolgica (hieles, hezes, holln, hganle,
hervido, hecho, hojas, hervir), excepto en fiede (Ena 3338.003v, ln. 1), y hantietimolgica (henchir), pero proveniente de la forma del espaol medieval fenchir,
as como el empleo de las farngeas en palabras rabes (buari) y, en especial, de la
sonora con la funcin de consonante, enafion opio (tur. afyon; r. efin) aunque
probablemente sea una variante rabe que acreditan que el documento procede de
una comunidad en contacto con el rabe. La grafa eres (heb. ) en Ena 3338.004r
(ln. 2) deja traslucir la pronunciacin popular sefard. Se emplean las formas sefardes
quen (esp. quien; jesp. ken) en Ena 3338.004v (ln. 13) y Ena 3338.003v (ln. 1),
y quere (esp.quiere; jesp. kere) en Ena 3338.003v (ln. 3), formas que ya aparecen
documentadas a finales del siglo XVI en judeoespaol.73 Como en el resto de los
documentos, aflora la terminologa rabe (aina, lubana, mur buari, afion), con
algunas variantes del rabe hispano (abr, adefla y tal vez qaraay).
Adems de las unidades que contienen remedios destinados a curar diferentes
enfermedades (pterigin, cataratas, tia, granos, disentera y sarna), el documento
incluye un diagnstico a travs de una prctica mgica (ENA 3338.003v, lns 1-10).
Ena 3338.004r
41
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Para quitar el pao, gevos

cochos y abiertos y quitar el
amariyo y majar el belanco
del gevo con cardenillo y ascar
candil fino (y despus deshecho e
nel vino belanco, estilarlo.) Para
.1
' .2
' .3
.4
' ( ' .5
) : .6
_________________________
73 En el recetario editado por Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 18), pp. 221 y
213 respectivamente.
184
Aldina Quintana
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
forteser la cabesa de que sale del

bao, perla y coral y ascar ca[ndil]
y ascar belanco y guerano en guerana,
todo esto molido y polvoreado. Tv[.]
Para comer la nuve, gevos cochos y
abertos74 y henchirlos con vino belanc[o]
y cardenillo y ascar candil y
despus puesto en una redoma.
Y esto es para comer la nube:
.7
] [.8
.9
]:[ .10
.11
] ' [.12
.13
.14
: .15

pao (1) pterigin, pao, o sea, una excrecencia membranosa que desde el ngulo
interno del ojo se extiende a la crnea, interrumpiendo la vista. Tambin Hayim Vital
llama pao a esta enfermedad ocular, de la cual dice que no es tan espesa como la
nube [trad.], es decir, como la catarata.75 Ver nuve (Ena 2815.008r, ln. 13).
cardenillo (4, 13) espuela de caballero escarlata, lat. Delphinium cardinale, planta
anual muy usada en medicina.
ascar candil (4-5, 8, 9, 13) azcar cande (port. ant.),76 lat. Saccarum officinarum.
perla (8) polvo de perla.
coral (8) coral. Probablemente se refiere a la salicornia europaea.
guerano en guerana (9) geranio en grana, es decir, geranio que su flor ha crecido
tanto que solo sirve para semilla.
comer la nuve (11, 15) hacer desaparecer la catarata.
Ena 3338.004v
1. Para la tia, dos heles de vaca con un
2. poco de hezes de eres y verdete y sera y
3. orina y holln. Engente, arrapar, auntar
________________________________
4. Para curar la cabesa, aina
5. colorada, azarcn, agallas, abr.
________________________________
6. Para amadurar gueranos, sebolla
7. asada y levadura. Para curar
.1
.2
.3
_______________________________
.4
.5
_______________________________
.6
.7
74 Abierto.
75 Cf. Buchman y Amar, Practical Medicine (nota 57), p. 128.
76 Cf. Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 6), p. 233, s.v. asuqar.
185
8. los gueranos despus de aviertos, 12

9. deramas de sera, 12 de pes, 12 de sebo
10. de cavrn, 5 de lubana, 25 de azeite de
11. oliva; todo derretido y colado, y un12. tarlo.
________________________________
13. Para quen tiene cmaras de sanguere, hganle
un[a]
14. mecha de afion y lue[g]o77 se le quitar.
" .8
" '' .9
' " .10
.11
.12
_______________________________
.13
][
: ' [] .14

heles (1) hieles, bilis (esp. hiel; port. fel; lat. fel). Jesp. fiel. Ver safra.
hieles de vaca (1) hieles de vaca. Ver heles.
eres (2) sierpe (heb. ). Hace referencia a un grupo de animales que, segn la
Biblia (Lev. 11:29), no son aptos para el consumo diettico: y ste a vos el enconado
en la sierpe la sierpen sovre la tierra: la comadreja y el ratn y el sapo a su manera.78
hezes de eres (2) heces, excrementos de sierpe. Ver eres.
verdete (2) verdete, verdigrs, acetato de cobre que se emplea en la pintura. Ver
verdito (Ena 2713.017v, ln. 18).
sera (2) cera, parafina (cast. med. era).
holln (3) holln vegetal.
aina colorada (4-5) semillas de ssamo molidas mezcladas con aceite (tur. tahin).79
Lat. sesamum indicum orientale. La aina es uno de los componentes medicinales
que tambin menciona Hayim Vital.80
77 luego inmediatamente despus, acto seguido (cast. med.). Variante jesp. lugo.
78 Biblia en ladino segn el Sfer arb veerm. am um Tr, Georg Holzinger,
Viena 1813.
79 Sam Maimon, Ladino English Dictionary, Marc D. Angel (ed.), Studies in Sephardic
Culture. The David N. Barocas Memorial Volume, Sepher-Hermon Press, New York 1980,
p. 170, s.v. tahina; Albert Morris Passy, Sephardic folk dictionary: English to Ladino,
Ladino to English. 2nd rev. ed., AMPCO, [Los Angeles] 1994, p. 223, s.v. tahina. Tambin
Eliezer Papo, Pele Yoe trizladadu in ladinu por mano de su ijo Yehuda Eliezer
Papo, vol. 2, Y. H. Schossberg, Viena 1872, p. 47. En Salnica parece haber tenido otro
significado, puesto que Nehama, Dictionnaire (nota 18), p. 537, s.v. tajna, define la tajina
como torta de ssamo, que sirve para alimentar el ganado.
80 Buchman y Amar, Practical Medicine (nota 57), p. 94, nota 141 y p. 157, nota 53.
186
Aldina Quintana
azarcn (5) tetrxido de plomo, minio o plomo rojo. (esp. azarcn; r. hisp.
azzarqn), lat. minium.
agallas (5) excrecencia redonda que se forma en algunos rboles por la picadura de
ciertos insectos e infecciones por microorganismos (esp.).
abr (5) acbar, loe (r. hisp. abr), lat. aloeferox.
pes (9) colofonia, pez, trementina que se saca de algunos rboles como los pinos y
los abetos.81
sebo de cavrn (9-10) sebo de cabrn. Ver tosinos de baca (Ena 2712.049r, ln. 22)
y sevo de puerco (Ena 2713.017v, ln. 15).
lubana (10) incienso aromtico, olbano (r. cls. lubn), lat. boswellia sacra.
cmaras de sanguere (13) disentera. Crews relaciona las cmaras de sangre con
sangre en las heces.82 Juan de Pineda identifica esta enfermedad como la disentera:
...que pondera mucho Galeno tener los intestinos y ventrculo dos tnicas porque si
por alguna enfermedad de humores corrosivos se causase disentera (que quiere decir
cmaras de sangre con raeduras de las tripas) y la una peligrase, quedase la otra con
que se salvase la salud y vida del animal.83 La misma identificacin la hace Nebrija.84
La prdida de sangre a travs del recto, igual que por la boca o tosiendo, se encuentran
entre los sntomas de esta enfermedad.
mecha (14) porcin de hilas atadas por el medio, que se emplean para la curacin de
enfermedades externas y operaciones quirrgicas.85
afion (14) opio (tur. afyon; r. efin), extracto de papaver somniferrum.86 Jesp. afion.
81 Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 18), p. 250, s.v. pes.
82 bid., p. 253.
83 Cf. Juan de Pineda, Dilogos familiares de la agricultura cristiana1589, Juan Meseguer
Fernndez (ed.), Atlas, Madrid 1963-1964, p. 229v, en CORDE [17.12.2012].
84 Nebrija, Dictionarivm medicvm (nota 24), p. 57, s.v. desinteria.
85 Guido Mensching (ed.), La sinonima delos nonbres delas medeinas griegos e latynos e
arauigos, Arco/Libros, Madrid 1994, p. 267, s.v. mecha para llaga.
86 Crews, One Hundred Medical Recipes (nota 18), p. 237, s.v. efiin.
187
Ena 3338.003r
42
1. \Jaqueca/
2. Pepinicos amargos. Majarlos
3. y espermirlos y aquel sumo
4. [h]ervido con un poco de azeite y ser[a]
5. y untarse la cabesa y la ferente.
6. Esto es para uno que tiene jaqueca.
_______________________________
7. Para sarna, meter qaraay 6 deramas,
8. 4 deramas de pasa preta hecho pl9. doras, 5 por la maana y 3 por [la]
10. tarde. Bueno.
_______________________________
11. Para las lomrizes, cuexcos d[e]
12. sitra. Molerlos y beverlos con u[n]
13. poco de vino.
_______________________________
14. Para quen tiene pujos de cmaras d[e]
15. sanguere, tomen mur buari y
16. hgale una mecha de eyo. Luego
17. se le quitar.
_______________________________
18. To[.]mel y lo [unt]ar y ser enguente
color
\'/ .1
'.2
.3
] [.4
.5
'.6
_______________________________
' .7
' ' .8
] ' ' [.9
.10
_______________________________
] ' [.11
] [.12
.13
_______________________________
] ' [.14
.15
' .16
.17
_______________________________
] [] .......[ .18
...

qaraay (7), probablemente un sal bsico como carbonato de potasio (k2co3),
carbonato de sodio (na2co) o cloruro de potasio (kc1).87
bueno (10). Ver bueno (Ena 2815.008v, ln. 13).
sitra (12) cidra, fruta del cidro (lat. citra), lat. citrus medica. Fruta muy usada en
medicina. Jesp. sidra.
cuexcos de sitra (11-12) cuescos, semillas de la cidra. Ver sitra.
pujos (14) pujo, tenesmo, gana frecuente de defecar o de orinar, con gran dificultad
y acompaada de dolores. Jesp. empushos.
cmaras de sanguere (14-15) disentera. Ver Ena 3338.004v, ln. 13.
87 Cf. Buchman y Amar, Practical Medicine (nota 57), p. 299, s.v. .
188
Aldina Quintana
pujos de cmaras de sanguere (14-15), pujos de sangre en deposiciones sanguinolentas

o de moco y sangre que se producen en enfermos de disentera.
mur buari (15) resina de madera de mirra (r. murbuarik ), Lat. commiphora
molmol. Hayim Vital escribe .88
Ena 3338.003v
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Para quen se fiede de landere,89 beva

luego su orina. Corta el samah
mayudi.90 Y quere veer si bive o si no,
bxquenle un gayo pereto que no tenga
puluma belanca y ahbrenle el
seso91 y setenlo enriba de la landere.
Si muere el gayo da a 24 oras92 bi[v]e93 el mansebo y si no pu[e]de morir el gayo, muere el man[s]ebo.
Engente para la sarna. Tomar
las hojas de la adefla y lo hervi[r]
con agua hasta que se apure y tomar aquel agua y echar otro tanto de
azeite de oliva y lo hervir hasta
que quede en su azeite y echar un
pedaso de sera y se cuajar un
engente y se untar de noche
'

"
] [

[]

\/ '

'

'
'
... '
.1
.2
.3
.4
.5
.6
.7
.8
.9
.10
.11
.12
.13
.14
.15
.16
.17
.18

adefla (12) adelfa, laurel (r. hisp. addfla) Lat., Laurus nobilis.
se apure, del verb. apurarse agotarse (esp.).
88 Cf. Buchman y Amar, Practical Medicine (nota 57), pp. 136, 137, 139, 215.
89 Landre como en Turqua; landra en Salnica (cf. Nehama, Dictionnaire (nota 18), p. 323,
s.v. lndra) y en Jerusaln (Salomon Israel Cherezli, Nouveau Petit Dictionnaire JudoEspagnol - Francais, A. M. Lunez, Jerusalem 1898, p. 125, s.v. ). Se trata de la
peste.
90 No identificado.
91 Quiere decir: golpenle la cabeza (esp. seso; jesp. meoyo). Tngase en cuenta la mettesis
en ahbrenle (jesp. aharbenle).
92 En el texto aljamiado falta el vav en la palabra oras.
93 Corrijo las letras intercambiadas en el manuscrito original.
189
4. Conclusiones
He editado y descrito las caractersticas de los fragmentos de cuatro documentos que
contienen unidades codicopaleogrficas en literatura de listas, cuyo contenido es la
medicina y la farmacologa sefardes. Excepto los fragmentos del primer recetario
descrito que, incluso, podra haber sido anotado en Espaa, los fragmentos de los
otros tres recetarios poseen caractersticas comunes, como son el tipo de letra cursiva
hebrea, carente de influjos orientales, y sus rasgos lingsticos. Estos ltimos indican
que, sin duda, fueron copiados o anotados entre los siglos xvi y xvii en un rea en la
que los hablantes de judeoespaol estaban en contacto con la lengua rabe.
Si la literatura de listas se caracteriza por la simplicidad de las estructuras
lingsticas, esta es una de las peculiaridades de la lengua de los recetarios descritos, en
los que se lleva al mximo extremo, siendo escasos los predicados verbales que llegan
a formar clusulas completas. La descripcin de la preparacin y administracin de
los remedios no siempre se menciona. Todo ello pone de relieve la escasa elaboracin
del texto, dando lugar a una cohesin informativa bastante pobre. La representacin
fonolgica de la terminologa hebrea y las desviaciones ortogrficas de la norma
rabnica judeoespaola revelan, adems, el bajo nivel de instruccin de los autores de
estos documentos y, por ende, su limitado o nulo contacto con las tradiciones literarias
cultas. Desde el punto de vista lxico, el uso de terminologa mdica y farmacolgica
incorporada de varias lenguas, en especial del hebreo y del rabe, son un reflejo de la
simbiosis cultural que caracterizaba la vida de las comunidades sefardes tanto antes
como despus de la expulsin.
Por lo que a las propias recetas respecta, estas aportan frmulas, hasta ahora no
documentadas en el mbito de la medicina popular sefard, as como tres recetas en las
que el aspecto mgico est presente. La mutilacin de alguno de los folios, el desgaste
del papel o la desaparicin de la tinta en algunos lugares del texto, que impiden
rescatar el texto completo de varios de los preparados y de las frmulas mgicas
mencionadas, no merman su valor. Por el contrario, es de esperar que la publicacin
de estos fragmentos atraiga la curiosidad de los investigadores con el fin de encontrar
sus parejos en alguno de los muchos archivos de la Genizah.
190
Pilar Romeu
Aproximacin a la filmografa sobre los sefardes:

Apuntes para el estudio de un gnero en gestacin
Pilar Romeu
La presente contribucin en homenaje a la Profesora Tamar Alexander quiere llamar
la atencin sobre la eclosin in crescendo en los ltimos aos de numerosos materiales
audiovisuales sobre los sefardes y el mundo sefard, y sus posibilidades de estudio
sistemtico.1
1. Marco de anlisis y muestreo
Me centrar exclusivamente en aquellos que se refieren a las sociedades sefardes
afincadas en los territorios del antiguo Imperio Otomano, por lo que no tendr en
cuenta los numerosos materiales que existen sobre los sefardes de Marruecos y,
en general, del Magreb,2 as como de los que se denominan a s mismos sefardes
pues sus ramas familiares provienen de la Pennsula Ibrica desde 1492, pero no han
conservado los rasgos identitarios propios de aqullos.3 Los sefardes del antiguo
Imperio Otomano concentran unas caractersticas culturales especficas (lengua,
cultura, usos religiosos...) que posibilitan el estudio pormenorizado de cada una de
ellas y que no se encuentran en la misma medida o con idntica especificidad en otras
ramas tnicas del judasmo. No he tenido tampoco en cuenta las historias relativas a
1
Charles Berlin, Jewish film and Jewish studies: Proceedings of a Conference held at
Harvard University on November 13-14, 1989 on the role of Jewish film in teaching and
research in Jewish Studies, Harvard University Library, Cambridge, Mass. 1991.
Como, por ejemplo: (Argelia) Five Brothers (Comme les cinq doigts de la main), dir.
Alexandre Arcady (Francia 2010), 117 min; (Marruecos) Gorgeous! (Comme ty es belle!),
dir. Lisa Azuelos (Francia 2006), 84 min; Mashehu matoq (Something Sweet), dir. Dan
Turgeman (Israel 2004), 97 min.
Como, por ejemplo: (Brasil) About Sugarcane and Homeco ming, dir. Shaul Kesslassi
(Holanda 2008), 54 min.
191
Aproximacin a la filmografa sobre los sefardes
los judos en la Pennsula Ibrica o las que abundan en la historia de los conversos,4
ni las narraciones ms modernas que giran en torno a los acontecimientos en los
Balcanes en las ltimas dcadas del siglo XX,5 a no ser que hayan sido tratadas desde
una ptica sefard, una de sus lenguas sea el judeoespaol o sean producidas por
directores sefardes, de legtima sensibilidad.
Esta aproximacin se basa en las anotaciones que de modo maquinal he ido tomando
a lo largo de mis aos dedicados a la lectura de memorias sefardes y que me han ido
saliendo al paso, a veces por pura casualidad las memorias sefardes constituyen
un campo de estudio per se y a ellas he dedicado buena parte de mis trabajos en los
ltimos aos,6 y tambin en aquellas de las que he tenido conocimiento por haber
sido publicitadas en medio sefardes (Ahi Rodes, Aki Yerushalayim, El Amaneser,
eSefarad, Ladinokomunita, Los Muestros, etc.), por lo que no se trata de un estudio
gestado recientemente, ni menos con nimo de ser exhaustivo y concluyente, antes
al contrario, se trata de un esbozo que es el resultado de un acopio informal de datos
que puede resultar un punto complementario de partida para futuras investigaciones
en este campo.
Hay que tener en cuenta, adems, que puedo haberme equivocado en la apreciacin,
pues muchos materiales no he podido visualizarlos completamente.
4
5
6
Como Expulsion and Memory: Descendants of the Hidden Jews, dir. Simcha Jacobovici
& Roger Pyke (Canad 1996), 60 min, que es una historia de los conversos y sus
descendientes.
Como los registros sobre los sefardes de Serbia en <www.youtube.com>.
No voy a extenderme aqu presentando este tipo de literatura, ya que lo he hecho en varias
comunicaciones y se han publicado ya varios artculos al respecto: Pilar Romeu, El uso
de la lengua judeoespaola en las memorias y novelas autobiogrficas de los sefardes
orientales, Proceedings of the Fifteenth British Conference on Judeo-Spanish Studies (29
31 de julio de 2008) [en prensa]; Sin memoria no ay avenir. Memorias escritas por mujeres
sefardes en los ltimos 20 aos, Revista de Dialectologa y Tradiciones Populares LXIII2 (2011), pp. 101-120; Sefarad la patria de los sefardes?, Sefarad 71-1 (enero-junio
2011), pp. 95-130; P. Romeu y Paloma Daz-Mas, El lxico de la memoria: expresiones
judeoespaolas en autobiografas sefardes, en W. Busse y M. Studemund-Halvy (eds.),
Lexicologa y lexicografa judeoespaolas, Peter Lang, Berna 2011, pp. 123-141; MarieChristineVarol, Lautobiographie en judo-espagnol: la difficile affirmation du sujet entre
tradition et modernit, Yod. Rvue des tudes Hbraques et Juives 9 (2003-2004) [La
narration de soi Autobiographies et journaux intimes], pp. 231-260; Jonathan Schorsch,
Disappearing Origins: Sephardic Autobiography Today, Prooftexts 27 (2007), pp. 82150.
192
Pilar Romeu
2. Producciones audiovisuales
Mientras avanzaba en la lectura de memorias sefardes me fui percatando de que
tambin de las pelculas y materiales audiovisuales, que cubren una gran variedad
de aspectos etnogrficos de las comunidades sefardes, y en la misma medida que de
las memorias publicadas en forma de libro, pueden extraerse con mtodos cientficos
numerosos datos acerca de la vida y la mentalidad de los sefardes que deben aportar
nuevas luces a lo que ha acontecido en los ltimos decenios en las sociedades sefardes
orientales y erigirse en complemento de lo que se viene publicando en las memorias,
como adverta ya Gerber (1995: 41).7
Nos hallamos ante un tipo de documentos cuya intencin es explicar el mundo
sefard, o alguna de sus particularidades, al espectador; por ello, y en cierta medida,
destaca el didacticismo en todos ellos. Si bien al principio iba anotando nicamente
ttulos de largometrajes que tienen su contenido de acceso restringido en la red,
poco a poco fui percibiendo que haba tambin mediometrajes y cortometrajes;
de hecho, en las exhibiciones pblicas repartidas por la geografa mundial iban
incluyndose cada vez ms cortometrajes, y en la red, el cortometraje prevalece
sobre el largometraje porque su tiempo de descarga es ms breve y puede accederse
a l libremente en el momento deseado, sin someterse a un tempo programado. En
todos los formatos encontramos desde grabaciones en blanco y negro (Los judos de
patria espaola) y color (la mayora de los restantes), habladas o mudas, y con o sin
actuaciones musicales. Es habitual utilizar varias lenguas en un mismo formato, las
ms de las veces con subttulos.
Pero en los ltimos aos han ido generndose otras producciones audiovisuales
igualmente atrayentes como documento. Los materiales audiovisuales, como su
propio nombre indica, refieren conjuntamente a medios que implican el odo o la
vista, o ambos a la vez, y se trata de mtodos esencialmente didcticos que se valen
de imgenes pticas y/o grabaciones acsticas que el receptor debe procesar. Los
medios audiovisuales e interactivos (diaporamas, diapositivas, transparencias, vdeos
y los nuevos sistemas multimediales de la informtica), que han conseguido un
auge extraordinario en las ltimas dcadas, han sido contemplados como poderosos
instrumentos generadores y transmisores de cultura, aunque en cierta medida tambin,
Jane S. Gerber, Integrating the Sephardic Experience into the Teaching of Modern Jewish
history, Jane S. Gerber (ed.), Sephardic Studies in the University. EE.UU. 1995, pp. 29-42.
193
masificadores del pensamiento. Sin embargo, una educacin conveniente para la

recepcin activa y crtica frente a los mensajes que transmiten puede convertirlos
en un gran recurso pedaggico, tambin o incluso ms en el caso de los sefardes,
cuya historia y cultura, pasada y reciente, va diluyndose en la gran masa del mundo
judo asquenaz mayoritario. En este sentido, habra que considerar los de uso escolar,
como los de Andre Aelion Brooks en Out of Spain. Educational program for
schools, en el que se incluye un CD con el documental Ayer: Our Spanish Heritage,
o los de aprendizaje o afianzamiento de la lengua, como la obra conjunta Migdal
Byrushalayim (Una Torre en Yerushalayim). Poemas para nios, de Avner Perez y
Multikolor. Poemas para Chikos i Grandes de Ada Gattegno-Saltiel (Israel) <http://
btjerusalem.com/av/migdall.htm>.
En todo caso, se trata de relatos, documentales, reportajes o acopio de narraciones
personales que, por lo general, cuentan una historia compactndola en mbitos
definidos. Pero en los ltimos meses han aparecido en la red numerosos microrrelatos
que parecen haberse convertido en uno de los gneros preferidos de los cibernautas.
En un tiempo rcord, como un videoclip o un triler, el microrrelato saca todo el
partido narrativo a la reduccin de formato y sintetiza la narracin, de modo que el
impacto es automtico. Dado que resultan unas formas novedosas de expresin y que
van apareciendo casi a diario, he descartado su anlisis, ya que se trata de modelos
no extendidos en el mbito de los estudios sefardes, a la espera de que con el tiempo
pueda hacerse un estudio especfico sobre el tema.
3. Instituciones y recursos internuticos

Son muchsimas las instituciones a nivel mundial que promueven la visualizacin de
materiales audiovisuales sefardes con programas anuales; por ejemplo, la American
Sephardi Federation <www.americansephrdifederation.org> organiza un festival de
pelculas sefardes cada ao. Pero otras instituciones no estrictamente sefardes se
dedican tambin a ello; por ejemplo, en Barcelona (Espaa) se programa cada ao
el Festival de Cinema Jueu <www.fcjbarcelona.org>, como tambin lo hacen en
Melbourne y Sidney (Australia), Montpellier (Francia), Punta del Este (Uruguay),
Vancouver (Canad), etc. Adems, algunas instituciones acadmicas promueven su
estudio en sus centros o, cuando menos, su conservacin. Por ejemplo, la Universidad
de Brandeis (USA), en su centro The National Center for Jewish Film <www.
brandeis.edu/jewishfilm/Catalogue>. Sin embargo, hay que contar con que muchas
194
Pilar Romeu
de estas instituciones admiten la denominacin sefard segn los criterios israeles,

por lo que a veces resulta complejo a simple vista determinar el ajuste a nuestras
normas. Otras instituciones, aunque no acadmicas, contienen abundante informacin
al respecto, como The National Center for Jewish Film <www.jewishfilm.org/
Catalogue/films/expulsion.htm> o The Israel Film Center en la Jewish Community
Center en Manhattan <www.israelfilmcenter.org>.
Todo ello sin perjuicio de los innumerables portales de internet que contienen
informacin especfica, como <www.jewishfilm.com/jewsub.html> o <www.
jewishvideo.com>, y de los vdeos con actuaciones musicales de muy diversos
artistas, ms o menos largas, como Sepharad: Judeo-Spanish Music (dir. Asher
Tlalim, 27 min), o las muchas que se encuentran en <www.worldjewishmedia.com>,
<www.youtube.com>, etc. Hay tambin breves historias personales con aditamentos
lingsticos y fotocomposiciones varias, que no he tenido aqu en consideracin ms
que en contados casos, como algunas de las que registra Centropa Films (Central
Europe Center for Research and Documentation) <www.centropa.org>, una ONG
con sede en Viena y Budapest, cuyo cometido consiste en recoger historias orales
y combinarlas con viejas fotos familiares. Hasta el momento han entrevistado cerca
de 1.300 ancianos judos en el Centro y Este de Europa, la antigua Unin Sovitica,
y las comunidades sefardes de Grecia, Turqua y los Balcanes. Sin duda, de mayor
proyeccin y calado son los audiovisuales relativos al Holocausto, como los materiales
del Witnesses and Education Project de la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusaln <www.
multimedia.huji.ac.il/thesite/en/movies-en/movies-docu-en.htm>, creado en 2007,
cuyo propsito es recoger testimonios de supervivientes, en cooperacin con Yad
Vashem, para ser ofrecidos como enseanza para las futuras generaciones.
En este sentido, la red se est convirtiendo no slo en un medio propicio de
entretenimiento, sino que est creando nuevos modelos narrativos de consumo
rpido y colectivo que a la vez que entretienen educan en contenidos concebidos y
realizados a este fin. En el caso de los sefardes, creadores y consumidores comparten
experiencias y sentimientos desde una ptica social concreta que revive y recrea el
mundo de los antepasados y de las comunidades tradicionales. Sin embargo, a da
de hoy no he encontrado an ninguna pgina web con pretensiones de convertirse
en referencia desde el punto de vista de la investigacin, ni tampoco una que recoja
todos los datos que he ido encontrando, de modo que la tarea ingente que la temtica
requiere sera esencial abordarla a aos vista.
195
4. Listado de obras
Los datos pueden en ocasiones no ser completos ya que, como advert al principio,
muchas de ellas no he podido visualizarlas. Espero que puedan completarse en un
futuro con investigaciones apropiadas. Algunas entradas simplemente indican la
fuente de donde se han tomado.
Adio. Dir. Gregory Viens.8 EE.UU. 1998. 19 min. Ingls.
En 1916, Rebecca tena 4 aos cuando fue al cine por primera vez en el barrio judo
de Rodas. Cuando tena 30, dej la isla para siempre. Adio analiza la transmisin de
conocimientos e identidad entre madre, hija y nieta dcadas despus en Los ngeles.
Adio Kerida. Dir. Ruth Behar. EE.UU. 2002. 90 min. Espaol, subttulos en ingls.
Triler en <www.ruthbehar.com/AKAboutSpanish.htm>.
Documental sobre la bsqueda de identidad de un grupo de judos sefardes con
races en Cuba. El ttulo proviene de una cancin de amor sefard, y su propsito
es realzar los temas de expulsin, partida y exilio que yacen en el punto crucial del
legado sefard, y que cruzan las fronteras raciales, tnicas y nacionales. Narraciones
personales, entrevistas con judos sefardes en Cuba y en Miami, e historias familiares,
entremezcladas con minuciosos metrajes de cementerios judos y nuevos rituales
judos en Cuba.
Ani ohev otax Rosa (I Love You Rosa). Dir. Moshe Mizrahi. Israel 1972. 100 min.
Hebreo, subttulos en ingls.
Jerusaln a finales del siglo XIX. Rosa se ha quedado viuda a los 21 aos. Segn
la tradicin juda, debe esperar a que el hermano de su difunto esposo (ahora con 12
aos) sea adulto y ejercite el derecho de casarse con ella o, en su lugar, le conceda la
libertad. Historia del romance entre Nissim y Rosa.
Ani yerushalmi (I am a Jerusalemite).9 Dir. Yehoram Gaon. Israel 1971. 90 min. Hebreo.
Yehoram Gaon nos introduce en su infancia en Jerusaln.
8
Viens es nieto de Rebecca Amato Levy, autora de I remember Rhodes / Mi akodro de

RhodesSepher-Hermon Press for Sephardic House at Congregation Shearith Israel, Nueva
York 1987. Ha dirigido tambin Island of Roses: The Jews of Rhodes in Los Angeles (v.).
Sobre este autor ver tambin From Toledo to Jerusalem y Kol Yerushalayim (Voice of
Jerusalem).
196
Pilar Romeu
Auschwitz: The Final Witnesses. Dir. Sheldon Lazarus. Inglaterra 2000. 53 min. Ingls.
Documental sobre el trabajo de los Sonderkommandos, integrados por los
judos prisioneros de los campos encargados de la incineracin de los cuerpos de
los gasificados. Morris, su hermano menor, Shlomo, y su primo Dario fueron
deportados de Salnica en 1944 junto con sus familiares. Todos perecieron menos
ellos, que regresan 50 aos despus a la escena de su tormento. De un total de
1.200 Sonderkommandos, menos de un 10% sobrevivi a la guerra, pues los nazis
exterminaban sistemticamente a los testigos de la muerte de millones de judos. Ellos
fueron, realmente, los ltimos testigos.
Ayer: Our Spanish Heritage. Dir. Theodore (Meir) Bikel. 2000. 12 min. Ingls.
Incluido en CD en Out of Spain. Educational Program for Schools de Andre Aelion
Brooks <www.andreeaelionbrooks.com>.
Narracin para nios de la historia de los sefardes hasta los tiempos de la Expulsin
de 1492. Comienza y acaba con escenas en las que Bikel representa al abuelo que
narra para sus nietos sus races sefardes. Los chicos cantan parte de la cancin de
anuk Ocho Kandelikas, con la que termina el vdeo.
Bacalat hanes (Miracle Lady). Dirs. Michal Abulafia & Moran Somer. Israel 2009. 10
min 4 s. Hebreo, subttulos en ingls.
Fortuna y MarcelaMerkada son dos ancianas que pasan su vida esperando.
Dantelaci (The Lace Peddler). Dir. Eytan Ipeker. Turqua 2005. 15 min. Turco,
judeoespaol, griego, subttulos en ingls.
Un vendedor ambulante judo trata de adaptarse al cambiante Estambul de los aos
1950.
Doa Gracia Nasi. EUAContact NJ. EE.UU. 4 min 11 s. Portugus, ingls, subttulos
en portugus. Entrevistas a Andre Aelion Brooks10 y otros. <www.youtube.com>.
Sobre la vida de Doa Gracia Nas.
Doa Gracia Nasi Mendes. Sephardic History Center. USA. 6 min 30 s. <www.
youtube.com>.
La historia de Doa Gracia Nas.
10 Por su libro The Woman Who Defied Kings. The Life and Times of Dona Gracia Nasi,
Paragon House Publishers, EE.UU. 2003.
197
El prncipe de Argel. Dir. Abraham Hayn. Espaa 2004. 17 min. Judeoespaol.

Una versin sobre la Cenicienta, sobre la fe ciega en el amor y la bondad.
El ltimo sefard.11 Dir. Miguel ngel Nieto. Espaa 2003. 90 min. Intrprete
principal: Eliezer Papo. Espaol, judeoespaol.
Emotivos testimonios entrelazados elaborado a partir de ms de 60 entrevistas
realizadas a sefardes en Estambul, Jerusaln, Sarajevo, Salnica, Curaao, Madrid,
Toledo y Barcelona.
Every Time We Say Goodbye. Dir. Moshe Mizrahi. EE.UU. 1986. 95 min. Intrpretes:
Tom Hanks y Cristina Marsillach. Ingls, judeoespaol, subttulos en espaol.
Un piloto de aviacin de la Royal Air Force se enamora en Jerusaln de una chica
sefard de buena familia.
Father Language (Lingua Franca).12 Dir. Rami Kimchi. Israel 2006. 49 min. Hebreo,
judeoespaol, subttulos en ingls.
La historia del Seminario Rabnico (1926-1939) de la isla de Rodas a travs de
los ojos del padre de Rami Kimhi, que estudi en l. Canciones en judeoespaol de
Yasmin Levy.
Fiestaremos! Judy Frankel and the Sephardic Music Tradition. Dir. Kathleen
Regan. EE.UU. 2008. 30 min. Ingls, canciones en judeoespaol.
Los esfuerzos de Judy Frankel para conservar las ricas tradiciones musicales de las
comunidades sefardes.
Florentin sheli (Mi Florentn).13 Dir. Isaac (Isic) Levy. Israel 2010. 10 min.
Judeoespaol. <www.youtube.com>.
La vida en el barrio Florentn de Tel-Aviv, originalmente sefard, narrado por
Rebecca Sternfeld Perera, que vivi en l. Rebecca es la directora del crculo de
judeoespaol (ladino) en Kiryat Ono.
11 Tambin en libro: El ltimo sefard: Legado oral de los judos expulsados de Espaa
(Calamar Ediciones, Madrid 2003.
12 Forma parte de una triloga junto con Travels with my brother (Israel, 1997) y Cinema
Egypt (Israel, 2002).
13 Desconozco si el corto tiene alguna relacin con el libro de Peninah Melech Florentin,
Florentin sheli, Gvanim,Israel 2008.
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From Toledo to Jerusalem.14 Dir. Shmuel Imberman. 1989. 60 min. Judeoespaol,

subttulos en ingls. <www.youtube.com>, 1994, judeoespaol, subttulos en hebreo.
El popular cantante israel Yehoram Gaon nos lleva a travs de 500 aos de historia
sefard con canciones y narraciones, visitando msterdam, Venecia, Sarajevo,
Salnica y Jerusaln.
Glimpses of Sephardic Life (Ojadas a la vida sefarad). Dir. Shelomo Alfassa.
EE.UU. 2005. 40 min. Ingls, canciones en judeoespaol, subttulos en ingls.
Daisy Alalouf Newell, cuyos padres nacieron en Salnica, habla sobre sus
experiencias vitales en torno a la familia en la que creci. Vive en Palm Beach
Country, donde es muy activa en las instituciones sefardes.
Hadarom: Alis lo gara kan af pacam (The South: Alice Never Lived Here). Dir.
Sinyora Bar-David. Israel 1998. 82 min. Hebreo, judeoespaol, blgaro, subttulos
en ingls.
Bar David regresa a su infancia retratando tres generaciones de mujeres sefardes.
Comienza con la abuela Ida, de 89 aos, llegada a Israel desde Bulgaria escapando
del nazismo.
Honoring Rita Arditti. Dir. Federico Muchnik. EE.UU. 2010. 11 min 29 s. Ingls,
judeoespaol. <www.vimeo.com/10970192>.
La vida de la madre del director, Rita Arditti (1934-2009), nacida en Buenos Aires
en el seno de una familia sefard originaria de Turqua. Biloga, feminista, activista de
los derechos humanos y mujer de coraje.
In the Beginning Was a School... Dir. Josy Eisenberg. Francia 2010. 90 min. Francs,
subttulos en ingls.
150 aos de historia de la Alianza Israelita Universal, fundada en Pars en 1860.
Island of Roses: The Jews of Rhodes in Los Angeles. Dir. Gregory Viens.15 EE.UU.
1995. 55 min. Ingls, italiano, francs y judeoespaol, subttulos en ingls.
14 Vanse sobre Gaon tambin Ani Yerushalmi (I am a Jerusalemite) y Kol Yerushalayim

(Voice of Jerusalem).
15 Tambin dirigi Adio (nota 7).
199
Documento sobre la historia de los rodesles desde 1492 hasta la Segunda Guerra
Mundial. Entrevistas con algunos de los ltimos supervivientes de la isla, que narran
los usos y costumbres (comidas, ceremonias), y las impresiones de las segunda y
tercera generaciones en Los ngeles.
Island of Roses: Tragedy in Paradise (LIsola Delle Rose: La tragedia di un
paradiso). Dir. Rebecca Samon. Italia 2007. 57 min. Italiano, francs, judeoespaol.
Encinta de su segundo hijo, la directora viaja con su madre a Rodas, donde su
familia haba vivido durante generaciones hasta la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando
los nazis les deportaron en masa a Auschwitz. Su madre y otras mujeres narran cmo
era la Isla de las Rosas cuando ellas eran jvenes.
It was nothing It was everything: Reflections on the Rescue of Jewish Fugitives
in Greece during the Holocaust. Dir. Sy Rotter, Irene Papas. EE.UU., se han hecho
tres ediciones entre 1997 y 1999. 28 min. Ingls.
Documental con entrevistas a ciudadanos griegos que arriesgaron sus vidas durante
la Segunda Guerra Mundial para salvar a sus compatriotas judos.
Jewish Life in Istanbul - 1984 to 89. Dir. Laurence Salzmann.16 2011. 20 min. Ingls.
<www.youtube.com>. Basada en el libro de Aye Grsan-Salzmann (texto) y Laurence
Salzmann (fotos), Travels In Search of Turkeys Jews (Libra Kitap, Estambul 2011,
167 p.).
La vida de los judos sefardes en Turqua a mediados de los aos 80 del siglo XX.
Joe Elias (eSefarad, 30 de agosto de 2011).
La Kula. Ulus Private Jewish High School Students: Suzi Asa, Sami Morhayim, Leri
Levi, Ediz Bihar, Sara Cemel, Sarita Hasan, Mge Cemel, Alara Deilton y Yasmin
Franko. Turqua 2009-2010.
Documental sobre la vida juda en Galata. Testimonios de Coya Delevi, Mete
Gktu, Bahar Koran, Cemal Arslan, Ekrem Gndodu, Gabi Behiri, Emin Ylmaz.
La pelcula comienza con Coya Delevi hablando de su infancia en Galata, en los aos
1930, y sigue hasta la actualidad.
16 Ver tambin Turkeys Sephardim: 500 Years.
200
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La Rafle.17 Dir. Rose Bosch. Francia 2010. 115 min. Francs.

El 16 y 17 de julio de 1942 la polica francesa detuvo a 13.185 judos en el rea
de Pars. Por falta de espacio en los campos de concentracin desde los que eran
enviados a las cmaras de gas de Alemania y Polonia, 8.000 fueron hacinados en
condiciones infrahumanas en el Veldromo de Invierno. Pasaron 53 aos antes de que
el Estado francs reconociera, en 1995, su culpa en los crmenes perpetrados durante
la ocupacin. Entre ellos hubo sefardes.
La vida de Moshe Surnami (Ah Rhodes 4 (2006), p. 7-8).
Ladino: 500 Years Young. Dir. Rina Papish. Israel 2006. 52 min. Hebreo, ingls y
judeoespaol, subttulos en ingls y espaol. Fragmentos en <www.youtube.com>.
La cantante israel Yasmin Levy redescubre a su padre Isaac Levy, quien falleci
cuando ella tena apenas un ao. Isaac dedic su vida a grabar y documentar todas
las canciones judeoespaolas antes de que se extinguieran por desuso de la lengua.
El destino hizo que su hija difundiera las canciones que l haba coleccionado y
preservado. La pelcula finaliza con una gira de conciertos que Yasmin realiza por
Espaa.
Lhistoire ne meurt jamais. Dir. Franois-Robert Zacot. Francia 2007. 83 min.
Francs.
Indaga sobre la vida cotidiana de las comunidades sefardes de Estambul, Salnica,
Pars, etc. que han transmitido su cultura de generacin en generacin durante cinco
siglos. Testimonios de la vida cotidiana, ritos, actividades culturales
Los judos de patria espaola. Dir. Ernesto Gimnez Caballero. Espaa 1929. 13 min.
Espaol.
Primeros planos de los rabinos de los Balcanes de la poca y raras secuencias de
las escuelas judas, barrios residenciales, sinagogas y cementerios, as como ejemplos
de las costumbres religiosas.
17 Sobre el mismo tema existen, por lo menos, dos pelculas anteriores: Les Guichets du
Louvre (Black Thursday), dir. Michel Mitrani (Francia 1974), 92 min; y Mr. Klein, dir.
Joseph Losey (Francia 1976), 12 min, con Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, Francine Berg y
Juliet Berto, un extracto de la cual puede verse en <www.youtube.com>.
201
May Your Memory Be Love. The Story of Ovadia Baruch.18 Israel 2008. 47 min.
Hebreo, subttulos en ingls. Extracto en <www.wejew.com>.
En marzo de 1943, con 20 aos, Ovadia Baruch fue deportado con su familia desde
Salnica a Auschwitz-Birkenau. La mayora de su familia fue a parar directamente
a las cmaras de gas. Ovadia sobrevivi y fue liberado en Mauthausen en mayo de
1945. En Auschwitz conoci a Aliza Tzarfati, una joven de su misma ciudad, y all
naci una historia de amor pese a las duras condiciones de vida. Aliza sufri los
experimentos mdicos del Dr. Mengele. Se casaron despus de la guerra y fueron a
vivir a Israel.
Novia que te vea. Dir. Guita Schyfter. Mxico 1993. 114 min. Espaol, judeoespaol.
Sobre la novela homnima de Rosa Nisn (Editorial Planeta Mexicana, Mxico 1992).
La historia de dos jvenes que luchan por encontrar una identidad que concilie sus
orgenes judos con su nacionalidad mexicana.
NYU Ladino Documentary. Vidas Largas para el Ladino. Dirs. Elan Golod, Adam
Bonsib y Daniel Kavanagh. EE.UU., 2007. 5 min 50 s. Ingls. <www.youtube.com>.
Corto documental hecho con imgenes de un curso sobre lenguas en peligro.
Out of Spain 1492. Jerusalem which was in Spain. A Journey Through Spain
with the Fifth President of Israel Yitzchak Navon. Dir. Yigal Lossin. Israel 1992. 8
episodios, 8 horas de duracin. Ingls.
Historia juda de Espaa. Episodio 1: Los judos de Espaa en la Edad Media.
Episodio 2: La Edad de Oro. Episodio 3: El balance del terror. Ascenso y cada de
los judos en la Espaa cristiana. Episodio 4: Los marranos y la Inquisicin. Terror,
denuncias, autos de fe. Episodio 5: 1492. Navon sigue tras los pasos de Don Avraham
Seneor y la de los marranos hacia Amrica. Episodio 6: Los criptojudos de Portugal
(Parte 1). Episodio 7: Los criptojudos de Portugal (Parte 2). Episodio 8: El eterno
judo de Mallorca. Estudio de los chuetas, los marranos de Mallorca que no son
criptojudos.
18 Existe tambin un libro sobre Aliza y Ovadia de Yigal Shachar: Oh madre, sipur ahava
bAuschwitz (Oh, Madre. A Love Story in Auschwitz, Aliza and Ovadya Baruch from
Saloniki Keter, Jerusaln 2000.
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Kol Yerushalayim (Voice of Jerusalem).19 Dir. Ofer Naim. Israel 2009. 63 min.
36 aos despus de I am a Jerusalemite, Yehoram Gaon, quintaesencia del
hierosolimitano, va en busca de la Jerusaln que dej atrs.
Rhodes Forever. Dir. Diane Perelsztejn. Blgica 1995. 60 min. Espaol, francs,
italiano y griego, subttulos en ingls.
Retrato contemporneo de los judos de Rodas a travs de sus descendientes, que
supieron trasplantar su identidad sefard allende mares, especialmente en el corazn
de frica, en el Congo belga, y ms tarde en Blgica.
Salonica. Dir. Paolo Poloni. Suiza 2008. 87 min. Judeoespaol, griego, hebreo e
ingls.
Narra el pasado judo de Salnica a travs de entrevistas personales.
Salonica, City of Silence. Dir. Maurice Amaraggi. Blgica 2006. 52 min. Francs,
griego, espaol, subttulos en ingls.
Un viaje personal sobre la moderna ciudad de Salnica. Entrevistas a los
supervivientes de la catstrofe de 1943. Una mirada triste hacia el rico pasado judo
de la ciudad.
Salvador: The Ship of Shattered Hopes. Dir. Nissim Mossek. Israel 2006, 70 min.
Blgaro, ingles, hebreo, subttulos en ingls. Extracto en <www.youtube.com>.
El 3 de diciembre de 1940, en el Puerto de Varna (Bulgaria), el barco Salvador es
abordado por 352 judos blgaros que quieren viajar a Palestina. Diez das despus
recalan en Estambul, pero el 15 de diciembre, una fuerte tempestad en el mar de
Mrmara lo despedaz y se hundi. Los sobrevivientes fueron devueltos a Bulgaria y
Estambul. Otro barco, el Darien II, los recogi, pero fue apresado por los ingleses y
los pasajeros que iban a bordo fueron hechos prisioneros.
Sefarad Caminos y Vida. Len Reencuentro. Dir. Jack Matitiahu. Israel 2006. 90
min. Espaol, judeoespaol.
Primero de una serie de documentales sobre las juderas espaolas. El segundo es
Toledo El secreto oculto.
19 Vanse sobre Gaon tambin Ani yerushalmi (I am a Jerusalemite) y From Toledo to
Jerusalem.
203
Sefarad Caminos y Vida. Toledo El secreto oculto. Dir. Jack Matitiahu. Israel
2008. 90 min. Espaol, judeoespaol.
Segundo de una serie de documentales sobre las juderas espaolas. El primero es
Sefarad Caminos y Vida. Len Reencuentro.
Sled kraja na sveta (Despus del fin del mundo). Dir. Ivan Nitchev. Bulgaria 1998.
112 min. Blgaro, subttulos en espaol. Basada en la novela de ngel Wagenstein,
Daletch ot Toledo (Sofa: Kolibri 2002), traducida al espaol: Lejos de Toledo, Libros
del Asteroide, Barcelona 2010.
Un cientfico afincado en Israel regresa a su ciudad natal, Plovdiv, donde se
reencuentra con su primer amor, una chica armenia, Araxi Vartanian, y donde resucita
el pequeo mundo de su infancia en un medio sefard.
Sterne. Dir. Konrad Wolf. Repblica Democrtica Alemana Bulgaria 1959. 92 min.
Blgaro, alemn, griego y judeoespaol. Guionista: ngel Wagenstein.
Un oficial nazi se enamora de una joven juda griega mientras traslada prisioneros
en Bulgaria hacia un campo de concentracin.
The Enchanting Travels of Benjamin of Tudela. Beth Hatefutsoth. EE.UU. 1992. 9
min. Ingls.
Vdeo para nios en el que se narra el viaje de Benjamn de Tudela (1130-1173)
desde Tudela (Espaa) a Jerusaln, pasando por infinidad de ciudades en el camino,
segn describe en su famoso libro The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the
Middle Ages. Trad. M. N. Adler. Introd. M. A. Signer, M. N. Adler & A. Asher, Joseph
Simon / Pangloss Press, EE.UU. 1993).
The Heritage: An Eternity of Love. Dr. Amnon Rubinstein. Israel 1993. 85 min.
Hebreo, subttulos en ingls.
Dos historias de amor en dos periodos diferentes. La primera tiene lugar en Toledo
en los tiempos de la Inquisicin. La hermosa hija de Abarbanel se enamora de un
soldado cristiano, cuya identidad es misteriosa. La segunda se produce en 1990 entre
un israel, tambin de nombre Abarbanel, y una mujer a la que conoce en un viaje a
Toledo. Los actores son los mismos en ambas historias.
The House on Chelouche Street. Dir. Moshe Mizrahi. Israel 1973. 110 min. Hebreo,
rabe egipcio y judeoespaol, con subttulos en ingls.
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Descripcin de la vida de los sefardes afincados en Egipto que emigraron a Palestina

en 1947 en vsperas de la creacin del Estado de Israel. Clara, su madre Mazal, sus
cuatro hijos y sus tos Rafael y Sultana, y su integracin en la nueva estructura vital,
con la escalada de violencia contra los britnicos y la de los rabes contra los judos
como teln de fondo.
The Jewish Communities of Fez & Salonica. Beth Hatefutsoth. 1995. 29 min. (aprox.
15 min. cada parte).
La historia de las comunidades de esas ciudades. La de Fez va desde el s. VIII hasta
el establecimiento del Estado de Israel, detallando la vida comunal y familiar en la
Mellah (el gueto judo). La segunda pone de relieve la vida familiar y comunitaria en
Salnica.
The Key From Spain: The Songs and Stories of Flory Jagoda. Dir. Ankica Petrovic
y Mischa Livingstone. EE.UU. 2000. 40 min. Ingls, judeoespaol, con subttulos en
ingls.
Flory Jagoda (nacida Kabilio) en Sarajevo (Bosnia), narra su vida cantando viejas
melodas, recordando a su familia, que abandon la ciudad cuando los nazis la
ocuparon en 1941.
The Shaltiels: A Family Saga.20 Dir. Ilan Ziv. Israel 1999. 95 min. Ingls, hebreo,
judeoespaol, espaol, holands, alemn, subttulos en ingls.
Ron Shealtiel es un nio superviviente del Holocausto en Holanda. Despus de la
muerte de su madre encuentra una caja con fotografas que le abre las puertas a casi
900 aos de historia de la familia.
Trees Cry For Rain: A Sephardic Journey (rboles lloran por lluvia: Un viaje
sefard). Dir. Bonni Burt. EE.UU. 1989. 32 min. Ingls y judeoespaol, subttulos en
ingls y espaol. <www.bonnieburt.com>.
Los sefardes de Turqua, sus canciones, su lengua y cultura a travs de la familia
de Rachel Amado Bortnick.
20 Desconozco si tiene alguna relacin con el libro de Moshe A. Shaltiel-Gracian, Shaltiel:

One Familys Journey Through History, Academy Chicago Publishers, Chicago 2005.
205
Turkeys Sephardim: 500 Years. Dir. Laurence Salzmann.21 EE.UU. 1990. 65 min.
Ingls, Espaol, judeoespaol.
Laurence Salzmann, acompaado de su esposa Aye, viajan por Turqua para
descubrir su pasado judo.
Un Judo-espagnol Auschwitz. Dir. Arancha Gorostola. Espaa 2006. 52 min.
Ham Vidal Sephiha, miembro de una familia sefard de Estambul que emigr a
Bruselas, fue arrestado en 1943 y enviado al campo de Malines. Fue deportado a
Auschwitz en septiembre de 1943.
Una Istorya Turka-Djudia-Muzulmana (A Turkish-Jewish-Muslim tale). Gler
Orgun. Centropa 2009. 18 min 49 s. Judeoespaol, subttulos en ingls. <www.
centropastudent>.
Gler Orgun narra la historia de su familia desde que fue expulsada de la Pennsula
Ibrica en 1492 y se asent en el Imperio Otomano. Sus padres se convirtieron al
islam, pero ella revirti a sus races judas antes de casarse con un musulmn.
Yolande: An Unsung Heroine. Dir. Dan Wolman. Israel 2010. 62 min. Ingls y
hebreo, subttulos en ingls.
Yolande Gabai (de Botton) es llamada la Mata Hari israel. Nacida en el seno de una
familia alejandrina, su madre era sefard de Turqua. Fue una de las ms prominentes
espas israeles en Egipto en 1948, trabajando supuestamente como reportera del
Palestine Post.
6. Posibles lneas de investigacin

De lo visto hasta ahora se infiere que las lneas de investigacin que podran
derivarse de las pelculas y materiales audiovisuales son similares a las que nos
enfrentamos cuando tratamos de los libros de memorias: historia, identidad, cambio
de mentalidades, usos y costumbres, folclore...22
La primera divisin sustancial podra escindirlas entre las relativas al Holocausto
(Auschwitz: The Final Witnesses, Island of Roses: Tragedy in Paradise, It was
21 Ver tambin Jewish Life in Istanbul - 1984 to 89.
22 Vase en este sentido Romeu (nota 2).
206
Pilar Romeu
nothing It was everything, May Your Memory Be Love, Sterne, Un Judo-espagnol

Auschwitz) y las que no se refieren a l como tema exclusivo. El tema del Holocausto
tiene unas caractersticas especficas y bien delimitadas, y deberan tratarse en paralelo
a las del mundo judo en general, si bien siempre presentarn algunas caractersticas
especficas de la propia cultura como, por ejemplo, en lo relativo a la lengua, aunque
el judeoespaol fuera una lengua minoritaria en los campos de exterminio.23
Entre las que no se refieren al Holocausto como tema principal, y al igual que sucede
en los libros de memorias, la bsqueda o a la afirmacin de la identidad se erigen en
motores esenciales. En esas pesquisas, algunas, con proyeccin histrica, hunden sus
races en la expulsin de 1492 (Ayer: Our Spanish Heritage, Sefarad Caminos de
vida), o en personajes que sufrieron sus consecuencias (Doa Gracia Nasi Mendes),
o bien en lugares significativos para cada historia en cuestin (Sefarad Caminos
y Vida. Len Reencuentro); pero la mayora trata de recuperarla utilizando historias
personales (Novia que te vea, Una Istorya Turka-Djudia-Muzulmana) y comunitarias
(The Jewish Communities of Fez & Salonica) que les ubican en una secuencia histrica
y, de modo significativo y nostlgico, como testigos del declive de un mundo que suelen
reconocer obsoleto y caduco y, por dems, irrepetible. Con todo, las hay referentes
a sujetos dispares, como las instituciones clsicas, que influyeron grandemente en el
mundo sefard (Father Language, In the Beginning was a School), e incluso en barrios
originalmente sefardes (Mi Florentn). En la personales afloran mltiples aspectos: la
bsqueda de la identidad en las races peninsulares (The Shaltiels. A Family Saga), la
imperiosa necesidad de sumergirse en la vida en las comunidades orientales (Island of
Roses: The Jews of Rhodes in Los Angeles, Lhistoire ne meurt jamais), las peripecias
de la emigracin y el cambio de mentalidades que se produjo en el asentamiento en
otros pases (Adio, Hadarom: Alis lo gara kan af pacam- The South: Alice Never Lived
Here), etc. Entre las comunitarias, las hay que tratan la crisis de identidad entre los
judos que vivan en el Norte de frica entre los aos 1940 y 1950 (The House on
Chelouche Street), otras tratan de recuperar el pasado colectivo a travs de imgenes
(Turkeys Sephardim: 500 Years).
Sin embargo, y como ya advirti Gerber (1995: 41), el estudio exclusivo de
aspectos etnogrficos puede hacer caer en la tentacin de considerar el mundo
sefard como una reliquia obsoleta, como un exotismo ms de una cultura en declive,
23 Shmuel Refael, Un grito en el silencio. La poesa sobre el Holocausto en lengua sefard:

Estudio y Antologa, Tirocinio, Barcelona 2008, pp. 21-24.
207
o un fenmeno puramente folclrico. Las manipulaciones de que puede ser objeto

escapan a todo pronstico. Nos hallamos ante un mundo de medios audiovisuales
continuamente cambiantes y espectadores caprichosos cada vez ms insaciables en
sus requerimientos y en su sed de abarcar el mximo contenido en el mnimo de
tiempo, por lo que toda precaucin ser poca frente a un tema que no por ser ms
hermoso y atrayente sea menos difcil de falsear o desfigurar en los medios.24
El Dyo ke no de, por lo ke se areyeva!
24 El listado de obras se cerr en marzo de 2013, por lo que no se incluyen las posteriores.
208
Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald
Personal Names, Toponymes, and Gentile Nouns

in Ladino and Spanish Translations of the Bible
Ora (Rodrigue) Shwarzwald
Bar-Ilan University
Introduction
Biblical personal names have been investigated from various semantic and interpretive
approaches, many times involving Midrashic exegesis.1 The linguistic study of
biblical personal names has not reached a comprehensive appropriate description
except for some sporadic comments.2 Most grammar books and lexicons ignore these
names. Medieval biblical lexicography disregarded them,3 and modern lexicons vary:
See, for instance, David Mendel Harduf, Biblical Proper Names [in Hebrew], Izreel, Tel
Aviv 1964; Moshe Garsiel, Biblical Names: A Literary Study of Midrashic Derivations and
Puns, Bar-Ilan Press, Ramat Gan 1991.
See for instance, biblical commentators like Rashi, Ibn Ezra, RaDaQ and others. Ibn Ezra
(when referring to Gershom and to Bela) and RaMBaN (Nahmanides; when referring to
Makhpela) even claim that there is no grammar to proper names.
The field of proper names is neglected in general linguistics as well. See Leonhard Lipka,
Word-formation and (proper) names: a neglected field, in Dieter Kastovsky, Christiane
Dalton-Puffer and Nikolaus Ritt (eds.), Words: Structure, Meaning, Function (Trends in
Linguistics 130), Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2000, pp. 187-203. Andersons book deals
mainly with syntactic aspects of the use of names; see John M. Anderson, The Grammar of
Names, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007.
See for instance, Menahem Ben-Saruq, Maberet Menaem [Menachems treatise],
Chevrat Meorere Yeshenim, Edinburgh 1854; Dunash Ben-Labrat, Sefer Teshuvot Dunash
Ben Labrat [Dunash Ben Labrat responses book], Chevrat Meorere Yeshenim, Edinburgh
1854(?); David Qimi, Sefer ha-shorashim [The Book of Roots], G. Bethge, Berlin 1847;
Yona Ibn Jana, Sefer ha-shorashim [The Book of Roots], translated by Yehuda ben Tibon,
Itskovsky, Berlin 1896.
209
Personal Names, Toponyms, and Gentilic Nouns
Kaddari discounts them while KBL includes them like any other nouns.4 Biblical
concordances do list them, Mandelkern lists them in a special section, and EvenShoshan lists them alphabetically.5 Modern lexicography does not include personal
names unless the name carries a special meaning, e.g., Tera euphemism for an old
man or for someone behaving like one.6
RaDaQ (R. David Qimi) includes personal names in his grammar book
among regular nouns and classifies some of them as nouns derived from verbs
(e.g., , ,).i7 Gesenius treats personal names as regular nouns,8 but
he focuses especially on gentilic nouns.9 He also discusses some personal names
as retaining old grammatical cases.10 Joon and Muraoka claim that many personal
names are formed as compound nouns (e.g., ,),i11 but they also treat
personal names as regular nouns. They also discuss separately gentilic nouns with the
-i suffix.12
Goshen Gottstein is the only one who discusses personal names and toponyms
in his morphological analysis of biblical words. He includes personal names and
toponyms among the continuous morphemes which are morphemes not derived by
root and pattern combination. Most of them are not joinable, e.g., Moe, Levi, but
some of them are because they accept derivational morphemes like the gentilic -i
ending (the nisba), or the directional -a ending, e.g., haReuveni (<Reuven), Dotayna
See Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, Hebrisches und aramsches Lexikon
zum alten Testament, Brill, Leiden-New York 1967-1990; Menahem Zevi Kaddari, A
Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew [in Hebrew], Bar-Ilan University Press, Ramat Gan 2006.
5 See Solomon Mandelkern, Concordantiae hebraicae atque chaldaicae, Schocken,
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv 1922; Abraham Even-Shoshan, A New Concordance of the Bible
[in Hebrew], Kiryat Sefer, Jerusalem 1977.
6 See for instance Abraham Even-Shoshan, Even-Shoshans Dictionary [in Hebrew], Am
Oved, Kineret Zmora Bitan, Dvir and Yediot Aaronot, Tel Aviv 2003, p. 2039.
7 See David Qimi, Sefer Mikhlol [Ensemble Book] (H. Petsoll, based on Fiorda 1793),
Jerusalem 1966, p. 104b.
8 See Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew Grammar, ed. by Emil Kautzsch, trans. by Arthur Ernst
Cowley. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1910, 85s-t.
9 See Gesenius, Hebrew Grammar, 86h (Note 8).
10 See Gesenius, Hebrew Grammar, 90 (Note 8).
11 See Paul Joon and Takamitsu Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, Editrice
Pontificio Instituto Biblico, Roma 2006.
12 See Joon and Muraoka, Grammar, 137c, 139d (Note 11).
4
210
(<Dotan).13 Ephratts study tried to find grammatical principles in the assignment of

toponyms by an Israeli Name Committee, but she did not consider the biblical names.14
This review will take too long if I list all the books and articles that examined biblical
personal names, but as mentioned earlier, they all treat these names with interpretive
and Midrashic approaches, not with linguistic ones.15
Comparison of biblical names in the translations of various languages has been
done before.16 The purpose of this study is to examine the representation of names
personal names and toponymsand their gentilic derivatives in Bible translations
into Spanish in the Middle Ages and in the Ladino translations of the Sephardic
Diaspora after the expulsion from Spain. Because personal names and toponyms
are a singular entity from a morphological point of view, and because gentilic nouns
are derived systematically from them, I would like to compare these names in the
translations to the extent there is a correlation between the way people and locations
are named as well as consider the gentilic nouns derived from them. Moreover, such a
comparison between the pre- and post-exilic translations can either support or oppose
the assumption that the Ladino translations are based on the Spanish ones.
13 See Moshe Goshen-Gottstein, Semitic Morphological Structures: The Basic Morphological

Structure of Biblical Hebrew, in Ham B. Rosn (ed.), Studies in Egyptology and Linguistics
in Honour of H.J. Polotsky, Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem 1964, pp. 104-116.
14 See Michal Ephratt, Is there a Grammar to Names of Settlements? [in Hebrew], Lonnu
48-49 (1985-1986), pp. 5-30, 137-150.
15 I mention here a few articles published in Demskys most recent anthology series of 2011:
Aaron Demsky (ed.), These Are the Names: Studies in Jewish Onomastics, vol. 5, Bar-Ilan
University Press, Ramat Gan 2011. Yael Avrahami, Name Giving to the Newborn in the
Hebrew Bible, in Demsky (ed.), pp. 15-53; Joel S. Burnett, Divine Absence Personal
Names in the Hebrew Bible, in Demsky (ed.), pp. 71-93; Aaron Demsky, Ghost-names
in the Bible, in Demsky (ed), pp. 119-129; Yaacov Kaduri (James Kugel), On Biblical
Names and Later Etymologies, in Demsky (ed.), pp. 143-155; Hananel Mack, Mehetabel,
the Daughter of Matred, the Daughter of MezahabThree Biblical Names in Light of the
Classical Commentaries [in Hebrew], in Demsky (ed.), pp. cxiii-cxxxi.
16 For instance, Ezra Zion Melamed, The Onomasticon of Ausevius [in Hebrew], Tarbit 3
(1932), pp. 314-327, 393-409; 4 (1933), pp. 78-96, 249-284; G. Lisowsky, Die Transkription
der hebrischen Eigennamen des Pentateuch in der Septuaginta, Dissertation, Universitaet
Basel 1940; Joseph Horowitz, Jewish Proper Names and Derivatives in the Koran, Georg
Olms, Hildesheim 1964; Yosef Tobi, Translation of Personal Names in Medieval JudeoArabic Bible Translations [in Hebrew], in Aaron Demsky (ed.), These Are the Names:
Studies in Jewish Onomastics, vol 3, Bar-Ilan University Press, Ramat Gan 2002, pp. 77-
211
The Corpus
The medieval biblical Spanish translations examined in this study are Escorial E3, E4,
E5/E7, and E19, and the Alba Bible. All these versions and others appear today online
at http://corpus.byu.edu/bibliamedival/ and they include access to photocopies of the
originals. Some of the versions were previously published in print copies.17 Not all the
names were exemplified from E19 because some of the chapters were missing from
it. The Ladino Bibles are the Pentateuch from Constantinople 1547,18 and the entire
Bible from Constantinople and Thessaloniki from 1540 to 157219 (from here on C),
and the Ferrara Bible from 1553 (F).20 The medieval and Ferrara Bibles are all written
in Latin letters, whereas C is written in Hebrew square vocalized letters.
17
18
19
20
84; Yosef Tobi, Translation of Proper Names in Medieval Judeo-Arabic Translations of

the Bible, Bulletin of the Israeli Academic Center in Cairo 21 (1997), pp. 18-22; Tamar
Zewi, Proper Names in the Samaritan Version of RaSaGs Translation to the Pentateuch
[in Hebrew], paper read at the Fourth International Congress of the Jewish Traditions
Research Center on Original and Translated texts in Jewish Languages, Jerusalem, June
21-24, 2010 (to appear in Journal of Semitic Studies).
See Oliver H. Hauptmann (ed.), Escorial Bible I.j.4, Hispanic Seminary of Medieval
Studies (HSMS), Philadelphia 1953; Oliver H. Hauptmann and Mark G. Littlefield (eds.),
Escorial Bible I.j.4, HSMS, Madison 1987; Mark G. Littlefield (ed.), Escorial Bible I.ii.19,
HSMS, Madison 1992; Mark G. Littlefield (ed.), Escorial Bible I.I.7, HSMS, Madison
1996; Moshe Lazar (ed.), Biblia Ladinada: Escorial I.j.3, HSMS, Madison 1995; Antonio
Paz y Meli (ed.), La Biblia de la Casa de Alba, Madrid 1920-1922.
See Moshe Lazar (ed.), Ladino Pentateuch: Constantinople 1547, Labyrinthos, Culver
City 1988. The version is online at the National Library in Jerusalem.
See Moshe Lazar, (ed.), The Ladino Scriptures: Constantinople Salonica [1540-1572],
I-II, Labyrinthos, Lancaster, CA. 2000.
See Moshe Lazar (ed.), The Ladino Bible of Ferrara [1553], Labyrinthos, Culver City
1992. And see also Iacob M. Hassn and ngel Berenguer Amador (eds.), Introduccin a
la Biblia de Ferrara, Comisin Nacional Quinto Centenario, Madrid 1994.
The transcription in the Ferrara Bible uses the following conventions consistently: et is
represented by h and rarely by ch. Ayin and He are also represented by h; they are absent
infrequently. Shin, Sin, Tsadi, and Samekh are represented by s, but Samekh is copied
sometimes by c before the vowels i and e, and Tsadi rarely by z. Lene Bet is copied by b or
v, and Vav by u or v. et and Tav are represented by t and Lene Tav sometimes by th. Kaf
and Qof are copied by k, c (in front of a, o, u or a consonant) and sometimes qu, and Lene
Kaf mostly by ch or h. Common to the writings of that time, there is no distinction between
i-j-y and u-v. These representations are also typical of the medieval Bibles.
212
Because of the Latin script, one might assume that the personal names in the Ferrara
Bible will be similar to the same names in the medieval Bibles, but this happens
rarely, only in cases in which the medieval Bibles transcribe the Hebrew names. As we
will see, most of the names are not transcribed in the medieval Bibles.
Two hundred and seventy-two examples were drawn in this study, most of them
from the Pentateuch, especially from Genesis, but there are a few examples from
other parts of the Bible (272 tokens belonging to 174 types21). The list of verses from
which the examples were taken appears in the Appendix. The number of types and
tokens will be presented separately in each section, first personal names, followed by
toponyms, and finally gentilic nouns. A discussion will conclude the article.
Findings
(1) Personal names:
Peoples names are copied in their Hebrew pronunciation quite systematically in C
and F, for instance:
: , Moseh
: , Parho
: , Ribkah
: , Terah
: , Yehudi
Of 125 tokens of personal names, which represent 95 types, there is a difference
between C and F only in six names (5% tokens, 6% types). In all 125 tokens, C copies
faithfully the biblical Hebrew name in the translations, whereas F demonstrates some
change in the pronunciation in six names: is transcribed once as Hed and another
time as Heth, apparently as some representation of Lene Tav.22 is copied as
Cedorlahomer, not with an initial k or qu, but rather with an initial c. Since this spelling
occurs five times,23 it cannot be viewed as a typographical error, but rather represents
21 Tokens are the instances of a unit; type is the unit itself, a name in our case, e.g., the type
has 11 tokens in the Bible: nine in Genesis, one in Joshua, and one in Chronicles.
22 See David M Bunis, The Whole Hebrew Reading Tradition of Ottoman Judezmo
Speakers: The Medieval Iberian Roots, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 9 (2013), pp. 15-67.
23 It occurs in Genesis 14:1, 4, 5, 9, 17.
213
[sedorlaomer] or [tsedorlaomer] (closely resembling E5/E7, see below). The names

and are transcribed Caslohim and Patrosim with the vowel o instead
of u. The name is copied as Loth, although th is typical in his transcription for the
representation of Lene Tav, not et. Finally, the name is transcribed Salah like the
pausal form that occurs in the same verse (Gen. 10:24).
Unlike C and F, in the medieval translations there are no similar translations in 86
of the 125 tokens (69% of the tokens24). Here are a few examples:
: abi malech; abimelec; abemeleque

: abran; abrahan; abram
: aznad; aznat; asnath
: arapagsad; arpasat; arpad; arphachsad
: fijo de simj; fijo de symi; njeto de senhi; fiio de simey
: agar; hagar
: aran; aram; haran
: hed; quiuet; ed; etheu
: yahudi; yehudi; yehuedi, yendi; iudi25
: cador laomer; ardolaomer; chodorloomer
: canaam; canaham; canaan
: chesluym; enjluym; cazloym
: mjzraym, los egipianos (E3); egipto (E42); mjcrayn, mjzrraym (E5/E7);
mesrayim, mesraym (Alba)
: muysen; moysen
: mathusalam; matusalen; matuselah
: faraon; faron
: rebeca; rrabeca
: rahma; nagma, ragama; rregina; regma
: tare; thare; tareh
24 The types were not calculated in this case because in many instances the same personal name
is translated in different ways, sometimes when occurring twice within the same verse.
25 The name ( Jer. 36:21) in E5/E7 is translated once yehuedi and once yendi. The
yendi form appears also in Jer. 36:23 which means that it is not a typographical error
(u-n misreading?). E3 copies the name always as yahudi, E4 copies the Hebrew
pronunciation yehudi, and Alba shortens the name to iudi.
214
The name is of special interest. As a personal name it is copied in C and F

(Misraim). Some of the medieval Bibles copy this name as mjzrraym and mjcrayn in
E5/E7. E3 has mjzraym in Gen. 10:13, but in Gen. 10:6 it is los egipianos. Alba uses
a close transcription of the name mesrayim and mesraym, but E4 translates it twice as
a place name, egipto. I will further relate to this name later in the following sections.
The medieval translations show different linguistic traditions from the biblical
names. Although some of the transcribed names are faithful to the Hebrew Bible
(e.g., some of the translations of , ,, and ), there is no consistency
among the versions in retaining the Hebrew tradition. Some of the names have already
appeared in the Latin translation of the Bible, e.g.,
Noe, Thare, but not in
the translation of , which is Moses in Latin. A comparison of the similar names in
the various translations shows that only 32 names (27%) have partial similarity to the
Ladino translations C and F. Some of the names in translation retained the traditional
pronunciation of the Hebrew names, though not consistently.
It should be noted that womens names are scarce: ,, , , ,
(i2), and ( a total of 8, 6% types or tokens). This result confirms another finding;
only 7% of the biblical personal names are names of women.26
Three names from Gen. 25:3 were not included in the 125 names above: ,
and . The verse states:
and Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants
of Dedan were Ashurim/Ashurites, Letushim/Letushites and Leumin/Leummites.
Because of the -im (plural ending), it is unclear whether these are peoples names or
gentilic nouns. The old biblical translators to Aramaic and the biblical interpreters
wavered about the correct nomenclature.27 According to these translations, they are
personal names because they are copied in the translations:
26 See Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald, First Names in Sephardi Communities in Aaron

Demsky (ed.), Pleasant Are Their Names: Jewish Names in the Sephardi Diaspora,
University Press of Maryland, Bethesda 2010, p. 197n30.
27 The Aramaic translators interpreted these names as nouns indicating features or attributes.
Rashi interprets the first two as names of the rulers of nations, in opposition to Onkelos
interpretation, and claims that the third refers to scattered tent owners. Ibn Ezra claims
that they are personal names and opposes the view that they are gentilic nouns. RaDaQ
also treats them as personal names and raises the question why they have the im ending.
RaDaQ adds that in the name the ending ayim is also a plural marker.
215
C: , ,
F: Assurim, Leumim, Letusim
E3: asurym, leumjm, lemryn(!)
E4: asurin, leuim(!), letusin
E5/E7: asurim, leumjn, letusin
Alba: asurim, laumjm, latusym
Only E5/E7 copies the names in their Hebrew pronunciation, but replaces the final m
by n. Alba transcribes the schwa as a, but the name resembles the Hebrew tradition.
(2) Toponyms:
Of 66 tokens of toponyms in this study, 46 are types. C and F generally copy these
names in their Hebrew pronunciation, e.g.,
: ;Guihon
(): ;Chalne
: ; Hen Mispat
: ;Heden
: ;Hamora
: ;Rechobot
Nevertheless, there is a greater variety in toponym translations in C and F than in
personal names. F differs from C in sixteen tokens (24%) that belong to eight types
(17%), nine of which are the name . These are the names:
: ; Vr de Caldeos (C keeps , while F keeps )

: ( Abundance of Mamre); Enzinas de Mamre (oaks
of Mamre)
: ;Assyria (Gen. 10:11); ;Assur (Gen. 2:14, 25:18; Num. 24:24)

: ;Ethiopia
: ;Egypto (9)
: ;Gazza
: ; Hasderot Carnaim
: ;Euphrates
F is also inconsistent in the orthography of some names: is spelled Hadma in
Gen. 10:19, but Adma in Gen. 14:2; is spelled Guerar in Gen. 20:2, but Gerar in
Gen. 10:19; is Chenaan in Gen. 11:31, but Kenahan in Gen. 47:15. These names
are not many, yet they use the same pronunciation tradition.
216
The resemblance among the medieval translations is even smaller. Forty-six of the
66 toponyms are not translated in the same manner (70%), although sometimes they
are similar to each other (overlooking spelling differences). Here again, there is no
point in examining tokens, because the same toponym may vary in different verses of
the same translation. Here are a few examples:
: adma (E32, E4, Alba2); adama (E4); adina (E5/E72)

: vrcasdin (E3); hur de los caldeos (E4, E5/E7), ur caldeorum (Alba)
: enzinas de manbre (E3); enzinar de manbre (E5/E7 ,E4); valles de
manbre (Alba)
: erog; yereth; yeoreg; erech
: asur (E34, E43, E5/E72, E192, Alba1); asyria (E4), assyrios, siria,
assur (Alba)28
() : de los negros (E3); de judia (E4); de Ethiopia (Alba)
( Gen. 43:32): los egipianos (E3, E5/E7, Alba); los egepianos (E4); los
egibtanos (E19); (In eight other verses): egibto (5), egipto, los egibtanos (E19);
egipto (all the others)
: parayso (E3), deleyte (E4), vergel (Alba)
: parad (E3); eufrates (E4, Alba)
: Rahobod (E3); reobot (E4); rreouod (E5/E7); rrooboth (Alba)
Two phenomena are evident in these translations: (a) Even when the medieval
translations resemble the Hebrew biblical names, these names are pronounced
differently from the same names in the Ladino translations (compare, for instance, the
names ,, and ( ;)b) many of the toponyms are identified with wellknown place names known to the Spaniards either from the Latin translations or from
other sources, or from interpretations given to these names, e.g., Aethiopiae,
Ur Chaldeorum, Chanaan, etc.
As noted above, the name appeared as a personal name. In the medieval Bibles
there were variations in the translations, either as a personal name, or as a toponym.
As a personal name, some of the medieval versions showed some similarities to the
Hebrew name, but as a toponym they opted for the name Egipto, as found in F as
well, though some of them related to it as a gentilic name. Likewise the name : as
a personal name, it has been copied in the medieval Bibles cus in all the Escorial
28 In some cases, some of the toponyms are not translated.
217
Bibles (and in F), chus in Alba. However, as a toponym, is interpreted: los negros
(the blacks), judia (Judea) or Ethiopia (like F). Whereas interpretive cases are rare in
C and F, they are abundant in the medieval translations.
Only 13 toponyms show resemblance between C and F on the one hand, and the
medieval translations on the other. This amount is lower than the one found among
personal names.
(3) Gentilic nouns:
Gentilic nouns are derived from personal names, toponyms, or other social attributes,
such as religion, and they function as adjectives or nouns.29 Most of the gentilic nouns
in this study were derived from toponyms or from personal names by -i suffixation:
is derived from , from and from . Sometimes there is no
such ending but the nouns are nevertheless gentilic, as discussed below.
Seventy-six tokens of gentilic nouns represent 30 types, most of them from the
Pentateuch, and a few from other books: in Esther 2:5, in Esther 2:5, 3:4,
Zech. 8:23. As is also a personal name as referenced above, it is worth comparing
it to its translation as a gentilic noun.
C differs from F in 39 tokens (51%) which are 10 types (33%). This percentage
is higher than the ones found in place and personal names, but it is still low, because
most of the words (two-thirds of the types) are translated in the same manner.
Inconsistencies are revealed in the translations of the same names in different verses.
The data are classified into three categories: (a) similarities between C and F; (b)
variations in different verses; (c) total difference between C and F.
a. Similarities between Constantinople and Ferrara:
: :; los Emim
: ; el Arami (2)
: ; -l Guirgasi30
: ;'Judio (3)
: ; de Binyamin
29 In fact more adjectives can be derived from other names, e.g., -, -, -

. See Joon and Muraoka, Grammar (Note 11), p. 242.
30 The dash before l indicates that the Spanish definite article was attached to other
morphemes, such as al to the; ACC., del of the.
218
: ; Refaim
: ; -l Keni
: ; -l Kenizi
: ; el Hamaleki
b. Variations between C and F in different verses:
: ( ~ i5); -l Hemori, el Emori (2), el Emoreo (2)
: ( i3); -l Heui, el Hiueo (2)
: ( i4); -l Hiti, el Hiteo (2), el Heti
: ( i4); el Yebusi (2), el Yebuseo (2)
: ( i6); el Chenaani (4), el Kenahaneo (2)
: ( i3); el Perezeo (2), -I Perezi
c. Consistent difference between C and F:
() : , ; la Ethiopissa; Ethiopissa (Num. 12:1)
, ,: ', ;)) 'el Ysraelita, (la) Ysraelita
(Lev. 24:10)
, , ,: ', ', ( '5), ',

( 'ix2); el Hebreo (2), la Hebrea, Hebreo (5), los Hebreos (2)
In the first group, most of the gentilic nouns are copied in their Hebrew pronunciation,
except for the noun . In the second group, C tends to copy the Hebrew names
which F either copies or changes into their Spanish equivalent ending in -eo.
Three nouns are distinct in C and F,(), and . Regarding ,
C uses the word once, but in its second occurrence he interprets it as
black, whereas F uses the gentilic noun Ethiopissa in both cases (The verse says
And
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he
had married; for he had married a Cushite woman). Regarding and , C
consistently interprets them as Jewish ', whereas F adjusts the names to the
Spanish equivalent of Ysraelita and Hebreo.
The variations are much greater among medieval translations. In fact, only four
tokens (5%) of gentilic nouns show resemblance among the translations. Three of
the tokens are the translation of as judio (like C and F), and one token is the
translation of el ebreo only in Gen. 14:13, but not in any other place. All
219
other tokens are diverse. The examples below show the same gentilic nouns presented
above in the Ladino translations, with three additional examples.31
: los emjn; los gayanes; los emonjm; los emim (Alba resembles C and F)
: el aramj; de aram; el aramj; el aramj; el aramj [de mesopotania]
: gujrjasi; guirgaseos; el gergasi; -l gargasy
: Judio (3) (all versions)
: de biamjn; benjaminista; benjamjnj; de benjamin
: los gigantes; los gigantes; los rrefaym; los raphaim
: emori, -l emory (4), el emory;// los emorreos (2), amorreos, emoreos,
los emoreos (2), el emoreo;// -l emori, el emori (3), el emorreo, los emorreos;//
el hemory;// los emoreos, -l emorri (2), el emory, el emori (2)
: -l hiuj (3);// los yne, yneos, los vneos;// el euj (2), el ebi;// el yuj;// el hiuj,
el hjuj (3)
: el hity (4);// yteos, los yteos (2), el yteo;// el ety (2), -l eti, el yteo;// el
hity (2);// hiti, el hity, los oteos, el hiteo
: -l yebui, yaybui, el abui (2);// los gebueos (3), gebuzeos;// -l eboi,
el eboi (3);// el ebui (2);// los jebuseos, -l gebusi, el yebui, el jebuci
,(): de ysrrael, ysrraelj, la yzraela;// de ysrrael, ysrraelita, la
ysrraelita;// ysrraelid (2), la ysrraelid;// de ysrrael, judia (2);// de Israel (2),
aquella judia
)) : cuxia;// etiopensa;// cusid (2);// estraja;// cusyth [ethiopiana], cusyth
: -l cananj (2), de canaan (2), el cananj (2);// los cananeos (4), de los
cananeos;// -l canaanj (2), de canaam (2), canaan, el cananj;// el cananeo (2);//
los cananeos (2), del chanaani (2), el cananeo (2)
: el parezi (3);// perizeos (2), los perizeos;// el perezi (2), l seresi;// el
faryseo (2);// el parisj (2), los phariseos
, , ,: el ebreo (2), la ebrea, los ebreos (2), hebreo,
judio, ebreo (3);// el ebreo (2), la ebrea, los ebreos (2), ebreo (5);// judio, el
ebreo, judia, los ebreos (2), ebreo (5);// el judio, la judia, los judios (2), judio
(5);// judio (6), el ebreo, judia, los judios (2), los ebreos
: -l qujnj; quineos; -l qujnj; los ineeos
31 The data is presented in the following order: E3, E4, E5/E7, E19 (if there are examples),
and Alba. The examples from each version are separated by a semi-colon followed by two
slashes. To avoid complications the exact citations of verses are not listed.
220
: -l qujnjzi; los quizeos; -l qujnjzi; los canjzeos

: amaleque; los enblaycos; el amalequjm; los amalechitas
In addition to the many variants within the medieval Bibles, there is diversity within
the same translation in different places. This diversity is atypical in the Ladino
translations.32 In many cases, the translation uses the plural form instead of the singular
(e.g., , ,, etc.). Sometimes the final m is replaced by n (e.g.,
here, and among the toponyms or , , at the end of
section (1)). Many gentilic nouns end in Spanish -eo to indicate the person, both in F
and in the medieval translations (e.g., see the translations of , , ,
,). But the most striking phenomenon is the remoteness of the medieval
translations from the biblical Hebrew nouns. This phenomenon is in contrast to F. In
F, we find the use of the Spanish formation with the -eo suffix; however, the basic
gentilic noun remains close to the Hebrew word (cf. for instance the translations of
, , , ,).
As shown above, the translation of the words and clearly distinguish
C from F: C translates it 'Jewish, while F translates the Spanish equivalent
Ysraelita and Hebreo, respectively. In the medieval Bibles, the two traditionsebreo
(mostly without h) and judioexist side by side in all the translations, except E4
that opts for ebreo, but the translation of )()shows many variations. The
translation of is also varied both in the Ladino (as shown above) and the
medieval Spanish translations, and it is partly based on Midrashic exegesis. Most
of the medieval translations do not repeat the word in the translation. E19 explains
as estraja strange, E3 copies it as cuxia (pronounced [kuia]), Alba and E5/
E7 adopt the Hebrew word with some variation, although in its first occurrence Alba
interprets it in parentheses as Ethiopian [ethiopiana] (which slightly resembles E4s
etiopensa, and Ferraras Ethiopissa).
The translation of 33,)12( represented as , , ,, and
, deserves special discussion. Here is its distribution:
C: , , ( )) '3), ',
(4),
,
F: -l Egypciano, la Egypiana, Egyptianos (2), a los egypianos, Egypto (3),
Egypciano (3)
32 The example of is exceptional in C.
33 In some versions there is no representation for all of the words occurrences.
221
E3: el egipiano (2), la egipiana, alos egipianos, egipiano (2), los egibianos,
los egipianos (4), egibiano
E4: el egipiano, -l egepiano, el egepiana(!), alos egepianos, egepiano (2),
egipto (2), los egepianos (2), egipiano
E5/E7: el egipiano (2), la egipiana, alos egipianos, egipiano (2), los
egipianos (2), egipto, los de egipto, egibiano
E19: el egibtano (2), a los egibtanos, egibtano (3), los egibtanos (2), los
egebianos
Alba: -l egipiano, el egipiano, la egipiana, para los egipianos, egipiano (3),
los egipianos (5)
C uses the Hebrew base eight times; four other times the Spanish equivalents
'or 'are used.34 As indicated above, , as a personal name
and as a toponym has always been copied as in C. F uses the Spanish equivalents
consistently, as is done in the toponyms (contrary to the representation of personal
names).
All the medieval translations use the Spanish name inconsistently. Next to egipiano
one finds mostly egibtano in E19. The use of b instead of p occurs rarely in the other
versions as well, cf. egipianoegibianos. Moreover, there is also variation in the
vowel, egepiano in E4, and egebianos in E19.
As noted in the Hebrew list of occurrences, I included the name among them,
and not only variations of
. Syntactic agreement is the reason for this choice,
because sometimes refers to the people, and not to the name of the country.
Here are the instances:
Gen. 45:2:
He wept loudly; the
Egyptians heard it and Pharaohs household heard about it.
Gen. 47:15:

When the money from the lands of Egypt
and Canaan was used up, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us
food! Why should we die before your very eyes because our money has run out?
Gen. 47:20:

34 The spelling with bet instead of pe in such circumstances is quite common in that era.
See Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald, Orthography and Pronunciation in Two Ladino Prayer
Books for Women (in Hebrew), Massorot 15 (2010), pp. 198-199.
222
So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for

Pharaoh. Each of the Egyptians sold his field, for the famine was severe. So the
land became Pharaohs.
Gen. 50:3:

They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. The
Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
Ex. 14:13: '

Moses said to
the people, Do not fear! Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will
provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever
see again.
In four of the 76 gentilic nouns there is similarity between the Ladino and the medieval
translations: in the translation of ( Alba excluded),35 and , in the two
occurrences of and shown above, and in the translation of
(E4
excluded),36 which transliterate the name. As in the case of personal names, feminine
gentilic nouns are rare: 6 tokens (8%)
Discussion
The data presented above prove that there is a hierarchy in the Ladino translations of
the names examined in this study. Personal names are the ones copied in the translation
in the highest rate followed by toponyms. Gentilic nouns are at the lowest end of the
scale where there are some variations among the translations. Medieval translations
show more variations in all the types of names.
Personal names are very arbitrary. Toponyms are related to certain locations
which are identified and interpreted in some ways in Spanish, therefore the variation
increases in them. Gentilic nouns are morphologically different from personal names
and toponyms. The Hebrew derivation with the suffix -i enables the equivalent
formations in Spanish with the -eo suffix in Ladino, hence many of the gentilic nouns
35 The word in Num. 24:24 is interpreted as a gentilic noun. In his translation only Alba
uses a gentilic noun: los ebreos, contrary to all the others that copy it: ever, eber, euer in
medieval translations, in C and Heber in F.
36 E4 translates it as arbadeos.
223
were derived in this way, and the basic name remained untouched as the translations
of or prove. The variations are greater where there is no basic name from
which the gentilic noun can be derived, as in or ( there is no *or )*.
Ferrara and Constantinople are distinct in the translations of , and
. The term is interpreted in C in its second occurrence in the verse as
black (),h37 although in its first occurrence the Hebrew name is used in the
translation. F uses the interpretation of Ethiopian like two of the medieval translations,
although the others copy an approximate version of the Hebrew name or interpret
as strange. and are consistently interpreted in C as '~'
Jewish, while F adopts as Ysraelita from Israel and as Hebreo from
Heber. As mentioned above, the medieval translations also show variation in these
nouns. The perception of and as Jewish was apparently common among
the Jews, but not among the Christians and the ex-Conversos to which F belongs,
hence the difference among them. In the translation of as a gentilic noun, there
is no difference between the translations, and they all render this term as Jewish.
Ferrara and Constantinople have similar translations in 208 examples of the 272
tokens examined in this study (76%; 150 of 174 types 86%), which is quite a high
percentage. In contrast, the medieval translations show a clear resemblance among
each other in 42 cases (15% of the 272 tokens), and a partial resemblance in 21 other
cases (8%). This total of 23% similarities is very low.
Ferrara shows more resemblance to the medieval Spanish Bible than Constantinople.
A comparison of F to E3, E4 and Alba, shows the following resemblance (of the 272
tokens sampled in this study):
F = E3: 106 tokens (38%)
F = E4: 84 tokens (31%)
F = Alba: 73 tokens (27%)
F clearly differs from E3, with more than 60% of the tokens. Namely, the difference is
greater than the resemblance, and this difference increases in the other translations.38
The comparison has not been made to C because the data showed more remoteness
than both because of the orthography and because of the other differences presented
37 Based on some traditional interpretations, e.g., RaDaQ.

38 E5/E7 was not included in the statistics, but it would have shown results similar to E4; E19
has not been calculated because many verses were lacking in the comparison.
224
above. These findings lead us to the following question: Is it possible that the preexilic medieval Spanish Bibles were the source for the post-exilic Ladino translations?
The study of the romanized Bibles and their affinity to the Ladino Bibles has
been investigated by several researchers.39 The assumption was that these medieval
translations from Escorial and Alba laid the foundation for the Ladino translations
published in the sixteenth century. The arguments raised were as follows: (a) these
Bibles were translated by Jews or with the help of Jews; (b) the translation was based
on the Hebrew Bible rather than the Vulgate or other Christian versions; (c) the order
of the books and the division of the Parashot follow the Hebrew Bible; (d) many
instances show that the translations are based on Aramaic and Jewish interpretations
found in the Bible. There were also arguments that although Christians initiated these
Bible translations, Jews also might have used them.40
39 See, for example, Lorenzo Amigo, El Pentateuco de Constantinopla y la Biblia Medieval

Romaneceada Judeo-espaola, Universidad Pontificia, Salamanca 1983; Andrs EnriqueArias, Texto subyacente hebreo e influencia latinizante en la traduccin de la Biblia de
Alba de Moiss Arragel, in Victoria Alsina, J. Brumme, C. Garriga & C. Sinner (eds.),
Traduccin y estandarizacin. La incidencia de la traduccin en la historia de los lenguajes
especializados, Iberoamericana Vervuert, Madrid/Frankfurt 2004, pp. 99-112; idem,
Apuntes para una caracterizacin de la morfosintaxis de los textos bblicos medievales en
castellano, in Johannes Kabatek (ed.), Sintaxis histrica del espaol y cambio lingstico:
Nuevas perspectivas desde las tradiciones discursivas, Iberoamericana Vervuert, Frankfurt/
Madrid 2008, pp. 109-125; Francisco Javier del Barco, La Biblia de Alba y la Biblia de
Ferrara en su contexto lingstico: la traduccin de las formas verbales, en Jos Jess de
Bustos Tovar & Jos Luis Girn (eds.), Actas del VI Congreso Internacional de Historia
de la Lengua Espaola, vol. 1, Alconchel Arco Libros, Madrid 2006, pp. 459-468; Hassn
y Berenguer, Biblia de Ferrara (Note 20); Margherita Morreale, La Biblia de Ferrara y el
Pentateuco de Constantinopla, Tesoro de los judos sefardes () , 5 (1962), pp.
85-91; idem, Las antiguas Biblias hebreas espaolas en el pasaje del Cntico de Moiss,
Sefarad 23 (1963), pp. 3-21. An extensive list of references can be found in http://www.
bibliamedieval.es/bibliografia.html (accessed 29.4.2011).
40 See Moshe Lazar, Targume hamiqra beladino [Bible Translations in Ladino from after the
Expulsion], Sefunot 8 (1964), pp. 337-375, especially p. 355; Moshe Lazar (ed.), Biblia
Ladinada: Escorial I.j.3, The Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Madison 1995, p. xiii;
Jos Llamas, La antigua Biblia castellana de los judos espaoles, Sefarad 4 (1944), pp.
219-244. Littlefield claimed the E19 was intended for Jewish readership, whereas E4 and E7
for Christians, and Alba and E3 were designated for both Jewish and Christian readers. See
Littlefield, Escorial Iii19 (Note 17), pp. viii-xiii.
225
Contrary to this assumption, a claim is made that the Jewish Bible translations are
based on an oral tradition that started in the Middle Ages,41 and they were only produced
in writing after the expulsion from Spain, in the two major Iberian Diasporas of the
Jews: the expelled Jews in the Ottoman Empire, and the ex-Converso communities in
Italy and Holland. In spite of the geographical distance and the different orthography,
the two Ladino translations closely resemble each other in their translation methods,
and they are extremely different from the translation methods used in medieval Spain.
The use of personal names also distinguishes the Ladino translations from the
medieval Spanish ones. The resemblance between C and F is much higher than between
the medieval Spanish ones, as shown above. This resemblance cannot be accidental,
and certainly cannot be attributed to any of the medieval translations. Therefore, the
claim that the Ladino Bibles are based on the medieval Spanish translations cannot be
supported.42 The resemblance of C and F is justifiable only by assuming a long-lasting
tradition of oral transmission of the Bible; this resemblance lasted until the onset of
print production in the sixteenth century and afterwards. If the Ladino translations
were based on the medieval written tradition extant among Christians, we would have
found much more variety in the translation of the words, in personal names, toponyms,
and gentilic nouns, because when copying such a long text, the translator would be
influenced by the texts in front of him, and he would be unable to change them in a
41 See Eliezer Gutwirth, Religin, historia y las biblias romanceadas, Revista Catalana
de Teologia 13 (1988), pp. 115-134; David M. Bunis, Tres formas de ladinar la biblia en
Italia en los siglos XVI-XVII, in Hassn and Berenguer (eds.). Introduccion a la Biblia de
Ferrara (note 20), pp. 315-345; David M. Bunis, Translating from the Head and from the
Heart: The Essentially Oral Nature of the Ladino Bible-Translation Tradition, in Winfried
Busse and Marie-Christine Varol-Bornes (eds.), Hommage Ham Vidal Sephiha. Peter
Lang, Berne 1996, pp. 337-357; Aldina Quintana, From the masters voice to the disciples
script: Genizah fragments of a Bible glossary in Ladino, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 6
(2008), pp. 187-235.
42 See Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald, On the Jewish Nature of Medieval Spanish Biblical
Translations: Linguistic Differences between Medieval and Post-Exilic Spanish
Translations of the Bible. Sefarad 70 (2010), pp, 117-140; Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald,
The Relationship between Ladino Liturgical Texts and Spanish Bibles, in Jonathan
Decter and Arturo Prats (eds.), Hebrew Literature, the Bible and the Andalusi Tradition
in the Fifteenth Century, Brill, Leiden and Boston 2012, pp. 223-243. Support for this
view can also be found in Lorenzo Amigo Espada, Una aproximacin al Pentateuco de
Constantinopla (1547), Estudios Bblicos 43 (1990), pp. 81111.
226
consistent fashion. The fact that most proper names, toponyms and gentilic nouns
retained their Hebrew pronunciation and that they show more consistency than in the
translations made before the expulsion, proves that it was a reliable oral tradition. The
translator of Ferrara was an ex-Converso. His translations demonstrate that although
he used the Latin alphabet, only sparingly did he follow the Christian usage.
Finally, the copying of the Hebrew names in the translation is one of the clearest
signs of the Jewish nature of the text. In Midrash Tehilim43 the text states:
, ,]" ' [
. , ,
) (,) () [] ( ,
, ,) / "/ [] (
."
R. Elazar Ha-Qapar says: For four reasons [Israel were redeemed from Egypt]:
they did not change their names, they did not change their language, they did
not reveal their secrets, and they did not engage in sexually immoral behavior.
And the most important [reason] is that they did not change their names, (from
Reuben) [one finds these are] the Reubeni families, (from imcon) [one finds
these are] the imconi families, because they went [into Egypt] as Reuben and
imcon and got out as Reuben and imcon.
Although there is a change in language in the translations, the principle of retaining
the Hebrew name was kept intact for personal names, toponyms, and gentilic nouns,
Even when there is morphological adjustment to Spanish, the original Hebrew name
is preserved as the stem, and thats what makes the texts Jewish, unlike the medieval
Spanish translations.
43 Midrash Tehilim, Bubers edition, chapter 114, The Responsa Project 18+, Bar-Ilan
University, Ramat Gan (2010).
227
Appendix: The verses from which the names were taken

Gen. 2:10, 13-14; 4:2, 12, 18; 9:18; 5:4, 9, 16, 21; 10:2, 4, 6-7, 9-19, 24; 11:31; 13:10;
14:2, 5-7, 13; 15:19-21; 20:1-2; 215:3, 9-10, 18, 20, 26; 39:2, 14; 10:1, 15; 41:12,
34, 45; 43:32; 45:2; 47:15, 20; 21:2
Ex. 2:11, 12; 3:8, 17; 14:13; 21:2
Lev. 24:10
Num. 12:1; 24:24
Deut. 15:12
Jer. 36:21, 23
Zech. 8:23
Esther 2:5; 3:4
228
Michel Studemind-Halvy
Obsessed with the Theater:

The Translator and Amateur Author Rafael Farin*
Michael Studemund-Halvy
The Institute for the History of the Jews in Germany, Hamburg
In the Ottoman Empire, Judezmo newspapers in the 1860s were already dominated
by novels and novellas, many of them creative adaptations of foreign material,
particularly French and Hebrew sources. As Olga Borovaya has shown, this new genre
of secular fiction involved the adaptation of an original work from another language,
entailing the translation of instructive texts without even mentioning the possibility of
producing original works. In all these literary contexts, language played a key role in
determining how Jews negotiated their identities in fiction.
All these so-called Judezmo translations or adaptations of various kinds, including
those that claim to be original works, borrowed lexical elements from the foreignlanguage texts and thus depended on them to varying degrees. These texts are
described by Olga Borovaya as rewriting literature and their authors as rewriters.1
A thorough study of the source language-texts and their translated, adapted, or
rewritten versions would help to show how translators or rewriters overcome the
linguistic problems and the social-cultural difficulties in practice. Unfortunately, no
systematic research has yet been carried out.2
*
1
Research for this study was made possible with generous support from the Fritz
Thyssen Stiftung.
Olga Borovaya, Modern Ladino Culture: Press, Belles Lettres, and Theater in the
Late Ottoman Empire, Indiana University, Bloomington 2012, p. 140; idem, Olga
V. Borovaya, The Serialized Novel as Rewriting: The Case of the Ladino Belles
Lettres, Jewish Social Studies 10 (2003), pp. 30-68.
For example, see Michael Studemund-Halvy and Galle Collin (eds.), La
Boz de Bulgaria. Bukyeto de tekstos en lingua sefardi. Livro de Lektura para
229
Obsessed with Theater
Judezmo Theater
Judezmo theater did not emerge until the second half of the nineteenth century as a socalled adopted genre, first as an expression of holiday celebrations, such as Passover,
Hanukkah, and Purim, and later as a medium of instruction that was performed in
schools or for literary or charitable associations. Three languages were employed
by most of the Jews in EuropeHebrew, Yiddish and Judezmoin addition to the
language of the host country.
The basic largely negative attitude toward theater diminished when Jewish life
was affected by the Jewish Enlightenment movement and the movement for Jewish
emancipation. Even if Judezmo theater always sought to provide entertainment, it
was meant to be a venue of moral education and enlightenment, a school open to
everybody.3 The idea of creating a Judezmo theater was appealing to the Westernizer
because it seemed to be a good means of teaching morality and religion. These plays
and sketches often appeared in periodicals, sometimes in serialized form, and quite of
a few of them were not even meant for staging.
Judezmo theater emerged as plays on Jewish life, written in Judezmo by named
authors or created by a member of the local Sephardic community, and staged by
a group of actors of the Sephardic community for a Sephardic audience, very often
for religious purposes, charitable propaganda, and fundraising. Sephardic dramatists
were rabbis, local literati, intellectuals, or publicists involved in Sephardic journalism
as publishers, editors, translators, or contributors to one or several newspapers.
When Sephardic literati were putting together a repertoire for the new theater,
they did not have any domestic texts to utilize. They had to import French theater
for material to borrow, such as works by Racine, Molire, Delphine de Girardin,
Scribe, Eugne Labiche, Octave Mirbeau, Henry Bataille, or Georges Courteline.
Other literati created original plays, turning to biblical stories and episodes of Jewish
history (stories about Queen Esther or Joseph and his brothers), and later, to the local
estudiantes, vol. 1: Teatro, Tirocinio, Barcelona 2014. See also Dov Cohen,
" :" , unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Bar-Ilan University,
Ramat Gan 2011; Galle Collin and Michael Studemund-Halvy, Entre dos Mundos,
Tirocinio, Barcelona 2007.
Olga Borovaya, New forms of Ladino cultural production in the late Ottoman period:
Sephardi theater as a tool of indoctrination, European Journal of Jewish Studies 2,
no. 1 (2008), pp. 65-87 [here: p. 67].
230
situation. Zionist authors favored dramatic and violent episodes where Jewish heroes and
heroines demonstrated their patriotism and dedication to Judaism by saving the land and
the people of Israel, for example, the stories about Jephthah, Debora, David and Goliath,
Queen Esther, the Binding of Isaac, Bar Kochba, and so on. In the early twentieth century,
the repertoire of Judezmo theater included more plays on Jewish life (return to the
ghetto), especially in Eastern and Central Europe and Palestine, mainly translated from
Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Dutch, and Russianmost of the latter via Hebrew. These
texts showed traditional Jewish life between nostalgia and modernization, allowing
Jews to reconnect with the past. The preferred Jewish authors were, along with Sholem
Aleichem, the Yiddish writers Shalom Asch (1880-1957) and An-ski (1863-1920), the
author of the Dibbuk, translated into many languages, including Judezmo.4
The languages of the theater performances were predominantly Hebrew, Judezmo,
and French. In Bulgaria, one key center for the Jewish theater was the city of Shumen,
whose most outstanding representative was the amateur stage director Rafael Farin.
Sephardic Theater in Shumen

The northeastern Bulgarian industrial and university town Shumen, earlier called
Shumla, and from 1950 to 1965 renamed Kolarovgrad in socialist Bulgaria, lies on the
eastern slopes of the Shumen Plateau, some 60 miles from the port city of Varna. The
town, bordering the southern Dobrudzha region, had a large Turkish population; in
1869 there were also approximately 400 Jews living there. In 1905 about 200 Jewish
families resided in Shumen, and in 1912 the Jewish population numbered 1,200,
declining to 842 in 1926. A clear majority of them, more than 80% according to the
latest census we have, spoke Judezmo as their mother tongue.5
The classic interpretation of the story of the Dibbuk, which inspired various artistic and
musical treatments, is a play by Shalom An-Ski (alias Zainwil Salomon Rappoport).
Der Dibbuk was translated, adapted, and published by Jacques Cappon (Entre 2
mundos or HaDybuk. Legenda dramatica en 4 actos, Sofia ca. 1930); see Collin
and Studemund-Halvy, Entre Dos Mundos (Note 2), p. 29, no. 47; see also Elena
Romero, Nueva bibliografa de ediciones de obras de teatro sefardes, Sefarad 66,
no. 1 (2006), pp. 183-218 [here: p. 207, no. 88].
Binyamin Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria The Shumla Community (Hebrew), Vaadah
Tsiburit, Tel Aviv 1968; Aksel Erbahar, Shumla (Shumen), in Norman A. Stillman
231
Probably unknown to most, the municipal library of Shumen possesses a small

number of Hebrew and Sephardic books, mostly grammar books, including some
unique or highly rare items, such as a book published in Judezmo and in Rashi
characters in 5684/1924: Traduksyon livro [!] de las poezias ebraikas de Rosh
haShana i Kipur traido ala estanpa por Yaakov Rafael Maestro shohet i hazan sheni
de la komunidad israelit-sefaradit de Shumla en Bulgarya.6
This book, printed by the well-known Estamparia Targovski, isat least according
to the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book7 and to Dov Cohenthe only known volume
in Rashi script published in Shumen. In addition, the municipal library has books
in Hebrew that were used especially in the Jewish schools. Almost all the Jewish
inhabitants of the city at the end of the nineteenth century were proficient in Judezmo,
Turkish, and Bulgarian, and in addition a number had a good knowledge of French.
In Shumen, a bitter battle over languages was also waged in the early 1870s.
According to an article published in 1870 in the Viennese periodical El Koreo de
Vyena, the traditionalists were vehemently opposed to the battle cry of the Alliance
Isralite Universelle Ondi ay frances, non ay fes (where French is learned, no fez
is worn), and when the school was dedicated, they demonstratively donned their fez
headcover and spoke in Judezmo.8
This enthusiasm for the theater, which was progressively integrated into everyday
Jewish life, also spread to the provincial town of Shumen, where the beginning of
Bulgarian theater is usually identified with two performances in 1856 in a coffee
house. Plays were also performed at the Bet Sefer, the elementary school of the
Alliance Isralite Universelle,9 founded in 1870, where Rabbi Baruch Mitrani, a
Hebrew reformer and noted precursor of Zionism, was active for a short time as a
6
7
8
(ed.), Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2010, vol. 4, p.
367.
Collin and Studemund-Halvy, Entre Dos Mundos (Note 2), p. 130, no. 129.
See www.hebrewbook.org
In the El Koreo de Vyena, in its January, February, March, and April issues, 1871,
a lengthy polemic ensued between Abraham Rosanes of Ruse and Matitayahu of
Shumen on the issue of change in education, El Koreo de Vyena, June 28 (Sivan
5630); see also Vicki Tamir, Bulgaria and Her Jews, Yeshiva University Press, New
York 1979, p. 136.
Today this beautiful school building has been converted into a home for the aged; see
Tamir, Bulgaria and Her Jews (Note 8), p. 108.
232
Hebrew teacher10 as was the teacher Eliezer Behor Yaakov (died 1933 in Sofia).
Probably before 1915, Yaakov staged the play Yaakov i sus ijos (Jacob and His
Children)11 together with his students at the school. He also translated the play Musiu
Gillom (Mister William) from French to Judezmo.12
According to Binyamin Arditti, a Revisionist Zionist,13 the Jews in Shumen were
obsessed with the theater in the true sense of the word.14 Almost all associations
and societies, with the exception of charitable organizations, felt obliged to include
theatrical presentations, with or without music, in their events. Aside fromsome early
mention of theatrical performances, the veritable heyday and flowering of the Jewish
theater in Shumen was in the 1920s, and is closely associated in particular with the
name of Rafael Farin. This period of flowering, however, was to last but a decade.15
Regarding Shumen, we have more or less certain knowledge of the following
theater performances:
1. Before 1915, Yaakov i sus ijos (Jacob and His Children), directed by Eliezer
Behor Yaakov.
2. In 1919, an amateur group enthusiastic about the theater performed Shalom
Aschs (1880-1957)16 stage play Im hagal (Mitn Strum, 1904), translated into
Bulgarian by Lazar Daniel.17
10 Michael Studemund-Halvy, Ivri, daber ivrit! Baruch Mitrani, un maskil turkosefard en Viena, in idem et al. (eds.), Sefarad an der Donau. Lengua y literatura
sefardis en tierras de los Habsburgo, Tirocinio, Barcelona 2013, pp. 175-202.
11 Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria (Note 5), p. 106.
12 Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria (Note 5), p. 106; Elena Romero, La creacin literaria en
lengua sefard, MAPFRE, Madrid 1992, p. 277.
13 Binyamin Arditti (1897-1982), born in Vienna, was an Israeli politician who served
as a member of the Knesset for erut and Gaal between 1955 and 1965. He also
published several books: The Role of King Boris in the Expulsion of Bulgarian Jewry
(1952), Bulgarian Jews under the Nazis (1962), Bulgarian Jewry the Shumla
Community (1968), and Famous Bulgarian Jews (1971).
14 Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria (Note 5), pp. 105-107.
15 See Elena Romero, El teatro de los sefardes orientales, 3 vols, CSIC, Madrid 1979,
vol. 2, p. 758, no. 360-361.
16 Shalom Asch, a celebrated writer in his own lifetime, wrote initially in Hebrew, but I. L.
Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. His works were never translated into Judezmo.
17 Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria (Note 5), p. 106-107; Romero, Teatro de los sefardes
orientales (Note 15), vol. 2, p. 758, no. 360-361.
233
3. In 1919, Yehuda Makabi was performed in Bulgarian by the theater troupe

Mikra, founded 1918.18
4. In 1920, there was a performance of La ija kazamentera, by the Hebrew poet
Abraham Razin (Abraham Rosen/Rosenzweig, 1889-1974), and performed by
the theater troupe Mikra.19
5. In 1925, Don Yosef de Castilla was staged in Judezmo by the Sosyedad Makabi.20
6. In 1926 in Shumen, Dreyfus, by Jak Loria (1860-1948), was performed in Judezmo.21
7. In 1926, Dreyfus, by Aharon Menahem, was staged and directed by Rafael Farin.22
8. In 1926, Don Isak Abravanel, by Aharon Menahem, was staged and likewise
directed by Rafael Farin.23
18 Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria (Note 5), p. 106; Romero, Teatro de los sefardes orientales
(Note 15), vol. 2, pp. 757-758, no. 359. The Bulgarian National Archive in Sofia
(Ladino Collection) possesses a copy of the theatrical play Yehuda Makabi,
trezladada del bulgar por Abraham Menahem in Solitreo Sephardic script.
19 Abraham Razin was an author of serialized novels; see also Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria
(Note 5), p. 106; Romero, Teatro de los sefardes orientales (Note 15), vol. 1, 299, no.
304; vol. 2, p. 761, no. 376.
(Note 15), vol. 1, p. 248, no. 202; vol. 2, p. 776, no. 442.
21 Dreyfus. Drama en sinko aktos i un apoteoz, Sofia 1902-1903; reprinted in
Studemund-Halvy and Collin, La Boz de Bulgaria (Note 2), pp. 38-89; Romero,
Teatro de los sefardes orientales (Note 15), p. 86, no. 137; p. 88, no. 144; 94, no.
160; Elena Romero, Repertorio de noticias sobre el mundo teatral de los sefardes
orientales, CSIC, Madrid 1983; Nitsa Dori, The Dreyfus Affair and Its Registration in
Ladino Literature (Hebrew), Bar-Ilan University 2000; see also Yosef Avraam Papo,
Dreyfus (MS), Archivo Histrico (Sofia). See also Nitsa Dori, The Dreyfus Affair
and Its Registration in Ladino Literature (Hebrew), Bar-Ilan University 2000.
(Note 15), vol. 1, p. 251, no. 213; vol. 2, p. 776, no. 443; Romero, Repertorio de noticias
(Note 21), pp. 50-51, no. 65; Romero, Nueva bibliografa de ediciones (Note 4), p. 193.
23 La Verdad (Ruse), c. 1900. Along with Aharon Menahem, Behor Azaria (1874-1911),
Jak Loria, and Sento Semo, who also wrote stage plays about the philospher of religion
and minister to the Catholic kings, Isaac Abravanel; see also Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria
(Note 5), p. 106; Romero, Teatro de los sefardes orientales, vol. 2, p. 777, no. 444;
Romero, Repertorio de noticias (Note 21), pp. 50-51, no. 65; Romero, Nueva
bibliografa de ediciones (Note 4), pp. 183-218 [here: p. 191, no. 24]; Bibliography
of the Hebrew Book (www.hebrew-bibliography.com).
234
9. In 1926, there was a performance of El Avaro by Molire in Bulgarian.24

10. In 1926, La suegra la kaza arevuelta, probably based on Anton Todorov
Strashimirovs (1872-1937) well-known satiric comedy Svekurva (Mother-inLaw) 25 and now considered one of the best comedies of morals in Bulgarian, was
staged in Judezmo and directed by Rafael Farin.26
11. In 1926, Sholem Aleichems play Desparsidos i Dispersados was put on in
Judezmo and directed by Rafael Farin.27
12. In 1927, Messhasheah hanaalayim,28 a stage play and musical translated from
French to Bulgarian by Isaac Hayim Shelomoh Eshkenazi (Ashkenazi) was
performed.29
24 Avare de Moliere, pp.1-15 (Archivo Histrico, Sofia); Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria (Note
5), p. 106; Romero, Teatro de los sefardes orientales (Note 15), vol. 1, pp. 165-175,
no. 27; vol. 2, p. 777, no. 445. See also El hazino imajinado. Komedia en tres aktos de
Molyer, trezladado de el fransez por Sh. Ataf, Sofia 1903.
25 Anton Todorov Strashimirov (1872-1937), founder of the dramatic literature in
Bulgaria, published his first poems in the journal Iskra (The Spark) in Shumen;
the start of his active creativity was linked with the theater in Shumen and Varna.
He published in Bulgarian the novel The Salonica Terrorists (see Jacques Eskenazi
and Alfred Krispin, Jews in the Bulgarian Hinterland: an annotated bibliography,
Sofia 2002, no. 1520) and the preface to the poems of Youliy Rosenthall, Sofia 1904
(Eskenasi and Krispin, Jews in the Bulgarian Hinterland, no. 1893). He published his
satiric comedy Svekurva in 1906. Violeta Menahem Levi-Samardzhieva remembered
a presentation in Dupnitse, 1921, apud Kristina Tosheva, El teatro y los judios en
Bulgaria: Con esbozo historico, Annual / Godishnik 26 (1991), pp. 244-257 [here: p.
250]; see also M. A. Nikolov, Anton Strashimirov, Sofia 1965.
26 Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria (Note 5), p. 106-107; Romero, Teatro de los sefardes
orientales, vol. 1, p. 427, no. 631; vol. 2, p. 777, no. 446.
27 Desparcidos i dispersados. Espektakulo en tres aktos, El Djudyo (Varna), 15, (1925)-16
(1926); reprinted in Studemund-Halvy and Collin, La Boz de Bulgaria (Note 2), pp.
147-183; Romero, Nueva bibliografa de ediciones (Note 4), pp. 183-218 [here: p.
204, no. 73. However, Farin translated the play from German, as is clearly evident from
a comparison of the Yiddish with the German version and from the manuscript version.
29 Romero, Teatro de los sefardes orientales (Note 15), vol. 2, p. 778, no. 449; Arditti,
Jews of Bulgaria (Note 5), p. 107. There is very little information on the use of music
in Sephardic theater, and even less is known about the staging of Sephardic plays.
235
13. In 1927, Mojeret hagafrurim (Seller of Matchboxes), a stage play and musical
operetta translated from French to Bulgarian by Isaac Hayim Shelomoh Eshkenazi
(Ashkenazi) was put on.30
14. In 1929, there was another performance of Don Izhak Abravanel.31
This naturally incomplete list is based principally on the studies by Binyamin Arditti,
Elena Romero, and Kristina Tosheva. If we supplement this list of the Sephardic theater
from Bulgaria by the Judezmo books published in Bulgaria, and if we then complete
this tableau by our still insufficient knowledge of Sephardic literature from Vienna,
Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Serbia, we can readily see that the number of translations
from Yiddish and German into Judezmo is far greater than what numerous researchers
have previously assumed and that many translations were via detour, so to speak, of a
German version then translated into Judezmo.
Brothers in Spirit: Sholem Aleichem and Rafael Farin

As a passionate lover of the theater, according to the memoirs of his friend Binyamin
(Buko) Arditti, the pharmacist, journalist and translator Rafael Farin, who was born
in Shumen in 1889 and died in 1951 in Lod, was greatly enamored of the writings
of Sholem Aleichem, still popular today in Bulgaria, because like Sholem Aleichem,
Rafael loved life and surrendered himself to it.32 Farin shared this love with the
Sephardic public, which between 1919 and 1931 repeatedly asked for stage plays and
dramatic sketches by Sholem Aleichem. At least four of his works were translated
into Judezmo during those years, simultaneously with the translation of a far larger
number of Sholem Aleichems works into Bulgarian.33
Based on the unfortunately inaccurate data given by Binyamin Arditti, Rafael Farin
presumably translated three books by Sholem Aleichem into Bulgarian between 1918
(Note 15), vol. 2, p. 785, no. 484; Romero, Nueva bibliografa de ediciones (Note 4),
p. 191, no. 24.
33 Rosa Brantz, Sholom Aleichem in Bulgaria, Godishnik/Annual 22 (1987), 223-236.
236
and 1928.34 In 1925-26, the journal HaShofar published a Bulgarian translation of

Menaem Mendel without, however, mentioning the name of the translator.35 Rafael
Farin is also believed, at least in the view of the Bulgarian local historian Niko Mayerov
from Shumen, to have translated a further classic text by Sholem Aleichem, Tevje the
Milkman,36 but likewise we have not been able to locate a copy of this translation.37 In
addition, he is supposed to have translated sections of Don Quichote into Judezmo.38
In his short bibliography on the Judezmo theater, Abraham Yaari mentions three
works by Sholem Aleichem:39
(1) Desparcidos i Dispersados. Spektakulo en tres aktos, trezladado del alman por R.
Farin.
(2) Mazal bueno. Para mazal bueno. Komedia en 1 akto. Trezladado del ebreo por
Abraham Matarasso.
(3) Para mazal bueno (Komedia en un akto) i syertas notas sovre Sholem Alehem
rekojidas por [Izhak David Florentin], Saloniko 1931.
Rosa Snchez lists three or four works by Sholem Aleichem, including Desparcidos
y dispersados; El mdico/A Doktor; Mazal Tov/Enhorabuena/Para mazal bueno.40
34 Arditti, Jews of Bulgaria (Note 5), p. 105.
35 HaShofar 17 (1925), no. 11, pp. 5-8 (14.12.1925); no. 12, (1925), pp. 4-9 (25.12.1925);
no. 14 (1926), pp, 4-12 (15.1.1926); no. 16 (1926), pp. 5-8 (29.1.1926), no. 18 (1926),
pp. 4-9 (12.2.1926).
36 Niko Mayerov, Evreijskata mahala v moite spomeni, [s.n.], Shumen 2011, p. 28.
37 According to the handwritten catalogue deposited in Yad Vashem of the collection
of books of Binjamin Arditti, there is only one book by Rafael Farin in his library,
namely Menahem Mendel; see Galle Collin and Michael Studemund-Halvy, Le
fonds judo-espsagnol bulgare de la Bibliothque de Yad Vashem (Jerusalem): le
fonds Binjamin Arditti, Miscelnea de estudios rabes y hebraicos/Seccin de
Hebreo 56 (2007), pp. 163-179.
38 Mayerov, Evreijskata (Note 36), p. 28. Nissim Farhi, a pharmacist living in Shumen,
still recalls Farin and his passion for the theater very well, as well as his translations
for the theater, including also parts of Don Quichote, as he told me in a conversation
in Shumen in 2011.
39 Abraham Yaari, On the History of Israeli Drama: Dramas in Ladino (Hebrew),
Bamah 3, no. 21-23 (1934), pp. 11-14.
40 Rosa Snchez, Para mazal bueno: la comedia Mazal tob de Shlem Aljem en
judeoepaol, ARBA 16 (2005), pp. 125-132; idem, Dos versions judeoespaoles
237
Finally, the magnificent Bibliography of the Hebrew Book lists four of his works in
Judezmo translation:
1. Para Mazal Bueno/Mazal Tov, in: El Makabeo (Salonica, 1919), trezladado del
ebreo por Abraham Matarasso.
2. Mi kapo de anyo: Broshura muy divertyente, kontenyendo la [...] pyesa [...]
El Mediko, del grande eskribano [...] Sholem Alehem, konsejos a las mujeres,
maksimas i proverbyos, Saloniko, c. 1920, in: El Djudyo (1920).
3. Desparcidos i Dispersados, Spektakolo en tres aktos, trezladado del alman por R.
Farin, in: El Djudyo (1925-1926).
4. Para mazal bueno i syertas notas sovre Sholem Alechem. Rekojidas por I[zhak]
F[lorentin], Saloniki (1931).
Rafael Farin, who in Shumen not only directed Jewish stage plays for a Jewish
theater-going public and also adapted numerous plays for the stage, shared his lifelong
enthusiasm for Sholem Aleichem with translators and authors such as the journalists
Abraham Matarasso and Isaak David Florentin, who translated plays by Sholem
Aleichem into Judezmo.
It is thus not surprising that the first book publication of Farin we know of, which
appeared in Shumen in 1925, was the first book in the series (probably founded by
him) entitled Jewish Humorous Library, namely the epistolary novel Menahem
Mendel by his favorite writer Sholem Aleichem.41 It was published by the Jewish
youth organization Mikra Makabi and printed by the well-known printer Spas Popov.42
According to the title page, this is a translation from German, a language that Rafael
Farin, linguistically gifted, knew well, since he had learned German while studying
for two years at the Leipzig College of Management (Handelshochschule). Later he
also taught German at the commercial school in Shumen.
de la comedia Mazal Tob de Shlem Alijem, M.A. thesis, M.A. thesis, University
of Basle 2005; idem, Difusin y recepcin de obras teatrales de Shlem Aljem en
mbitos sefardes, Theatralia 7 (2006), pp. 175-185.
41 Menahem Mendel, translated from the German Language, R. Farin, Mikra Makabi,
Shumen 1925.
42 Brantz, Sholom Aleichem (Note 33), p. 228. On the bibliography of the works of
Sholem Aleichem in Bulgarian, see Hristo Yordanov, Shalom Aleichems Books
Translated and Distributed in Bulgaria, Godishnik/Annual 22 (1987), pp. 236-238
[here: p. 235].
238
Farins second book in Bulgarian is likewise a translation of the collection of

novellas by Sholem Aleichem published in Berlin in 1925, entitled Di Ershte Yidishe
Republik, which Farin brought out in Shumen in 1927 in Bulgarian as Parvata Evreiska
Republika/Spored Istinskoto odisanie/na edin Otcheviden/Prevel: R. Farin/Knigata i
skladiran i prevodatcha be Shumen 1927 (The First Jewish Republic. An Authentic
Description of a Witness).43 Along with these two works in Bulgarian, Farin may
well have translated a third by Sholem Aleichem, which appeared in the periodical
HaShofar without mention of the translators name.44 The first two translations can be
found today in the Shumen municipal library.
In 1924, Farin translated one of the most popular Yiddish plays by Sholem
Aleichem, Tsezeyt un tseshpreyt (Scattered Far and Wide), which appeared in Varna
1925/26 in the periodical El Djudyo entitled, Desparsidos i Dispersados, spektakulo
en tres actos, trezladado del alman.45
This Dramatic Play in Three Acts deals with a family that is falling apart, in
which all of the dramatis personae espouse and represent an idea according to which
they organize their life: the daughter Hanna represents a life of study and education;
the son Haim is a Zionist, another son is a Social Democrat. The mother Malke is
pious but too weak to stand her ground against her children, and to some extent does
not take what they say seriously (Se yo lo que los crios van dahtaniando?).46 Central
here is the married couple Schalant, who see themselves, forced by the catastrophes
that occur (their eldest daughter Flora elopes, their son is arrested, their daughter
Hanas engagement is dissolved), to finally come to terms and deal with their children.
When at the end of the play the husband asks his wife about their children, she answers
43 Brantz, Sholom Aleichem (Note 33), p. 228.

44 HaShofar 17 (1925), 11, pp. 5-8 (14.12.1925); 12 (1925), pp. 4-9 (25.12.1925);
14 (1926), pp. 4-12 (15.1.1926); 16 (1926), pp. 5-8 (29.1.1926); 18 (1926) pp. 4-9
(12.2.1926).
45 Written in 1903, it describes the conflict of generations and was performed many
times on stage with great success El Djudyo, 15, 1925, [1], 16.10, 38, pp. 3-4; [2] 39,
23.10, pp. 3-4; [3] 40, 30.11, pp. 3-4; [4] 6.11, 41, pp. 3-4; [5] 13.11, 42, pp. 3-4; [6]
20.11, 43, pp. 3-4; [7] 27.11, 44, pp. 3-4; [8] 4.12, 45, pp. 3-4; [9] 11.12, 46, pp. 3-4;
[10] 47, 18.12, pp. 3-4; [11] 25.12, 48, pp. 3-4; 16, 1926, [12], 1.1,1, pp. 3-4; [13] 2, 8,
reprinted in Studemund-Halvy and Collin, La Boz de Bulgaria (Note 2); see Romero,
Teatro de los sefardes orientales (Note 15), p. 227.
46 Studemund-Halvy and Collin, La Boz de Bulgaria (Note 2), p. 151,
239
him: scattered and dispersed over all the seven seas (desparcidos y dispersados por
todas las ciete partes del mundo).47 An analysis both of the manuscript and the printed
version shows that Rafael Farin stuck very close to the German translation of the
Yiddish original and that he had a masterful touch in rendering Sholem Aleichems
linguistic virtuosity in Judezmo translation.
The only theatrical play we know of authored by Farin is the comedy El Amor
victorioso, of which there is only a typed manuscript version extant.48 This witty play
is animated by the spirit of Sholem Aleichem, and in its language it resembles that of
the characters in Farins translated work Desparisidos i Disperados. The play is full of
Turkish expressions, which is not surprising: despite the language reforms, there are
thousands of Turkish and Balkan Turkish words in Bulgarian, and more than half of
the inhabitants of Shumen were ethnic Turks; Farin himself had a good knowledge of
Turkish. Along with Turkish and Hebrew words, there are a number of Gallicisms and
Italian words, as well as lexemes from Bulgarian and German. We do not know as yet
whether this captivating comedy, playful with metalinguistic registers, which is set in
a contemporary small provincial town (se passa en noestros dias en una sivdad de
provincia),49 was written by Rafael Farin himself or is one of his many unpublished
translations. But since Farin, as a rule, notes if a work is translated, and in this case has
not included such a note, we assume that he is the author of this play.
As a poet, translator, or journalist, Rafael Farin used the nom de plume Nirlafar
or Niraf Leafar (anagrams of the authors name), and as journalist the pseudonym
Alkolombrie Meshofistra and Nirlafar, under which he published witty satirical
pismos (letters) in the leading Bulgarian Zionist weekly Razvet (Sofia) and in the
Judezmo-Bulgarian weekly haShofar (Plovdiv).50 Despite considerable effort, I have
47 Studemund-Halvy and Collin, La Boz de Bulgaria (Note 2), p. 183. This is similar to
the Yiddish expression on which the title of the play is based, Tsezeyt un tseshpreyt
oyf ale shive yamim; see Benjamin Harshav, The Meaning of Yiddish, University of
California Press, Berkeley, CA 1990, p. 37.
48 Studemund-Halvy and Collin, La Boz de Bulgaria (Note 2), pp. 117-146.
49 Studemund-Halvy and Collin, La Boz de Bulgaria (Note 2), p. 157.
50 On Jewish journalism in Bulgaria, see Gad Nassi (ed.), Jewish Journalism and
Printing Houses in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Isis Press, Istanbul 2001;
Salvator Israel, Evreiski periodichen pechat na ladino i ivrit v Balgarija, Annual/
Godishnik 1 (1967), pp. 139-167.
240
to date been able to find only two solitary example of these letters. But he was not only
a gifted writer, but also a fervent supporter of Revisionist Zionism and an admirer of
the Revisionist Zionist leader, author, and orator Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940). It
is not surprising that Farin ran as a candidate in Shumen for the Revisionist Zionists
(without success).
The work of Sholem Aleichem in Judezmo

Sholem Aleichem (alias of Shalom Yaakov Rabinovich), who was born in 1850 in
Pereyaslav (a village 95 km south of Kiev in Ukraine), and died in 1916 in New
York, is considered alongside Mendele Moicher Sforim and Yizchak Leib Peretz
(also known as Yitskhok Leybush Peretz) one of the most important classic author
of Yiddish literature. Translated into many languages, he enjoyed great popularity
especially with German, American,51 and Bulgarian readers.52 Among them, Rafael
Farin was one of his most keen and enthusiastic readers, who not only translated
Sholem Aleichems works into Bulgarian and Judezmo, but also wrote as an author
in the spirit of Sholem Aleichem.53
For Farin, the polyglot and linguistically witty amateur writer from Shumen,
Aleichems subtle and complex mix of languages from earthy Yiddish, combined
with German, Hebrew, and Slavic elements, represented a huge linguistic challenge.
After all, in the grotesque picture gallery of Jewish characters he created, each one
of the dramatis personae is assigned the role of a bearer of a social-political idea and
a distinctive and unmistakable language, giving rise to the most ludicrous kinds of
51 Louis Friedhandler, Index to the Yiddish Work of Sholem Aleichem and Their English
Translations, New York 1907.
52 The first translations of Sholem Aleichem in Bulgarian appeared at the beginning
of the twentieth century, when in 1910 the newspaper Vesti published a few stories
translated from German into Bulgarian. According to Hristo Yordanov, more than 17
of his stories and books were published between 1918 and 1985 in Bulgaria. See
Yordanov, Shalom Aleichems Books (Note 42), pp. 236-238.
53 It should be noted that the first Bulgarian translations of Sholem Aleichem were from
German, not from Yiddish or Russian, see Brantz, Sholom Aleichem (Note 33),
p. 225.
241
confusions. Provincial bon vivants and loudmouthed parvenus alternate with religious
Jews and worldly Zionists, small-town belles in their frippery, and ironically resigned
married women, traditionalists and modernists. In addition, there appear jealous old
fools and dubious merchants, cheeky domestics, sleazy marriage brokers of both
sexes, fathers and mothers crazy to get their daughters engaged, and daughters fanatic
to be wed.
The translator Rafael Farin characterizes and caricatures his dramatis personae
with a special linguistic wit, giving each one of them a distinctive linguistic repertoire.
Farin succeeds in weaving together different registers that he correlates with different
social characteristics and linguistic surfaces, including social factors such as age,
gender, occupation, origin, and the like. This creates a sort of theatrical heteroglossia in
which multiple languages, dialects, or registers are used for the traditional motives of
verisimilitude or humor.54 Farin was successful in this not only due to his exceptional
command of Judezmo but also by his skillful employment of non-Spanish (often rare)
words from Hebrew, Turkish, Romanian,55 German, French, and Italian.
Rafael Farin also introduces several proverbs (riflanes) in these comedies, which
can all be found in the Bulgarian proverb collections known to us:
coando vas mesclando las colis con las letchougas
el consejo di la moujer es poco i el que no lo toma es loco
el loco gasta el savio se lo come
el que ijas tien con perros cosfoegra
ijo mio si tomas haver assouvi escalon, si tomas moujer abacha escalon
la manzana mo caye lejos del arbol
segun el padre ansi y los crios
vestido la trenta i ouna alfoneti
Rafael Farin invested and lost much money in his passion for the theater, and he
managed to finance this as a druggist by the sale of salves, albeit meagerly, paying the
54 See also Beatrice Schmid et al., Zwischen Tradition und Moderne: Eine corpusgesttzte
Untersuchung zur Sprache der sdosteuropischen Sepharden (1880-1930), <http://
pages.unibas.ch/sefaradi/tradmod/index-de.html
55 The Farin family maintained close family and personal ties to Romania; see the
memoirs of Karolina Farhi (Memoirs, MS).
242
printers with its proceeds.56 His family supported him, at least morally, and in any case
was proud of him. In her memoirs (in Bulgarian), his sister Karolina wrote:
My brother Buko (Rafael) was very well-read and gifted musically. He was also
very smart. My father often asked him for advice, and he wrote some satires that
we preserved in the family. He played the guitar and mandolin. We often sat on the
stairs, he played and we sang. He had a beautiful voice, loved to tell jokes (MS).57
If that is all that is extant of his work, the question arises as to what happened with
his posthumous papers, especially the manuscripts that his sister Karolina mentions in
her memoirs. At the moment, we can only answer this question with some hesitation.
But in our search for Judezmo books, periodicals, and manuscripts in Bulgaria, during
numerous trips to the country, we have located more than two dozen manuscripts of
stage plays, all unknown, most in Solitreo script, and a small number in Rashi and
Latin script. A publication of these texts would substantially expand our knowledge
of Judezmo literature, not just in Bulgaria.

57 Karolina Farhi, Memoirs, MS.
243
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Damta LeTamar

Studies in Honor of Tamar Alexander

Eliezer Papo, Haim Weiss, Yaakov Bentolila, Yuval Harari

Moshe David Gaon Center

Naime & Yehoshua Salti Center

The Research Institute

The National Authority for Ladino

Published with the support of

Editorial Coordinator: Maayan Mangoni

Ora (Rodrigue) Shwarzwald

List of Participants (Part III)

Cmo se trokan los proverbios

Cmo se trokan los proverbios

El repetido uso de refranes en boca de individuos diversos resulta en actuaciones

De que par, bocado geno3 no com

Esas variaciones personalizadas se distinguen por aadiduras; disminuciones; fraseos

Casamiento y mortaja del cielo baja

Denominamos mensaje a la significacin ideal, o metafrica, del refrn, mientras que

Cmo se trokan los proverbios

No obstante, (6a) puede ser un ejemplo de disminucin; la rima ha sido siempre un

Una versin que corrobora a (b) se encuentra en (c):16

Si negra fue la culpa, ms negra es la disculpa

Cmo se trokan los proverbios

Caar, caar19 que la landra20 viene21

Quien madruga el Di le ayuda

El que roba a un ladrn, tiene cien aos de perdn

Cmo se trokan los proverbios

Cmo se trokan los proverbios

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb and Saying:

1. Terminology for Jewish folklore genres

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

Tendlau authored Sprichwrter und Redensarten deutsch-jdischer Vorzeit, Heinrich

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

The Hispanists essentially ignored those components of Ottoman Judezmo folklore

9 Joseph Nehama, Dictionnaire du judo-espagnol. CSIC, Madrid 1977, pp. 266-267.

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

Another such scholar is Tamar Alexander-Frizer. Whether documenting and

2. Native qualifications of the Judezmo proverb and proverbial saying

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

27 Abraham Galante, El Meseret 8, no. 20 (Izmir 1904), p. 4.

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

29 Mesajero 5, no. 1557 (Salonika 1940).

31 Matilda Koen-Sarano. El reflan djudeo-espanyol: Espejo de las komunitas sefaradis, Aki

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

3. External (scientific or scholarly) terminology

33 Haim [Moshe] Bidjarano, Judos espaoles de Oriente, Boletn de la Institucin Libre de

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

4. Internal (native, folk, or popular) terminology

unlike the everyday Judezmo speakers of more humble origins in contemporaneous

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

of the ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empireincluding its Jewsthe folklore

to explain it (El Djugetn 1 [Istanbul 1909], p. 313). Eyos se ulvidan del

57 Cf. Tk. eytann ayan krmak (literally, to break Satans foot).

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

58 Cf. Proverbs 3:28.

On Judezmo Terms for the Proverb

Lo toman por mash el refrn ke dize La linpyeza es medya rikeza They