For Turkey's youngest Jews, ancestral tongue fading away

Nazlan Ertan

 

For the young generation of Sephardic Jews in Turkey, their ancestral tongue, Ladino, is just a few words for Grandma's cuisine, a line or two from old songs and some snappy insults.

UNESCO considers Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo, a severely endangered language. In Turkey, it is spoken by only about 10,000 people, mostly around Istanbul and Izmir. Other Ladino-speaking communities in Greece and North Africa have also diminished, according to the Unesco Atlas. Israel has declared Ladino endangered as well, and has established a National Authority for the Ladino language and culture.

We Are All Oxymorons!

Ayda Erbal

(Author’s note: There are a number of issues -particularly the segment re: Stockholm Syndrome that I changed my mind later. I think the entire situation of Istanbul Armenians can be better explained by political expediency -itself a result of a survival strategy, rather than a generally inflicted syndrome. It does not mean the psychological does not have any effect, it only means that the effect of the political is much more overarching and meaningful. This claim obviously requires a much more substantiated longitudinal comparative analysis that goes well beyond this short introductory attempt.)