Kontar i Kantar: The 6th Annual New York Ladino Day

The American Sephardi Federation, the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, the Sephardic Foundation on Aging, and Shearith Israel League Foundation proudly present:

Kontar i Kantar: The 6th Annual New York Ladino Day

In-Person! 2:00 PM EST on Sunday, 29 January 2023

Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, Manhattan

Also on Zoom

Curated by Jane Mushabac and Bryan Kirschen

Featuring:

• Tony- and Grammy-nominated Broadway star Shoshana Bean
• A conversation with Michael Frank, author of One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World
• Judith Cohen, Sing Me a Story, on Sephardic Romansas
• Musical Finale, Susana Behar and guitarist Michel Gonzalez

Ladino is a bridge to many cultures. A variety of Spanish, it has absorbed words from Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, French, Greek, and Portuguese. The mother tongue of Jews in the Ottoman Empire for 500 years, Ladino became the home language of Sephardim worldwide. While the number of Ladino speakers has sharply declined, distinguished Ladino Day programs like ours celebrate a vibrant language and heritage. These programs are, as Aviya Kushner has written in the Forward, “Why Ladino Will Rise Again.”

Since 2013, these programs have been held around the world to honor Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish. January 29th marks New York’s 6th Annual Ladino Day hosted by the American Sephardi Federation.

© Rhodes, mid-19th century Sephardi & Romaniot Jewish Costumes in Greece & Turkey. 16 watercolours by Nicholas Stavroulakis published by the Association of the Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece, Athens, 1986.

Sponsorship opportunities available: info@americansephardi.org