Sephardi Jewry and the Rise and Fall of Ladino with Aron Rodrigue

Ladino was the vernacular Jewish language of the Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire, emerging after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. Initially closely tied to translations from Hebrew in print form, it eventually became used in the production of original religious works in the eighteenth century, and of secular publications in the nineteenth century. By the turn of the twentieth century, Ladino newspapers and works of literature were significant expressions of a rich Ladino culture that formed the core identity of the Ottoman Sephardim. The end of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of new nation-states, and the Holocaust did not prove kind to the language, which is now struggling to survive. Professor Rodrigue will provide an incisive overview of this history.