Despite all of these wonderful resources, there is no easily available archive for English speakers which gathers the gems of this priceless treasure of Sephardic song, collected so diligently for close to forty years by Dr. Susana Weich-Shahak, to a single place where one can access the original informant recordings along with lyrics, translations into English and commentary pertaining to the congregation, function and history of each song. This website is an ongoing process. All of the the uploaded songs are cross referenced, but not all have lyrics, translations and commentary at this point. I intend to have all of the information uploaded as well as uploading many more of Susana Weich-Shahsk’s ethnographic recordings. I would be grateful for any volunteers who can upload texts, translations and commentary, all can be sent to me through the email below. At this point I would like to thank Dr. Rivka Havassy for her time and knowledge.

As a singer who has worked alongside Dr. Susana Weich-Shahak for many years, I feel that it is my calling to help other singers and researchers access the wealth of her work. Within this site, all of Dr. Weich-Shahak’s books, published cds and youtube interviews are documented and linked if possible, but the main focus is the songs themselves, which are cross referenced by congregation and their function in the life cycle from birth to death or by yearly cycle of Jewish holidays.

Central to these recordings are the generosity of the many informants which gave of their voices and memories which Dr. Susana Weich-Shahak so diligently recorded and researched over the years, resulting in a monumental body of work. I hope that this site will do justice to at least a fair amount of the repertoire and that it will assist performers, researchers and lovers of Sephardic song to continue to renew, understand and recreate these songs which reflect the rich cultural and musical traditions of Sephardic song.

The transliteration of the lyrics and song titles primarily follows the Spanish orthographic style used in Susanna Weich-Shahak’s publications. However, as transliteration conventions have evolved over the years, some songs appear in a phonetic or hybrid phonetic style. Songs from Northern Morocco, as is customary, are consistently transcribed using the Spanish transliteration method. I apologize for any discrepancies.

This project is a labor of love, built independently without formal financial backing. Countless hours go into creating and maintaining this website, along with expenses like programming and web hosting. If you find value in this work and enjoy what it offers, please consider making a donation of any amount to help keep it running. Your support makes all the difference!

Orit Perlman