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Sephardic songs accompanied life from beginning to end—love and courtship, pregnancy, childbirth, weddings, and mourning. They also marked the yearly cycle with songs rooted in Jewish traditions and historical events.
Ladino, originating from 15th-century  Spanish, was the language of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. As they dispersed across the Mediterranean, Ladino song absorbed local linguistic and musical influences.
There are two main dialects:
Ladino (Español) – Spoken in Turkey, Greece, Sarajevo, Bulgaria, Rhodes, and beyond.
Haketia – The dialect of northern Morocco.

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Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y 3994/6 Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Marruecos, pg. 224, Editorial Alpuerto, Pardes Publishing House, 2018 Susana Weich-Shahak. Text: A cazar iba el caballero, a cazar como solía,...
From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. This song in the rhythm of a habanera, presents a coquetish and flirtatious woman who comments on her suitors young and old. This version was partially based on a...
From Arboleras vol. 3, Sephardic songs from the 20th century, 2000 This song in the rhythm of a habanera, presents a coquetish and flirtatious woman who comments on her suitors young and old. This version...
From Arboleras vol. 1 - Sephardic cancionero and coplas oral tradition,1996 This Copla speaks to the discovery of Abraham of the one God. This is a partial version learned through the recording of Hanna Malaj.
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Yc 930/26 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 291, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. A mourning song sung when a young girl meets her death.
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y 2774/18 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 172, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. This is nocturnal love song of tenderness and stealth, where the young...
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 This is nocturnal duet is a love song of tenderness and stealth, where the young lover pleads to be let in before dawn, while the girl...
From Arboleras - De las altas mares, Ecos Sefardies de la isle de Rodas, cd 1, 2009 The text of this well known lyrical song consists of a dialogue in which the bride heaps difficulties...
From Arboleras Vol. 2 - Romances Sefardies Tradicion Oral This title of this Romance "The Poisoner", may imply that the lover died from passion and not from poison. This version was learnt from a recording...
From Arboleras - De las altas mares, Ecos Sefardies de la isle de Rodas, cd 2, 2009 A common fate for young men who in the beginning of the 20th century, set out in search...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: YCD2980/36 In the children’s repertoire there are rhymes that are used as invocations, spells and prayers, blessings and sayings. Among them is this invocation for rain, which Jewish children used...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: NSA Y5479/3 Referenced and notated in: Romansero Sefardi de Oriente, pg. 83 Editorial Alpuerto S.A. 2010 Susana Weich-Shahak This is one of the themes about captives and prisoners typical of...
Placement in the Jerusalem National Sound Archives: Y2093/4b This is a Copla-Romance, depicting the story from Exodus when Moshe goes to Pharaoh's palace to demand that he release the people of Israel, is sung on...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y2091/8. Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 228, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. This wedding cantiga is a dialogue between the bride and those calling her...