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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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From Decile a mi Amor, Judeo-Spanish songs from Tetuan, 2018. This is a courting waltz of Nesim and Jolita who is on the swing, borrowed from the French song Frou-frou, composed in 1889.
From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. This is a fragment of a Romance La princesa y el bozagi - The Princess and the House Painter, a story depicting the many unreasonable demands a spoiled bride...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y4552/13 Referenced and notated in: Judeo-Spanish Moroccan Songs for the Life Cycle, pg. 57, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1989 Susana Weich-Shahak. This song refers to fertility, it tells about ...
This song, as many other North Moroccan wedding songs, is often sung consecutively with other songs in a continual rhythm accompanied by a single castanet.
From Decile a mi Amor, Judeo-Spanish songs from Tetuan, 2018. Two wedding songs from North Morocco full of desciptions of sensuousness (light rain, apples), love (like the love that pierces) as well as stability (tall...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement:Yc2287/21 Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Marruecos, pg. 67, Editorial Alpuerto, Pardes Publishing House, 2018 Susana Weich-Shahak. This is a partial version of a romance based on the epic...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Yc1038/8 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 213, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak.   This is a cantiga, which belongs to the songs centered around the...
From Kanta Gayiko, Judeo-Spanish songs from Bulgaria, 2025 Orit Perlman: voice  Yarden Erez : ud, guitar, gumbush; violin, keyboard and arrangements Zeev Yaniv : darbuqa, sonaja, bendir, cajón Sung at the bride´s ritual bath before...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y3996/11 Referenced and notated in: Judeo-Spanish Moroccan Songs for the Life Cycle, pg. 71, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1989 Susana Weich-Shahak. In this song the bride asks her mother...
From Arboleras vol. 3, Sephardic songs from the 20th century, 2000 This song is a clear description of the tragic events in the Balkan War against Bulgaria of 1912-1913, and especially of the suffering of...
From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. The fires left a deep mark on the communities affected by the disaster; in the songs, there are numerous references to the events related to the destruction of Salonica....
From Arboleras vol. 3, Sephardic songs from the 20th century, 2000 The fires left a deep mark on the communities affected by the disaster; in the songs, there are numerous references to the events related...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y2185/14 Referenced and notated in: La Boda Sefardi, pg. 92, Editorial Alpuerto, 2007 Susana Weich-Shahak. During the bride’s bath, an event attended only by women, that, in both the Eastern...
During the bride’s bath, an event attended only by women, that, in both the Eastern and Western Sephardic traditions, a cumulative song is performed. Similar to the Portrait of the Lady known in various regions...