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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 Arboleras - De las altas mares, Ecos Sefardies de la isle de Rodas, cd 2, 2009 During the bride’s bath, an event attended only by women, that, in both the Eastern and Western Sephardic...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Yc2774/2 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 268, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. This is a song of parting of the bride from her family and...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y 5672c/21 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 271, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. This is a song of parting of the bride from her family...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5433/2 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 271-272, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. A song of parting of the bride from her family.  This is a...
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 A song of parting of the bride from her family.  This is a widely spread song in the congregations of Turkey, Saloniki, Sarayevo and Rhodes. This...
From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. This piece was taken from the piece ‘Esther’, a musical play in three acts which articulates the plot via various operatic genres: recitativo, arias, duets and choruses. Some of...
From Kanta Gayiko, Judeo-Spanish songs from Bulgaria, 2025 Kobi Zarco: voice  Yarden Erez : ud, guitar, gumbush; violin, keyboard and arrangements Zeev Yaniv : darbuqa, sonaja, bendir, cajón This is an anecdote of the early...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5830c/7 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 135, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. This is one of the few true lullabies of the Sephardic Jewish tradition,...
From Arboleras - De las altas mares, Ecos Sefardies de la isle de Rodas, cd1, 2009 The well-known romance of Delgadina deals with the incestuous love of a father for his daughter and is a...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: YcY5740/b Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 172, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. A series of questions and answers regarding how to perform all the agricultural...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: YcY5740/b Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 172, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. A series of questions and answers regarding how to perform all the agricultural...
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 The copla called The Night of Alhad (Noche de Alhad) is sung at the end of Shabbat to mark the transition to the coming of the...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y 5773/44 Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Marreucos, pg. 94, Editorial Alpuerto, Pardes Publishing House, 2018 Susana Weich-Shahak. This biblical romance appears in 16th-century pamphlets and collections and...