Ladino in Turkey: Rescuing an Endangered Language
A group of Turkish Jews is championing the revival of the 500-year-old Judeo-Spanish language
Camel Caravans, Kasbahs and Berber Jews
Venturing south from Marrakesh across the Atlas Mountains, you can still sense Moroccan Jewish life along these ancient caravan routes.
Tracing Morocco’s Jewish Past
While most of Morocco’s quarter of a million Jews emigrated to Israel, Europe and the U.S., 2,500 remain today. Traces of their deep-rooted culture stretch from the Mediterranean to the Sahara, a less-traveled region steeped in Jewish history.
The Girl in the Blue Sweater: One Pandemic later
A year later, we speak every day, staying close during this pandemic. Helena, soon to turn 96, is quarantined alone inside her apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It’s a home filled with memories. Photographs, books and artwork, much of it from her travels, cover walls and shelves. But her kitchen calendar, once abrim with engagements—lunches, dinners, concerts, plays—is now blank.
The Girl in the Blue Sweater
Helena survived three concentration camps and when the last one was liberated she was flown by the Red Cross to a hospital in Sweden. She was 5’4″ and weighed 52 lbs. Her roommate in the hospital, a fellow survivor, knit the sweater for her while they were there. She told me she has worn that sweater every Passover since.
Curacao, the Island That Brought Jews to the Americas
It’s hard to imagine that at one time, this tiny island, so far from the cobblestone streets of Portugal, the canals of Amsterdam and the shtetls of Eastern Europe, had the largest Jewish population in the Americas.
Morocco: Echoes From the Jewish Quarter
Signs of that Jewish community, once the largest in the Arab world, are everywhere—if you know where to look.
Malta: A Hidden Gem With a Rich Jewish History
The total population of Malta is 430,000, including about 150 Jews, most of whom live on the main island and make up one of the smallest active Jewish communities in the Mediterranean.