Editor’s Note
We bring you a double issue of Sephardic Horizons for Summer and Fall 2016.
Jane Mushabac ably introduces the special issue on Major Sephardic novelists, the risks they take, consisting of four papers based on presentations at the 2016 Modern Language Association of America.
The second half of this issue relates to history, and history in the making. Stefania Zezza, an Italian scholar, shares with us her new research on Greek Salonikan Jews in the concentration camps during the Holocaust, featuring some new interpretations of early recordings of oral testimonies, based on her knowledge of Judeo-Spanish. Doğan Akman, a Canadian jurist, turns his attention to Spain’s offer of Spanish citizenship to Sephardim, in a deeply researched assessment.
Our Judeo-Spanish/Ladino section brings stories by Rivka Abiry and Hernán Rodríguez Fisse, and moving poetry from the pen of Haim Vitali Sadacca. We are always grateful for these contributions.
The review section presents Bension Varon’s article on two books about Shabtai Zvi, and Ralph Tarica’s review of Ewa Tartakowsky’s new sociological study of Francophone Jewish literature of exile.
This double issue is dedicated to the memory of Jean Carasso, z”l, member of France’s Légion d’Honneur, an extraordinary promoter of Sephardic cultural studies and the Judeo-Spanish language, founder and editor of the influential La Lettre Sépharade, and later publisher of important reference works such as Joseph Nehama’s Judeo-Spanish and French dictionary, Dictionnaire du Judéo-Espagnol (2003).
Many thanks to all our authors for their creative and scholarly contributions.
We do hope you enjoy this new issue. Please don’t forget to send in a contribution to help cover Sephardic Horizons’ continuing expenses. Just click on the ‘Donate’ tab at the top right on the Homepage. Show us how much our efforts are worth to you!
Judith Roumani
Editor, Sephardic Horizons