O pinion
Time Running Out to Preserve
Endangered Jewish Languages
BY SARAH BUNIN BENOR
I CAN’T STOP THINKING
about Flory Jagoda, Joseph
Sassoon and Kitty Sassoon —
three American Jews in their
90s who died last week. As an
Ashkenazi Jew, I do not share
their family backgrounds. But
their deaths hit home for me,
as they were among the last
native speakers of endangered
Jewish languages — languages
I’m helping to document before
it’s too late.

Flory Jagoda devoted much
of her life to preserving one of
those languages. She grew up
in Bosnia speaking Ladino, also
known as Judeo-Spanish, which
her ancestors had maintained
since their expulsion from
Spain in 1492. She survived
the Holocaust in part through
her musical skills, playing
accordion and singing in Serbo-
Croatian. For decades, she wrote
and performed Ladino songs,
maintaining the Sephardic
folk traditions of her nona
(grandmother), innovating on
them and bringing them to a
wider audience.

Jagoda’s music introduced
me to Ladino and ignited my
interest in Jewish languages. In
my fifth-grade class at Jewish
day school, my classmates and I
learned her catchy tune “Ocho
Kandelikas” (Eight Little
Candles) along with Hebrew
and English Chanukah songs.

As a teenager, I heard Jagoda
perform at a Jewish Folk Life
Festival — of which she was
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM a founder — and purchased
a cassette of hers, “La Nona
Kanta” (The Grandmother
Sings). I still listen to those
songs and now share them —
especially my favorite, “Laz
Tiyas” (The Aunties) — with
my students when I teach about
Jewish languages. My students
read an article about Jagoda’s
work to promote Sephardic
language and culture just a
week before she died.

While Jagoda is among
the last generation of native
Ladino speakers, young people
have continued her language
preservation work, as we see in
Devin Naar’s archive of Ladino
letters, books and other histor-
ical treasures; Bryan Kirschen’s
Ladino research and classes; and
Sarah Aroeste’s contemporary
Ladino music and children’s
books. Due to these efforts,
American Jews tend to know
about the language. When I
ask audiences which Jewish
languages they have heard of,
they generally mention Hebrew,
Yiddish and Ladino.

People are less familiar
with other Jewish languages,
including Judeo-Shirazi (from
Iran), Judeo-Malayalam
(from India) and Jewish
Neo-Aramaic (from the
Kurdish region) — all critically
endangered. The many endan-
gered dialects of Judeo-Arabic
have been documented to
varying extents, from Egypt to
Morocco, from Syria to Yemen.

And some young people are
keeping the music alive, such as
Neta Elkayam, A-WA and Asher
Shasho Levy for Moroccan,
Yemenite and Syrian traditions.

Even so, most American Jews
have never heard of Judeo-
Arabic. Whenever a speaker
dies, we lose an opportunity to
learn and teach more about the
nuances of this rich language
and culture.

Joseph and Kitty Sassoon died
of COVID-19 within 12 hours of
each other, months after their
76th anniversary. Both were
children of Baghdadi parents
who spoke Judeo-Arabic natively.

Growing up in Rangoon, Burma
and Calcutta, India, Joseph and
Kitty spoke multiple languages,
but their parents spoke Judeo-
Arabic when they didn’t want
the children to understand. As
many American-born children
of immigrants know, this means
they picked up snippets of
the language.

As adults, living most
recently in Los Angeles, Joseph
and Kitty spoke Hindi and
English together and did not
have much opportunity to use
Judeo-Arabic, but their grand-
daughters remember them using
some words and phrases. Kitty
used pet names for grandchil-
dren, like “abdalnuana” for boys
and “abdalki” for girls (both
literally meaning “penance”
like the Hebrew “kapara”) and
frequently said “mashallah”
(what God has willed) when
expressing pride and joy.

Joseph called his mother
Umm Shalom (mother of
Shalom, her first son), in line
with Judeo-Arabic convention,
and hurled joking insults at
grandchildren, such as “harami”
(thief) and
“mamzerim” (bastards — a Hebrew word used
in several Jewish languages).

The Sassoons are character-
istic of speakers of endangered
languages. Unlike Jagoda, they
did not devote their lives to
cultural preservation. And
they had varying degrees of
knowledge of the language —
Joseph grew up speaking more
Judeo-Arabic than Kitty. While
language documenters would
prefer fluent speakers, even
semi-speakers can provide
important information, partic-
ularly when the language is
severely endangered.

Every day, especially during
See Benor, Page 34
JEWISH EXPONENT
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Lifelong Democrat Shares Concern
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, SOPHIA RODNEY (“I’m a
Student and I’m Afraid of Where My Party Is Headed,” Jan. 28)
and the Jewish Exponent for printing this opinion.

I could have written that letter myself, and I wholly agree with
everything you said.

As a lifelong Democrat, I have been in increasingly serious
disagreement with their platform. Democrats are no supporters
of Israel, and I am an ardent Zionist. I have wanted to change my
registration to independent, but I can’t do that until Pennsylvania
allows independents to vote in primary elections. (Republicans
are responsible for this blatant voter suppression.)
“The Squad,” a foursome of blatantly anti-Israel and
anti-Jewish members of Congress, is an example of the direction
that the Democrats have been going. And don’t anyone tell me
that anti-Israel is not anti-Jewish.

The atmosphere on college campuses is atrocious —
anti-Jewish and anti-Israel — and dangerous to Jews to be able
to freely speak their opinions. The sad irony that a student should
accuse Rodney of being “Trumpian” is that Trump supporters
will not accept facts and blindly accept everything Trump says,
and [the same goes for] anti-Israel and anti-Semites, who only
believe what they have been brainwashed with and don’t ever
want to hear the whole complicated history. Zionists on campus
get shouted down and are not protected.

Lisa Sandler | Pipersville
Voices of Reason Will Win Out
I am a lifelong liberal Democrat and I am worried about the shift
of the Democratic Party toward the leftist/progressive voice (“I’m
a Student and I’m Afraid of Where My Party Is Headed,” Jan. 28).

“The Squad” of Omar, Pressley, AOC and Tlaib in the House and
Bernie Sanders in the Senate are making the Democratic Party
feel unsafe for Jews who support Jewish right of self-determina-
tion (support of Israel).

These people are anti-Zionists and, unfortunately, anti-
Semitic. An alternative is to support the repugnant party of
Trumpism but that is not a real alternative. Still, the Democratic
Party is the big tent and we, as liberal Democrats, must call
out the Jew hatred in the progressive wing. As we know, leftists
and the extreme right can agree on one thing — their hatred of
the Jews.

My suspicion is that as President Biden shores up the liberal
elements in the Democratic Party, the voices of reason and
enlightenment principles will win out. There ought to be little
support for the anti-democratic, anti-free speech of the leftists
except those universities that have adopted loss of intellectual
and honest debate. l
Neil Sussman | Philadelphia
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published. FEBRUARY 11, 2021
17