Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas

1st semester 2016

16

ISSN: 1645-1910

Parte I: Dossier Sephardic Diaspora: geographies, cultures and societies

Nicole Abravanel (Université de Picardie Jules Verne) – The space and the hidden character in Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel by Samuel Usque

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 11-36

keywords

Spatiality; Historicity; Teleology; Messianism

abstract

The article aims to present a new approaching on Samuel Usque’s work Consolation for the Tribulations of Israelas a spatial teleology, instead of a historical teleology..
This masterpiece of the Portuguese literature was thought as a historical or messianic text concerning the traumatic experience of the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. The author uses three figures of temporality – history, memory and consolation –, clearly inscribing the narrative in time. The spatiality, which is decisive for a developing Diaspora, is not identified. The spatiality, which is decisive for a developing Diaspora, is not identified. However, it is the core of Consolation, as well as its framework (references to continents, human consolations, travel reports). The exile is returned and it becomes a theodicy. The places of exile (in Italy or Turkey) are blessings. Samuel Usque was a literate merchant. The judeoconversos’ spatial networks he had experienced permeates and it is reflected in his work, giving it unity.

Maria Teresa Gomes Cordeiro (independent researcher) – The social trajectory
of André Reinoso’s family. Power, circulation and integration

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 37-57

keywords

Inquisition; New Christians; Diaspora; Patron-client systems; Assimilation

abstract

The understanding of the relevance of the Sephardi Jews contribution to the Portuguese heritage is an essential work in order to enlighten some aspects of our identity.
Collective biographies (through a prosopographical approach) and the study of families’ social trajectories are privileged means to understand specific social groups as the New Christian communities. In this article, we will focus on the family of the New Christian proto-baroque painter André Reinoso (act. 1610-1650), whose ancestry guide us from the neighbouring kingdom, through the borderlands until Viseu, where his grandfather, Afonso, o castelhano [the Castilian] settled. The family grew and flourished. Some of them left Viseu or even Portugal. But those who remained played an important role amongst the local authorities, as shown by the place of their residences and businesses. They were merchants and tenants, physicians and lawyers. However, because of the inquisitorial repression in 1626/29, some of them were arrested or forced to escape. A new diaspora appeared both to the Old and the New World, which was supported by old patron-client networks and the opportunities created by the Iberian Union.

Javier Leibiusky (INALCO – Institut National de Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris) – Villa Crespo: the Judeo-Spanish neighborhood
of Buenos Aires and its Café Izmir

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 59-76

keywords

Argentina; Buenos Aires; Judeo-Spanish; immigration; Tortoni; Izmir

abstract

This article summarizes the history of a nearly invisible immigration, the one by Ottoman Judeo-Spanish people to Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 20th century. The article outlines in a synthetic way the reasons why Argentina was chosen as a destination, on the one hand; as well as the grounds for settling in the neighborhood of Villa Crespo, which became the Judeo-Spanish area of Buenos Aires, with its synagogues, social organizations and the charismatic café Izmir, managed by Alejandro Alboger, a Jew from Izmir. The article describes the unique atmosphere of this place, as well as the personality of its owner. This place has also an important historic connection with another legendary café in Buenos Aires, café Tortoni. Finally, as several witnesses expressed in their interviews, for Judeo-Spanish people, this immigration to Argentina was a sort of returning to Sefarad, to this Middle-Age Spain that was engraved in their collective imaginary.

Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald
(Bar-Ilan University) – Ladino Versions of Quién supiense (Eḥad Mi Yodea)

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 77-99

keywords

Cumulative songs; Passover songs; Paraliturgical poetry; Ladino religious poetry; Haketía religious poetry; Jewish concept

abstract

Eḥad Mi Yodea is a cumulative Hebrew song asking about numbers and answering by using Jewish concepts. Twenty three Ladino versions of the song Quién supiense are compared to the Hebrew version and show differences in several respects: 1. the introductory and the concluding phrases are independently formulated; 2. the length of the song varies in Ladino; 3. the contents of some of the answers differ from the Hebrew version; 4. there are some linguistic variations. The tradition of singing it on Passover is relatively new. The question of the originality of the Hebrew and Ladino songs has been raised before. Based on old Spanish and Catalan versions of the song, it has been assumed that the Ladino version might have been the origin of the Hebrew one. My opinion is that the two versions may have been developed independently, although there is no doubt that the rogue versions are prior to the Hebrew.

Line Amselem (Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambrésis) – Yaḥasrá by Solly Lévy (Montréal, 1992). The first fiction work published in ḥaketía

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 101-112

keywords

Moroccan Judaeo-Spanish; Edition; Quebec; Multiculturalism; Solly Lévy

abstract

The first piece of fiction released in Moroccan Judaeo-Spanish is Yaḥasrá. Escenas ḥaquetiescas by Solly Lévy (Montreal, EDIJ, 1992). The paratext allows a reflexion on its historical, political and social context being at the root of this publication.
The involvement of the institutions taking part in the 1992 celebrations, and of the author himself within the Sephardic communal life will be studied. Is this piece of work a testimony, a research subject or a genuine literary creation? Introductory texts differ and even though the author’s approach is presented in a classical style, the identity question comes up and gives this first Haketia fiction work a formal and militant dimension.

Part II: Chronicles and interviews

Ângelo Adriano Faria de Assis, Pollyana Gouveia Mendonça Muniz, Yllan de Matos – To the master, with love: celebrating Ronaldo Vainfas and his work

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 115-121


Bruno Feitler – Chronicle of the Symposium Historia de las Inquisiciones (Córdoba, Argentina, March 15-17 2017)

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 123-126


Sérgio Valente – Interview with Fernando Pflüger

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 127-130

Part III: Reviews

João Castela Oliveira – Bruno Feitler, The Imaginary Synagogue: Anti-Jewish Literature in the Portuguese Early Modern World (16th-18th Centuries), Leiden, Brill, 2015

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 133-136


Susana Bastos Mateus – Béatrice Perez, Les Marchands de Séville. Une société inquiète (XVe – XVIe siècles), Paris, PUPS, 2016

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 136-138


Carla Vieira – Ronnie Perelis, Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic: blood and faith, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2016

Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 16 (2017): 115-121