WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Sings In Ladino After Acknowledging Jewish Roots

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez singing “Ocho Kandelikas” in Ladino. Image by twitter

By Alyssa Fisher December 10, 2018

At a Hanukkah party Sunday evening, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sang a festive song in Ladino, a language associated with the Sephardic Jewish community, derived from Spanish.

Ocasio-Cortez gave an impassioned speech at the menorah lighting, hosted by the Jews For Racial and Economic Justice in New York, sharing that her family has Jewish heritage.

She also broke into song, helping to lead the group in “Ocho Kandelikas,” or “Eight Little Candles.”

Hey! Here is a video of @Ocasio2018 singing in Ladino. The song is the Chanukah song “Ocho Kandelikas” pic.twitter.com/g3qDUt5n8B

— Taly Krupkin (@TalyKrupkin) December 10, 2018

That evening, she explained to the crowd that she descends from crypto-Jews, or conversos: Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism by the Spanish monarchy, but practiced Judaism in private. Ladino, the language heard in “Ocho Kandelikas,” is traditionally spoken by Sephardic Jews whose ancestors lived in Spain before the 15th century.

On Monday morning, she reiterated her point in several tweets, “Before everyone jumps on me.”

“Culture isn’t DNA,” she wrote, noting that many in Puerto Rico are made up of several ethnicities, including Jewish refugees, Spanish Colonizers and indigenous peoples.

“We are all of these things and something else all at once – we are Boricua,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, using a term for Puerto Rican popular among people from there.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO