Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forverts in English

VIDEO: A sign of Jewish unity as Ashkenazi Jews celebrate the Sephardi language, Ladino

Since many Yiddishists are intrigued with Ladino, Moishele Alfonso reported about the NYC event in Yiddish (with English subtitles)

Many Yiddishists are intrigued with the Ladino language. One reason is a challenge shared by fans of both languages — the sharp decrease of Jews who still speak it after decades of assimilation into American and Israeli society.

So on Jan. 21, 2024, Yiddish instructor Moishele Alfonso attended the New York Ladino Day: a celebration of Sephardi culture at the Center for Jewish History, presented annually by the American Sephardi Federation. There, he found several Yiddish speakers and chatted with them in order to find out what brought them there. The video is in Yiddish, with English subtitles.

 

A message from Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forverts' 127-year legacy — and its bright future.

In the past, the goal of the Forverts was to Americanize its readers, to encourage them to learn English well and to acculturate to American society. Today, our goal is the reverse: to acquaint readers — especially those with Eastern European roots — with their Jewish cultural heritage, through the Yiddish language, literature, recipes and songs.

Our daily Yiddish content brings you new and creative ways to engage with this vibrant, living language, including Yiddish Wordle, Word of the Day videos, Yiddish cooking demos, new music, poetry and so much more.

—  Rukhl Schaechter, Yiddish Editor

Support the Yiddish Forverts with a generous gift to the Forverts today!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.