Sol HaTsaddeket

In the early summer I went with members of Casablanca's Jewish Community on a pilgrimage to Sol HaSadika's tomb in Fez. I am particularly interested in her story because she was a young woman from Tangier and her story of Jewish non-assimilation earned her the position of Tsaddeket in the Moroccan Jewish pantheon. As well as the fact that there is a Romance that tells the whole story of her martyrdom.


It was a hot day, the cemetery was very still, almost unmoving with only the chirping of birds and the crackling of the candles people had lit making any distinguishable sounds. Right outside is the busy area next to the King's palace where there is a sort of flea market for all sorts of trinkets that seem more suitable for the recycling heap than for use... But inside, a hint of a breeze through the olive trees, a palm tree, women mumbling their prayers and requests in French, Hebrew and Spanish, a group of men singing Psalms by a Rabbi's tomb--and you, lost in the peacefulness of the sea of white tombs.
There is more than one version to her story, not all of them depict a chaste, pious, modest adolescent who denied conversion to Islam thus inviting her early death. But the Romance and the story within the community always shows her as a model to other young women who may be tested in the same difficult manner.

Musiques en Méditerranée ; rencontres et échanges au Moyen-Âge et au delà

We just spent a weekend in the magical town of St. Guilhem le Desert just outside of Montpellier in the Languedoc region for music and intellectual discussions on Narrative traditions in the middle ages and up to today--as Joel Cohen concluded so beautifully, it is time for us to look at each other seeing our similarities which unify us rather that the details that differentiate us from each other.

http://www.saint-guilhem-le-desert.com/spip.php?article179


Here is the program of the conference:
Cycle de conférences historiques et musicologiques avec : Anne Azéma (Boston Camerata), Benjamin Braude (Boston college), Mohamed Briouel (Conservatoire de musique de Fes), Joël Cohen (Camerata Mediterranea), Alice Colby-Hall (Cornell University), Gisèle Dumas (Université P. Valéry Montpellier 3), Vanessa Paloma (Brandeis University), Christian Poché (Radio-France), Antoni Rossell (Université autonome de Barcelone), Mehmet Sanlikol (Emerson College Boston).

9:30h à 12:00h : La légende chantée et le narratif héroïque Narratifs en musique à l’Abbaye de Gellone (Alice Colby-Hall)

La légende de Saint-Guilhem dans le contexte de la chanson de geste médiévale (Gisèle Dumas)

L’interprète moderne face à la narration médiévale (Anne Azema)

La tradition bardique et le narratif héroïque en Turquie (Mehmet Sanlikol)

Le narratif féminin judéo-espagnol au Maroc (Vanessa Paloma)

14:00h à 17:00h : Les Cantigas du Roi Alfonso el Sabio et leur contexte méditerranéen

Les Cantigas de Santa-Maria, la construction d’un texte et d’une musique à partir d’un projet théologique et politique du roi Alphonse X (Antoni Rossell)

Les Cantigas et l’art des troubadours occitans (Joël Cohen)

Diversité ethnique à la cour du roi Alfonso el Sabio (B. Braude)

La musique arabo-andalouse, et ses rapports avec les pratiques européennes (Christian Poché et Mohamed Briouel)



This is the Abbey perched at the top of the hill that the town is built on--and there is a view from the garden to the ruins of a castle on the neighboring hill where legend tells it William of Orange saved the townspeople by killing the giant that lived in it--he threw him down the cliff.

Mose salio de Misrayim

This music video was filmed in early summer 2008 at the Jewish Museum of Casablanca in Morocco. Mose salio de Misrayim tells the story of Moses, the burning bush and his return to Egypt to confront Pharaoh.

MEMORY PRESERVED at Santa Fe Art Institute

Memory Preserved:

Sepharad Hidden and Revealed

The Santa Fe Art Institute presents an event remembering the Sephardic and crypto-Jewish traditions of New Mexico through song and literature as a part of its series: “Memory: Shadow & Light – Art as Individual/Collective Memory”. Memory Preserved features music by Vanessa Paloma with Judeo-Spanish songs from the colonial period and word memories of Sepharad by authors Isabelle Medina-Sandoval and Mario X. Martinez. The event will be Thursday, May 14 at 6:00 pm in Tipton Hall, College of Santa Fe.

Ms. Paloma specializes in the traditional performance of Judeo-Spanish songs from the Sephardic Diaspora. This music, tinged with fate and sadness, passion and joy, came to the Americas with Spanish settlers. Ms. Paloma is a Research Scholar of Brandeis University currently living and working in Casablanca and has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, North Africa, and Asia. She is the lead singer of Flor de Serena, a Los Angeles based ensemble doing Judeo-Spanish music.

In Guardians of Hidden Traditions Isabelle Medina-Sandoval tells the saga of her family starting in Spain and migrating to Mexico and eventually New Mexico. Told with historical depth and accuracy, these stories of love and determination introduce us into the lives of women along with their marriages and children, thoughts and dreams, and their preservation of the memory of Jewishness. It is a powerful novel about hidden identity and culture being secretly safeguarded from generation to generation with a mixture of passion and fear. Dr. Medina-Sandoval is a published poet and leader in bilingual education.

In Converso Mario X. Martinez has created a compelling historical novel about nineteenth century town life, drawing from events during the period of Archbishop Lamy. There are powerful Dons, dashing young men, beautiful women, crypto-Jews, conflicts, and the suspicious death of an overly inquisitive priest, all wrapped within memory and family tales in historical New Mexico. In a story Willa Cather would have enjoyed he captures the drama of that time period. After graduate work at Harvard University Martinez returned to his native state where he writes and teaches.

These two historical novels are part of a series by Gaon Books on Western Sephardic Traditions, including the crypto-Jewish experience in the Americas.

Angelina Muniz-Huberman's The Confidantes will be released shortly.

For more complete information see: http://gaonbooks.blogspot.com

VOIX DE FEMMES 2008

This image is from the Festival Voix de Femmes (Women's Voices) in Tetouan last summer. This concert, together with singers Samira Kadiri and Begoña Olavide was in the garden of the beautiful old artesanal school outside of Bab Ruah in downtown Tetouan.

Cycles

This month, the Jewish month of Nissan we recite
Birkat haIlanot: Blessing on Blooming Trees
This special mitzvah, which can be fulfilled only once a year, is to recite the beraja ("blessing" or prayer) made upon seeing 2 fruit trees in bloom: Blessed are you G-d our G-d, king of the universe, who left nothing lacking in His world, and created within it good creatures and good trees with which He gives pleasure to people.

It's quite beautiful that we are commanded to stay in touch with nature's cycles and to celebrate the renewal of growth. Considering how important blessings are, and the power of speech in Judaism, it is remarkable that during this month, upon seeing fruit trees in bloom we bless Gd for giving pleasure to people through the creation of creatures and trees!

Enjoy the beauty of the world!

Vocalise