By Daniel Santacruz
"Tresoryos ekstraordinaryos" (extraordinary treasures).
That's how the recent donation by Nesim Karidi of Istanbul and Zikron Yaakov of more than 300 rare Ladino books to the Centro Salti for Ladino Studies's Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts has been described.
The library’s is now comprised of 1,100 books and 90 periodicals. Thirty handwritten manuscripts are being catalogued.
The topics include prayer books, dictionaries, grammar books and folk literature as well as publications dealing with communal activities.
The publications, which reflect a rich cultural activity in Ladino-speaking communities in different countries throughout 200 years, were published in Constantinople (today’s Istanbul), Salonica, Izmir, Vienna and New York City, among others.
The donors hail from Jerusalem, Kfar Saba, Tel Aviv, Izmir, Tucumán and Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Rhodes.
The Center's research library collection contains approximately 3,000 books, which cover a wide range of topics, all related to Sefardic Jews and Ladino speakers, including history, literature, art, music and gastronomy.
Based at Bar-Ilan University, in Ramat Gan, Israel, the Centro Salti encourages research in the fields of Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, as it developed in the Ottoman Empire among Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, and Haketia, a language spoken in northern Morocco.
January 5, 2025
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