Newspaper Page Text
had to embrace Catholicism in
order to remain in the land
they loved or to save their
lives. Today in Spain one can
hardly say: “I am of pure
Spanish blood.” More and
more, the Spanish scholars and
historians of today realize that
many an intermarriage took
place between the Jews and
the Spanish nobility. The lit
erary men of today recognize
in many great writers of Spam
Jewish ancestory. The Cath
olic Church on the other
hand knows that such great
churc hmen as Torquemada
and Santa Teresa de Jesus are
definitely of Jewish blood.
This written wealth did not
end in 1492 or in the century
that followed. The converts
that stayed behind continued
writing their masterpices, and
the exiled, wherever he went,
studied and propagated his
work. As time went on we
found the ex-Spaniard not on
ly in the cultural centers that
he had created—Vienna, Sa
lonika, Istambul, Amsterdam
—but also in the Italian courts,
Turkish palaces, Dutch uni
versities and rabbinical
schools. Only time will tell us
of the greatness of today’s
Judeo-Spanish scholars, such
as Dr. David de Sola Pool, Dr.
Joheph Nehama, Dr. Abraham
Galante, Rabbi Ruben Israel
and Dr. Israel and Dr. Isaac
Alcalay.
The oral material obtained
just in time from the last liv
ing repositories of the oral
tradition, offers a rich field
for further philological, liter
ary and musical investigation.
The material which was per
sonally collected by this in
vestigator covers over 350 bal
lads, religious hymns, wedding
and love songs, and dirges; ap
proximately 12,000 proverbs;
76 tales; a list of approximate
ly 400 idiomatic expressions;
and a large vocabulary.
This portion of the material
which are retained in the me
mories of the Spanish Jews is
frequently heard wherever a
Spanish Jewish community is
to be found. The emotional in
tensity with which the solemn
songs are chanted and the
prose material repeated leaves
the unmistakable impression
that they are a source of inner
strength against the still
haunting memory of suffering
and persecution.
The cherishing of their cul
tural heritage has been the
inevitable result of the deep
urge to retain their spiritual
identity. This explains why
for 500 years, the Spanish
Jews have nurtured by word
of mouth, without the bene
fit of printed texts, the cul
tural material they brought
from Spain in the fifteenth
century.
All of the above mentioned
rial material will only help us
; pprcc : ate the Spanish Jew
The Southern Israelite
for it was he, above all de
scendants of Spain, who was
able to hold so faithfully
through centuries the tradition
and culture of the Iberic pen
insula. Don Ramon Menendez
Pidal, the outstanding scholar
of modern Spain, has been im
pressed by the antiquity and
authenticity of this tradition
in an alien soil.
Those of us who cherish the
traditional pattern of the past
have regretfully watched a
new generation rise, one that
is too busy and distracted to
follow in the pattern of its an
cestor. The Spanish Jews of
this new generation — not
wholly unlike their American,
Greek or Italian counterparts
—are becoming a group of
conformists and slaves to the
demand placed upon them by
the value of their own society.
Non-Jewish scholars have
urged Sephardic Jews to
keep their traditions alive.
They should heed this ad
monition, for the following
of a tradition does not
necessarily hamper the de
mands of present progress, nor
does it oppose the values of
an adopted culture. Placido
de Montoliu in his article
“Coplas Sefardies” says: “Fur
thermore we know that mu
sic, together with poetry, (and
customs) is one of the most
powerful means to strengthen
national or racial unity when
the very spirit of nations or
race is threatened with des
truction or extinction; and as
this spirit struggles to assert
itself it appeals to all the re
source found in tradition . . ”
Thus, although the members
of the new generation may be
looking toward the future,
they should still retain contact
with the past in order not to
lose their cultural and spirit
ual identity.
Time marches on, and it is
with deep regret that tocjpy’s
leaders of ,the Sephardimi ac
cept the inevitable. They see
their people give way to other
traditions /and cultures. They
realize that once they had
left their homes for new
shores th^t the new milieu of
industrial society did not dis
rupt th^ir traditional way of
life. B^t since the Second
World / War the now largely
dispersed members of Sep
hardic communities are rapid
ly losinVtheir Spanish roots
as a resutKpf, the progressive
assimilation of the members
of the younger generation into
the national populations
through intermarriages and
into the general culture
through a surrender of their
native Spanish language to
that of their native lands.
And the future?
A historian later can write
th-> chapter of what is to come
of import to Sephardic Jewry.
Isaac Jack Levy,
University of Michigan ,
outh i Supreme - ilotcl
Air Conditioned
• Meeting Space for 2,500. • Banquet Space for 2,000.
• Space' for One Hundred Exhibits. • Three Addi
tional Spaces for 500. • Garden Dining for 1,500 on
Rainbow Lighted Terrace. • Twenty-One Committee
Rooms Ranging in Size to Accommodate 25 to 200.
• Free Daytime Parking on Hotel Grounds. • 250 Car
Parking at 6th Street
Atlanta. • Home of
the Famous Rendez
vous Lounge. • 24-
Hour Service Snack
Bar • Hunt Room ex
clusively for Men •
TV in Guest Rooms.
fCTLANM
Biltmore
•*TM« south’s supreme hotel"
See the Fabulous Swimming Pool
Entrance. • Largest Hotel in
17