An Ode to Salonika The Ladino Verses of Bouena Sarfatty [Hardcover]

Through the poetry of Bouena Sarfatty (1916-1997), An Ode to Salonika sketches the life and demise of the Sephardi Jewish community that once flourished in this Greek crossroads city. A resident of Salonika who survived the Holocaust as a partisan and later settled in Canada, Sarfatty preserved the traditions and memories of this diverse and thriving Sephardi community in some 500 Ladino poems known as coplas. The coplas also describe the traumas the community faced under German occupation before the Nazis deported its Jewish residents to Auschwitz. The coplas in Ladino and in Ren?e Levine Melammed's English translation are framed by chapters that trace the history of the Sephardi community in Salonika and provide context for the poems. This unique and moving source provides a rare entr?e into a once vibrant world now lost.

[T]hose wanting insight into the world of Greek Jews before, during, and after the Holocaust are likely to find this unique work well worth their time.The appeal of Levine Melammeds work is not limited to a small group of specialists. The book is accessible to a much wider public, including laypersons and student readers who may not be familiar with the history of the period or its pertinent poetic genres. . . . Melammeds new book will certainly become a classic reference handbook to be cited by historians, philologists and social anthropologists.An important contribution to Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) studies as well as to the history of Greek Jews during Holocaust. Melammed has done her best to present Bouena's impressive text.Melammeds meticulous translation of Sarfattys coplas, which express both the tonality and cultural distinctiveness of Sephardi Jewish life, is a genuine contribution to scholarship and deserves praise.September 2013What a pleasure and joy for us, the Ladino speakers, to have gained another marvelous book where we read memories written in Ladino about Salonika . . . It is also a joy for those who know English and are lK