The Los Alamos Jewish Center at 2400 Canyon Road. Courtesy/LAJC

Los Alamos Jewish Center News:

The community is invited to attend Pop Up! An exploration of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) language and cultural identity through music at 7 p.m. today, July 13, at the Los Alamos Jewish Center.

After living in Israel for over a millennium, Jews were dispersed throughout the world after their conquest by the Romans in 70 of the Common Era. One of the most vibrant of the post-exilic Jewish communities during the Middle Ages was found in Spain, called Sepharad in Hebrew. In 1492, coincident with Columbus’ first voyage to the New World, Jews were expelled from Spain. Many fled to North Africa and elsewhere around the Mediterranean; some even came to the Americas at that time.

The 15th century Spanish language spoken by these Jews, mixed with Hebrew, became isolated from developments in Spanish on the Iberian peninsula, and morphed into a unique language called Ladino or Judeo-Spanish. Ladino served as the lingua franca of Jews from Sepharad (Sephardim) and was the basis for a rich literary and musical body of compositions.

This evening’s presenter Charlotte Michaluk is an aerospace engineering student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an intern at LANL for the summer.

“I am fascinated by linguistics, particularly historical linguistics and writing systems,” Michaluk said.

The music presentation will be followed by traditional Sephardic desserts. No charge, but please RSVP on the Jewish Center website: https://www.lajc.org/event-details/pop-up-event-ladino.

About the Los Alamos Jewish Center:

The Los Alamos Jewish Center is the community’s resource for Jewish worship, education, and life cycle events. LAJC is located at 2400 Canyon Road, just down the street from PEEC Nature Center. For more information about the Los Alamos Jewish Center, go to www.lajc.org, call 505.662.2140, or email losalamosjewishcenter@lajc.org.