Selected Sephardic Resources

Many of the books listed here are out of print, but diligent searching may prove successful. A few of these works are histories that do not provide any music, but do help deepen one’s understanding of and appreciation for Sephardic history and culture.

Corrections and additions are very welcome.


Recommended Reading

  • Algazi, Léon. Chants Sephardis. Paris: World Sephardi Federation, 1958.
  • Armistead, Samuel G., Joseph H. Silverman, and Biljan Sljivic-Simsic.  Judeo-Spanish Ballads from Bosnia.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971.
  • Benbassa, Esther, and Aron Rodrigue. Sephardi Jewry: A History of the Judeo-Spanish Community, 14th-20th Centuries. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993.
  • Benmayor, Rina. Romances Judeo-Españoles de Oriente. Madrid: Catedra-Seminario-Menendez Pidal Editorial Credos, 1979.
  • Castel, Nico. The Nico Castel Ladino Songbook. Owings Mills, Md.: Tara Publications, 1981.
    Cardozo, Abraham Lopes. Music of the Sephardim. New York: Herzl Press, 1960.
  • —. Selected Sephardic Chants. Owings Mills, Md.: Tara Publications, 1991.
  • —. Sephardic Songs of Praise. Owings Mills, Md.: Tara Publications, 1987.
  • Cohen, Julia Phillips. Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era. Oxford: 2017.
  • Cohen, Linda F.  Sarinka, A Sephardic Holocaust Journey: From Yugoslavia to an Internment Camp in America. FLC Publisher, 2019.
  • Elazar, Samuel. El Romancero Judeo-Español. Paris, El Mundo Djudeo-Espanyol, 2008.
  • Garcia, Katerina. “Singing the Memory of Sepharad: Traditional Song and its Interpretation.” https://www.ictm.ie/journal/issue-5-2017/
  • Gerber, Jane S. The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience. New York: The Free Press, 1992.
  • Jagoda, Flory. The Flory Jagoda Songbook. Owings Mills, Md.: Tara Publications, 1992.
  • Gutierrez, Juan Marcos Bejarano. Secret Jews: The Complex Identity of Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Judaism. Grand Prairie, Texas: Yaron Publishing, 2017.
  • Juhasz, Esther, editor. Sephardi Jews in the Ottoman Empire. Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Publishing House, 1989.
  • Kaplan, Robert D. Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.
  • Katz, Israel J. Judeo-Spanish Traditional Ballads from Jerusalem.Brooklyn: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1975.
  • Lieberman, Julia R., editor. Sephardi Family Life in the Early Modern Diaspora.Waltham, Ma.: Brandeis University Press, 2011.
  • Levy, Isaac. Chants Judeo-Espagnols. London: World Sephardi Federation, 1959.
  • Matza, Diane, editor. Sephardic-American Voices: Two Hundred  Years of a Literary Legacy. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1997.
  • Mazower, Mark. Salonica: City of Ghosts, Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430 – 1950. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.
  • Naar, Devin D. Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016.
  • Robertson, Carol E., editor. Musical Repercussions of 1492: Encounters in Text and Performance. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
  • Sachar, Howard M. Farewell España: The World of the Sephardim Remembered. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.
  • Sandor, Marjorie. The Secret Music at Tordesillas, A Novel. Philadelphia: Hidden River Books, 2020. 
  • Schwartz, Stephen. Sarajevo Rose: A Balkan Jewish Notebook. London: SAQI in association with The Bosnian Institute, 2005.
  • Shahak, Susan Weich. Musica y Tradiciones Sefardies. Salamanca: Centro de Cultura Tradicional, 1992.
  • Stevenson, Robert. Spanish Music in the Age of Columbus. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1960

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Flory Jagoda by Tom Pich
Flory Jagoda | by Tom Pich