Ladino: Judeo-Spanish language and culture in Europe

Europe has been home to Jews for thousands of years. They have contributed to the continent's artistic achievements and material prosperity despite discriminatory laws and recurring acts of persecution. With their 'final solution', the Nazis aimed to eradicate Jews from the continent and erase all trace of their culture, destroying synagogues, Jewish archives and works of art. Although the Nazis did not achieve their objective, they left ruins that bear architectural witness to Jewish presence on the continent, as well as decimated and traumatised Jewish communities. The courage of these communities to continue to bear witness to Jewish life and culture has been essential to the preservation of Ladino – a language condemned to death by the Nazis – and its culture, music and literature. The language itself testifies to the persecution of European Jews. The 1492 Expulsion Edict forced Jews living in Spain to either convert or leave. Most chose to leave, and took with them the language they had spoken in Spain – Judeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino. No longer connected to its Spanish roots, Ladino preserved the original structure of 15th century Spanish, together with Hebrew script and a vocabulary with Aramaic elements. The language evolved with the Sephardi Jews as they moved across North Africa, Europe and Türkiye, incorporating vocabulary from the local languages: Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Balkan languages. Ladino speakers who survived the Holocaust often left Europe and settled in Israel and the US. Although some linguists think the survival of Ladino – at least in Europe – is in doubt, a rise in on line interest in the language during the COVID-19 lockdowns suggests that the trend is reversible. The EU meanwhile has an important role to play in preserving this valuable element of its cultural and linguistic heritage.