The Instituto Cervantes receives the legacy of Sephardic culture on deposit

The Diplomat The Caja de las Letras of the Instituto Cervantes opened its doors this week to receive the legacy of Sephardic culture, in a tribute to “the immense heritage” that the Jews of Spanish origin “left for centuries in Spain and in a good part of Europe”. At the ceremony, held last Tuesday at the headquarters of the institution in Madrid, Carmen Noguero, general secretary of the Cervantes, was present; David Saltiel, president of the Central Council of Jewish Communities in Greece and of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki; Jaime Moreno Bau, general director of the Centro-Sefarad Israel; and Samuel Nahmias, honorary consul of Spain in Thessaloniki; among other authorities. The extensive legacy, which has been deposited in box number 1447 of the Institute's vault, is made up of the records 'Judeo-Spanish Songs of Thessaloniki' (1998), by Saltiel himself, 'In the Sea There is a Tower' (2002), by the Choir of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, and 'Unknown Musical Treasures of Greek Jews' (2022), by Mariangela Chatzistamatiou. The minutes of the four international congresses on the Judeo-Spanish language organized by the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki have also been introduced; a volume containing a summary of the history of Thessaloniki between 1897 and 1917; a record of the first assembly of the Jewish Community of Salonica in 1946; a model of the city's Holocaust Museum, which is under construction; and the most symbolic element: a set of keys to houses in Toledo owned by some of the Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. "With this legacy we want to express first of all our gratitude for the support we are receiving in Salonica, which was decisive in the establishment of an extension of the Institute that depends on the centre of Athens," stressed Carmen Noguero. "We owe a lot to the Jewish heritage in our language, in our music, in our literature, and in general in our customs and our way of life," she added. Sepharad is the biblical name with which the Jews formerly called the Iberian Peninsula. Today, it is still used in the Hebrew language to refer to Spain. The Sephardim were Jews who lived in the Peninsula during the Middle Ages and who made great contributions in every imaginable field: the arts, science, commerce and language. The period of greatest splendour of their time in the region took place between the 11th and 12th centuries, when coexistence between Jews, Christians and Muslims reached its highest point. At the end of the 15th century they were expelled from the territory by the Catholic Monarchs and dispersed throughout Europe, leaving behind traces of their heritage. The Instituto Cervantes maintains a strong commitment to the descendants of these Jews, who have created different communities in various parts of the world, and wants to help them recover this cultural heritage through the Spanish language. An example of this is the agreement it signed in 2020 with the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, by which it opened an extension in the Greek city to offer cultural and academic activities with the aim of revaluing and disseminating the Sephardic legacy and language in the second city of the Hellenic country.

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