Al-Andalus and Sepharad - intertwined destinies

Judeo-Arabic in Digital Humanities

2021-06-15T02:44:00.000-07:00

The Judeo-Arabic songs of Mme. Azeroual, from the Tafilalet region and living until recently in Casablanca tell of a community of women that punctuated life events, seasons and the quotidian with the sonic impregnation of their sung blessings for their descendants and community. These communities were dispersed after the protectorate, independence and further atomization of emigration.

With the support from Cambridge University's Arts and Humanities Impact Fund, we are building a platform to tell their story, hear their songs and reacquaint the public to the power and meaning of their messages.

We are looking forward to your comments and engagement with the platform, exhibits and workshops that will follow. Watch this space!

Conference June 18, 2019 at the Center for Jewish History

2020-04-20T07:45:00.001-07:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Sjik9WEYQ&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0n0oVUKDuarOKvcAOhqDz5Z4REy9oOghNmy3tSM-UgK6oUdpGRfCYEk9A&app=desktop

Jewish Chronicle Interview

2020-01-09T05:22:00.001-08:00

Jessica Duchen of The Jewish Chronicle of London wrote this piece on my research, work and trajectory. I am thrilled to share these thoughts with you.
https://www.thejc.com/culture/music/interview-vanessa-paloma-elbaz-1.494746

Expanding the Canon: Sephardic Sacred Music

2019-10-11T02:18:00.001-07:00

Enjoy this short piece I wrote for the AJS Perspectives issue on Patriarchy which was published in the Summer of 2019

http://perspectives.ajsnet.org/patriarchy-issue/expanding-the-canon-sephardic-sacred-music-por-que-no-cantais-la-bella-reading-womens-agency-into-the-sephardic-musical-canon/

BBC Xtra short interview

2019-07-04T07:46:00.003-07:00

The work of KHOYA: Jewish Morocco Sound Archive featured on BBC Xtra as part of a larger piece on the Jewish communities of the Maghreb.

Rôle identitaire de musique juive au Maroc

2019-06-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

Cliquez ici pour lire l'article de la MAP Express sur la musique juive au Maroc.

MESG blog post on Salé, Music, Rabbis & Politics

2019-04-30T15:23:00.001-07:00

Moroccan Pilgrims, Pirates & Rabbis: the fashioning of an unexpected political center

Women's Defense of Patriarchy

2018-10-24T14:38:00.002-07:00

The Forward published my article on Jewish Moroccan women's defense of patriarchy. Enjoy:
https://forward.com/life/412553/white-women-arent-the-first-to-defend-patriarchy-against-their-own/?fbclid=IwAR0M94R0qHMMBXzAVFnn25pbSYLqaMVcZ4Xsg0u0ynM90pf08DF7S7cCCjk

On German Radio

2018-06-24T15:30:00.001-07:00

And another program on Jewish life and memory in Morocco - on German radio.

http://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/aus-der-juedischen-welt.1078.de.html

BBC Heart and Soul

2018-05-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

Thought provoking podcast from the BBC on the nuanced and complex story of contemporary Jewish life in Morocco. How does a minority continue to exist through cycles of thriving and shrinking? History, contemporary politics and the unbroken thread of multiple identities that live together in today's Morocco.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csxgh7

KHOYA Haketia

2016-02-29T01:28:00.003-08:00

Tefila Bibas en Tetuan

2015-10-19T06:13:00.002-07:00

Tefila Bibas en los años 50s durante una guelilá. Photo de la colección de Santy Wahnón.

La familia Bibas fue una familia Rabínica importantísima en Tetuán. El primer Rabino que estableció la Comunidad judía en Tetuán en 1530 como perteneciendo a las comunidades de megorashim de Castilla fue Hayn (Haim) Bibas.
Una de las descendientes de la familia Bibas (SMB) informa que esta Tefilá fue construída en honor a los Saddikim y Jajamím, luego que en el año 1680 fuera incendiada la sinagoga original construida por el 1er Gran Rabino de Tetuán.

El último Rabino de Tetuán también fue un Bibas. El militaba contra los matrimonios mixtos. El Jajám Bibas, como se le llamaba, era muy religioso. Según una entrevista con una Tetuaní lo describe así:

SA –Si, Bibás. Era muy difícil, Bibas era algo increíble.

VP –Ajá, ¿por qué difícil? ¿qué hacía?

SA –¿Por qué difícil?, pues te voy a decir por qué…porque había muchos españoles y los españoles también estaban muy bien, y las hebreas eran muy guapas, y se iban con los españoles. Y Bibas no lo permitía. ¿Sabes lo que hacía? La pelaba rape, y la paseaba por toooodo el barrio para que no volviera otra a hacerlo. La pelaba, si, se la llevaban y la pelaban rape, y cogía la ordenanza la paseaban por todo el barrio, así cuando otra quisiera ir con otro español, no pudiera ir…

VP –¿Pero qué es la ordenanza esto?

SA –Es el Jajám el que mandaba los Hebreos.

VP –Pero entonces ¿era el policía de los hebreos?

SA –El Jajám más que policía, era el Jajám del pueblo.

VP –Ah el Jajám. El Jajám mismo llevaba a la joven alrededor para

SA –Tenía sus ordenanzas que lo llevaban.

VP –¿Quién eran las ordenanzas?

SA –También eran Hebreos

VP –Era como una policía judía

SA -Si, exacto, te pasaba algo, ibas a él, te hacía alguien algo, ibas a él, como un tribunal judío.

(extraído de los archivos sonoros de KHOYA: les archives sonores du Maroc juif, en Casablanca) entrevista hecha por Vanessa Paloma Elbaz el 27 de octubre del 2011.

Jewish Memory in Morocco featured in the New York Times

2015-08-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/travel/in-morocco-exploring-remnants-of-jewish-history.html

Wonderful & nuanced article by Michael Frank on Morocco's Jewish past and the relationship of this to its present & future-

In Morocco, Exploring Remnants of Jewish History

MAY 30, 2015

Inside the mellah, wares echo those once sold by its former inhabitants. Ingrid Pullar for The New York Times

Cultured Traveler

By MICHAEL FRANK

PBS newshour on the Jewish Community in Morocco

2015-08-04T06:32:00.002-07:00

Khoya: les archives sonores du Maroc juif

2015-03-21T15:13:00.001-07:00

Le réveil de la mémoire juive au Maroc

2014-11-23T10:58:00.001-08:00

Mouna Izddine catches the spirit of a burgeoning movement in Morocco - she presents it and speaks to some of the people most active in this process. I am honored to be counted amongst them in this article.
Click here to read:
L'Observateur du Maroc
http://juifdumaroc.over-blog.com/2014/11/le-reveil-de-la-memoire-juive.html

Majalis

2014-11-17T11:08:00.002-08:00

Take a look at the beautiful intermingling of Arabic, Hebrew, Haketía and Spanish in our performance of Majalis - directed by Fatym Layachi and performed by The Andalusian Orchestra of Tetuán directed by Master Amine Akrami with Fayçal Azizi, Zaineb Afailal and Vanessa Paloma in vocals.

Tangier Romances in written and recorded traces

2014-05-26T05:45:00.001-07:00

Written and recorded traces from Jewish Tangier

Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies

Tangier Medina
May 23, 2014

A handwritten songbook by Alia Isaac Cohen from 1934 Tangier and a recording from 1930 of two women from Tangier singing traditional ballads and speaking in Haketía were at the core of the discussion between Dr. Hilary Pomeroy (University College London) and Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (INALCO – Sorbonne Paris Cité).

Eighty years ago Alia Isaac Cohen dated her songbook filled with Romances (Ballads) from the oral tradition. Dr. Pomeroy published an edition and commentary of her songbook in 2005, where she explores the connections that this Moroccan Tangerine matriarch had with the literary tradition from medieval and renaissance Europe.

In 1930, Zarita Nahón recorded Simi Nahón de Toledano in New York while a student of Franz Boas. This recording has been archived at Indiana University’s Archive of Traditional Music. Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (who finished her graduate work in Indiana in 1996) discovered during her research of the Romances of Northern Morocco that her alma mater housed this historic archive and secured a copy to bring back to Morocco to form part of KHOYA: Jewish Morocco Sound Archive. This recording had never been heard publicly in Morocco and is a rare glimpse into the musical sound of Jewish women from the early twentieth century.

These two scholars presented the written and recorded traces of the Ballads from Tangier and discussed their similarities and differences.

UN, Mimouna, KHOYA programs in Morocco May 2014

2014-05-15T04:37:00.002-07:00

The United Nations Department for Holocaust education- Mimouna Foundation and KHOYA: Jewish Morocco Sound Archive did three shared programs in Morocco between May 8 - 10, 2014.

These programs focused on the history during Vichy in Morocco, Ashkenazi wartime refugees and the efforts made by the local community to help them. Other topics dealt with the tension felt by the Jewish community during the early war years before Operation Torch in 1942 and the role of HM Mohammed V in pushing against anti-Jewish measures.

Conference on Ashkenazi Refugees in Wartime Tangier

at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies


Rachel Muyal, giving testimony on the story of her brother who was put in jail by the Spanish in Tangier during the war for having Allied propaganda material in his pockets

Gerald Loftus, Director of TALIM, Kimberly Mann from the United Nations, Vanessa Paloma Elbaz from KHOYA

The TALIM director's blog gives a wonderful summary of the proceedings of the conference.

Le rôle de la société civile dans la promotion de la pluralité et la Lutte contre la Haine

The Role of Civil Society in Promoting

Cultural Diversity and Fighting Hatred

At Villa Mirador, Casablanca

(L to R) ElMehdi Boudra, President of the Mimouna Foundation, Hon. Brian Shukan Consul General of the United Stated is Casablanca, Kimberly Mann, Director of the Holocaust Education Department of the United Nations and Vanessa Paloma Elbaz, Founder and Director of KHOYA: Jewish Morocco Sound Archive at Villa Mirador in Casablanca.

L’Association Mimouna a pour mission la préservation et la promotion de l'héritage ancestral qu'est le Judaisme Marocain.

KHOYA: Les archives sonores du Maroc juif a pour but de créer une sonothèque répertoriant les sons et mémoires du Maroc juif à la disposition du grand public.

Le Programme d’éducation des Nations Unis sur la mémoire de l’Holocauste a commencé en 2006 et a pour but de mobiliser la société civile pour perpétuer la mémoire de l’Holocauste afin d'empêcher de tels génocides de se reproduire.

Kimberly Mann presented the programs of the United Nations throughout the world on Holocaust Education and genocide prevention

The Consul General spoke about the history of Villa Mirador during strategic meetings between Churchill and Roosevelt in early 1943 during the Anfa Conference that led to crucial battles that helped end the war.

The audience listened closely to an oral history testimony collected in 2008 from an octagenarian who had lived in the War in Casablanca.

Screening and Listening party at the Ecole Normale Hebraïque in Casablanca with Ms. Mann from the United Nations, Mr. Boudra & Ms. Ouggadoum from Mimouna Foundation and KHOYA

Kimberly Mann, Director of the Holocaust Education Department of the United Nations, speaking on Human Rights and the importance of the erradication of racism and hate - the students later saw a film on a young boy from Czecoslovakia, Petr Ginz.

Vanessa Paloma Elbaz speaking about KHOYA and playing excerpts of recordings of Jewish paraliturgical music referring to WWII and Hitler

ElMehdi Boundra and Houda Ouggadoum of the Mimouna Foundation speaking to the students at Ecole Normale Hebraïque in Casablanca

Megarama - Casablanca Mars 2014

2014-04-26T15:43:00.002-07:00

Article in Challenge

2014-04-26T15:28:00.001-07:00

Nice article about our concert at the Megarama on March 27 - Haim Botbol, Said Bey & Vanessa Paloma. Worth reading, and worth translating if your french is rusty!

Mose salio de Misrayim - Buena salida de Pascuas!

2014-04-24T05:28:00.004-07:00

A la salida de Pesah recordemos este cantar de Pascuas del Norte de Marruecos - en version concierto en el megarama de Casablanca el 27 de marzo del 2014.

Concierto en Casablanca

2014-04-24T04:40:00.000-07:00

Una tarde de verano pase por la morería... Romance conocido por todo el Mediterráneo como Don Bueso y en ciertas partes de Marruecos como "Al pasar por Casablanca" localizándolo en un espacio conocido.

Diego Leon - concert at the Megarama in Casablanca

2014-04-24T04:29:00.001-07:00

This Romance: Diego León was sung many times to me by both Julia Nahón and Sara Harrus - this version is a composite of their texts, together with the melody that Mme. Harrus sang to me. However, in my own interpretation I had to reduce the text to a shorter version of the whole song. Here we end on the text: Que los bienes de este mundo, Dios lo daba y los quitaba. (Because materials things are given and taken away by God) - which is the answer that Doña Juana gives her father who doesn't want to marry her to Diego Leon because he is not as wealthy as her father would like... Love conquered all in the end of the Romance, because she was intelligent and he was persistent!

Vanessa Paloma - En Kelohenou

2014-01-12T14:47:00.001-08:00

This Ein Keloheinu was sung at Slat El Fassiyine in Fez until the 1960s - to maintain the three languages of the Jews in Fez: Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Spanish. This performance, at the Benarrosh synagogue in Casablanca in April 2013, as the finale to the concert in honor of US Ambassadors Samuel and Sylvia Kaplan, is also historically significant because it was one of the first,m if not the first time that men and women sat together downstairs, that Muslim musicians were brought into the synagogue, that instruments were played inside the synagogue and that a woman sang publicly as a soloist in a synagogue in Casablanca as part of a public program. Without realizing it, we made history and were all connecting with the message of this prayer - nothing can compare to the ONE.