Sefardi Folk Culture Grows in Cambridge

Sefardi Jewish culture boasts beautiful music, delicious food, and a fascinating language, Judeo-Spanish (also known as Ladino). Unfortunately, in the US, mainstream Jewish communities often erase Sefardi culture. Many Ashkenazi American Jews are unaware of and uninformed about Sefardi culture—and because of a lack of resources, some American Sefardi Jews struggle to learn about and practice their own traditions.

In spring 2024, Sefardi Jews Naomi Spector and Yinnon Sanders, started a ragtag club dedicated to Sefardi culture and language in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and called it Muestro Lashon (“Our Language,” another name for the Judeo-Spanish language Ladino). The club welcomes both Sefardi Jews and those who are not Sefardi but interested in learning more about the culture. Now, having just received a microgrant from the American Ladino League, the club exemplifies both an increased interest
in Sefardi culture and the power of grassroots, lay-led Jewish communities.

Spector is an ethnoherbalist, plant historian, and Spanish teacher whose practice draws on Sefardi, Ashkenazi, and Mediterranean plant traditions. For Lilith, she shared her advice for Sefardi Jews in the U.S. looking to connect to their culture: “Don’t wait for someone else to create the community you want! You don’t need to be an expert to lead a group or start creating a community. If you get some Sefardim together, knowledge, wisdom and questions will naturally emerge from that gathering; many of us have grown up isolated from other Sefardi Jews and have never been in the same room as other Sefardim outside of our immediate family. I cannot overstate how powerful it is just to get us together in the same space so we can meet each other, communicate, and start to build together.”