It was my first time to visit a synagogue, I mean an active/operating one. My first ever visit was in Córdoba… That was one was for Ladinos though. This time I visited an Ashkenazi Synagogue just near my highschool. I have been a bit blind during all these years; I thought there was only one synagogue near my school which was attacked back in 2003: Neve Şalom. I was wrong.
The opportunity has arisen with the email the Austrian Consulate’s Culture Office. A Klezmer Orhester member Roman Grinberg was coming to Istanbul to Ashkenazi Synagogue: Austro-Jewish Swing – popular Yiddish Songs and Klezmer Tunes. I love ladino language but I always had my doubts with Yiddish. The only album I had was from Nina Stiller[symple_social icon=”lastfm” url=”http://www.last.fm/music/Nina+Stiller” title=”Nina” target=”self” rel=””]. I kinda like “Friling” but that’s all. Yiddish sounds to me like something stuck in between Dutch and German.
I met Mısra and we waited for our turn to enter, I have to confess I was a bit excited; I always feel so when I enter religious sanctuaries. I saw some men taking kippa; then we sat down. Then WOW! I saw Janet & Jak Esim couple, it was such a surprise for me :) Mr. Grinberg was very talkative indeed, keep telling jokes about Jews, telling the stories behind his songs etc, he is actually a Moldovian who moved to Vienna.
To sum up, the synagogue was really beautiful. Especially the ceiling! I liked being in that atmosphere surrounded by one of the minorities in Istanbul, but still Ladino wins my heart :)
OMG!! Egecita’s into Ladino culture!!! I’ve heard that language sounds like 15th Century Spanish. Sephardi Jews!! U can probably understand almost everything in their lingo alright, can’t ya? ;P
By the way, i’m so proud u made up your mind to finally use the cute hispanized version of your already very beautiful name to brand your new blog here!! Parece que hubiera sido sólo ayer…. cuando por primera vez te llamé… Ege… cita. Jamás me pasó por la mente que te iba a gustar tanto el oír ese pequeño sufijo al final de tu nombre. Pero bueno, supongo que se ha debido más a tu amor por el español que a cualquier otra cosa. Aun así, no puedo evitar sentirme lleno de alegría, pues … he sido yo el primero en popularizar esta versión de tu nombre, la cual, gracias a este blog que has creado, quedará preservada para la posteridad!!! ;D Oh, and…. would ya please remind Sinancio to stop calling me “tío”. I mean, i’m not his uncle!! I’m Efra for God’s sake!! I’m afraid u guys somehow got overexposed to Medieval Spanish while in Barcelona!! X’D