Courtine-Denamy: The House of Jacob

Esipuhe Julia Kristeva.

Touching and beautifully written book where the author, a French academic, traces her family history of exile back to the Spanish expulsion of 1492. The family's journey leads her to Salonika, Istanbul, Paris, America and Israel and to Auschwitz. But through all that time the Sephardic culture, foods and customs and the Judaeo-Spanish language of Ladino were never forgotten and are richly recreated here. Courtine-Denamy shows that Ladino is as vibrant as Hebrew. In the introduction, Julia Kristeva criticises Israel for exclusively promoting Hebrew and not doing more to prevent the Ladino language from dying. Translated from the French by William Sayers.