<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="article-title p-name entry-title" style="margin:0px 0px 13.5px;font-size:42px;line-height:46px;letter-spacing:-1px">UW builds largest digital library of Sephardic language</h1><div class="article-dateline" style="color:rgb(126,131,139);font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;margin-bottom:27px">Originally published August 9, 2015 at 8:30 pm Updated August 10, 2015 at 4:00 pm</div><div class="featured-media" style="max-width:630px;width:630px;float:left;color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px">Seattle is home to one of the most vibrant Sephardic Jewish communities in the country, and UW professor Devin Naar is working to keep its dying language, Ladino, alive. (Bettina Hansen & Corinne Chin / The Seattle Times)</div><div id="ad-right-top" class="ad right ad-right-wrapper" style="text-align:center;float:right;clear:right;margin-left:14.890625px;color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px"><div id="ad-right-top-full" class="ad-placeholder-full ad half-page" style="text-align:left;margin:0px 0px 15px"><div id="div-gpt-ad-right" class="dfp-ad dfp-right" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/81279359/seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education_1__container__" style="border:0pt none"></div></div></div><div id="div-gpt-ad-promo-right" class="dfp-ad dfp-promo-right ad" style="margin:0px 0px 15px"></div></div><div class="article-body e-content" style="clear:left"><p class="article-deck entry-summary p-summary" style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 27px 0px;padding:0px;clear:left;font-weight:600;width:631.640625px;float:none">Fast becoming a Sephardic guru, a University of Washington professor is building the world’s first digital library of books, letters and other materials in the centuries-old language of Ladino, with materials donated from Seattle’s large Sephardic Jewish community.</p><div id="ad-sponsor-bar" class="show-desktop section-sponsor-bar" style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;float:left;padding-right:30px"><div class="sponsored-by" style="line-height:1;height:15px;width:120px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:10px;font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(126,131,139)">SECTION SPONSOR</div><div id="div-gpt-ad-middle" class="dfp-ad dfp-middle" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/81279359/seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education_4__container__" style="border:0pt none"></div></div></div><div class="article-share vertical" style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;display:inline-block;float:left;vertical-align:top;margin:0px 30px 30px 0px;padding-top:40px;clear:left"><a class="social-share" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);display:block;float:none;width:44px;height:44px;border-radius:50%;text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;outline:0px!important;background:rgb(7,119,179)"><span class="icon-facebook large" style="font-size:42px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;color:rgb(255,255,255);display:inline"></span></a><a class="social-share" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);display:block;float:none;width:44px;height:44px;border-radius:50%;text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;outline:0px!important;background:rgb(7,119,179)"><span class="icon-mail large" style="font-size:42px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;color:rgb(255,255,255);display:inline"></span></a><a class="social-share" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);display:block;float:none;width:44px;height:44px;border-radius:50%;text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;outline:0px!important;background:rgb(7,119,179)"><span class="icon-twitter large" style="font-size:42px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;color:rgb(255,255,255);display:inline"></span></a></div><div class="article-byline" style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin-bottom:27px;margin-right:31.0625px;width:631.640625px;margin-left:165.671875px;float:none"><div class="name vcard" style="font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:21px">By <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/author/nina-shapiro/" rel="author" class="p-author h-card hcard url fn" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);text-decoration:none;outline:0px!important;background:0px 0px">Nina Shapiro</a></div><div class="title vcard" style="color:rgb(126,131,139);font-size:15px;font-style:italic"><span class="p-author fn" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Seattle Times staff reporter</span></div></div><div id="article-content" class="main-story-content entry-content" style="display:inline;padding-top:0px"><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">Devin Naar wasn’t hired at the University of Washington to teach Sephardic studies. The young scholar, only in his late 20s at the time, actually came to the university in 2011 to teach modern Jewish history.</p><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">Then the local Sephardic community found out that Naar could speak and read Ladino — <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-jews-weigh-becoming-spanish-citizens-500-years-after-expulsion/" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);text-decoration:none;outline:0px!important;background:0px 0px">the language of the diaspora</a> resulting from Spain’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492, a mixture of Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, Greek and other languages picked up in the lands where they settled.</p><div class="image-gallery-wrapper image-gallery-95441" style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px"><div id="image-gallery-95441" class="gallery align-none " style="max-width:100%;margin:0px 0px 27px 80.234375px;width:797.3125px;clear:both;float:none"><div class="slideshow-main" style="box-sizing: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="slides-main slideshow" style="box-sizing: inherit; position: relative; opacity: 1;"><div class="owl-wrapper-outer" style="overflow:hidden;width:797.3125px"><div class="owl-wrapper" style="width:3188px;background:rgb(0,0,0)"><div class="owl-item active" style="display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;width:797px"><div class="lazy-loading" style="float:left;width:50px;height:50px;border-radius:50%"></div><img class="" alt="Devin Naar’s collection includes hundreds of letters between family members in Seattle and their kin in the U.S. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)" src="http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/f617ba68-30da-11e5-97a5-8bc3079f7014-780x520.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); vertical-align: middle; width: auto; margin: auto; display: block; max-height: 600px; opacity: 1; transition: all 1s ease;"></div><div class="owl-item" style="display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;width:797px"><div class="lazy-loading" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></div><img class="pending-lazy-load" alt="Devin Naar taught himself to decipher Ladino using library books. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); vertical-align: middle; width: auto; margin: auto; display: block; max-height: 600px; opacity: 0; transition: all 1s ease; min-height: 100px;"></div></div></div></div><div class="navigation-main" style="height:520px;width:797.3125px;color:rgb(255,255,255)"><div class="prev" style="height:520px;width:119.59375px;margin:auto;font-size:18px"><span class="icon-chevron-thin-left" style="font-size:30px;line-height:1;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;display:inherit;padding:20px 20px 20px 5px;float:left;border-radius:0px 5px 5px 0px;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.14902)"></span></div><div class="next" style="height:520px;width:119.59375px;margin:auto;font-size:18px;text-align:right"><span class="icon-chevron-thin-right" style="font-size:30px;line-height:1;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;display:inherit;padding:20px 5px 20px 20px;float:right;border-radius:5px 0px 0px 5px;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.14902)"></span></div></div><span class="expand" href="#" style="text-align:center;display:block;width:40px;height:40px;border-radius:5px;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-size:14px;font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;font-weight:600;line-height:1.5;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.14902)"><span class="icon-expand" style="font-size:23px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;font-weight:400;display:block;margin:auto"></span></span></div><div class="slideshow-thumb" style="padding:7px 30px;background:rgb(0,0,0)"><div class="slides-thumb slideshow owl-theme" style="box-sizing: inherit; opacity: 1;"><div class="owl-wrapper-outer" style="overflow:hidden;width:737.3125px"><div class="owl-wrapper" style="width:296px"><div class="owl-item synced" style="display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;width:74px"><div class="thumb" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><img src="http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/f617ba68-30da-11e5-97a5-8bc3079f7014-300x192.jpg" alt="Devin Naar’s collection includes hundreds of letters between family members in Seattle and their kin in the U.S. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); display: block; height: auto; max-height: 51px;"></div></div><div class="owl-item" style="display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;width:74px"><div class="thumb" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><img src="http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/daef9364-30da-11e5-97a5-8bc3079f7014-300x192.jpg" alt="Devin Naar taught himself to decipher Ladino using library books. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); display: block; height: auto; max-height: 51px;"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="navigation-thumb" style="height:61px;width:797.3125px;color:rgb(255,255,255)"><div class="prev" style="width:30px;margin:auto;font-size:18px;text-align:center"><span class="icon-chevron-left" style="font-size:20px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none"></span></div><div class="next" style="width:30px;margin:auto;font-size:18px;text-align:center"><span class="icon-chevron-right" style="font-size:20px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none"></span></div></div></div><div class="slideshow-meta" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><div class="slide-caption article-figure-caption" style="font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;padding:10px 10px 0px;color:rgb(126,131,139);margin:10px 10px 0px;font-style:italic"><span class="slide-count" style="font-weight:700;font-style:normal;padding-right:5px"><span class="slide-current" style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> of <span class="slide-total" style="box-sizing: inherit;">2</span> </span><span class="caption" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Devin Naar’s collection includes hundreds of letters between family members in Seattle and their kin in the U.S. and abroad. At left is a letter written in Ladino with Hebrew script; at right is a 9-year-old girl’s Ladino letter written in the Latin alphabet.... (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)</span> <span class="caption-toggle" style="font-weight:700;display:inline-block;margin-left:5px">More <span class="icon-chevron-thin-down" style="font-size:14px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;font-style:normal;font-weight:400"></span></span></div></div></div></div><div id="promo-left-full" class="marketing-placeholder-full article-subscribe" style="color:rgb(126,131,139);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;clear:left;width:134.609375px;float:left;margin-right:31.0625px;margin-bottom:30px"><div id="div-gpt-ad-promo-left" class="dfp-ad dfp-promo-left" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/81279359/seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education_2__container__" style="border:0pt none"></div></div></div><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">This is an unusual skill. Naar says he doesn’t know of any U.S. universities that teach students how to read Ladino in Hebrew script, as it was written until the mid-1900s. This is particularly difficult when it comes to handwritten Ladino because, Naar says, “<a class="webonlylink" href="http://jewishstudies.washington.edu/sephardic-studies/how-to-write-soletreo-ladino-alphabet-with-david-bunis/" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);text-decoration:none;outline:0px!important;background:0px 0px">the way Sephardic Jews write Hebrew</a> looks almost nothing like the way other Jews write Hebrew.” Cursive Ladino, in fact, is reminiscent of Arabic.</p><div class="article-profile" style="border:1px solid rgb(224,224,224);font-size:15px;line-height:19px;clear:both;margin-bottom:30px"><div class="article-profile-content" style="padding:15px"><div class="article-profile-header" style="margin-bottom:10px"><h3 class="title" style="margin:0px;font-size:19px;line-height:25px;font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif">Related story</h3></div><p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px"></p><div class="image-single-wrapper image-35228 " style="box-sizing: inherit;"><img src="http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/1a9b1488-2a60-11e5-9ccf-649154ae7ed3-1560x1021-1-1020x668.jpg" alt="" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); vertical-align: middle; width: auto; margin: 0px auto; display: block; max-height: none;"><span class="expand" style="text-align:center;display:block;width:40px;height:40px;border-radius:5px;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-size:14px;font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;font-weight:600;line-height:1.5;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.14902)"><span class="icon-expand" style="font-size:23px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;font-weight:400;display:block;margin:auto"></span></span></div><p style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px"></p><h3 class="article-title p-name entry-title" style="margin:0px 0px 10px;font-size:22px;line-height:23px;font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-jews-weigh-becoming-spanish-citizens-500-years-after-expulsion/" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);text-decoration:none;outline:0px!important;background:0px 0px">Seattle Jews weigh becoming Spanish citizens, 500 years after expulsion</a></h3></div></div><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">Naar, trying to decipher letters left behind by a Sephardic great-uncle, taught himself to decode the script using library books.</p><div class="most-read-container module article-aside story-list most-shared truncate show" style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;clear:right;float:right;width:300px;margin-left:30px;margin-bottom:30px"><ul style="margin:0px 0px 13.5px;padding:0px;list-style:none"><h3 style="margin:0px;font-size:24px;font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;border-bottom-width:3px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(35,31,32);padding-bottom:5px">Most Read Stories</h3><li class="most-read-widget-item most-read-widget-item-1" style="line-height:23px;margin:0px 0px 0px 14px;list-style-type:none;font-size:17px;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(224,224,224)"><a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/black-lives-matter-protesters-shut-down-bernie-sanders-rally/" style="color:rgb(35,31,32)!important;text-decoration:none;outline:0px!important;display:block;padding:10px 0px 10px 45px;background:0px 0px"><div class="most-read-teaser-image" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></div><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Black Lives Matter protesters shut down Bernie Sanders; 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And books. Lots of books.</p><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">In all — including the voluminous materials Naar found in a cache of Safeway bags buried in the basement of Seward Park’s Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, dubbed the “Safeway Archives”— Naar has collected more than 700 Ladino books and at least as many items of other types.</p><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">The Ladino collection is among the nation’s largest, second to the one housed at Yeshiva University in New York. Among the finds is a rare book of ethics published in Istanbul in the 1740s and a <a class="webonlylink" href="http://jewishstudies.washington.edu/sephardic-studies/a-guide-for-sephardic-immigrants/" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);text-decoration:none;outline:0px!important;background:0px 0px">1916 book </a>of advice to immigrants to the U.S., which among weightier matters carries a useful explanation of how to eat ice-cream cones. (Ice cream, Sephardic Jews had seen before. Ice cream <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">cones</em>, not so much.)</p><div class="image-single-wrapper image-16963 " style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px"><img src="http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/daef9364-30da-11e5-97a5-8bc3079f7014-300x200.jpg" alt="Devin Naar taught himself to decipher Ladino using library books. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); vertical-align: middle; width: auto; margin: 0px auto; display: block; max-height: none;"><span class="caption full" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Devin Naar taught himself to decipher Ladino using library books. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)</span><span class="expand" style="text-align:center;display:block;width:40px;height:40px;border-radius:5px;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-size:14px;font-family:ff-dagny-web-pro,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;font-weight:600;line-height:1.5;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.14902)"><span class="icon-expand" style="font-size:23px;line-height:1;vertical-align:middle;font-family:icomoon;speak:none;font-weight:400;display:block;margin:auto"></span></span></div><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">As excitement built among Seattle’s Sephardim, who still use some Ladino words in prayers and everyday speech, several families and a foundation donated money to get a new <a class="webonlylink" href="http://jewishstudies.washington.edu/sephardic-studies/" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);text-decoration:none;outline:0px!important;background:0px 0px">Sephardic studies program</a>off the ground. It started three years ago, with Naar as its chairman, as part of UW’s Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.</p><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">Naar and his small team are digitally scanning their Ladino materials to create what they believe will be the world’s first interactive, online <a class="webonlylink" href="http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16786coll3" style="color:rgb(7,119,179);text-decoration:none;outline:0px!important;background:0px 0px">Ladino library and museum</a>. They have started to upload materials, along with English translations of key passages and historical context.</p><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none">And Naar, now 32, with youthful ringlets that belie a mature, scholarly manner, is fast becoming a Sephardic guru. He recently returned from a conference in France, where he delivered a lecture about Seattle’s Sephardic Jews — in Ladino, joining a small group of people from around the world who understand the centuries-old language.</p><p style="color:rgb(35,31,32);font-family:ff-meta-serif-web-pro,Georgia,serif;font-size:19px;line-height:27px;margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none"><br></p><p style="margin:0px 31.0625px 13.5px 165.671875px;padding:0px;width:631.640625px;float:none"><font color="#231f20" face="ff-meta-serif-web-pro, Georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:19px;line-height:27px"><a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/uw-builds-largest-digital-library-of-sephardic-language/">http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/uw-builds-largest-digital-library-of-sephardic-language/</a></span></font><br></p></div></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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