Tag Archives: Sephardic music artist

MBS a talk with a generous disseminator, Joel Bresler, and the quest for the multiples branches of an artistic seed

4th December 2020 – Shabbat is almost here 

And I am pleased to share a little conversation with another disseminator whose work has fed mine in several ocassions: Joel Bresler. And we’ll listen Ruth Yaakov’s Majo, Majo i Majo and discover how a song can produce many branches. 

Hello, how are you? I hope well. You know how I love old music. But from time to time I like to talk with people that are alive, because they can answer. I would love to make questions to Moishe Oysher or to Bienvenida Aguado but for now I just can dialogue with them in my fantasy. So on this occasion, I will be exchanging ideas with another disseminator whose work is exceptional: Joel Bresler, creator of SephardicMusic.org. He is also very fond of old music and not only old. He is, in his own words, an “obsessed” collector and discographer.

On this enlightening report, “The Music of the Sephardim” in Early Music America magazine, he and Judith Cohen (with whom I will talk soon) explain what is the Sephardic music and they mention several artists that have striven for authenticity and Ruth Yaakov is one of them. Find the video with her music at the bottom.

– And, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom – ?

Hannukah is coming soon and the last Hannukah is when this Music Before Shabbat initiative was born. Celebrate this birthday with me ?. All I want as a birthday present is to welcome more people here. Share this with your friends and with anybody who can enjoy it. Thank you in advance.
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Joel Bresler’s SephardicMusic.org

The website SephardicMusic.org has been a source of information for me in several occasions, specially related to the oldest recordings. For it didn’t seem to be supported by any organization, so I got curious to learn who was behind this jewel. And it was not difficult: Joel Bresler is the author and here below you have a little conversation in which he explains some interesting facts. I am really thanksful to him for his dedication! In the picture you see Joel with Mrs. Sylvia Cohen, who donated 78-rpm recordings for his project ?

Araceli Tzigane: As a disseminator of Jewish music, and moreover being a Spanish person, your website is a treasure for me. I feel I can understand what forces drives you to disseminate this music you love. Because I think this is not a business, despite you may earn some income from the sales from Amazon done through the website. These kinds of initiatives come from some transcendental need. Which is yours?

Joel Bresler: So glad you enjoy the website – that means a lot to me! I have never earned any money from the amazon links, so that wasn’t a motivation. I went from devotee to collector to discographer. Enjoyed the music, then started collecting it, then attempting to collect every recording ever made with at least one song in ladino. And by then, since I had built a “want list” of recordings that weren’t in my collection I turned it into a discography. First for LPs, cassettes and CDs. And then a separate effort for 78s. 

AT: In the website, in the About, you explain that you were transfixed by Sephardic music when you first heard it thirty years ago (now it must be around forty years ago, right?).

JB: Yes. 

AT: But what happened, why did you get transfixed? What was the specific song or recording? Was it just because of the music or also because you realized there were Jews who spoke Spanish out of Spain for 5 centuries or anything else?

JB: I love Renaissance music and also listened to a lot of Spanish Renaissance music. So my first Sephardic recording was the Hesperion XX double LP of Jewish and Christian music. They performed Sephardic music as Renaissance music which is actually not that authentic, but it was my start. 

AT: I’d like to highlight that you have another career, you are currently the Director of Technology Ventures at Northeastern University. It sounds very cutting edge. You are not the first Jewish person who I have met that works in something very technological and at the same time has an initiative related to the dissemination of Jewish culture, like a festival of live music or your website. Are you also a musician yourself? Do you have any other initiative, apart from your work and the website of SephardicMusic.org?

JB: I fell deeply for the American folk song Follow The Drinking Gourd and wrote a cultural history of it at www.followthedrinkinggourd.org . I have also prepared political parodies the last three us presidential elections, see:

2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD-vY5WIZdw
2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_9CltI4G8&feature=youtu.be 
2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWs7TXCy7uI&t=5s  

AT: What are the origins of your family? I believe Bresler comes from Breslau/Wrocław, the city that is currently in the South West of Poland, doesn’t it? Can you explain to me the background of your ancestors from both sides? Bresle is the Yiddish for Wroclaw. I believe you may not have Sephardic ancestors, do you? (according to your answer I might have to ask you something more).

JB: Hi, you have all this exactly right. My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Karo, which as you may was the name of a very well-known and influential Sephardic rabbi. There were Sephardim who made it as far as Poland, so it’s possible even if not likely. Since it is such an influential name, it could be my ancestors adopted it for the prestige. We may never know. I’ll probably get a genetics test some day!

Related to Joseph Karo, Joel provided several links:

This is a picture of the Market Square in Breslau, between 1890-1900 at the time when it was Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) ca. View from the East. This is in Wikipedia and is of public domain. Might be one of these people any ancestor of Joel Bresler?

AT: So one side of your family comes from Poland. And the other side too? Your grandparents from your father and also from your mother, were from Poland? And do you know when did your ancestors arrive to the USA?

JB: Yes, all four grandparents from Poland (though one was US-born.) And perhaps some ancestors from Spain (much earlier!!. Key word here is “perhaps”!) On my maternal side, approx. 1920 or so. On my paternal side, my grandfather was here at roughly the same time; my grandmother was US born and so her parents like arrived late 19th century??

AT: In your website I found a link to the work of 2009 The Music of the Sephardim, by you and Judith Cohen. There you mention that: “But some musicians constantly invoke a mythological exoticism and the supposed antiquity of Sephardic song as an excuse to make of it what they will and justify it in the name of “creativity.””. I have to say that I totally agree and that the same happens with traditional music from Spain (not Sephardic, but rural traditional). The invocation of its antiquity, or of its coming from the tradition, is used to legitimate also mediocre works. Don’t you think it may happen the same in many other traditions? Doesn’t it happen with Askenazi or Yemenite Jewish music?

JB: I believe that after World War II, once musicians hear a song they can take it and perform it however they might wish to. It used to be difficult to find repertory – there were actually song-sharing groups active in the folk community in the 1960s. Now, with Itunes, Spotify, digitized field recording, Youtube, etc. It’s quite easy.

AT: Are you interested in receiving new recordings of Sephardic songs that are done nowadays? If so, how shall the people send them to you?

JB: My public account is joelbresler@gmail.org. I am always interested in new recordings. Although i am not doing a comprehensive discography of electronic recordings – a job for the next generation. 

AT: In this edition I will accompany your interview with a recording by Ruth Yaakov: “Majo, majo y majo” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty-7V-MZfFo She is one of the singers you and Judith Cohen (old friend of mine, with whom I will talk here soon) mention that have striven for authenticity. She is really outstanding, one of those singers that are quite impossible to imitate. Do you want to share any insight about this recording or about the song or about Ruth Yaakov?

JB: Aside from deep admiration for her work and artistry, I don’t have too much to add. As opposed to scholars like Judith, I am “just” an obsessed collector and discographer! 

 

The Jews in Wrocław

So the origin of Joel Bresler’s surname and at least of some of his ancestors is Breslau, currently Wrocław in Polish. After the II World War and the Potsdam Agreement (August 1945) the city became part of Poland. I would have been in Wrocław last June, for a concert by Gulaza. It is one of the losses caused by the pandemic. Nevertheless, the city is still there, waiting for me…. 

According to JGuideEurope, the oldest Jewish tombstone found in Wrocław (Breslau) dates back to 1203, indicating that by then Wrocław was home to a permanent Jewish community. In 1290, Wrocław had the second largest Jewish community in East Central Europe, after Prague. Click the link to learn more about the history of Jews in this city, that was a referential point in several moments.

This is the White Stork synagogue in 1979, by Stiopa in Wikipedia ?

The website of the Jewish Community of Wrocław explains that:

“The resurgence of the Jewish community in Wrocław took place after 1989. Scientific conferences, exhibitions and cultural events dedicated to Jewish issues began to be organised in the city. Scientific research on fascism and the Holocaust in Silesia was developed, as well as on the history of the Jews of Lower Silesia after the Second World War. In 1993, the Centre for the Study of the Culture and Languages of Polish Jews was established at the University of Wrocław, transformed in 2003 into the Study of Jewish Culture and Languages.

Until 2006, there was an independent Jewish religious community at Wrocław, which was then incorporated into the structure of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in the Republic of Poland and transformed into a branch of the ZGWŻ at Wrocław. The branch has its own rabbi: since 2013 it has been Tyson Herberger, who is the Chief Rabbi of Wrocław and Silesia. TSKŻ still operates in the city, as well as several organizations dealing with Jewish culture and education, including the Bente Kahan Foundation and the GESHER Foundation for Jewish Culture and Education. Aleksander Gleichgewicht has been the president since 2012.”

This is the White Stork synagogue nowadays in Google Maps Street View:
For further information, visit the mentioned links and the page about Wrocław in Sztetl.org.pl
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Listen to Majo, Majo i Majo by Ruth Yaakov

As Ruth Yaakov (born in 1960 in Israel) is one of the artists that, according to the article “The Music of the Sephardim“, have striven for authenticity, I have chosen a piece of her work. From the album Shaatnez (Piranha Records, 1998), by Ruth Yaakob Ensemble, I have chosen Majo, majo y majo, with a part of the lyrics of the piece El mancebo enamorado (The young man in love), that shares part of the lyrics with the story of the but also of the song of the Ciego raptor (The blind raptor). Under the picture you’ll find the lyrics that Ruth Yaakov sings in this recording. But before, let’s go deeper into this piece.

In the popular anonymous pieces that have been transmitted orally it is very normal that versions and divergences arise. This is a case in point. I have located several references and recordings that exemplifly it well.

The Maale Adumim Institute for the Documentation of the Jewish-Spanish (Ladino) Language and Culture has several versions, published in their El Trezoro de Kantes de Sefarad (Sefarad Song Treasure). There are many other recordings named El mancebo enamorado, but I have selected the ones that have at least one stanza similar to what Ruth Yaakov sings. The stanza of majo, majo i majo is present in many occasions between any other lyrics, usually related to love, but in some ocassions it is sang together with the lullaby “nani, nani”.

  • This one from the Bulgarian tradition, sang by M. Tiferet, recorded in Yafo in 1978
  • This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Kobi Zarko, recorded in Jerusalem in 1989
  • This one from the Greek tradition, sang by Dasa Liza (date and place of the recorded not indicated)
  • This one, that includes just one of the stanzas, from the Turkish tradition, sang by Ilter Yitshak, recorded in Bat Yam in 1978
  • This one, from the Turkish tradition, sang by Politi Mazal, recorded in Jerusalem in 1979 (the first part is another piece)
  • This one (tradition not mentioned but I feel it sounds Turkish), sang by Karavani Hanna, recorded in Jerusalem in 1984 (just the first stanza is shared with the other versions)
  • This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Levy Ventura, recorded in Jerusalem in 1985 (this includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo between many other stanzas)
  • This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Mizrahi Rivka, recorded in Jerusalem in 1979 (this includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo after other two)
  • This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Zevulun Estrea, recorded in Beer-Sheva in 1978 (this includes the stanza of “akodravos dama” (remember, lady) at the beginning and the one of “los males son kurados” (ailments are cured) that is also present in other versions)
  • This one (tradition not indicated), sang by Vardi Zaavi, date and place not indicated. This includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo in the middle.

Some of the stanzas and ideas of the lyrics of this piece are shared with another piece, with very different meaning: the blind raptor. I found the lyrics at the website of Pan-Hispanic Ballad Project. This song registered by David Romey in Seattle between 1948 and 1950 starts like the other and the last stanza is also shared, but the story is quite different. In this, the foreigner pretends to be blind to beg at the house of the girl he loves and kidnaps her. His mother wonders where his Flor (flower, used as the girl’s name) is.

So far I am sure you want to listen to the announced recording by Ruth Yaakov, so here you are!

Click the picture to listen to the recording:

 

Lyrics

Majo i majo i majo
Agua en el mortero
No ay ken s’adjideye
De este forastero
No ay ken s’adjideye
De este forastero.

Akodravos damma
De akel pan i sal
Ke durmimos djuntos
En un kavesal
Ke durmimos djuntos
En un kavesal

I dezir ansí
yo ya me cansí;
Ke de vuestro fuego
yo ya me cansí.
Ke de vuestro fuego
yo ya me cansí.

Majo i majo i majo
Agua en el mortero
No ay ken s’adjideye
De este forastero
No ay ken s’adjideye
De este forastero

 I mash, mash and mash
water in the mortar.
No one take pity
on this foreigner.
No one take pity
on this foreigner.

Remember, lady,
that bread and salt
we ate together
on a pillow.
We ate together
on a pillow.

And to say so
I got tired.
I got tired
of your fire.
I got tired
of your fire.

I mash, mash and mash
water in the mortar.
No one take pity
on this foreigner.
No one take pity
on this foreigner.
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Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

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Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

MBS with Salim Halali and two thrilling tales. Believe or not, it is up to you

November 20th, 2020. Shabbat is almost here 

And we’ll learn about an artist in whose biography myth blends with facts. Born in Algeria in 1920, settled in Paris during the occupation of the nazis, he would later be called the “King of Shaabi”: he is Salim (Simon) Halali.

Hello! How are you? I hope well. In this occasion I want to say thanks to Patricia Álvarez. She is a friend of mine from Madrid, a wonderful dancer and a culture enthusiast, especially from the Mediterranean basin, the Balkans and the Middle East. She introduced me to the work of Salim Halali. So, thank you, Patricia! 

In this bio of Salim (super large, and I still would have been able to follow many more threads) there are facts and tales, that you can believe or not. I will explain the sources and you can judge by yourself but… do you know? The stories are worth of it. I hope you’ll like them.

? And remember, there are previous editions of MBS about Algerian Jews: Reinette L’Oranaise, Saoud L’Oranaise and Cheik Zouzou.

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– And, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom – ?
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The Algerian Jewish boy who wanted to be a flamenco singer

Shlomo or Simon Halali was born in Bône, currently Annaba, in 1920, from a family from Souk-Ahras. His father was a Turkish and his mother was a Berber-Jew. He left the country very soon, at his just 14 years old, searching for a career in music (even when he didn’t have any education in music). He wanted to be a flamenco singer.

So in 1934 he got to travel to Marseille, as a stowaway on a ship. Some time after, he went to Paris, where the International Expo would take place in 1937, with the hope to get a job at the Algerian pavilion. There, he found some compatriots, like Mahieddine Bachtarzi, who was the director of the first Andalusian music association of the Maghreb: El Moutribia.

? Listen to Mr. Bachtarzi, here.
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Simon would later be renamed as Salim and he would reach high recognition.

Continue below, under this picture of the Hôtel de Ville of Bône:
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About Souk-Akhras, in ancient time it was Thagaste, a very important Roman city, the birthland of Saint Augustine.

According to the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World edited by Norman A. Stillman, the modern town began in the 1850s as a French military post, and by 1856 it had a permanent Jewish settlement. Some of the Jewish inhabitants were Baḥuṣim, semi-nomadic Jews from the surrounding region who adopted a sedentary lifestyle in the new town. Others were Jews of Livornese descent (from the city of Livorno, in the North coast of Italy to the Tyrrhenian sea).

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And this is the Hôtel de Ville of Souk-Akhras (picture kindly released for public domain by the author, Abdallahdjabi):

But let’s stop and hear a story. Believe it or not. You decide.

Sources for Salim‘s bio: 

The story of a forbidden love

The first tale

I found this story in the comments of the video in Youtube that you have at the bottom. And the same is in the facebook page La Page Thagastoise. Believe it or not. Salim has openly gay. But during his life he loved a woman. I believe it, as many years ago I was loved by a man who was gay some time after and now he is married with another man.

The story is translated and a little summarized by me, from the original from that mentioned page. The story is about the forbidden love between a Jewish boy and a Muslim girl from a large family of Souk-Ahras: Salim Halali (Simon at the beginning) and Ryma (that is how he nicknamed her, and sometimes he called her Fettouma too).

Simon and Ryma were neighbors and also distant cousins ​​through the Ryma’s paternal grandmother. Indeed, the father of Ryma, a notable of Souk-Ahras was the son of a Jewish lady, converted to Islam, from the very old family of Ouled Kakou, from Souk-Ahras. These two children grew up together. They were inseparable like a brother and sister.

A few years later, having become a very beautiful and young woman, Ryma was forbidden by her father to see Simon again, who had also become a tall and charming boy. But they found a way to meet again discreetly at Ryma’s paternal great-aunt, Rimoun Kakou, who unlike her sister (the grandmother of Ryma) remained of the Jewish faith.

Made aware of this secret relationship, the father of Ryma, furious and with a great anger, hits Simon and outright forbids his daughter to go to her aunt Rimoun.

< The Great Synagogue of Marseille. The newspapers said in 2016 that it had been was sold to an Islamic cultural organization and it would become a mosque. But nowadays it is still a Synagogue and was renamed in 2018 as Breteuil-Beth Yossef, honoring the ex Great Rabbi of Marseille, Joseph Haïm Sitruk. It can be visited and it is a very recognized treasure for its historic relevance.

Far from Ryma, sad and unemployed, Simon leaved Souk-Ahras at the age of 15 (the biographies use to say at 14) and went to Marseille to look for work. Back in Souk-Ahras, two years later, and with a little money, he asks her father for Ryma’s hand, who categorically refuses to marry his daughter to a Jew. Indeed, Ryma’s father had already promised his daughter to a rich and very famous man from Souk-Ahras who ended up marrying her.

Unhappy, Simon leaved Souk-Ahras permanently at the age of 17 for Paris. And he would come back just once, in 1958.

Ryma’s husband died two years after her marriage in a traffic accident. Widowed, Ryma was forced by her father to marry a cousin of his, 25 years older than her. She moved with him to Annaba and later to Tunis. They had two daughters. Upon the death of her second husband, Ryma left Tunis and moved with these two girls to Bordeaux where they successfully completed their brilliant medical studies. In Tunis she got closer to her great-uncle Joseph Kakou, who was a soldier.

In the meantime, Simon moved to Paris, where he sang in cabarets. France was under the colaborationist Vichy government. Fleeing the pro-Nazi French police, Simon took refuge in the great Mosque of Paris for several months. At this time, his name would be changed for Salim. Learn more on the next story, below.

And still in love with Ryma, Simon only sang her name. He dedicated his first and famous song, “Mahani Ezinne” to her, but also “Rimoun Rmetni”, “Fettouma taaz alaya” and many other hits.

In 1958, Salim returned to Souk-Ahras where he gave a concert in Thagaste Square. There he was finally given news of his beloved. He followed her footsteps to Tunis where he learns from Joseph Kakou that she has gone to Bordeaux. He immediately left for Bordeaux to find her but she had left with her eldest daughter for the United States after her marriage to a wealthy American.

Casablanca. Spanish post office and the German consulate in the medina. Date unknown.
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In 1982 Salim installed in Casablanca in Morocco. There he finally had news of his beloved Ryma by a Souk-Ahrassien (Ex Minister and ex Ambassador) married with his young daughter. Note that Salim was already 62 years old and they hadn’t meet each other since he was 17. The daughter organized a meeting between Salim and Ryma in Paris in a famous restaurant. The reunion between the two old lovebirds of Souk-Ahras was sad and very moving.

Salim had improvised while weeping a song for Ryma who was also very moved, the famous Alach Ya Ghzali. He learnt from Ryma that she knew everything about him and his singing career: she listened to him every day and she knew all his songs by heart.

Ryma died in Bordeaux in 1986 at the age of 66, where she is buried. Salim travelled from Morocco especially to attend her funeral where it seems he had read aloud the Fatiha (the first chapter, or sura, of the Quran) in her memory.

The sources mentioned by this person, who doesn’t identify his/herself are:

  • Kamel M
  • Brahim Merakta from Casablanca, close friend of Salim
  • Ryma’s little daughter (now in Bordeaux)
  • Old testimony from one of the sisters of Ryma’s first husband
  • Joseph Kakou’s daughter (Cannes)

 

The Jews and the Great Mosque of Paris at the Vichy period

About this story there is some controversy. Some state that the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris saved thousands of Jews, providing them documents with Muslim identities. Others say they might be around 100.

This wonderful picture of the Great Mosque at a time when Salim could be there is from the website of FranceCulture.fr:
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On the occasion of the release in 2012 of the film Les Hommes Libres by Ismaël Ferroukh, the newspaper Haaretz made a interesting review of the available positions and evidences. Find it complete, here. And I summarice here below. But, before, I quote a paragraph that is specially meaningful:

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“Posing as Muslims would presumably have been technically possible for some of the North African Jews living in France. The Jewish men, like the Muslim ones, were circumcised. Jews and Arabs had shared surnames. Their outward appearance and knowledge of Arabic also helped an unknown number of Jews assimilate into the Muslim community. But the Germans did not easily give up on their demand that someone suspected of being a Jew prove his origins. That was the context for their turning to the Great Mosque of Paris with requests that it rule whether a particular person was Jewish or Muslim.”
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  • Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy: “uncovered the most important written evidence to date relating to the subject: a note from a bureaucrat in the French foreign affairs ministry to the foreign minister, dated September 24, 1940, which describes the Germans’ activity against the mosque, that says “The occupation authorities suspect the personnel of the Mosque of Paris of fraudulently delivering to individuals of the Jewish race certificates attesting that the interested persons are of the Muslim confession. The imam was summoned, in a threatening manner, to put an end to all such practices. It seems, in effect, that a number of Jews resorted to all sorts of maneuvers of this kind to conceal their identity.”
  • Albert Assouline, North African Jew who fled from Germany to France and found shelter in the Great Mosque: “no fewer than 1,732 Resistance fighters found refuge in the cellars of the mosque”.
  • Dalil Boubakeur, head of the Mosque in 2012, estimated that the Mosque supported around 100 Jews, supplied them with Muslim identity certificates that enabled them to survive.
  • Dr. Simcha Epstein, a Paris-born historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who studies anti-Semitism and the Holocaust: “The doubt is not about whether the mosque aided or did not aid Jews, but rather regarding the number of Jews the mosque helped.”
  • Prof. Renee Poznanski,of Ben-Gurion University, specialist on French Jewry during the German occupation: “I have not come across any such thing in the documentation and testimonies. If it indeed happened, we are talking about a historically minor phenomenon, of very small dimensions, but important of course.”
  • Yad Vashem: “Yad Vashem made a supreme effort to locate survivors who Benghabrit saved at the time of the Holocaust, and went to great lengths to gather archive material pertaining to the rescue operation at the Mosque of Paris, including applying to the mosque’s archive. Every effort was in vain. No testimonies from survivors or relevant documents were found.”

I strongly recommend you to check the complete report in Hareetz, that has much more interesting facts about the mentioned film and other relevant issues.

 

What is the relationship between Salim and the Great Mosque of Paris?

The second tale

Salim Halali is one of the characters in the film Les Hommes Libres. Remember he set in Paris in 1937. There, he performed at the Maure café of the Great Mosque of Paris. Kaddour Benghabrit, the founder and first rector of the Mosque, who was a musician himself, became friend of Salim and, during the German occupation, would help to hide his Jewish origins by providing him with a false Muslim certificate and engraving the name of his late father on an anonymous grave of the Muslem cemetery of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis).

At this moment I would like to introduce the other tale. It is also from the Facebook page The Page Thagastoise.

In 1942, an Algerian young man from Oran, Younès, came to Paris to earn money to send back to Algeria. He decided to make the black market. One day, he was arrested by the French police. The intelligence officers then proposed to him to cooperate: they will allow his illegal trade but in exchange, he must go to the Paris Great Mosque to spy on the rector, Si Kaddour Benghabrit, and report to them.

The French police collaborator of the Nazis though the rector was providing counterfeit papers to the Jews and to the resistance. Younès accepts the deal. But very quickly, he got deeply in love with a singer from Souk Ahras, a certain Salim Halali, who had found refuge at the Grand Mosque in Paris and had to pass for a Muslim. To remove any doubts, Salim prayed five times. Younès believed that Salim was not a Jew.

The rector had give Salim counterfeit identity documents, changing his name from Simon to Salim, saving him from a certain death. He would keep that new name until his last day.

 

What happened with Salim after the World War II?

According to the Institut Européen des Musiques Juives, his music became quite popular. In 1947 and in 1948 he set two entertainment venues (cabaret).

In 1949, Salim moved to Morocco and bought an old café in the mellah* of Casablanca, which he transformed into a prestigious cabaret: “Le Coq d’Or”. This venue was visited by the rich families of the country and celebrities. But the cabaret was destroyed in a fire and Salim then returned to France at the beginning of the 1960s. He was known for his extravagant parties, in which he even took elephants (and he had two tigers as pets) to the garden in his villa, as well as for his artistic work.

He stopped singing in 1993 (but made one occasional concert in 1994) and left for a retirement home in Vallauris. He died on June 25, 2005 in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) and his ashes are scattered in Nice in a garden.

According to the same story as before, from The Page Thagastoise:

Salim confided in this doctor, Dr. Abdallah Khémis, that he had given all his copyrights to the disabled of Algeria and offered to the Algerian embassy in Paris a “great value” carpet, according to his own terms. This physician, who practiced at Larcher Hospital in Nice, confirmed that Salim Halali had never forgotten Souk Ahras and that he had dedicated to the city his celebratory songs El Forga Morra and Ya Ghorbati.

* The mellah is the Jewish quarter of the cities in Morocco, usually surrounded by a wall with a fortified gateway.

Mellah of Casablanca at the beginning of XX century.
Picture of public domain available in Wikipedia. Find more here.

 

Listen to Ya Qalbi Khali Hal by Salim Halili

Listen to the rendition by Salim Halali of this poem, Ya qalbi khali hal, in an Arabo-Andalusi style. Lyrics in English, below.

Click the picture to listen to the recording:

LYRICS:

Oh, my heart, let the situation continue on its way.
Leave all the words and listen carefully to what they say.
Slow down, don’t hurry, the one who waits wins.
Deliverance comes in its own time, from the lord to his creature.
Sadness as well as comfort, all come from God.
Be patient during the tests, until God delivers you.
Judgements are established in advance, God’s verdict is inevitable.
Be patience with me, sorrow is never eternal.
Such is this earthly life, it raises some people and sets others down.

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música 

To know more about our artists, click here.

 

MBS with Victoria Hazan, the Sephardic Anatolian voice of fire ?

November 6th, 2020. Shabbat is almost here

And our star today is Victoria Hazan, an extraordinary Anatolian singer who moved to the USA in 1920 and recorded an album, Todas mis esperansas (all my hopes), that is a wonderful legacy. 

Hello! How are you? I hope well. A few days ago there was an earthquake that has been specially destructive in Smyrna. Just by chance I had been listening to Victoria Hazan around that time. She was born very near Smyrna, in Salihli, and settled in Smyrna before moving to the USA. Somehow I found her mentioned while wandering at the Internet.

So, let’s learn more and enjoy the outstanding performance by Victoria Hazan. She has several songs about that kind of passion that drives you crazy and in this one she uses the metaphor of the passion as a fire: I have chosen Me kemi y me enflami and you’ll find the lyrics at the bottom, under the video.

– And, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom –
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Victoria Hazan, the voice of fire

The main facts of the life of Victoria Hazan are quite well know. She was alive until 1995, until she was 99 years old, and there are many pictures of her in different moments of her life, thanks to Maurice Ninio, who I think that was her brother, but I am not sure. In the website SephardicMusic.org there are many pictures, like this one on the left and there is even one of her grave. I have chosen this one, a portrait with a direct and defiant look, by this elegant lady of the sweet and melismatic voice.

She was a singer and a composer and she also played oud. She was born as Victoria Ninio in April 15, 1896, in Salihli, in the province of Manisa, in Anatolia. It is one hour to the East of Smyrna.

In Salihli there is the Sardes Synagogue. According to eSefarad it is “the third oldest Jewish temple known after the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the mudbrick in Babylon.” Learn more in this article about five synagogues in Turkey.

This is the recent status of the synagogue of Sardes. I hope it hasn’t suffered much after the latest earthquake. The picture is by Carole Raddato in Wikipedia:

Victoria’s family’s tradition was to be cantors. She married to a hazan, Israel Hazan, from a family of cantors too, and she adopted her husband’s surname and kept is even during her second marriage. In 1915 she moved from Salihli to Smyrna and in 1920, to New York. The marriage with Israel was already there, in 1925. After he died, Victoria married again, with Joe Rosa in 1936.

She became president of the United Sisterhood Benevolent Society in Bronx. She gave concerts in the synagogue, singing and playing lute, singing her songs, with compositions of her own, in Turkish, Ladino, French, Hebrew, Greek and Armenian. We have her recordings thanks to the insistence of the community: for many years after her arrival to the New World, she rejected to record, arguing that she had no money. But she finally accepted and recorded several pieces, that would be released by Kaliphon Records and Metropolitan Records (below you’ll find more information about the record labels).

The selected song, Me Kemi y me Enflami, is dated on 1942. The specific dates of the different recordings are available here. In 2001, Global Village released Todas mis esperansas, with 24 pieces.

I have chosen Me kemi i me enflami, but all the pieces are amazing. You can listen to many others in the blog by Panos Savvopoulos, where these pictures above are from.
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A relevant source for Victoria’s bio has been also: https://www.wikiwand.com/tr/Victoria_Hazan

About the Jewish community of Manisa province

Being the synagogue of Sardes so old, I wondered what was the history of the Jews in that land, in the province of Manisa. According to Mathilde Tagger in this article for SephardicStudies.org: 

Manisa, formerly known as Magnasia or Magnésie, is situated in the North East of Izmir (38°36N 27°26E). A Jewish ‘romaniote’ community existed there from the Byzantine period, praying in the Etz Ha-Hayim Synagogue. After 1492, Jews expelled from Spain settled there, joining a hundred or so romaniote families. These newcomers founded two synagogues: Lorca and Toledo.

Lorca and Toledo are two cities of my country, Spain. Lorca is in the SouthEast, in Murcia region, and Toledo is the city where my company, Mapamundi Cultural SL, is settled. So these stories are very moving for me. It seems there are not Jews nowadays in the province.

About the record labels Metropolitan and Kaliphon

Me-Re record company was created in the early 1940s by Aydin (or Ajdin) Asllan (a poly-lingual Albanian) and the violinist, Nick Doneff. Soon they splittled the company. Aydin made Balkan and Doneff made Kaliphon.
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An aside: If you like old recordings, don’t miss to check the Bandcamp of Canary Records
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Canary Records are nowadays releasing much material from that time and they explain here that Doneff was a Bulgarian violinist. They explain that Ajdin Asllan was born in Leskovik near the present-day southern border of Albania on 1895. He arrived in New York in 1926 and made made a record label called Mi-Re in 1937. After 5 releases he stopped, until 1942, when he joined the Bulgarian violinist born in 1981 Nicola, or Nick, Doneff (he is the violinist in the recording of Victoria Hazan’s song and the picture on the left is he) and relaunched it as Me Re. They stayed together very shortly and, as mentioned, Asllan would make Balkan and Doneff would make Kaliphon, that would be provider of recordings for Balkan. Canary mention that a third label appeared, Metropolitan, but it is not clear who was in charge. If you want to learn more about this, don’t miss this article. The picture is from Discog.

Doneff played with other artists, like, for instance, the singer and oudist Armenian born in Smyrna Marko Melkon Alemserian, who you will enjoy too if you like rebetiko. Here you have an example of their work together. They both played in Victoria Hazan’s album.

Listen to Victoria Hazan in Me Kemi y Me Enflami 

This piece was recorded in 1942. The singer is Victoria Hazan and the musicians are the already mentioned Nick Doneff on violin, Melko Melkon on oud and Garbis Bakirgian on the kanun. Find the lyrics in Ladino and in English below.

 
Click the picture to listen to the recording:

 

Me kemi y me enflami
cuando te vide yo a ti.
En sentirte a ti cantar
me pareses un bilbil.

Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo,
ven mas presto tu, biju,
ke vo salir loco.

Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo,
ven mas presto tu, ????,
ke vo salir loco.

Tus ojos ke me miran,
el corason me keman.
Con estas miradas tuyas
cuantas almas kemaran?

Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo,
ven mas presto tu ????,
ke vo salir loco.

Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo,
ven mas presto tu, biju,
ke vo salir loco.

 I burned and became inflamed
when I saw you.
In feeling you sing
you look like a nightingale to me.

Come to my side, come I beg you,
come more quickly, you, jewel,
that I will go crazy.

Come to my side, come on, I’m begging you
come more quickly, you, ????,
that I will go crazy.

Your eyes look at me,
they burn my heart.
With these looks of yours
how many souls will they burn?

Come to my side, come I beg you,
come more quickly, you, ????,
that I will go crazy.

Come to my side, come I beg you,
come more quickly you, jewel,
that I will go crazy.

 

 

The translation into English is mine.

There is a word that I don’t catch and in the original booklet it is not written. It is just written “biju”, from the French “bijou”, but I listen a variation in her singing, that’s why I put the question marks.

 

 

 

 

 

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I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

 To know more about our artists, click here.

MBS before Rosh Hashanah with Keter Musaf by Rabbi Hagay Batzri

Shabbat is almost here. Rosh Hashanah is almost here

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life. Let’s begin this time of reflection with a contemporary chazzan of outstanding artistry, Rabbi Hagay Batzri

Hello! How are you? This is the first Rosh Hashanah of Music Before Shabbat and I am thrilled for sharing with you this moment, that is full of meaning. I think you can take advantage of this time to reflect, whether you are religious or not. To find yourself and to consider your contribution to the world. Have a prosperous, a sweet year. Shanah Tovah. 

As usual, you have the video at the bottom. And if you like this, as usual, please: share it with your friends! Thank you in advance.

“Music crosses all boundaries and unifies us”. The voice of Rabbi Hagay Batzri

I love the old recordings. In previous editions we have listened to Sephardic chazzanim, like İsak Maçoro (don’t miss to listen to his Avinu Malkeinu, in this previous edition) and İzak Algazi (listen him in a love song, here). It is not that easy to find currently alive singers who get close to them and that haven’t tended to a commercial sound. Even so, some are really enchanting, like David Kadosh (listen to him in this edition) and our protagonist of today: Rabbi Hagay Batzri.

According to his Facebook Page (from where I got the portrait), “Rabbi Hagay Batzri was born in Jerusalem into a family of rabbis and cantors. He is descended from the Ben Ish Chai and from Rabbi Yehuda Ftaya, and his father heads the supreme rabbinical court of Israel. In 1997 he received his rabbinical smicha from Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi for the State of Israel.”

Who was the Ben Ish Chai? According to Chabad.org, “Chacham Yosef Chaim (1832-1909), known as the Ben Ish Chai, was a highly-revered Torah scholar and master of Kabbalah. Based in Baghdad, Iraq, he was recognized by the Sephardic community both locally and abroad as an eminent Halachic authority.”

And Rabbi Yehuda Ftaya? According to JewishIdeas.org, Hakham Yehudah Moshe Yeshua Fetaya (in the picture, from Wikipedia, was born in Baghdad in 1860 and was disciple of the Ben Ish Chai.

What is chacham? According to Jewish-Languajes.org, khokhem, chocham, chochem, hacham, haham, chuchum, chochem, means wise, genious and for Sephardic, it is the same as rabbi.

“Rabbi Batzri enjoys teaching what he calls practical kabbalah, the kabbalistic reasons and explanations behind Jewish laws, concepts, and practices. He balances his study of Jewish mysticism and his rabbinical duties with concert performances in the United States, Israel, and other countries. […] He has performed, among other venues, at UCLA with the world-renowned Yuval Ron Ensemble. His musical philosophy is simple and beautiful: “Music crosses all boundaries and unifies us.” For Rabbi Batzri, creating music is a way of expressing gratitude and appreciation for all we have. When we make music, we embrace life and all living creatures.”
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Keter Musaf by Rabbi Hagay Batzri

What is Keter Musaf? Keter means crown and has a special meaning in Kabbalah. You can learn more, here. Musaf is an additional offering or prayer, for holy days like Shabbat, Shavuot, Pessach or Rosh Hashanah. It is an aditional religious service for those days, added to the usual Amidah. Musaf would be a fourth Amidah (the usual days they are three Amidah).

Keter is part of the Kedushah. Kedushah means holiness and it is the sanctification of God’s name during the Amidah prayer. What is Amidah? According to MyJewishLearning, “the Amidah is the core of every Jewish worship service, and is therefore also referred to as HaTefillah, or “The prayer.” Amidah, which literally means, “standing,” refers to a series of blessings recited while standing.” The part of Keter in the Musaf prayer recited on Shabbat is sang only by Sepharadim, not by Askhenazim.

According to DailyHalacha.com, “The recitation of “Keter” at Musaf thus marks a very significant and sacred moment, when we join together with the heavenly angels for the purpose of declaring Hashem’s sanctity.”

About Musaf, there is much more information in the JewishEncyclopedia.

Click the picture to listen to the recording:
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I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up.

May you be inscribed in the book of life.

Shanah Tovah

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música 

To know more about our artists, click here.

World Music Central interviews Jako el Muzikante

Check the comprenhensive interview by Ángel Romero with Jako el Muzikante and learn how the Galician artist Xurxo Fernandes incarnates the historic character of the hustler of the café aman.

The interview unveils all what is behind the work Ven al Luna Park, with statements like this:

The Sephardic identity is based on their language, a language in danger of extinction. My fascination with Ladino is linked to a feeling of debt to the community from which I learned so much, and publishing this work in that same language is an acknowledgement I want to give.

Read the complete interview here.

Music Before… Shavuot! ? With nouba Raml Maya

28 May 2020 – Shavuot is almost here

Yes! This week this message reaches you one day before because Shavuot begins tonight. Let’s start to create the atmosphere for this time for study and reflection with a piyyut sang on nouba Raml Maya.

In this occasion I have to thank once more the team of Darké Abotenou as the piece that accompanies us today is from their Youtube channel.

Once again the Sephardic legacy has the lead role in this diggest. Not the Eastern one, but the North African, with a piyyut sang on the nouba or makam?Raml Maya.

What is a makam? Very basically, in the Arabic, Persian, Turkish… music a makam is a scale, like a guide for performance, that defines a mood.
And what is a nouba? A nouba is a collection of chained pieces, like a suit with different parts and those parts are called mîzân.

The concept of nouba (also written as nawba) is deeply related to the Andalusi classical music and to Ziryab, musician in the court of Abd al-Rahman II in Cordoba in the IX century. He came from Persia and he put the seeds for this music to develope during the following centuries. The noubas developed in the North of Africa and nowadays there are kept eleven noubas in Morocco and sixteen in Algeria. In the web site Hazanout.com, dedicated to the hazanout in Morocco, they are mentioned 16 and the terms of makam and nouba are both used without further clarification.

? Special announcement: later today, 28th of May at 17h (Central European Time), Yan Delgado and me will make an interview with Jako el Muzikante, who will talk in Ladino and I will translate into English. Check here in advance ?

Where does my turmoil comes from? Let me explain. 

The Raml Maya is a nouba of which you can find many renditions of its parts (note that a complete nouba with all its parts can last six or seven hours) by artists of Andalusian music, like this or this. This recording that we will listen today is named Makam Raml Maya and you can listen at the beginning of the recording how Shavuot is mentioned and the piece is announced as “makam”. So my inference is that in the last years the terms of makam and nouba are been used indistinctly at least in the context of the sang piyyutim. Any further clarification about this would be really appreciated! In the meantime, let’s continue with what is clear like water: Shavout starts tonight and we have this beautiful piyyut (the lyrics are from the Machzor) to listen to warm up. 

Clic the picture to enjoy the piyyut for Shavuot:

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
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Shavuot sameach

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

Music Before Shabbat, with Jako el Muzikante. Yearnings that you will, or will not, share ?

22 May 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Love, love, love… that tearing feeling that drives us so crazy, is again the topic of today’s piece. A song about the quest to find the lady of his dreams, sang by Jako el Muzikante

In this occasion we will enjoy a very recent recording with Jako el Muzikante, that will take us back to Izak Algazi’s time before he moved to France (check the previous MBS, here).

As announced previously in another MBS, the friends from Sephardic Stories, that lead the Gibraltar World Music Festival, during the lockdown started the initiative Sephardic Collection, to support the work of the artists in this difficult time. In this frame, last Thursday it was premiered the video of this issue of MBS, that you can see below. ?? 

? Special announcement: next Thursday at 17h (Central European Time), Yan Delgado and me will make an interview with Jako el Muzikante, who will talk in Ladino and I will translate into English. Check here in advance ?
The song about the quest of the perfect lady

In the lyrics of this song, Onde que tope una ke es plazyente? (where would I find a pleasant one), a man wonders where would he find the woman of his dreams, one that he liked, slim, graceful… and that thinks before she speaks! He will wait for her many years.

According to the book-CD “Ven al Luna Park”, by Jako el Muzikante, Jak Mayesh “on the 8th of September of 1942 he recorded his voice for this song for a record of the “The Jack Mayesh Phonograph Record Co. label, accompanied on the oud by K. Bozajain.”

The book-CD also explains that Mayesh recorded the song again in 1948 and that it exists also a version of this song in the oral tradition, sang by Roza Berro. “Ven al Luna Park” includes also some brief biographical infos about Jak Mayesh, who was born in Kushadashi in 1899, a city by the Aegean sea, that now belongs to Turkey. He moved to USA in 1929, served as a singer in the most important Sephardi synagoges and also stablished a business of wholesaling flowers. What happened with this business? You can learn it in the book-CD ?

The recording in which Jako el Muzikante is based for his rendition is in an album from the collection of Jakob Michael and it can be found in the mentioned book-CD, Ven al Luna Park, by Jako el Muzikante, available nowadays in most of the online shops and digital platforms.

And I know this song is specially appreciated by my friend Fernando, who will receive this message in Krakow, that I hope to be again soon, when all this awfulness ended!

?One more announcement: if you understand Spanish, you can listen the interview with Jako, done by Marcelo Benveniste for Radio Sefarad and Radio Jai. Listen here ?

Clic the picture to enjoy Onde que tope, by Jako el Muzikante:

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

Jako el Muzikante – Madam Gaspard

17 Abril 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Enjoy with Jako el Muzikante and a piece about the everydayness, hoping to recover ours soon: Madam Gaspard and her visit to the market. 

I hope you have had a great Pesach, despite the situation. Here we are in confinement for 5 weeks now and, even though we can go to the grocery stores, the feeling of everydayness, with the latex gloves, the masks and the extra spacing, has gone.

The song for this occasion talks about Madam Gaspard who goes to the market and buys many animals. The lyrics are cumulative, as you will feel, and talk about this:

Madam Gaspard went to market.
She bought a dog:
a dog that says “wua wua wua wua”,
a cat that says “nya nya nya nya”,
a parrot that says “pa pa pa pa”,
a cock that says “ku ku ku ku”,
a chicken “ki ki ki ki”.
Do you know, my good-wife,
how much did she pay?

 

This song is included in the album “Ven al Luna Park”, by Jako el Muzikante, alter ego of Xurxo Fernandes. He learnt it from the collection of Victor Besso, researcher born in Salonica in 1905. According to the booklet, Yakov Algava learnt it from the Constantinoplian singer Karakesh Efendi and he recorded it in two different records in 1909.The mentioned animals can be more, as many as the imagination of the singer allowed. In the booklet of the album it is explained one occasion in Izmir in which it lasted one hour. It is a big challenge for any singer and Xurxo makes it wonderfully in this live shot.

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

Cantor Hans Bloemendal – Kaddish

3 April 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Get relief with Dr. Hans Bloemendal, chief cantor of the Main Synagogue in Amsterdam, born in 1923 in the German city of Fulda, sent by his father to Amsterdam after the rise of Nazi regime and settled there until the end of his life in 2015. Let’s listen to his Kaddish.

I have been discussing with myself between the idea of chosing something joyful to cheer up or something more introspective, for this occasion in this difficult time.

Today I complete 3 weeks of confinement. My father is at the hospital from the last night (I think and wish he will be well and at home before Pesaj) and many people have died. You are also confined and I hope you and all your people are well. The election of a Kaddish, in this amazing rendition, feels like optimal.

Dr. Hans Bloemendal was chazzan at the Main Synagogue in Amsterdam from 1949. During the war he went into hiding. His family was killed in Sobibor.

His contributions to the world were not only his art: he developed an initiative of books for kids and he was also a teacher and a researcher in biochemistry and molecular biology. This info is available in the bio here. I really recommend to read it. And the picture is from here.

The picture that illustrates the video below, with the recording, is of a grandfather with his blind granddaughter in Warsaw in 1938. The author is Roman Vishniac, who travelled across central and Eastern Europe, photographing the Jewish communities, both in the cities as well as in rural areas, before de II World War. If you didn´t know him (I confess I discovered him yesterday, thanks to this picture in the video, and I spent hours looking at his works), his bio is also worth of reading. It is curious that he was also a biologist.

One last thing. Next week this email won’t be sent before Shabbat, but before Pesaj.

Clic the picture to enjoy the recording of Dr. Hans Bloemendal:

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending this link to sign up.

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of Jewish music for joy in this playlist.

To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path. 

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

Cantor İsak Maçoro – Avinu Malkenu

27 March 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Enjoy with İsak Maçoro, Sephardic cantor, born in 1918, in Hasköy, a quarter in Beyoğlu, in the European side of Istambul, where many Portuguese and Spanish Jewish settled from the end of XV century. Let’s listen his rendition of Avinu Malkenu.

I know this is not the time to pray with Avinu Malkenu. We are not in the Yamim Noraim, but I feel the message is perfectly suitable for our current situation. If you read this at some moment of the future, today we are finishing the second week of confinement in Spain because of the crisis of Covid-19. Most of the world is suffering this threat, that is costing many lifes and changed our everydayness overnight.

I got to know Cantor İsak Maçoro at the Youtube some years ago, searching for Sephardic piyyutim. The picture of him and a short bio can be found in the website eSefarad. And in the channel of Youtube of Janet & Jak Esim, of which I talked in the previous Music Before Shabbat, there are many more videos of him. You can even see him singing live.

For this occasion I have chosen this recording from 1960, from the Youtune channel of Ozkan Sagliksunar.

Clic the picture to enjoy the recording of Isak Maçoro:

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending this link to sign up.

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory