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.
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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.
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.
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
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 a mi lado, ven ke te rogo, Tus ojos ke me miran, Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo, Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo, |
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 to my side, come on, I’m begging you Your eyes look at me, Come to my side, come I beg you, Come to my side, come I beg you, |
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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The event mentioned in this song dates back to 1497 and tells the story of the murder of Juan de Borja y Cattanei, II Duke of Gandía (he is the man in the portrait). He was stabbed and his body was thrown to the river in Rome, when he was only 19 years old. The last time he was seen alive was in a place called the square of the Jews.