Rivka Amado: Journey Back to Spain: Sephardic Music & Culture

 Part of the Arts in the Afternoon series

Learn how the Jews of Spain have maintained their identity for 500 years despite being driven first from Spain and then from the Iberian Peninsula. This program mixes Ladino song, historical narrative and Sephardic culture.

Rivka Amado traces her roots back to prominent Sephardic families – the Amados and the Barbuts – on both sides of her family. After their expulsion from Spain, both families eventually found their way to the Balkans where they remained for generations.

Rivka grew up in a Ladino-speaking home in Holon, Israel, where she learned traditional melodies from her grandmother. She earned her PhD from the University of Toronto in 1990, held post doctoral fellowships in medical ethics at the Hastings Center and at the Hebrew University and has published widely in medical ethics and related fields. Rivka taught at Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, Stanford, Berkeley and Princeton and has received several awards for her scholarship and teaching.

For our special performance, she will be accompanied by master guitarist Joel Siegel and an ensemble of other talented musicians.

Part of the Adele Saxe Cultural Arts Series