Esther Bendahan Cohen (Tetouan, Morocco, 1964) is a Spanish Sephardic philologist, writer and columnist. She presented the La 2 Shalom program and is Director of Cultural Programming at Centro Sefarad-Israel. She visited La Laguna a few days ago to participate in the cycle of the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Tenerife (RSEAPT) Bosnia: land of borders. She considers it possible to build a synagogue on the Island.
What is the Sefarad-Israel Center and what does it do?
It is an institution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Spain, the Community and the Madrid City Council that was created from the intention of the Spanish Government to generate public diplomacy entities within the country. With this in mind, Casa América, the Arab House, Casa Asia or Casa Africa were born at different times. Our intention is to make the Jewish world and Sepharad known, especially in its relationship with Spain and with the universal.
What cultural tasks do you carry out in your position?
Well, basically it is about disseminating the Sephardic culture because it is a heritage of all of us, although many ignore it. Sefarad is something more than part of the history of Spain and of the expelled Spanish Jews; It is the story of some Spaniards in exile, a metaphor for all exiles, an exile that becomes an identity and is lived in a symbolic way. The Sephardim did not actually continue to be all Jews, just as the Jews who remained lost their Jewish references. But many kept the language and an idea of origin. Here only a few customs remained, but at the same time a lot of influence on our culture.
Antisemitism in Spain and in Europe. Is there more racism with Jews and in general? Do you detect an increase in these attitudes in recent years?
In Spain, for centuries there have hardly been any Jews and a very powerful ecclesiastical anti-Semitism remained that marked a kind of complex imaginary for centuries. But, at present, there is no anti-Semitism in Spain. At the official level, the different governments in democracy have designed policies that have helped create spaces of knowledge that delve into the Jewish-Spanish world. This makes anti-Semitism very difficult at the legal level. That does not mean that there are attitudes on a personal level of those who have stereotypes and have maintained customs originating in anti-Semitism. For example, the town that was called Matajudíos and changed its name; a drink from León called I’m going to kill Jews that is taken at Easter when they go down to the Jewish quarter for that; the slope of the dogs (Jews) where they went down during the expulsion. All that residual racism disappears when you become aware. And that Jewish or Jewish words do not have a negative connotation in the dictionary. That they remain so residual that they even disappear from that bible of the Spanish language.
From Laura Papo’s Judeo-Spanish to new and new creators. It has been her conference in La Laguna within the cycle organized by the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Tenerife. Sum it up.
Laura Papo is a Sephardic writer whom I did not know. I have introduced what the concept of Sefarad is and what it is for me. This exposure has allowed me to delve into the character. Before, he had worked with others from the same period, such as Emma Lazarus, and others from today, such as Myriam Moscona or Denise León. They write in Ladino, but they use it differently because it is no longer their language. Today it is a recovery but in Papo’s time it was her speech. It is important to unite those characters distant in time and geography but who start from the same origin in the diaspora that led to the expulsion from Spain in 1492.
Have you seen the exhibition on Bosnia installed in the Economic? What did you think?
Not yet (the interview is prior to her visit), but she has spoken highly of her to me. Regarding Laura Papo, the ambassador to Spain (Danka Savic) has explained to us that the country was integrated into the Ottoman Empire and received its influence, also religiously, and many people converted to Islam. But she always kept the reference to the same cultural and family origins. They are not Arabs but Muslims who assume religion in a later and different way. The coexistence was different.
Do you know if there is an organized Jewish community in the Canary Islands and Tenerife? Do you think it is possible to build and maintain a synagogue in the Archipelago?
I think it would be possible to build a synagogue here. It always depends on free and democratic countries with the will of the Jews than with the country itself. As long as there are Jews who want to do it, it would be very good. I think there is no community here as such. There are times when many Jews, after centuries of persecution, are reluctant to say that they are Jews. I have always found that same feeling in those places where I have been.
Since the expulsion of the Jews by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, has the wound healed?
On the part of the Jews that I have met in different communities I have not felt that wound. The relationship with Spain is loving and not one of hate or anger. In all of them, Spanish has been experienced as something of their own. You can read writings in which they remember him but only to remember how the Jewish people do with all the historical events that they have starred in their long journey. It does not convey anger but knowledge and memory that is quite different from resentment that does not exist.
Do you speak and write in Ladino, the ancient Judeo-Spanish?
No, I am from the north of Morocco, from Tetouan, and there the jaquetía was spoken, a Judeo-Spanish, but when my parents were born, at the time of the Spanish Protectorate, they already spoke Spanish with an Andalusian accent and certain elements from the Straits. But there are words in jaquetía, very tender like my queen or my king. Very nice expressions that are maintained. There have been many people who have wanted to recover it as Solly Leví through oral tradition. At Centro Sefarad we have some postcad that can be heard as part of that recovery. There is a desire to develop it on the part of new authors.
Precisely about them is his latest book, The author. What did you want to tell?
Well, it’s about copyright. I wrote it with an author and had to transform it as my relationship with him deteriorated. The story tells the story of the writer’s relationship with a sculptress and how it changes as that relationship changes. It takes place in the Basque Country and I was particularly interested in the problem of having to talk about your political options. The artist decided to remain silent, but the writer cannot accept it and that is where the confrontation arises.
He received an award from the Community of Madrid this year.
It was a recognition that was delivered last March and I received it together with other people selected as Spanish-speaking emigrants who stand out in various areas. In my case as a Sephardic emigrant. The Sueño de Madrid Award aims to reward those who carry out an activity that is considered to have some value in this area.
How was the experience of presenting Shalom, the program for the Jewish community on Spanish Television?
Very nice personally and professionally. During its development I learned a lot. First I had a director and then I myself was the director of the program with Benito Garzón, a man who knows a lot about Judaism, how to tell it and transmit it. He taught me a lot and all this baggage helped me to later go to Centro Sefarad-Israel.
