The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

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Judith R. Cohen

Judith R. Cohen is a Canadian ethnomusicologist, medievalist, and performer, specializing in music of Sephardic Jews, music among the Crypto-Jews of Portugal, and related topics. The latter include medieval music; music of the Balkans, Francophone Canada, Spain and Portugal; and pan-European balladry. She combines research and fieldwork with singing, storytelling, and leading workshops in several countries.

Articles by this author

Members of Gerinaldo smiling, seated left to right: Oro Anahory-Librowicz, Solly Lévy, Kelly Sultan Amar, Judith Cohen

Women and Sephardic Music

Ladino or Judeo-Spanish Sephardic songs are primarily a women’s repertoire. The two main traditions are that of northern Morocco and the Eastern Mediterranean, primarily today’s Turkey, Greece, the Balkans.

Interior of synagogue in Belmonte, showing bimah and the traditional rezadeiras oil lamp

Rezadeiras among Bene Anusim in Portugal

The rezadeiras, prayer-women, began to play an important role in crypto-Jewish practice after the late fifteenth-century Expulsions from Spain and then Portugal forced anyone who wanted to live as a Jew to do so in secret.