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Flory Jagoda is known as “the keeper of the flame” of the once rich Saphardic Jewish song tradition. Flory sings songs she learned from her nona -- or, grandmother -- as a child in pre-WWII Sarajevo, songs which have been passed down in her family since they fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. All of her ballads are sung in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language dating back centuries. In 2002, Flory received a National Heritage Fellowship, the nation's highest honor given to traditional artists.
I visited with Flory at her home in Northern Virginia and she told me the remarkable role her accordion played as she escaped the holocaust as a young girl.
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Flory Jagoda is known as “the keeper of the flame” of the once rich Saphardic Jewish song tradition. Flory sings songs she learned from her nona -- or, grandmother -- as a child in pre-WWII Sarajevo, songs which have been passed down in her family since they fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. All of her ballads are sung in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language dating back centuries. In 2002, Flory received a National Heritage Fellowship, the nation's highest honor given to traditional artists.
I visited with Flory at her home in Northern Virginia and she told me the remarkable role her accordion played as she escaped the holocaust as a young girl.
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