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La Buena Esperansa (The Good Hope), also known as La Esperansa, published from 1874 to 1917 (?) by Aron de Yosef Hazan, was the longest-lived Ladino newspaper published in Izmir (Smyrna). Initially a weekly, it subsequently appeared twice a week. Each issue had four pages.During its first years, La Buena Esperansa met with significant opposition, and lost readers when conservative members of the Izmir Jewish community rallied against it. In time, however, the paper became an established and influential organ in the city. In addition to reportin…

As the longest-running Ladino periodical published in Istanbul, El Tiempo was perhaps the best-known Judeo-Spanish newspaper of its day. Published from 1872 to 1930, it ranged in length from four to twelve pages at different stages and appeared between two and six times a week. Its management was initially headed by Isaac Haim Carmona; other editors were Mercado Fresco, J. Shaki, Sami Alcabetz, and Moise Dalmedico. After 1894, the paper was run almost single-handedly by David Fresco, who later described himself as its “director-administrator-accountant-secretary” and …

La Epoka (1875–1911) was a Ladino newspaper published in Salonica. It was founded by Bezalel Saadi Halevy. In 1898 his son, Samuel Saadi Halevy (Sam Lévy), became its editor-in-chief. The paper started  as a weekly, later became a bi-weekly, and eventually appeared five times per week, ranging from four to eight pages in different periods. It defined itself as a “political, economic and literary” publication and had a French counterpart,  Le Journal de Salonique, also run by members of the Halevy family. Between 1907 and 1908, it had a weekly supplement, La Epoka Literaria. La Epo…

La Boz del Puevlo (The Voice of the People) was a Ladino newspaper published by Joseph Romano in Izmir (Smyrna) from 1908 to around 1919. In 1910, its editor-in-chief was Efraim Suhami, and its assistant director was Behor Hana, also of La Boz de Izmir (1910–1922). The paper initially appeared twice a week and later became a weekly. It ranged from four to six pages at different times.Romano, a graduate of an Alliance Israélite Universelle school, believed he had a duty to “regenerate” the Jewish community. His paper instructed readers on everything from proper …

La Boz de la Verdad (The Voice of Truth) was a Ladino newspaper published by Yosef Barishac in Edirne from 1910 until his death around 1922. It initially appeared twice a week but later became a weekly. La Boz de la Verdad described itself as primarily concerned with political and literary subjects, but as the only Jewish newspaper in Edirne for most of its existence, it was obliged to cover local news as well.Although La Boz de la Verdad was the city’s longest-lived Ladino periodical, it was not the first. It was preceded by the Hebrew/Ladino journals Carmi, published from 1881 to 1882 by …

Aleksander Ben Giat (Ghiat) (ca. 1863–1923), was a Sephardi journalist, author, translator, and publisher. He was born in Izmir (Smyrna), where he attended an Alliance Israélite Universelle school. In 1884 he co-founded a short-lived Ladino periodical called La Verdad (The Truth). Over the next few years, he wrote for La Buena Esperansa and El Telegrafo until, in 1897, he founded his own Ladino newspaper, El Meseret (The Joy).In its opening issue, Ben Giat announced that the new paper would be a school for young and old, and emphasized El Meseret's literary character.The paper …

El Nuvelista /Le Nouvelliste was a newspaper published in Izmir from 1890 to 1922 by Yakov Algranti. Printed entirely in French in its early years, it soon changed over to Ladino, with small sections in French. At different times, the paper appeared weekly, bi-weekly, and five times a week, and ranged in size between four and eight pages. El Nuvelista regularly took a critical stance on communal issues and in consequence was closed down many times. In 1896, a group of rabbis in Izmir placed it under a ban. In 1902, the brothers Hizkia and Gad Franco joined the paper, the latter as edito…

El Meseret (The Joy) was a Ladino newspaper published in Izmir from 1897 to 1922. Aleksander Ben Giat was its editor-in-chief. Until 1900, its owner and director was a Muslim, Mehmet Hulussi. In its first issue, Ben Ghiat expressed his hope that the paper would serve as an interpreter between the Jewish community and the Ottoman authorities. In order to promote this program, El Meseret printed its first page in Turkish for some time. A regular issue had eight pages. The paper was closed by censors between the end of 1899 and mid-May 1900.Initially a weekly, El Meseret later became a dai…

David Fresco was perhaps the best-known Sephardi journalist of his day. He was born in Istanbul around 1853 and died in Nice in 1933. Over the course of six decades, he edited six periodicals in Istanbul. He also frequently gave public lectures on such topics as Jewish politics and morality, and translated works by Moses Mendelssohn, Matthias Jakob Schleiden, Ludwig Philippson, Eugène Sue, Emile Richebourg, Abraham Mapu, and others. At twenty-one, he took over as editor of El Nasional (1873–1878). When that paper was dissolved, he became a co-editor of El Telegrafo (1878–1930). The so…

El Telegrafo (The Telegraph) was a “political, commercial, and literary” newspaper in Judeo-Spanish published by the Gabbai family in Istanbul from 1878 to 1931 as a continuation of El Jurnal Israelit (1860–1873) and El Nasional (1873–1878) Its manager and editor-in-chief was Isaac Gabbai (d. 1931), son of Ezekiel Gabbai II (1825–1898), and great-grandson of Baghdadli Ezekiel Gabbai (d. 1826?). Initially, Marco Mayorcas was manager of the paper. By the mid-1890s, Joseph Gabbai , another of Ezekiel Gabbai’s sons, had assumed ownership of El Telegrafo, while Henri Dalmedico figure…

Aron de Yosef Hazan (1848–1931) was a Sephardi journalist, teacher, translator, and community activist in Izmir (Smyrna). He came from a long line of scholars and rabbis. His grandfather, Hayyim David Hazan, was chief rabbi in Jerusalem. His brother, Elijah Bekhor Hazzan, became chief rabbi of Alexandria.After receiving a traditional Jewish education, Hazan attended a school in Izmir founded by Jacques Mizrahi, where he studied Turkish, French, and Italian. Upon completing his studies, he taught Turkish at the Alliance Israélite Universelle school and later at the local T…

La Solidaridad Ovradera (The Workers’ Solidarity) was a socialist newspaper published in Ladino in Salonica  from 1911 to 1912 during the second (Ottoman) constitutional period following the Young Turk Revolution (1908). It was preceded by El Jurnal del Lavorador/Amele Gazetesi (The Worker’s Journal), which was published for a short time in Ladino, Bulgarian, Greek, and Turkish (1909). As the organ of the Socialist Workers’ Federation of the city, La Solidaridad Ovradera championed the rights of all workers, even though it targeted a specifically Jewish audience. …