Margalit Matitiahu is a poet in Ladino and Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 from Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

After the Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

, her parents moved to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 from Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 where they were Sephardi Jews

Sephardi Jews

Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...

 who were descendants of Jews from León

León, Spain

León is the capital of the province of León in the autonomous community of Castile and León, situated in the northwest of Spain. Its city population of 136,985 makes it the largest municipality in the province, accounting for more than one quarter of the province's population...

. She studied Hebrew Literature

Hebrew literature

Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews...

 and Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at Bar Ilan University.

She started writing in Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 and in 1988 she published Curtijo Quemado (later in Vela de luz) in Ladino, which is a testimony of Nazi destruction. She has worked as a presenter in radio and investigated her mother tongue. She is a member of the World Academy of Art and Culture (having received a doctorate Honoris Causa), of the Israel PEN club and of the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel

Hebrew Writers Association in Israel

The Hebrew Writers Association in Israel is a professional association of writers and poets, who write in the Hebrew language in Israel....

. She has been awarded several prizes:

• the 1994 "Fernando Jeno Award" the international prize for Jewish literature giving by the Jewish community of Mexico.
• the 1996 "Ateneo de Jaen Award", the international literature prize for poetry in Jaen, Andalucia, Spain.
• the 1999 Israeli Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Writers
• the 2003 “Poetry Award” the international prize for poetry given by the “Orient-Occident” Academy of Curtea de Arges, Romania

Giusepina Gerometa from University of Udine

University of Udine

The University of Udine is a university in the city of Udine . It was founded in 1978 as part of the reconstruction plan of Friuli after the earthquake in 1976...

 wrote her PhD thesis on The poetry of Margalit Matitiahu in 2001-2002. This was the first thesis on contemporary modern Sephardic poetry. The second thesis (on translation) was written by Sonja Bertok from University of Trieste

University of Trieste

The University of Trieste is a medium-sized university in Trieste in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. The university consists of 12 faculties, boasts a wide and almost complete range of university courses and currently has about 23,000 students enrolled and 1,000 professors...

in 2003-2004.

Documentary films 2004-2008

• Production of documentary films: The series of “Sefarad Ways and life”
• Work with her son Jack Matitiahu – director and photographer of he series. The two films of the series where presented in Israel, Spain, Toronto, Canada, London . The films are:
• “Leon reencounter”
• “Toledo the hidden secret”

Sample verse

Me visto tu cara sobre la mia, Y con tus ojos veo tu ermosa sivdad natal. La tristesa y la maravilla te anvelopan, En viendo lugares que ya no los conoses mas.

I have seen your face over mine, And I see your beautiful birth town within your eyes. Sadness and wonder envelop you, By seeing places you do not know anymore.

In Hebrew

• Through the Glass Window (1976)
• No Summer Silence (1979)
• White Letters (1983)
• Handcuffed (1987)
• Midnight Stairs (1995)
• To wake the silnece (2005)

In Ladino

• Alegrica (1993)
• Matriz de luz & Vela de la luz (1997)
• Kamino de Tormento (2000)
• Vagabondo Eternel & Bozes en la Shara (2001)
• Canton de solombra (2005)
• Asiguiendo al esfuenio (2006)

External links

• Primary Music Margalit's Record Label featuring her musical work 'Aromas Y Memorias'