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HISTORY




RITUAL

The , Lekha Dodi and the Talmud ic study session are also not yet included, but these are included in all newer siddurim of the tradition except for the West London and Mickva Israel (Savannah) Sephardi Reform prayerbooks.

Of other, less conspicuous, elements, a number of archaic forms can be mentioned — including some similarities with the Italian Jewish and Western Ashkenazi traditions. Such elements include the shorter form of the Birkat Hammazon which can be found in the older Amsterdam and Hamburg / Scandinavian traditions. The Livorno (Leghorn) tradition, however, includes many of the cabbalistic additions found in most other Sephardi traditions. The current London minhag follows the Livorno tradition in this respect.


MUSIC




SYNAGOGUES

: We see the tebáh (reader’s platform) in the foreground, and the ''Hekhál'' (Ark) in the background.]]

Most Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue s are, like those of the Italkim and the Romaniotes , characterised by a bipolar layout, with the '' Tebáh '' (''bimah'') near the opposite wall of the '' Hekhál '' (Ark). The Hekhál has its '' Parokhet '' (curtain) inside its doors, rather than outside. The Sefarim (Torah scrolls) are usually wrapped in a very wide mantle, quite different from the sylindrical mantles used by most Ashkenazi Jews . '' Tikim '' — wooden or metal cylinders around the sefarim — are usually not used, though it is reported that these were in use in the Portuguese Jewish Community In Hamburg .

The most important synagogues, or Esnoga s, as they are usually called amongst Spanish and Portuguese Jews, are the Amsterdam Esnoga — usually considered the “mother synagogue”, and the historical centre of the Amsterdam minhag. Also important is the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London , the historical centre of the London minhag. The Snoa ( 1732 ) of the Mikvé Israel-Emanuel congregation in Curaçao is considered one of most important synagogues in the Jewish history of the Americas.


BIBLIOGRAPHY



General

  • Dobrinsky, Herbert C.: ''A treasury of Sephardic laws and customs : the ritual practices of Syrian, Moroccan, Judeo-Spanish and Spanish and Portuguese Jews of North America.'' Revised ed. Hoboken, N.J. : KTAV; New York, N.Y. : Yeshiva Univ. Press, 1988. ISBN 0881250317

  • Studemund-Halévy, Michael & Koj, P. (publ.): ''Sefarden in Hamburg : zur Geschichte einer Minderheit.'' Hamburg, 1993–1997 (2 vol.)



Ritual

  • Rodrigues Pereira, Martinus M.: חָכְמַת שְׁלֹמֹה ''(‘Hochmat Shelomoh) : Wisdom of Solomon.'' Tara Publications, 1994.



Music

  • Adler, Israel: ''Musical life and traditions of the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam in the XVIIIth century.'' (Yuval Monograph Series; v. 1.) Jerusalem : Magnes, 1974.

  • Seroussi, Edwin: ''Spanish-Portuguese synagogue music in nineteenth-century Reform sources from Hamburg : ancient tradition in the dawn of modernity.'' (Yuval Monograph Series; XI) Jerusalem : Magnes, 1996. ISSN 0334-3758

  • טללי זמרה. ''Sephardi melodies, being the traditional liturgical chants of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews’ Congregation London.'' Publ. by the Society of Heshaim with the sanction of the Board of Elders of the Congregation. Oxford Univ. Press, 5691 - 1931.



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