ucLADINO is one of the only student organizations at a university outside of Israel dedicated to learning about the Judeo-Spanish language also known as Ladino and Judezmo. The organization is co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies as well as the Spanish and Portuguese Department at UCLA. Undergraduate and graduate students of ANY department are invited.  For more information about meetings and programs contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The second Graduate Student Judeo-Spanish Comparative Symposium explored multiple aspects of diaspora through the lens of Judeo-Spanish which has evolved for more than five centuries since the expulsion of the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula.  Click the above image for the full pdf schedule, or visit: https://sites.google.com/site/ucladino/home for more information.

 Judeo-Spanish is a Romance language that evolved from Old Spanish upon the expulsion of Sephardim, or Spanish Jews, in 1492 into various parts of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. As a Jewish language, it is influenced heavily by Hebrew and Aramaic, but also Arabic, Turkish and to a lesser extent Greek and other languages where the exiles settled, including French and Italian. Like Yiddish, Ladino was written with Hebrew letters, except that Ladino used the Rashi script. The Rashi script was, in fact, originally a Ladino script to separate Rashi's commentary from the Torah. It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that Ladino began to be written using the Latin alphabet, like most European languages.

 Los Angeles is a perfect setting for ucLADINO, as the Judeo-Spanish as well as Sephardic communities of Los Angeles are the second largest in the country behind New York City. This provides great opportunities for programming and networking right here in our own komunitika. Since its founding in 2011, the organization has had several speakers participate in active dialogue with students on a variety of Judeo-Spanish and Sephardic issues.