Bearing the keys
Harvey Gillman reflects on identity, place and loss
In March I visited the Jewish Museum in Seville: just three rooms, lots of text and a few well-displayed artefacts; among the latter, in a box by itself, was an ornate key. After a century of persecution, the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. It is said that many of the families carried away into exile the keys of their houses, dreaming that one day they would return to their beloved Sepharad, the Hebrew name for Spain. For hundreds of years they held on to their antiquated Spanish, known as Ladino, their beautiful music, soon to be tinged with elements from the countries where they settled and their poetry of yearning for the land they lost. Recently, in atonement, the Spanish government offered citizenship to their descendants.
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