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Illustrated Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) journal published in Constantinople. The very first issue is represented here, dated Tevet 1 5615, with an almost full page drawing of Mount Sinai on the first page, accompanying on article on that subject. A table of contents at the beginning of the volume lists more than one hundred articles on a wide variety of subjects, many with illustrations. Among the articles with illustrations is one on signing for deaf mutes, trains, and the biblical Judge Yiftach, The final issue is number twelve and is dated Kislev 5616 and here too there is a large picture, here of ships sailed ships in harbor. The illustrations are varied but always well drawn and attractive, intended to accompany articles. The text is in two columns in rabbinic letters. An attractive volume.
One of the reasons for the growth of a Ladino press was the reluctance or inability of the exiles from Spain to learn the languages of the countries in which they found themselves. Before World War II—during which the Sephardi communities of the Balkan countries were either entirely or partly destroyed—a considerable number of Sephardi Jews, mainly of the older generation and especially women, spoke Ladino. They had only an elementary knowledge of the local language—enough for local business and social intercourse with the surrounding population. There was, therefore, a growing need for some kind of Ladino reading material. When, in 1882, Isidore Singer of Vienna listed 103 extant Jewish newspapers, six of them were in Ladino.
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