Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

(JTA) - "The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem" has made headlines as one of the Israeli TV industry's most elaborate and expensive productions ever.

The series, which follows a family of Spanish Sephardic Jews living in Jerusalem through different decades of the early 20th century, also features Ladino - the centuries-old language sometimes referred to as Judeo-Spanish that combines medieval Spanish, Hebrew, Aramaic, Turkish, Greek, Arabic and other influences.

Ladino, spoken by Jewish communities throughout the Ottoman Empire and North Africa who had fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, is today...