JEWISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA MUNICH:
THE KEYS OF TOLEDO

In 1492, the Sephard Jews were expelled from Spain. In 1933, people came to the Embassy of the Spanish Republic in Berlin to request asylum in an old Spanish idiom. They understood each other. A situation that summarises the history of the Sephard Jews in the past centuries in one situation: expulsion, refuge and finally, in many places in Europe, persecution and death.
 
In 1492, many Jewish families fled Spain taking the keys to their houses with them. A symbol of their home and of the hope of one day being able to return. To this day, there are families who still have such a key. For over 500 years, they have kept an object that reminds them of the loss of their home.
Together with the Sephardic Esim family, musicians from Istanbul, and the Sephardian actress Alexandra Chatzopoulou-Saia, descendants of Shoah survivors from Thessaloniki, the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich, under the artistic direction of Daniel Grossmann, explores how Sephardic Judaism was able to preserve its traditions for centuries, and how this heritage was almost wiped out in the Shoah in just a few months.
In addition to their language, Ladino, their music became crucial for the Sephardic Jews in order to maintain their common identity in a foreign land over the centuries. The composition ‘The Keys of Toledo’ (music: Evgeni Orkin, text: Martin Valdés-Stauber) touches on the history of Sephardic Judaism and lets their music resound in bright colours.