Moshe Shaul (24 May 1929 – 1 April 2023), also known as Mosheh Sha'ul, was a Turkish-born Israeli journalist, writer and researcher of the culture of

Sephardi Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...

who worked on preserving the Ladino language.

Biography

Shaul was born in

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...

, Turkey on 24 May 1929. He made

aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally descri ...

to Israel in 1949. After migrating to Israel he began attending

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...

in 1954, attaining degrees in

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

and

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

in 1959. That same year he would join the Ladino broadcast of La Bos de Israel, a subsidiary of

Kol Yisrael ''Kol Yisrael'' or ''Kol Israel'' ( lit. "Voice of Israel", also "Israel Radio") is Israel's public domestic and international radio service. It operated as a division of the Israel Broadcasting Service from 1951 to 1965, the Israel Broadcastin ...

based in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, and in 1977 he would take charge of it after the death of its director,

Yitzhak Levy Yitzhak Levy ( he, יצחק לוי, born 6 July 1947) is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party (NRP) and the Ahi faction of the National Union between 1988 and 2009. Betw ...

. Shaul served as editor for ''

Aki Yerushalayim ''Aki Yerushalayim'' (; meaning 'Here Jerusalem') is an Israeli magazine in Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) published in print two to three times a year between 1979 and 2016, and exclusively online since 2019. History ''Aki Yerushalayim'' began relea ...

'' during their first issue which was released in 4 April 1979 and continued this role for their 37 years of operation. While working there he actively worked towards standardizing the written language by creating a phonetic writing system which eventually became adopted around the world by Ladino writers. The

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mo ...

of his system was questioned due to the absence of written accents and a structure more similar to Turkish than

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language f ...

. During this period Shaul also taught at

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) ( he, אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has five campuses: the ...

(1980-1985) and served in the vice-presidency of the Ladino National Authority (NALC) in Israel from 1997-2015, where he trained new teachers for Judeo-Spanish and expanded the prevalence of the language. His work during this period is considered responsible for much of the diffusion of the Ladino language and culture in present day Israel. He also worked and boarded several other organizations, such as ''Amutat Sefarad'', to promote and preserve Judeo-Spanish. Shaul stated that the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

provides an opportunity to connect Judeo-Spanish speakers globally and create a living community to help promote the language. In 2016 Shaul was appointed a permanent member of the Royal Spanish Academy for Israel. Later in 2018 he was honored with Spain's

Order of Civil Merit The Order of Civil Merit ( es, Orden del Mérito Civil) was established by King Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1926. The order recognizes "the civic virtue of officers in the service of the Nation, as well as extraordinary service by Spanish and fore ...

. He also received a 'Life Award' from

Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino (, "National Authority of Ladino") is a national Israeli organisation created in 1997 with the goal of preserving and safeguarding Judaeo-Spanish, commonly known as ''Ladino''. The authority was established in the ...

for his contributions to the Ladino language. Shaul died on 1 April 2023 in Jerusalem and was buried in the cemetery in Shoresh.

Published works

* *Ladino – Manual de estudio para principiantes (1990).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaul, Moshe 1929 births 2023 deaths Smyrniote Jews People from İzmir Turkish emigrants to Israel Journalists from Jerusalem Israeli radio people Israeli people of Turkish-Jewish descent Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Judaeo-Spanish-language writers Order of Civil Merit members Members of the Royal Spanish Academy