La Qehila sefardí de Nueva York: El primer núcleo hispanófono en la Norteamérica anglosajona

Abstract

The Sephardic community of New Amsterdam (today’s New York), established in the middle of the XVIIIth century, provided accomodation for the first group of Spanishspeakers of North America. It is important to note that they retained their Spanish dialect till the very end of the XIXth century, in which it disappeared in spite of leaving an indelible trace. However the Spanish language did not undergo the same fate in those Jewish communities, and it was well preserved although confined principally to a cultural level. And it even shared with Hebrew the status of liturgical language, provided that the most emblematic books used at synagogues and schools were written in those languages, and the most relevant trends of the Sephardic culture were closely related to them.