A member of Istanbul’s dwindling Jewish population, Karel Valansi, who is a political columnist for Turkey’s Salom newspaper and a lecturer at Istanbul Kultur University, told Al-Monitor, “Hearing Ladino in the series was really exciting. The natural use of Ladino was also reflected in the characters. Such detailed work moved many people like me. The Jews are portrayed as regular human beings. They are not caricaturized; they are not shown as people with just bad accents and bad tempers. They are depicted as they are, not through a lens made up of prejudices. They are described as human beings with weaknesses and passions, embodying the good and the bad. The series deeply moved many around me. Most of them told me that their eyes were filled with tears while watching. It was a first in many ways. We could see ourselves on the screen for the first time. We could hear Ladino on the streets, in the songs. … And we had the chance to get a glimpse of the life of our grandparents in 1950s Istanbul.”
in Pınar Tremblay's article, Al Monitor 17 November 2021
Cem Habib We talked about how the peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates affected the Jewish life in the Emirates, with the investment manager Cem Habib, who has been living in Dubai since 2016, and who is one of the founding members of the Jewish Council of Emirates (JCE), the first officially recognized Jewish community of the UAE. How long have you been living in Dubai? What influenced you in deciding to live here? I moved to Dubai in 2016, before I had been living in London. My customer base at that time was in Kazakhstan and it had gotten harder commuting there from London every month after 6 years. There were three direct flights between Dubai and Kazakhstan, every day, with a flight time of less than 4 hours. To improve our quality of life and to spend more time with the kids, we moved to Dubai. When moving, how could you overcome the thought “As a Jew, will I be comfortable living in an Arab country with my family?” I talked to my friends from different countri
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