Jewish Heritage of Alfama

Food

In the previous part of the Stop you learned that Sephardic Jews spoke Ladino. The language is one of the differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews – the latter spoke Yiddish, which is a mixture of Hebrew, German and Polish.

The other significant difference is food: while we cannot be certain what Sephardic Jews ate in the 15th century, their descendants kept some traditional dishes that differ from the Ashkenazi cuisine.


Does your family have any traditional food that you eat during special occasions, like holidays? If yes, what is that?

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