An Open Letter Addressing Misinformation Spread by Noam "Nani" Vazana

We, the undersigned, are dedicated to the revitalization of the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) language, which has been designated as an endangered language by UNESCO and the Endangered Language Alliance. Our community includes native and heritage speakers, ethnomusicologists, researchers, musicians, students, and advocates committed to sustaining Sephardic linguistic and cultural traditions.

Ladino, spoken by Sephardic Jews following their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula, remains a living language with documented Ottoman and Moroccan variants and many opportunities for study and learning. Though it has been called by various names, for the purpose of this letter we will refer to the language and its variants as Ladino. We write in the context of growing concern over misinformation and misrepresentation, which continue to pose serious threats to the integrity of the Ladino language and Sephardic culture.

One pressing example is musician-songwriter Noam "Nani" Vazana, who has repeatedly misrepresented both Ladino and Sephardic culture, despite years of correction from scholars and community members. Unlike instances of inadvertent error or misunderstanding, her mischaracterizations have been persistent and have often appeared to be deliberate. An ambitious publicity campaign has further amplified these inaccuracies, making them a growing concern for the wider Ladino-speaking community.

Most recently, Vazana was awarded the LIET Prize, which is an international award for newly composed songs in minority languages. Vazana’s winning song “Una Segunda Piel” is NOT in Ladino, as she claims. An article in the Dutch Jazz magazine Jazzenzo, along with linguistic analysis by native speakers, has provided clear evidence that it is not in Ladino or any of its Ottoman or Moroccan variants. 

Scholars of the vast Ladino song repertoire, along with Ladino speakers and educators, actively encourage innovation and creativity in the language. Many have attempted to approach Vazana and offer corrections to the Ladino of her songwriting and the historical and cultural narratives in her performances, but these efforts have been met with resistance and outright rejection. Our concern is not with her artistry but with her distortion of Ladino, and Sephardic history and culture. None of Vazana’s original songs is in any dialect of the Ladino language, and the cultural narratives that accompany them are often rife with inaccuracy.

On her website, social media, booking agency page, and promotional materials, Vazana has repeatedly marketed herself as the "World’s First Ladino Singer-Songwriter" or the "World’s First Millennial Ladino Songwriter"—claims that are patently untrue and run counter to a long-standing and well-documented tradition of original Ladino songwriting. For hundreds of years, and across many regions, composers have written and performed original songs in Ladino. This creative tradition is not only part of the historical record but continues actively today.

Vazana has also falsely claimed to have received a Library of Congress "Living Relic” Honour, an award that does not exist. The Library of Congress has no award of this kind. This is not a minor embellishment but a serious fabrication, contributing to an inflated professional profile that lends false legitimacy to her work.

In addition to these claims, Vazana has performed copyrighted Ladino works, such as “Ocho Kandelikas” by Flory Jagoda (1983), without proper attribution, misrepresenting them as anonymous folk songs. She has also fabricated a Ladino connection to the Netherlands, falsely asserting that she discovered a Ladino lullaby manuscript in Amsterdam’s historic Ets Haim Library. This is an assertion disproven by the library itself, and by ethnomusicologists internationally known as specialists in Ladino music and culture.

These, and many other, repeated misrepresentations not only distort Ladino history and culture but also undermine the integrity of the ongoing efforts to preserve and revitalize the language. Despite her limited knowledge of the language and culture, Vazana has consistently positioned herself as an expert in the field, promoting her work as a primary access point for those seeking to learn.

We urge Noam "Nani" Vazana to remove misrepresentations about her role in Ladino music and culture from her public materials. We call on venues and granting agencies to reconsider their support while these misrepresentations persist.

This letter is not issued in malice, but rather in defense of our endangered language and culture. Misinformation diverts attention and material resources from legitimate preservation efforts. This is not only about Ladino; it raises broader questions: who has the right to shape the narrative of a critically endangered culture, and what happens when one person distorts, co-opts, and claims to "save" what is still a living tradition?

We stand for accuracy, integrity, and the rightful representation of Ladino and Sephardic heritage.

Signed,

American Ladino League

Rachel Amado Bortnick, founder of Ladinokomunita, co-director of American Ladino League

Dr. Aldo Sevi, editor-in-chief of the all-Ladino cultural and literary magazine Aki Yerushalayim

Dr. Gloria J. Ascher, Tufts University (Emerita), Ladino poet, singer, songwriter, writer, teacher

Prof. Liliana Tchukran-Benveniste, co-founder and Vice President of Sefarad Cultural Center, Ladino teacher, Sephardic singer, writer and co-founder and editor of eSefarad.com

Prof. David M. Bunis, Center for Jewish Languages, Mandel Center for Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Susy Gruss, Salti Institute for the Study of Ladino, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan Israel

Karen Gerson Şarhon, director of the Sephardic Center of Istanbul & general editor of the Ladino newspaper, El Amaneser

Ethan Marcus, Managing Director of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America

Prof. Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald, president of the Israel Academy of Ladino, Department of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and the Salti Institute for the Study of Ladino, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

Dr. Carlos Yebra López, California State University Fullerton, Ladino researcher and instructor, executive director and co-founder of Ladino 21

Alejandro Acero Ayuda, PhD (c), University of Oregon, heritage languages and Ladino researcher, co-founder of Ladino 21

Dr. Judith Cohen, York University, Toronto (Music Department), Sephardic Music Specialist

Daisy Sadaka Braverman, native Ladino speaker, former instructor, Columbia University, teaching Ladino for 19 years at the University of Pennsylvania, singer of Sephardic folk music, translator, actress and singer in Ladino Players, New York, NY

Simone Salmon, Department of Ethnomusicology, UCLA, doctoral dissertation on the Ladino music of Turkey, host and programmer of Ladino music radio show Los Bilbilikos, and former director of Ladino music singing ensemble Kantigas Muestras in Los Angeles

Benni Aguado, native Ladino speaker who knows the language well and has helped many people learn it

Ítalo Felizardo, Brazilian Sephardic Jew, heritage Ladino speaker

Esther Rute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Philologist and Historian. Judeo-Spanish Teacher at Cervantes Institute of Tel Aviv and Council of Sephardi & Oriental Communities in Jerusalem, Deputy Editor in ‘Aki Yerushalayim’ Magazine.

Note: The opinions expressed by the authors, community contributors, guest contributors, and opinion writers in our publication reflect the views of the individual writers and signatories only and not necessarily those of La Djente - The People or the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America.