Over a century ago, a young woman by the name of Sarah decided to make the journey from Ottoman Monastir, now Bitola, North Macedonia, to the United States. There she would meet and marry Rabbi David Elias, also from Monastir, and together they would raise their seven children in New York.
Sarah, known to most as Shorty, and David brought very few belongings with them to America, but the culture they carried was immeasurable and invaluable. Among their many treasures were dozens of songs. Just as they had learned this music from their forebears, Shorty and David taught the music of Monastir to their children in the oral tradition of Sephardic daily life.
One of their sons, Joe Elias, had a particular penchant for music. After learning what he claimed to be over 150 songs from his parents, he decided to dedicate himself to the preservation of Sephardic music. In the 1950s and early 60s, Joe made home recordings of his mother singing the songs of her childhood. Over the years, he would go on to form the Elias Ladino Ensemble and have a prolific career in the world of Sephardic music: being invited to represent Sephardic music at the rescinding of the edict of expulsion in Spain on its 500th anniversary, one of the Sephardic musicians to play at the Israeli folk music festival in Safed in the 1990s, and the inaugural performance at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. Not to mention the Ensemble being the house band for years at Yeshiva University’s Semana Sefarad.
Joe brought his son, Dan, along with him on this musical journey. Like his father, Dan had the rare experience of learning Sephardic music through the oral tradition. He grew up surrounded by Monastirli music in his family, and the many other regional Sephardic musics from his experiences learning at the Sephardic Home for the Aged. Also an original member of the Ladino Ensemble, Dan took part in the band’s many historic performances. After Joe Elias’s passing in 2010, Dan became the bandleader, and has kept the Ensemble’s mission of Sephardic musical preservation and education alive. This year, he added to the list of historic performances.
Over the past months, Dan Elias and the Ladino Ensemble have been working with Brotherhood member, Zack Youcha, on a project to preserve, document, and share the music of the Monastirli. Together with Zack, the Sephardic Brotherhood, and the Mission of North Macedonia to the United Nations, the Elias Ladino Ensemble brought Monastirli music to the stage at multiple events in the United States: sharing the stage with Flory Jagoda’s apprentices, Trio Sefardi, for a night of Balkan Jewish music, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Macedonian Jews during the Holocaust, and performing at the personal party of Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski during his visit to New York. This summer, they took the music home to Monastir.
At the invitation of the Macedonian Jewish Community, the Macedonian Prime Minister, UN Mission, and multiple government sponsored festivals, Zack and the Elias Ladino Ensemble took traditional Monastirli music all around the country of North Macedonia. The first stop was Bitola (Monastir) at their Ottoman Heritage festival, Lokum Fest. In the city of his ancestors, Dan and the Ensemble performed outside the old Officers’ Home to a full crowd of Macedonians; people whose predecessors lived beside his. Excited to take part in this cultural sharing, the State Archive of North Macedonia in Bitola created a walkthrough exhibit about the Monastirli around the stage. This exhibit featured photos of the Jewish Community of Monastir taken by the Manaki brothers, who brought film to the Ottoman Empire.
The performance was amazing. With stories and song, Dan and the Ensemble engaged the audience for an hour of music. Afterwards, viewers spoke of how the music was at once deeply familiar, yet different from what they knew. Many were moved to tears when Dan played a recording of his grandmother from the stage. After more than a century, her voice could be heard in Monastir again.
Although less personally significant, the next performance was a great honor. At the personal invitation of Prime Minister Kovacevski, the Ensemble went to present Monastirli music at the Ohrid Summer Festival, North Macedonia’s (and formerly Yugoslavia’s) most prestigious music event. The band played a beautiful acoustic set at the historic Saint Sofija stage, which over the years hosted composers and performers such as Prokofiev and José Carreras (and this year featured John Malkovich). Words can’t describe what it means to see Sephardic music valued at the same level of cultural importance as other performances.
In this beautiful setting, Dan brought an enraptured audience along with him on an intimate musical journey through the Jewish history of their country. It was truly something to behold.
The final stop on the tour was Skopje, North Macedonia’s capital, and home to their small but strong Jewish Community. Here, the band was invited by Goran Sadikarijo, a Monastirli, and the head of the Holocaust Memorial Fund for the Jews of North Macedonia, and the Skopje Summer Festival, to perform outside the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia.
The building now occupies what was the heart of Skopje’s Jewish quarter before it was destroyed by a massive earthquake. For the first time on the tour, Dan played for a partially Jewish audience. During the performance, their voices could be heard humming and singing along.
The next day, after a personal tour of the Holocaust Memorial Center by Goran Sadikarijo, the band welcomed local musicians and enthusiasts to learn Sephardic music at the Skopje Museum of Contemporary Art. Hopefully, it helps inspire a new generation in Macedonia to pick up the torch. What an incredible way to end.
Back in New York, the band has no intentions of slowing down. Together with Zack, they are working on more ways to share the music of the Monastirli — so keep your eyes peeled!
For more information, or to share your family stories and recordings, feel free to contact Zack via email at zackyoucha@gmail.com. He will provide free audio engineering services for damaged recordings of Sephardic music and oral history.
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