If you have no menus to the left and top in this window, please click here. ברוכים הבאים! Welcome to Hassafon, a site from Trondheim, Norway — home city of one of the northernmost synagogues in the World. (Latitude ca 63° 25' N.) To go to the homepage of the Jewish community in Trondheim, please click here. To see a list of other synagogues at extreme latitudes, please click here. For candlelighting times, please click here. For a north-western European Sephardic Birkat hammazon in Hebrew original with full transliteration of the Hebrew and with English translation, please click here. For the taŋamím (Torah cantillation, “trope”) of the London tradition of Western Sephardim, please click here. About this siteThis is a private, non-profit, non-denominational resource site for Jewish religion and culture with the primary focus on Western Sephardic traditions, mainly the Spanish and Portuguese traditions of NW Europe and the Americas, and a secondary focus on Litvak, Hamburg and Scandinavian Ashkenazi traditions. Please feel free to visit our Guestbook. :-) How to use this siteThe main language of the site is Norwegian, but there are English translations of most of the headings on this site, so that those who don’t understand Norwegian can also follow the main structure of the files. The links back from the documents all lead to the Norwegian index page, so if you want to go back to this page from one of the other pages, you’ll have to use the "back" button of your browser. Transliteration of Hebrew wordsThe spelling of the Hebrew words is mostly Sephardic. Please note: Álef is not transcribed, except for after a ševá nakh: mal’ákh and in some cases between other vowels. Bét is transcribed as b even when it is written without a dagéš, in accordance with the Western Sephardic traditional pronunciation: Abrahám, tébá. Hé is only transcribed when it is pronounced as a consonant: susá (horse), susáh (her horse). Ḥét is transcribed as ḥ, e.g., ḥanukká, simḥá. Kháf is transcribed as kh: Šulḥán ŋarúkh. Fé is transcribed as f: séfer. Ṣàde is transcribed as ṣ: Ṣiyyón. Kóf is transcribed as k: kiddúš. ŋÁyin is always transcribed as ŋ: ŋamidá, šemàŋ. Vowels are transcribed according to the Western Sephardic pronunciation, i.e., mostly as in modern Israeli Hebrew. Note: ṣéré is é, not ei or ey: bené Yisra’él. Ševá náŋ is transcribed as e: berakhá, berít.
| |
HaTsafon: Jewish newsgroup with a Scandinavian twistHaTsafon is a Scandinavian newsgroup for people who are interested in Judaism (Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Mizrachi) — regardless of their background. Members may be Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Secular Humanist... Dialogue is welcome, but missionary attempts of any sort or any other disrespectful acts will not be accepted. Messages may be in Scandinavian languages or English. Interested? Please apply for membership here. | |
NetEsnoga: Forum for Sephardic learningForum for enlightened Sefaradí Judaism, mainly in its Spanish and Portuguese variety. We believe in the continuation and development of the Sefaradí tradition with its minhag and its understanding of Halakhá. Topics will include liturgy, religious music, cantillation (taŋamím), Hebrew language (including traditional Sefaradí pronunciation), Shabbát and holiday observances, gender issues (including tallét and tefillín, minyán; keriàt Torá, etc.), kashrút, recipes, and many more... The main language is English. Interested? Please apply for membership here. | |
Petition for a commemorative flagstone in Ladino in Auschwitz
“Out of 360,000 Sefardim living in Europe,
160,000 were murdered by the nazis. Judezmo was their mother tongue.
During the Second International Conference on Judeo-Spanish
organized in Salonika (Greece) April 16 and 17, 2000, the Survivors
of Shoah and their descendants asked that the Memory of the Martyrs
be honored by the addition to the Memorial of Auschwitz–Birkenau
of a flagstone in Judeo-Spanish.”
| |
Sephardím in Northern Europe
From the late 1500s on, many anusím (Marranos, Crypto-Jews) from Spain and Portugal
arrived in Northwestern Europe, where they returned openly to Judaism.
“Spanish/Portuguese” Sephardic communities emerged, amongst other places,
in Bordeaux, Amsterdam, London, and Hamburg.
In the early 1600s, Sephardic Jews were accepted in the then Danish towns of Altona and
Glyckstadt, and later also to other parts of the Danish/Norwegian kingdom.
A very interesting web exhibition about the Hamburg Sephardím
can be found on the address
| |
Jews in Norway before 1851One of the ongoing projects on Hassafon is to collect and to list information about Jews that had connections to, visited, or lived in, Norway before 1814 or between 1814 and 1851. The information can be found here. Please contact the webmaster if you have any additional information. | |
Norwegian Jewish Museum Goes VirtualTrondheim: “The Jewish Museum is proud to present a virtual museum where visitors can study our exhibition in depth on their own. (...) A presentation of Jewish history, holidays and ceremonies is only a few mouse-clicks away.” |
| We warmly recommend: |
Chana’s and Josh’s online shop Ahuva Judaica (Toronto, Canada), has a wide selection of kippót, talletót, tefillín, shoferót and many other Jewish items — and best of all: they are wonderful and serviceminded people :-) [free ad] |
| Online shops |
|
New: Our own web shop!
|
| Various resources |
KaluachKaluach — Jewish calendar for Windows. Kaluach was used for calculating the times for Shabbát etc. on Hassafon, and JavaScripts from the same source are used on various pages of this site. |
Embee’s GifsMany of the pictures on Hassafon were provided by “Embee’s Gifs”. Sadly, her web site seems to be permanently down — hence the lack of a link to it... |
Outreach JudaismOutreach Judaism was established 1987 by Rabbi Tovia Singer as a countermeasure to “Messianic Jews” and other groups that seek to convert Jews to Christianity. |
KulanuKulanu’s mission is to find lost and dispersed remnants of Jewish migrations and to help those who want it to rejoin the Jewish people. |
