about us
The creation of this site was a triumph of social media, as the team live in different parts of the world and most of us have never even met.
Dylan discovered the recordings on the site of the National Museum of Israel, but they were unhelpfully long, disjointed and not always clearly labelled. He spliced them together into useful blocks, and we then asked on my Facebook Group S&P Jewish Music and Liturgy for volunteers to help with the arduous task of splitting the long files into bite-sized units. Within 24 hours we had a team and in less than a month this site was ready to be published!
Dylan Davila
Dylan is a student, living in the UK. Of Moroccan origin, after spending time at Lauderdale Road synagogue, he fell in love with the S&P, particularly its hazanut and history, which was amplified after discovering his own family's past links to the community. He serves regularly as hazan at a non-S&P congregation, but takes every opportunity to join the S&P for events; he also assists others with keriat haTora and haftara, his greatest pleasure being learning about and teaching the minhag.
He stumbled upon these recordings whilst searching for materials in the National Library of Israel's archive to help consolidate his knowledge, and hopes that, in this more accessible format, they will be able to assist others in refreshing their memory or learning for the first time. He is reachable through the S&P Music and Liturgy group, linked to above.
Jonathan Cohen
Jonathan grew up as a member of Lauderdale Road synagogue where he developed an enduring love of all (well most) aspects of the S&P tradition, particularly the unique musical one. From his earliest years he regularly heard services meaningfully read in Eliezer Abinun's dulcet tones, coming to realise as he grew older what a privilege that had been.
In 1984 he married Simha (at Bevis Marks) and the couple moved to Southern Israel, where they brought up their five children; now themselves married with children of their own.
As an adult working in high-tech, writing and design, Jonathan began making recordings after work of some of the S&P's musical gems. In 2009 this developed into the London Sephardi Music website which, along with its companion London Sephardi Minhag, has been slowly growing ever since, reaching a wide and varied audience.
Over the years Jonathan has led high holyday services in the S&P tradition in London, Manchester, Philadelphia, Lisbon and Jerusalem. In 2010, during a two-year period of frequent commuting between Israel and London as visiting Rabbi of Bevis Marks synagogue, Jonathan proposed and created the Halfon Benarroch Archive, from digitised versions of earlier cassette recordings. The existence of the Abinun recordings was at that time unknown to him.
In 2011 Jonathan created the Facebook group S&P Jewish Music & Liturgy, enabling afficionados, researchers and newcomers around the globe to discuss and learn more about the S&P tradition. Today the group has more than 1,800 members. Dylan and Jonathan - who have not yet met in person - came to know each other through the Facebook group. They are both delighted that this website has become a reality in such a short time.
Simon Montagu
Simon, born in London, first encountered the S&P tradition during a gap year program in Venice in 1977. Back in England he became a regular attendee at Bevis Marks, and since making Aliya to Israel in the 1980s he has been involved in Jerusalem's S&P congregation, Sha'arei Ratson.
Tom Garcia
Tom (b.1998) grew up at Lauderdale Road Synagogue (London) singing in the choir, having a strong connection with the music of the S&P. He started taking services at Lauderdale Road at the age of 16, and since 2020 has led Yamim Noraim services at both Lauderdale and Bevis Marks.
Pamela Hitchcock
Pamela has lived in the Philadelphia area all her life. She studied music history at the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University and holds an MA in Jewish Music from Gratz College. She studied Yiddish at the Uriel Weinreich Summer Program and the University of Pennsylvania, and has performed Yiddish song and assisted others in doing so. She sang in the professional choir of Congregation Adath Jeshurun for over ten years, and was the High Holiday cantor for a senior housing building, as well as at Minyan Sulam Yaakov. She entered into a long collaboration with Cantor Charles Davidson z”l, where she engraved many of his compositions and worked on producing his cantorial textbooks. She is currently revising his book on chanting Hallel. She spent five years at Kahal Kadosh Mikveh Israel, a Spanish Portuguese congregation dating to the American Revolution, where she immersed herself in the liturgy and music, recording and transcribing the liturgical melodies. She was happy to have the opportunity to participate in the continued preservation of this tradition.
Viktor Filiba
Originally from Istanbul, Turkey, Viktor moved to the USA at age 25 with his wife Fortune. They lived in Cleveland Ohio for 7 years, where he earned his Master’s in Computer Engineering and worked as an engineer. In 1987, he moved to San Diego California to set up an engineering office and is currently retired there.
Viktor collects Sephardic music with lyrics in Ladino and Hebrew and so was eager to help create this archive and find out more about S&P tradition and Ladino songs. He is keen to learn more about Sephardic songs from all parts of the world and can be contacted at vfiliba@gmail.com.