M'Toleido L'Yerushalayim

A riveting musical journey, with Ladino spoken as narration as well as sung--most unique. Includes all of the most classic and beautiful of Sephardic songs, and features absolutely impeccable direction. The scenery, going on location, is gorgeous, and Gaon's personality lights up the screen. The history is effectively covered, and matched with legend, tradition, and culture. A special treat is a new Ladino song written (I presume) for this video---a Ladino rendition of Emma Lazarus's "The New Colussus" (poem on the Statue of Liberty), accompanied by alternating shots of NYC and it's multi-ethnic population. I've shown it to people of all ages, from 10 years on, and almost all have been entranced. A class act all the way. Of course, those who only like one type of music, rap or top 40 or whatever, might not have the ability to appreciate this. Note: Some would prefer the term "Judeo-Spanish" to be used instead of "Ladino"

you know how sometimes movie goers and critics have a predilection to note their worst movie of all time? officially it's ed wood's plan 9 from outer space but the truth there are dozens of film from that time who are just as dumb if not more, the truth is that the worst film (like the best) is a very personal choice. as you guessed, this film is my personal choice. it tells the tale of the jews that were banished from spain in 1492 (right about the time when the Spaniards banished native americans from this planet)and their journey to several countries that absorbed them, one of them was eretz-israel.

the plot doesn't sound all that Catastrophic but the execution is terrible, it's much worse than those ridiculed sci-fi trash, this movie can't be watched, it's mostly in ladino (a jewish version of spanish) and there's no thread to bind the picture- it's a repeating ritual of bland ladino narration and mind numbing songs. i think a couple of very interesting topics in any history (not just the jewish one) were trampled by becoming too educational instead of thought provoking, too restrained instead of moral and the worst of all repelling instead of intriguing. 1 out of 10 in my FilmOmeter

Sephardim, like myself, have been waiting for a movie like this. We finally have a film, in Ladino, our own special language, that actually tells our history with music (our own songs, in our own language), in the actual places that our ancestors stood.

Yehoram Gaon, one of our own kind that has several CD's available in Ladino, actually is trying to keep our rich history alive for our children. Ashkenazim have their Yiddish and most of America don't even realize that "we" exist, and have our own language and synagogues.

This movie is done with a lot of love and was created to teach the world, as well as to entertain us.

Kudos to Yehoram Gaon for doing a fabulous job in all his work, and especially for trying to chronicle our past. Our ancestors would be proud of him.