Meet Lala Tamar, the Modern Artist Reviving the Language and Sound of Haketia

In her early twenties, she discovered the language and culture of “Hecketia”, a romantic language once spoken by Sephardic Jews in North Africa. Haketia has elements of Darija (Moroccan Arabic), Spanish and Ladino, says jta.org (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

“I was hooked immediately,” Bloch, 33, told New York Jewish Week. She could only find ethnographic recordings of Haketian songs in the State Archives of Israel and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which she painstakingly transcribed and re-recorded becoming the first modern artist to record an album in Haketia.

Over the past decade, Bloch, whose stage name is Lala Tamar; (Lala is an honorific in Morocco which means “lady” or “Miss”) has traveled the world touring with bands, promoting the language and sound of Haketia.

Last weekend, Bloch left his home in Essouria, Morocco, to play several concerts at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.