Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (2019) courtesy of Peterhouse, Cambridge
BBC reporter Nora Fakim has been learning about UK celebrations of Mimouna, a uniquely Moroccan Jewish celebration marking the end of Passover. Her report includes a short interview with Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz—here is a brief taster:
Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz, a lecturer of oral Moroccan history at Cambridge University whose family is originally from Tetouan in northern Morocco, explains that many of the items laid out on the table carry deeper meaning.
“The plate itself tells a story,” she says. “The eggs, which are always five, represents fertility and the cycle of life.
“We also place five coins for prosperity, and flour and oil to symbolise abundance after a week of restriction. We also add five beans”.
Dr Elbaz’s expertise
Elbaz’s work focuses on the cultural histories of sound in the diasporic regions of 1492’s expulsion, describing how issues of transmission, regeneration and the negotiations of gender and power intersect with sound, philosophy, and belief until today.
Focusing on sonic transmission and languages of the Sephardi community and its diasporas as well as the use of music in relating to the national narratives of diversity in both Eastern and Western Mediterranean regions, her research combines ethnography and historical musicology to understand how voice, sound and music affect the long durée in diasporic communities. “A kind of one-woman roving museum of her own” —The New York Times, 2022.