Reflections on A New Mexican Crypto-Jewish Song Book offers close examinations of a manuscript written over a 20-year period by Loggie Carrasco, a well-known crypto-Jew from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The manuscript includes a wide range of genres: folklore, memory, ritual practices, genealogy, and most significantly poetry and songs. Although the manuscript remains unpublished, this book utilizes quotations and excepts to enable the reader to have a good understanding of Carrasco’s voice. Focusing on the main genres and themes that shape Carrasco’s manuscripts, the contributors argue that the work is both unique and illustrative of the vitality of crypto-Jewish culture and contemporary understandings of it.

Perspectives on Jewish Music presents five unique and engaging explorations of Jewish music. Areas covered include self-expression in contemporary Jewish secular music, the rise of popular music in the American synagogue, the theological requirements of the cantor, the role of women in Sephardic music and society, and the personal reflections of a leading figure in American synagogue music. Its wide-ranging topics and disciplinary approaches give evidence for the centrality of music in Jewish religious and secular life, and demonstrate that Jewish music is as diverse as the Jews themselves. From these studies, readers will gain an appreciation of both what Jewish music is and what it does. This book will be useful for students, practitioners, and scholars of Jewish secular and religious music and Jewish cultural studies, as well as ethnomusicologists specializing in Jewish or religious music.

In The Mountain, the Desert and the Pomegranate Vanessa Paloma looks at the mysteries and complexities of life beyond simple physical observation. Spirituality and felt perceptions influence what we see, hear, and do. From coyotes that join in a chorus backing up the soprano singing in the desert to the pomegranate and the Berbers who live in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and geckos that live in towers in Casablanca life is full of mysteries. From Jewish rituals redeeming the first born son to the hospitality of a Jewish-Arab family in Marrakesh, Ms. Paloma explores the promise in life. Vanessa Paloma is the "Nightingale of Moroccan Jewish Music" -- Le Journal, Casablanca. Vanessa Paloma, performer, writer, lecturer on Maghrebi life, is a specialist on Judeo-Spanish traditions and music. She is a Research Associate of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University and former Senior Fulbright Research Scholar, currently living in Casablanca.

This book is about women's spirituality and finding the full expression of women's potential. Although it is written from a Jewish point of view, it's major teachings apply to all people. The siren is an important image of women, and this book presents an interpretation of the siren that contrasts with a traditional point of view of the woman as a seductoress who is simultaneously dangerous. Drawing from her Sephardic heritage, Vanessa Paloma tells a story of a young woman who realizes her full potential based on a story about sirens. Using Kabbalistic teachings, Paloma shows the relationships between women, song, water, spirituality, and the fullness of creation. She gives an in-depth analysis of the lyrics of the Spanish-Jewish song, La Serena, and carries the idea further to teachings about the eternal kindness of G-d toward all humanity. When women's voices are heard openly and freely, they help create a proper balance in creation.