An independent researcher in the field of Sephardic studies, with a focus on Ladino traditional oral poetry; musical and folk culture of the Sephardi community of Thessaloniki; contacts between Ladino folk poetry and the Greek culture; early recordings of Ladino song repertoire. The subject of her Ph.D. dissertation is “The Ladino Song in the 20th Century: A Study of the Collections of Emily Sene and Bouena Sarfatty-Garfinkle” (Bar Ilan University 2007). Participated in various research projects in the Jewish Music Research Center, among them: Incipitario sefardí: El antiguo cancionero judeoespañol en fuentes hebreas (siglos xv-xix); An Early 20th-century Sephardi Troubadour: The Historic Recordings of Haim Effendi of Turkey; Eastern Mediterranean Judeo-Spanish Songs from the EMI Archive Trust (1907-1912).
Rivka Havassy