Mario Soares asked forgiveness from Portugal’s Jewish communities for the iniquities of the Inquisition."} 77:{"position":24,"content":"■ ON MARCH 17, 1996, the Knesset passed a law setting up a National Authority for Yiddish Culture and another National Authority for Ladino Culture. Yiddish was for centuries the lingua franca of Ashkenazi Jews of European background, and Ladino the lingua franca of Jews from North Africa, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and South America, who could trace their lineage to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492."} 78:{"position":25,"content":"Yitzhak Navon, Israel’s fifth president, headed the Ladino authority until the time of his death in November 2015, while the Yiddish authority had a number of chairmen, none of whom lasted for very long."} 79:{"position":26,"content":"Among the prominent figures of the Yiddish stage is actress and Israel Prize laureate Lea Koenig, who performs in both Yiddish and Hebrew – more so in Hebrew these days. At age 87 (her birthday is on November 30) she is currently appearing in five Habimah productions, and is preparing to play the title role in King Lear."} 7a:{"position":27,"content":"Coincidentally, both Koenig and Navon were honored on Monday night of this week. Koenig was given a life achievement award by the Yiddish authority at a festive ceremony at the Einav Center in Tel Aviv. This was a particular triumph for Koenig, who, when she went for her first audition at Habimah in 1962, made the near fatal error of reciting a monologue in Yiddish. That mistake almost put paid to her career. Today, Yiddish theater flourishes in Israel."} 7b:{"position":28,"content":"Also on Monday night at the World Center for North African Jewish Heritage in Jerusalem, Navon was being posthumously honored with the launch of a book, Meditation Diary (Hebrew), that he actually wrote by hand when he and prime minister David Ben-Gurion went to Burma in Decemb

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