Maír José Benardete
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Maír José Benardete (1895, Çanakkale, Ottoman Empire – 1989, U.S.) was a scholar of Sephardic studies and was a long-time Professor of Spanish and Sephardic Studies at Brooklyn College.
He was a past Director of The Hispanic Institute at Columbia University's Sephardic Studies Section in the late 1920s. The Institute was also known as Casa Hispánica.[1]
Early life and education[edit]
Benardete was born in the Ottoman Empire, in the city of Çanakkale, on Dardanalles, Turkey. He was the eldest of nine children, and came from a Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish)-speaking family. At the age of eight, he contracted a serious illness that left him unable to walk for months. He spent his year-long convalescence among the Sephardic women of his community, absorbing the Judeo-Spanish folklore and language that would later serve him well in his career as a Sephardic scholar.[2] In 1910, Benardete immigrated to the United States, to live with an uncle living in Cincinnati.[3]
Benardete also went by the names Mair José Benardete; Mair José Benadrete; M. J. Benadete; Meyer Benardete; and Mercedes Benardete.
Career[edit]
Under Benardete's direction, the Sephardic Section of Casa Hispanica hosted or sponsored lectures on Sephardic civilization, generated articles for the institute's "Revista Hispanica Moderna,", published a Ladino/Spanish commemorative volume on the medieval Spanish-Jewish poet, Yehuda Halevi, and staged dramatic performances in Judaeo-Spanish. Benardete's doctoral dissertation, "Hispanic Culture and Character of the Sephardic Jews," was first published by the Hispanic Institute in 1953.
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In 1962, two Sephardic activists, Louis N. Levy and David N. Barocas, published "Studies in Honor of M.J. Benadrete."
Personal life[edit]
Benardete produced three academically-successful sons; Seth Benardete, who was an American classicist and philosopher, José Benardete, who was also a philosopher.[4] and Diego Benardete, who is a professor of mathematics at the University of Hartford.[5] Benardete's wife was a professor in the English department at Brooklyn College.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ Mair Jose Benadrete Biography
- ^ Aviva Ben-Ur. (October 2010). "" Benardete, Maír José." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World". Retrieved 2012-09-19.
- ^ Aviva Ben-Ur. "Benardete, Mair Jose" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-09-19.
- ^ Harvey C. Mansfield. "Seth Benardete, 1930-2001 (originally published in The Weekly Standard) (November 27, 2001". Archived from the original on August 21, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2012.
- ^ "Diego Benardete, PhD". www.hartford.edu. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
- ^ Ronna Burger. "Benardete: A Biographical Sketch". Retrieved 2012-09-16.
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