ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question:  How many Hebrew poems do scholars think might have been written by women in Iberia in the Middle Ages?

Rachel Peled was born in Israel and has lived in Spain for many years.  She studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Complutense University in Madrid, specializing in Hebrew and Spanish Medieval literature.  She is co-founder and director of Ulpan Hebreo Sefarad, which offers classes in Hebrew language and culture to the general public.  She is also co-director of Sephardic Studies at the University of Alcalá de Henares, where she co-founded the Yehuda Halevi section of the Miguel de Cervantes Research Institute, which is devoted to the study of the relationships between Jewish, Christian and Muslim societies in the Middle Ages.

Rachel was scheduled to give a talk at Centro Sefarad-Israel about Women in Medieval Hebrew Literature.  Unfortunately the talk was cancelled because of the COVID-19 restrictions, but she spoke with us about it and also about the Sephardic Studies program at the University of Alcalá.