More about her music: “Unapologetically, she unveiled the traditional “Noches”—the story of three young sisters walking in the night and singing to each other that “nights are made for love”—in the flamenco style known as solea, almost crying the words and punctuating them with soft rhythmic clapping.

Ladino is listed by UNESCO as an endangered language, spoken only by 150,000 (mostly older) people worldwide. Even Levy does not speak it—she only sings it. “If you don’t live a language, the language will not live,” she said. “The only thing that will survive are the songs.” Though anyone can sing the songs, “it is not just the words on the page,” she explained. “It’s the food you eat, it’s the furniture in your family home, it’s your mother shouting at you.”