Karen Gerson Şarhon (born 1958) is a scholar of Judaeo-Spanish and the coordinator of the Ottoman-Turkish Sephardic Research Center.[1]
Gerson was born on 25 May 1958 in Istanbul, Turkey to Suzi (Sultana) and Beni (Baruh) Gerson, who were Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors came to the Ottoman Empire after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. Although her parents spoke Ladino at home, they had studied in the French schools of Istanbul and instead chose to speak to her in French, which caused her to initially not be fluent in her ancestral language. She first started learning Turkish in elementary school and continued her French studies through a private tutor following the third grade. The English language entered her life when she began going to the English High School for Girls in her hometown. Studying there for five years (including two preparatory years learning English), she then went to Robert College and in 1976 entered Boğaziçi University, majoring in English Philology and Linguistics.[2]
Gerson is currently the coordinator of the Istanbul-based Sephardic Centre of Istanbul, which was established in 2003 to promote Sephardic culture and the Ladino language in Turkey and abroad.[3] Gerson is also the editor-in-chief of El Amaneser, the monthly Ladino-language supplement of the Turkish Jewish newspaper Şalom. El Amaneser has been published continually since it was originally launched in 2003.[4]
In 1992, she married Jozi Yusuf Şarhon and had her daughter, Selin Şarhon, in 1996.[2]