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Judy Frankel (1943-March 20, 2008, San Francisco) was an American singer of Judaeo-Spanish, Yiddish, and Hebrew language music.
She graduated from Boston University. During her time at college, Frankel won a singing contest, which came with a recording contract and a tour, but her parents insisted she finish her degree before embarking on a music career.
In the 1960s, she lived in Hawaii. She arrived in San Francisco in 1969 with her then husband, Ken Frankel, and she sang as a soloist in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and San Francisco Consort, a medieval music band.
In the 1980s, Frankel developed an interest in Sephardic culture and music after performing for a Ladino-speaking senior patient at Mount Zion Medical Center. She subsequently learned a number of Ladino songs, and embarked on research trips to Europe and Israel to study Ladino music and Crypto-Judaism culture. In 1989, she visited Portugal to interview families of crypto-Jewish descent. She also volunteered with Americans of crypto-Jewish heritage, helping them reconnect to Jewish culture and community.
Frankel's singing was included on the soundtrack of the 1989 documentary Trees Cry for Rain, by filmmaker Bonnie Burt.
Frankel performed in a number of countries, including Spain, Cuba, Canada, France, and China. When she was in Macau, she learned a pacifist song from a refugee from East Timor. In 1995, she sang said song in Lisbon as a homage to Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who, when working in Bordeaux, saved the life of thousands of Jews by giving them visas to escape from Nazi-occupied France.
In 1997, Frankel was included in Rounder Records' "Divine Divas: A World of Women's Voices".
Frankel died from cancer in 2008, in San Francisco.
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