THE IN SPAIN

With thanks to the many contributors to this feature in Spain, the UK, the USA and Canada and particular thanks to Michael Alpert and Dominique Tomasov Blinder for the advice they provided.

11 JEWS IN SPAIN

TIMELINE MICHAEL ALPERT

CHRISTIAN SPAIN JEWS RETURN TO SPAIN 13th century There is rapid Christian 1834-5 Lionel de Rothschild is invited to conquest of Islamic Spain and attempts to Madrid to organise Spanish finances. limit the administrative role of Jews. 1859-60 Spain reconnects with its exiled 1263 Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman Jews in . A Jewish community (Nahmanides or the Ramban) defends established in Seville. at Disputation of Barcelona. 1865 Statutes of ‘Purity of Blood’ 1348 The Black Death unleashes attacks abolished. on Jews who are thought to be responsible 1924 Spain allows Sephardim to acquire for the epidemic. Spanish nationality. June 1391 Violent attacks on Jewish 1931 The Constitution of the Second communities. Many Jews accept Republic allows public practice of Christianity. Judaism. 1413-1414 Disputation of Tortosa between 1936-75 The Franco regime impedes the Jewish leaders and converts leads to practice of Judaism but slowly comes to general weakening of Jewish solidarity and tolerate it. mass conversion. However, many converts From late1940s There is a wave of (New Christians) continue to practise immigration of Moroccan Jews. Judaism secretly. 1967 Law of Religious Liberty allows the 1449 Statute of Toledo marks the open practice of Judaism in Spain. beginning of ‘Purity of Blood’ 1970s/ 80s Jewish immigrants arrive from discrimination against Jewish converts to South America, mostly from Argentina, Christianity, reflecting suspicions that the fleeing the oppressive regime and, later, latter still live as Jews. economic hardship. 1449-1474 Widespread rioting against New 1992 King of Spain abrogates the Edict of Christians. Expulsion. 1480 Isabel of Castile and Fernando of 2008 There are an estimated 35,000 Jews Aragon, joint monarchs, establish the living in Spain, about 20,000 affiliated to to investigate religious conduct congregations. of converts and their descendants.. 6 February 1481 In Seville, the first Auto Statue of philospher and poet Ibn Gabirol in Malaga de Fe ceremony takes place in which Michael Alpert is Emeritus Professor Born Málaga about 1021; died about 1058 in Valencia heretics confess and are reconciled to the of the Modern and Contemporary History PRE-ISLAMIC SPAIN Church, or are burnt at the stake if of Spain, University of Westminster. 1st and 2nd centuries CE Following the impenitent . destruction of the Temple and the defeat of 1481- Intense inquisitorial activity. Previous page: Sinagoga Córdoba Jewish rebellions, Jewish exiles reach 31 March 1492 Edict of Expulsion of all A Hebrew inscription indicates 1350 as the Roman Spain. unconverted Jews. date of the synagogue’s construction. The 586 The Visigothic king of Spain tries to Summer 1492 Tens of thousands of Jews interior features exquisite Mudéjar stucco force Jews to adopt Christianity. leave Spain for Portugal, , tracery of plant motifs. The women’s gallery Italy and the . Many others still stands, and in the east wall is the ark ISLAMIC SPAIN 8TH-13TH CENTURY accept Christian baptism. where the sacred scrolls of the Pentateuch were kept. With the expulsion of the Jews it 711 Muslims conquer Spain: the Golden 2nd August 1492 Columbus sets sail in became a hospital and in 1588 a Catholic Age for Jews begins. search of India with converts in his crew. chapel. Today it is a museum. 915-970 Hasdai ibn Shaprut, a Jew, 1580-1640 Inquisition takes energetic steps becomes Chief Minister of the Caliph of against secret Jews. 16th-17th centuries Spanish and Right: Sinagoga del Tránsito in Toledo Córdoba. Founded around 1356 by Shmuel HaLevi Portuguese New Christians leave Iberian 993-1064 Shmuel ibn Nagrela, the Jewish Abulafia, member of a prominent Jewish Peninsula for Bayonne, Bordeaux and poet and military leader, becomes Chief family and treasurer and advisor to King Italy, and establish communities in Minister of Granada. Pedro I of Castile. It defied all the laws about , Hamburg, the Caribbean, synagogues being smaller and lower than Poets, grammarians, Bible commentators New York and London. and philosophers include Dunash ibn churches, and plain of decoration. Featuring Nasrid-style polychrome Labrat, Menahem ibn Saruk, Shlomo ibn THE END OF THE INQUISITION Gabirol, Abraham ibn Ezra and Rabbi stucco-work and Hebrew inscriptions of the Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides or the 1768 Last Auto de Fe with Jews in Spain. names of God, it is one of the best surviving examples of mudéjar architecture. Rambam). 1834 is abolished. After the expulsion of the city’s Jews it was converted into a church and is now a Museum of Sephardi culture. 12 JEWISH RENAISSANCE JULY 2008 Photos: Courtesy Turespaña COMMUNITY

The Golden Age MARION NINA AMBER celebrates a period when “coexistence was a fact of life” It could have been a warm spring day, Kamen, The Disinherited) who hadn’t the kind full of promise. It was seasonal converted by 1492. But the Edict warns, for apricot trees to be in bloom, massing ‘’ aren’t trustworthy. Actually, white flowers against a clear blue sky. neither fleeing as Jews nor staying put Absorbing their lightness and perfume, as Christians were particularly one could almost have hoped the viable choices. situation would improve. There had probably been a Jewish But then, perhaps the wind picked presence on the from up; flowers floated to the ground, dogs Roman times. In 711, Jews had chased their tails, wild children ran...the supported and accompanied the wind blew down from the direction of conquering Moors to this western the palace, high on the cliff. The frontier. A synthesis of Jews from message it carried could not have different traditions and Arabs had forged surprised, only stunned affected ears. a civilisation rich in scholarship, culture “King Fernando and Queen Isabel, by and commerce known as the Golden the Grace of God...to the prince Lord Age. Coexistence, or convivencia, was a Juan...and all good men,...and to the fact of life for the multi-ethnic residential quarter of the Jews,...and to community. barons and women...Salutations and Key to the melding of peoples during Statue of Maimonides in Córdoba Photo: Courtesy Turespaña grace.” The year was 1492. this period was the Jewish capacity to The Edict of the Expulsion of Jews separate religion and culture. Religion translated into Hebrew and finally into goes on. “Wicked Christians who was private; the Jewish public face was Latin, it greatly influenced Christian and Judaized” (new Christians who followed international. Jews functioned as the Jewish religious thinking. The philo- any Jewish practices) were blamed for courtier class between the Muslim and sophical and intellectual work done in maintaining contact with Jews. It was felt Christian communities. Multilingual, they Spain eventually supported the that contact made it easier to re-convert also translated for local consumption the Renaissance in Italy. them. Jews had therefore been isolated classical philosophy that Arabs had The stage for this period was mostly into separate neighbourhoods. carried west. Jewish thinkers also in southern, subtropical Andalusia, But the Inquisition judged this didn’t benefited. Ibn Gabirol wrote a Neo- specifically within the triangle of remedy the situation. Hence the Edict, Platonic work, Mekor Hayyim, The Córdoba, Seville and Granada. which reads to its final solution. “Those Source of Life, that was read in Economic prosperity was the Caliph’s who perturb the good and honest life of monasteries throughout the Middle Ages. goal and Jews participated. They had cities and towns by contagion can injure Kabbalah, first put into written form in vines and produced fine wines; they others...therefore we...resolve to order the Spain, came to incorporate Neo-Platonic manufactured textiles, particularly silks, said Jews and Jewesses of our kingdoms to thinking as well. as well as being skilled at yarn dyeing depart and never to return...” As for Aristotelian thought, and tanning leather. They made Jews who wished to convert were Maimonides, son of a Córdoban rabbi, jewellery and weapons. They excelled as welcome to stay, although there were wrote of faith and reason in his Guide to doctors, mathematicians and scientific actually only about 50,000 Jews (Henry the Perplexed. Published in Arabic, researchers, while continuing as scholars, translators and court Jews. They were also international traders. Never before had Jews operated from such a broad base. It was through speaking Arabic that Jews reconsidered the merits of Hebrew, remembered its past literary use and began to write Hebrew poetry. “Send a carrier pigeon/Though she cannot speak/With a tiny letter/Attached to her wings/Sweetened with saffron water...” (Nagrela). Spain might have been far from the centre of the world, but there were lines of communication. Jewish poets were cognizant of crusader chaos in the Holy Land. “My heart is in the East and I in the

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utmost West,/How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet to me?/How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while MUSIC AN yet/Zion lieth beneath the fetters of Edom, and I in Arab chains?...” (Yehuda Halevi, tr. JUDITH COHEN Nina Salaman). And the Crusades were just one of the came to be used for secular as well as stressors; the pendulum swings. Time was religious poetry. Learned poets often running out for the Jews of Spain. “...like an known as the ‘rabbi courtiers’ produced Ethiopian woman in raiment of gold/And of both secular, often quite earthy, poetry in blue inset with crystals./And the stars are Hebrew and Arabic, as well as religious confused in the heart of the sea/Like poetry: Sometimes an ageing poet strangers driven out of their homes;...And renounced secular genres and devoted the sea appeareth as a firmament–/They are himself to religious compositions. The two seas bound up together;/And between work of the legendary poets of them is my heart, a third sea,/Lifting up such as Yehudah Halevy, Moshe ibn Ezra, ever anew my waves of praise.” (Halevi, tr. © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved. Shelfmark 033161 © British Library Board. and Shmuel ibn Nagrela (‘Ha-Nagid’), Nina Salaman). From Golden Haggadah, Catalonia early 14th century, remains timeless today. In the 11th century came the showing Miriam the prophetess Jewish musicians and poets were Fundamentalist Muslim Berber invasions, nlike the music of the European involved in non-Jewish settings as well. the sacking of Cordoba, followed in the medieval Christian world, the When the legendary ninth century 12th century by the conquest of southern music of medieval Jews and musician Ziryab arrived in Al-Andalus, Spain. The uneducated, uncultured invaders U Muslims wasn’t written down. But, while Jewish musicians were already abhorred liberality and viewed the we don’t know much about the music associated with music at high levels, Andalusian Arab Muslims as weak. itself, we do know a fair amount about Thousands of Jews were killed, taken and their involvement continued in the the role it played in medieval Iberian captive or forced to convert to Islam. The Christian courts. There were Jewish decimated Jewish community mostly fled Jewish life. Jewish poetry and music troubadours, and an unusual collection north to Toledo and other cities in Christian were tied in many ways to the music of of Judeo-Catalan wedding poems from Spain and southern France. Muslim Al-Andalus and, later, to the the late 14th century offers quite As the Christian Reconquista of Spain music of the Iberian Christian world. practical advice to the newly-weds, began, Jews served the courts, smoothing The 10th century Sephardi poet incorporating Hebrew Biblical the way for their new leaders. The rich still Dunash ibn Labrat adapted Hebrew quotations into the Catalan verses. flourished but in many towns, ghettos were poetry to Arabic poetry’s quantitative established and baptism increased. In metres and strophic forms with refrains. Only three women poets are specifically northern Spain, never reached Besides major implications for known to us, though others may well the glory that it had in the south. And around composition, this meant that melodies have existed. The first, unnamed, is 1400, many more Jews converted to escape could easily be sung by groups of thought to have been the wife of the violent antisemitic riots. people together and that they could be poet Dunash ibn Labrat. Her one When the Expulsion came, it was in used interchangeably for poems of the surviving poem, in Hebrew, is unusual recognition of growing Jewish power rather same metre. Often Hebrew poems were in that it speaks of both marriage and than the stated reason that Jews were re- sung to the melodies of secular Arabic children.Toward the end of the medieval converting conversos. Thus the Edict comes songs, and later on songs in Romance period, in the 15th century, Merecina of to a close. “...And we likewise give licence languages. This practice of setting Gerona wrote religious poetry, in and faculty to those said Jews and Jewesses poems to pre-existing tunes, known as Hebrew, but we know almost nothing that they be able to export their goods and contrafactum, continues in Sephardi else about her. The Andalusian estates out of these our said kingdoms and culture today. Qasmuna, who wrote in Arabic, is lordships by sea or land as long as they do Curiously, even as increasing thought to have lived in 12th-century not export gold or silver or coined money or importance was being given to the Granada and to have been the daughter other things prohibited...excepting cantor’s role and the beauty of his voice, of vizier and poet Shmuel ibn Nagrela. merchandise and things that are not some medieval Iberian Christians Apparently, when her father heard her prohibited...Given in our city of Granada, described synagogue singing as less than poem about feeling like a garden ready the XXXI day of the month of March, the aesthetically satisfying. Some labeled it for harvest with no gardener at hand, he year of the birth of our lord Jesus Christ one loud and disorderly; a frequent term for married her off without delay. thousand four hundred and ninety-two Jews and Conversos was lamentadores, Several names of Jewish minstrels, years. I, the King, I the Queen...” referring to their use of the exclamation juglares, have also come down to us, ‘guay!’ (woe). We don’t know whether or including some women’s names. Indeed, Marion Nina Amber is a California-based to what extent these remarks may have Jewish women’s knowledge of local painter, teacher and student of Spanish reflected a perspective of denigrating or melodies is evident in rabbis’ criticisms Kabbalah under London-based Z’ev ben satirizing Jews. of their singing lullabies with Christian Shimon Halevi. Outside the synagogue, Hebrew tunes. In the life cycle, besides lullabies

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Granada’s rulers the dismissal of the Jewish minister, stressing the sin of D POETRY giving ‘that infidel’ a senior position over Muslims. In August 1038 ibn Abbas unexpectedly appeared in Granada at and wedding songs, women were central the head of his powerful army, in singing for birth and death. Women demanding the downfall of HaNagid. sang and played hand drums during their All efforts to dissuade him failed and night vigils with new mothers, on the POET and Granada decided to repel his army. Its forces set an ambush in the mountains seven nights before the circumcision; and the following day in a fierce battle this custom was important enough to GENERAL defeated Almeria’s army, killed the have been continued by some Conversas king and captured and executed ibn and, as the Moroccan Sephardi hadas or MENASHE TAHAN Abbas. Granada, HaNagid and the fadas, into the 20th century. Jewish community were saved. Women were professional mourners, Shmuel Halevy ben-Yoseph ibn Nagrela, In gratitude to God, HaNagid wrote even sometimes employed by Christians. called HaNagid (The Governor), was one an epic poem (Eloha Oz) recording the In 14th century Saragossa a chief of the most towering and colourful events and describing the horrific battle woman mourner is described as personalities in . He was a of Alfuente. The following is a short accompanying herself on a hand drum grand vizier, military commander, and freely translated extract : while other women lamented and governor of the Jewish community, a The ground shook to its foundations clapped their hands, and in the 15th distinguished Talmudist, Biblical scholar and crumbled like the city of Gomora century Jewish women mourners intoned and grammarian, a patron of the arts and The horses rushed to and fro laments, in public, on the death of a great poet. Like vipers gushing from a den Alfonso V. He was born in Córdoba in 993 The soaring lances resembled lightning but at the age of 20 he had to flee the The importance of music in medieval Filling the air with glow city when it was devastated and Iberian Jewish life and in the lives of the The arrows fell like rain pillaged by rebellious . Lonely Conversos continued in the diaspora, The shields turned into sieves and impoverished he reached Malaga where Jewish musicians distinguished The bows in their hands looked like serpents where he opened a spice shop and also themselves, for example, at Ottoman Each spitting buzzing bees worked as a scribe. tr: Menashe Tahan courts. At the very moment of the Legend has it that he used to write Expulsion of 1492, a Spanish priest letters for a female client who was the Like our biblical heroes, King David penned the observation that “the rabbis concubine of a vizier (minister) at the and Debora, HaNagid wrote a poem encouraged the women and boys to sing court of Granada. When reading the about every battle and sent it from the and to play frame drums to cheer people letters the vizier was so impressed by field to be read in the synagogue. He up, and so they left...”. And so indeed Shmuel’s literary style that he was unique among Sepharad’s poets in they left – but today they continue to summoned him to the city. including war as a theme of his poetry. sing, and, centuries later, to bring their In Granada he first served as a tax A prolific writer, he composed music back to Sepharad. collector, then as vizier’s assistant, and some 2,000 poems, which have been later as vizier to King Habus. In 1027 gathered in three major compilations: Judith Cohen is a Toronto-based musician he was also nominated Nagid, ie a Ben Tehillim, Ben Mishle and Ben and ethno-musicologist specialising in governor of the Jewish community of Koheleth. His poetry, filled with Sephardic music and the role of women in Granada. Ten years later he was elegance, wisdom and originality, medieval . appointed chief vizier of King Badis, influenced generations of Jewish bards Her CD Canciones de Sefarad features some and commander of the kingdom’s army. including modern Israeli poets, such as medieval settings. Madrid, Pneuma PN270. Over 18 years Nagrela served Yehuda Amihai. variously as field commander, minister Fortunately most of HaNagid’s Jewish harpist with chess players in Book of Games poems, which had been lost for commissioned by King Alphonso X of Castile in 13th century of defence or chief of staff. In his capacity as grand vizier, he helped centuries, were found in 1924 in a crate establish Granada as one of the most of old manuscripts. The discovery prosperous and powerful of the caused exhilaration throughout the Andalusian mini-states. He continued Jewish world. The national poet Chaim to serve the Jewish and Muslim Nahman Bialik wrote: “A kind of light communities until his death in 1056. shines on the marvellous Prince, upon Despite his achievements, HaNagid him, his period and the poets of his day. had numerous enemies within the The man is unrivalled in our history.” kingdom impatiently calling for his downfall. There were also enemies Dr Menashe Tahan is a polymer elsewhere, like Ahmad ibn Abbas the scientist with a special interest in vizier of the kingdom of Almeria. Ibn Jewish history and the poetry of Abbas aggressively demanded from Sepharad.

JEWISH RENAISSANCE JULY 2008 15 JEWS IN SPAIN

INQUISITION MICHAEL ALPERT

THE ‘NEW CHRISTIANS’ who were endangering their eternal was. Although few In Christian Spain, whose territories souls and its task as rescuing these souls male babies were expanded rapidly southward into Muslim by whatever means possible. circumcised because Andalusia during the 13th century, the While statistics are not available for of the risk of increasingly powerful middle class and the early years of the Inquisition, in later discovery, nobles challenged the Jews, whose role years, probably about 10% of people tried to keep Jewish had been to serve monarchs by organising charged with secret Judaism were law on sabbath and finances, collecting taxes and running the burned at the stake. There were a few festivals and in diet. administration. The Church, for its part, Jewish martyrs, who died proclaiming Most importantly, strove to convert the Jews. And so, that Judaism was ‘the faith in which they sought marriage despite the tendency of the monarchs to they hoped to live and die’. Probably partners from other protect them, the Jewish population of several tens of thousands of secret Jews ‘observant’ families. Christian Spain was constantly under had unpleasant dealings with the pressure to accept baptism. Inquisition during its 354 years of REFUGEES FROM In 1391, Jewish communities all over activity. THE INQUISITION Spain were attacked and wrecked. The A suspect would be arrested, often One of the next 50 years saw the growth of a new during the night, separated at once from conditions for and identifiable sector of the population: spouse and family so that they could not release of a prisoner converted Jews and their descendants, collude in their statements. Their who had confessed, known as ‘New Christians’. As the property was sold to pay for their appeared as a generations passed, many of these upkeep while in gaol. They were penitent at the great intermarried with ‘Old Christian’ families imprisoned in solitary cells, though not ceremonial Auto de but a significant number continued to ill-treated. It was not in the interest of Fe, suffered public practise Judaism in the intimacy of their the Inquisition for them to fall ill or die, humiliation and imprisonment, was not families while outwardly complying with but to make a confession, implicate to approach a port or a frontier. The their obligations as Christians. others, and then appear at the public suspicion was that the Judaizers might By the mid 15th century, some Auto de Fe and admit their sin, plead for try to emigrate to somewhere where second or third generation converts were forgiveness and make due penitence. they could practise their religion in important in town administration, tax freedom. This indeed is the origin of collection and even in the Church WHAT WAS JUDAIZING communities of Spanish and Portuguese hierarchy but the hostility often directed In hundreds of pages of testimony at the Jews in Amsterdam, and London, and against Jews was also suffered by the trials, where for months or even years those of the West Indies and New York. converts, especially at times of distress. prisoners were rigorously interrogated, The crisis came to a head in 1449 in we learn about the limited Jewish MAKING A JUDGMENT Toledo when it was laid down that no practices of the New Christians as late It’s not easy to judge the Inquisition. Other descendant of Jews could be a member as seven or eight generations after their countries have had restrictions on the of the cathedral clergy. This was the ancestors had converted. practice of religions other than the official beginning of what was to be known as Usually the prisoners denied that they one, but only under the Inquisition were the ‘Purity of Blood’ (Limpieza de were anything but sincere Christians. ordinary people treated harshly for the Sangre) rule, by which one had to prove Some of them were, but thought they absolutely private practice of their religion. pure Old Christian descent in order to could be Jews at the same time. Others The worst aspects were not so much achieve high posts. had family traditions which told them that burning at the stake – for capital Suspicion that New Christians were ‘the Law of Moses’ had not been annulled punishment was frequent enough still practising Judaism became the by that of Jesus, as Catholic doctrine said. everywhere – or torture – for judicial pretext for riot, which led to civil wars. Revealing that they were “observers of torture was widespread and employed Therefore, in 1480, the joint monarchs, the Law of Moses”, as the Inquisition with fewer safeguards than by the Fernando of Aragon and Isabel of called them, (the Inquisition never used Inquisition. Rather they were the Castile, set up an Inquisition, run by the the word ‘’, meaning ‘pigs’ psychological torture of arrest, solitary Church, but tightly controlled by the paradoxically employed by Jewish imprisonment and the destruction of the State. Its task was to investigate the historians) in secret meetings with other inner strength and even the personality heresy of Judaizing – baptised New Christian Judaizers and the practice of the victim. The use of confessions of Christians continuing Jewish practices. of seeking marriage partners among spouses, siblings and children broke up The Inquisition was extremely people like themselves was seen by the families and imposed a culture in which violent in its early years, harshly Inquisition as proof of Judaizing. even silent dissidence was forbidden. punishing those whom it judged to be Over the centuries and with the secret Jews and who did not accept the experience of thousands of confessions, Michael Alpert is author of Secret Judaism and opportunity to make a full confession. carefully counterchecked, the Inquisition the Spanish Inquisition, Fiveleaves, 2008, pb, The Inquisition saw Judaizers as heretics grew to learn exactly what secret Judaism 260pp £14.99

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CONVERSOS BLANCA RAMIREZ At Blanca Ramirez’s 1523 trial in Toledo Blanca’s maid, Ana Diaz, reported how the Ramirez family used to dress ON TRIAL up on Friday nights before going to the synagogue, where they washed their hands at the door and lit candles. They contributed ISABEL NÚ money for the Jewish poor. The Ramirez family kept as kosher Ñ In 1621, 129 years afterEZ the expulsion of the Jews, 38-year- a kitchen as possible, instructing their maids to “remove the fat old Isabel Nú and the vein from the leg of lamb, and to soak it three times in ñez, the widow of Francisco Paulo, was arrested after having been denounced as a Judaizer in Ciudad Rodrigo salt water.” When Blanca baked she always threw a few bits of by one of her deceased husband’s bastard teenage sons. The dough into the fire, telling her maid that “the smoke that rose from boy accused Isabel of a host of Sabbath observances: cleaning those pieces ascended to heaven…” On the day before Yom her home thoroughly on Friday, sweeping the floor from the Kippur, Blanca washed herself in the mikvah with the Jewish outside in, putting clean sheets on her bed, and lighting women and then gathered with her family for a meal of olives Sabbath candles with the words “Lord Adonay, bring me and unleavened bread, followed by meat. On Sukkot, the converso luck; Lord Adonay, free me from my enemies ...” He said women put on their finest clothes and went to visit the booths of she and his father called the holy images “idols”, and when the Jews. A servant named Mana, who worked for Blanca’s mother- they were reading religious books and came to the name Jesus, they ripped out the page and threw it away. In church in-law, contributed an extraordinarily detailed recipe for they avoided pronouncing the name Jesus by substituting the Sabbath stew (See A Taste of Spain page 55). From A Drizzle of Honey, p.155 name Cristobal Sanchez and she made fun of the Eucharist and spit it out after the priest had given it to her. He reported that Isabel and her family were well aware of the risks of MARIA AND MARTIN GARDA employing old-Christian servants, because they threatened After their conversion Maria and Martin Garda continued them that if they ever spoke of anything they had witnessed to live in the same house in the old aljama of Almazan in in the house, Isabel would sew their mouths shut. which they had lived when they were Jews. In the early The boy said that Isabel was committed to Jewish 1500s Maria’s neighbours were critical of how she cooking and that she koshered her meat by salting and flaunted the Lenten dietary proscriptions against meat, for soaking it. The boy added that she could not stand the taste, they reported that even though Maria was not ill, several sight or even the smell of salt pork. On Passover she baked times she had eaten fowl, or eggs, and once had eaten some her own matzah and they broke their fast with pastries mixed with beef broth. One of the family maids, the Sabbath recipe of fish and chickpea broth. however, tried to excuse her mistress by saying that Maria In repeated testimony, sometimes under torture, Isabel ate meat during Lent because she was pregnant. She also denied all charges, protesting that she could not be a crypto- said that Maria used to clean her shoes with the lumps of Jew because she frequently ate pork. Her lawyer called 54 fat which she scraped from the joints of meat she was character witnesses in her behalf, despite the fact that many preparing. Another family servant, herself a convert, but of these were conversos and therefore automatically from Islam, remarked how Martin was fussy about his food. suspect. Even though their chief witness had been very He would not eat anything made with salt pork and specific about Isabel’’s Judaizing customs, the inquisitors demanded that his meat be stewed in his own special pot. decided that they did not have enough evidence to convict Maria and Martin evidently preserved a number of other her. So, after two and a half years of incarceration, she was Jewish customs. Their maid, Catalina, reported that every set free. night before going to bed her master did something From A Drizzle of Honey extremely odd: he washed his face and hands. Sometimes he , p. 91 would try to justify himself to Catalina: “It’s good for a person to wash his hands and face so that he will be clean before saying his prayers”. She also complained that she never saw him making the sign of the cross when he got up, or when he went to bed, or when he blessed, p. the134 table. From A Drizzle of Honey

DAVID M GITLITZ and LINDA KAY DAVIDSON, a husband and wife team, both professors at the University of Rhode Island, have each written several books on Spanish culture. In two decades of reading Inquisition testimonies they found 90 references to Jewish cooking and they used these to create a wonderful cookery book, A Drizzle of Honey. On our Food page (p 55) we give one of the recipes which are all based on ingredients specified by witnesses. Each recipe is preceded by a story on the lines of those above. This book is a treasure trove for those whose interests encompass cooking and history. See page 54 for more about the cooking practices of medieval Spain in general and its Jewish inhabitants in particular.

ADRIZZLE OF HONEY, DAVID GITLITZ AND LINDA DAVIDSON, St Martin’s Griffin, 1999, pb, 332pp, £11.17 Extracts above and on page 54/55 copyright ©1999 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St Martin’s Press, LLC THE JEWS IN SPAIN

also Joan Bonnin. We began talking Catholic and Jewish about the profusion of jewellery shops on the street, and the son said, “These MYRNA KATZ FROMMER AND HARVEY FROMMER shops have always been owned by the Jewish families.” visited in the 1990s and discovered a Here lies the paradox of Mallorca, its community with an unbroken link to Spain’s oxymoron: Jews who are not Jews; Catholic Jews. These are people who Jewish past follow no Jewish rituals, observe no Mosaic law, yet are still perceived as Jews George Sand’s Winter in Mallorca – even by themselves. describes the time she spent on the Bonnin, it turns out, is one of 15 island with her lover, Frederic Chopin. surnames that specifically identify the It has references, all unflattering, to descendants of Mallorca’s Jews who did Mallorcan Jews. She comments not convert until late in the 17th century. disparagingly on their dress, remarks on The Inquisition ran out of steam here their ostentatiousness, faults them for early in the 16th century, and its Jews manipulative bargaining to buy the were able to make their accommodations valuable possessions of the with the larger culture while secretly impoverished aristocracy. The continuing to practise their faith with the references are puzzling. Were there Jews tacit knowledge and consent of the rest in Mallorca in the middle of the 19th of the population. century? Kenneth Moore’s Those of the The fact that Mallorca was an island, Street (1976) answers the question. Sand isolated and cut off from the Iberian was referring to descendants of mainland, enabled its Jews to avoid Mallorcan Jews, commonly known as conversion for 200 years after the the Xuetas (pig eaters). Expulsion Edict until an Italian-Jewish We visited Palma, the capital of trader carelessly alluded to their presence. Mallorca, in the 1990s. On our first day in Then the Inquisition finally came to the city we noticed in the window of a Mallorca with a vengeance, breaking the women’s clothing store a pair of stone will of the last holdout, forcing all to slabs with Hebrew lettering – the Ten abandon their faith. Commandments. Inside a woman was But the irony was that although the reading the Daily Bulletin, the newspaper Jews sincerely converted at this point, the which serves Mallorca’s sizable Calle de Plateria (Carre de l’Argentaria) Photo: Nicky Black Old Christians did not allow them to community of British transplants. “I’m assimilate into the larger society. And so Jewish,” she told us when we asked about Mallorcan television. He said he would they remained a sub-culture, cut off from the slabs. She went on to relate how she call her and arrange a meeting. social interaction and inter-marriage with is part of the Mallorcan Jewish We stopped for lunch. Bernardo had the rest, sustained by generations of intra- community begun in the 1940s by several glasses of wine. Then he turned marriage and powerful ties of kinship. Ashkenazi refugees who found sanctuary confidential. “You know, my wife’s sister “When they call us Jews, it’s not on the island. The burgeoning post-war is married to a Xueta,” he said. “And at meant as a compliment,” the younger resort economy spurred its growth, and the wedding, my father-in-law said he Bonnin says. “But we are proud of our today it is a growing international group would rather be at the cemetery than the accomplishments. Our children do well in with its own synagogue and cemetery. church.” Then Bernardo fell silent. The school. We are successful in business. And “But,” she added, “ask any native meeting with the television personality we take care of one another. They call us Mallorcan where the Jewish section of never came off. Jews, yes. But also People of the Street Palma is and they will direct you to the That night, we walked down to the because so many of us live on this street old section of town. Go to the Calle de Calle de Plateria where storekeepers were with the jewellery shops.” Plateria (Street of Silver Shops) and see if standing in the doorways of their small “How about Xuetas?” we ask. you can meet a Xueta. Everyone still jewellery shops. We stopped at one and “That too,” he says with some thinks of them as Jews.” asked the pleasant-looking man in front of embarrassment. “It means bacon-eaters, Later we asked our guide Bernardo to it if this was the Jewish section of town. and it comes from the time of conversion show us the Calle de Plateria and told him “We are not Jewish,” he said. “The people when our forefathers used to eat bacon in we’d like to meet some Xuetas. in this neighbourhood are descended from the doorways of their shops to prove they He seemed nonplussed. “Xuetas? I Jews, but we are Catholic. There is our had really converted.” don’t know what that means.” But he church, St Eulalia,” he said, pointing to a These are the Jews George Sand drove us to the Gothic section and down large edifice at the corner of the street. refers to and the ones Ann Maria Matutue the Calle de Plateria – a narrow by-way “We have a Jewish history, and I suppose speaks of in her novel of the Spanish Civil lined with small jewellery stores. it is interesting, but it is from long ago.” War years, School of the Sun. In the After a while Bernardo warmed up a He invited us into his shop and 1940s, Nazi sympathizers included the bit and confessed that he did know a introduced himself, Joan Bonnin, and Xuetas in their antisemitic proclamations. Xueta, a young woman who works for his son, a young man in his early 20s, And to this day, the church St Eulalia is

18 JEWISH RENAISSANCE JULY 2008 THE JEWS IN SPAIN

still derisively called the ‘Synagogue of little movement to re-assert Jewish married a non-Xueta. Only in this post- the Xuetas’. identity. war generation has that begun to happen. But things began to change Joan Bonnin Senior told us the “I am typical of my generation,” Bonnin dramatically after the Second World War Xueta community is very interested in junior said. “Many of us are inter- when massive tourism shattered the . They follow all the news; they marrying. It doesn’t matter any more. provincialism that had sustained the status were enthusiastic after the 1967 Also, we are moving out of this old quo. Visitors from the Spanish peninsula victories. But he will go no further. “As neighborhood to the new sections saw no difference between the Xuetas far as our becoming Jewish again, it is of Mallorca.” and other Mallorcans. The common from too long ago. The possibility no “It is a good thing,” he adds. “I am expression became that all Mallorcans are longer interests us”. glad the old divisions are disappearing. Jews. To which the Mallorcans began to Joan Bonnin Junior, however, is But I do want to hold on to what I am and reply, “Maybe we are”. fascinated by his Jewish heritage. “I don’t where I came from. I’d like my baby son Under these changed circumstances know much about it except for the stories to know something of my history.” the Xueta phenomenon became in the Bible. But I want to learn. I pay It is clear that their eventful story is Mallorca’s shameful little secret, best kept attention to the news from Israel. I read about to end. No longer apart, they stand within the family. The situation is rife about the Holocaust. I have seen on the cusp of history, about to move out with irony. All over Spain, people are Schindler’s List.” into the larger population – and oblivion. curious to discover whether they have Then he adds: “My heart is Jewish. Jewish roots. In Mallorca, there is no My blood is Jewish. But my religion Drs Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey doubt. The descendants of Jews know is Catholic.” Frommer are US-based historians exactly who they are but there is very A few years ago, this young man and writers. JEWS IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR ROSS BRADSHAW

There is that old joke – if one Jew does something there is a major feature in the Jewish Chronicle, two Jews and antisemites show an interest, three Jews and a range of competing books come out on the subject. That is not the case with Jews in the Spanish Civil War, volunteers for the anti-Franco Republican side. There have From left to right: Sid Avner, Nat Cohen ( leader of the group), Ramona (who been thousands of books in English on the Civil War, which later married Cohen), Tom Wintringham, Georgio Tioli , Jack Barry and David ran from 1936-1939, yet barely a mention of the Jewish Marshall. Photo courtesy of The International Brigade Memorial Trust presence. And there were a lot more than three Jews… of the 45,000 or so volunteers from 55 countries who fought in the already in Spain for the Worker’s Olympiad. Jewish numbers International Brigade at least 7,000 and probably 10,000 were were particularly high in the American Abraham Lincoln Jewish. Of the 2,000 volunteers from the UK at least 200 were Brigade and in the medical services, with Yiddish being the Jewish. Of these, between 40 and 50 were killed. lingua franca among surgeons and nurses. Exact numbers, however, are difficult as names alone do not always reveal the ethnicity of the person. And many Who were these internationalist Jews? Here are few examples. travelled to Spain illegally, or under false names. London Jews Sam Masters and Nat Cohen, cycling in France, What we do know is that the first and last casualties from headed across the border to volunteer for the Republic, even the Brigade were Jewish, and that from Poland about half of before the International Brigade was formed. Lionel Jacobs’ the Brigadiers were Jews – including the Yiddish-speaking father was a founder member of the British Communist Party, Botwin Company, from Romania virtually all, and from whose brother Juli Jacobs was founder of the Jewish People’s Palestine came some 300-500 members of the Palestine Council. Lionel had fought the fascists on the streets of Communist Party. They joined members of Hapoel who were London, and saw the Spanish War as a continuation of that

JEWISH RENAISSANCE JULY 2008 19 JEWS IN SPAIN

fight. A tailor, Jacobs was captured and in prison Meanwhile Sidney Silverman took legal action to made clothes from rags for other inmates. After the prevent shipments of nitrates from Britain to the war he became a leading trade unionist in fascist forces. Other Jewish figures involved included Nottingham. Just before his death, in the the Hungarian war photographer Robert Capa. Nottingham Jewish old people’s home, he remarked “I would do the same again. You have to do what Time after time Jewish activists remarked how they saw your conscience dictates.” His last word to me was Spain as the front line against fascism. After all, Hitler “Salud!”, the Republican greeting, given with the and Mussolini both supported Franco with weapons and clenched fist salute. troops. The Francoist General de Llano, in a radio broadcast in October 1936, said: “Our war is not a Spanish Some of the Jewish volunteers played down their Civil War, it is a war of Western civilisation against the Jewishness. Not so Brigadier Maurice Levine, a cutter Jews of the entire world.” The fascist press referred to in the clothing trade, one of eleven children from “Jews, Freemasons and Marxists” who must be wiped out, Cheetham Hill in Manchester. In his autobiography, and in Tangier the Phalangists (supporters of Franco) put Cheetham Hill to Cordoba, he described his up notices encouraging Muslims to “declare war against attendance at the Kovno shtiebl in Manchester, being Jews and communism.” active in the Jewish Lads Brigade, and being sacked The Zionist movement was less forthcoming. Abe Osheroff from a job for punching out an antisemite. Though Hashomer raised a little money for POUM Nor did American Abe Osheroff play down his (George Orwell’s group) and Histadrut made Jewishness. He began his political activism in the Great supportive noises, Ha’aretz, on 24th December 1937, Depression, once being caught and beaten by the police denounced American Jews for fighting in Spain rather who called him a “dirty, communist Jew bastard”. than coming to Palestine to work. The late Teddy Osheroff remarked later “all of which was true, except Kolleck, never famed as a left-winger, on the other for the bastard part”. Like most of the volunteers hand said more “The question is not why they went, Osheroff continued his active life on the left after the but rather why we didn’t go as well…” Spanish War, volunteering to fight in WW2, working It would be a mistake to eulogise all the Jews for civil rights in Mississippi in the 1960s (where his who went to Spain. Some Russian Jews played a car was blown up), working in Nicaragua in the 1980s, nasty role in the suppression of POUM and the and, from 2003 against the war in Iraq. anarchists. Many of them, and other Russian Brigade members were killed by Stalin’s purges. Manfred Stern Some volunteers were very much aware of the history These included Yaakov Shmushkevitch, who of Jews in Spain. Moris Kornblum certainly knew that organised the Republic’s air force; Marcel Converso stone masons carved stars of David on Rosenberg, the Russian ambassador, and Manfred cathedrals they were working on: “As a kind of Stern, commander of the International Brigade on resistance. To say that they had been there, that they the Madrid front. Stern was accused of Zionism and had lived in Spain. That this is Jewish history.” Jewish nationalism, and died in Siberia. Osheroff, again: “I came to Spain to fight for a country that in 1492 barbecued my people.” He felt The Republic of course was defeated. Thousands of that “history would be a very different beast if the Catalans and Republicans fled across the border to Spanish Jews hadn’t been expelled in the first place.” France. Many later joined the French resistance. Others go further back into Jewish history. Others were interned and died in concentration Wilfred (Mendy) Mendelson, writing to his father on camps. Republicans were also deployed as slave June 22, 1938: “Today Jews are returning welcomed labourers on Jersey, building underground facilities. by the entire Spanish people to fight the modern Meanwhile, Franco’s Blue Division fought on the Inquisition, and in many cases the direct side of the Nazis on the Russian front. descendants of the ancient persecution… Yes, Pop, I Though there is plenty evidence of antisemitism am sure we are fighting in the best Maccabean on Franco’s side, thousands of Sephardim were able to tradition.” Mendy was killed one month later. claim Spanish passports and escape the Nazis. Jews were active worldwide in Aid to Spain Could something similar happen again? Post- campaigns. Henry Suss, who died only recently, war, Jewish ex-servicemen formed the 43 Group to described how 60-70% of Manchester Jewish fight British fascists, but, disregarding the nature of households gave every weekend for two years. His the opposition, the nearest equivalent to Spain has father, a minor official in a local shul, gave 10% of his been the volunteer support for Israel’s wars in 1948 and 1967. But the crucial difference is that in Spain meagre pension during that period. Suss was another the Jewish volunteers were fighting for a country activist in the tailoring unions. There are photos of him with which they had no direct connection, though still demonstrating, against the war in Iraq, in his the link was clear enough and was expressed equally wheelchair. The London Arbeiter Ring/Workmen’s clearly on the banner of the Botwin Company, in Circle sent a two ton truck to Spain and sent 1,000s of Polish, Yiddish and English – “For your freedom, A longer/version of this cigarettes to the Jewish Botwin Company. Jacob and ours”. article first appeared in Epstein was one of many Jewish artists who donated Manna: the forum for work for art sales for Spain; the anarchist Emma Ross Bradshaw runs Five Leaves Publications Progressive Judaism. Goldman organised a tour of Spanish artists. www.fiveleaves.co.uk

20 JEWISH RENAISSANCE JULY 2008 JEWS IN SPAIN

Whose heritage? Jewish heritage is now a major industry in Spain. Cities have cooperated to form a network of Jewish quarters – Caminos de Sefarad – conservation is taking place and many festivals and lectures are held, often without any Jewish participation and sometimes with doubtful authenticity. JANET LEVIN talks to Barcelona’s DOMINIQUE TOMASOV BLINDER, who is determined that the Jewish voice should be heard. “I want to give a Jewish voice to the hidden from view but there are bones still explanation of the Jewish past – and to there.” There were petitions and much connect it with the Jewish present. Many pressure from the newly created Heritage in Spain cannot see any connection. We Commission of the Jewish Communities are considered a species separate from of Catalonia, representing the three our history. The authorities are not keen communities in Barcelona: Orthodox, to talk to us. They say: “It is our history, Liberal and Chabad. Finally the Catalonian government agreed that the They say “It is our history, not yours” site should have the status of a landmark. Dominique and David created the not yours. It has nothing to do with Zakhor Study Centre for the Protection religion”. This is partly because many of and Transmission of Jewish Heritage us are Ashkenazi and they don’t earlier this year, with an office in the understand that Judaism is much more heart of the the old Jewish quarter. It also than religion.” has funding from the Rothschild Dominique Tomasov Blinder, Foundation Europe to research the limits grandchild of Belarussian and Ukranian of the cemetery by study of local Jews who emigrated to Argentina, was archives, and plans to publish a book on monuments are not a first priority when born in New York and brought up in Jewish funerary customs. “‘We have to you are shaping up a community. With Buenos Aires. An architect by explain that it is not acceptable for those South American immigration came profession, she has lived in Barcelona laid to rest in a Jewish cemetery to be along Liberal Judaism which had for 17 years. She joined a group of disturbed or removed, or for their bones developed in those countries. We are families that were founding the city’s to be unceremoniously dug up.” Now she keen to confront the outside world from Liberal congregation ATID and in the and David Stoleru are advising on what a standpoint of Jewish identity.” last nine years she has become a form the memorial should take. It was not until she came to passionate advocate of the preservation “Isn’t it strange,” I asked Dominique, Barcelona and got involved in of Jewish heritage – but from a Jewish “that it is that are at the community life that Dominique point of view. forefront of such a campaign?” reconnected with her Jewish roots. Now Dominique told me that a campaign “The Jews who came here before she conducts tours of Jewish Barcelona she had mounted with Israeli architect the 70s were mainly Orthodox from and maintains the website: David Stoleru had born fruit. A medieval Turkey, and North Africa. They www.jewishspain.info which has Jewish cemetery in the town was to have kept a low profile, mostly determined by information on all of Jewish Spain for had a public toilet built over it. “It is the local political context. Also, residents and visitors.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL BATTLES was able to understand how you survived until today, regardless what you were The activities of Barcelona’s Jewish exhumed bodies in the Jewish cemetery of subject to during all history.” Heritage Commission have generated a Barcelona. Said Dominique: “Unfortunately debate in the Catalan press. This resulted in a manifesto from three exhumation continued at Tárrega and we In May 2007, an ancient Jewish archaelogical associations deploring that still are pressing for the remaining bodies to cemetery was discovered in Tárrega, a small respect for a religious tradition had impeded be reburied. There is still a lot to do. We town west of Barcelona. The authorities scientific research. have to work through Zakhor to create the decided to excavate the site and had planned When this appeared in the press, legal framework to prevent excavations of to send the human remains for tests at the letters from the public unanimously Jewish cemeteries, anywhere in Spain.” laboratories at the University of Barcelona. supported the Jewish community’s position. The Jewish Heritage Commission Dominique repeated to me the comment of a approached the authorities and explained workman on the site: “I may only be a tractor the Jewish tradition that made this driver but I am far from being simple and I unacceptable. They succeeded in read a lot about Jewish culture. By seeing persuading the authorities to rebury the the way you handled these dead yesterday, I

21

Tárrega Jewish cemetery JEWS IN SPAIN

THE TALE OF ONE CITY

LYN JULIUS VISITS VALENCIA Photo: Lyn Julius Photo: Lyn

ook for evidence of Valencia’s times, the Jewish population was perhaps In 1969-70 about one third of the wealthy and influential Jewish past 8% of a total of 50,000. The Jews and Jewish cemetery was dug up to make way L and you will be disappointed. There Muslims were close; according to Alba for underground parking. Stones, bones is nothing in the city museum to suggest Toscano, our tour guide, there were and all layers of history unearthed, that the Jews lived here for 14 centuries. conversions in both directions. When whether Arab, Christian or Jewish, were Not a street, square or synagogue. Nada. James I of Aragon ended 400 years of unceremoniously dumped in Valencia’s This is a city so busy building the future, Moorish rule by making his entry into the port as a foundation for the Great Wharf. it seems to ride roughshod over the past. city on 9 October 1238, the Jews went out In 1994-5 a careful archeological Several Jewish scholars lived and to meet him with their rabbis and study was made of a section of the died in Valencia. Shlomo ibn Gabirol delegates at their head, and presented him cemetery found when yet another passed his final years near Valencia. with a scroll of the Law in homage. underground park was constructed. One Gabirol wrote 20 books and composed As a reward for important services romantic curiosity was a young couple over 300 poems, one of the most famous rendered in the conquest of the fortified found as they had been buried, in a of which is . In medieval city, he presented to some of the Jews trapezoidal grave. The girl lay atop the houses belonging to the Moors, as well as boy, her arms draped over his, her legs PHILOSOPHER land in the city and its precincts. Among crossed between his, her head resting on AND EDUCATOR those rewarded by the king was Abraham his shoulder. Who were this Romeo and Valencia does com- ibn Vives, probably the father of the Juliet? We shall never know but this time memorate one Jew, who, wealthy Joseph ibn Vives who in 1271 the remains of approximately 200 graves ironically, spent most of held a lease of the salt-works of Valencia, were eventually reburied in the modern his life outside Spain. and who was probably the ancestor of Jewish cemetery in Barcelona. A renowned Juan Luis Vives. (see box). Presents were Assigned a spacious residential philosopher, Juan Luis also received by the gold-workers, quarter by King James, the Valencian Vives, grandson of Jews merchants, and money-changers. James Jews aroused envy through their who had converted to offered the Jews tax inducements and free wealth and luxurious lifestyle. In 1370 Christianity, was born in land to settle in all the ports and cities of people complained loudly that the Jews 1492 – the fateful year of the expulsion of the reconquered Christian Spain. had built houses outside the Juderia, Jews by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel. In King James I invited 60-odd although the Jews protested that they 1880 the university erected a bronze statue of families from Barcelona to come to had the consent of the king. At this time Vives. In his writings, Vives recalls the alleys and build up the economic potential of there was a concerted effort throughout squares of his home town, the market, the inns, Valencia. To sweeten the offer he gave Europe to convert all Muslims and Jews the school, the university. His aunt, who had the Jews one of the nicest parts of town living under Christian rule in an effort converted but continued to practise Judaism, and the franchise over salt. During the to push back the double Islamic threat cheated her pursuers by dying a few years earlier. reigns of his son and grandson, James II on the Holy Roman Empire coming Her remains were disinterred and tossed into the and James III, most trades and many from both Northern Africa and Turkey. fires of the Inquisition. professions were closed off to the Jews. This precipitated the pogroms of the Even to a converted Christian family, there Some worked as import-export summer of 1391. was always the threat of danger and Vives himself merchants. Others were embroiderers An angry mob, screaming for the fled from country to country to escape the and cobblers or acted as agents or Jews to be baptised, attacked the Jewish Inquisition, finally settling in Bruges. He presented accountants for religious orders such as quarter of Valencia. On the black day of 9 a treatise on the education of women to Queen the Hospitaliers and Templars, military July 1391, the mob massacred 260 Catherine of Aragon, with a view on how she monks, who had established businesses individuals. The majority of those still should bring up her daughter Mary Tudor. in the Middle East during the Crusades. standing were baptised in the cathedral.

22 JEWISH RENAISSANCE JULY 2008 JEWS IN SPAIN

The New Christians came back to their a constant exodus out of Spain and a slowly fell into ruin. The well, the only former synagogue now converted into a century later on 31 March 1492, Isabel surviving remnant of the synagogue, was church, the Fraternity of Saint and Ferdinand gave the remaining Jews transported to the other side of the River Christopher. Those few who were not in Spain the choice of converting or Turia to the new monastery of San converted eventually moved to Sagunto, emigrating. Cristobal around 1910 where the monks a town 12 miles north of Valencia which The inexorable march of of a dying order to this day celebrate the became the new centre of Jewish life in commercialism, modernity and city 9 July as the happy day of the founding the Valencia area. planning eventually took its toll. The of the Church of San Cristobal in The writing, however, was on the church for the New Christians became Valencia. wall. Over the next 100 years, there was the Monastery of San Cristobal and

No ordinary Valencian ALBA TOSCANO his evening, Alba Toscano is ‘happy as jam- founded a congregation herself. Toscano. “They show these filled doughnuts and plum pudding’ to show La Javurá has members from Canada, documentaries every six months!” It has us around Valencia. Alba did not say she was Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venuezuela, been said that the history of the Jews is ‘happy as churros con chocolate or turrón con Mexico, Italy and France. Most have the history of all Spain, and Spain’s piñones’ – for Alba is no ordinary Valencian Spanish spouses. La Javurá has no school, history is the history of the Jews. As but a Canadian who came to Valencia 19 years no synagogue building, no rabbi, but with many as 50% of living in ago as a post-doctorate fellow in agriculture modern technology, rabbis and chazans Catalonia, the province to the north of and as she puts it “…forgot to go home”. can participate in the La Javurá activities Valencia, may have Jewish ancestry. Neither is Alba, her hair primly and vice-versa. Alba takes chazanut But Alba gives the Bnei Anusim short pinned up, attired in tartan stockings and classes with the chazan of Belsize Square shrift. “It’s sort of trendy to say you have breeches, your average city guide but the Synagogue in London via Skype. Jewish roots. Those who remained in Harry Potter-loving president of La Plants threaten to overrun La Spain after the Inquisition chose to Javurá, Valencia’s 11-year old Javurá’s focal point, Alba’s kitchen. In convert to Catholicism. Fifteen Conservative (Masorti) synagogue in a the window of a bedroom of her generations have passed,” she explains. town that can’t boast of more than 400 apartment, which has been converted into “They might just as well identify with the permanent Jewish residents most of the synagogue with a sefer , aron Christians in their ancestry as with the whom are not, nor want to be, affiliated hakodesh and ner tamid, there are Jews! People should want to be Jewish to a Jewish organisation. Nevertheless, flowering pomegranate bushes in three because of what they feel inside.” Alba gives tours of Jewish Valencia, huge flower pots in the window. Whether This Tu B’Shvat, La Javurá members along with organising Hebrew classes, there is a minyan or not, Kabbalat met in the Botanic Gardens for the 12th introductory courses to Judaism, is celebrated in the converted year running. They tasted the seven cooking and chazanut. bedroom synagogue and sometimes, on species of fruit. They danced and sang and From five her community has grown special occasions, at other La Javurá read poetry. The maple tree, ‘strong, and to 47. La Javurá (Hebrew for ‘the group homes. Transient businessmen and loved by those who planted it’, had grown of friends’) germinated in the city’s tourists pop in, usually unannounced. a little stronger – like Jewish life in Spain. Botanic Gardens on Tu B’Shvat, 1997. Every year, wrapped in her tallit and That day the founding members of La wearing a kippah, in a lounge at a local Javurá paused before each fruit tree to eat hotel, Alba conducts the Yom Kippur Lyn Julius is a journalist. the fruit thereof. They planted a maple service in Spanish, a language she now tree. They read poems and stories from an speaks like a native. The high holiday anthology for Tu B’Shvat. They drank services have drawn as many as 50 people four types of wine. Alba ended up under from all over the world. the table. They’re showing a documentary on By settling in Valencia, Alba was, in Spanish TV tonight. It’s about the Jews, a sense, returning to her own roots. Her who as conversos dominated cultural and Canadian mother was French Sephardi intellectual life in Spain. It’s about their probably descended from Jews expelled modern communities and it’s about the from Barcelona. Her father was Italian. Bnei Anusim – or ‘Coerced Ones’. Spain When Alba first arrived in Valencia, she has witnessed a resurgence of interest in joined the only synagogue in town, the Judaism. The descendants of converso Orthodox Sephardi Synagogue, whose 35- Jews are looking for their Jewish roots. A strong congregation comes mainly from few are converting back to Judaism, from Morocco. However, Alba was searching which they feel their ancestors were so for a more modern structure that would cruelly cut off. allow her to play an active part so she “Not another one,” scoffs Alba

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On the Costa del Sol Maurice Boland is a well- built in 1979 by the O’hayon family who known figure on Spain’s had come from Gibraltar a few years Costa del Sol. He runs earlier. The current rabbi, Meïr O’hayon, Spain’s main English- is a member of this family. Synagogue language radio station and president is Raphi Cohen, born in raises an enormous amount Morocco and brought up in Paris. Many of money for charity – apart have a similar background in this francophone community, from being vice-president of Marbella’s Jewish community. though half of the 380-strong community are now Ashkenazi. Maurice was born in Dublin to a medical family and Services are swelled by part-time residents, mainly Brits, who have “forgot to tell them” when he decided to leave school at 15 and made some impact on the way things are done, including an extra run away to Germany with a beat group. He went on to run a Ashkenazi style service on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. “I fly successful discotheque and a life-style that had him appearing the flag for Ashkenazi practices though having been here for 20 frequently in Dublin’s gossip columns. It was boredom, he years I am almost Sephardi,” says Maurice. says, that led him, with his family, to Marbella in the 1980s – Maurice is confident that the community, now very vibrant to set up a club, followed by a radio show and a celebrity (“all our charity events are sold out”), will grow in size. “We are magazine – and then to launch REM.fm looking to the future”, he says. “We have plans to build a school, Maurice speaks proudly of the Marbella Beth El synagogue, a home for elderly people and a Jewish cemetery in Marbella.” FOR VISITORS

representation. Its foundations synagogue partly dates from encouraging the provision of date back to the Roman the14th century and the careful guided tours, lectures, exhibitions occupation. restoration has been a sensitive and concerts, though these usually +34 93 31707 90 attempt to portray Sephardi history do not have Jewish participation. www.calldebarcelona.org/ and traditions. It contains items www.redjuderias.org from local pre-expulsion Jewish There are five active synagogues homes and an exhibition on the Members of the Jewish community in Madrid. The first purpose-built Sepharadi tradition, including offer the following tours: synagogue since the 15th century music and a library. The interior was the Beth Yaacov, constructed courtyard is used for concerts. Barcelona: Dominique Tomasov in 1968 by Moroccan Jews from +34 95 7421404 Blinder [email protected] the Spanish-speaking comunity in www.casadesefarad.es Madrid and Toledo: +34 60 7716 the north of Morocco. Communities 642 Girona in Madrid and other cities have [email protected] been swelled since the 1970s by Museo de Historia de los Judíos SYNAGOGUES Seville: Moisés Hassán immigrants from South America, near the site of the 15th century The only cities with synagogues [email protected] most recently from Venezuela, synagogue. surviving from the Golden Age are Valencia: Alba Toscano +34 96 some of Moroccan or other La calle de la Força 8. Toledo (Santa Maria La Blanca, 3802129 [email protected] Sephardi origin, others Askenazi. now a church – pictured above– Toledo Beth Yaacov now offers an and El Tránsito, now a museum) A Sephardi Museum is housed in CULTURE Ashkenazi rite service for the high and Cordoba. Neither of these the El Tránsito synagogue. There is an active Jewish cultural holidays and is popular with cities have current Jewish www.museosefardi.net (Spanish life in Madrid and in Barcelona visitors. communities. only) where there is an International +34 91 5913131 Film Festival each year. There are The ‘Major’ synagogue in There are also active TOURS courses, lectures and concerts. Barcelona, consisting of two The Network of Jewish Quarters A good guide to cultural events underground rooms (picture congregations, in some cases (Red de Juderias), a cooperative and other aspects of Jewish life in below), was discovered only in several, in Alicante, Mallorca, of 14 city authorities, is Spain is on www.jewishspain.info 1995 and has been restored by the Oviedo, Barcelona, Malaga, Call Association which includes Seville, Catalonia, Marbella, A communal seder in Barcelona. As with most congregations, visitors are welcome both Jewish and local government Ceuta Melilla, Torremolinos, to join the community La Coruna, Murcia and Valencia A good link to full details is: www.kosherdelight.com/SpainSyna gogues.htm MUSEUMS Cordoba The Casa de Sefarad in the Jewish Quarter, just opposite the

24 JEWISH RENAISSANCE JULY 2008