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Spain The Moors ruled Spain for centuries in medieval times and greatly influenced Spanish culture. Until the 1492 Inquisition, Spanish Jewry thrived. The Golden Age of Spain, under Muslim rule, was a time when Jews held positions of importance and prestige in Spanish society. Jews, such as Maimonides and Judah Halevy, flourished in the areas of literature, philosophy and the sciences. for centuries following the expulsion, there was not a single openly-practicing Jew in Spain, though many converted "New Christians" covertly practiced Judaism. 'Spain's medieval Jewish Golden Age came to an abrupt halt with the 1492 expulsion decree by Isabel and Ferdinand, whose inquisition turned the Iberian peninsula into a bastion of anti-Semitism and religious intolerance for centuries to come.' The Spanish Republic's 1868 pledge of religious tolerance brought Jews back in small numbers. Today's community numbers around 14,000, mostly Moroccan Jews who immigrated in the 1950s, along with expatriates from the Americas and some Spaniards rediscovering their Jewish roots.' Most settled in Barcelona and Madrid. A few years ago, my wife Shirley and I were in Gerona, Spain and during our wanderings, we found the old synagogue and mikva'ot'oth in the old, hilly part of town. There, you will also find the Catalan Museum of Jewish Culture. This area is referred to as "The Call" and probably the name came from the Hebrew word Kahal, meaning community. "The Call" was an autonomous government within the city, which had no jurisdiction over the Jews. Gerona is about 40 miles by train from Barcelona and is a very well worth day trip. The train is comfortable and once you arrive in Gerona, you will quickly see how the Jewish residents lived before 1492. You'll walk in streets so narrow that your shoulders will literally touch the walls of the buildings on both sides of the twisted and turning "streets" ... better to call them paved paths. "Stones of Silence," recounts the visit to the medieval Jewish quarter of Gerona, Spain, some resources, history and more by author Schelly Talalay Dardashti. Full story at: Nat Reiss reiss@rci.rutgers.edu in a message on JewishGen dated 4/6/99 stated in answer to a question from Menna Megan Kearns "Why do many Sephardic surnames seem quite Italian ... or at least sound like it?" "Your observation is correct, and I know of at least two good reasons. First, some ethnically-Italian areas - Sardinia and Sicily - were under Spanish control at the time of the expulsion from Spain in 1492, and the Jews living there were in a similar situation to those living on the Iberian Peninsula;" "Second, and probably more importantly, at the time of the Spanish expulsion, most areas on the Italian peninsula were accommodating to Jewish immigration. However, this changed drastically over the next decades and centuries as persecution of Jews became common, forcing many Jews to leave." "The Islamic Ottoman Empire, which then included most of the eastern Mediterranean, was close-by and welcomed the Jews. It was the logical place for them to go. Many Jewish families from Turkey were of Italian origin and many kept their Italian citizenship. Turkish Jewish families often have names of Italian towns including Cori, Taranto, Pontremoli, Modiano/Modigliano, etc." Jews have been living in Spain from before Christ. More and more Sephardic sites are appearing on the web. Those links that I am aware of at this time are available below, but I can assure you that as more sites are discovered, they will be added to my site. In Spain in 2006, there are about 20,000 Jews, which include those who consider themselves Jewish. Jewish Spain - there is an interesting and informative web site that will be of interest to Jews interested in the history of Jews of Spain offered by Kosher Delight, a Jewish Online Magazine Names and lots of personal information about Jews who lived in Spain prior
to 1492 can be found in the Notarial records of Spain, of which there are
about 2-3,000 per town per year and in which Jews are clearly mentioned as such. Extracts of these Notarial records are found in books such as Leon
Tello's 2 volume book "Los Judios de Toledo" and several others.
"History of the Jews in Aragon, Regesta and Documents 1213 - 1327" authored by Jean Regne and published in Jerusalem in 1978 "Jewish Remnants in Spain: Wanderings in a Lost World" - authored by Sidney David Markman. Provides a mix of history, architectural commentary and travel anecdotes in a survey of Jewish remnants in 27 Spanish cities and towns. Included are tracings of city maps, photographs of alleys and crumbling synagogues. ISBN 0972723706 To order: 1 480 858 5777 evsdg@asu.edu or thru my Amazon.com link "Jews in the Notarial culture: Latinate Wills in Mediterranean Spain, 1250-1350" - authored by Robert I. Burns and published in Berkeley by the University of California Press in 1996. "Les nomes des Israelites en France" authored by Paul Levy in Paris in 1960 General Spanish For further information, you might want to visit this Sephardic Web Site Archives Archives - Archivo General de la Guerra Civil Espanola - in Stlamanca http://www.mcu.es/lab/archivos/SGV.html http://www.mcu.es/archivos/index.jsp Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP) - http://www.orthohelp.com/geneal/sefardim.htm Argentinean Jews - significant numbers of Argentine Jews are moving to Israel and America, but ironically a number are also moving to Spain in an ironic twist of history -- cultural similarities, a common language and economic prosperity. Conversos - * Chuleta=chop (as in lamb chop) - Chueta=pork lard Espasfarad - a forum (in French) dedicated to Sephardic and Spanish/ Portuguese researches ETSI - Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society - The purpose of "ETSI" is to help people interested in Jewish Genealogical and Historical Research in the Sephardi World. "ETSI's" field of study covers the Ottoman Empire (Turkey, Greece, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Egypt); North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia); Spain, Portugal, Italy and Gibraltar. The study of every Sephardi community or family who lived in other regions is equally within the society's aim. Global Gazetteer is a great web site. It is a directory of 2,880,532 of the world's cities and towns, sorted by country and linked to a map for each town. A tab separated list is available for each country. World-Wide Gazetteer 411 Information: Alicante - there are Jews living in the city. Archives - National Archives - in Lisbon Aventuriel - site of the Jewish culture in Murcia, Spain in Spanish, but if you use Google, it will translate into English Barcelona - the capital of Catalonia with a population of 1.5 million. Jews lived here as early as the 9th century It is commonly believed that after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., Responsa from Babylonian rabbis to those in Barcelona have been traced back to the 700's and in the 8th century Jews were driven out and came back in the 12th century. By the 14th century, Jews comprised 15% of the city's population mostly settled into the El Call (the old Jewish Quarter). The better, well-off among them settled at the foot of the Montjuic (Jewish Mountain) where a Jewish cemetery stood already in the first half of the 10th century. More info can be found at Barcelona - a story about this colorful and historical city was authored by Dyana Z. Furmansky and appears in the March 2006 issue of Hadassah Magazine. Cemetery - there is a Jewish cemetery that is thought to have been there for at least a millennium with more than 500 tombstones - 140 of them facing east and dated to about 1034. Some of the early tombstones have been relocated to the Castell de Montjuic, a 17th century fortification that is now a military museum. Communidad Israelita de Barcelona is located on Carrer de Avenit 24; Telephone: 011 34 93 417; Email: info@cibonline.org Jewish Barcelona - Reborn - visited and reported by Robert W. Case A pogrom on August 5, 1391 in the El Call killed about 200 Jews. Prior to the Inquisition, over 100,000 Jews left the country. After the Inquisition, another 250,000 Jews left Spain. In 1918 there were about 100 Jews in the city which later grew to about 5,000 around the time of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Spain, during WW II, Spain allowed European Jews entry and in the 1960's, South American Jews reentered the country. In 2006, of the 20,000 Jews, 5,000 now live in Barcelona. Sinagoga Mayor (thought to be the oldest synagogue in Europe) is located at Carrer Marlet 5 in El Call, but is actually housed at Carrer de Castanyer 27. The site is in both Hebrew and Spanish Bloom Southwest Jewish Archives and other archive sites are located at the University of Arizona by following links from: Castelar's Web Site by Clara Yael who resides in northeastern Brazil and writes about her background: Castile - Don Pedro I ruled this area some 600 years ago and was known as a good friend to the Jews. His Jewish minister of Finance was Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir Abulafa. The Rabbi was such an efficient government minister that Don Pedro became one of the richest kings in all of Spain. When a civil war broke out among the populace and Don Pedro was imprisoned, the insurgents made sure his Jewish minister was jailed along with him. Rabbi Shmuel ransomed not only himself but also the king for a huge sum. Don Pedro was restored to the throne and Rabbi Shmuel resumed his duties as head of the Royal Treasury. In 1360, the Rabbi became the target of a libelous plot, in which his enemies accused him of revealing state secrets to a foreign power. The Jewish minister was arrested, his wealth confiscated and he was tortured to death at the age of 40. Catalonia - Shlomo Gurevich talks about his visit to places where the prominent Spanish rabbis - the ancestors of the Horowitz family resided: Barcelona, Gerona, Narbonne, Montpellier, Lunel Jews in Catalonia: 1250 to 1400 Converso Information - Are You Jewish? Converted Jewish In Spain - a web site developed by Jose Pardo Hidalgo e-mail: pardoinfo@ono.com http://usuarios.lycos.es/pardoinfo/crising.htm
Ancient Jewish Quarter in Cordoba Cordoba - once an important Sephardic-Jewish city in the Middle Ages - Maimonides was born there. Crypto Judaic Studies - this society unites descendants of Crypto-Jews with scholars who study them. Most Jewish descendants of the Southwest trace their ancestry to secret Jews who arrived in what was then a remote corner of New Spain in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. ETSI ("my tree" in Hebrew) is the first Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society, founded in 1998 in Paris, France. Contact :Laurence or Philip Abensur: Gerona (Girona) - a wonderful and most interesting small town north of Barcelona. It was a renowned center of Jewish learning in the 13th century. Kabala's first appearance in Spain was here. Museum of Jewish History, Forca 8, Girona; 011 34/972-216-761 Ha Lapid, Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies - general focus on Iberian descent: A Haven From Expulsion, Ottoman Empire - Hispanic Division, Library of Congress Hispanic Genealogical Society of New York - can be contacted by writing to Murray Hill Station, PO Box 818 New York, NY 10156-0602 Jewish Communities Jewish Network of Spain - during the 16th to the 18th century, there were important communities of Conversos in Spain. These towns included Toledo, Gerona, Cordoba and others. If you can read Spanish, Felipe Aira has pointed me to his web site at Jews and Gypsies - "During the Inquisition in Spain, the Jews, Moors and Gypsies were all persecuted. Many took refuge together in the mountains. The most notable byproduct of this cultural mixing is flamenco. If you listen to the pure flamenco singer you might think you are in shul listening to a cantor. Surely, there was more going on among the cultures than just music!" Marshall Kandell from a posting on JewishGen The film Carpati is on a similar theme. A gypsy band is introduced to a La Pajina Judeo-Espanyola - Live From Santa Fe - many magazine articles by Art Benveniste: http://www.livefromsantafe.com Lunel (Lunar City) - Madrid - this is the capital city of Spain, and it is the home for more than 800 Jewish families. There are four synagogues , but Beth Yaakov is the largest. Malaga - there are Jews living in the city Map of Spain Monpellier - capital of the Province of Languedoc - Murcia - see Aventuriel above Names From Spain and Portugal - Harry Stein's page - Narbonne - National Association of Sephardic Artists, Writers and Intellectuals - site for those of Sephardic, Mizrahi and Crypto background Palma - there are Jews living in the city. The Portuguese Jewish Community in Tunis offers quite a bit of interesting information and a link to Marriage Licenses issued from 1788-1823 & 1853-1878. I suggest you start at Bob Cassuto's web page and just follow the links. Schulamith Halevy's web site. Schulamith is of Sephardic descent and an expert on the subject: The Sepharade Page - European Sephardic Institute (English and French) - http://www.sefarad.org/ The Sephardi Connection - Sephardi Genealogical & Historical Society and Review publication: http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/1321 Sephardic Family Site - a wonderful amount of Sephardic Information as well as information on the Malka-Gelfand family created by Jeff Malka. http://www.orthohelp.com/geneal/sefardim.htm Sephardic Genealogy Sephardic Genealogy Sources: Sephardic mikva'ot'oth Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, established in 1659 as the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. The original building dates from 1732 and was dedicated in 1763. This congregation aided financially in the building of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York in 1729 and the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island in 1763. This information is confirmed in the book "Precious Stones of The Jews Of Curacao" by Isaac Emmanuel and in the 1984 edition of the "World Guide For The Jewish Traveler" authored by Warren Freedman. "According to Jacob R. Marcus in "The Colonial American Jew 1492-1776", a synagogue was established in Curacao by 1659. Marcus says that they built another in 1692 which replaced a wooden house where services had been held since 1651, and both were superseded by the fourth synagogue in 1703 which apparently still exists, "the oldest extant Jewish sanctuary in the Western Hemisphere." This is the one which was named mikva'ot'oth Israel-Emanuel; Marcus doesn't give a name for the earlier one. Maybe the 1702 structure was considered to be a rebuilding of the 1659 structure." "Marcus also notes that there were synagogues in the Sephardic community in Recife, Brazil when it was governed by the Dutch in the mid 17th century. There were two synagogues probably dating from the 1630s and had at least one rabbi including Isaac Aboab de Fonseca. The Portuguese, however, recaptured the colony, bringing with them the Inquisition. He claims that this was the largest Jewish community in the Americas until the 19th century, but it survived little more than two decades. Some of those that fled subsequently settled in the Guianas, the West Indies, and of course, New York City." Sephardic Name Searching Sephardic site - a very fine and informative site http://www.orthohelp.com/geneal/sefardim.htm Sephardic World, Chaiya's - the history and culture of Jews in Medieval Spain Spanish Jewish Site - Sinagoga La Javurá, Valencia (España) Surnames (Jewish) in Valladolid, Guadalajara and its province, Cuenca, Teruel and Valencia - from a posting to JewishGen by Laurent Germanaud
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