A Jewish journey in south Spain

EDGAR ASHER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

The Jewish history of Spain is one of the most interesting and richest in Europe. Much has been written about the contribution of the Jews to Spanish culture that ended so abruptly in 1492, when the remaining Jews were expelled from the country following a royal edict, signed in Granada by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Thus ended an epoch, part of which is referred to as "a golden age," that had produced some of the greatest Jewish intellectuals, statesmen, scholars and poets, such as Moses Maimonides (Rambam), Moses Ibn Ezra, Samuel Halevi, Isaac Abarvanel, Shmuel HaNagid, Moses Ben Nahman (Ramban) and many others.

Following the expulsion, there were effectively no Jews in Spain, except for a handful of converts who practised their Judaism in secret. These Jews were known as Marranos, a derogatory term meaning a pig or swine, and there are some people today in Spain who claim to be their direct descendants.

In December 1976, Spain lurched towards democracy. Gen. Francisco Franco had died and his designated successor, Juan Carlos, had become king. In 1978, Carlos was instrumental in encouraging the politicians to draft and pass a new democratic constitution. In 1986, the country became a member of the European Union and Spain took up a more influential position in Europe.

It was this democratization that enabled the Spaniards to begin to review their history and come to terms with the role that the Jews had played in bygone years. Up until the 1980s, there were virtually no references to Spain's Jewish past in Spain itself. While this has begun to change, there is still a long way to go before Spain fully acknowledges the depth and extent of its Jewish past. Even today, Ferdinand and Isabella are regarded with high esteem and a plaque in Toledo's cathedral describes the royal "achievement" in expelling the Jews.

In recent years, a Spanish journalist writing for one of Spain's most influential dailies wrote of his in-depth investigation as to the role of the Franco dictatorship during the Second World War. Under the protection of Franco, a chain of more than 300 companies was set up in the country and run by German SS officers to produce raw materials and goods for the German war effort. Of the estimated 700 Nazis living in Spain at the conclusion of the war, fewer than a third, of mostly lower-echelon figures, were handed over to the allies. Franco, often with the aid of the Catholic Church, allowed the fugitives to escape, mainly to South America, and evade justice.

Spaniards refer to the time between the era of Franco and today's present state of democracy as "the transition." The people wanted to put behind them the dictatorship when Spaniard was pitted against Spaniard, and people lived in an environment of fear and suspicion. There have been demands to create an official commission of enquiry into Spain's wartime activities; only then, say many Spaniards, can there be real reconciliation. The present government, headed by Jose Maria Anzar, has promised a full commission of enquiry, but to date this has not materialized.

Although there are many locations in Spain that have a connection to pre-1492 Jewish communities, there are few obvious signs of Jewish involvement. Spain's Jewish history has to be sought out and researched.

Before 1492, many cities and towns had small but thriving Jewish populations, living together in a part of the city known as the juderia, the Jewish quarter. The existence of these quarters is often indicated in local maps and guide books. However, some buildings now being used as churches in the juderias were formally synagogues and this Jewish connection is not always acknowledged by local guide books or on the building itself. An example of this can be seen in the juderia in Seville, where a former prominent synagogue dating from the 14th century was totally rebuilt 300 years later as the church of Santa Maria la Blanca. The church is still in use today, but nowhere is its true origin identified on the building itself.

Today's visitors to Spain will generally find a warm reception from the local people in most places they visit. Some of Spain's best tourist facilities are the paradors. They are a chain of 86 state-run, reasonably priced, four-star hotels located all over the country, usually in restored historic monuments, such as castles, palaces and monasteries. They are all in prime parts of ancient towns or located in areas of scenic beauty, often with breathtaking views. The paradors have their own Web site (www.parador.es) where several images of each hotel can be seen, as well as prices, special reductions and offers.

There are places of varying Jewish interest over the whole country. For this particular visit, my wife and I decided to confine ourselves to the southern half of the peninsula.

After arriving at Madrid's Barajas International Airport, we immediately continued our journey by flying down to the southern city of Malaga, where we picked up a rental car for the rest of our stay. Then we set off for Antequera, some 60 kilometres almost due north of Malaga. This was to be our touring base for the next several days.

Antequera is an attractive small town in the heart of a fertile valley, central to three very important locations of Jewish interest within a 150-kilometre radius: Granada to the east, Cordoba to the north and Seville to the west.

Our first excursion was to Cordoba. This well-preserved Moorish city is best associated from a Jewish point of view with the famous philosopher, Torah commentator, scholar and physician Moses Maimonides, who was born in the city in 1135. The city was captured in 1148 by the Almohads, who imposed the ways of Islam on all non-Muslims. Some years later, Maimonides decided to leave Spain with his family and eventually they all settled in Cairo. There, he eventually became the chief rabbi of Cairo as well as the chief physician to Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria.

Maimonides died in Egypt in 1204 and about 100 years after his death, a synagogue was built by the Jewish community in Cordoba in his memory, only a short distance from the house where he was born. The synagogue consists of a small, single, square room with a women's gallery on one side. The interior is resplendent with contemporary Mudejar art and intricate geometric Muslim decoration. The Mudejar style is a combination of Islamic and Gothic design and art, which had carried over even after the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Above the former location of the ark can still be seen the remains of an inscription in Hebrew.

The following day we drove to Granada. The Alhambra and the gardens of the 14th-century Generalife almost defy description. Their vastness and beauty have to be experienced. Such is the universal popularity of the Alhambra that visitors have to buy entrance tickets in advance. The Nasrid palace, with its world-famous Fountain of Lions, is so popular that visitors are given specific time slots to enter the palace.

Many Jewish artisans and architects were involved in the building and designing of this unusual complex. The Fountain of Lions was a gift from the
Jewish community in the 14th century to the Muslim King Mohammed V. Ironically, it was inside this palace that the Jews helped design and build that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in 1492, signed their edict of expulsion.

Our next visit was to Seville. Three of the city's former synagogues are still standing, but they have been transformed into churches. At the peak of Spanish Jewry's golden age, 500 Jewish families lived in Seville and there were 23 synagogues in the city. In the pogrom of 1391 mobs went through the juderia burning buildings to the ground, killing Jews or forcing them to convert and selling women and children as slaves to the Muslims. Most of this history is not officially recorded, although the city council has now agreed to commemorate the Jewish quarter and the pogrom. There is still much prejudice against Jews in Spain and the leaders of Seville's tiny Jewish community also have to contend with a large, influential Arab community.

A 40-minute drive to the east of Seville is Carmona. There are records showing that there was a Jewish presence in the town, but today there is no tangible evidence of this. The old town is worth a visit though and the buildings, some going back to Roman times, have been carefully restored.

Our journey from Seville took us 270 kilometres north to Caceres. The landscape on the way is vast and unspoiled in what is generally a low populated area. The new part of Caceres is a pleasant regional capital offering all the facilities of a modern city. However, the real gem is the medieval town enclosed by complete defensive walls and towers.

Now a UNESCO world heritage site, Caceres has a 2,000-year history that is documented in its well laid-out and interesting museum. The city indicates its juderia by placing small, blue Star of David emblems on the street names in the quarter. There are still many examples of the small houses owned by Jews in the 15th century. The Jewish population at the time comprised of about 130 families and was pro rata one of the highest Jewish populations in Spain and represented about 10 per cent of the total population of the town itself. At the centre of the juderia is the Hermitage of San Antonio which was built in 1470 to replace one of the town's synagogues. One can still see inside the church the original synagogue's women's gallery.

Several other small towns in the Caceres region had at one time a Jewish population. However, places such as Plascencia, Guadalupe, Hervas and Trujillo have little or no visual evidence of their Jewish past, as almost everything was destroyed after the expulsion.

Trujillo, 47 kilometres east of Caceres, has in its old historic centre, a small, unmarked Jewish quarter to the east of the town's Plaza Mayor. The only evidence of the town's once-thriving Jewish community can be found here, in the storeroom of a pharmacy. On one wall of the room is a doorway with a Hebrew inscription above it. This door was once the entrance to a synagogue and it has been preserved.

The last centre of Jewish interest on our trip was Toledo, about 200 kilometres east of Caceres. Toledo was the most important town in Spain as far as the Jews were concerned. From 1012, the city was the capital of an independent kingdom and this lasted until 1561 when King Phillip II declared Madrid the new Spanish capital. In the 13th century, the Jews numbered some 12,000 individuals and their influence, prosperity and learning was at its peak, reaching its apogee in the beginning of the next century with many outstanding scholars.

The Jewish connection with Toledo lasted from the fourth century until the pogrom of 1355. During much of this period, the Jews played a full part in the business and cultural life of the city. Some of the houses in the southwest part of the city attest to the wealth of many of its Jewish inhabitants. The juderia had no fewer than 10 synagogues and five talmudic schools of which only two synagogues survive today: El Transisto and Santa Maria la Blanca. The style of these two synagogues, like the Maimonides Synagogue in Cordoba, reflects the predominant Muslim Mudejar style of the era in which they were built.

Here we ended this journey into Spain's Jewish past. Although the 1492 expulsion was meant to remove every vestige of Jewish presence in the peninsula, today there is an unmistakable revival and interest in the role that the Jews played in the country's development and culture. Slowly but surely, the few tangible Jewish buildings and documents are being identified, and the magnitude of the Jewish contribution to Spain's development over a period of some 1,000 years is now beginning to be acknowledged and understood in Spain itself.

Edgar Asher is with Isranet News and Media.

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