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A Brief Journey through Spanish-Jewish History

Author: Published on: Published in: Diaspora

(Author: Bernard Katz, Vol. 64, #3, Chanukah 2009)

 

The history of Spanish Jewry has been characterised by periods of extreme oppression and hardship, but also by periods of significant growth, creativity and genius. The 19th Century Spanish historian Jose-Amador de los Rios wrote that it was “hard to address the history of the Iberian Peninsula in any realm – political, social, religious, scientific or literary – without encountering on every page some important act or famous name that does not relate to the Hebrew nation”. He added that the Jews were pivotal to the development of Spanish culture because “they played a part in the awakening of the Christian nations and their creative spirit from their coma”.1

According to legend, Jews were living in Spain during the time of King Solomon, although no proof exists to support this.2 Most likely, Jews settled in Spain during Roman times after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the ensuing deportation of Jews to Europe.3 Many of the latter would have been banished to Spain.4 In the early 5th Century, the Visigoths captured the Iberian Peninsula from the weakening Roman Empire and initially treated the Jews well. This all changed after 589 CE, when they converted to Christianity. A hundred years of persecution followed, during which synagogues were burned and Judaism was outlawed.5 Faced with the choice between death and conversion, many Jews chose conversion. The term Marrano was not then in use, but the concept had been born.

The origins of the Kol Nidre prayer may date back to this period. When Visigothic rule ended, many Jews felt that their ancestors had perjured themselves before God; the Kol Nidre prayer released them from these vows.6

In 711, a Muslim force from North Africa under the command of Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and conquered the Visigoths. Muslim settlement occurred mainly in the southern half of Spain in the province of Al Andalus, today Andalusia, and especially in the cities of Cordoba, Seville and Granada. At the time of the Muslim invasion, there were no openly practising Jews, but the secret Jews welcomed the newcomers. According to Arabic sources, the Muslim invaders made it their custom to hand towns they had captured to the Jews to garrison and mention that this happened at Toledo, Seville, Cordoba and Granada.7

The Ummayad kingdom was established by Abdal – Rachman I in 755, with its capital at Cordoba. Abd al – Rachman III, regarded by some as the greatest of all the Spanish kings,8 ruled in Cordoba for fifty years (912-962). It was during this period that Cordoba became the centre of both Arab and Jewish culture, with Jews contributing to commerce, government, science, medicine, poetry and philosophy. Although Jews were regarded as dhimmis, i.e. subject, second class citizens, under Islamic law, the Ummayad Caliphate was preoccupied less with religious orthodoxy than with economic prosperity and scientific advancement.9

The towering Jewish personality during this period was Chasdai ibn Shaprut (900 – 970). He served as court physician, laid the foundations in Spain for a “Jewish cultural flowering”10 and was the first example of a Jewish statesman, communal leader and intellectual.11 Chasdai ibn Shaprut is famous for his correspondence with King Joseph, the last of the Khazar kings. He was an accomplished Torah scholar and encouraged the development of Torah study in Cordoba.

There is a legend that the Babylonian academies sent four Torah scholars to collect funds and that while crossing the Mediterranean these were captured and ransomed. Each ultimately set up a Torah academy. One, Rav Moshe ben Chanoch (d. c965), became the Rosh Yeshiva in Cordoba. With the assistance of Chasdai ibn Shaprut, he was responsible for the revival of Talmudic studies in Spain, and Cordoba came to possess a yeshiva on a par with and ultimately exceeding that of Babylon.

Further advancements in Torah scholarship came about through the efforts of Rabbeinu Yitzchak ben Yaakov Alfasi, known as the Rif (1013 – 1103), who fled Morocco for Spain at the age of 75. He became spiritual leader and Rosh Yeshiva of Lucena, seventy kilometres south of Cordoba. The Rif began the process of codifying the Talmud, omitting discussions and deviating opinions and stating only the halachah, or final outcome. After his death, the Ri Migash (1077 – 1141) became the Rosh Yeshiva at Lucena. One of his students was Rabbi Maimon, father of the

Rambam.

With the Berber conquest of Cordoba in 1013 and the demise of the Ummayad dynasty in 1030, Cordoba’s prominence was lost forever. The Cordoba Caliphate fractured into a number of smaller and competing principalities, including Cordoba, Seville and Granada, the latter emerging as the most durable.

Samuel ibn Nagrela (993 – 1056) was a refugee after the Berber conquest, landing up in Granada where he became the vizier. He was the chief rabbi of Granada, commanded the Muslim army and was the first of the famous Jewish poets of Spain. After his death his son, Joseph ibn Nagrela, became  vizier. He is reported to have displayed tactlessness in opposing the king on a minor political issue, as a result of which, on the Saturday of 30 December 1066, he was murdered on his way to synagogue. This in turn set off an orgy of violence, resulting in the murders of about 4000 Jews, the first persecution of Jews in Muslim Spain.12

The Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain refers to a period of history in Spain under Muslim rule during which Jewish religious, cultural and economic life flourished. Considerable debate exists as to the nature and length of this Golden Age. At its longest, it commenced in 711 with the Muslim conquest and lasted until 1146, with the Almohade invasion. Other scholars consider that it commenced around 912 with the rule of Abd – al Rachman III and ended in 1030 (when the Caliphate of Cordoba ended), in 1066 (when the Granada massacres occurred) or in 1086 (when the Almoravides invaded).13

Peter Dole, an American poet living in Jerusalem, has written an anthology of the seven great Hebrew poets of Spain, namely Samuel ibn Nagrela, Shlomo ibn Gabirol, Moshe ibn Ezra and Yehuda HaLevi from Muslim Spain (c950 – 1140) and Abraham ibn Ezra, Yehuda Alharizi and Todros Abulafia from Christian Spain (c1140 – 1452). Cole describes the Muslim period as a Golden Age of Hebrew poetry and the Christian era as a Silver Age. While Cole has few illusions about ‘tolerance’ in either society, Christian Spain produced no tradition of tolerance of other faiths whereas under Islam other religions enjoyed protected status as dhimmis, being required to surrender only secular power to Muslims.14

The parents of Shlomo ibn Gabirol (1020 – 1070) were refugees from Cordoba. At one time, he received a stipend from Shmuel ibn Nagrela but later, when false rumours of disloyalty were spread against him, his stipend was cut and he returned to a life of wandering and destitution. He lived a tragic life and was desperately tormented by a skin ailment – a mantle of pus–filled lesions that kept him in pain almost all his life – and this reflected in his poetry. 15

The father of Moshe ibn Ezra (c1055 – after 1135) was a prominent merchant in Granada. His life, in contrast to ibn Gabirol’s, was hence initially one of luxury, and this too was reflected in his poetry. He was, however, an indifferent businessman, lost the bulk of his inheritance and was reduced to employment as a clerk. His misfortune was compounded when he fell in love with a woman he was forbidden to marry.16

Yehudah HaLevi (c1075 – 1141) was the most famous of the Jewish poets of Spain and has been described as the poet laureate of the Jewish people.17 He was born in Toledo and moved to Granada in 1095. Over 800 of his poems survived, including love poems, eulogies and lament, piyyutim and songs of Zion.18 Much of his poetry has been incorporated into Jewish liturgy.19 He is remembered for his classic work on Jewish philosophy, Kuzari, which he worked on for twenty years.20 The Kuzari presents a defence of Judaism. It takes the form of a debate between the king of Khazaria and representatives of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths which resulted in the king and many of his subjects converting to Judaism.

Yehudah HaLevi was a passionate Zionist and his most famous and most quoted line is “My heart is in the East, and I in the uttermost West”. He eventually decided to go to Eretz Israel, and although there is little evidence that he got further than Egypt, legend has it that he died at the hands of an Arab horseman in Jerusalem.21

Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, also known as Maimonides and the Rambam (1135 – 1204), was forced to flee Cordoba and Spain in 1148 with the Almohade invasion and spent the major part of his life in Fustat (Old Cairo). The Rambam is nevertheless associated with the Golden Age of Spain and he never relinquished his identification with or admiration for Spain.22

The Rambam produced three major works, the first of which was a Commentary on the Mishnah. His best known work, Mishnei Torah, was the first serious attempt to codify all the halachah of the entire Talmud in topical order and this book became the standard reference of Jewish law. His third major work, The Guide to the Perplexed, was the single most important philosophic work ever produced by a Jew. The Rambam’s writings became the last significant Jewish contribution produced in the Arabic language. 23

The Rambam’s works were subject to controversy both during and after his life. The substance of the controversy included his attempt to synthesize Jewish faith with Aristotelian philosophy utilising rationalist as opposed to mystic religious belief,24 and his extreme allegoristic explanations of Talmudic & Biblical expressions and tales as opposed to ideological literalism. 25

The Rambam was one of the few Jewish thinkers to influence the non-Jewish world. In 1985, the 850th anniversary of his birth, Pakistan and Cuba, which do not recognize Israel, were amongst the co-sponsors of a UNESCO conference on him in Paris.26

After the Moorish conquest, Christians were confined to the inaccessible mountainous regions in the north. They slowly regained their strength, and in the 11th Century their reconquest of Spain began in earnest. At the same time as the kingdoms of Leon and Castille were united, the Caliphate of Cordoba disintegrated. In 1085, the Christians reconquered Toledo. Moorish Spain was in danger, and the small divided kingdoms in the south were unable to defend themselves. Assistance from North Africa was sought, coming firstly in the form of the fanatical Almoravid sect in 1086 and later from the even more fanatical Almohades in 1146. The age of tolerance was over; Jews were compelled to embrace Islam or leave. Many fled to the Christian kingdoms of the north, where tolerance prevailed.27 Later on, the Christian armies made further advances. Cordoba was reconquered in 1236 and Seville in 1248, leaving only Granada under Muslim control.

The Christian kings in the north welcomed the Jews and tens of thousands moved there.28 Initially, it was a promising, albeit short-lived, new “Golden Age”. As more Jews arrived, their advantage to the Christian kings became apparent. By 1284, Jews were contributing 22% of all taxes in AragonCatalonia and possibly even more in Castile-Leon. More than any other vocation it was tax-farming – the purchase for cash of tax collecting rights – that established the fortunes of Jewish families such as the Abravanel, Abulafia, Seneor etc. 29 No financial arrangement was guarded by the kings more jealously than their revenues by their mainly Jewish tax farmers.30 As a result, the Spanish kings did try to protect Jews against agitation by the church and merchants. Protection and patronage was effective in Castile from 1080-1370, and until 1412 in Aragon.31 Although Christian tolerance was limited and temporary, it did provide a conducive environment and certainly safer conditions than existed for Jews in the rest of Europe.32

Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164) was probably the best known of the Jewish poets in Christian Spain. He was a close friend of Yehudah HaLevi, and according to legend his son-in-law as well. He was a Talmudic scholar and poet. Although he came from a wealthy family, he struggled to earn a living, expressing his frustration in the line:

If candles were my business, the sun would never set; If I were dealing in shrouds, no one would ever die.

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, was better known as Nachmanides or the Ramban (1194 – 1270). The last name accorded to him as a gesture of his near equivalence to the Rambam. He was the latter’s successor as Judaism’s leading Torah authority.

The Ramban took part in the most famous of the debates defending Judaism against Christianity – the Barcelona Disputation of 1263. For four days, the Ramban engaged in debate with the apostate Pablo Christiani in the presence of King Jaime I, who granted him the rare permission to debate freely without censorship or retribution. Three main questions were addressed. Firstly, had the Messiah not already appeared? The Ramban argued that Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah as he had not fulfilled the messianic prophecies and particularly that of universal peace. Worse still, the followers of Jesus were often the greatest spillers of blood. Next, was the Messiah Divine? The Ramban argued that there was no basis in Judaism for believing in the Divinity of the Messiah, or indeed of any man, and attacked the Trinitarian doctrine as an affront to human intelligence. Finally, the continued validity of Judaism was questioned, and here the Ramban argued that nothing had changed in the world to make the Torah’s laws superfluous.

On the Sabbath after the disputation, Jaime spoke in the synagogue and afterwards informed the congregants “I have never seen a man defend a wrong cause so well”.33 The historian and playwright Hyam Maccoby, in his book The Disputation, 1263, reconstructs the debate in theatrical form (based on historical records of the disputation).34

Three years later, Jaime revoked his previous policy of tolerance and exiled the Ramban for two years. The Ramban decided to make aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, where he died after founding a yeshiva and a synagogue. The synagogue he founded in Jerusalem still bears his name. The Ramban’s most widely read writing is his commentary on the Chumash. He was also involved in the development of the Kabbalistic movement (the Zohar was written in Spain by Moshe de Leon between 1280-1286).35

The year 1391 marked a major shift in JewishChristian relations. Dominican fanaticism was on the rise, led by Archdeacon Ferrant Martinez. A particularly venomous sermon from his pulpit in Seville set off a killing spree in which 4000 Jews were murdered on a single day.36 These massacres spread across Spain, resulted in upwards of 70 000 deaths.37 The pogroms greatly undermined Jewish morale. Cecil Roth estimates that the number of conversions to Christianity in Castille and Aragon alone could have been as high as 200 000.38 These Jews became known in history as New Christians, conversos, crypto-Jews or Marranos, the latter being a derogatory Spanish word for swine.

Jewish historians have on the whole accepted the proposition that the Marranos, or at least the overwhelming majority of them, were Jewish. Benzion Netanyahu quotes Professor Bauer opinion that “the majority of the conversos were real Jews” and Professor Baron’s that they were “Jews at heart”.39 Netanyahu arrived at a different conclusion and derived his proofs from contemporary Jewish sources. He writes that almost all the Marranos descended from the mass conversions of Jews to Christianity during the persecutions of 1391 and 141240 and argues that over the three generations until 1481, when the Inquisition was established, the number of Christianized Marranos was rising while the number of clandestine Jews was falling to “vanishing point”. Judaism in the Marrano camp was, therefore, a marginal phenomenon.41 New Christians, he writes, were “not Jews, in practice or in spirit, but assimilated to the core, Christianized and anti-Jewish”.42

Queen Isabella of Castile was initially a protector of her Jewish subjects. Isabella married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, resulting in the unification of their kingdoms ten years later, and she owed her throne and her marriage largely to the support and counsel of Rabbi Abraham Seneor.43 Seneor was the chief tax farmer of Castile, and in 1484 Don Isaac Abravanel became the tax farmer for Castile’s central and southern provinces. The Abravanels were one of Spain’s eminent Jewish families. Don Isaac’s grandfather had been a tax-farmer in Seville but had been forced to convert in 1391. He fled to Portugal, where he had reverted to Judaism. In 1484, the war against Granada was in its fourth year and Ferdinand and Isabella needed all the financial help they could get.

The Inquisition was established by Ferdinand and Isabella under pressure from the Dominican monk Tomas de Torquemada, said to be of Jewish extraction, and the first Tribunals were held in Seville in 1481. The Inquisition was directed against former Jews who had converted to Christianity, mostly under duress, who were suspected of practising Judaism in secret. It was not concerned about professing Jews practicing their own religion. Between 1481 and 1492, it is estimated that 13,000 Marranos were condemned.44 The Inquisition continued into the 19th century and was only finally abolished in 1834. Its last victim perished in 1826.45

Balthazar Lopez was brought before the auto de fe in 1654 and condemned to be burned at the stake, but managed to retain his sense of humour to the end. He was persuaded to avoid the worst agonies by repentance, which he did. As he approached the quemadoro, the priest exhorted him to rejoice, since as a result of his contrition the gates of Paradise were opening for him freely. “Freely, Do you say, father?” retorted Lopez, “The confiscation of my property has cost me 200,000 ducats. Do you infer that I have been swindled?”

Waiting in line for his turn, he witnessed the executioner clumsily garrotting a couple of his fellow victims. “Pedro,” he said “if you can strangle me no better than you are doing those poor souls, I had rather be burned alive”.

In its whole existence, the Inquisition’s victims numbered 341 000. Of these more than 32 000 were killed by burning, 18 000 burned after execution and 291 000 given lesser punishments.46

Discrimination against New Christians persisted for over 350 years, and marriage between Old and New Christians was frowned on. It was only in 1860 that the official distinction between Old and New Christians was finally abolished. Roth discusses the impact of the Inquisition on Spain. He argues that while many historians have noted that Spain’s great age came about after the establishment of the Inquisition, that institution “was pressing slowly on the vital arteries of Spanish intellectual life, and the cumulative effect was felt at last …by the middle of the Eighteenth Century, it was possible to see the result: a country drained of its inspiration, of its genius, of its wealth – of everything, in fact, but its orthodoxy and its pride”.47

A good proportion of Spaniards had Jewish blood and didn’t like to be reminded of it. The incident is told of the Spanish Ambassador in London who once wished Sir Frances Bacon “A Happy Easter”. Retorted Bacon, “A Happy Passover to you”.48

A well known but probably apocryphal story recounts how King Manoel I of Portugal was not satisfied with the Minister in his government, Pombal, who had instituted policies in the late 18th Century to render the Inquisition almost powerless. He intimated that if he had his own way he would make all descendants of New Christians wear yellow hats, like their unconverted ancestors. The following day, Pombal arrived at Court with three yellow hats, one for His Majesty, one for himself and one for the Inquisitor General.49

Documents establishing the Inquisition explicitly state that its purpose was to put an end to the Jewish heresy that had infected the camp of the conversos.50 The Inquisition was instituted to punish converts from Judaism who transgressed against Christianity by secretly adhering to Jewish beliefs and performing rites and ceremonies of the Jews.51 This view is supported by most Jewish historians, who would accept that this would give rise to a moral basis to the Inquisition. Netanyahu takes a contrary view, given his previous conclusion that the New Christians were Christians in spirit and intent; thus, the aim of the Inquisition could not have been to excise a Jewish heresy from the Marrano ranks.52

Rather, he argues that the factor that put strain on the relationship between the Old Christians and the New was the growth in converso economic power. This hatred had nothing to do with the New Christians’ religious conduct and was basically an extension of Christian hatred of Jews – which could not be prevented by a mere change of religion.53

Netanyahu concludes that it was not the religion of the Marranos that the Inquisition was concerned about but the bearers of that religion. Its purpose was to degrade, impoverish and ruin the influence of the Marranos in all spheres of life, so to make it impossible for them to rise again and be a factor of any consequence in Spain. “The aim of the

Inquisition…was not to eradicate a Jewish heresy from the midst of the Marrano group, but to eradicate the Marrano group from the midst of the Spanish people”.54

Torquemada argued that as long as Jews remained in Spain, they would influence the New Christians to practice Judaism and thus should be expelled. Ferdinand and Isabella initially resisted this until January 1492, when the Christian army defeated Muslim Granada and thus restored the whole of Spain to Christian control. So long as the war against Granada was not won, the Jews were needed. Without Jewish money victory was not possible. The edict of expulsion was signed on 30 March 1492 and gave the Jews four months to leave Spain.

Accurate Jewish population figures for the time are difficult to obtain, and estimates vary significantly. Netanyahu believes that Spain’s Marrano population by the 1480s, which included the natural population increase over three generations, was over 600 00055 and the Jewish population around 300 000. At that time, the population of Castille and Aragon amounted to just over nine million, hence Marranos constituted just over 7% of the Spanish population and around 10% once the Jewish community is included. 56

It is estimated that in 1492, about half the Jewish population chose conversion over exile. The majority of the exiles, numbering around 100 000, moved to Portugal, from where they were expelled in 1497.57 Martin Gilbert estimates that of the 160 000 Jews were ultimately forced to leave, 25 000 went to Holland, 20 000 to Morocco, 10 000 to France, 10,000 to Italy, 5000 to the Dutch possessions in South America and 90 000 to the Ottoman Empire, including Rhodes, Crete, Salonika and Constantinople.58

Christopher Columbus (1451-1500) is thought by some to be of Marrano extraction, but this is impossible to exclude or confirm.59  His diary begins strangely as follows:

In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies.

Cecil Roth has raised three points about Columbus’s supposed Jewish origins which he considered “remarkable and inexplicable”:

  • His mystical signature, which he instructed his heirs to use, contained the three letters AAA, the Marrano abbreviation for A-do-noi.
  • Columbus set sail for America on 3 August 1492. No-one has ever been able to explain why he postponed the date of departure from the previous day, when the tides were favourable and everything was ready. 2 August was Tisha B’Av, and according to rabbinic law, setting out on a journey is discouraged on that day of ill omen.
  • In one passage Columbus says, “Up to the present Year of Our Lord 1468, there have elapsed 1400 years since the destruction of the Second House”. Why, Roth asks, would a non-Jew have used what is essentially a Jewish phrase?

Roth concludes that there is an increasing weight of evidence supporting the hypothesis of Columbus’s Jewish origins and the probability is that Columbus was indeed of Marrano birth.60 What is indisputable is that without the financial support of Luis de Santangel, a Marrano, Columbus’s trip to America would not have happened.61

Toledo, sixty kilometres south of Madrid, was the Visigoths capital prior to the Muslim conquest of Spain in 1711. According to Jewish tradition, the Jewish settlement in Toledo was the most ancient in the Iberian Peninsula, and it has been claimed that no other town during the exile made the Jews feel so much at home. The name Toledo supposedly derives from the Hebrew word ‘Toledoth’, meaning generations, or the town of generations. 62  Toledo was re-conquered by the Christians in 1085 and served as the capital until 1561, when Madrid replaced it in this regard.

Only four pre-Expulsion synagogues survive in Spain. The two finest can be found in the Jewish Quarter of Toledo. The Santa Maria la Blanca Synagogue (1203) strongly resembles a mosque, with its four rows of eight Moorish horseshoe arches. One expert is of the view that this was “the most beautiful and magnificent synagogue” ever owned by Jews in Spain.63 The El Transito Synagogue (1357) was built by Samuel HaLevi Abulafia, the finance minister and advisor to Pedro the Cruel. He had a tunnel dug from his house to the Tagus River as an escape route in case of trouble, but this did not help him. In the end he was tortured and murdered by Pedro. This synagogue has been well preserved and many Hebrew inscriptions sculptured on its walls have survived. Of great historical importance is the presence of a gallery for women, the only known one in a medieval synagogue.64

Santa Maria la Blanca and El Transito were clearly not the original names of these synagogues. The former means Mary the White, i.e. the immaculate virgin, and the latter refers to the ascension of the Virgin Mary.65 The two names tell us about the fate of these synagogues, which were both converted into churches. By plastering the walls, the original Hebrew inscriptions were preserved.66 Today, the El Transito synagogue serves as a Sephardi Museum.

Seville today is the capital of Andalusia. Its Cathedral, which houses the tomb of Columbus, is its defining landmark. The Cathedral’s treasury exhibits a symbolic key presented by the Jews of Seville to King Ferdinand III after the Christian reconquest in 1248. It is engraved with the Hebrew words, “The King will open, the King of the Lord shall enter”. The Jewish Quarter of Seville is known as the Barrio de Santa Cruz or Juderia, despite the absence of Jews for over 500 years. According to legend, a young woman called Susona inadvertently betrayed her Marrano father by mentioning an armed attack he was plotting on the Inquisition to her Christian boyfriend. On her deathbed, she asked that her skull be placed outside the house she had betrayed as a testament to her shame.67 Today, outside this house in the street Calle Susona, there is a plaque with a picture of a skull. There is also a plaque commemorating the street’s former name – Calle Muerte (Street of Death), but this was changed, as residents were not happy living in a street bearing such a name.

The Mezquita, or Great Mosque is said to define the heritage of Cordoba, the capital of Andalusia during the Ummayad dynasty and the intellectual centre of the Golden Age. Cordoba was the home of Chasdai ibn Shaprut, Judah HaLevi lived there for a while and the Rambam was born there.

In the Jewish Quarter, a synagogue (1315) can be found on the square named Plaza Tiberias, so named to perpetuate the link between the Rambam’s Spanish birthplace and Tiberias, where he is buried. This synagogue has some beautifully decorated panels as well as Hebrew inscriptions. A cross on the wall testifies that it served as a church. In 1964, a statue of the Rambam was erected near the synagogue on Calle de los Judios.

“Casa de Sefarad”, a recently opened museum in Cordoba, commemorates the Jewish history and tradition of Spain. The museum was once a Jewish house, as there is a tunnel connecting it to the synagogue. Exhibits include a room housing a synagogue exhibition (it has a kosher Torah and doubles as a synagogue) while the museum’s library contains over a thousand books on Jewish subjects.

The Moors thought that the Jews had founded Granada and it was once called “Gharnata’ alYahud” –  Granada of the Jews.68 The Alhambra, “Palace of Paradise”, has been described as the “Apex of Moorish design extravagance”.69 It was in the palace’s Ambassadors Hall that both the document expelling the Jews from Spain and the agreement allowing Columbus to embark on his trip to America were signed by Ferdinand and Isabella. It was also in this hall that Don Isaac Abravanel and Abraham Seneor tried to persuade the latter to revoke the expulsion decree by offering a significant financial incentive. Legend has it that in the midst of these negotiations, Torquemada burst into the room holding a crucifix and asked whether they, like Judas, would betray their Lord for money. Seneor converted whereas Abravanel went into exile.

From the 11th to the 13th Century, Jews dominated Barcelona’s commerce and culture. The Jewish Quarter is situated in the centre of what is today known as the Old Town. The Sinagoga Mayor, claimed to be the oldest synagogue in Europe, has a 14th Century Hebrew tablet embedded in its wall. The restored glass floor allows one to see the remains of Roman walls, which the official booklet claims formed part of a synagogue in the Roman period. Two niches chiselled into brick doorposts, which used to contain mezuzahs, can be inspected. Also nearby is a building with Hebrew writing from fragments of gravestones taken from the Jewish cemetery on Mountjuic – Mountain of the Jews – one of Barcelona’s main landmarks.

The well preserved Jewish Quarter of Gerona, 100 kilometres north of Barcelona, is regarded by some the most representative after that of Prague. In the 1970s, this was a rundown area, but thereafter a number of artists moved in followed by restaurateurs and shopkeepers. One of the latter became convinced that a group of buildings he had purchased had previously been the site of Gerona’s Jewish Quarter.70 An indentation chiselled into a brick doorpost once housing a mezuzah is visible.

Gerona has a “Jewish History Museum”, named in honour of its most famous Jewish citizen, the Ramban. One of its more interesting exhibits is a gravestone cover, found in 2005 in a private residence where it was being used as a fishpond. Gerona’s History Archives houses over 1000 Jewish documents, in Hebrew and Latin. These survived by being used as book covers.71

Besalu is half an hour’s drive from Gerona. In 1964, a mikveh was discovered here, built in 1264 and one of only three from this period that survive in Europe.72 Jewish women would walk down its 36 steps to use it.

The Plaza Mayor is the main square in Madrid. Today, it is filled with cafes and craft shops but in days past it hosted trials by the Inquisition. The most famous was the auto de fe held in 1680, which lasted fourteen hours and was attended by 50 000 spectators. Spain is well known for its culinary excellence, and pork is one of its main dishes. The popularity of pork dates back to the Inquisition period, when Spaniards went out of their way to show they were not secret Jews, and this tradition has endured.73

Small numbers of Jews began to return to Spain after the Constitution of 1869 guaranteed freedom for all religions. In 1924, Prime Minister Primo de Rivera granted all Jewish descendants of the Expulsion the right to Spanish citizenship. At the time of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), about 4000 Jews lived in Spain. The overwhelming majority supported the Republicans (Socialists and Communists) against the ultimately victorious

Nationalists (Fascists under General Franco). Of the 40 000 foreign volunteers who fought on the Republican side, an estimated 10% were Jewish.74

Franco displayed a contradictory policy towards the Jews. On the one hand, he saw them to be in the same category as Communists and Freemasons, yet many Jews found refuge in Spain during the Holocaust. There is no indication that any Jew who reached Spanish soil was turned over to the Germans. During the first part of the war, about 30 000 Jews received safe passage through Spain. A further 7500 may have passed through between 1942 and 1944, while over 3200 Jewish refugees were granted Spanish citizenship.75 Speculation exists that Franco had Jewish ancestry on the basis of his appearance and because both Franco and Bahamonde (his mother’s maiden name) were common Jewish names in Spain.76

Shmuel Hadas, Israel’s first ambassador to Spain, has traced the evolution of Israeli–Spanish relations. In 1947, Spain was keen to establish diplomatic relations but this was rejected by Israel due to the relationship between Spain and Nazi Germany. Later, when Israel was keen, Spain stalled as it was concerned over potential harm to its relations with Arab countries. The move towards establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and Spain gained impetus with the death of Franco, the election of a socialist government and Spain’s admission to the European Community, as well as pressure from King Juan Carlos and the press.

Diplomatic relations were finally established in 1986.77 Since then, according to Hadas, IsraeliSpanish relations have developed “gradually in a most satisfactory manner in areas such as cultural exchanges, science, technology and commerce”. However, the political arena and the hostility of the press have been disappointing and are being “held hostage” to the Israel Palestine conflict.78

Jewish life has begun to stir again in Spain. The community numbers around 14000,79 with 5000 living in Madrid and another 5000 in Barcelona. The orthodox synagogues in both cities are attended by over 100 congregants on Friday nights.

Ladino, the Spanish equivalent of Yiddish and which is also written in Hebrew characters, derives mainly from Old Castilian. Since the expulsion, it has mainly been influenced by Greek and Turkish. Ladino is in danger of extinction, as most of its speakers are elderly. Speakers include 100 000 in Israel, 8000 in Turkey and 1000 in Greece.

More than 500 years after the expulsion of 1492, the history of Spanish Jewry is still remembered with great nostalgia, in particular by Jews of Sephardi origin. In the words of Allan Levine:

In that treasured, though admittedly selective, memory, the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry lived on, in their folklore, poetry, literature and collective imagination.80

 

Bernard Katz, a frequent contributor to Jewish Affairs, is a Chartered Accountant who works for an investment bank in Johannesburg.

 

NOTES

  1. Hadas, Shmuel, ‘In the Shadow of Franco’s Legacy: The Evolution of Israeli – Spanish Relations’, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs III:2(2009), translated by Yvette Shumacher, pp75-76
  2. Encyclopedia Judaica, 1972, 15:220, hereafter cited as “EJ”
  3. EJ 15:220
  4. Borchsenius, Poul, The Three Rings, The History of Spanish Jews, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1963, p23
  5. Fast, Howard, The Jews, Cassel & Company Ltd, 1968, p182
  6. Gilbert, Martin, Letters to Auntie Fori, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002, pp 278-279
  7. EJ 15: 222
  8. Borchsenius, op cit, p41
  9. Sachar, Howard, Farewell Espana, The World of the Sephardim Remembered, Vintage Books,1994, p4
  10. Eban, Abba, Heritage, Civilization and the Jews, Steinmatzky, 1984, p140
  11. EJ 15:223
  12. EJ 15:225
  13. Wikipedia, ‘Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain’, www.wikipedia.org
  14. Cole, Peter, The Lost Jewish Culture, The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950 – 1492, Princeton University Press, 2007
  15. Sachar, op cit, p12
  16. Ibid, p14
  17. Rabbi Berel Wein, Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi tape series
  18. EJ 10:358-360
  19. Sachar, op cit, p16
  20. EJ 10:363
  21. Sachar, op cit, p17
  22. Pollack, Louis, No Ordinary Genius, Moses Maimonides, Destiny Foundation, 2003, pg 8
  23. Sachar, op cit, p25, 28
  24. EJ 11:747
  25. EJ 11:749
  26. Telushkin, Rabbi Joseph, Jewish Literacy, William Morrow and Company Inc, 1991, p 177
  27. EJ 15:225
  28. Fast, op cit, p183
  29. Sachar, op cit, pp30-1
  30. Levine, Allan, Scattered Among the Peoples, The Jewish Diaspora in Twelve Portraits, The Overlook Press, 2003, p23 quoting Netanyahu
  31. Gilbert, pp118-119
  32. Borchsenius, op cit, p93
  33. Sachar, op cit, p40
  34. Maccoby, Hyam, The Disputation, 1263, Calder Publications, 2001
  35. EJ 15:243
  36. Sachar, op cit, p44
  37. Roth, Cecil, History of the Jewish People, East and West Library, 1959, p238
  38. Roth, Cecil, The Spanish Inquisition, W W Norton & Company, 1964, p25, hereafter cited as “Roth, Inquisition”
  39. Netanyahu, Benzion, The Marranos of Spain, Cornell University Press, Third Edition, 1992, Marranos, p2, 280 (hereafter cited as “Netanyahu, Marranos”)
  40. Netanyahu, Benzion, The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain, New York Review of Books, Second Edition, 2001, pp xv-xvi, hereafter cited as “Netanyahu, Inquisition”
  41. Ibid, ppxix, xxi
  42. Netanyahu, Marranos, op cit, pp204-205
  43. Aguilar, Manuel and Robertson, Ian, Jewish Spain, A Guide, Altalena Editors SA, 1984, p12
  44. EJ 15:242
  45. Roth, The Spanish Inquisition, op cit, 1964, p266
  46. Ibid, p123
  47. Ibid, p274
  48. Ibid, p139
  49. Ibid, p249-250
  50. Netanyahu, Inquisition, op cit, pxvi
  51. Ibid, p3
  52. Ibid, pxxi
  53. Ibid, pp1045, 1041
  54. Netanyahu, Marrano, op cit, p4
  55. Netanyahu, Inquisition, op cit, p1102
  56. Netanyahu, Marrano, op cit, p245
  57. EJ 15:241
  58. Gilbert, op cit, p132
  59. EJ 15:755
  60. Interview with Rabbi William Berkowitz, Why Cecil Roth Believed Columbus was Jewish, www.algemeiner.com
  61. Frank, Ben, A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe, Pelican Publishing Co., 3rd Edition, 2001, p205, quoting Cecil Roth
  62. Borchsenius, op cit, p20
  63. Pelaez, Jesus, The Synagogue, Ediciones el Almendro, 2003, p120
  64. Jarrasse, Dominique, Synagogues, Vilo International, 2001, p52
  65. Borchsenius, op cit, p20
  66. Carmen Cavallero, Department of Semitic Studies, University of Granada
  67. Sachar, op cit, p68
  68. EJ 7:852
  69. Frank, op cit, p218
  70. Astaire, Libi, ‘In the Footsteps of the Ramban’, Mishpacha, 19 September 2007, p36
  71. Carmen Cavallero, Department of Semitic Studies, University of Granada
  72. Eyewitness Travel Spain, Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2007, p213
  73. Beevor, Antony, The Battle for Spain, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, p96
  74. Frank, op cit, p200
  75. Ibid, quoting Stanley Payne, The Franco Regime, 19361975.
  76. Preston, Paul, Franco, Fontana Press, 1995, p1
  77. Hadas, op cit
  78. Ibid, pp86-87
  79. Frank, op cit, p201
  80. Levine,op cit, p50

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