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Jewish Spain-Looking for Jewish roots and Juderias

76 images Created 9 Sep 2019

Al Sefarad is the name that the Jewish tradition still identifies with Jewish Spain but is also the symbol of the rediscovery of a Spain erased with the expulsion of Jewish communities in 1492 by the Catholic Kings Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragon after the conquest of Granada. Today many Spanish cities and towns have recovered these lost roots that imbued the Iberian Peninsula with art, culture, and even gastronomy for centuries. Descubre Sefarad, discover Sefarad, is a network connecting the cities with a heritage of Juderias, the old Jewish neighborhoods. Today what survived reveals a hidden world suspended between history and legends. Like the record of Samuel Ha-Levi, the great rabbi and treasurer of King Pedro the Cruel, who built the beautiful El Transito synagogue, so impressive to defy the ban on building synagogues larger than Christian churches, ostentation that ended badly because the king had him imprisoned and tortured. In the village of Hervas for centuries, the conversos, Jews often converted by force, founded a Catholic brotherhood to continue practicing their religion secretly, a story still recalled by Hervas citizens proud of their Jewish heritage. Even the great cathedrals lived symbiosis with the Jewish communities because their imposing architecture was often built by razing part of the nearby juderias and often received copious tributes from the local Jewish community. Also, many non-Jewish places are linked to this story, like the imposing church of San Vicente in Avila, built by a converso penitent. Even the spectacular geometry of the imposing medieval walls of Avila, the "Jerusalem of Castile," for the rabbis of the important Talmudic schools of the town, symbolizes a mystical structure. Among them was Moshe de Leòn, author of one of three books of Jewish mysticism, the Sefer ha-Zohar or the Book of Splendour, and in the same town, the Chapel of Mosen Rubi turned into a church in 1512, was the last Spanish synagogue built before the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Sefarad was a world inextricably linked to the Spanish soul. Even the great Christian mystical nun, Santa Teresa of Avila, was the nephew of a converso. This word left its mark in places far from Spain, like Tzfat, a town of Israel's Galilee, where many Spanish Jews, mainly scholars, and mystics took refuge, transforming the town into the spiritual capital of Judaism. In Morocco's Chefchaouèn, the legacy of the expelled Jews survives in the blues of the medina houses that recall the tekhelet, an indigo dye woven in prayer shawls and painted on the walls to remember the blue of heaven and God. Many of the most important cities of Sefarad are in Castile, Toledo, Avila, Segovia, and Salamanca, where this Jewish past emerges among the narrow streets of the ancient juderias that evoke a Spain still imbued with the multiculturalism of three cultures, Christian, Islamic and Jewish, swept away by the Inquisition.

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  • Toledo. The synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca (Synagogue of Saint Mary the White) is a museum and former synagogue. Erected in 1180, according to an inscription on a beam, it is disputably considered the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It is now owned and preserved by the Catholic Church.
    em7416018.jpg
  • Toledo. The synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca (Synagogue of Saint Mary the White) is a museum and former synagogue. Erected in 1180, according to an inscription on a beam, it is disputably considered the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It is now owned and preserved by the Catholic Church.
    em7416023.jpg
  • Toledo. The synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca (Synagogue of Saint Mary the White) is a museum and former synagogue. Erected in 1180, according to an inscription on a beam, it is disputably considered the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It is now owned and preserved by the Catholic Church.
    em7416025.jpg
  • Toledo. The synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca (Synagogue of Saint Mary the White) is a museum and former synagogue. Erected in 1180, according to an inscription on a beam, it is disputably considered the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It is now owned and preserved by the Catholic Church.
    em7416032.jpg
  • Toledo. The synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca (Synagogue of Saint Mary the White) is a museum and former synagogue. Erected in 1180, according to an inscription on a beam, it is disputably considered the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It is now owned and preserved by the Catholic Church.
    em7416038.jpg
  • Toledo. The synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca (Synagogue of Saint Mary the White) is a museum and former synagogue. Erected in 1180, according to an inscription on a beam, it is disputably considered the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It is now owned and preserved by the Catholic Church. The focal point of the synagogue is the scallop-shell-topped arch at the center of the building. This was the location of the Torah ark.
    em7416054.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416057.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416062.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito, the wooden roof. El Transito  is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416066.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito, the wooden roof. El Transito  is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416080.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416082.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416083.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416086.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito, gallery of the women. El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416094.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito, the Sephardi Museum, original decoration of the Synagogue. El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416097.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416106.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416110.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416114.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416121.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416126.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416128.jpg
  • Toledo. Synagogue of El Transito, Jewish funerary stones. El Transito is famous for its rich stucco decoration, which bears comparison with the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra palaces in Granada. The synagogue was founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, Treasurer to Peter of Castile, in about 1356. The founder was a member of a family who had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholar
    em7416132.jpg
  • Toledo, the Old Jewish Juderia (Jewish quarter).
    em7416143.jpg
  • Toledo, the Old Jewish Juderia (Jewish quarter).
    em7416145.jpg
  • Toledo, The old town, in the back the Primate cathedral of St Mary.
    em7416176.jpg
  • Toledo, The old town, in the back the Primate cathedral of St Mary.
    em7416178.jpg
  • Toledo, the Old Jewish Juderia (Jewish quarter).
    em7416151.jpg
  • Toledo, the Old Jewish Juderia (Jewish quarter).
    em7416153.jpg
  • Toledo, the Old Jewish Juderia (Jewish quarter).
    em7416154.jpg
  • Toledo, the Old Jewish Juderia (Jewish quarter).
    em7416161.jpg
  • Ávila's old city, surrounded by imposing city walls comprising eight monumental gates, 88 watchtowers and more than 2500 turrets, is one of the best-preserved medieval bastions in Spain.
    em7417001.jpg
  • Ávila's old city, surrounded by imposing city walls comprising eight monumental gates, 88 watchtowers and more than 2500 turrets, is one of the best-preserved medieval bastions in Spain.
    em7417028.jpg
  • Ávila's old city, surrounded by imposing city walls comprising eight monumental gates, 88 watchtowers and more than 2500 turrets, is one of the best-preserved medieval bastions in Spain.
    em7417040.jpg
  • Ávila's old city, surrounded by imposing city walls comprising eight monumental gates, 88 watchtowers and more than 2500 turrets, is one of the best-preserved medieval bastions in Spain.
    em7417045.jpg
  • Ávila's old city, surrounded by imposing city walls comprising eight monumental gates, 88 watchtowers and more than 2500 turrets, is one of the best-preserved medieval bastions in Spain.
    em7417055.jpg
  • Avila. The are of the old Jewish quarter, the Juderia. This door  is what remains of a synagogue of<br />
mid-15th century made by don Simuel. This place of worshi, mentioned in documents between 1430 and 1460, was one of the centres of the Jewish faith located in the Jewish quarter of Santo Domingo.
    em7417419.jpg
  • Avila. The Mosén Rubi Chapel was «originally built in 1462 as a major Synagogue» and when it had already been converted into a church, it was annexed to the hospital. The construction date  in 1462 and it may be the last synagogue built in Spain prior to the Expulsion.
    em7417423.jpg
  • Avila. The old Juderia inside the medieval walls, around Santo Domingo and Vallespin streets.
    em7417441.jpg
  • Avila. The old Juderia inside the medieval walls, around Santo Domingo and Vallespin streets.
    em7417450.jpg
  • Avila. The Capilla de Nuestra Señora de Las Nieves (Chapel of our Lady of the Snows) where previously was the Ávila synagogue called Belforad. Popular tradition retained the name of the rabbi's house for the dwelling located on Las Nieves street (the current Synagogue Hostelry) and which was connected to the temple.
    em7417452.jpg
  • Avila. Basilica de San Vicente. Romanic cenotaph of the martyrs saints Vicente, Sabina and Cristeta, scenes of the prosecution of Dacian. The scene shows the punishment of a jew that helped the prosecution of Dacian, The penitent man beg for absolution with a snake twisted around him and, after becoming christian, built in<br />
the 4th century the original church.
    em7417376.jpg
  • Avila. Basilica de San Vicente. This gothic stone<br />
where tradition says<br />
a Jewish master is buried<br />
which, after becoming christian, built in<br />
the 4th century the original church, the one that rises the current one.
    em7417355.jpg
  • Avila, San Pedro church, one of the most significant temples of Castile and León. .It was at St. Peter's Atrium that the notorious trial took place of those Jews accused in the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia, an event which grabbed the attention of the kingdom at that time and which serves as a perfect illustration of the worsening of relations between Jews and Christians in the late 15th century.
    em7417461.jpg
  • Ribadavia. The town was declared a Historical Artistic Site in 1947 and still preserves the old quarter (casco vello/Barrio Xudeu),   from what was once a large Jewish quarter. In the foreground the river Avia.
    em7412270.jpg
  • Ribadavia. The town was declared a Historical Artistic Site in 1947 and still preserves the old quarter (casco vello/Barrio Xudeu),   from what was once a large Jewish quarter.
    em7412274.jpg
  • Segovia. Iglesia de Corpus Cristi (Corpus Christi church) occupies the site of Segovia's old main synagogue (Sinagoga Mayor). Dating to the 14th century, it was converted into a convent of the nuns of Order of Saint Clare. The building was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1899 and has been reconstructed since.
    em7418193.jpg
  • Segovia. Iglesia de Corpus Cristi (Corpus Christi church) occupies the site of Segovia's old main synagogue (Sinagoga Mayor). Dating to the 14th century, it was converted into a convent of the nuns of Order of Saint Clare. The building was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1899 and has been reconstructed since.
    em7418194.jpg
  • Segovia. Iglesia de Corpus Cristi (Corpus Christi church) occupies the site of Segovia's old main synagogue (Sinagoga Mayor). Dating to the 14th century, it was converted into a convent of the nuns of Order of Saint Clare. The building was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1899 and has been reconstructed since.
    em7418204.jpg
  • Segovia. The cathedral and the old city area that once was the Jewish quarter (Juderia).
    em7418175.jpg
  • Segovia. The cathedral and the old city area that once was the Jewish quarter (Juderia).
    em7418177.jpg
  • Segovia. The cathedral and the old city area that once was the Jewish quarter (Juderia).
    em7418180.jpg
  • Segovia. The cathedral and the old city area that once was the Jewish quarter (Juderia).
    em7418185.jpg
  • Segovia. Iglesia de Corpus Cristi (Corpus Christi church) occupies the site of Segovia's old main synagogue (Sinagoga Mayor). Dating to the 14th century, it was converted into a convent of the nuns of Order of Saint Clare. The building was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1899 and has been reconstructed since.
    em7418190.jpg
  • Segovia. Iglesia de Corpus Cristi (Corpus Christi church) occupies the site of Segovia's old main synagogue (Sinagoga Mayor). Dating to the 14th century, it was converted into a convent of the nuns of Order of Saint Clare. The building was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1899 and has been reconstructed since.
    em7418207.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral.<br />
Indications in Hebrew language that indicate the routes of the Jewish quarter.
    em7418212.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral.
    em7418210.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral.
    em7418218.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral.
    em7418223.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral.
    em7418224.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral.
    em7418226.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral.
    em7418232.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral. The Puerta de San Andrés (Gate of Saint Andrew) is a city gate forming part of the city's medieval fortifications. <br />
The gateway has also been known as the Puerta de la Judería or the Puerta del Socorro. It is located in a strategic position overlooking the Río Clamores
    em7418237.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral. City walls near the Puerta de San Andrés (Gate of Saint Andrew) is a city gate forming part of the city's medieval fortifications. <br />
The gateway has also been known as the Puerta de la Judería or the Puerta del Socorro. It is located in a strategic position overlooking the Río Clamores
    em7418244.jpg
  • The Old Juderia (Jewish quarter) near the cathedral. The Puerta de San Andrés (Gate of Saint Andrew) is a city gate forming part of the city's medieval fortifications. <br />
The gateway has also been known as the Puerta de la Judería or the Puerta del Socorro.
    em7418241.jpg
  • Segovia, Centro didactico de la Juderia. This interpretation centre and museum provides a fascinating history of the Jewish community in Segovia. It occupies the former 15th-century home of one of the community's most important members, Abraham Seneor.
    em7418250.jpg
  • Segovia, Centro didactico de la Juderia. This interpretation centre and museum provides a fascinating history of the Jewish community in Segovia. It occupies the former 15th-century home of one of the community's most important members, Abraham Seneor.
    em7418263.jpg
  • Segovia, Centro didactico de la Juderia. This interpretation centre and museum provides a fascinating history of the Jewish community in Segovia. It occupies the former 15th-century home of one of the community's most important members, Abraham Seneor.
    em7418270.jpg
  • Segovia the roof of the Restaurant El Fogòn Sefardì inside the Old Juderia specialised in sefardite recipes.
    em7418274.jpg
  • Segovia the roof of the Restaurant El Fogòn Sefardì inside the Old Juderia specialised in sefardite recipes.
    em7418277.jpg
  • Salamanca, Calle Libreros near the cathedral and the university was once the Jewish Quarter (Juderia). On the back the church of La Clarecia.
    em7419193.jpg
  • Salamanca, Calle Libreros near the cathedral and the university was once the Jewish Quarter (Juderia).
    em7419200.jpg
  • Every summer the village of Hervas celebrates in the Juderia borough the ancient Jewish community living here and expelled by the Inquisition.
    em7410118.jpg
  • Every summer the village of Hervas. The old Juderia's borough where a Jewish community  lived near the border with Portugal after they where expelled by the Inquisition.
    em7432029.jpg
  • Every summer the village of Hervas. The old Juderia's borough where a Jewish community  lived near the border with Portugal after they where expelled by the Inquisition.
    em7432001.jpg
  • Every summer the village of Hervas celebrates in the Juderia borough the ancient Jewish community living here and expelled by the Inquisition.
    em7410120.jpg
  • Every summer the village of Hervas celebrates in the Juderia borough the ancient Jewish community living here and expelled by the Inquisition.
    em7410159.jpg
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