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Segovia Museum

The Museum of Segovia opened its doors in 1842, in the episcopal palace, under the tutelage of the Provincial Commission of Historical and Artistic Monuments, to preserve the collections of art objects from the Disentailment. Throughout its history it will appear under various names: Museum of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Provincial Museum, and currently, the Museum of Segovia.

Already in 1845 the headquarters of the Museum moved to San Facundo. However, since the second half of the s. XIX, the collections would be progressively dispersed to various venues, for exhibition or storage (San Facundo, San Juan and School of Arts and Crafts, Casa del Hidalgo and Chapel of the Old Hospital for Old People), until it is installed and reunited again complete in the Casa del Hidalgo and the adjoining building, in 1967

In 1981 the management of the museum passed to the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León, although the ownership continues to be state-owned. In 1991 the collection moved to the Casa del Sol, a building ceded to the State by the City Council, where the permanent exhibition finally opened to the public in July 2006, after years of restructuring the building.

Toledo Jewish Quarter

Rightly regarded as a true city within a city, the madinat al-Yahud, or city of the Jews, constitutes a broad urban space which occupies almost ten percent of walled Toledo. The Jewish quarter of Toledo is divided into different districts, each corresppnding to the different stages of expansion, creating an intricate maze that needs to be marked out in order to gain a real overview of how the Jews of Toledo acted and they lived for at least eleven centuries. Although the oldest written documents date their presence back to the 4th century, in the context of the Roman Toletum, the Sephardi goes further back and relates the Jews to the very mythical origin of the city, deeming it likely that the first Jews arrive in the Iberian Península at the time of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles in the 8th to 6th centuries B.C.

Sephardic Museum of Toledo

The Sephardic Museum in Toledo, Spain, housed in the former Convent of the Knights of Calatrava is attached to the Transito Synagogue. It hosts many vestiges of Jewish culture in Spain.The Sephardic Museum displays historical, religious, and customs of the Jewish past in Spain, as well as Sephardic Jews, the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula until 1492.

Transito Synagogue

The Transito Synagogue (Synagogue of El Tránsito), also known as the Synagogue of Samuel ha-Levi or Halevi, is a historic synagogue, church, and Sephardic museum in Toledo, Spain. It was built as an annex of the palace of Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, treasurer to King Peter of Castile, in 1357. The synagogue was converted into a church after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. It was briefly used as military barracks during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s. It became a museum in 1910. Today it is formally known as the Sephardi Museum. The building is known for its rich stucco decoration, its Mudejar style, and its women’s gallery.

The synagogue was built in around 1357, under the patronage of Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia. His family had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholars such as Meir and Todros Abulafia, as well as another Todros Abulafia who was one of the last poets to write in the Arab-influenced style favored by Jewish poets in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Spain. The synagogue was connected to Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia’s house by a private gate and was intended as a private house of worship. It also served as a center for Jewish religious education, known as a yesibah or a yeshiva.

Some scholars suggest that Peter of Castile assented to the construction of the synagogue as a token of appreciation for ha-Levi Abulafia’s service as councillor and treasurer to the king. Peter may also have allowed it to compensate the Jews of Toledo for destruction that had occurred in 1348, during anti-Jewish pogroms that accompanied the arrival of the Black Death. Samuel ha-Levi eventually fell out of favor with the king and was executed in 1360.

After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, the synagogue was converted to a church. It was given to the Order of Calatrava by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The Order is said to have converted the building into a church serving a priory dedicated to Saint Benedict. It was from its time as a church that the building acquired the name “El Tránsito,” which refers to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In the 17th century the church’s name changed to Nuestra Señora del Tránsito: the name derives from a painting by Juan Correa de Vivar housed there which depicted the Transit of the Virgin.

Hebrew Inscriptions in the Cathedral Treasure

On January 12th, 1493, Fernando the Catholic expelled the Jews from Sicily. The Cammarata synagogue on the island had to shed itself of those assets which were hard to transport. This included two worked silver Rimonim, of Gothic tradition and bearing Hebrew inscriptions. According to the historian Gabriel Llompart, these were sold by some Jews to the Majorcan merchant Francesc Puig, who in 1493, sent them as an offering to the Virgin of the cathedral of Majorca. The merchants who took part in the purchase-sale were Francesc Puig, Anthoni Serra on behalf of the Cathedral´s chapterhouse. Once on the island, some long silver bars were added, which are those which can be seen today. They were thus Christianised, becoming scepters of Primicerius or singer in certain solemn Cathedral acts. For instance, in 1634 the Rimonim that were converted into scepters, were used for the chanting of short responsories which were carried out at the end of the Little Hours and carried out by two capitulants. The Rimonim had various Hebrew inscriptions. The inscribed words include six which are precisely the six names that give psalm 18 (19) to the Law of God, in its second part: Torat, Hedut, Piqqude, Misvat, Yrhat, Mishpete. The candlestick holders of the headers bear the legend: En la sinagoga de los judíos de Cammarata / el Señor la guarde. Amén

Forteza Rey House

Situated at Marqués del Palmer Square which marks the northern limit of the Minor Call, the architectonic modernism of Casa Forteza Rey serves as a symbol of the survival of these great families of xuetas, descendants of Majorcan Jews that either were conversos (forcible converts to Christianity) or were Crypto-Jews, forced to keep their religion hidden.

Call Street – Carrer del Call

Through the streets of Can Dusai and Sant Alonso we come to Posada de Montserrat street, formerly known as calle Mayor del Call de los Judíos (Jewish call main street) and also as Sinagoga street as it was here that what was known as the second main synagogue or new synagogue was built after the confiscation of Montesión street in 1315.

Synagogue of Palma de Majorca

The Jewish Community in the Balearic Islands was founded by residents, mainly from the United Kingdom, in 1971 under the name of the Jewish Community of Palma de Mallorca. The first public religious service was carried out in 1966 and its current headquarters inaugurated in 1987 in a very emotional act since, after 500 years, the Jewish religion was once again officially professed. In 2004, it was renamed the Jewish Community of the Balearic Islands (CJIB). In the Balearic Islands there are about 1,000 Jews registered and 95% live in Mallorca. The CJIB has become a diverse space, which recognizes the Xueta legacy and where Jews from all over the world live together. In addition, it has associated organizations and its own cemetery, since 1975.

Dirshu World Siyum

Millions of dafim, millions of tests, endless hours of ameilus and dedication, will all culminate at the World Siyumim held in 7 locations across the globe. Throughout the limud of shas over 25,000 lomdim immersed themselves in the world of gemara with the Dirshu system of accountability, to ensure that they truly retain the knowledge they acquire. Gedolei Yisroel, Rabbonim, family members of the Dirshu lomed and yidden from all walks of life will join in an uplifting celebration of Ameilus B’Torah. Be in the moment, be inspired forever.

Dirshu is an Orthodox Jewish international organization whose goal is to strengthen and encourage Torah study. Founded in 1997, the organization produces study cycles, sponsors shiurim (Torah lectures), furnishes and grades tests, and offers financial incentives to individuals and groups to learn and master Talmud, Halakha, and Mussar texts. It has also published new editions of traditional Jewish texts, and sponsored major gatherings to celebrate the completion of its study cycles. As of 2018, more than 150,000 people have participated in its programs, which have spread to 26 countries on five continents.

Participation in the siyumim (celebrations of completion) of the various programs is on the rise around the globe. In 2012, Dirshu held a small Siyum HaShas in New York. In 2020, the organization planned 11 separate Siyum HaShas events. These include three events for a total of 20,000 attendees in the U.S., two events for 15,000 in Israel (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv), two events for 5,000 in Manchester, England; and siyumim in Paris, France; Cape Town, South Africa; Minsk, Belarus; and Pinsk, Belarus, which attracted thousands more.

2022 Live Stream from Israel

2022 Live Stream from Paris

2020 Live Stream from the USA

2020 Live Stream from Manchester

El Fontan Market

Traveling through time from the years of the Inquisition and the persecution of Jew, coinciding with the foundation of the university of Oviedo, the route to Fontán street – where the current La Casina synagogue is located – starts on Ramón y Cajal street whose initial stretch as far as Riego square coincides with the layout of the former medieval defensive wall. Still outside the walls, and after leaving behind us in the square the beautiful Bernaldo Quirós palace, Los Pozos street intertwines with Rosal street which opens out on the left into Fontán street. The Zapatos arch symbolically marks the entrance to Fontán street and square, the closed market and street market which is open every day; a space for popular architecture and for the merry cider bars that splash the ground with fermented apple juice… The stone columns mark the modern character of this everlasting market where the sculptoric reference of the traditional pottery dish sellers is not lacking. Vamos al Fontán (Let´s go to Fontán) is the phrase which defines the fondness of the Oviedo residents for this space awash with colour where number 11 of this street houses the contemporary synagogue.

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