A traditional music show presented through songs of Osijek national minorities (22 minorities in total)
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Jewish Quarter
In this city there were no exclusive Hebrew neighborhoods, but rather shared spaces with Christian families. Take a stroll through its streets and squares and look at their names to see the traces of the old trades of craftsmen and merchants. It is known that there was a synagogue and, even today, it is possible to come across stars of David carved into the stone (for example, in the Tower of Homage) or the houses of the Gaibor, the most relevant of the families of Jews and converts of Monforte.
A walk through the Jewish quarter still lets you see the houses of some famous Jews, like the Gaibors. On Calle Pescaderías is another tower of the city wall. From here, there is a superb view of the city, the monastery of A Régoa and the city wall. A little further along, on the same street, is the old jail and from its second floor there is another panoramic view of the old city and, very close to this building, the Plaza de España. The old city still preserves two of the gates in the city wall, the Alcazaba Gate and the New Gate.
Jewish Quarter
The Jewish community inhabited the houses of the narrow streets in and around the Plaza de la Judería. The names of these streets are Calle San Julián, Calle Verjas, Calle La Vida, Calle Benjamin de Tudela, Calle Cortes and Calle La Parra, all streets linked together in the same small neighbourhood. It is believed that the cloister of the nearby Tudela Cathedral occupies the site of the community’s main synagogue.
During Christian rule, however, a new Jewish Quarter began to emerge on Calle San Pedro, Calle Miguel and Plaza San Salvador where you can find a monument to the twinning of Tudela with the Israeli city of Tiberias. This New Jewish Quarter, nevertheless, did not replace the old one which continued to exist at the same time as its more recent counterpart.
In 1498, the Jews of Navarre were forced to convert to Christianity or leave Spain. It is believed that the majority became Christians while the rest fled, either way bringing an end to Jewish life in Tudela. Navarre’s Jews, however, faced this persecution later than the rest of Spain, making the Jewish Communities of Navarre the last ones to exist.
The Jewish quarter is divided into the old, ‘Vetula’, and linked to the new quarter by two parallel streets. Vetula’s top attraction is the Old Synagogue, and the ‘Manta’ – roll – of Tudela, a list of conversos (forced converts) from the 17th century. The new quarter is just a stroll away, the place where the Jews took in other Spanish-Jewish refugees and clustered together during their last 6 years in the country.
Jewish Quarter
The Jewish quarter of Segovia was a neighborhood of the city of Segovia inhabited by the Hebrew community since at least the 12th century and until its expulsion by the Edict of Granada promulgated by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492 . At the time it was one of the richest and most populated communities in all of Castile . It produced important figures like Abraham Senior and his son-in-law Meyer Melamed, who served the Catholic monarchs up to 1492. Segovia also saw a violent anti-Jewish movement under the influence of the Santa Cruz convent and subsequently as a result of the “Holy Innocent Child” affair at La Guardia.
It is easy to find the old Jewish quarter. It is located to the south of the city, between the old Main Synagogue and the streets of Judería Vieja, Santa Ana, el Rastrillo, Plazuela and calle del Socorro, Judería Nueva and Almuzara, although there were also Jewish houses in the vicinity of the Puerta de San Andres .
Jewish Quarters
Although its first Jewish quarter was in the district of Elgacena, it was abandoned centuries ago and it is believed that its old synagogue was in what is now the Church of Santa María Jus del Castillo. As the years went by, the Jewish presence became more important and the new Jewish quarter was created next to the walls of Belmecher Castle. The Estella-Lizarra Jewish quarter was the third most important in the Kingdom of Navarre.
Today the buildings which made up the new Estella Jewish Quarter are no longer visible. The only visible part of the Jewish Quarter is the wall which defended it. It is a 300 m long stretch built from white limestone. The remains of a tower can be seen with two defensive walls alongside a gate which opens providing access to the former Jewish quarter. It is recommended to take a walk along the wall and imagine what life was like in one of the most influential Jewish communities of the Kingdom of Navarre.
While most of the Jewish quarter is no longer visible recently their has been major archaeological breakthroughs and progress inside the district which allowed for the reconstruction of some of the major buildings in the quarter.
Israel’s Top Tourist Destinations
The Jewish Story of Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona’s Jewish Community: One of Europe’s Oldest
The stunning city of Barcelona is known for being one of the most beautiful cities in all of Europe. However, not many know that Barcelona the city is rich with Jewish history, culture, and heritage. On his visit to Barcelona in 1862, famed Danish author Hans Christen Anderson remarked that Barcelona was the “Paris of Spain.” True the city does seem to carry a joie-de-vivre of its own never running short on food, wine, music, history, or art. However Barcelona history began well before the time of Gaudi and Dali. The city was settled over 2,000 years ago as a Roman colony called Barcino. So named for the Roman Emperor Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. The settlement was used as an outpost and port for trading. This new economic opportunity came the city’s very first Jewish community.
Early Catalonian Jewish History and Culture
Jewish history in Barcelona is one of the oldest and most notable in the whole of Jewish Europe. From the time of ancient Rome until the Expulsion in 1492, the Jewish people of Catalan flourished both spiritually, intellectually, and economically. The community identity was so fervent that Barcelona’s Jews cultivated their own language called Catalanit. They occupied positions as doctors, merchants, and philosophers, and participating in some foundational moments in Jewish history such as the Barcelona Disputation of 1263. This was the religious battle over the truth of the messiah. This famous fight was between Spanish Jewry’s staple sage Nachmanides and Friar Paul Christian. However the most important roles Jews played in terms of their value to the state was money lending. During the end of the 7th century Barcelona’s Jewish community was the private financial resource of Catalonia’s sovereign courts because only Jews could legally lend money.
Discrimination Against the Jewish People and WWII
Despite the success and prosperity of the Jewish people there was a good deal of anti-Semitic persecution across the centuries. Long before the expulsion in 1492 Jews were subjected to pogroms, forced conversions, inquisitional torture, and cemetery vandalism. Even today one can still find Jewish gravestones within the walls of a few cathedrals. After Jews were expelled from Spain, Barcelona would not see a major growth in its Jewish community for four hundred years. Not until waves of Jewish refugees began making their way to Spain fleeing Nazi annihilation in Germany. In 1918 there were 100 Jews living in Barcelona by 1935 that number increased to 5,000 individuals.
Barcelona’s Jewish Community Returns From Exile
Barcelona’s Jewish culture declined slightly with the Spanish Civil War. Yet over in the last few decades more and more Sephardic Jews have returned after centuries in exile from North Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. There are synagogues that serve different communities and traditions from Modern Orthodox to Reform Judaism. There is also a kosher butcher and a Jewish day school that enrolls both Jewish and non-Jewish students.
Rebuilding Jewish History in the “Call”
Since the early 2000s there has been a significant community effort to commemorate and preserve the long Jewish history of Barcelona. In 2001 a construction project unearthed 500 Jewish tombstones in what was once the medieval Jewish cemetery in Montjuic. This site also known as “Mountain of the Jews.” In 2007, the mountain was recognized as a national heritage site. The local Chabad house nestled in the famed Jewish quarter has been heavily involved in the preservation of the once buried traces of Catalonian Jewish culture.
What you can expect to find on your potential visit is a hidden history in almost every corner and street. The original Jewish quarter or the “Call” as it is commonly known forms part of what is now the Gothic Quarter and at one time housed 5,000 Jews. It is also home to the Synagoga Major, one of Europe’s oldest synagogues dated to the third or fourth century. The synagogue is built on the ruins of an ancient Roman structure the foundations of which are visible today through glass flooring. The building itself is very small, measuring only 60 square meters because in Medieval Spain a synagogue was never allowed to be taller or bigger than the smallest church in the city.
The Mind of the “Rashba”
One can also view the former home of Rabbi Shlomo Ben Avraham Ibn Aderet, more commonly known as the Rashba. Born in Barcelona in 1235 Ben Aderet became a successful banker in addition to the religious leader of Spanish Jewry designated as El Rab d’Espana. He served as Rabbi at the Synagoga Major for 50 years until his death in 1310. Rashba was one of the most respected minds of his day, receiving inquiries on Jewish law from across Europe. Many of his responsum were used in the authoring of one of Judaism’s most famous texts, the Shulkhan Arukh.
A City That Celebrates Jewish History and Modern Culture
Other than archaeological sites and famous historical figures there are other ways Barcelona celebrates its historic Jewish community. The Barcelona Film Festival has been the only one of its kind in the Iberian Peninsula since 1999. The festival offers a broad range of films that are used to dismantle prejudices inflicted on Jews and Jewish history.
The colorful city of Catalonian culture dubbed the “Paris of Spain” could also be called the “Jerusalem of Spain” due to its established chapter of Jewish history. For over 2,000 years Barcelona’s Jewish community has known success and loss, innovation and confrontation. Most importantly that story is being continued today through the reclamation and celebration of Jewish heritage. Don’t wait too long to immerse yourself in the story. Explore Barcelona’s city page to plan your trip itinerary!
Jewish Quarter
The “Sephardic Jerusalem” is known around the world for the beauty of its synagogues and its Jewish quarter. The memory of the community has remained vivid in Toledo; historians have from the thirteenth and fourteenth century onward been able to supply fairly precise information about the location and history of the city’s Jewish community. Toledo is a city of great historical and artistic importance and is listed here as a World Heritage Site.
At the time of its greatest splendor, just before 1391, Toledo had ten synagogues and five to seven yeshivot. In 1492 there were five grand synagogues, two of which survive: the Tránsito, now the Sephardic Museum, and Santa María la Blanca.
The quarter can be reached through a gate. One of the many entrances is the gate Puerta de Assulca, which has in its vicinity in flea market where oil, butter, chickpeas, lentils and everything necessary for daily life are sold.
Then it enters the streets, adarves (dead-end streets) and squares of the quarter. The main street is called Calle del Mármol and connects the Jewish quarter with the rest of the city.
There is a market, places to pray, public baths, bread ovens, palaces and a wall. Near the Tagus river is the neighborhood Barrio del Degolladero, so named because here was the designated place for the ritual slaughter (shechitah) of beef-cattle.
In the neighborhood Barrio de Hamazelt the richest Jewish families lived and in the street known today as San Juan de Dios, lived the best known Jew of Toledo: Samuel ha-Levi. He was the treasurer of the king Peter of Castile and ordered the building of a big synagogue, that later was known as the “Synagogue of el Tránsito”. And as in all the Jewish houses, features a mezuzah containing passages from Deuteronomy affixed to its door-post.
Two Jewish places of worship are preserved today (both as museums), Santa María la Blanca (formerly the Synagogue of Ibn Shushan) and El Tránsito. In a bygone age, every Friday before sunset, a rabbi sounded the shofar (a goat’s horn) three times announcing the arrival of the Sabbath.
Jewish Quarters
The county town of Besalú constitutes a unique Jewish heritage site in Catalonia, with a 12th century mikveh (Jewish bath) and the remains of a 13th century synagogue. In 1966 Besalú was declared a national historic-artistic site. Since then, many finds have been made and much work has been done towards recovering this heritage. With its twisting mediaeval streets adapted to the city’s orography, arches, steps, stone houses, the superb Romanesque bridge leading to the town center over the waters of the Fluvià Besalú still retains the charm of mediaeval times.
The presence of Jews in Besalú is attested in a document from 1229 in which Jaume I the Conqueror gave them the roles of moneylenders. In 1342 the Jewish community, connected to the one in Barcelona, and became independent. In those days it they 200, a quarter of the total population in the town, and lived side by side with the Christian population.
Jewish Quarters
The old Jewish quarter of Barcelona, located in the city’s Gothic quarter. Although few vestiges remain, in the Centre d’Interpretació del Call visitors can get a good idea of what life was like for the Jewish community of Barcelona during the Middle Ages.
The Call or Jewish Quarter forms part of what is now the Gothic Quarter. It was one of the city’s centres of culture in the Middle Ages and home to two synagogues. One of them, the Sinagoga Major, is one of Europe’s oldest, as it is believed to date back to the 6th century.
The Jewish Quarter was home to schools, baths and hospitals, but now only a few houses are left standing. It was surrounded by two city walls on the limits of the old Roman settlement. The Jews, however, did not close themselves off from the rest of city as they had houses and workshops outside of these city walls. In the early 13th century the population had grown so much that the Call Menor, the smaller Jewish quarter, was created. Now practically nothing remains of it.
The Call Major, the larger Jewish quarter, is home to the Sinagoga Major or Shlomo ben Aderet Synagogue, as it is also known, after the man who was the 13th-century leader of Catalan Judaism, the Rabbi of Barcelona and a banker to kings like James I (the Conqueror). It was the centre of Jewish life in the city until the start of the attacks on the community, the most serious of which, in 1391, ended with the death of 300 Jews. In the following years Jewish cemeteries and synagogues were destroyed and Jews were forced to convert to Christianity. Due to the expulsion decreed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, the quarter fell into decline and its buildings were converted. The Sinagoga Major became a dye works and the Sinagoga Menor was transformed into a Trinitarian convent, of which today only the parish church on Carrer de Ferran dedicated to Saint James remains.
