Judaism in Spain

i haven´t written an update for a long time, becuase i have been busy travelling. unfortunatly i still can´t connect the camara to the computer to upload the pictures, but i will try to describe it to the best of my ability. last weekend i went to toledo. To give you a little bit of history toledo is one of the only towns remaining in the whole world where you can see an influence of christianity, muslim, and the jewish faiths collide. like many towns here in spain it´s a small town with narrow cobble-stone roads. looking at the architecture of the buildings it´s obvious that there is a lot of roman and visigothic influence. i started my tour of toledo at the plaza de zocodover like many tourists. it´s a beautiful plaza with castilian, arab and christian influence in the architecture of the plaza. the buildings are obviously hundreds of years old and in the middle of the plaza you see a golden arch. a mcdonalds! it was so funny i had to take a picture. in a town that looks like it´s stuck in the medeval ages, you can still see modern society. next i went to catedral de toledo, i only saw it from the outside, becuase it was closed. but the city is like a big castle, everywhere you turn there is a castle next to you, i felt like i was walking through a town in the medeval ages, really! next i went to see the alcazar the highest point in the city. from there i was able to take pictures of all of toledo. it´s a desert, sandy background with many castles. i saw a couple of churches. most churches here in spain are amazing, there are many glass murals on the windown, statues and paintings showing christ on the cross, and golden statues of the virgin mary. for me, the most important of all was the jewish quarter in toledo. although i have achkenazi herritage it was interesting to see the separdic traditions here in spain. the hebrew world for spain is sfarad, and the jews from spain are called sefardim. about have off all jews trace thier origins to spain. the jewish quarter is called juderia. becuase the expulsions of the jews from spain in1492 jews could live anywhere in toledo, but afterwards they were forced into what was then juderia, or now the new quater. there are two main sinagoges in toledo: sinagoga de transito and sinagoga de santa maria de la blanca. there could have been more sinagoges before the 1400 considering that jews have been in spain since the 1200, but many sinagoges have been converted into churches when christians took over and later when the moros, muslims came. since i went on sunday many things were closed. the sinagoga de transito is home to museo sefardi, and it´s written in hebrew on the outside with birds of either side. i couldn´t go in that day, but i did go to sinagoga de santa maria la blanca. originally it was a sinagoge, but now it´s home to many pieces of jewish artwork portraying stories of the torah, and also stories of jewish life in antic toledo. i took pictures of many pieces of artwork. it was cool to see pieces of artwork with words in hebrew interwoven into them, and looking at a picture and remembering a story from the torah. then later reading a poem which went along with the picture, and reading about the history the of sefardic sinagoge. lastly i went to the monestary san juan de los reyes catolicos. a monestary of the catholic kings. it was very spacious, with a lot of statues, beautiful cielings, and a nice garden. i took many pictures that i will try to put up soon. there is also an islamic part of toledo, which i didn´t visit, becuase it´s very far to walk on foot, but that i hope to be able to see soon.
the next friday i went to a sefardic sinagoge in madrid for friday night services. when i got there the first thing that suprised me was the amount of security. parked outside was a police car and at the door a guard took a copy of my passport, put my bag in a locker and then interogated me for at least 10 minutes on my intentions on coming to the service. when i asked why, he said it´s becuase in spain the small jewish community is surrounded by moros, or muslims and so they need to be secure. when i went upstaris at first i almost went into the men´s section. i have to go up one for flight into the women´s section. in sefardic traditions the men are at the base floor and the women watch the service from the balcony. there were very few women copared to the men, but more joined towards the end of the service. the sinagoge is very beautiful with a stained glass painting and a colorful lamp in the center of the room. the men all sing very well and in many different tones. i wasn´t able to follow very well, it was hard to understand the hebrew in a sefardic accent, but it was nice to listen. after the service everyone went down stairs to drink grape juice and eat challah. there was a small dinner for the youth that came to the service. i met a few nice jewish people in spain and i hope to go out and explore spain with them soon.
yesterday on saturday i went to segovia. segovia is another town which is known for having a jewish quater in spain. ever since the explusions of jews in 1492, there have not been many towns which have preserved thier jewish herritage in spain, but toledo and segovia did. the first thing you see when you walk into the city of segovia is the acueducto. it´s a series of huge arches,at least twenty all constructed out of stone welcoming you into the city. later you go into plaza mayor as you walk up calle de juan bravo, or calle real as the locals call it, the royal street. there are many tourists on either side of the narrow street, and it´s almost impossible for cars to go through. the most amazing thing is saw was the catedral. it was started in 1525 by a romanesque king. it is an expression of gothic architecture that took almost 200 years to complete, p.s. this is from my book lonely planet spain. from the outside it makes a big impression on you. this is the building walt disney based cinderela´s castle on. as i saw the catedral from the outside it brought me back to when i was 6 years old and i saw the castle and disney world. it does not have all the lighting effects as in disney world, but the stone is carved with much more attention to detail and there is a sort of flower pattern on the rock. inside it´s even more beautiful i had to walk around at least two times to get the jist of the granduer of the church. as you look around it´s so overwhelming you don´t know where to look. there are beautiful ceilings with stone carvings and patterns, there are painted golden statues, pictures of christ, murals, and more. this is one thing you have to see if you go to segovia. althogh it´s only a church it took me at least an hour to see everytings, it´s simply huge beyond imagination! next i saw the alcazar, this is also a castle, although smaller then the cathedral this castle reminded me of walt disney´s sleeping beauty´s castle. inside there are many rooms which show the armory, the bedroom, the living room, the diningroom, the chimney room, and a museum about the catholic kings. although the inside was very pretty with beautifully carved wooden cielings, golden statues of the kings and rich with history, my camara died. i saved all my pamplets if anyone is interested to read about it. later i went to visit the church of corpus christi. it used to be a sinagoge until the christians came and converted it into a church. inside there is not more then beautiful architecture with the traditional roman pillars, and the history of the building. i also went to visit a few churches which accentuated the roman influence and the visigothic influence of the town. in the jewish quarter there was a very nice center which had presentations explaining the history of jews in segovia. this is called the centro didactico de la juderia. before the church of corpus christi was the sinagoga mayor were abraham senneor lived. the jewish community resided in segovia until 1492. even today you can see traces of the jewish community there and there are signs saying spain, sfarad in hebrew leading to the juderia. most probably that jews have been in segovia since 1215. on november 2nd 1412 many of the town´s jews and muslims were obliged to be grouped inside the city in certain barrios. at the beginning of the cathlic monarch´s reign more persecutions took place. in 1480 the catholic kings signed a degree to create the jewish quater which would last for 12 years. there is a famous street in segovia called calle de la juderia vjeja, which leads into the juderia. this is all from the booklet i bought for a euro at the jewish center in segovia. in the guide it tells more about juderia in segovia and the other sinagoges, but becuase i was travelling on foot i didn´t have time to see everything. lastly i went to museo de segovia, which for many years was nothing but a warehouse. recently it was converted into the segovian museum and hold many artifacts such as old jewlery, rocks, roman statues and coton looms. segovia was once very known for it´s cotton industry. when i entered i saw a movie about segovia and it´s natural resources. segovia used almost all of it´s natural resource of stone in order to construct the town back in the day, so the movie was urging people to be aware that natural resources are not infinite. my tour ended where it started back at the acueducto, the series of big arches, which also lead you to exit the town. i took the but back to madrid, and today, sunday i am resting, reading harry potter in spanish and writing the blog. i have saved all the pamplets and i will try to upload pictures when i am in israel or the states. lots of love and hope to write soon.