Perhaps more than any other Spanish city, Barcelona has a long, rich Jewish History. But you might not know that if you can’t decipher the clues and don’t know where to look, what questions to ask. A thousand stories about the Jewish community of Barcelona during medieval times, remain untold.
Perhaps the largest tell that a Jewish community once thrived here is the mountain Montjuic. Standing like the elephant in the room – Montjuic translates to mountain of the Jews and is a reference to the sizable Jewish cemetery that once existed there.
The relationship between the medieval rulers and the Jews of Barcelona was a complex one. There was a constant push/pull. The Jews were exempt from the Church’s prohibition of moneylending, which made them indispensable… almost.
“Managing diversity is difficult” said Dominique Tomasov, our docent tour guide who showed us the Gothic quarter and led our Context tour of Jewish Barcelona.
Thanks to Context Tours for providing us with a complementary tour of Jewish Barcelona. All opinions are my own. \
Barcelona’s Jewish community vanished a good hundred years before the Spanish Inquisition. Most of the Barcelona Jewish community was wiped out in a single tragic pogrom in 1391.
In the centuries that followed the pogrom, Barcelona’s Jewish cemeteries were razed and their headstones were repurposed and used for building. It’s therefore common to see bits and pieces of a epitaph, high up on a wall opposite the cathedral. A hollow beside a centuries old door shows the place where a mezuzah was once affixed.
If you don’t know exactly where to look, you might never see these stones, or other artifacts of Jewish existence in Catalan.
We were lucky to have been shown the city by a knowledgeable guide, working for a cultural tour company that seeks to do more than scratch the surface with stock/canned tours. Context tours are led by local experts – scholars and professors. Dominique Tomasov is a local Jewish activist who fights for the preservation of Jewish history in the area and who is highly knowledgeable of Barcelona’s Jewish history. As we stood in the old city with her, I felt so grateful to have such a well learned guide. It was bittersweet to watch tour group after tour group assembling opposite the cathedral – pointing and snapping photos of the facade, and never once looking up, never aware of the history behind the repurposed tombstones, inscribed here and there with Hebrew on the walls at their back.
In the last century, Jews have returned to Barcelona. Dominique shared her own history with us, and gave us insight into how a thriving community has reassembled in this city once again. The city currently has the largest Jewish population in Spain, with over 3500 members strong, two synagogues and a Jewish day school. But there is still mixed emotions about Jews in Barcelona. An exhibition of Gothic Era Passover Haggadahs at the museum in the Old City lacks the usual advertising and banners that special exhibits usually place outside in the square.
Barcelona is once again a diverse city. Managing that is still difficult. Many ethnic and national groups have come together in this city teeming with art, culture and bounty. The tension can still be palpable at times. But so is hope.
Excellent piece, Ciaran. It was wonderful to have you and your daughter on the seminar. We’re so pleased the experience was transformative. Hope to see you again soon!