The Jewish quarter of Toledo is a district of the city of Toledo, in Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It was the neighborhood in which the Jews lived in the Middle Ages, although they were not obliged to live within it.
It is the Jewish community of Toledo which became, in the 12th and 13th centuries, the most populous and rich of the Kingdom of Castile. And coexists for centuries, more or less peacefully, with Muslims and Christians, in which it would be called city of the three cultures. [1]
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. [2]
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. In Jewish tradition the mezuzah is believed to protect the home.
Two Jewish places of worship are preserved today (both as museums), Santa María la Blanca (formerly the Synagogue of Ibn Shushan [3] ) 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, a weekly holiday for the Jews, who rested while the rest of the city continued with its usual bustle.
Near each synagogue there is an underground bath called mikveh. The Jewish women came here to ritually purify themselves after menstruation and childbirth. The mikveh was also for gentile bought cooking vessels, which were considered non-kosher upon purchase and required immersion in its waters before use. [4]
Toledo is a city and municipality of Spain, capital of the province of Toledo and the de jure seat of the government and parliament of the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. Toledo was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive monumental and cultural heritage.
A synagogue is a Jewish or rarely Samaritan house of worship. Synagogues have a place for prayer and may also have rooms for study, a social hall, and offices. Some have a separate room for Torah study, called the בית מדרש beth midrash, lit. "house of study".
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The Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca is a museum and former synagogue in Toledo, Spain. 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 Synagogue of Tomar is a well-preserved medieval synagogue in Tomar, Portugal. Along with the Synagogue of Castelo de Vide, it is one of two existing pre-expulsion synagogues in the country. It is located at 73 Rua Dr. Joaquim Jaquinto in Tomar's historic city center. Built in the mid-1400s, the building was active as a synagogue only until 1496, when Jews were expelled from Portugal. It now houses the Abraham Zacuto Portuguese Jewish Museum.
The 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.
This timeline of antisemitism chronicles the facts of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group. It includes events in the history of antisemitic thought, actions taken to combat or relieve the effects of antisemitism, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.
Santa Cruz, is the primary tourist neighborhood of Seville, Spain, and the former Jewish quarter of the medieval city. Santa Cruz is bordered by the Jardines de Murillo, the Real Alcázar, Calle Mateos Gago, and Calle Santa María La Blanca/San José. The neighbourhood is the location of many of Seville's oldest churches and is home to the Cathedral of Seville, including the converted minaret of the old Moorish mosque Giralda.
Córdoba Synagogue is a historic edifice in the Jewish Quarter of Córdoba, Spain, built in 1315. The synagogue's small size points to it having possibly been the private synagogue of a wealthy man. It is also possible that Córdoba's complex of buildings was a yeshivah, kollel, or study hall. Another possibility is that this was the synagogue of a trade guild, which converted a residence or one of the work rooms into the synagogue. The synagogue was decorated according to the best Mudejar tradition.
Aaron L. Raskin is an American Chabad Lubavitch rabbi and writer. He serves as spiritual leader of Congregation B'nai Avraham, an Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn Heights, New York, and dean of Brooklyn Heights Jewish Academy.
Yehuda ben Moshe ha-Kohen lived during the 13th century and became the personal physician of King Alfonso X of Castile
Samuel ben Meir Ha-Levi Abulafia, was the treasurer of king Pedro I "the Cruel" of Castile and founder of the Synagogue of El Transito in Toledo, Spain.
The first record of the Jewish community in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, dates from 1251. Until the end of World War I, Bratislava was a multicultural city with a Hungarian and German majority and a Slovak and Jewish minority. In 1806 when the city was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, Rabbi Moses Sofer established the Pressburg Yeshiva and the city emerged as the center of Central European Jewry and a leading power in the opposition to the Reform movement in Judaism in Europe. Pressburg Yeshiva produced hundreds of future leaders of Austro-Hungarian Jewry who made major influence on the general traditional orthodox and future Charedi Judaism.
Following the Alhambra Decree in 1492,and in order to eliminate their influence on Spain's large converso population and to ensure its members did not revert to Judaism, many Jews in Spain either converted or were expelled. Over half of Spain's Jews had converted to Catholicism as a result of the religious persecution and pogroms in 1391. Due to continuing attacks, around 50,000 more had converted by 1415. Those who remained decided to convert to avoid expulsion. As a result of the Alhambra decree and the prior persecution, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled. An unknown number returned to Spain in the following years.:17 The resulting expulsion led to mass migration of Jews from Spain to Italy, Greece and the Mediterranean Basin. This can be seen with Jewish surnames as they began to show up in Italy and Greece at this time, like Faraggi, Farag and Farachi a surname which originates from the Spanish city of Fraga.
Old Town of Cáceres is an historic walled city in Cáceres, Spain.
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The Synagogue of Castelo de Vide is a well-preserved medieval synagogue in Santa Maria da Devesa, Castelo de Vide, Portugal. Along with the Synagogue of Tomar, it is one of two existing pre-expulsion synagogues in the country. Built in the late 14th century, it now houses a museum dedicated to Castelo de Vide's historical Jewish community.
The Mellah of Marrakesh, formerly known as Hay Essalam is the Jewish Quarter (Mellah) of the city of Marrakesh, Morocco. It is the second oldest of its kind in the country.
The Libyansynagogue of Jaffa is an Mizrahi Jewish synagogue built inside a former hotel in 1948 by Jewish immigrants from Libya. Located on RehovMazal Daggim, the Pisces (Fish) Street, in the historical part of Jaffa, it is the oldest synagogue in Tel Aviv-Yafo.
