The Jewish Community of Tarrega

Moses Nathan (14th century - 15th century) , poet.

Born in Tarrega, Catalonia (Spain), he is the author of a collection of moral parables in rhymed meter entitled Toze’ot Hayyim. The collection, which was published in Shetei Yadot (Venice, 1618) by Menahem ben Judah de Lorenzo, is divided into fifty-eight short thematic chapters on several virtues. A manuscript of the book is in the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris. He died in Spain.

KOHEN

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name derives from lineage (priestly, Levite, convert).

Kohen is the Hebrew for "priest". The oldest and probably the most common Jewish family name in existence, Cohen indicates descent from the biblical priestly family, Cohanim. According to tradition, the Cohanim are descendants of Aaron, the first high priest. The Cohanim performed consecrated duties in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem until the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE and still have certain duties and prerogatives in religious life.

A great many variants of the name are documented all over the world. In many cases Cohen was transformed into vernacular-sounding names. This enabled Jews in the Diaspora both to maintain their Jewish tradition, as well as to become part of their host society. Among the forms frequent in the Mediterranean region are Kahin, Al-Kuhen, El-Kohen, Kouihen, Choen, Xohen and Cof(f)en. Variants documented in Europe include: Cowen and Cowan (England); Cohn, Conn, Kahn, Kohn(e) and Kohner (Germany and Austria); Cahn, Cahen, Cahon, Caen and Cain (France); Coen (Italy); Cahan, Cahona, Kahana, Kahano, Kahane, Kon, Koihen, Kagan, Kogan, Kaplan, Kohnowsky, Koganovitch, Kahanow, Kahansky, Konstamm (Eastern Europe). Cohan, Cohane, Cohne, Cone, Coon, Kan and Koon are recorded in the United States. The old title Kohen Tzedek, meaning in Hebrew "authentic priest" (a more accurate translation than the more common term "righteous priest"), indicated authentic lineage. It was abbreviated to Katz, literally "cat" an animal name, in Yiddish and German, and became the source of numerous family names. Cohanim/Cohens who had broken one of the sacred laws or special rules applying to them were sometimes known as Halal and no longer called Cohen. Some took different family names, among them the North African Bettan and Ben Kessous.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Kohen include the Lithuanian-born Hungarian Rabbi Ephraim Kohen (1616-1690) and the 20th century Turkish journalist Samuel Kohen.

Catalonia

In Catalan: Catalunya ; in Spanish: Cataluña

A region in northeastern Spain.

Barcelona

The capital of Catalonia, northern Spain

As of 2008 there were approximately 4,000 Jews living in Barcelona, making it Spain’s second-largest Jewish community. Barcelona’s Jewish community is diverse, and includes Jews who came from North Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. There are five different synagogues serving the different communities and traditions, including the Modern Orthodox Comunidad Israelita de Barcelona, a Chabad, and the Reform Comunitat Jueva Atid de Catalunya. The community also includes a kosher butcher and a Jewish school, which enrolls 220 Jewish and non-Jewish students from kindergarten through 10th grade.

A 2001 construction project uncovered approximately 500 tombstones in the medieval Jewish cemetery in Mondjuic (“Mountain of the Jews”). The cemetery was recognized as an official landmark in 2007.

In the late 20th century a man named Miguel Iaffa, working from a book published by the historian Juame Riera in 1987, identified the building that once housed a synagogue dating to 1306. Iaffa bought the building, and began restoring the synagogue. The restoration continued until 2002, after which it was open to the public.

HISTORY

Barcelona is home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in Spain; the scholar Amram Gaon, who lived during the 19th century, sent a copy of his prayer book to “the scholars of Barcelona,” and records indicate that there were Jews living in and around the city during this period. Beginning at the end of the 10th century they lived in their own section in the heart of the old city around the port. Some worked as minters, but most made a living as traders and artisans. One of the more unique roles of Barcelona’s Jewish community during this period was to provide beds for the royal family and their attendants when they visited the city, and taking care of the lions in the royal menagerie.

In 1069 a local Arab wrote that there were as many Jews as Christians living in Barcelona, though only 60 Jews names are recorded; it is likely that Jews played active and prominent roles within the city’s culture and economy, and therefore had an outsized presence. Notable individuals during the 11th and early 12th centuries include Abraham b. Hiyya, whose knowledge of mathematics was used in the service of the king and nobility, and who published philosophical and scientific works in Hebrew.

One of the more prominent Jewish families in Barcelona beginning in the second half of the 11th century was the Sheshet family. They worked for the local nobility as suppliers of capital, advisers on Muslim affairs, secretaries, and negotiators. Later, during the 12th century, members of the Sheshet family would be among those who served as treasury bailiffs.

In spite of the advances that Barcelona’s Jews made both politically, culturally, and economically, anti-Jewish sentiment was rife among the city’s Christian population. The Jewish philosopher and Biblical commentator Nahmanides engaged in a public disputation with Pablo Christiani in 1263, in the presence of James I of Aragon. A number of Jews lost their prominent positions in 1283, after Aragonese, Valencian, and Catalan noblemen successfully pressured Pedro I to dismiss his Jewish civil servants.

By the start of the 13th century the Jewish community of Barcelona was run by a group of wealthy merchants and administrative officers (ne'emanim) who had been granted their authority by King James I. This group was expected to enforce religious and social discipline, as well as to try monetary cases. Rabbi Solomon b. Abraham Adret (1235-1310) was the head of this group for 50 years, and under his leadership Barcelona became the wealthiest and most prominent Jewish community in Spain.

As the community grew, it established a number of institutions, including several synagogues. The Great Synagogue (Sinagoga Mayor) was visited by James I during the aforementioned Barcelona Disputation (1263). The Women’s Synagogue (Sinagoga de les Dones) had a special section for women. In 1306 the existing community was joined by 60 families of French exiles; these exiles established the Synagogue of the French (Sinagoga de los Franceses). A Jewish cemetery was located on Montjuich (The Mountain of the Jews).

A third constitution was adopted in 1327 that strengthened the Jewish community’s leadership by adding to the ne’emanim a Council of Thirty. Another innovation followed ten years later, when berurei averot (magistrates for misdemeanors) were appointed to punish those who committed offenses against Judaism and the accepted code of conduct; later, they would also be responsible for trying monetary cases.

The Black Death, which swept through Europe between 1348 and 1349, had a major impact on Barcelona’s Jewish community. Most of the ne’emanim and the Council of Thirty died in the plague. In the wake of the panic and tragedy, Christians throughout Europe began blaming the Jews for the outbreak. Barcelona was no exception to this trend, and the Jewish Quarter was attacked.

In response to the devastation wrought by the plague, delegates from Catalonia and Valencia met in Barcelona in 1354 in order to establish a national umbrella organization that would work to help the kingdom’s Jewish communities of the kingdom recover from the damage done by the plague. Barcelona’s Jewish community slowly began to recover; one example of the recovery was Rabbi Nissim Gerondi’s reestablishment of the local yeshiva, whose students included Rabbi Isaac b. Sheshet and Rabbi Chasdai Crescas, who later took part in the administration of the community.

During the 13th and 14th centuries the Jews of Barcelona were generally socioeconomically advantaged; indeed, a substantial part of the area’s real estate was owned by Jews. Most worked as artisans (weavers, dyers, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and coral workers) and were organized into guilds that represented them. Others worked as merchants or traded overseas. Those who did work in international trade had the advantage of being able to connect with Jewish merchants round the Mediterranean, and their ability to communicate with them in Hebrew. This level of success prompted the Catalans to work to eliminate the competition posed by Jewish merchants.

A Host desecration libel was levied against the Jews in 1367, and a number of community leaders were among the accused. Three Jews were sentenced to death, and the community was locked in the synagogue for three days without food. A number of other community leaders were imprisoned. This was not the end of their troubles. Anti-Jewish riots broke out throughout the kingdom in 1391, and Barcelona’s Jews were among those who suffered. On August 5, 1391 anti-Jewish riots broke out in the Jewish Quarter, led by a group of Castilians who had participated in previous massacres in Seville and Valencia, and who came to Barcelona by boat intending to attack the Jews there. During the riots in Barcelona 400 people were killed while others were forcibly converted, the Jewish Quarter sustained heavy damage, and Jewish homes were looted. City authorities attempted to protect Barcelona’s Jews, but were ultimately unable to defend them from the rioters. A number of Jews fled to North Africa.

Twenty-six of the rioters were condemned to death by King John I, who also took steps to rehabilitate the Jewish community, in part by granting the community a temporary tax exemption, granting the Jews a new Quarter, and ordering the restoration of the old cemetery. Rabbi Chasdai Crescas was permitted to encourage Jews to move from other places to resettle Barcelona, but few ultimately came. In 1401, however, Martin I officially prohibited the reestablishment of the Jewish community in Barcelona and the Jewish community ceased to exist.

The only Jews who were permitted to remain in Barcelona after 1401 were those who had been forcibly converted in 1391. These conversos continued to contribute socially, culturally, and economically to Barcelona’s development through the 15th century. Their reprieve, however, was only temporary; in July 1487 the Inquisition came to Barcelona. A number of conversos were charged with observing Judaism and sentenced to death. After that, the only Jews in Barcelona were those who had been expelled from Aragon in 1492, and who arrived in Barcelona en route to locations abroad.

TWENTIETH CENTURY

Jewish life was not renewed until the beginning of the 20th century, when Jewish peddlers from Morocco and Turkey arrived in Barcelona. Other Jews arrived during World War I (1914-1918) from Poland, followed by immigrants from North Africa. Additionally, once Salonika came under Greek rule in 1912 and the 1931 announcement by the Spanish government encouraging Sephardic Jews to come and settle, more Jews began arriving. In 1918 there were 100 Jews living in Barcelona; by 1932 there were more than 3,000. Barcelona’s Jewish population further increased the rise of Nazism, prompting German Jews to flee to Spain; a number of German refugees established ribbon, leather, and candy industries in Barcelona. By 1935 there were over 5,000 Jews in Barcelona.

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) a number of Jews left Barcelona, many for France and Palestine. During World War II (1939-1945), however, Barcelona became a refugee center, aided by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

In 1968 there were approximately 3,000 Jews living in Barcelona. During the 1960s and ‘70s It was the most organized Jewish community in Spain, offering a number of cultural and community activities, Sunday schools, a Talmud Torah, two synagogues, a summer camp, and a branch of the Maccabi sports movement.

The Jewish population of Barcelona in the year 2000 was 3,500.

סרווירה

עיר בקאטאלוניה, ספרד.

בתחילת המאה ה-14 מנתה הקהילה היהודית בסרווירה כ-40 משפחות. בימי ב"מגיפה השחורה" (1349-1348) הותקף הרובע היהודי והועלה באש. ב-1369 ניתנה הוראה להפריד את הרובע המחודש משאר חלקי העיר, וכעבור 20 שנה הותרה הקמת בית-כנסת ליהודים שגרו מחוץ לחומות הרובע.

אחרי פרעות קנ"א (1391) ניסו שלטונות העיר להרחיק את היהודים מן הרחובות הראשיים אך חזרו בהם בפקודת המלך. באמצע המאה ה-15 התנהלו חיי הקהילה על מי מנוחות ובין היהודים היו בעלי קרקעות וכרמים, ובעלי-מלאכה. העיר השתבחה ברופאיה היהודים דוגמת אברהם דה פורטגל, אברהם בן יצחק וקרשקש אדרת, רופא-החצר של חואן השני. באחת התעודות מסופר על אסטרוגה, אשת דוד אדרת, שעלתה לרגל לארץ-הקודש עם בנה שאלתיאל, חרף האיסור המלכותי, ונקנסה על-ידי שר האוצר.

Balaguer

Town in the province of Lleida in Catalonia, north eastern Spain.

21st Century

From records it is known that the Jewish aljama (self-governing community) of 15th century Balaguer was of importance.

History

At the time of the Christian reconquest at the end of the 11th century, several Jews already owned houses and land there. In 1280 Pedro III ordered an inquiry regarding violations of the interest laws by the local Jews. Efforts by the Counts of Urgel to restore the community after the Black Death and the anti-Jewish disorders accompanying it in 1348-49 were apparently successful.

During the persecutions of 1391 the Jews in Balaguer took refuge in the citadel, but were forced to leave by King John I. In 1416 Alfonso V, after suppressing a revolt, imposed a fine of 45 pounds of silver upon the Jews of the town, notwithstanding the fact that the community had become impoverished through migration to the estates of the nobility and the conversions to Christianity at the time of the Tortosa disputation. New settlers were not granted exemption from taxes. The community existed until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

Agramunt

A town belonging to the former county of Urgel, northeast Spain.

Jews living in Agramunt in the 13th century were liable to the same fiscal duties as the Christian townspeople, but were also obliged to pay taxes to the Count of Urgel and the King of Aragon. In 1272 Solomon b. Abraham Adret was appointed arbitrator of a disagreement between the Agramunt and Lerida communities.

The Infante Alfonso received permission to settle 40 Jewish families in Agramunt in 1316. Agramunt was a cultural center. Ezra b. Solomon b. Gati"no (see Gatigno) completed his glosses on Abraham Ibn Ezra's biblical commentary there in 1372. In the early 15th century Solomon Bonafed corresponded with friends in Agra-Munt. Shealtiel Isaac Bonafos practiced as a physician there toward the end of the 1420s. A tombstone with a Hebrew inscription, probably of the 13th century, is preserved in Agramunt.

Spain

Reino de España - Kingdom of Spain

A country in the Iberian peninsula in southwestern Europe, member of the European Union (EU).

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 11,500 out of 46,500,000 (0.02%). Main Jewish umbrella organization:

Federacion de Comunidades Judías de España (FCJE) - Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain
Phone: 34 91 700 12 08
Fax: 34 91 391 57 17
Email: fcje@fcje.org
Website: www.fcje.org

 

HISTORY

The Jews of Spain

711 | The Golden Age

Archaeological evidence from the Roman and Visigoth periods indicates Jewish life in Spain long before the so called “Golden Age” (which began in the 10th century, lasting until the 12th century). For instance, according to tradition, one of the most famous families in the history of Spanish Jewry, the Abarbanels, migrated to the Iberian peninsula back in 2nd Temple times. However, discussion of the Jews of Spain is customarily opened with the days following the Muslim conquest in 711 CE, when they experienced a significant improvement of fortunes.
Among the greatest Jewish figures of the Spanish “Golden Age” were Hasdai ibn Shaprut, Samuel ibn Naghrilla (aka Samuel HaNagid), Shlomo ben Aderet (aka the Rashba, after the Hebrew acronym of his name), Don Isaac Abarbanel, Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra, the poet Shlomo ibn Gabirol (aka Avicebron or Avencebrol in medieval Latin sources) and Yehudah HaLevi. While all these are well-known to residents of Israel and tourists alike, mostly as names of streets, hospitals or other public places, it is sometimes forgotten that not only were these real men, flesh and blood, but that they were giants of human spirit as well: philosophers, poets, translators, interpreters of scripture and physicians, men of many talents who shaped the spiritual, religious, and cultural shape of the Jewish people throughout the generations to come.

915 | Between Science and Faith

One of the unique features of Jewish culture in Spain during the “Golden Age” was the seamless combination of science and faith. A Jew in Spain in those days could be a ruler of halacha, a rabbi and a Talmudic scholar – and at the same time engage in general philosophy, mathematics and science. Such a man, for instance, was Hasdai ibn Shaprut, a scholar, a famous physician and perhaps the first to be known as a “Court Jew” in the best sense of the word. Ibn Shaprut was the adviser of the Muslim Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III and also his personal physician.
Ibn Shaprut was born in 915 CE and worked in Cordoba in the south of Spain – the most populated and advanced city in Europe at the time. Over the years the city changed hands, but one thing all the conquerors (up to a point) had in common was close and fruitful cooperation with the local Jewish population.
Many Jews in Cordoba served as administrators, physicians, scientists and mostly as translators. Ibn Shaprut, for example, was fluent in both international tongues of the time, Latin and Arabic – a very rare skill in those days, which made his services particularly sought-after at the ruler's court.

1141 | The King Who Converted To Judaism

In 1148 the enlightened days came to an end when the cruel Almohad dynasty seized control of Cordoba and presented the Jews with two options: convert to Islam or die. Some chose the first option. Others fled south, to North Africa. Among these forced immigrants were Maimonides and Abraham ibn Ezra, an interpreter of scripture and astronomer who had a crater on the Moon named after him by NASA – The Ebenezer Crater.
The decline of the Jewish community of Cordoba marked the rise of that in Toledo, a city in central Spain that was under Christian rule. There, in 1141, one of the greatest Hebrew poets was born: Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi.
HaLevi is preeminently known author of the influential polemic “The Kuzari”, which describes a debate between the representatives of the three monotheistic religions and the king of the Khazars, at the end of which the king is convinced of the righteousness of Judaism and converts to it along with his entire nation. He was also a philosopher and a poet who composed religious verse alongside daringly explicit love songs.
Another famous poet, born 100 years before HaLevi, was Shlomo ibn Gabirol, a virtuoso wordsmith and also an important philosopher whose book of metaphysical inquiry “Fons Vitae” (“Source of Life”, or “Makor Chaim” in Hebrew) was highly popular among medieval scholars, many of whom didn't even know it was written by a Jew.

1267 | The Disputation of Barcelona

A common pastime of the intellectual elite in the Middle Ages was to hold public debates between Jews and Christians, who argued the age-old question, which religion manifests the true will of God. Most of these were held mainly to entertain the Gentiles and ridicule the Jews. A notable exception was the debate held in 1267 in Barcelona, which was relatively fair and consistent with the principles of objective argument. The subject of the debate was the Talmud, which according to the Christian position contained statements proving the truth of the Christian faith.
The Talmud and the Jews were represented by Nahmanides, Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, also known by his Hebrew acronym, the Ramban. This great rabbi, like other luminaries of the Jews in Spain, was a man of tradition and progress at once. He was considered an extraordinary interpreter of scripture and an expert in the occult teachings of Kabbalah, and also a well-educated philosopher and physician.
Opposing the Ramban was an entire team of Christian clerics, headed by the converted Jew Pablo Christiani, and was presided over by the King of Aragon himself, James I. Although the Christian side declared itself victorious, the reaction of the royal “judge” contradicts this claim, as the king gave Nahmanides a prize of 300 gold coins and declared that he “had never heard an unjust cause so nobly defended”.
Despite this show of royal favor, Nahmanides had no choice but to flee Aragon for fear of harm by the incensed “winners” of the debate. He made his way to the Land of Israel, arriving in 1267. He had time to found a synagogue in Jerusalem, which is the oldest one still standing in the city, and to finalize his great commentary on the Torah before dying in the northern port city of Acre in 1270.

1391 | Kn”a Spells Murder

In 1391 widespread pogroms took place in the city of Seville, later to be known as the Kn”a pogroms, after the Hebrew acronym of the year in which they took place according to the Hebrew calendar. These riots spread from Seville throughout the region of Andalusia, and from there to Castile and Valencia as well, claiming the lives of 250 Jews in that city alone. The rioters gave their victims a single choice: convert or die. Many Jews defiantly chose the latter option, dying as martyrs in the name of God. These pogroms heralded the establishment of the Inquisition and the Edict of Expulsion a hundred years later.
In order to understand why people choose to die for their faith one must comprehend the nature of the hostility between Judaism and Christianity vs. Islam. The latter was seen by Jewish thinkers (such as Maimonides and others) as a direct continuation of pure monotheism. Christianity, on the other hand, was seen as a form of polytheism, due to the creed of the Holy Trinity, and as idolatry, due to the worship of icons, and thus as a hindrance to salvation. Furthermore, at the center of the Jewish/Christian dispute stood the question of which was “The true Israel”. Christianity claimed that the humiliated state of Jewish existence and its lack of political power was proof of Christianity's supremacy. Jews, for their part, prayed for swift divine vengeance against the Christian “sons of Esau”. So great was the Jewish revulsion towards Christianity that a chronicle of the time tells of Jewish women who had agreed to convert, but upon stepping upon the entrance to the church were so repelled by the smells coming from it that they turned back and left.

1492 | The Edict of Expulsion

In the same year in which Christopher Columbus discovered “The New World”, the Jews of Spain were served with an eviction notice from their old home. Legend has it that Columbus had a hard time finding sailors for his historic voyage, as all ships and mariners were busy loading Jews on board to take them from Spain into exile.
The decision to expel the Jews was made by the fervently Catholic monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, who had despaired of convincing their Jewish subjects (both the old ones and those they acquired in the conquest of the last Muslim lands in the country) to accept the “true faith”. According to tradition, Don Isaac Abarbanel, a Jew who served as Spain's Treasury Minister, offered the king and queen a legendary ransom to forgo the expulsion. But then the Grand Inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada, entered the royal chamber and said to the king: “The Jews crucified Christ. Will you suffer them to remain in your country for mere money?” The King was persuaded and signed the Edict of Expulsion.
Ironically, the Jews were ordered to leave within four months, which ended precisely on the Ninth of Av, the historical day of mourning for the destruction of both Jewish temples. The implementation of the Edict was entrusted to the Inquisition, headed by de Torquemada. The Inquisition was a sort of Christian court charged with rooting out “heretics”. Those convicted of heresy were sentenced to torture or death at the stake. The Jews were also given the option to convert to Christianity. Some 50% of the Jews in Spain chose that option. Most “conversos”, as they were known at the time, assimilated into the Spanish people, but continued to suffer discrimination and hatred. A smaller group, the Anusim (crypto-Jews), maintained the tenets of Judaism in secret. Many of these paid a high price for their choice. The historic Edict of Expulsion, issued by Ferdinand and Isabella, was abolished only in 1968, 476 years after it was published.

1868 | Zero, Nada

In any census conducted in Spain in the 16th century, the number of Jews would have been zero. The same result would have shown in a census in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. Zero. Zilch. Or as they say in Spanish, Nada.
The first time since the Edict of Expulsion of 1492 in which the Jews were mentioned in a Spanish law occurred in 1924. In that year the Spanish government granted Sephardi Jews living in Alexandria and Thessaloniki the right to belong to the Spanish nation, as well as the right to move back to Spain.
56 years earlier, in 1868, the Spanish government of the time adopted the model of Enlightenment and decreed that all “non-Catholic” groups would be granted full civic equality as individuals, but not as organized communities (the Jews were not mentioned explicitly in this law).
Despite the vow never to return, a thin stream of Jews did go back to the Iberian Peninsula and in the early 20th century, the Jewish community in Spain numbered approximately 2,000 people.

1942 | Holocaust Time

History moves in strange ways. It was fascist Spain, under dictator Francisco Franco, that showed the Jews humane treatment during WW2. However, it should be noted that these displays of compassion and rescue came not from the State itself but from individuals, Righteous Among the Nations, who saved Jews out of the kindness of their heart. After the war Franco tried to latch onto these individuals and attribute their deeds to himself, in order to appear enlightened to public opinion in the West.
Among the Spaniards who risked life and limb to save Jews were some diplomats serving in Spanish embassies in the Balkan countries, where several Jews of Spanish nationality resided. Many of them were saved from the death camps thanks to the protection granted them by consuls, often contrary to official policy. Two of these diplomats, Giorgio Perlasca and Angel Sanz Briz, saved some 4,000 Hungarian Jews and issued them approximately 2,750 visas to Spain. It is interesting to note that Perlasca was not actually Spanish, but rather an Italian with Spanish citizenship, who impersonated Sanz Briz's replacement after the latter was expelled from Hungary to Switzerland.
After the war this extraordinary man was forced to live in anonymity and extreme modesty, as he had invested most of his fortune in bribing Nazi officials to save Jews. His story was revealed by an Italian journalist who wrote a biography detailing his incredible story. The book is called “The Banality of Good,” a play on the seminal work by Jewish intellectual Hannah Arendt, “The Banality of Evil.”

2014 | All In the Name

On February 7th, 2014 the Spanish government announced that it had approved an amendment to the country's Citizenship Law, under which Jews who can prove they are descended from those expelled in 1492 would be able to claim Spanish citizenship. Thus came closure of sorts to the tragedy wrought by the Spanish Expulsion in Jewish history.
As of 2016 there are between 30,000 and 50,000 Jews living in Spain. The largest communities are in Madrid and Barcelona. Madrid is currently home to three synagogues, the largest located next to the city's Jewish community center. Smaller congregations can be found in Alicante, Valencia, Melilla, Grenada, Malaga, Cadiz, Murcia, Tenerife and other cities.
Many Jewish surnames still in use today indicate roots among those expelled from Spain. Among these are Hebrew names such as Bechor, Gigi, Kimchi, Casspi, Tzedaka, Maimon, Shemes and Choresh; Spanish surnames such as Betito, Ninio, de Spinoza, d'Israeli, Ferrera and Calderon; and names related to Spanish city such as Sevillia, Toledo/Toledano, Cordoba and Kaslasi. On top of these there are names that have survived from the Muslim era in Spain, such as Ben Tolila, Algranati, Ibn Ezra, Abudraham and Alnekawe. Among those descended from the Spanish Expulsion Spanish first names remained in use for hundreds of years, such as Presiado, Hijo, Compadre and Vidal for boys, or Alegra, Palomba, Seniora and Flora for girls.

Lerida

Catalan: Lleida

A city in west Catalonia, Spain

Lerida is the capital of the Lerida Province. It is located approximately 101 miles (162km) from Barcelona.

The Jewish community of Lerida maintained close ties to the community in nearby Barcelona, particularly during the Muslim period (711-1492). Most worked as tanners, but there were also several wealthy merchants and a few farmers. The Jewish Quarter, which dated from the 11th century, was located to the west of the city, in a place called Cuiraca while Juderia Street, located above the Jewish Quarter, indicates that at some point the Jewish Quarter was expanded. A number of Jews were granted property in the city, and held positions of prominence.

Beginning in 1271 the community was led by a nassi who was appointed by James II to act as both the rabbi and dayyan (judge) of the community. The nassi was authorized to adjudicate all disputes between Jews according to Jewish law, in consultation with two elders who were compelled to accept a summons to sit in court. This was a unique system of community governance in Catalonia, with a similar system being found only in Castile.

Records from the beginning of the 14th century indicate that several of Lerida’s conversos returned to Judaism, among them a converso from Belmont (near Toulouse) who was caught and tried by the Inquisition in Toulouse in 1317.

Jews from Lerida were relatively lucky in escaping many of the massacres that targeted Jews throughout the region, but were nonetheless often at the mercy of anti-Semitism. Lerida’s Jews were among those who went to bury the victims of the massacres that took place in Montclus during the Shepherds’ Crusade in 1320. In spite of this act of kindness, they were accused of demolishing a bridge and cutting down trees in Montclus; luckily they were pardoned the same year after paying a large sum of money to the crown.

During the massacres that took place in the wake of the Black Death in 1348-1349, the community managed to find refuge in the citadel; in 1350 they were forced to pay the official who had been appointed for their protection. Later, in 1383, two Jews from Lerida were accused of host desecration.

The Jews of Lerida did not emerge unscathed, however, during the massacres that broke out throughout Spain in 1391. Though a number of Jews took refuge in the citadel, 78 were killed and the Jewish Quarter was destroyed. Nonetheless, the king ordered that measures should be taken to punish the rioters and protect the Jews and in 1400 permission was granted to the survivors to revive the community. New arrivals to the Jewish community were granted a reduction in taxes as well as debt forgiveness. Additionally, and Jews from other communities were permitted to settle in Lerida after they had settled their taxes. Members of the community were permitted to live in other parts of the city until the Jewish Quarter was reconstructed. In 1408 King Martin ordered that the synagogue (which had been converted into a church) be restored; he also provided for the election of the community’s leaders and regulated their authority. In 1410 an agreement was reached between Lerida’s Jewish community and the city authorities concerning the status and activities of the Jewish community.

Indeed, the reconstituted community was successful enough that in 1421 Queen Maria wrote to the municipal authorities concerning the establishment of a new Jewish community in Lerida. Her husband, John II, also granted the community a number of protections and alleviated certain economic restrictions that had been imposed on them.

A district tribunal of the inquisition was established in Lerida in 1490.