Spanish town prepares first seder in 500 years

Published on March 11, 2013

A town in northern Spain is preparing to hold its first Passover seder since 1492.

Israel faces European backlash over settlement plan

Published on December 3, 2012

Israel faced concerted criticism from Europe on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations' de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Online anti-Semitism in Spain doubled in 2011, report says

Published on July 5, 2012

Online anti-Semitism in Spain doubled in volume last year, according to a Spanish Jewish community monitor.

Humbly Luxurious

By Michael Israel
Published on July 3, 2012

Spain reaches out to American Jewish tourists

Published on June 27, 2012

Unless you can read artistically distorted Hebrew, you might not realize that the logo of a program by Spain’s tourism board spells out the four letters of “Sepharad,” the Hebrew word for Spain. And unless you know European geography, you might not realize that the distorted Hebrew letters represent the outline — the national borders — of Spain.

Stewing Over the Spanish Inquisition

By Michael Israel
Published on June 25, 2012

Spain, Israel mark 25 years of diplomatic relations

Published on January 23, 2012

Spain and Israel at a ceremony in Madrid marked 25 years of diplomatic relations.

German court rejects Demjanjuk extradition request

Published on June 15, 2011

A German court denied a request to extradite John Demjanjuk to Spain to stand trial on charges of being an accessory to genocide and crimes against humanity. In denying the extradition request on June 9, the Munich court questioned Spain’s jurisdiction in the case and also noted that the evidence presented against Demjanjuk was incomplete.

Spain’s high court overturns Nazi bookstore conviction

Published on June 6, 2011

Spain's Jewish community has slammed a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that overturns the conviction of four people connected to a Barcelona bookstore that sold Nazi literature. The four connected to the now defunct bookshop, Kalki, had been found guilty by a lower court of fostering xenophobia and anti-Semitism through the selling of Nazi literature. The acquittals include a publisher in the nearby town of Molins de Rei.

Spanish official gives first formal apology for Inquisition

Published on May 6, 2011

A Spanish official has given what is being heralded as the country’s first formal apology for the Inquisition’s killing of Jews. On the island of Mallorca, where 37 Jews were killed in 1691 for secretly practicing Judaism, the regional president offered the apology at a May 5 memorial service in the city of Palma.

As Spain builds monuments to its Jewish past, critics question motives

Published on April 4, 2011

Hidden among the maze of alleyways east of the Onyar River, the Museum of Jewish History stands as testament -- if an inadvertent one -- to the completeness of Spain's destruction of its once-thriving Jewish population. Inside the museum, set in Girona's last known synagogue, designers have layered the ancient architecture with all the flourishes of a contemporary museum, complete with glass-lit cases, multimedia displays and an audio tour in several languages.

Israeli food event in Spain canceled over terror threat

Published on March 10, 2011

An Israeli food event in Spain was canceled after threats from a Basque terror group. Israeli food month in the tourist city of Hondarribia, in the Basque region of Spain, was scheduled to begin Wednesday. It was canceled last week following threats from the ETA terror group, which supports the Palestinian struggle against what it calls "Israeli occupation," Yediot Achronot reported.

Spain Indicts Demjanjuk for Crimes Against Humanity

Published on January 19, 2011

The Supreme Court of Spain has indicted accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk on charges of being an accessory to genocide and crimes against humanity. The court on Jan. 14 requested an international arrest warrant for Demjanjuk, who is accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard. The court issued the ruling a week earlier but did not make it public until Jan. 14.

Rabbi reports from Saudi interfaith conclave: We must seize the moment

Published on July 30, 2008

The highest authority in the very heartland of Islam has taken a lead in interfaith outreach, whatever his motives might be, with the declared intention of addressing contemporary challenges and resolving conflict. This offers Israel, the Jewish people and the West a significant opportunity that must be seized

Language institute helping Ladino revival

By Jerome Socolovsky
Published on April 26, 2007

The Cervantes Institute has been sponsoring Ladino readings and seminars at its branches in Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Bucharest and Sofia. Now Urrutia says the institute will create a Ladino Department with a Judeo-Spanish archive at its headquarters in Madrid. And Ladino will be the focus of a new Cervantes Institute in Salonika, which will be located next to the city's Sephardic Museum.

Museum-hopping in Madrid, sans ham

By Hilary Larson
Published on October 19, 2006

What is the best museum town in the world?

Paris comes to mind, as does New York.

But as a certified art museum lover, I put my money on Madrid.

Ahoy, mateys ! Thar be Jewish pirates!

By Adam Wills
Published on September 14, 2006

Jewish piracy has been around since well before the Barbary pirates first preyed on ships during the Crusades. In the time of the Second Temple, Jewish historian Flavius Josephus records that Hyrcanus accussed Aristobulus of "acts of piracy at sea."

Rabbis, Imams Meet for Peace in Spain

By Danny Wood
Published on March 30, 2006

The aim of the conference is to make a positive contribution toward resolving religious conflict wherever it arises. According to the Jewish representative of Moroccan King Mohammed VI, Andre Azoulay, "the word of God has been kidnapped." He added that it's no longer enough for religious representatives to watch from the sidelines as religion is used by those who preach hatred.

Glimpses of Jews’ Past in Andaluc­a

By Beverly Gray
Published on January 5, 2006

Spain's Andaluc­a is romance. It's orange blossoms perfuming the air. It's golden drops of sherry sliding down your throat in a smoky bodega. It's fingers dancing on the strings of a flamenco guitar.

Holy Toledo!

By Beverly Gray
Published on January 5, 2006

Spain's Toledo contains -- along with spires, damascene jewelry and scrumptious marzipan -- a treasure trove of Jewish memories.

Jews Thriving on Peace of the Rock

By Hilary Leila Krieger
Published on December 1, 2005

Long before there was a State of Israel, there was a state of the Jews. Its name was Gibraltar, and it was ceded to Conversos -- Spanish Jews who had been forced to convert to Catholicism -- in 1474 at the urging of Pedro de Herrera of Cordoba, himself a Converso.
Herrera convinced the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who had led the recapture of Gibraltar from the Moors in 1462, that special taxes and costs born by Conversos to build homes and maintain a cavalry on the rock would make it worth his financial while to give the Conversos control, as is detailed in a small book devoted to the subject published in 1976. For two years, 4,350 Conversos lived in Gibraltar, until the duke decided he would rather run the show and forced them to return to Cordoba and, ultimately, to the clutches of the Inquisition.

Let My People Merlot

Published on April 14, 2005

In the beginning, there was sweet wine. Really, really sweet wine. But as the kosher market broadened, a trickle of new wines targeted to a more sophisticated audience began to raise expectations among Jewish wine lovers.

We’re Off on the Roads to Sepharad

By Lisa Alcalay Klug
Published on January 20, 2005

An authentic medieval mikvah rests near a stone bridge and the picturesque river it spans in the Catalonian city of Besalu. Clearly marked signs identify the newly renovated "call," or medieval Jewish quarter, in the nearby city of Tortosa.

What’s Portuguese for Cohen?

By Marcus Moraes
Published on April 29, 2004

A major new tool can help Brazilians learn about their possible Iberian Jewish origins: the "Dictionary of Sephardic Surnames," a 528-page tome featuring some 17,000 surnames of Sephardic Jewish families from Portugal, Spain and Italy and their descendants.

March 11 Attack Hit All Europe

By Philip Carmel
Published on March 18, 2004

Within hours of the bombings, which struck trains in the center and suburbs of the Spanish capital on March 11, security was beefed up in cities across the Continent as news of the carnage left Europe as shell-shocked as the United States was on Sept. 11, 2001.

For Love of the Dance

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on September 11, 2003

If it seems unlikely that a nice Jewish girl would become a flamenco dancer, consider her early role models. Or Nili Azulay's Syrian-born grandmother, Nona, defied her parents to wed the man she loved, then refused to remarry after he died several years later. Azulay's mother, Chaya, became one of Israel's first female barristers; her father died when she was a small child. "The sadness of not having a father was tempered by growing up with these strong, independent women," she said.

A Rude Awakening in Spain

By Amanda Susskind
Published on September 4, 2003

We are trekking through Toledo, Spain, happily reverting for a moment to a band of carefree tourists when we are halted in our tracks by a sight we had not expected.

Get Lost in Girona

By Tammy Weisberger
Published on August 16, 2001

Girona (pronounced heh-row-na) is a small, culturally rich town in Catalan, Spain -- and is the perfect place to get yourself gloriously lost.

Remembering the Lincoln Brigade

By Tom Tugend
Published on January 20, 2000

The occasion was last Sunday's opening of the "Aura of the Cause," a photo exhibit celebrating the deeds of the 2,800 Americans who fought and died in Spain under the banner of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.