Jewish Heritage Trip to Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar Blog

I had met our tour guide, Betsalel Steinhart, on November 9, 2015, the anniversary of Kristalnacht, when Beth Emeth began its Poland-Israel tour. Four years later, our tour of Sephardic heritage and history ended on November 9, 2019.

On our Shabbat in Portugal, the last full day of our trip, we read Parshat Lech Lecha, the beginning of our people's 4000 year journey. Each of us has our own Jewish journey in life. For two weeks, close...Read more...

Our tour today began in the town of Belmonte. This place was very special. The Mount Sinai hotel, owned by a Jew, introduced us to the special ambience here. Entering the hotel, a flag of Israel and of Portugal stood side by side. With advanced notice, the hotel provides strictly kosher meals under rabbinic supervision with a full time Mashgiach on site.

Despite the inquisition in Portugal in the 16th century, the "crypto-Jews" here...Read more...

Today, Monday, November 4, we began to transition from Spain to Portugal. Still in Spain, we toured the city of Badajoz. This is near the border, where thousands of Jews escaped from Spain to Portugal and other areas in July of 1492. With the edict against the Jews in Spain, our ancestors had four choices:

1. Convert to Christianity.

2. Die as a form of Kiddush Hashem - an act of martyrdom.

3. Become a...Read more...

We spent Friday and Shabbat in Gibraltar. Known for its indigenous monkeys, we started our tour seeing and interacting with them.

Ultimately, our purpose in arriving here for Shabbat was to celebrate the holiest day of the week with an historic Jewish community which remains vital and vibrant. Many of the historic Jewish sites we saw in Spain were alive until the late 15th century but were now in ruins and a memory of the...Read more...

Our third day took us via the airport from Barcelona to Granada. For centuries, there was a vibrant Jewish life here. Some date the origins of Jews in Granada to the Second Temple period. Others date Jewish origins here to the First Temple period, though there is no supporting evidence.

For centuries under Moslem rule, medieval Jewry was relatively comfortable in Granada. When Christian rule took over in early 1492, the situation...Read more...

Today our tour of Barcelona began. Twenty-eight of us visited famous areas of general and Jewish interest. In terms of Jewish awareness, we visited a small square which had Hebrew names engraved on some of the stones in the wall. Presumably, this was once a Jewish cemetery in the Middle Ages. We paused and recited Kaddish there. Around the corner, we stood where the Ramban, Nachmanides, was forced into a disputation with Christian theologians...Read more...