Jewish Heritage Trip to Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar Blog

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 changed dramatically for Jews and conversos.

Today, we visited La Alhambra, the spatial palace of Ferdinand and Isabella. We stood in the room where the edict to expel the Jews took place on Tisha B'Av, August 2, 1492. We learned how the wealthy rabbi Don Issac Abrabanel offered huge sums of money to refute the edict, but his efforts were not successful. Today, there are almost no Jews in Granada.

The day following the expulsion edict, August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail for America. Sephardic Jewry in Spain had been the largest concentration of Jews in one sector of the globe. Soon enough, American Jewry would be the single largest Jewish concentration in the world.

Tonight, we are off to see flamenco dancers. A fun end to an overwhelming and fulfilling day.

Our group in Granada

Davening at the site of a medieval synagogue in Besalu