Jewish Heritage Trip to Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar Blog

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 converso. 

4. Try to escape.

Many Jews sought the fourth option here through Badajoz.

This city independently had its own indigenous Jewish community. We davened Mincha as a group in the town square, which was once a Jewish Quarter, facing where the synagogue once stood.

On this English date, Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated in 1995. Some of us remembered it like yesterday. At Mincha, we recited the traditional memorial prayer to the memory of Yitzchak ben Nechemiah.

Upon arrival in Portugal, we walked around the city of Evora, the former capital of Portugal. Like many other sites, we saw what was once a Jewish Quarter. Thousands of Jews had lived here until 1497 when the situation changed drastically.

As I write this, members of our group are touring individually, shopping, or resting at the hotel.

Davening Mincha facing what was a medieval synagogue in Badajoz