Catalunya’s Jewish community has voiced its concern over a new law, which officially recognizes all victims of “political, ideological or religious persecution” during Franco’s rule.
Many Jewish Catalans fear that the law of historical memory will effectively subsume the history of their suffering.
Rabbi Jai Anguita, of Barcelona’s progressive comunitat Bet Shalom, is lobbying the government to acknowledge the painful past memories of the current 6000 Catalonian Jewish community members.
“It is important that the people know that, because of the dictatorship, our community lived in secret, and that we were persecuted and terrorized, in some cases Catalan Jews were deported, thrown out of their own country, for being Jewish, at other times, they were just semi-tolerated, but were never able to or allowed to live a full & meaningful Jewish existence, daily life for them was the misery of living in constant fear of being attacked just for being Spanish Jews”.
The outbreak of the civil war in 1936 brought about the end of a brief period of optimism for Catalunya’s Jewish community, who were not allowed to open a synagogue until 1928.
Although many Sephardim (Spanish Jews) fled the country, to New Mexico, or Mexico the country, and many to Argentina, those that did remain suffered terribly under the Falangist regime, when general Francisco Franco took control of Barcelona in 1939.
For the next six years, Rabbi Anguita explained; “the life of the Jewish community simply ceased to exist”.
Right up until 1978, three years after Franco’s death, all Spanish or Catalan Jews were forced to apply for permission to even pray.
Social scientist Xavier Torrens of Barcelona university says that very few Spaniards know anything about Jews, Spanish/Catalan ones, or any other kind of Jew, and many simply don’t want to either, and of those that do know about them, many actually still hate them, albeit secretly.
“It’s as if Spanish or Iberian Jewish culture was just something to do with the distant past, whereas in reality there are still many Iberian Jews, both Spanish and Portuguese, living in the Iberian peninsular, Spain & Portugal, today".
I agree that jews have suffered greatly all through Spanish history, but I think there´s no way their existence will be purged from memory anytime soon. Anyone who´s visited Girona, for instance, knows the Jewish synagogue museum and cultural center there is quite well publicized and funded and visited. So long as old Jewish neighborhoods continue to be great tourist attractions, nobody is going to let them go away.
Posts: 384 | Location: a pueblo in Palencia, via Pittsburgh USA | Registered: 15 February 2003
Totally agree with rebrites, there's a great synagogue at Toledo, great in size and content, with a fantastic museum exhibition about Jewish history in Spain and beyond, following the footsteps of the Sephardim. Another synagogue, small but beautiful in Córdoba and "juderías" or Jewish quarters in just about every historically important city in Spain. I also agree with Angelo that in Spain there is a lot of willful ignorance about Judaism and many of those synagogues are museums visited by the foreign tourists rather than the Spaniards.
I agree with you, the subject of Jewish Spain is represented in various parts of Spain, but it is in reality only a touristic thing, and only of any real interest to visitors, whereas the real agenda behind it all, is a lot deeper and more serious, it's more to do with a people who have been savaged across the centuries, by anti Jewish people everywhere, and crimes and horrors beyond imagination, and of a magnitude that can never be forgiven have been perpetrated in places like Spain, against totally innocent people, and I think & feel that there are many who wish to rub-it-in, forever and a day, and basically never let it be forgotten, not for a single moment, and it is this that many Jews in the world seek to do, by constantly banging on about what has been done to them over the last couple of thousand years, and can you blame them? I don't, and neither do many other people who are in sympathy in Jewish peoples all over the world, for whatever their reason(s).
I think that all visitors to Spain should know something about what it did to all of those people, for all the centuries that it was, and that the full horror should be uncovered and the truth laid bare, but alas, I think that the full story will never really make it into the headlines, and there never will be any kind of making-up after it, that I think for many is something that will simply always be an impossibility, many Jews make very good haters, something they had to learn how to do long ago, that's not a very Christian thing I know, that's because they're not so good at being Christians, which is half the reason so many were tortured to death, and many burned alive, and this is something that will never be answered for, not by Spain, the Vatican, or anybody else either I don't doubt, so it's not surprising that so many Jews (and non-Jews who are fully supportive towards Jews) are happy to keep bringing it up at every possible opportunity, perhaps in the hope that it will make the descendent's feel uncomfortable or something, but will they ever get any recognition from Spain, about what kind of Insane horrors were perpetrated upon them, I somehow doubt it, but we will keep on bringing it up, and rubbing it in, ad infinitum, until kingdom come.
As you've probably been reading from the links that I posted, so many Iberian Jews ended up all over the world because of the extreme oppression & persecution, including my own people, who were Spanish & Italian Jews, who ended up in the British Isles, we were the Sephardim of Spain, and are now the Crypto-Jews of Europe and the world, who have had to create new identities, and live alternative lives, but will never forget who we really are, or what was done to us, we were forced into conversion to Catholicism, robbed and enslaved, tortured and butchered all over the world, hated & persecuted by Christians for over two thousand years, I don't think there are many who will just simply let it go, just like that, not for any body's convenience, or to ease any body's conscience, not even Spain's, the country that I have done so much to live in and support in so many ways, on so many levels, yet still, I don't forget about it, we never forget about it, that's the way it is, it will always be there, bothering us inside, and making them feel uncomfortable, who? those who know, but don't care, that's who.
I also agree with Angelo that in Spain there is a lot of willful ignorance about Judaism and many of those synagogues are museums visited by the foreign tourists rather than the Spaniards.
It doesn't help that they are all converted into Catholic churches/shrines... With all of the churches in Spain (so many of which are suffering from a lack of funding and dwindling congregations), you would think that the Catholic church could give up the few remaining synagogues and mosques and at the very least let them be secular museums.
When I went to the Mezquita in Córdoba with an American friend of Indian descent, the guard at the door told me to warn him that it was a place of Christian worship and that he could not say muslim prayers there. I was shocked. I told the guard that not only was my friend not a muslim (family is hindu--he's an atheist), but that 1. you can't tell whether a person is muslim by looking at him/her and 2. that it is too bad that the unique history of that place hasn't inspired greater religious tolerance. He apologized, but said that he was required to say that to anyone who "looked muslim."
But one positive thing is that--at least in academia--Spain is really catching up and there is a tremendous amount of interest in the scientific, cultural, artistic and literary contributions of Spanish Jews, conversos, pseudo-conversos and muslims. From what I have read, Spain's bad decisions about the Jews and Muslims played a significant part in its downfall as an empire.
Posts: 1064 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 10 December 2002
When the Roman Legions overran the Jewish nation, much of the Jewish population was sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire. Many were sent to the IBERIAN peninsula. The area became known by the Hebrew word SEPHARD meaning "far away". The JEWS in SPAIN and PORTUGAL became known as SEPHARDIM or SEPHARDI, and those things associated with the SEPHARDIM including names, customs, genealogy and religious rites, became known as SEPHARDIC.
Sephardic names were well developed in Aragon by the year 1213. (Note reference 22, below.) Many of the names were of Hebrew derivation. A much lesser number were composed of a first name and a geographic location, many times the result of conversion.
The Jewish nation in Iberia, numbering approximately 750,000 in the year 1492, were banished from Spain by royal decree of Ferdinand and Isabella. (Ferdinand's grandmother was Jewish.) (For a description of the 1492 expulsion as written in 1495, see the link in Section IV, Lore) The Jews of Portugal, were banished by royal decree several years later. Relief from the banishment decrees and restoration of civil rights was promised to those Jews who remained and converted to Catholicism.
These converts were called CONVERSOS or MARRANOS (converts or swine in Spanish) and ANUSIM (forced ones in Hebrew). Some of the Jewish population converted in name only, other converted by choice. All of the Jews, whether those who left the country with their Jewish religious beliefs intact, and those that were converted are described as being SEPHARDIM or being of SEPHARDIC heritage.
Many of the SEPHARDIM left Spain after conversion because life as a "new Christian" or Marrano was not as promised. "Clean Blood" laws were established to deny the "new Christian" the same civil rights as the "old Christian".
Many left the Iberian peninsula where some reverted, and others did not. The converted population that remained under the influence of Spanish or Portuguese control or the control of countries heavily influenced by the Catholic Church could not openly revert to Judaism for fear of punishment inflicted by the inquisition. The punishment for reversion or secret adherence varied from humiliation to death by fire.
Many Hispanics today practice Jewish customs without knowing the source. Many are still secret Jews.
The names listed on this site have been identified as Sephardic by civil and religious records and creditable authors. These names have been used by Spanish and Portuguese Jews and conversos and many are found today, world wide in Hispanic and Sephardic communities and references. Some names may no longer exist in their old form. While not an expert in patronymics, some names, such as ABRAVANEL are unmistakably of Hebrew origin.
Other names, such as IBN YAHIA, appear to be of Arabic origin. Still other names such as CASTRO and FRANCO appear to be of Hispanic origin, the vast majority of these names belonged to Jews at the time of expulsion. Still other names (conversion names or Christian names) were assigned to Jews at conversion, such as DE SEVILLA and SANTA MARIA. Many of these names were the family names of the Christian "sponsors".
Many of the names have been changed in the course of migration from one country to another, such as Pena to Penha. Other names have incorporated a prefix such as D', Da, De, or Do, with the surname, so that D'Avila could be spelled DAVILA. Other names normally found with a prefix, may be listed with or without the prefix. For example, d' ANDRADE, da ANDRADE, de ANDRADE, may be listed as ANDRADE or ANDRADE 'D.
The following prefixes may sometime be interchangeable; Aben, Ibn, Aven, Avin and Ben. These prefixes may be found separated or attached to the stem name. It would be prudent to search for names both with and without prefixes.
One should check for variations in spelling. For example, the names Sejas, Cejas, Aceijas, Seixas, Aseixas, Acejas, Acezas, Asexas, Azeixas, and Xexas are considered variants of the same name. It should also be noted that many Sephardim who left the Iberian Peninsula and practiced Judaism, changed their names and used aliases to protect their families who remained in Spain and Portugal.
Some individuals insist that all names ending in ez in Spain and es (meaning son of) elsewhere, denote Sephardic heritage. This is may or may not be the case.
Not all individuals bearing these names may be SEPHARDIM, or of SEPHARDIC origin, nor are they necessarily Jewish or secret Jews. The authors of references from which names were extracted have identified the names as Jewish at one time. No inference is made that Hispanics carrying the names found below are Jewish.
We have added a DNA capability to explore the ethnic origin of Anusim/Sephardic/Jewish names. The names on this site are provided only as an aid to genealogical research. Many of the references listed on this site can be obtained through your municipal public library system or through the Inter-library Loan program or purchased from a commercial firm on this site.
Thanks, Mariposita, I know exactly what you mean about the guard at the door there, it's a common & widespread and very typical scenario in Spain, Europe, and the world in general nowadays, and unfortunately, is still a sad & but true fact of life, that people everywhere are still trying to identify other people, either by just looking at them, or asking directly (which is an Invasion, in my opinion, into a persons privacy) I mean, who has the right to inquire into what you are, where you are from, what is your religion, like who did you vote for this year, who's business is it anyway? there still is far too much of that going on these days, and particularly when it comes to Jews and Muslims, if you remember how the list's were drawn-up in Nazi Germany, of all those who were known to be Jews, same thing during the Spanish Inquisition, the wholesale digging-out of all Jews, and the same for the moor's/Muslims of Spain, and then again in the former Yugoslavia, they were all identified and rooted out mercilessly,by their neighbors, and that is one big reason why most Jews in this world do not like being identified as such, that fear still exists, carried over from medieval times, from the time of the Inquisition, and then again, the horror of ethnic cleansing, genocide and holocaust arose out of the bowels of damnation and set upon the Jews once again, under the banner of the new evil in the world, another Inquisition that went by the name of "NAZISM" under the control of another psychotic called A. Hitler, and again the neighbors helped to dig-out and identify the Jews, who were again tortured, robbed and murdered wholesale.
And before that came another dictator with is falangist regime, and yet again, the Jews of Spain were treated with Inhumanity, and generally humiliated, persecuted, and discriminated against to the Nth degree.
Should they hate so much for it? what do you think?
Can the they ever forget? NO, will they ever forget? NO, Should they ever forget? NO, should they ever forgive? probably not, who knows? anything is possible I suppose, give it about another 65 million years or so, and we'll see.
