Posted on 11/06/2006 11:08:52 AM PST by blam
Spain digs for its once-hidden Jewish heritage
By Renwick McLean / The New York TimesPublished:
November 5, 2006
TOLEDO, Spain: Spain has sometimes been slow to recognize its own treasures. Miguel de Cervantes was slipping into obscurity after his death until he was rescued by foreign literary experts. El Greco's paintings were pulled from oblivion by the French. The Muslim palace of Alhambra had fallen into neglect before the American author Washington Irving and others wrote about it in the 1800s.
Now, more than 500 years after expelling its Jews and moving to hide if not eradicate all traces of their existence, Spain has begun rediscovering the Jewish culture that thrived here for centuries and that scholars say functioned as a second Jerusalem during the Middle Ages.
"We've gone from a period of pillaging the Jews and then suppressing and ignoring their patrimony to a period of rising curiosity and fascination," said Ana María López, the director of the Sephardic Museum in Toledo, a hub of Jewish life before the Jews were expelled or forced to convert to Christianity in 1492 during the Inquisition.
Cities and towns across Spain are searching for the remains of their medieval synagogues, excavating old Jewish neighborhoods and trying to identify Jewish cemeteries. Scholars say they are overwhelmed with requests from local governments to study archaeological findings and ancient documents that may validate a region's Jewish heritage.
Other people are joining in, delving into family histories to hunt for signs of Jewish ancestry.
"I don't go a week without someone calling and asking me if their last name has Jewish roots," said Javier Castaño, an expert in Spain's Jewish history at the Higher Council for Scientific Research in Madrid.
"It's the opposite of 300 years ago, when people changed their last names to Spanish...
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
GGG PIng.
Sephardic placemarker.
When Charleton Heston droves the Moors out the Jews stayed behind and eventually made their way to Northern Italy when the Spanish gave 'em the gate!
The Italians recognized the value that the Jews bore with them. They invited them to stay and voila the Dark Ages came to an end and the Age of Enlightenment would be nurtured and grow in Italy where the first Univerities would be founded.
bump for later read
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
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Another country with a large historic Jewish population, virtually none now, building Jewish museums. Is Iraq next?
That Heston...I knew he was a great guy...he even fought in the Crusades!
Not just Sephardic ~ ALL the Jews lived in Spain, or traveled there, or otherwise knew they could go there in the Middle Ages.
My favorite character was Sophia Loren in El Cid and as Dunsinella in Don Quixotte! Now there's someone I would tilt a windmill for!
Thanks! Nice synopsis!
Moshe Heston did it all.
Sure. And every square is a rectangle, but not every rectangle is a square.
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My father-in-law was Charleton Heston's (and Donald "Donny" Rumfeld's) high school PE teacher.
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