Centro Isaac Campantón
Studying, Preserving, and Communicating the Jewish Legacy of City and Province of Zamora, Spain
miércoles, 27 de julio de 2022
miércoles, 9 de marzo de 2022
Ten years of International Jewish Sephardic Congresses in Zamora, Spain, July 4-6, 2022
Here is our preliminary Schedule for this year´s congress, which will take place online, time zone Spain.
Monday, July 4
10 – Welcome
10:15 – 11:30, "The imaginary Jew in Spanish Literature”, Marciano
Martín Manuel, historian
12 –14, "Letters of the Center AGUDAD AHIM from the Isralite Community of Barcelona, 1926-1937" by María Antonia Muriel Sastre.
Tuesday, July 5
10 – 11, “My Sefarad, 40 years of relations with Spain and Iberoamerica”,
by Abraham Haim, historian
12 – 14, Book presentation
Tía Fortuna's New Home:A Jewish Cuban Journey (2022), by Ruth Behar
Wednesday, July 6
10 – 11:30, “Zamoran Rabies: family
discoveries” by Genie Milgrom, genealogist.
12-14, Books presentation:
Zamora in the map of Sefarad. Congress Proceedings, 2013-2020 (Essays, 2022),
editors Jesús Jambrina & Alfredo Alonso
Those we missed (Novel, 2022), by Jaime Einstein (1947-2015), editor
Pilar Diez
13:15 - 14, Closings followed by Open Annual Board Meeting
viernes, 26 de noviembre de 2021
Gedaliah Ibn Yahya on Isaac Campantón
The great rabbi R. Isaac Campanton, known as the Gaon of Castile (including Leon), of Spain, son of the great rabbi R. Jacob, and R. Israel Ashkenazi received the traditions from their fathers and our rabbis of previous generations in about 5120 (1360). R. Isaac Campanton spread Torah widely and had many students. He lived a long life, dying in the year 5223 (1463). He had a regal appearance. R. Isaac de Leon, one of his students, was knowledgeable in miracles, and died at the age of seventy. R. Isaac Aboab (refereeing to the second), a great sage and one of his students, died in Portugal in the year 5253 (1493), about seven months after the exile from Spain. He was sixty years old at his death, and was one of the students of the above-named R. Isaac Campanton (...)
Gedaliah Ibn Yahya (1515-1587)
Picture of a drawing by Manuel Castellano (1846-1880). Title: Attire. It is specified in the note on the upper right hand that it refers to Jewish clothing in the 14th century.
jueves, 25 de noviembre de 2021
Auschwitz, by León Felipe (Tábara, Zamora, 1884 – Mexico City, 1968)
domingo, 21 de noviembre de 2021
Jewish, and converso last names from Zamora, Spain
Jewish and converso last names from historical archive documents in Zamora, Spain. Most are
from the 11th to the 18th centuries, some are from inquisitorial
cases in Portugal, mainly Tras Os Montes, but with residency in
Zamora.
Spelling from the original source has been maintained, most are easily transcribable to modern orthography. When the last
name is not a direct reference to the city of Zamora, location is included
in parenthesis, as well as any other data or information to clarify context on the last name.
After the alphabetical list, there is a copy of Jewish and converso last names after 1492, drawn from a recent academic published article. For questions, comments or suggestions, please, email at centrocampanton@gmail.com
A - Abadías, Abad de Aula, Abelaben, Abemiver, Abenamar, Abenahypón
(Benavente)Abenjamil (Toro), Aben Baça (Baz, Vaz, Abençali), Abenbazar
(Fuentesaúco), Abenamías, Aben Farax, Abenrrós, Aben Rubí, Abenzón, Abna,
Abohaf (o Aboab), Ámbar, Alashkar, Alba (o Alvo), Albino (Bragança), Abolfazcan
(Castroverde de Campos), Alfón, Alonso, Alvarez, Alua, Arama, Aven Sento
B - Bellamín (Villapando), Beny, Berroy (Fermoselle), Bida, Bueno
C - Cabeça (Villalpando), Cañizal, Campantón (también Canpanton, Qanpanton,
Kanpanton), Cardero, Carvajal (Bermillo de Sayago y Benavente), Catalán,
Castro, Colodre (Toro), Cominete, Comineto (Benavente), Conde, Chamorro,
Cedillo, Corcos, Cordero, Çaragoça, Çalama, David (Toro),
D - De la Fuente (Fuentesaúco)
E - Estuñiga
F - Fernández
G - Galochero (Villalpando), Gambuayo, Garçia, Gazapo, Gómez (Toro), Gonçalez,
H - Habib, Ha-Leví (Toro)
J - Jambrina (1994 record from the Jewish Cementery in Madrid), toponym of a
town 10 miles Southeast of Zamora.
L - Lopes (Trancoso), Luna
M- Manrique, Marcos (Villalpando), Maldonado, Medina, Méndez (Coimbra), Meir,
Milano, Monzón (Alcañices), Musa
N - Naci, Melamed, Nuño de Fito
O- Oeb, Orabuena (Fermoselle), Ortuño (Bragança)
P- Paz, Peres, Pordomingo (Sayago), Portuguesa
R - Rico (Fuentesaúco), Rodríguez, Romi
S - Saba, Salón, San Román, Santa Ana
V - Valçina, Valencia, Valensí, Venialuo, Vida, Villalobos (Villalpando)
T- Tornero, Torralvo,
Z - Zamora (besides the city, also
present in Villalpando)
The following
last names along with their Christian ones after 1492 were copied from: Martialay,Teresa, “Conversos y
atribución de identidades conversas en tiempos de la expulsión de los judíos de
la diócesis de Zamora” en Amrán, Rica & Antonio Cortijo Ocaña, Eds,
Minorías en la España medieval y moderna, siglos XVI - XVII, eHumanista, 2017,
33-46
Abraham de Valencia (Fernando de Valencia)
Abraham aben Rubí (Maestre Fadrique)
Jaco de Medina (Fernand Pérez)
Mosé Obadías (Fernando de Miranda)
Rabí Salomón (Tomás)
Ysaque aben Farax (Pedro Osorio)
Yuçe Melamed (Luis Núñez Coronel)
Reyna Corcos (Isabel Osorio)
Abraham aben Baça (Juan de la Peña)
According to Martialay, the following names appear on the documents only as conversos
without their Jewish names or last names
Clara (wife of Tomás)
Isabel Fernández (widow of Simuel of Ámbar) and her daughters
Martín Alonso (two persons with the same name)
Fernand Gómez, his wife and children
Manuel Pérez
Isabel Fernández (widow of Simuel Gambuayo)
y her children
Alonso de Zamora
Juan de Zamora
Juan de Valencia
Maese Pedro
lunes, 15 de noviembre de 2021
Why supporting us?
1- We are a group of community Scholars studying Jewish legacy in the region of Zamora, Spain, where Jews lived for more than a millennium. Lines of research include:
· Documented Jewish presence from the 10th to the 15th centuries
· Jews from Zamora in the diaspora
· Crypto Jewish communities from 1492 to the present
· B´nei Anusim memories and stories
· Homage to twenty-two antifascist fighters from Zamora incarcerated in Mauthausen
· Help families building their Jewish genealogies
2- Centro Campanton has organized nine international congresses (2013-2021) along with annual cultural events & activities related to Jewish life
3- Collaboration with local organizations, government and academic institutions to recuperate Jewish historic landmarks in the city and in the region
4- Centro Campanton have sponsored books publications, peer reviewed papers, and presentations at conference and events.
5- Current projects we are trying to advance:
· A Jewish Museum in Zamora, to also house the Center
· Publication of congresses proceedings
6- This website documents our major programs, activities, and if you need more information you can reach us via email at centrocampanton@gmail.com
We also have two more webpages in Spanish: www.zamorasefardi.com & www.zamorasefardi.es
domingo, 14 de noviembre de 2021
The Campanton Sephardi “Iyyun” Approach to Yeshiva Learning*
The approach focuses also on precisely interpreting the word to its fullest linguistic and historical context. Juxtaposed to the Ashkenazi “pilpul” argumentative and riddled style, the “Iyyun” approach promotes further innovative interpretation, expertise, and unraveling and simplifying perplexity, but it is reflective of a Sephardic humanistic approach which almost always looks at the local regional influences including Aristotelian medieval Spanish thought and Christian ecclesiastical doctrine not as a polemical obstacle, but as tools in interpreting the text.
The system adopted Aristotelian logic for interpreting Talmudic text. Opposed to the Ashkenazi yeshiva tradition, the Sephardi approach does not confine itself to Talmudic interpretation, but also to Biblical study, Kabbala, and “hiddushim”; new incites in Jewish religious thought. As Boyarin has illustrated, the Campanton system has a very wide base of analysis based on Rashi’s commentaries and language. According to Boyarin, Campanton’s method spread to Safed and Jerusalem, Constantinople to Salonika, and Cairo to Fez. Its luminaries included the Rabbis Birav, Caro, Levi Ben Haviv, and David ben Zimra; however it has not been recognized adequately.
Campanton was called the Gaon (luminary) from Castille, who trained his students to research the principles and essence of the Talmud, put in order the Tanaim and Amoraim according to their time and evolution of their absorption according to their rabbis (teachers).
According to Mazuz, he calls his method primarily an approach of iyyun ha-yashar, the straight analysis, a term that serves as a polemical tool against other methods that muddle the text instead of elucidating it in a step-by-step process. Mazuz contends that over the centuries a methodology emerged with the necessary exactness to determine the law. Mazuz rejects inexactness in law just like Campanton used a methodology with Aristotelian assumptions, which analyzed any idea or interpretation as provable or disprovable on rational analysis.
The foundation of the foundations of Iyyun is that there is nothing missing [from] or added onto the language of the Gemara, Rashi, and Tosafot. There is nothing missing – because the text has not come to shut out [information] but to explain and take heed to limit [le-tsamtsem] his language and to derive [concepts from] it in a way that there will not be an extra word., for [under consideration] are missing from the Talmudic discussion [Aramic sugya] and its commentaries, for they [the rabbis] have not come to test us with riddles … And there is nothing added – because our rabbis have always tried to write with brevity and exactness, [with] the small carrying the abundant [i.e. with a small number of words carrying great depth].
And always attempt to impute necessity for all of the words of a commentator or an author in all of his language: why did he say it and what did he intend with that language, whether to explain [an issue] or to derive [a concept] from another explanation or to resolve a difficulty or a problem. And take heed to limit [le-tsamtsem] his language and to derive [concepts from] it in a way that there will not be an extra word, for if it were possible to express his intent, for example, in three words, why did he express [himself using] four [words]? And so you should do with the language of the Mishna and Gemara, that is, you should check their language so that there not be an extra word, and when it appears to you to be extra go back and analyze well, for they did not expand their words unnecessarily, for it is not a small matter, and the splendor of sages is to minimize words so that many concepts are included in small [numbers of] words, and to make their words few in quantity but great [lit. “many”] in quality, and there should not be within their words an extra word, even [if it consists] of one letter, as they [the Sages] have said ([B.T. Hullin 63b). “A person should always teach his students in a concise way,” as you see in our Holy Torah, which was given from the Mouth of the Mighty One, which speaks with a concise language but includes many things …
The student should ask why a classical commentary would add an extra word, or would use a seemingly odd phrase; necessities for understanding the text under discussion. The classical Sephardic perspective, also advanced by Campanton, is analyzing also “me’ayyenim k’sevara mi-bachutz”; the logical construction whose origin is outside the text or which has been added in subsequent generations.
Always, for every statement and for every concept that is situated next to another, whether in Talmud or in Scripture (ba-Katuv), carefully observe the relationship and connection between those concepts situated next to each other, including what order the speaker is leafing (molikh) with his words.