By Jesús
Jambrina; Viterbo University
Full citation: Journal of the Institute for Marrano and Anusim Studies,
Vol. 14, pp. 11-13, Dec. 2013, Netanya Academic College, Israel.
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“(Zamora) Fair in situation, the uttermost parts of the North”
Isaac Arama (1420-1494) |
Zamora is a mid-size city of around
60,000 inhabitants in the northwestern region of Spain. It is well known for
its more than 20 Romanesque churches, its celebration of the Catholic Holy Week
and its Modernist buildings. Among food and wine connoisseurs, Zamora is known
for its excellent wine and its gourmet cuisine. However, until recently, a
visitor arriving on a package tour to its Plaza Mayor would never have
considered the city one of the richest in Spain´s Jewish history.
Last July more than 20 scholars from
various disciplines met at the NH Palacio del Duero Hotel, located in one of
the two former Jewish Quarters, to present their research on the city’s
Sephardi heritage. Among those presenting were Prof. Abraham Gross, (Ben Gurion
University), Ruth Behar (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor), Prof. Leandro
Rodriguez (University of Geneva), and Virginia Labrador (University of
Valladolid).
The sessions included the premier of
the documentaryZamora Sefardí (2013), a set of interviews with
scholars either from Zamora or with family backgrounds connected to the city,
who discussed their personal stories and research projects exploring the Jewish
history of the region.
The event was well attended by local
residents and visitors from other Spanish regions such as Galicia, Valencia and
Cataluña. Other countries represented were Israel, the United States, Portugal,
Cuba, Brazil and Switzerland. Officials from the city of Zamora and the
province of the same name welcomed the participants and promised to publish the
conference´s findings, as well as to signpost the Jewish Quarters in order to
raise awareness of local Jewish history, long forgotten.
Three organizations also came to the
conference: The Sephardi Council of Jerusalem City represented by Abraham Haim,
Casa Shalom and the Institute for Marrano and Anusim Studies represented by
Gloria Mound, and Tarbut Sefarad, represented by Mario Saban.
A conference’s highlights was July 5’s
Shabbat celebration at the hotel Palacio del Duero. It was an ecumenical
service attended by 26 people: Jews, Catholics, non-denominational, atheists
and unaffiliated persons. In addition to the traditional Shabbat liturgy
religious chants, regional folklore and Judeo- Spanish songs were sung by
locals, and even Kosher wine was served, provided by a Zamoran who openly
stated his commitment to Jewish practice and study. Earlier in the day, Abraham
Haim had read an afternoon prayer at the conference Congress including
remembrance of the Jewish martyrs from the time of the inquisition (several of
Zamora’s residents were prosecuted during the Madrid’s 1680 Auto de Fe).
After the conference, as a follow-up to
many of the formal and informal conversations that took place during and around
the sessions, I presented a project to the city and the provincial authorities.
My suggestions were:
1. To signpost several places within the
two historically documented Zamoran Jewish quarters
2. To establish a Plaza de los
Rabinos honoring the 15th century Talmud Torah School where many of
the major Sephardi scholars from before the expulsion came to study
3. The creation of the Center Isaac
Campanton dedicated to the preservation of the Jewish heritage of Zamora, and
of Castile and Leon.
Presently, these three proposals are
being considered by the City Council. I have reason to believe that we will be
able to achieve the allocation of a space to honor this tradition and promote
its study.
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Hannukia at San Pedro & San Ildefonso Church,
Identified by historian Álvaro López Asencio in 2008
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Why Zamora?
When I visited the city for the first
time, in 2010, I was shocked by the absence of references to anything Jewish in
the city. Since I have always been interested in Jewish literature and culture
from Spain, and knew of Zamora’s relatively prestigious position during
medieval times, I was curious as to why this was the case. I asked a couple of colleagues
and friends in the city, including a relative of mine, and some information
immediately surfaced, along with various books and articles.
I remember a fruitful conversation with
local historian Florian Ferrero, then director of the Provincial Archives, and
from that point on I decided to write a paper on the subject. When I returned
to the United States I started to research further and realized that I had
stumbled upon something more complex and that I wanted to devote more time to
delve into it. Additionally, the project was a good reason for me to return to
Zamora, the birthplace of my paternal grandparents.
On that first trip I also met with
Mario Saban, president of Tarbut Sefarad, in Barcelona, as well as the
organization’s representatives in Madrid, José Manuel Laureiro and Anun
Barriuso, who encouraged me to continue with the project and offered their
help. I have to say that these three friends were somewhat skeptical about
Zamora having a significant Jewish history.
Located at the heart of Old Castile,
this is a city known, as I mentioned before, for its strong Catholic culture:
Celebrations around saints’ days and the Virgin Mary are very common and
dominate popular festivities all year long. More importantly, the Romanesque
churches drive national and international tourism. So “Good luck with anything
Jewish”, I can imagine my friends and local family members thinking back then.
But the reality was that some fieldwork had already been done on the Jewish
heritage of the city, in particular a book titled El pasado judío de Zamora
(1992) by prof. María Fuencisla García Casar, which included most of the
historical documentation. Additional research by Guadalupe Ramos de Castro was
included in her book, Juderías de Castilla and León (1988). Finally several
articles by Prof. Carlos Carrete Parrondo (University of Salamanca) confirmed
21 Jewish settlements within the geographic limits of the current province of
Zamora, including several that had the status of aljama (community) before
1492.
An earlier conference in 1981 had been
dedicated to the Jewish presence in the city, organized by the Ramos de Castro
Foundation. Nevertheless, none of this academic work had had an immediate impact
on either the official history of Zamora narrative or on its cultural policies.
During my trip in 2010 I did not come
across any mention of Jewish heritage, either at the Castilla y León
Ethnographic Museum or the Provincial Museum. In spite of several archeological
sites being located, according to oral tradition and archeological research, no
professional intervention had taken place at the location of the Jewish
cemetery, or at the Hostería Real, where a mikveh might still be in existence.
And these are only two examples. My research question then was: What could the
next steps be?
The first conclusion I arrived at was
the necessity to assemble all the previous bibliography, for which I created
the zamorasefardi.com webpage. Secondly, I asked myself what new information I
could bring to the conversation, which I think is divided into two sections: a)
highlighting the importance of Isaac Campanton (1360-1463) through his teaching
and his disciples before and after 1492, and b) locating and documenting as
much material evidence as possible about the Jewish historical and cultural
presence in the city. Thirdly, I saw the need to establish a network of
individuals that were currently researching or interested in Zamora´s Jewish
history. Exchanges through this network evolved into the international
conference that took place July 3-5, 2013. Finally, I proposed the creation of
a center of Jewish studies in the city.
I have to say that the first three
goals have been fulfilled beyond my expectations and that I am currently
working with local authorities and colleagues to advance the fourth, including
initiatives to put up signs marking the historically documented Jewish
landmarks in Zamora. These last projects have been reported by the local
newspaper, La Opinión de Zamora, on August 3 and 7, 2013, as approved by the
Municipality, and are ready to be implemented in a short term.
A special discovery
Among all this exciting information
about the Jewish heritage of the city of Zamora there is one in particular I
would like to share because I think that, if confirmed, it could be important
for researchers and other people and organizations working on the history of
Sefarad (As Jews called Spain in medieval times).
In early June 2013, as part of my
ongoing fieldwork, the owner of a bodega (wine cellar) known as “the Arab Cave”
and located in the old Jewish quarter, invited me to visit the place. Its name
was a commercial one chosen in the early 1990s by someone who ran an
unsuccessful jazz bar on the premises. He was probably inspired by a 1971
article published in El Correo claiming that the place was one of the King
Alfonso III’s famous Roman-style baths built in the mid 800s, but misidentified
as belonging to Arabs by an El Correo (local daily) reporter.
These baths were referred to in the
19th century by historian Cesáreo Fernández Duro (1830-1908) as likely having
been destroyed during the Almanzor invasion in the late 10th century, since
they are not mentioned again in the history of the city, not even during the
time of King Fernando I’s reconstruction, following years of war with the
Muslims of the time. In any case, what caught my attention was that the place
enjoys a privileged location at the center of what is broadly known and historically
documented as the “old” Jewish quarter.
Once inside the site or “bodega”, I
noticed that, besides the regular acoustics of the room, there was a particular
point where my voice reverberated in a different way; three other people
including the present owner also recognized the special sound effect in that
particular spot. This caused us to wonder whether the same effect was repeated
at other points in the room.
We discovered that the same
reverberation could be perceived at five other spots, right under the center of
the bóvedas (vaulted ceilings), causing voices to sound louder to those
standing at these points. I then proposed the hypothesis that this place could
be a synagogue, or an early Talmud Torah school, probably both.
From my own research I knew that Jews
inhabited Zamora at least since1062 c.e., when King Fernando I repopulated the
city, inviting, besides Christians and Moors, Jewish workers who established a
synagogue in 1094 in the old Jewish quarter. Historical documentation also
places the site of the synagogue close to today’s San Leonardo Church, the
ruins of which are preserved.
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Attendants to the International Congress in 2013 visit what might be the first Synagogue built in Zamora, Spain, in the late 11th century
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Javier Palacio García, whose family
owns the bodega, remembers that in the early 1970s an excavation took place on
the site and that workers recovered several clay vessels, some of them of
medium and large size. He also confirmed that neither he nor his family ever
noticed the special acoustic effects I refer to above, although they were aware
that there were a different type of acoustics in the room.
I immediately got in contact via email
with Prof. Higini Arau in Barcelona and he replied, explaining that this type
of effects are called acoustic focalizations, and that it is possible to
measure them scientifically. He also provided me with contacts at the University
of Valladolid in order to conduct scientific research on this site.
It is known that from before Greek and
Roman times, acoustic architecture was part of the ancient masonry tradition,
and that Jews and Moors both used it in their community buildings. The French
archeologist Jean Passini has identified a similar style of architecture in
Toledo’s Hamanzeit neighborhood, affirming that this particular style is not
Islamic, and that it is consistent with other civil and religious construction
in Toledo. Passini, however, does not mention any acoustic quality.
Medieval Jewish Quarter in Toro.
According to historical records, after Zamora, Toro is the city with most
references to its Jewish past.
I propose that the location of this
place in Zamora is particularly important because among the early inhabitants
of the neighborhood were Jews, and this place is situated in the area of Plaza
Santa Lucía and Zapatería (shoemakers´ business) Street, one of the most
frequently mentioned in the historical documentation as part of the Jewish
quarter. Therefore, I have valid reasons to identify this place as a
potentially Jewish building. If confirmed, it would be the only one discovered
so far with these characteristics on the Iberian Peninsula.
This confirmation will add new
information to the ongoing research on a mid 15th century Jewish renaissance in
Castile right before the expulsion; a renaissance key to the Sephardic
expansion across the Mediterranean basin and beyond, including a better
understanding of the Bnein Anussim in Central and northern Spain and northeast
Portugal.
