Forgotten Giants. Sephardi Rabbis Before and After the Expulsion from Spain

This book portraits 26 sages from Spain, who became beacons of Jewish thought and tradition right after 1492 until the 17th century. The relevance of this publication for Zamora is unique since 13 of these sages were born and studied in the city - 8- or were direct disciples of the first ones- 5-. They lived and opened schools from Lisboa to Safed, including Salónica, Fez, Cairo, and Estambul among other places. The author, R. Yosef Bitton, Ex Great Rabbi of Uruguay, and current spiritual leader of the Ohel David & Schlomo Synagogue in Brooklyn, NY, is an accomplished scholar graduated from Yeshiva University and with other studies and degrees from Emory, Ben Gurion and Bar Ila Universities. To acquire The Forgotten Giants, click here.

Los gigantes olvidados. Rabinos sefardíes antes y después de la expulsión de España 

La Opinión de Zamora (leer)

Así se titula el libro de Yosef Bittón, ex Gran Rabino de Uruguay y actual líder espiritual de la congregación Ohel David & Schlomo, de Brooklyn, Nueva York, quien en la obra reseña a veinte seis personalidades judías que viviero entre finales del siglo XV y mediados del XVII.   

Lo que me llamó la atención mientras lo leía fue que, de los veintiséis nombres, ocho tienen una conexión directa con Zamora –Isaac Aboab II, Moshe Alashkar, Issac Campantón, Isaac Caro, Issac Arama, Jacob y Levi Habib, Abraham Saba– y al menos cinco –Jacob Berab, Samuel Medida, Salomón Serilo, David ben Zimra y Abraham Zacuto–, al ser discípulos de los anteriores, tendrían relación de primer grado, lo que pondría a la ciudad del Duero en un lugar preminente en la producción intelectual judía en los siglos XIV y XVI. 

Además de su ordenación religiosa por parte del Gran Rabinato de Israel, Bittón, nacido en Argentina, estudió en instituciones como las Yeshiva University y Emory en Estados Unidos, así como las universidades Ben Gurión y Bar Ilan en Israel, todo lo cual se nota en el rigor académico, incluyendo la familiaridad con los conceptos e ideas teológicas extraídas de los rabinos estudiados. Hoy por hoy, Bittón es considerado una de las autoridades rabínicas del mundo sefardí.     

Durante uno de los intercambios epistolares que mantuve con él acerca de las varias referencias a Zamora en su libro, el rab Bittón comentó que “algo muy especial debía estar sucediendo en la ciudad para que tantas personalidades salieran de allí”. Luego de cuatro congresos para estudiar el pasado judío de Zamora, podemos decir que lo que estaba sucediendo aquí en los siglos XIV y XV era lo mismo que había pasado en Córdoba, Toledo y Barcelona en períodos previos: una vibrante coexistencia cultural de la que formaba parte la comunidad judía, lo cual permitió a los judíos zamoranos, por al menos dos siglos, espcializarse en el estudio de las escrituras sagradas. 

R. Yosef Bittón

La documentación histórica indica que después de 1391, cuando varias aljamas y juderías castellanas fueron violentamente atacadas, Zamora se convirtió en el refugio del saber judío hasta el año de la expulsión, saliendo de aquí el corpus metodológico y doctrinal que, a través de sus maestros, acompañaría a los miles de expulsados en sus diversas rutas, de Lisboa y Amsterdam a Estambul y Jerusalén, pasando por Fez, el Cairo y Safed, como bien se describe en las biografías de varios de las figuras presentadas en el libro.

Confieso que leer estas historias me satisfizo enormemente porque de cierta forma valida lo que desde el año 2010 un grupo de estudiosos e investigadores españoles, portugueses, estadounidenses e israelíes hemos venido defendiendo acerca del lugar de Zamora en el mapa de Sefarad. O lo que es lo mismo, el pasado judío de la ciudad no debe ser estudiado sólo como un momento común a otros poblados y ciudades, sino como el punto de inflexión de la cultura judía en la península ibérica y como tal, valorar su trascendencia para el judaísmo hispano en su conjunto.

Honey Moon in Zamora

Bella and Amit Eshbal came to spend a few Honey Moon days in Zamora searching for Amit's RadBaz family roots. Full article here in Spanish (read)

Now available. Author will donate profit toward the 5th International Congress celebration on July 2017

Spanish edition available at Editorial Verbum (pinchar aquí)

Here is an interview (in Spanish) with the author on La Opinión de Zamora: "Jewish presence in Zamora lasted for many centuries, many sages were born, lived and worked there"

Canpanton (Campantón), Isaac ben Jacob

CANPANTON (Campanton), ISAAC BEN JACOB (1360–1463), Castilian rabbi. Canpanton was the head of a yeshivah in Zamora in western Spain, among whose students were Isaac de *Leon , Isaac *Aboab II , Samuel b. Abraham Valensi, and Shem Tov *Ibn Shem Tov . He laid down methodological rules for the study of the Talmud which had a profound influence. These he summarized in his Darkhei ha-Talmud (called Darkhei ha-Gemara in the Mantua edition of 1593). In this work he departs from the method of previous writers on talmudic methodology, who had merely laid down talmudic rules. Canpanton systematically and logically explained the proper method of studying the text, and the pedagogical principles to be employed in that study. He was also the first to lay down methodological rules for the study of the rishonim. His system was transmitted by his students to Jacob *Berab , who introduced it into his yeshivah in Safed. Samuel ibn *Sid , the pupil of Isaac de Leon, also describes at length in his Kelalei Shemuel the method of study at the yeshivah as determined by Isaac Canpanton. A Darkhei ha-Talmud was first published in Constantinople, 1515–20 (?); a more complete edition was published in Venice in 1565. It has since been frequently republished; the 1891 edition had corrections and notes by I.H. *Weiss . Canpanton also took an active part in communal affairs. In 1450, after the death of Don Abraham *Benveniste , he became a member of the committee, along with Joseph *Ibn Shem Tov , the well-known philosopher, and Joseph b. Abraham Benveniste, appointed to apportion taxation among the Jews of Castile. He died in Peñafiel after undergoing considerable hardships. He appears to have engaged in the study of Kabbalah and miraculous deeds were attributed to him. His kabbalistic doctrine was circulated by his disciples and, in turn, by their disciples. Canpanton was greatly admired by his contemporaries, both on account of his personality and as a teacher, and he is widely quoted by them in their works on talmudic methodology. The Darkhei ha-Talmud, however, is his only extant work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

M. Rosenmann, in: MWJ, 20 (1893), 160–5; G. Scholem, in: Tarbiz, 24 (1955), 167; H.Z. Dimitrovski, in: Sefunot, 7 (1962/63), 83–96; Baer, Spain, 2 (1966), 270. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: David, in: Kiryat Sefer, 51 (1976), 324–26; Gross, in: Pe'amim, 31 (1987), 3–21; D. Boyarin, Ha-Iyyun ha-Sefaradi (1989); M. Breuer, Oholei Torah (2003), index; [Abraham David]

Source Citation   (MLA 7^th Edition) 

David, Abraham. "Canpanton (Campanton), Isaac ben Jacob." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 431-432. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Zamora

By Haim Beinart, Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 21. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 

 

ZAMORA, city in León, N.W. Spain. Its ancient Jewish community was founded in the same period as those of *Nájera and *Salamanca . The date when the Jewish quarter was erected is not known. It was situated outside the city walls on the site known as Vega, where there was a separate group of houses, as well as the synagogue of the quarter and the Jewish cemetery. Throughout the period of the community's existence, there were three synagogues, one of which was registered in the office of Sancho IV, in 1283.

In 1313 a *Church Council held in Zamora adopted a series of decisions relating to the Jews: Jews were excluded from state functions; the edicts enforcing the wearing of a distinctive *badge were to be maintained, as also those concerning payment of the tithe to the church, the interest rate, and the transfer of newly built synagogues to the possession of the state, among other measures. These decisions of the council influenced the decisions of the Cortes which was convened in that year.

There is no information available on how the persecutions of the Jews in Spain of 1391 affected those in Zamora, but they undoubtedly resulted in conversions and apostasy. The amount of tax which the community paid declined.

During the 1470s and 1480s R. Isaac b. Moses *Arama preached in Zamora. In 1485 an order issued by John II was confirmed; it exempted the Jews of Zamora from providing accommodation for public personalities, with the exception of the king, the queen, and the members of the royal council. In that year Saul Saba – a brother of Abraham *Saba , and a renowned kabbalist and preacher – was condemned to death in Zamora, but details of the accusation and the trial are not known. In 1490 a unique lawsuit concerning a Jewess of Zamora was brought before the crown; she accused Jacob ibn Meir, the son of Isaac of Valladolid, an inhabitant of Zamora, of having ravished her and promising to marry her, and of not keeping his promise. In 1490 the community of Zamora, with that of Seville, contributed toward the redemption of the Jewish captives who had been taken in *Málaga . In 1491 the community paid a sum of 100,650 maravedis toward the war with Granada, in conjunction with a number of communities in the area.

In 1492, following the edict of expulsion from Spain, the Jews of Zamora went to Portugal, and the property of the community and the exiles was handed over to the prosecutor of Saragossa.

At the end of 1492 Zamora became a transit center for Jews who returned from Portugal to Spain in order to convert to Christianity. Several exiles from Zamora achieved fame during the 16^th century for their activities in Jewish centers in the Ottoman Empire, of whom the most renowned were Jacob ibn *Ḥabib and Levi b. *Ḥabib .

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Baer, Spain, index; Baer, Urkunden, index; F. Cantera, Sinagogas españolas (1955), 349–53; Suárez Fernández, Documentos.[Haim Beinart]

 
Source Citation   (MLA 7^th Edition) 

Beinart, Haim. "Zamora." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 21. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 451. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Conference program

Our conference program is now available in Spanish on this link. Inquiries can be sent to centrocampanton@gmail.com or by phone 609 740 116. 

Call for Papers

Fourth International Congress
The North of Sefarad: Perspective and Definitions

July 1, 2016
UNED
Zamora, Spain

The Center Isaac Campanton and UNED are accepting proposals for the annual international congress. The title of this year’s conference is “The North of Sefarad: Perspectives and Definitions” and will take place in Zamora, Spain, on July 1, 2016.

The goal of this conference is to further explore the history and cultures of the Middle Ages Jewish communities in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Through interdisciplinary and innovative readings, this event seeks new understandings of the Jewish Sephardic legacy in Spain and Portugal.

The organizing committee suggests the following topics, but will also consider proposals on other issues:  

• Jewish historical figures and personalities between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries and their contributions to Medieval medicine, sciences, politics, literature, and philosophy
• Relations between Spain and Portugal before and after 1492
• Emergence of Jewish Castilian and Lioness identities in the Middle Ages
• Relevant aspects of the coexistence period in northern Spanish kingdoms
• Role of Jews in local and regional conflicts from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries
• Life of the Jewish communities in the Duero river basin 

Proposals should be 250 words long and include author, title, institution, and a brief abstract. Submissions by independent scholars are also welcome. Presentations should be in Spanish or Portuguese. Deadline is May 30, email: centrocampanton@gmail.com
Approval or suggestions for proposal revisions will be sent by June 15 informing the conference’s location and the registration procedure.