Life on the Mediterranean

Lecture series focuses on Spain's Jewish history

LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor

Artwork from this 14th-century Barcelona Haggadah was on display in Toledo's San Marco Cultural Center in 2002.

Photo courtesy of Jewish Telegraphic Agency

What was life like for Jews in Spain before the Spanish Inquisition?

This was one of the main questions Rabbi Leila Gal Berner sought to discover when she traveled to Spain in 1980.

She'll share some of her discoveries May 25-27 as a Shavuot scholar-in-residence for Temple Emanuel of Tempe and Temple Beth Sholom in Chandler.

Berner, who lived in Mexico as a child and speaks fluent Spanish, says that although she isn't Sephardic, she's always had "an affinity for Sephardic culture."

Following a professor's suggestion while a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Berner decided to research the Jews of Catalonia, Spain. The professor told her about the royal archives in Barcelona, which contained thousands of documents about the city's Jewish community.

After receiving a Fulbright grant, she spent 18 months researching documents from the 13th century. She looked at any document that contained Jewish names or could conceivably be about Jews. "Basically what I was able to do was reconstruct what life in medieval Barcelona was like for the Jewish population," she says.

Documents included information about property disputes, money lending, business interactions in Christian marketplaces and marriage documents.

Her research "isn't only about wars and treaties and big stuff," she says. "This is about the little day-to-day stuff that gives you a sense of the texture of a community."

She "pored through many, many thousands of documents" and says she let the documentation lead her. "I very carefully chose not to draw any conclusions," she says. "I let the documents speak for themselves."

By doing this, she was able to reconstruct not only what the Jewish quarter looked like, but was able to identify many of the most prominent families over several generations.

Her biggest surprise? "I discovered a greater interconnection of relationship between Jews and Christians then I ever anticipated."

She will discuss these findings in "The Star and the Cross: Jews in Medieval Spain," one of three free lectures as part of a Shavuot Scholar-in-Residence program at Temple Emanuel and Temple Beth Sholom. (See "Details" box).

During the lecture series, she will also speak about the relationship between Jews and Muslims in medieval Spain. She'll describe the similarities between the two religions and the two cultures, as well as the Muslims' policies toward Jews when they were in power and the "flowering of Jewish culture and poetry in the Golden Age."

Her third lecture, "From Mediterranean Shores to the Desert Sand," will focus on the hidden Jews of the American Southwest.

She'll discuss the "phenomenon of Jews who left Spain during the Inquisition" and after the 1492 expulsion. Many who converted to Catholicism - "Conversos," which is Spanish for converts - traveled to "New Spain" - Mexico - and several sailed on Christopher Columbus' voyages, she says.

These "Conversos" had converted to Catholicism and were professing Catholicism publicly and outwardly, but were secretly practicing Judaism in the hope that a time would come when they would be able to return to the Jewish community," Berner says.

Over the centuries, their descendents - many of who settled in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas - continued to practice Jewish customs, but didn't know the origin of these practices and didn't identify as Jews.

In the past 15 years, there's been a surge in the number of Conversos who have discovered their Jewish roots and are interested in learning more, Berner says. She estimates there are several thousand "secret Jews." She notes that some reconvert to Judaism, but others want to keep their Jewish roots private.

Berner is ordained through the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and is currently a congregational rabbi at Congregation Bet Mishpachah in Washington, D.C. She received her master's and doctorate degrees in medieval Spanish Jewish history from UCLA.

"I think it's really interesting to learn about these three communities," she says. They also help "derive some lessons for ourselves about what it means to be a minority within a majority culture and to what degree will assimilation into that culture help us or hinder us in keeping Judaism alive."

Details

What: "The Star and the Cross: Jews in Medieval Christian Spain"
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 25
Where: Temple Emanuel of Tempe, 5801 S. Rural Road
What: "The Star Under the Crescent Moon: Jews in Medieval Muslim Spain"
When: 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 26
Where: Temple Beth Sholom, 3400 N. Dobson Road, Chandler
What: "From Mediterranean Shores to Desert Sands: The Hidden Jews of the American Southwest"
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 26
Where: Temple Emanuel
Call: Temple Emanuel, 480-838-1414, or Temple Beth Sholom, 480-897-3636

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