Jewish Spain
Now, more than five centuries after Spain violently expelled its Jews, the country is having a revival of interest in its Jewish Sephardic heritage. 
In fact, Sephardic culture has been going through a boom-with conferences, music festivals and even restaurants specializing in Sephardic cuisine.
The biggest push has come from the Spanish government, which has created a network linking 15 medieval Jewish cities across Spain in an initiatinve known as "Caminos de Sefarad" or "Sephardic Routes".
"This network is about bringing Jewish heritage to light", states Assumpcio Hosta, one of the co-creators of Sephardic Routes, speaking from her office in Girona, 60 miles nort of Barcelona.
For Girona and other similar sized cities like Jaen in the south to Oviedo and Tudela in the north, there is a new pride in revealing and showing the Jewish past. "We didn't have Einstein, but we had Maimonides", notes Hosta. "Now there is a lot of curiosity".
Today, there are over 40,000 Jews living in Spain, and the country has come long way in reconciling with its anti-Semitic past. Nowadays, Spaniards can tune into Radio Sefarad, read Jewish publications and even watch a weekly cultural TV show called "Shalom".
Here are some examples of the customized luxury tours that European Jewish Tours is organizing in and around Spain.
Jewish Girona
When you visit this Medieval Catalan city, you are visiting one of the oldest and most intact Jewish quarters in all of Europe, 100 kilometers north of Barcelona. The "Call" - Girona's Jewish Community- existed from the 9th century to the later years of the 15th century. Moreover it was one of the most important centers of Kabbalistic learning in all of Europe.
Our walking tour through the narrow cobblestone lanes, high stonewalls and step streets of the Call de Girona, allows visitors entrée to private courtyards and gardens. The tour departs from the Centre Bonastruc ça Porta, an institute of Jewish learning built around the old Synagogue on Carrer de la Força, the main artery of the medieval quarter which has remained amazingly intact over the centuries.
Following the tour, visitors will tour the Museu d'Història dels Jueus (Jewish History Museum) - which has developed a map of the maze-like streets and hosts small exhibits on Carrer de la Força. Containing the most accurate, information about medieval Jewish communities in Spain, particularly those in Catalonia, the museum's exhibits provide a picture of daily life in the quarter, Jewish traditions and the region's most influential calls. The Hebrew lapidary (tombstone) collection is considered to be one of the fines in the world.
Not to be missed is the new cultural complex - Bonastruc Ca Porta Centre - which recreates Sephardic Jewish life through musical events and food tastings. A visit can also be arranged to the Institute for Sephardic and Kabbalistic Studies, which hold important medieval Jewish manuscripts.
Also on the tour is the nearby Medieval town of Besalu, which has preserved a 12th century mikvah -one of the oldest in Europe.
Here is an example of a full day walking tour in Girona:
In the morning, you will start with the walking tour of Girona- Medieval town: you will visit all the Historical Center Town including the entrance in Sant Feliu church. The guide is going to show you also the city walls, the Cathedral, the old University, the medieval quarter and the Rambla. Optional entrances: Arabian Baths (XIIIcentury), Cathedral, Capitular Museum and cloister, one of the older buildings in town.
After a 2 hours lunch, the second walking tour will start at 2 pm. It is called Girona and the Jewish, and includes an exclusive walking tour around the Jewish quarter, which is the largest and best preserved in Europe: The Call, integrates the Bonastruc ça Porta centre and its surroundings, which have gained the most important architectural interest. Walking through the narrow cobbled streets of the Call, with its high stone wall and stairways, visitors can imagine the hubbub of activity that must have occurred over 6 centuries ago when the Girona Call was one of the most vibrant districts in Europe. The tour includes also the entrance in the Museum of Jewish history.
See Fees to book your tours.
Jewish Segovia
The hilltop city of Segovia, which has been names a UNESCO World Heritage sites, is two hours north of Madrid by train. It is also cooler than Madrid in the summer -which is why it attracted the Spanish court, and still attracts tourists today.
There are two bridges in Segovia, according to its mayor: one if the renowned Roman aqueduct, the other is to the city's Jewish past. Not everyone knows that Segovia has one of the biggest Juderias in all of Spain.
Today's visitor tours the old Jewish cemetery with gravestones that go back to the 11th century. The black iron fence that runs the length of the walkway protecting pedestrians from the steep drop is decorated with abstract candelabras, menorahs alerting to the special nature of the ancient site.
Also on the tour is the former major synagogue of Segovia -now transformed into the Corups Christi Church. Similar in structure to Toledo's Santa Maria del Blanca, its interior is set off with graceful horseshoe arches and a cedar ceiling. It's a beautiful testimony to the wealth and culture of the Jewish community in medieval Segovia.
Lastly, you will visit the spectacular hilltop fortress that gave Segovia its name -"Ship of Stone". It was here that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed the 1492 order expelling Jews from Spain.
See Fees to book your tours.
Jewish Barcelona
What remains in Barcelona today is but remnant of the rich Jewish Culture that existed during Spain's Golden Age. One of the main attractions that is still in existence is the ancient Call or Juderia and the main Synagogue of Barcelona.
Originally built during the fifth century, a new synagogue was later built on top of it in the fourteenth century and additional floors were added to the building subsequent centuries. Despite perhaps being the oldest synagogue in Europe, the Sinagoga Mayor was forgotten and abandoned until the 20th century. It was even used at one time as a storage warehouse and as a dry cleaner!
While there is little that remains of the former Jewish ghetto or Call of Barcelona, our guide is able to bring the history and culture of the quarter back to life.
Lying just outside Barcelona proper are two other ancient Jewish sites. The first is the ancient cemetery of Montjuic (lit. Jewish mountain) located on the western edge of the city. The ancient cemetery houses the last remains of some of the most notable members of the pre-explulsion Spanish community and is officially a city park.
This visit can be combined with the old city of Gerona, approximately 60 miles northeast of Barcelona. While there are few, if any, Jews currently residing in Gerona, this small city was once the home of the great Jewish sage Maimonides who defended the Spanish Jews in the thirteenth century at the Disputation of Barcelona.
See Fees to book your tours.
Toledo and Its Jewish Past
For more than two millennium, the city of Toledo has sat on the top of a granite hill surrounded like a horseshoe by the River Tagus, just 40 miles from Madrid. The present day Alcazar stands where there was Roman fortress. Jews were a part of Toledo’s history since the last years of the Roman occupation in 192 BCE.
The Jews existed peacefully with the Romans and were always an important part of the city. They became known as money-lenders, merchants of fine cloths and precious metals, and intellectuals and were generally well-respected by the other peoples of Toledo. For centuries, scientists, philosophers, poets and artists of widely differing backgrounds met in Toledo to exchange ideas.
Christians, Jews and Moslems, three ethnically distinct communities, lived together in the city until the conquest of Cordoba in 1085. A trip to Spain is like walking in the footsteps of our favorite Sephardi heros, Moses ibn Ezra, Samuel Nagrella, Jacob ben Aser, Halevi and Maimonides.
In Toledo we find street names such as Calle Juderia, Calle Samuel Ha-Levi among the small narrow streets of the medieval area. Few synagogues are still standing as Santa Maria la Blanca or Synagogue of El Transito which allow you to enjoy the Jewish culture of the medieval Toledo. As well as monasteries as San Juan de los Reyes.Under Moorish rule, the Jews adopted the Mudejar style of mosques. Under Christian rule, the synagogues could not exceed a certain height. The museum of El Greco is also one of the wonders of Toledoand is not the be missed.
See Fees to book your tours.
Jewish Seville
Seville is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the community of Andalusia and its population is about 700.000 people. Today, only 3% of that population is Jewish, even if many centuries ago, Jews were a prospering community in the city.
All around the city, you will notice many different influences such as Romans’, who created the city hundred years B.C.E. Many years later, the Visigoths brought Christianity to Seville and the series of Church Councils. Then, during the Arab occupation, Seville emerged as the second most important city, after Cordoba, in the Ummayad Caliphate and became a wealthy, picturesque and vibrant society helped by the Jews who lived there and were engaged in commerce, medicine and the dyeing industry. The Jewish quarter was in the western part of the city, in what are now the parishes of Santa Magdalena and San Lorenzo. During the Reconquest of Spain, many Muslims and Jews fled from Seville because the city was repopulated by Castilians. Seville became the first site for an Inquisition Tribunal. In 1391, disaster struck in Seville and the entire Jewish community was nearly destroyed and the synagogues were converted to churches. The once vibrant community never recovered and along with the other Jews of Andalusia, they were exiled in 1483.
Despite several disasters and destructions, you will still be able to visit, the parishes of Santa Magdalena and San Lorenzo, but also the al-Shawwar Gate, known as the Meat Gate (Puerta de la Carne). The main streets of the Jewish quarter nowadays are called Santa María la Blanca and San José. The square called plaza de Santa María la Blanca with its synagogue of the same name, is not to be missed either. The Inquisition in Seville stands in Triana castle. And finally, to remember the Jewish history of Seville, you will find the Jewish cemetery of Seville is near the Puerta de la Carne.
See Fees to book your tours.
