SPAIN

IS AC

OU

NT

RY

RIC

H IN

JEW

ISH

HIST

OR

Y. Y

ET

TH

ER

E IS O

NLY

ON

E

RE

GIO

N T

HA

TH

AD

TH

E D

ISTIN

CT

ION

OF

HA

VIN

GW

ITH

IN

ITS B

OR

DE

RS A

CIT

YC

RO

WN

ED

WIT

H T

HE

TIT

LE

“A

MO

TH

ER

CIT

YIN

ISRA

EL

.” IN T

HIS

FO

UR

-PAR

TSE

RIE

S

WE

TA

KE

YO

U T

O

CA

TA

LO

NIA

, WH

ER

E

WE

RE

DISC

OV

ER

TH

E PA

STG

LO

RY

OF

GIR

ON

A,

BA

RC

EL

ON

A, A

ND

OT

HE

R JE

WE

LS IN

TH

E JE

WISH

-

CA

TA

LA

N C

RO

WN

.

by L

ibi A

staire

The C

atalans call itrauxa. N

ormally a dow

n-to-earth,hard-w

orking people who take pride in their seny, com

-m

on sense, every once in a while they get w

hat’s calleda cop de rauxa, a spontaneous burst of creative inspiration thathurtles them

out of their ordinary lives and into the unexpectedand the unknow

n. I don’t think that rauxa

is on the world’s list of highly con-

tagious diseases, but perhaps it should be. For how

else can Iexplain w

hat happened this summ

er? I was looking for a sim

-ple, no-nonsense, round-trip flight from

Tel Aviv to K

ansasC

ity, Missouri that had decent connections and a reasonable

price, and instead found myself m

esmerized by an itinerary

that offered a free stopover in what is the heart of rauxa

coun-try: B

arcelona. I think I can say w

ith full honesty that until that mom

ent ithad never, ever occurred to m

e to go to Barcelona. Y

et once Isaw

the word, som

ething clicked in my m

ind, and wouldn’t

stop clicking. B

arcelona is the capital of Catalonia, an autonom

ous re-gion located in the northeastern corner of S

pain. Thanks to m

ylove of old m

aps of the Holy L

and, I knew that C

atalonia was

the home of the fam

ous Jewish m

apmaker A

braham C

resques,w

hose fourteenth-century masterpiece, the C

atalan Atlas, is

one of the Middle A

ges’most spectacular m

aps of the world.

How

ever, Catalonia has another and greater distinction, for it

is home to a city that w

as once so full of Torah learning and sosteeped w

ith holiness that it was crow

ned “AM

other City in

Israel,” the highest praise that the Jewish people can bestow

upon a place outside of the Land of Israel. In short, C

ataloniais the hom

e of Girona.

Girona.

For those w

ho know and love m

edieval Jewish history, the

name G

irona sends shivers down the spine. T

his is the cityw

here Rabbeinu Y

onah, author of Shaarei Teshuvah, The

Gates of R

epentance, lived and taught Torah. It is the cityw

here such luminaries as R

abbi Azriel, R

abbi Ezra ben S

hlo-m

o, and Rabbi Y

aakov ben Sheshet established one of S

pain’sm

ost important schools of K

abbalah. And last, but certainly

not least, it is the city of the Ram

ban, who lived there alm

ostall his life, serving as the leader of G

irona’s Jewish com

muni-

ty, as well as all of S

panish Jewry, until he w

as forced to flee,at an advanced age, from

his beloved birthplace. W

hat was it about the city of G

irona that it merited all this

glory, and would it still be possible to catch a glim

pse of itsform

er greatness? Would it be possible, I w

ondered, to walk in

the footsteps of the Ram

ban, Rabbeinu Y

onah, and all the oth-er illustrious rabbanim

who had called G

irona home, or had

everything been destroyed after the Inquisition and the Expul-

sion in 1492? A

fter a little research, it seemed that it w

as possible. Ac-

cording to most sources, G

irona, only about an hour’s drivenorth of B

arcelona, has one of the best preserved Jewish Q

uar-ters in S

pain. Yet still I resisted. C

omm

on sense told me that

Catalonia, a region w

here kosher food is scarce and English is

barely spoken, is not exactly a first-choice destination for theTorah-observant traveler.It w

as a photograph of a narrow pas-

sageway in G

irona’s Jewish Q

uarter that proved to be thenem

esis of my saner self. Its steep, stone steps w

inding up-w

ard seemed to beckon m

e to follow them

back to a purertim

e: the time of the great R

ishonim of S

farad. Before I knew

it, the deed had been done. I had come dow

n with a bad case of

cop de rauxaand I knew

there was only one thing that could

cure me.

427E

lul 5767 9.10.07

vie

ws o

f Giro

na a

nd the O

nyar R

iver

Photos: by author

76

27Elul 5767 9.10.07

“Book m

e on the flight,” I told my travel agent, “that has the

stopover in Barcelona.”

GL

IMP

SE

S O

F A

GO

LD

EN

AG

E

Legend has it that Jew

s established trading posts in Spain as

early as the time of S

hlomo H

aMelech (K

ing Solom

on), butsolid data about Jew

ish comm

unities only begins to appear inthe third century. B

y the tenth century, Jews w

ere actively en-gaged in econom

ic and political life throughout the IberianP

eninsula, including Catalonia.

Whereas other parts of S

pain experienced Golden A

ges asearly as the eleventh and tw

elfth centuries — and C

atalonia andneighboring A

ragon became united during this period —

Cat-

alonia’s mom

ent of glory reached its zenith during the thir-teenth century. It w

as during the long reign of King Jaum

e(Jam

es) I, known as “the C

onqueror,” that Barcelona w

as trans-form

ed into a major port city and C

atalan ships ruled the prof-itable w

aters of the Mediterranean S

ea. T

he fortunes of Catalan’s Jew

s rose along with the fortunes

of their fellow countrym

en. Jaume I highly valued his Jew

ishm

erchants, who set up lucrative trading netw

orks both in theM

uslim countries of northern A

frica and the Christian countries

of southern Europe, filling the king’s coffers in the process.

Jews could also be found at the king’s court, w

here they servedas financial advisors, court secretaries, and doctors.

He also offered protection to all the Jew

s who settled in his

territory, a policy that was continued by his successors, and the

map of C

atalonia became dotted w

ith dozens of Jewish com

-m

unities. In practical terms, this protection m

eant that the Jews

were “ow

ned” by the crown. T

hey paid taxes only to the king,and their fellow

countrymen w

ere not allowed to physically

harm them

, since they belonged to the king. How

ever, Catalan

towns w

ere not entirely without pow

er and they exercised thispow

er in the end of the thirteenth century by forcing the Jews,

whom

they often eyed with jealousy and suspicion, to live in

their own area of tow

n, which w

as called a juderia.Y

et despite the ghettoization and other restrictions that lim-

ited their contact with non-Jew

s, and the high taxation, the1200s and early 1300s w

ere relatively good times for C

atalanJew

s. They w

ere free to practice their religion and they were

self-governed by a council called an aljama, com

prised of dis-tinguished m

embers of their ow

n comm

unity. They w

ere ableto build synagogues, Talm

ud Torahs, mikvaos, and shelters for

the poor. Even the decree issued by the F

ourth Lateran C

ouncilin 1215, w

hich stated that Jews m

ust wear distinctive dress,

was largely ignored in C

atalonia — at a price, how

ever, sincethe Jew

s had to purchase their exemption.

Although not all of C

atalonia’s Jews w

ere wealthy m

er-chants —

most of them

were artisans and sim

ple craftsmen —

there must have been m

ore than a few. T

his is the period, afterall, that saw

the creation of Catalan illum

inated masterpieces

such as the Golden H

aggadah, the Barcelona H

aggadah, andthe S

arajevo Haggadah, all of w

hich were probably created in

Barcelona in the first half of the fourteenth century.

The Jew

ish comm

unity’s riches were not lim

ited only tom

aterial goods. The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries w

erealso the G

olden Age of Torah scholarship in C

atalonia. It was

during this period that the Ram

ban and Rabbeinu Y

onah flour-ished in G

irona, while their student R

abbi Shlom

o ben Aderet,

known as the R

ashba, was a leader in B

arcelona. A

nd what is left of all this life? W

hat could I expect to see inm

odern-day Catalonia? I knew

better than to ask about thew

hereabouts of

the fam

ous H

aggados, w

hich left

Spain’s

shores in 1492, if not before. Both the G

olden Haggadah and

the Barcelona H

aggadah are now sitting in the B

ritish Museum

,stre

ets o

f the m

edie

val J

ew

ish C

all

827E

lul 5767 9.10.07

while the S

arajevo Haggadah is in S

arajevo, where it is on

display at the National M

useum of B

osnia and Herzegovina.

But w

hat about the buildings? Would it be possible to sit

in the yeshivah where the R

amban expounded upon the

Torah, and daven in the shul where R

abbeinu Yonah stood be-

fore his Maker? N

ow that I w

as in Girona, it w

as time to find

out.

EL

CA

LL

By the tim

e I unpacked and dug out my digital cam

era, itw

as already early evening, which turned out to be a perfect

time for a first visit to G

irona’s historic district. The heat of

the day had passed and the fading sunlight was casting a gen-

tle glow upon the brightly painted houses that stand guard

over the banks of the Onyar R

iver. Once, these houses stood

flush against the wall that protected the m

edieval city frominvaders, but as the city began to expand and new

neighbor-hoods w

ere built, the wall cam

e down. O

n this day in earlysum

mer, the only “invaders” traversing the river are a m

otherduck and her ducklings, w

ho lazily paddle through the water.

And, of course, the tourists, w

ho cross the bridges connectingthe old city to the new

, in search of Girona’s m

edieval quarter. Strategically placed street signs point the w

ay to El C

all,the nam

e most com

monly used today to designate the Jew

ishQ

uarters found in Catalan tow

ns. It’s the word call

that pro-vided m

e with m

y first encounter with C

atalonia’s sometim

esam

bivalent feelings about its Jewish past. W

hy, I wondered,

was this particular w

ord used in Catalonia, and not the m

orecom

mon juderia, used throughout the rest of S

pain? And

what does the w

ord callmean, anyw

ay? A

sk a non-Jew in G

irona — since there aren’t any Jew

sliving in G

irona today non-Jews are the only ones you can ask

— and they w

ill imm

ediately reply that it comes from

theL

atin word callis, w

hich means a narrow

street. Atour guide

or guidebook will fill in a little m

ore information. B

ecausethe Jew

s had to live within a contained area, as their popula-

tion grew they had to find creative w

ays to house the newm

embers of their com

munity. O

ne solution was to cover sec-

tions of the street and build houses on top of the covered pas-sagew

ays. Another solution w

as to build out into the street asfar as possible, w

hich added space to the homes, but turned

the streets into cramped alleyw

ays.If you happen to ask the question w

hile visiting a call, thisw

ill seem like a plausible explanation. T

he streets certainlyare very narrow

, even narrower than you w

ill find in otherparts of the tow

n dating from the sam

e period. So the case is

closed, you might be tem

pted to think. El C

allm

eans theplace of narrow

and winding lanes.

How

ever, go to Barcelona, w

here there is a small Jew

ishcom

munity, and ask som

eone from there about the w

ord’sm

eaning and more likely than not they w

ill roll their eyes andlaugh. “T

he word call

comes from

the Hebrew

word kahal

[comm

unity or congregation],” they will reply. “E

veryoneknow

s that.”In fact, the G

ran Diccionari de la L

lengua Catalana

givesboth definitions for the w

ord. How

ever, as I was to find out

later, this disagreement about w

hat the word call

means —

narrow streets of stone versus a living Jew

ish comm

unity —is em

blematic of a larger disagreem

ent between som

e mem

-bers of B

arcelona’s Jewish com

munity and the non-Jew

ishpublic officials responsible for developing and m

aintainingC

atalonia’s Jewish Q

uarters. A

t this mom

ent, though, my m

ind isn’t concerned with

present-day disagreements. T

his is my tim

e to do what I set

out to do, to follow in the footsteps of the R

amban and try to

La F

orc

a S

treet:

once a

main

thoro

ughfa

re o

f the Je

wis

h C

all,

it's s

till the h

eart o

f Giro

na's m

edie

val q

uarte

r

1027E

lul 5767 9.10.0711

discover what it is about G

irona that caused the Ram

ban to say, “I left my

soul and spirit here.” A

s I make m

y way dow

n Carrer de la F

orca, once one of the Call’s

main streets and its w

estern boundary, my thoughts are already going back

in time. Today, F

orca Street is a pleasant pedestrian thoroughfare linedw

ith upscale shops, but it’s not the store window

s that attract my attention.

Spontaneously, m

y eyes shift to the doorposts, searching for some hint of

an indentation on the right side of the shop’s door. The indentation, of

course, is the telltale sign that a mezuzah once sat w

ithin the doorpost andthat this w

as once a Jewish-ow

ned store or home, or perhaps even the por-

tal to the thirteenth-century synagogue that once stood on this street, butw

hose exact location has since been forgotten.I am

not alone in this endeavor, I discover, when I m

eet an Israeli cou-ple. D

espite the fact that they are secular, they too are searching the door-posts for som

e signs of Girona’s once rich Jew

ish life. In fact, mezuzah

hunting seems to be a favorite activity for just about all Jew

ish touristsw

ho come to C

atalonia, no matter w

here they’re from or w

hat their affilia-tion m

ay be. How

ever, neither I nor the Israeli couple has had any luck. Iw

ill only “hit the jackpot” when I go to nearby B

esalu and visit the home

that once belonged to the Astruc fam

ily, one of medieval C

atalonia’sw

ealthiest and most influential fam

ilies. I give up m

y search when I reach the street today called C

arrer de Sant

Llorence. T

his is the street I had seen in the photograph. As I step into the

covered passageway, dark, colored a gloom

y gray at this hour, a shiveronce again goes dow

n my spine. A

t this quiet hour, it is not impossible to

imagine a robed and hooded figure rushing dow

n the steep stairs, on hisw

ay to shul to catch the last minyan for M

inchah. Nor is it im

possible toim

agine that at any mom

ent the waiting congregation w

ill start to chant,“A

shrei yoshvei vaytecha, Praisew

orthy are those who dw

ell within Y

ourhouse.”

But even though I w

ait silently for a few m

inutes, no sounds of Jewish

prayer greet my ears. O

nly the creak of a shutter turning in the wind dis-

turbs the evening’s silence. I therefore let m

y eyes follow the steps upw

ard and I begin the longclim

b up to the top. The street becom

es narrower and narrow

er, but as Iclim

b, a sliver of light begins to peek through the rooftops. Then the light

widens and intensifies, and w

hen I reach the top, which is close to the east-

ern boundary of the Call, I have left the darkness behind.

Perhaps it’s trite, and probably I’m

100 percent wrong, but after clim

b-ing the sixty-three steps of C

arrer de Sant L

lorence, I begin to feel that it’sobvious w

hy Girona becam

e a home for Jew

ish mysticism

. Spiritual con-

cepts such as “running and returning,” “going from darkness to light,” or

“you’re either going up the spiritual ladder or going down it,” surely be-

come m

ore concrete and easier to internalize when you have to w

alk up ordow

n sixty-three steps every time you go to shul or need to buy a little

milk.

How

ever, Catalonia, like other parts of S

pain, is not all cold, graystones and dark passagew

ays. About halfw

ay up the steps, there is aw

rought-iron gate sitting within the right side of the w

all. Through it I can

catch a glimpse of the other side of C

atalonia, a place of pleasant court-yards and beautifully landscaped gardens, w

here people can come to m

eetand share their joys. I have also com

e to the first place where there is a

physical sign of a Jewish presence w

ithin the Jewish C

all. I have reachedthe M

useu d’Historia dels Jueus (Jew

ish History M

useum). T

here, embed-

ded in the floor tiles of the museum

’s outdoor courtyard is a large Star ofD

avid, proudly displaying its Jewish identity for all passersby to see.

Aquick glance at m

y watch tells m

e that the museum

closed a few m

in-utes ago. I w

ill have to come back to continue m

y search for some tangible

reminder of the past glory of Jew

ish Girona.

In Part Tw

o: The search for the R

amban’s yeshivah and a visit to see

Girona’s “

Hidden H

ebrew D

ocuments.”

Ab

ove:

map

of

medie

val

Jew

ish

com

munit

ies,

court

esy o

f Giro

na's

Museum

of t

he H

istory

of t

he

Jew

ish P

eople

, a g

ood p

lace t

o b

egin

your jo

urn

ey

thro

ugh Jew

ish C

atalo

nia

.