Spain: Lorca's Medieval Synagogue Excavation Unharmed in Earthquake

Lorca, Spain. Two views of synagogue excavation with protective covering. Photos: Samuel Gruber, 2009.

Spain: Lorca's Medieval Synagogue Excavation Apparently Unharmed in Earthquake

by Samuel D. Gruber

According to friends in Lorca, the medieval synagogue was not damaged in yesterday's earthquake. That sounds odd to report, since the building is already a ruin. It was meticulously excavated over several seasons a few years ago. I've written about the excavation and the accompanying exhibition before. I am sure that the site will have to be carefully examined, but there were few tall elements to be weakened. The new protective cover over the site will need to be checked.

There were deaths reported in the southern Spanish town, and damage to the historic city town center. I'll post more news from Lorca and Murcia when I receive it.

The exhibition Lights of Sepharad was recently on view until March 27th at the city of Roman Theater Museum in Cartagena. Hopefully it was all securely packed at the time of the quake. Pieces of more than fifty glass synagogue oil lamps were found in the exhibition, and many of these were painstakingly reconstructed at the Archaeological Museum in Lorca.

Publication: Ilia Rodov on "Tower-like Torah Arks"

A tall Torah ark cabinet as represented in the Rothschild Miscellany, Italy (1450-80), now in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Photo: From Metzger, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages.

Publication: Ilia Rodov on "Tower-like Torah Arks"

Ilia Rodov has written an important and useful article on medieval Torah Arks, especially those tall tower types well-known from representations in many illuminated medieval manuscripts. The article, “Tower-like Torah Arks, the Tower of Strength and the Architecture of the Messianic Temple,” was recently published in the prestigious art historical Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, LXXIII (2010), 65-98.

Rodov's article accomplishes three tasks. First, he has inventoried the number of occurrences and described the variety of known Spanish, Italian and Ashkenazi Arks that meet a broad definition of "Tower-like Torah Arks." These include examples shown in Spanish Haggadot, such as British Library Mss 2884, where the Aron ha-Kodesh is shown as a substantial fortified architectural element; to the tall ornate Gothic-style free-standing cabinet-style Arks illustrated in Northern European manuscripts.

Florsheim Haggadah, ca 1465. Tall Torah Ark. Photo: Jewish Art, vol. 23-24.

Just bringing all these illustration together is handy. Previously, one could only find most of these illustrations in Thérèse and Mendel Metzger's (still indispensable) Jewish Life in the Middle Ages: illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries (1982). Second, Rodov places these Arks in the context of other Ark designs and also, but to a lesser extent, compares them to contemporary non-liturgical and non-Jewish furniture designs (I would have liked to see more on this, especially comparisons with furniture from churches and mosques).

Cabinet style Ark from Modena, Italy, dated 1472, that resembles a rusticated tower. Paris, Musee d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme.

The real purpose of the article, however, is found in Rodov's third task - to find meaning for the use of the tower form for synagogue Arks. He reviews how an early tradition of Ark design and meaning is linked to descriptions of the movable Ark of the Covenant described in scripture. He ultimately links the tower form to well known passage of Proverbs 18, "The name of the Lord is a tower of strength (midgal oz)," which seems a reasonable association. There is much more to his discussion of the Torah Ark as a "stronghold of faith."

Tykocin, Poland. Synagogue (restored) bimah. Photo: Samuel Gruber (1990)

I am also grateful to Prof. Rodov for including in the article the identification and translation of the inscriptions form the great four-pillar bimah structure in the 18th century synagogue of Tykocin, Poland. This is a building I refer to often, but am usually so focused on the ornate - almost Rococo - style Ark (built into the wall) that i have forgotten about the significance of the inscriptions on the bimah. Here the presence of Proverbs 18 is an indication that the "tower of strength" has migrated from the place where the Torah is stored to where it is read. See this "bimah-support" structure as a "tower of strength" is natural, since it not only symbolically supports the synagogue, but actually plays an important role in the physical support of the vaults and roof. Rodov refers to the identification and reconstruction of the Tykocin inscriptions in the 1982 Polish article by A. Pakentreger in the Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw. Four inscriptions on the bimah cite biblical references to towers (Song of songs 8, Proverbs 18, Song of Songs 4, and Psalms 18).

Although I have some reservations about some minor points and conjectures in this article, these are topics that cannot be resolved and speculation is welcome. Rodov's linkage of the Ark to the rest of synagogue decorative programs and painted inscriptions is very important (and his colleague at Bar-Ilan University Bracha Yaniv is leading the way in examining the extensive wall inscriptions in Polish synagogues). The time is also right to link the manuscript and iconographic tradition to new archaeological finds, and also to renew and further the consideration of medieval Judaica to make view it in both its Jewish context, but also in its European (or north African, or Asian) cultural context.

I will add this article to the reading list for my art and architecture of the synagogue class. Surprisingly, there are relatively few articles the investigate in details the history, design and meaning of the small number of essential synagogue furnishings and decorations.

In English, I refer readers to Bezalel Narkiss, "The Heikhal, Minah, and Teivah in Sephardi Synagogues," Jewish Art, 18 (1992), 30-47, which especially explores the use of a special room for the Aron in Spanish and Sephardi synagogues.

On the bimah, and for something more contemporary, I recommend "The Architecture of the Bimah in American Synagogues: Framing the Ritual" by Lee Shai Weissbach in American Jewish History, 91: 1, (March 2003), pp. 29-51.

Jews on the Altar: MOBIA Exhibition Examines Images on Spanish Altarpieces

You can read my discussion of the current exhibition Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians, and the Altarpieces of Medieval Spain in The Forward newspaper. The exhibition is on view until through May 30th. It is accompanied by an informative and beautifully illustrated catalog with essays by exhibition curator Vivian B. Mann, Marcus B. Burke, Carmen Laccara Ducay and Thomas F. Glick.

Jews on the Altar: MOBIA Exhibition Examines Images on Spanish Altarpieces

By Samuel D. Gruber

Published April 07, 2010, issue of April 16, 2010.

Jewish Spain is a world of which many have heard, but few actually know. Popular and even scholarly Jewish discourse is full of rumor and exaggeration, and interpretations of scattered facts vary widely. Since 1992, however, when Spain began a rapprochement with Jews and Judaism on the 500th anniversary of the expulsion, more and more facts have been brought to light, and new eyes and new ways of looking have trained on this evidence. Read More

Spain: Roof Collapse at Former Synagogue of Híjar

Híjar, Spain. Convent church of San Anton, formerly a synagogue. Photo: http://www.hijar.org/historia.htm

Híjar, Spain. Convent church of San Anton, formerly a synagogue. Inteiro, view toward gallery.
Photo:www.comarcabajomartin.es

Spain: Roof Collapse at Former Synagogue of Híjar (Aragon)
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) According to on-line reports, last month a part of the roof of the 15th-century church of San Antón in Híjar (Aragon), Spain collapsed, injuring two people and putting the fate of the building in jeopardy. San Antón has been identified as the former synagogue of Hijar Jewish community (which numbered 32 families as late 1481) by researcher Miguel Ángel Motis Dolader. As such, it is one of the best preserved former synagogues in the Iberian peninsula, after Toledo, Cordova and Tomar.

Though to my knowledge no study of the building has been yet published, the documentary evidence as well a several still-visible features in the church indicate its origins as a synagogue. These include a niche (now housing a statue of Saint Anthony) that was likely once part of the Aron ha-Kodesh, and a well preserved raised gallery, presumably used by women. Recent excavations beneath the sanctuary floor have revealed the masonry foundation for a tevah. Overall, the building is designed as a simple almost cubic space surmounted by three large diaphragm arches that support the wooden roof.

In late January 2010 there was a meeting of cultural heritage officials in Híjar to consider what to do with the building, and the projected short-term and long-term restoration costs. It is estimated that repairing the roof would cost 90,000 euro, and the complete restoration of the building 370,000 euro. Local discussion of care of the building has continued for six years. No doubt earlier intervention would have saved injury and also would required less funds.

Híjar, with its Jewish Quarter, was declared a site of cultural significance by the Government of Aragon in 2002. The 15th-century Jewish community itself had achieved considerable renown in the decade just before the expulsion of 1492 when its Jewish craftsmen specialized in the trades of preparing parchment and in bookbinding, and Híjar was also an early center for Hebrew printing.

Recently several articles by Victor Aguilar Guiu in the local publication La Comarca have highlighted the lack of organization and planning regarding the care of historic resources by the town of Hijar in Aragon. Aguilar Guiu draws especial attention to the fate of San Anton, which had been identified as the former synagogue in need to care prior to roof collapse.

He writes that the “The destruction [over the past three decades] has been brutal: an eighteenth-century hospital, the remains of the castle-fortress destroyed by the government itself, several Aragonese Renaissance and Baroque palaces, a nineteenth-century church, the medieval rabbi’s house, dozens of houses of traditional architecture, mills.” Aquilar Guiu believes that attention to the former Jewish history and the towns surviving Jewish sites might be a way to spur more widespread attention to historic preservation in Híjar.

He and the organization regional cultural heritage advocacy group APUDEPA have especially called for greater protection and a care of the former synagogue building.

Robin Cembalest on Uneasy Communion Exhibition

Robin Cembalest on Uneasy Communion Exhibition

Just a few hours after posting my notice about the opening of Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians, and the Altarpieces of Medieval Spain at MOBIA, I saw Robin Cembalist's piece in Tablet Magazine, which provides more insight into the exhibition. When Robin is not writing for Tablet, she is engaged in her full time work as editor of ARTNews (she was also my first editor at The Forward). Robin mentions Vivian Mann's links between the painting Christ Among the Doctors and the recently excavated synagogue in Lorca, Spain of which I have previously written.

The Torah in the Altarpiece

A new exhibition explores the overlapping worlds of Christian and Jewish art in medieval Spain

An on-line slide show from the exhibition accompanies the article.

Exhibition: MOBIA in NYC Will Open Exhibit on Representations of Jews on Medieval Spanish Altarpieces

Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians, and the Altarpieces of Medieval Spain to Open at MOBIA (Museum of Biblical Art) in New York
by Samuel D. Gruber

New exhibitions of medieval art are increasing rare in the United States, so it has been a pleasure to see view the series of exhibitions developed over the past five years at MOBIA, the Museum of Biblical Art in New York City, many of which have included medieval works, sometimes important and sometimes obscure, but usually chosen for a particular reason and often elucidated from a new point of view.

MOBIA seems about to continue and perhaps expand this tendency with a new exhibition, Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians, and the Altarpieces of Medieval Spain that opens to the public this February 19th and runs through May 30. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Vivian B. Mann, curator emeritus at the Jewish Museum and now director of the graduate program in Jewish Art at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Almost twenty years ago Dr. Mann collaborated to present artistic aspects of Jewish, Christian and Muslim co-existence in medieval Spain in the ground-breaking Convivencia organized by the Jewish Museum. This new exhibition promises to present Christian-Jewish relations is a somewhat different light, and through the religious lens of altarpieces that reference and represent Jews in both Biblical and contemporary guise.

According to the publicity from MOBIA:

This exhibition discusses the last two centuries of medieval Spanish history in the Crown of Aragon (the Kingdom of Aragon, the Kingdom of Valencia, and the region of Catalonia) from the vantage point of religious art, and demonstrates the documented cooperative relationship that existed between Christians and Jews who worked either independently or together to create art both for the Church and the Jewish community. Religious art was not created solely by members of the faith community it was intended to serve, but its production in the multi-cultural society of late medieval Spain was more complicated. Jewish and Christian artists worked together in ateliers producing both retablos (large multi-paneled altarpieces) as well as Latin and Hebrew manuscripts. Jews and conversos (Jews who had converted to Christianity) were painters and framers of retablos, while Christians illuminated the pages of Hebrew manuscripts.

The exhibition tells not only the story of this fascinating moment of artistic collaboration, it also provides a glimpse into the lives of these communities which lived side by side. Images in some retablos reflect the hardships of Jewish life in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: conversions, forced sermons, disputations, the Inquisition, and charges of host desecration and blood libel. Other extraordinary paintings project a messianic view of a future in which Jews would join with Christians in one faith.

I'm looking forward to this exhibition and expecting some surprises. One work that will be on view and is being used for publicity for the exhibition is an anonymous altarpiece of Christ Among the Doctors (click here for photo) from the early 15th century in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting, which has been cleaned and restored for this exhibition, represents the Jerusalem Temple as a contemporary Spanish synagogue. The "Doctors" include an assortment of Jews seated at their wooden prayer benches reading from (manuscript) prayer books.

A catalog is published to accompany the exhibition.

Jewish Archaeology in Europe: Upcoming Conference and an Overview

Lorca, Spain. Medieval Synagogue (15th century?) and three of the dozens of handing glass oil lamps excavated, as reconstructed. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber, 2009.

Jewish Archaeology in Europe: Conference and Overview
By Samuel D. Gruber

A major conference about the archaeology of Judaism in Europe has been organized in Paris by Paul Salmona of the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (INRAP). The conference will be held at the Musee d'art et d'histoire du judaisme on January 14-15, 2010.

INRAP was founded in 2002 under the French Law on archaeology of January 2001. It replaces Association for the national archaeological excavations (AFAN), established in 1901. INRAP is administered jointly by the French Ministries of Culture and Research.

The full program can be consulted at the INRAP website or downloaded here.

This conference comes on the heels of another big conference “Medieval Jewish archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula,” for archaeologists about recent excavation of Jewish sites in Spain held in Murcia in February, 2009. The 133-page proceedings of the conference can be accessed at:
http://www.lucesdesefarad.com/images/preactas.pdf

Both conferences are signs of the quickening pace of “Jewish archaeology” in Europe, and the increasing variety of sites encountered, and conflicting views on their excavation, interpretation and presentation.

The systematic and planned archaeology of Judaism in Europe is a relatively new phenomenon that has evolved from several trends that even today are not always easily reconciled. Since I will not be able to attend the Paris conference, and I doubt that many of readers will be there either, Ipresent here a brief overview of the topic of "Jewish Archaeology."

Jewish Archaeology in Europe: History

The roots of “Jewish Archaeology” lie in the 19th and early 20th century German scientific study of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentum), an academic movement that advocated intensive study of ancient, medieval and post-medieval source material and created more nuanced history of Jewish settlement and community. The movement mostly saw traditional Judaism as an historic relic, rather than as a dynamic religion, and was thus rejected by most observant Jews. The Wissenschaft movement was particularly attentive to texts, but was also cognizant of the possibility of the new field of archaeology in providing new information.

A similar movement developed in England, led by the Jewish Historical Society of England (founded 1893), that identified Jewish settlement sites in England from before the expulsion of 1290, and details about the names, occupations and wealth of many Jewish individuals. This effort has continued for more than a century and recently led to archaeological excavations in York, Guildford and London. Nearly contemporary with the Jewish Historical Society was the publication by Israel Abrahams (1858-1925) of Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, a work about the everyday life of Jews as much as about religion. It gave extensive coverage to material culture.

Along with the development of “Biblical Archaeology” in the Near East, Jewish scholars supported excavations in Europe. Archaeological investigation into ancient Judaism was deliberately developed in the Holy Land, first by Europeans in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century Jews resident in Palestine supported this work, and continued after 1948 the new state of Israel. The Israel Exploration Society (originally Society for the Reclamation of Antiquities) was founded in 1914. Among many discoveries – that continue today – are the remains of synagogues and Jewish villages of late antiquity. Parallel to this, were accidental discoveries in Europe of signs of ancient and medieval Judaism in the form of inscriptions and synagogues. One of the earliest was the uncovering of the Jewish cemetery of the rue de la Harpe in Paris in 1847 (thanks to Max Polonovski for this information).

In the second half of the 19th century Jewish scholars joined the study of texts and material culture by studying Jewish funerary epitaphs, including those from the catacombs in Rome, but also cemeteries dating from the 12th through 16th centuries in Worms, Prague, Vienna, Lvov and many other cities.

In Palestine there was a growing interest and professionalism in “Jewish archaeology,” while in Europe there was growing evidence – but not widespread interest – in the potential of archaeology to expand historical horizons. Unfortunately, many finds explicitly linked to the European Jewish past have languished in storage and the potential link to Jews and Judaism of other finds have received little scrutiny. One of the few publicly accessible collections of medieval Judaica in Europe was that of the Musee Cluny in Paris, assembled in the mid-19th century by Joseph Isaac Strauss (1806-1888) who displayed 82 items at the Universal Exhibition in the Trocadero Palace in Paris and exhibited part of the collection at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition in London in 1887. The collection, which is mostly comprised of synagogue and household ritual objects was later purchased by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild and presented it as a gift to the French nation.

Archaeology of Judaism in Europe as we know it today developed directly out of the destruction of European cities in the Second World War. Post-war urban renewal developed opportunities for archaeological excavation in bombed out city centers. Documentation of standing Jewish structures – mostly synagogues – had begun in earnest in Germany and Poland during the interwar years, but most of these buildings were subsequently destroyed in the Holocaust. After 1945, however, remains of extensive medieval Jewish settlements in German cities could be fully exposed and investigated. These sites – previously known mostly through documentary evidence – gave a new physical dimension to the medieval presence in Europe. Unfortunately, limitations of archaeological technique as well as post-War political issues, financial constraints, and pressure for urban rebuilding, restricted the results of excavation and analysis. Otto Dopplefield’s work at Cologne was the most extensive; where he revealed the remains of a medieval synagogue that he dated to the 11th century. An impressive multistory mikveh (ritual bath), a monument of early medieval engineering was also revealed. New excavations carried out by the City of Cologne on the site since 2007 have confirmed much of Doppelfield’s analysis, but has conclusively pushed the date of synagogue and mikveh back to the Carolingian period and most likely – at least for the synagogue – to late antiquity. Other excavations took place in Worms and Speyer.

Cologne, Germany. Medieval Mikveh, looking up. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

The aftershocks of the destruction of Jewish communities in the Holocaust continued to influence Jewish scholarship in Europe. Two generations of scholars were lost – precisely those great teachers and their promising students who were most interested in the medieval Jewish past. Those that survived moved to American and Israel, far from the physical remains of European Jewish culture. Jewish medieval studies became again concerned almost totally with texts and movable objects. The methodology of the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University, for example, emphasized iconography over physical context.

Jewish Archaeology in Europe: Contemporary

Nowhere was there any planned effort to identify Jewish sites, nor to further exploit of the opportunities afford by unexpected finds. Throughout the Jewish world “Jewish archaeology” became almost synonymous with the uncovering of ancient Jewish remains, primarily in Israel, but also throughout the Mediterranean littoral, where a number of finds such as those from Ostia (Italy), Sardis (Turkey) and Stobi (Mecedonia) attested to Judaism’s widespread acceptance in the ancient world.

Medieval archaeology itself as a serious discipline with its own rationale and developed methods continued to evolve, especially in Britain (where the influence of the “New Archaeology” was strongest), and in Germany and Italy. Many of the favored archaeological conceptions such as urban archaeology and regional settlement surveys that should have brought more attention to the medieval Jewish component, however, tended to ignore it completely. A close reading of the archaeological literature from Europe between 1960 and 1990 would suggest that Jews were hardly present on the continent – despite their ubiquity in religious, historical, and legal sources as well as historical toponyms in many countries. Thus historians and archaeologists have different perceptions of the place and role of Jewish in the European Middle Ages.

From the 1960s through the 1990s most identification of Jewish materials in Europe was almost entirely accidental. The most spectacular instance was the discovery of a massive Romanesque structure in Rouen, France, in 1976, that may have been a synagogue, but was more likely a yeshiva (Talmudic school) and possibly a scriptorium. In 2002, excavations in Lorca, Spain uncovered the entire plan of a 15th-century synagogue as well as remains of eleven houses of the Jewish quarter, where previously no Jewish settlement was known. Houses contained distinctly Jewish features, including ceramic Hanukah oil lamps. The synagogue included original architectural and decorative features and fragments of more than 50 glass hanging lamps – previously only known from manuscript illuminations and later similar types from North Africa.

Archaeology of Jewish sites has centered on religious and ritual sites. These were the most prominent structures of Jewish communities, especially synagogues and mikvot (ritual baths), building types that are also most likely to incorporate distinguishing features allowing them to be identified as Jewish. These structures have usually been found in the course of building renovation or construction, or as part of other excavations. Recently, as in Regensburg (Germany) and Vienna (Austria), large planned excavations have been carried out at sites where ancient synagogues were known have existed before they were deliberately demolished, and the remains of those buildings and adjacent structures have been exposed. Similar excavations have been advocated for other known sites, such as the medieval synagogue in Budapest.

Vienna, Austria. Preserved remains of the medieval synagogue after excavation and creation of the Judenplatz Museum. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

In Spain, a more sensitized archaeological profession is now more adept at identifying Jewish sites discovered by accident, and historians and archaeologists are also seeking Jewish remains. A rich array of documentary sources, as in Jaén, can help locate former Jewish settlements in towns and cities throughout Iberia, where medieval juderie are still remembered in local lore and toponyms.

For centuries, traces of many Jewish cemeteries have been found, mostly sites which Jews were forced to abandon during periods of expulsion, or which were expropriated from them by authorities. Commonly, inscribed stone gravestones (matzevot), often in only fragmentary condition, have been found; mostly discovered in locations of re-use, incorporated in later structures, roads, city walls, river embankments, etc. where they served as ready building material. This is true in Spain, Italy, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

In a few cases, such as York (England), Prague (Czech Republic) and Lucera and Tarrega (Spain) previously forgotten and long unmarked Jewish cemeteries have been discovered in the course of urban development. In the past, such cemeteries might have been entirely destroyed without careful examination. Now, such finds are usually reported to cultural heritage authorities and they are carefully excavated by trained archaeologists. In some cases their Jewish character has been perceived when excavations began, but archaeologists did not consult with present-day Jewish communities. In almost all cases when the burials were identified as Jewish – either before or after excavation – some Jewish organizations, especially representative of Jewish religious communities, have protested the excavation and especially the exhumation of human remains as a violation of Jewish religious practice and law. In cases where the location of medieval Jewish cemeteries is known, Jewish communities have generally encouraged non-intrusive archaeological methods as a means of investigation. Jewish communities and archaeologists are still developing procedures to lessen conflict over cemeteries. So far, in some places, there seem to be irreconcilable differences of opinion and approach.

Maribor, Slovenia. Fragments of medieval Jewish gravestones now in Municipal Museum.
Photo: Ruth Ellen Gruber

Medieval treasures have been uncovered, mostly as accidental discoveries. The two most famous medieval treasure “hoards” are those of Colmar, discovered in 1863 and one from Erfurt found only in 1996. These hoards of money and precious objects were probably hidden in time of persecution and mass murder of Jews, and not recovered. The Colmar treasure contained an elaborate early 14th century wedding ring. Nothing is known of the individuals or groups who hid the treasures other than their apparent wealth, but it is assumed that they died in the massacres of 1348. Similar accidental discoveries of caches of documents and many artifacts of everyday life have been found in genizot, (plural of genizah), storage spaces in synagogues used for discarded texts and ritual items. But with the exception of the famous Genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, whose documents have helped rewrite the Jewish and economic history of the Mediterranean region in the Early Middle Ages, these genizot have produced materials only from the 18th century on. In the case of genizot, after a series of accidental discoveries in the 1980s an 1990s in former synagogue south German synagogue buildings, more systematic investigations have been undertaken.

Note: The above text is adapted from two larger articles on “Jewish Archaeology” in press and preparation. I always appreciate new information – historic or contemporary – about all types of investigation of Jewish heritage sites.

Conference: Jews of Spain: Past and Present

Conference: Jews of Spain: Past and Present

(ISJM) On December 5-7, 2009, the American Sephardi Federation will host a symposium about the Jews of Spain: Past and Present. The complete schedule can be consulted here.

Of special interest to blog readers will be Dr. Vivian Mann's presentation on the "Unknown Jewish Artists of Spain." Dr. Mann is curator emeritus of Judaica at the The Jewish Museum (New York) and has curated many important exhibitions about Sephardi Jewish art and culture. She is now director in the Master degree program in Jewish art at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Spain: Toledo Cemetery Dispute Resolved with Reburial of Bones in Original Graves

Spain: Toledo Cemetery Dispute Resolved with Reburial of Bones in Original Graves
by Samuel D. Gruber

Philip Carmel, International Relations Director of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) and Executive Director of the Lo Tishcach Foundation announced today that on Sunday June 21, “all of the bones removed from the medieval cemetery in Toledo were reburied in the actual graves from which they had been removed. This was achieved after protracted negotiations which only reached fruition last Thursday in Madrid” Last autumn human bones from 105 distinct graves had been uncovered and then removed as part of an archaeological excavation of the cemetery in advance of construction planned for a school on the adjacent property. Local authorities, who supported the construction project, had offered to delivery the bones for reburial elsewhere.

The opinions of Spanish archaeologists – including those who carried out the careful rescue excavation – were mixed, with many viewing the bones as valuable historical resources for better understanding aspects of medieval Jewish life. International Jewish religious organizations including the CER and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE) had demanded that the bones be returned to their original resting place rejecting both the possible retention of the remains for study and the reburial of the remains elsewhere were strenuously opposed by

There were widespread concerns that removal of the bones elsewhere would establish a precedent for clearing old cemeteries of burials in order to facilitate property development. Most scholars of Jewish law will allow the removal of Jewish remains from a cemetery only in situations of utmost danger to the site and other methods to protect a site have failed. Even then, excavation and removal of remains should be done under rabbinic supervision.

Carmel, speaking for the CER, maintained the greatest difficulties were with the local government of Toledo, not with national leaders. “Toledo has a unique place in the history of the Golden Age of the Jews of Spain and the Spanish government understood this and constantly sought to persuade the local government to respect the sanctity of this site,” Carmel said. “Throughout our negotiations with the Toledo authorities, we insisted that these Toledo Jews be buried in exactly the same graves from which they were removed. They intended this site as their eternal resting place and it was our duty to ensure they were reburied according to their wishes,” he added.

The reburial of the remains took place yesterday (June 21) and was not widely publicized. According to Carmel the ceremony was, however, attended by local and national government representatives, leaders of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain and the president of the CPJCE, Rabbi Elyokim Schlesinger, who personally supervised the burial preparations. Since negotiations ended on Thursday the 18th, the push to rebury on Sunday was presumably taken to avoid any possible challenges or delays to the decision. It also allowed the 87-year-old Rabbi Schlesinger to oversee the reburial, since he was already present as port of the negotiations. Thus, re-burial took place as soon, apparently, after the Sabbath as possible.

According to Carmel, “This remarkable and historic solution brings a satisfactory conclusion to a chapter which has seen a tremendous degree of solidarity and cooperation on the part of the Spanish government and the local Jewish federation and a willingness to work together with the Conference of European Rabbis and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe to achieve an amicable solution within the boundaries of Halachah”

The result of the negotiations appears to be a victory of sorts for those (including myself) who have advocated for greater recognition of medieval Jewish sites as part of a living tradition, rather than as inert remnants of an extinct culture or civilization. While these sites need to be studied and presented more effectively to the large Jewish and Spanish populations, they need to be treated respectfully, too. Even the most careful archaeology – if it runs counter to Jewish tradition or law – cannot be deemed respectful. Alternative essentially non-invasive means of investigation of cemeteries must be further developed.

An important outcome of this settlement is that the site will be marked and maintained as a cemetery – and NOT developed. This should send a strong signal to municipalities and developers throughout Spain that they should not try to usurp cemetery sites. This needs to give further impetus to scholarly efforts to better pinpoint the likely locations of what may be hundreds of Jewish cemeteries throughout Spain. Many of these are not as unknown as one would think – even five hundred years after the Expulsion. They are remembered in toponyms, in land documents, maps and traveller’s accounts, and local legends and lore.

Toledo already attracts as many tourists in search of Jewish heritage as any other place in Spain. The remains of two historic synagogues – one of which is now home to the Museo Sefardi – is a strong attraction. Now, the cemetery site can be added to this. Even though there will be little to see (there are no surviving contemporary gravestone in situ – the reminder of Toledo’s “Golden Era” will be strong at the site.

According to Carmel: “I hope that our work to save this historic cemetery in Toledo will prove to be a prototype for how governments, local Jewish communities and representative Jewish organizations can work together for the benefit of preserving these cemeteries in Europe."

In related news, a few weeks ago the government of Catalonia declared the Jewish cemetery in Barcelona - known as Montjuic - an historic site. I am still collecting details about what this will mean for the future of this cemetery - once on of the largest Jewish burial grounds of Spain. In 2001, 557 graves were excavated there and one gravestone (matzevah) fragment was unearthed. The fate of the remains removed form the graves is unknown to the public. Presumably, there has been adequate time for them to be documented and studied. Arrangements should be made for reburial. The precedent of Toledo should, I hope, speed such action.

Conference: "Sefarad: Memory, Identity and Diaspora" in Cordoba June 3-7, 2009

Conference: "Sefarad: Memory, Identity and Diaspora" in Cordoba June 3-7, 2009

The Casa de Sefarad and Casa de la Memoria (House of Sepharad, House of Memories) in Cordoba will sponsor the second international symposium - "Sefarad: Memory, Identity and Diaspora" - from Wednesday-Sunday, June 3-7, in Cordoba, Spain.

To read more about the conference participants and schedule go the the Tracing the the Tribe Blogsite.

Spain: More on Barcelona Conference on Jewish Cemeteries

Spain: More on Barcelona Conference on Jewish Cemeteries

Dominique Tomasav Blinder of ZAKHOR has sent a report of the recent conference "Archaeological intervention on historical necropolises: Jewish cemeteries" organized by the Museum of History of Barcelona in Barcelona on January 15-16. Dominique's report can be read here on Tracing the Tribe.

Tracing the Tribe Blogger Schelly Talalay Dardashti includes her own pertinent observations.

I will be posting later this week the Declaration issued by the conference and signed by most (all?) of the speakers. I have problems with the declaration - not its sentiments, but its specifics - and I will address these soon.

Spain: Inauguration of Exhibition "Lorca, Lights of Sepharad"

Spain: Inauguration of Exhibition "Lorca, Lights of Sepharad" on January 29th, 2009
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Next week, the government of the Spanish Region of Murcia will open a new exhibition about the medieval synagogue and Jewish quarter of Lorca. The exhibition presents and interprets the archaeological evidence and material finds of excavation that began in 2003 in the precinct of Lorca’s 15th-century castle. Archaeologists, led by Ana Pujante Martínez and Juan Gallardo, uncovered the remains a synagogue and of houses of the surrounding Jewish quarter. Remains of the synagogue and one of the houses are being conserved to be incorporated into a museum.

The Jewish quarter, the synagogue and the many identifiably Jewish objects found in their rubble constitute one of the most important Jewish archaeological finds in recent decades. Plans are being discussed to have the exhibition travel abroad after 2010.

The synagogue consisted of a main prayer hall 134 square meters in size with built in benches around the perimeter, large enough to accommodate 70 worshipers. An Aron ha-Kodesh was situated on the east wall, and foundations to support a bimah were found in the center of the room. The prayer hall was preceded by an open courtyard, which led to a small vestibule with a place for washing. Above this was a small gallery of 8 square meters – presumably for women - which had collapsed into the vestibule area. The small space makes one wonder, however, whether women may have been accommodated elsewhere in the hall, perhaps separated by a temporary divider – now gone.

The museum of the synagogue will be part of the future luxury Parador hotel which will open in the castle, situated up the hill from the former Jewish quarter The remains of the synagogue and surrounding buildings were found when construction began on the luxury hotel which will be situated in the castle. Published plans call for the synagogue to be protected by a structure 43 meters long and 27 wide, with a total area of over one thousand square meters and a height ranging between five and 2'10 meters. This protective cover will keep a constant temperature to prevent thermal changes affecting the archaeological remains. I will be visiting the site next week in conjunction with the exhibition opening and will learn more about its future.

In 2006, some of the glass finds from the Jewish quarter and synagogue excavations were presented at the conference "The glass of the Middle Ages and Andalusí" held at the Royal Factory Crystals of La Granja. The synagogue lamps dating from the 15th century have been restored for the new exhibition. These glass lamps are considered among the most important recent archaeological finds in Spain. At least 15 lamps have been reconstructed using nearly 3,000 shards of glass uncovered in the excavation. These lamps are a tangible link to the appearance of medieval synagogues previously known Conservation work was funded by the Patrimonio Histórico de la Dirección General de Cultura y del Museo Arqueológico Municipal (Heritage Service of the Directorate General for Culture and the Municipal Archaeological Museum).


A video view of the excavation can be seen on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Soh8Jln5g

To read more see:

Un 'tesoro' excepcional entre los muros de la sinagoga

http://www.arqueologiamedieval.com/noticias/noticias.asp?ref=1042

Spain: Barcelona Museum Hosts Seminar on Jewish Cemeteries

Spain: Barcelona Museum Hosts Seminar on Jewish Cemeteries
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) The Museum of History of Barcelona will host the two-day conference "Archaeological Intervention on Historical Necropolises: Jewish Cemeteries" on January 15th and 16th, 2009. This is a timely topic, given the current controversy about the medieval Jewish cemetery at Toledo.

The mission of the museum "is the reassessment of the historic heritage of Barcelona, whether the items are movable or immovable. In other words, the museum is responsible for the conservation, research, and dissemination of the objects and buildings that are significant for our collective history and that exemplify the city's past... the best city museum is the city itself, and that it is in its streets, squares, and buildings where we can interpret the passage of time and the interaction of the men and women that have made, throughout the centuries, today's Barcelona possible"

According to the program, the seminar has been organized because:

The artistic, historical and cultural heritage forms an asset which, following its institutional recognition and classification, is safeguarded by the public administrations. This heritage, formed by elements and ensembles which the successive historical legacies have left in a territory,consists of very different types of cultural goods in which the respective collectives as a whole recognise themselves. In the case of the medieval Jewish legacy, Barcelona has recently opened the Barcelona Jewish Quarter Information Centre and the city also possesses an important Jewish necropolis on Montjuic hill. These are historical expressions of a period in the city's past when the Jewish community played a highly significant role.

The Jewish inheritance is a valuable legacy of Barcelona which is being added progressively to the city's visible heritage. For this reason, before acting on the necropolis of Monjuic, it is appropriate to sediment [sic] the legal and scientific arguments which will allow action to be taken there will all due rigour and the necessary sensitivity. This conference, which is open to all interested persons and which will be welcoming experts and professionals from different places in the world, proposes to analyze the vicissitudes experienced in other actions on Jewish necropolises, and then to approach the case of Barcelona from the legal and scientific standpoints.

The need for forums in Catalonia and throughout the rest of Spain for discussion of issues related to the documentation, protection, preservation and presentation of Jewish heritage is great, therefore the scheduling of this conference in Barcelona is important. I fear, however, that the views expressed by the invited experts may not reflect a representative sample of opinion. The very wording of the statement of purpose of the seminar, which sets out to examine the question of the Barcelona Jewish cemetery from a "legal and scientific" standpoints suggests that others approaches - religious, ethical, moral, historical and cultural - may get short shrift. I hope not. These approaches need to be considered as part of archaeology, too.

The seminar features presentations from distinguished speakers - many of whom I admire greatly. From the program, however, it appears that the bulk of presentations are by archaeologists - some of whom are on record as being dissatisfied with resolutions where human remains from medieval cemeteries have been re-interred, or those in the field of heritage site management. There is no presentation of Jewish law or tradition from a scholar or authority on Jewish burial practices to provide appropriate balance. There is participation of one representative from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain on the round table "Models and protocols of intervention on medieval cemeteries in Catalonia." Given that the Federation recently signed a protocol (since rejected) which would have allowed the essentially unhindered excavation of cemeteries in favor of development projects, this particular representation does necessarily speak to the protection of cemetery sites. Without the discussion of the religious factors and inclusion of religious viewpoints as part of the discussion, any solutions proposed from the seminar are bound to be questioned and are likely to fail. Including all sides in the discussion is, of course, a messy business. But so is digging up cemeteries.

The seminar organizers seem to accept a priori that the Jewish cemetery in Barcelona (and by association, all other such cemeteries in the region) is first and foremost an archaeological site and can and should be considered as part of the archaeological heritage of the region. Even the seminar speakers who I can recognize as being Jewish come from mostly an archaeological background, or are professionally engaged in the presentation of archaeological sites.

I would put forward the claim the Montjuic is not an archaeological site - but a religious, historical, cultural and urban site - both sacred and communal - and therefore needs to be considered under a different set of assumptions, standards and expectations than archaeological sites.

True, many archaeological techniques of survey, mapping, testing, conservation and interpretation can be applied at Montjuic, without excavation of the human remains. This is the type of "scientific" work that should be proposed and pursued.

I hope that the conference will be recorded and/or transcribed. The presentation will certainly be important contribution to the continuing discussions on how to interpret and preserve the medieval Jewish heritage in Spain.

Spain: More on Toledo Cemetery Situation

On the situation in Toledo see my lengthy post of a few days ago -- I was holding it waiting for confirmation on a few points. Here is more news from Ruth Ellen Gruber's blog and the JTA.

Spain: Temporary Halt of Construction at Toledo Cemetery Site

Spain: Temporary Halt of Construction at Toledo Cemetery Site
by Samuel D. Gruber

The rhetoric and protests over the excavation of the medieval Jewish cemetery in Toledo, Spain have heated up since I last wrote about this in early November. There have been some recent developments that give hope for a solution. Specifically, the Spanish government has ordered a stop on all work at the site until at least January 15, 2009. A complete halt to work was a condition of Jewish religious groups to their joining in negotiation. The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) in a press release (below) praise the government's action as "positive decision." The halt follows weeks of public demonstrations outside of Spanish embassies, protests form abroad to the Spanish government and intensive discussions by representatives of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, the CER, and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE).

These discussions followed the signing by the president of the Spanish Jewish Federation in late November of a protocol with the Spanish government that would allow Jewish cemeteries when found to be excavated, but to have the bones collected and removed elsewhere. The agreement was widely denounced - since it opens the doors for unlimited development of cemetery sites. It also violates the most basic regard for the religious sanctity of cemeteries - a critical belief of observant Jews; and also their historic and cultural importance, a value cherished by cultural traditionalists and historians, and historic preservationists. Archaeologists were dissatisfied, too, since it allowed excavation but not the prolonged analysis of human remains essential to the field of paleopathology, physical anthropology and related branches of archaeology. As a result, the Rabbinical Council of Spain sent a letter to the government clearly requesting the legal protection of Jewish cemeteries.

To my mind, this should have been the first and only position advocated, and it is the only acceptable solution. Only by beginning with a blanket protection of cemeteries can extraordinary circumstances and situation be recognized and when necessary negotiated and resolved. It is important that the destruction of cemeteries and the exhumation of remains always be the absolute last solution.

Prayer vigils (demonstrations) organized by The Central Rabbinical Council (CRC) of the United States and Canada in front of the Spanish Consulate in New York, and other demonstrations organized by Atra Kadisha - the most active of all groups in monitoring archaeological work in Israel (and increasingly in Europe, too) - at the Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv raised the public profile of the conflict. Rabbi Isaac Gluck, executive director of The Central Rabbinical Council (CRC) of the United States and Canada wrote a strong public letter in which he compared the removal of the dead from the cemetery to the brutal expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. In his letter to the Spanish Ambassador in Washington Rabbi Gluck wrote that "we hope that you would enhance your tourism among Jews by protecting Jewish cemeteries as revered remnants of a Golden Age - not threatened tourism with acts of brutality, which remind Spanish citizens, and Jews alike of the acts, which even now cause pain and anguish in their recollection."

The public protests follow a previously successful media-savvy method of putting pressure on recalcitrant governments (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic). Significantly, it is the Spanish Foreign Ministry, that has taken the lead on calling for a halt to the excavations, not the municipality nor any department of internal affairs.

The Barcelona-based cultural heritage group ZACHOR has called for the landmark designation of the Toledo cemetery site - something that can easily be done according to existing Spanish cultural heritage law. In the case of Toledo, archaeologists seem to be keeping quiet ,and they are surely caught in the middle. The cemetery excavation was neither advocated nor planned by archaeologists - they were instead performing common archaeological rescue work, making the best of a bad situation when a sanctioned development project encroaches on historical remains. It is the local government which presumably gave the permit for this work that is mostly at fault, since the approximate location of the cemetery has been long known to local historians. Archaeologists have apparently tried to treat the site with care, with the hope of extracting all information about its history as possible in these circumstances.

I still have not heard what, if any, comment or protest the staff of Toledo's well-known Museo Sefardi have made about the cemetery excavation. Certainly, as the locally recognized authorities on Jewish culture in Toledo they should have been vigilant in identifying and protecting historic Jewish sites.

Where do we go from here? I propose three tasks

1. In Toledo, restoration of the cemetery site. Burials should remain in situ and be recovered, removed bones should be returned. The school will have to find another solution for its expansion. The Jewish community, the Museo Sefardi and others should use this as an opportunity to develop education and la cultural programming about Jewish history in the area. If all the bones have alreacdy been removed, the solution used in York, England may be neccessary - the creation of a new place at the site for re-burial of remains.

2. Nationwide, all pre-modern Jewish cemeteries should be immediately added to the national list of protected historic sites and they should be properly marked so none can claim ignorance of their existence.

3. Since the exact location of only a few medieval Jewish cemeteries is known, an intensive multi-year research effort needs to be undertaken to identify with as much exactitude as possible the actual and likely locations of Jewish cemeteries. Scholars in archives and archaeologists using various regional and site survey methods can move this project forward. ZAKHOR has already presented a proposal (for which it seeks funding) to begin this process. Together with a list of distinguished scholars, I have agreed to advise and possibly participate in such a project.

I'll be writing more about this, and related issues of medieval Jewish remnants and remain in Europe in future blog posts.

Press Release from the Conference of European Rabbis 12/22/2008

SPANISH GOVERNMENT ORDERS STOP TO JEWISH CEMETERY DESECRATION IN TOLEDO

European rabbis praise authorities' positive stance

London, December 22 - The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE) welcome the decision of the government of the Kingdom of Spain to cease all works at the medieval Jewish cemetery in Toledo.

The decision taken Friday, December 19, follows high-level meetings at the Spanish foreign ministry in Madrid with representatives of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain, the Conference of Spanish Rabbis, the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE).

The CER and CPJCE welcome this positive decision on the part of the Spanish government and urge the government to verify that its decision is fully adhered to on the ground by the local authorities in Castilla-La Mancha.

At its meeting on December 18 in Madrid with Ambassador Ana Salomon of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, CPJCE Executive Director Rabbi Avraham Ginsburg and CER International Relations Director Philip Carmel had demanded that work cease immediately at the Toledo cemetery. Such a halt is deemed urgent by senior European rabbinical authorities in order that an adequate solution can be found for the graves.

Talks are continuing with the authorities in Madrid and Toledo to find a comprehensive solution to this issue in the coming days.

The CER and CPJCE demand that all further actions by the authorities in Toledo and by the Spanish government concerning the Jewish cemetery in Toledo and all Jewish cemeteries in Spain be coordinated with the full approval of the Conference of Spanish Rabbis headed by the Chief Rabbi of Madrid, Rabbi Moshe Bendahan, and with the CER and CPJCE.

The Conference of European Rabbis federates Jewish religious leaders in over 40 European countries and includes all the continent's chief rabbis and senior rabbinical judges. The CER holds consultancy status as an international non-governmental organisation at the Council of Europe and within the institutions of the European Union.

The Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe is a voluntary organisation founded in 1995 with the task of safeguarding, protecting and preserving Jewish cemeteries and mass graves all over Europe. The CPJCE is headed by a team of distinguished experts in Jewish law and is regarded as the foremost halachic authority on the preservation of Jewish cemeteries in Europe. ENDS

Thanks to Dominique Tomasov Blinder in Barcelona and Philip Carmel in Brussels for information used in this report

Spain: Excavation for Construction on Site of Medieval Jewish Cemetery in Toledo

Spain: Excavation for Construction on Site of Medieval Jewish Cemetery in Toledo

By Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Dominque Tomasov Blinder and David Stoleru of the Center of Studies ZAKHOR in Barcelona report that excavation for new construction is taking place on the site recognized as the medieval Jewish cemetery of Toledo, Spain. There is already a school on the site, built in the 80’s that destroyed a great part of the cemetery. The new excavation is for expansion of the school.

This past week, Atra Kadishah (Israel) traveled to Madrid together with a delegation of American Rabbis. A series of meetings have taken place with government officials form the United States, and the Department of Religious Affairs of the Spanish Ministry of Justice, and other officials.

Blinder and Stoleru visited the site to meet with the archaeologist in charge and with the Director of Landmarks of the region of Castille-La Mancha, to explain the significance of cemeteries in Judaism and that Jewish grave – no matter when they are from – are considered inviolate except in extreme circumstances. ZACHOR’s intention is to find a solution for the site with respect for its meaning and to avoid irreversible damage. To my mind the only solution in such a case must be to halt new excavation in any area that can be confirmed to hold graves. It is possible that some surface construction can be allowed that would ultimately protect the graves.

According to Blinder, “Toledo is the city where the three cultures flourished in the Middle Ages reaching at times exemplary levels of "Convivencia", where the famous School of Translators produced great pieces which contributed to the intellectual development of the world, a city where even very important Rabbis from Catalonia and from Germany chose to live. Today, besides two synagogues (of the 10 that existed at the time) which can be visited today as Museums, the ancient cemetery is the only other landmark which remains of the Jewish community which once lived there. This community certainly deserves respect for their tradition and beliefs.”

"This cemetery definitely transcends the city of Toledo, as the descendants of Jews from Toledo now live in the five corners of the earth. Urban growth in the last century has destroyed most of its extension. Now there is a small portion, with about 85 tombs that is vulnerable to construction and will disappear forever if nothing is done to prevent it.”

It should be noted that Toledo is among the most visited cities in Spain for its Jewish heritage. It is home to two medieval synagogues that can be visited, as well as the Museo Sefardi, located at the Samuel Ha-Levi Synagogue. The Museum contains many old gravestones, some of which presumably came from the old cemetery site.

I will continue to follow this story as more information comes in.