Travel Inspiration - Jewish Heritage in Spain

This was going to be a book review, but Jewish Roots in Spain by Koldo Chamorro is more of a pictorial than anything else. And the pictures in this book speak of the amazing Jewish heritage in Spain (or Sepharad, as they call Spain in Modern Hebrew).

Spain's history up to 1492 is a study in tolerance and peaceful coexistence of three different ethnic/religious groups: Muslims, Jews (Sephardim), and Christians. While various cities had either Muslim or Christian rulers, all three groups thrived under an almost paradisiacal harmony. The Jewish community in Spain was an important player in the country's politics and finances, regardless of its regional leaders. Sadly, Ferdinand and Isabella wanted a Catholic Spain and forced the Jewish community into a long exile.

They left behind a rich cultural heritage, visible today in the Jewish quarters (or Juderias) of cities like Toledo, Seville, Tarazona, Besalu, Cordoba, Segovia, Hervas, Tudela, Olite, Calatayud, Chelva, Montblanc, Albaracin, Xativa, Sagunto, Girona, Caceres, Daroca, Barcelona, Peniscola.
Do not miss Cordoba's Synagogue, Toledo's Sinagoga del Transito and Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca, as well as Toledo's Sephardic Museum. An interesting piece of trivia: Toledo's famed house of El Greco was actually built and owned by Samuel Levi, treasurer to King Pedro I.

A vacation package following the Jewish Heritage theme is the 8-nighter Spanish Sepharad train package which takes you through Madrid, Cordoba, Girona, and Barcelona or the car and train package Jewish Heritage that adds Toledo to the previously mentioned route.

For a better understanding of Spain's Jewish community contribution to the World Heritage, let us not forget the great intellectual figures of yester-Sepharad: Yehuda Ha-Levi, Shlomo ibn Gabirol - poet born in Malaga, Samuel ibn Negrella, Abraham ibn Ezra, Dunash ibn Labrat, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, Isaac Abravenel, Nahmanides, Samuel Halevi, Abraham Zacut, and Maimonides.