Jewish Heritage Tours
CONTACT: 202.244.3975 RAH Productions P.O. Box 11398 Washington, DC 20008 robynhelzner@verizon.net
Robyn Helzner Jewish Heritage Tours

 

Kreplach & Tapas 
Jewish Heritage Tour to Spain November 2016

Madrid

Toledo

Grenada

Barcelona

Seville

Córdoba

Segovia

Girona

 Besalu

wenty-seven eager travelers joined me on a Jewish Heritage Tour to Spain. From November 6-17, 2016, our “Kreplach & Tapas” group visited Spanish cities once rich with Jewish life, culture and scholarship. While under the thumb of both Muslim and Christian rulers, the Jews of Spain managed to create a vibrant community that was cruelly destroyed by the edict of expulsion in 1492 and the forcible conversion of Jews that remained in Spain. We visited the remnants of medieval synagogues in Córdoba, Toledo and Barcelona, a Jewish cemetery in Segovia, one of the oldest mikvas of Europe in Besalu, and celebrated Shabbat with the Beit Rambam Progressive community in Seville. We also explored Jewish museums and cultural centers in Granada, Girona, Toledo, Córdoba and Seville.
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Our tour began with a visit to a new Jewish Day School in Madrid that hosts a population of 300 students from pre-K through 12th grade, and ended with meeting the spiritual leader of Atid, a Reform congregation in Barcelona. One participant noted that “book-ending” the trip with the school in the beginning and the Atid community at the end was “a hopeful sign that change can evolve despite disaster.” As we visited each historic Jewish site and met with Jewish communities in Madrid, Seville and Barcelona, our presence was a validation that despite the calamity that befell the Jews of Sepharad (Spain), ayinda estamos aqui! — we are still here!