Sephardic Spain: The Incredible Remnants of Jewish Culture in the Old Quarters of Spain: Segovia, Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla, Ribadavia (Galicia), Tudela (Navarra), Girona (Catalunya), Hervás (Cáceres)

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 Santa Maria La Blanca, 12th-Century Ibn Shushan Synagogue in Toledo.
Now a Christian church, this is the loveliest synagogue that I have seen in Spain.  It is a superb, unique example of Moorish Mudejar architecture under Jewish patronage. Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2019.

 

Click on title to see entire post.

"Always grazing
here in this garden--
I'm dark-eyed just
like you, and lonely.
We both live far
from friends, forsaken --
patiently bearing
our fate's decree."

-- Qasmuna bint Ismail al Yahudi

 

Museo Sefardí in the Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish Quarter of Sevilla. (Now, sadly closed.) Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain & The Pre-Post COVID 3500 Kms. Road Warrior Adventure in June 2021.

 

Also named Santa María la Blanca, this church in Sevilla, began as a synagogue in 13th century and was later converted in a Christian church.  

 

 

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Jewish Spain Susona: The Legend of the Beautiful Jewish Girl in Sevilla Whose Betrayal Led to Implementation of The Spanish Inquisition in the 15th Century (My article In Madrid's Guidepost Magazine, May 25, 1974)

 

The stuff of legend, Susona's skull, on a house in el Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish Quarter of Sevilla.  (Photo courtesy of Leyendas de Sevilla)

La bella Susona. Una mujer fatal del siglo XV.   (Leyendas de Sevilla) 

Version in Spanish.

 

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Sephardic Spain: Update on My Search for Jewish Historical Sites in Spain Part II of III The Call, Barcelona's Former Jewish Quarter with Barcelona Expert George Semler

 

 George Semler showing his wife Lucie and me el Call, the old Jewish Quarter of Barcelona.

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Sephardic Spain: Update on My Search for Jewish Historical Sites in Spain Part III of III Lorca's (Murcia) Jewish Village & Synagogue in a Castle and the Most Incredible Holy Week Processions Ever

 

Gerry Dawes with Jewish figure sounding the shofar at Archaeological Museum of Lorca, Lorca (Murcia).

 

The synagogue in this Jewish village at Lorca’s Fortaleza del Sol  is particularly important, partly because it is the only known synagogue recovered in Spain that had never been converted into a Christian church.  Part of the original walls with the layout of the building, including the entranceway for men and their prayer benches, have been preserved in their original state.  Also uncovered were pieces of plasterwork with intricate designs and colored ceramics tiles.  The area above the main hall where women worshiped has been reconstructed with a wooden screen that allowed them to see, but kept them unseen by the men in the congregation (since this area is small, there is some doubt as to whether women worshipped at this synagogue at the same time as men).  The excavators also uncovered the aron kodesh (“holy ark”), the Sephardim called the ark,  the holiest place in the synagogue--where the Torah Scrolls are kept--the heichal (“chamber”).  They also uncovered the foundations of a raised stone podium the bema, or bima,  in ancient Greece.  This podium, using for reading the Torah during the services, is known a bimah in synagogues.

 

 

  Bronze symbol in the shape of a map of Spain with Hebrew lettering embedded in a street of the old Jewish quarter of Ribadavia (Ourense), Galicia.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2012; gerrydawes@aol.com 

 

 

A Tafona da Herminia, A Pastry Shop in the Barrio Judio (Old Jewish Quarter) of Ribadavia, Ourense, Galicia, Specialinzing in Shephardic Recipe-Inspired Pastries

 

Herminia and her selection of pastries made from Sephardic recipes from the 15th & 16th centuries, A Tafona da Herminia, Barrio Judio, Ribadavia (Ourense province), Galicia, Spain. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2019, Canon M3

 

 

 

Gerry Dawes with Herminia at la Tafona da Herminia, Ribadavia (Ourense), Galicia.
 

Descriptions of pastries at La Tafona da Herminia, Barrio Judio, Ribadavia (Ourense province), Galicia, Spain. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2019, Canon M3

Descriptions of pastries at La Tafona da Herminia, Barrio Judio, Ribadavia (Ourense province), Galicia, Spain.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2019, Canon M3.

 

More to come on Girona, Tudela, Hervás and Lucena. 

 

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Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photograph Edition, Foreword by José Andrés.

Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior Volume I (of IV) is a collection of non-fiction stories about the adventures of recognized Spanish food, wine and travel authority Gerry Dawes, recipient of the prestigious Spanish National Gastronomy Prize. Sunset in a Glass is illustrated with more than 150 color and black-and-white photographs chronicling adventures from decades of living and traveling in Spain. Foreword by José Andrés.

 Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

 Help Support Gerry Dawes's Spain & Its Content

If you enjoy these blog posts, please consider a contribution to help me continue the work of gathering all this great information and these photographs for Gerry Dawes's Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel. Contributions of $5 and up will be greatly appreciated. Contributions of $100 or more will be acknowledged on the blog. Please click on this secure link to Paypal to make your contribution.

 

Text and photographs copyright by Gerry Dawes©2021.  Using photographs without crediting Gerry Dawes©2021 on Facebook.  Publication without my written permission is not authorized.

 

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  Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?

 

Poem by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington,

in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York City.

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In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in 2019 by Feedspot. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019) 

"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."  

36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel

 
About Gerry Dawes

My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019

Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)

Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

 

Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com