Jewish quarters

ABSTRACT: Since Gómez Moreno, historians have identified the Arab Baths of Baza (11th century) as Jewish Baths. This mistake led them to consider that the surrounding area was the Jewish Quarter. The reality is very different. There were at least two baths in Baza: the oldest in Marzuela arrabal (conserved at present in the Santiago Quarter) and the other, built ca. 1520 for the Moorish community, on the other side of the city. This Bath, situated in calle de la Judería (today calle del Cáliz, in the San Juan Quarter), has been destroyed. The little Jewish community of Baza never use this bath because of the Expulsion of the Spanish Jews thirty years before. RESUMEN: La historiografia tradicional, con Gómez Moreno a la cabeza, ha identificado los baños árabes de la ciudad de Baza (s. XI) como pertenecientes a la minoría judía. Este error de base ha hecho que en el entorno circundante se haya situado la supuesta judería. La realidad es bien distinta. En Baza existieron, al menos, dos baños: el antiguo del arrabal de Marzuela- que es el que se conserva actualmente, en el barrio de Santiago- y otro construido en tomo a 1520 para el uso de la comunidad morisca local en el otro extremo de la ciudad, situado en la antigua calle de la Judería -hoy calle del Cáliz, en el barrio de San Juan- y actualmente desaparecido. La pequeña comunidad judía de Baza nunca pudo utilizar estas termas puesto que había sido expulsada, junto al resto de hebreos españoles, casi treinta años antes.

Resumen. En el presente artículo se traza una breve semblanza del linaje de los Abnuba-el patriarca, Menahem, y sus hijos Abraham y Simuel-, radicado en Barbastro (Huesca), gran parte de cuyos integrantes son mercaderes de équidos, ele-mento estratégico no solo en el transporte de personas y mercancías, sino también como tracción en las tareas agrícolas. Se analiza, a través de los protocolos notariales, su actividad económica, canalizada mediante una compañía mercantil mixta, cuyo radio de acción se extiende por el Somontano de Barbastro y de Huesca. Así mismo se reflexiona sobre su habitus y su mentalidad pues, en cuanto negotiatores, la familia y los lazos de sangre discurren paralelos de su trayectoria profesional.

The article discusses Jewish quarters in contemporary Spain and Portugal. It is focused on institutionalised practices towards them and their remnants in the urban tissue. While in the Middle Ages they served as a method of religious segregation, nowadays they are used with the purpose of demonstration religious diversity. They are subject of research projects, meticulous reconstruction and reinterpretation. The forerunner of presenting Jewish quarters as a part of multicultural heritage in Spain is Red de Juderías de España – Caminos de Sefarad, which has its Portuguese counterpart, Rede de Judiarias de Portugal – Rotas de Sefarad. Their activity incorporates administering registers, organizing multimedia projects, conferences, exhibitions, educational projects and elaborating tourist products on Jewish quarters.

Artykuł dotyczy starych dzielnic żydowskich w Hiszpanii i Portugalii. Poświęcony jest zinstytucjonalizowanym sposobom obchodzenia się z nimi i pozostałościami po nich w tkance współczesnych miast. Niegdyś służyły segregacji wyznaniowej, a dziś wykorzystywane są w celu eksponowania różnorodności. Stanowią przedmiot prac badawczych, poddawane są rekonstrukcji i zabiegom reinterpretacyjnym. Flagową formą działania na rzecz przedstawiania ich jako części wielokulturowego dziedzictwa jest w Hiszpanii Red de Juderías de España-Caminos de Sefarad, która ma swój portugalski odpowiednik: Rede de Judiarias de Portugal – Rotas de Sefarad. Aktywność tych stowarzyszeń obejmuje prowadzenie rejestrów, projektów multimedialnych, organizację konferencji, pokazów, projektów edukacyjnych oraz opracowywanie produktów turystycznych na temat dzielnic żydowskich.

At the beginning of the 2000’s investors became interested in district 8, one of the internal districts of Budapest. District 8 – the so-called Belső-Erzsébet város [Internal Erzsébet town] – is situated on the Pest side of Budapest, in the vicinity of the inner city centre developed in the 19th century. Some of the buildings in the district were built even at the beginning of the 19th century.  2004 A civil group named PROTEST  established organised demonstrations against uncontrolled sale, demolition and building. As a result of the radical steps of this civil organisation a dialogue started in the media, which contributed to the fact that this part of the district became known as the Jewish quarter and determined the set of images associated with this phrase. Since 2002 the quarter has been under UNESCO protection, which clearly legitimated the outstanding cultural heritage of the Jewish quarter.
In the debate arising in connection with the protection and architectural redefinition of the Jewish quarter one of the most significant break lines was represented by the discussion around the definition of the concept of the ‘Jewish quarter’. But how can the phrase ‘Jewish quarter’ be interpreted, when the Jewish community, which is different in ‘appearance’ and presumably in respect of its practices too (meaning a strictly religious community), does not leave clearly materialising impressions on the cityscape, as, for example, in Antwerp or Williamsburg?
Within these frames this paper concentrates first of all on the ‘external’ (i.e. non-Jewish) reading, on the images present in this reading and called in this study ‘urban tableaux’, as they seem to play a dominant role in the contemporary interpretation and revitalisation of Jewish quarters.

A pesar de la escasa documentación conservada, se puede afirmar la existencia tanto de comunidades judías, como de individuos aislados viviendo en el valle del Miño que mantuvieron relaciones personales y económicas con comunidades judías portuguesas situadas al norte del Duero. Además de las relaciones explícitamente documentadas, ciencias como la onomástica o la antroponimia sirven como instrumento  para afirmar la presencia de judíos o familias de origen gallego en las comunidades portuguesas al llevar estos últimos el apellido "galego". Cuando en 1496 los judíos son expulsados del reino de Portugal Galicia, en general, y el valle del Miño, en particular, se convirtieron en centro de acogida de numerosos judíos portugueses tal y como ha quedado documentado en los archivos inquisitoriales.
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In spite of the few documents available, it is possible to confirm the existence of personal and economic relations between Jewish communities and isolated individuals living in the Miño valley and the Portuguese Jewish communities living in the region north of the River Douro. Apart from the well-documented relationships, sciences such as onomastics and anthroponymy can be used to confirm the presence of Jews or families of Galician origin living in Portuguese communities, since they bore a “galego” (Galician) surname. According the Inquisitorial Records, when the Jews
were expelled from Portugal in 1496, most of them were received in the region of
Galicia in general and the Miño valley in particular

The archaeological intervention, focusing a building at the 26th of Barão de Viamonte Street, Leiria, would reveal housing structures dating back to the jewish medieval quarter of this portuguese city. This structures corroborated the existence of two different small urban areas, separated by a street or alley meanwhile annulled by the construction that would convert the two areas into the present building. This two areas, arranged into narrow and deep rectangles accordingly to medieval urban standards, included two distinct houses, backyards, a well and most certainly a storage area with remains of food supplies pos. The configuration of those areas, and therefore of the street or alley between them, would also be shaped by a irremovable pile of stone rubble, originating on the nearby medieval castle’s hilltop. The two houses would grow both in hight and area during the Modern Ages. According to the archaeological remains, the building’s façade responsable for connecting the two preceding buildings would be erected only in contemporary times (probably in the early nineteenth century), annuling once and for all this forever vanished medieval street.

The paper examines the historical narratives related to the material and immaterial heritage of the ancient Jewish quarters of the Autonomous Community of Aragon (Spain) within the context of transmedia narrative and experiential or emotional tourism. By applying this theoretical approach to the legacy of medieval Jewish heritage, we seek to identify those stories that could arguably form the basis for the future creation of transmedia stories framed as a strategic plan of dissemination and tourism within the future network of Jewish quarters of Aragon. The ‘case study’, which moreover serves as a research methodology, provides guidelines for the promotion and dissemination of an ethical, cultural and patrimonial legacy by integrating stories into the nine itineraries which define the main Jewish quarters of the former Kingdom of Aragon, consistent with the strategic actions of various areas. The results will be incorporated into the Strategic Plan promoted by the Government of Aragon, called “Arag
on Sefarad. Legacy and memory”. The purpose of this plan is to create cultural heritage routes which respond to a change in the orientation of European tourism policy by enriching and diversifying the visitor’s profile and keeping the fascination with the past intact.

Curso de verano organizado por la Universidad Internacional del Mar y la Universidad de Murcia, que tuvo lugar entre los días 19 y 21 de julio de 2021.
Organización: Jorge A. Eiroa Rodríguez y Andrés Martínez Rodríguez.
Secretaría: María Isabel Molina Campuzano

Nachdem er pandemiebedingt mehrfach verlegt werden musste, soll der gemeinsam mit dem Tübinger Arbeitskreis für Geschichte und Kultur der Juden in Schwaben geplanter Workshop "Topographie und Erinnerung - Mittelalterliche jüdische Wohnquartiere in Schwaben" nun am 16./17. September 2021 in Tübingen stattfinden.
Bitte beachten! Entgegen älterer Programmversionen findet der Workshop in der "Alten Aula", Münzgasse 30, statt.