eSefarad Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi
Gerona is a small town in the Catalonia region of Spain, just over an hour drive north of Barcelona. The old walled city was built on the side of a hill overlooking the new Gerona.
Prior to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 it was a famous center for Sephardic teaching with both a rabbinical college as well as a Kabalistic center. The most famous rabbi of Gerona prior to the expulsion was Rabbi Moshe ben Rahman Gerondi t was only in the early 1990’s that excavations and preservation of the ancient Jewish sites were ordered by the then Mayor of Gerona. Many of the old landmarks have been cleared and a Jewish Museum established. Records were found that established the first settlement of Jews dating back as far as the 9th century.
At its peak the Juderia (or Call as it was called) it had a bustling Jewish population of several thousand souls. Although no Jews live there now, the community there have taken the old Jewish life there to heart and are doing all they can to preserve all old buildings they open up.
By an original proclamation, homes of the Jews living in the Call were not allowed to have windows opening onto the myriad of narrow streets that navigate their way through the city. This led to entrances opening into courtyards around which the house was built. The result was not only homely, but recent investigations found a home that had been sealed up since the 15th century fully preserved, furniture and all.
The Jewish community was known as the Aljama and was protected by the royalty for an annual fee. In return they had complete autonomy, had their own mayor and city council within the Call and were not regulated by the Gerona city rules. It was a complex affair as this council had control of not just the municipal regulations within the Call, but also all the religious and legal affairs of the Jewish community.
The photographs show a synagogue that was converted to a church and still stands at the top of a flight of stairs, a picture inside the Jewish museum showing a sculpture of Christopher Columbus who was believed to have been from the Jewish community of Gerona, a typical Jewish home in the Call and the original site of the Rabbinical college.
Sol Menashe
Photos: Sol Menashe and Benveniste files
