In a time of restricted movement, take a virtual trip around the world with JR’s course about the Sephardi story. Led by Jeremy Leigh of Jewish Journeys, students are invited on an epic journey that begins in Spain and travels to exotic destinations, including Istanbul, Salonica, Monastir, Fez and Ashkelon.
Given that the Jews leave Egypt, so to speak, from the comfort of their homes each year at Pesach, this is not the first time we’ve been confronted by the challenge of virtual travel and we’ll be embracing it wholeheartedly. Join us to follow the dramas and cultural achievements of the Sephardi story throughout history.
This is a truly transnational tale that begins with one of the most optimistic and creative periods of Jewish history. At the nexus of the Muslim and Christian world, something remarkable happened in Medieval Spain that would reshape our understanding of Jewish identity and culture. We’ll cover these events in detail in the first session, following which we’ll retrace the steps of the Jewish diaspora across Europe, the Balkans and North Africa, come up against the Ottoman Empire, meet the contemporary Sephardi community and much more.
See below for the full course schedule.
About Jeremy Leigh:
As well as being director of Jewish Journeys, an ongoing project to develop and promote Jewish travel, Leigh lectures in Israel Studies and Jewish History at Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem. He is also an academic advisor to the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ), most notably on the European Routes of Jewish Heritage project, and to the Council of Europe. Born in the UK, he has been based in Israel since 1992.
Tickets: full course
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Tickets: single session
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Journey 1 // Monday 3 August
Al-Andalus: Jews, Islam and the thrill of a new empire
Crossing the Straits from Africa to Spain, Islam brought all the energy of a burgeoning new civilisation. For Jews, this could not have come at a better time as the old centres in Babylon were declining. This session will explore all the cultural achievements and political challenges of Jewish life on this exciting and new Islamic frontier: a story of intellectual and artistic creativity. We will visit sites in and around Córdoba, Seville and Toledo.
Click here to download source notes for Week 1.
Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba
Journey 2 // Monday 10 August
From Reconquista to conversos
The high points of history never last forever, as evidenced by the experience of Sephardi Jews in Medieval Spain. It took 500 years for Christianity to “reconquer” (as they call it) Spain, driving out Islam and bringing an end to the remarkable period of La Convivencia (The Coexistence). In the process, new chapters of anti-Jewish rhetoric were written and new responses to oppression were created. We revisit the sites and stories of Jews as well as those who converted (conversos), adapting to an intolerant and increasingly violent Spanish Christianity. In this session we visit Barcelona, Saragossa and Girona.
Click here to download source notes for Week 2.
Journey 3 // Monday 17 August
Post-1492: Sephardi Diaspora within a Diaspora
How do Jews respond to catastrophes that overwhelm them? And when Jews are forced to move on, how long does the trauma impact and transform them? After 1492, a whole new Jewish diaspora was born reaching across Europe, the Balkans and North Africa. These were communities that looked back on the world that had been lost and struggled to build something new in radically changed circumstances. The results were both remarkable and occasionally destructive. On this journey we’ll encounter Constantinople, Izmir, Salonica and Venice.
Click here to download source notes for Week 3.
Library of Celsus, Ephesus, Izmir
Journey 4 // Monday 24 August
Pushing to new frontiers
When the Ottomans occupied Budapest in the 17th century, Sephardi Jews joined the Muslim centre on the Danube. By the 18th century it was Sephardi Jews in southern France who were emancipated a year before their Ashkenazi compatriots further north in Alsace-Lorraine. Sephardi Jews were at the forefront of the new age of mercantilism in the Netherlands. The first Jewish cemetery in America was that of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in New Amsterdam. These and many more stories and associated sites tell of a community and identity that was on the frontier of a new world. In this session we travel to Venice, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, London and Charleston (South Carolina).
Click here to download source notes for Week 4.
Journey 5 // Monday 31 August
Sites and stories of Sephardi Jews and the Shoah
Often missed by conventional retellings of the Holocaust, the Sephardi Jewish community did not escape the Final Solution. Whether former Ottoman Jews of newly independent Greece and recently colonised Libya, or the Sephardi Jews of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, the experience of these Jews highlighted the challenge of living in complex societies with fast-changing identities. This session leads us to Salonica, Monastir, Tripoli and Auschwitz.
Click here to download source notes for Week 5.
Jerusalem Old City
Journey 6 // Monday 7 September
Exile and Return: The Contemporary Sephardi Story
This may appear to be the end of the journey, but important questions linger: what is the meaning of Sephardi identity over 500 years since the expulsion? And what remains of the Islamic-Jewish encounter and how many new diasporas were created along the way? New personalities – rabbis, politicians, poets and singers – have arisen, wishing to celebrate Sephardi identity, promote a kind of renaissance, and claim a rightful place for this story within the cotemporary Jewish world. Our final journey leads us to Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Sderot, Montreal and back to Spain.
Click here to download source notes for Week 6.
