August 5, 2013 · 8:06 pm

Spain’s Most Visible Jewish Heritage Is Edible.

August 3rd passes largely unnoticed in Barcelona, though down in Huelva Province it’s the last day of a week long festival. It was from there that Columbus set out on August 3, 1492, on his first voyage in search of the Indies. That was a good day or a bad one, depending on your perspective.

In the history of Barcelona, August 5th – today – is a terrible day about which nothing good can be said. It too, goes by unnoticed here, and with good reason. Six centuries ago, on the heels of a violent pogrom that destroyed the entire Jewish community of Seville, Christian mobs took to the streets and wrought the same havoc on the Jewish quarter of Barcelona, that at its peak was home to the largest single Jewish population of the Middle Ages: 4,000 Jews – fifteen percent of the city’s population. Continue reading →

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July 11, 2013 · 8:50 pm

Could Spain’s Berlin Wall Be Crumbling, Too?

In the pueblo of Palafolls (Catalonia), a plaza dedicated to "The Country of Sepharad" is commemorated with a wall of poured concrete. Photo taken by Janet Amateau

In the pueblo of Palafolls (Catalonia), a plaza dedicated to “The Country of Sepharad” is commemorated with a wall of poured concrete. Photo taken by Janet Amateau

A Spanish news item caught my eye recently about a medieval conference in Zamora Province, and today the Jerusalem Post has reported on it in English, which you can read here. It’s a very exciting story!

What it boils down to is that some Jewish scholars challenged Spain on the way textbook history is taught here. (They’re a little less than forthcoming or accurate.) Cervantes was the focal point of discussion. The evidence so powerfully pointed toward his being of Jewish ancestry that no one could deny this long promoted theory any longer. Hooray!

Continue reading →

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June 23, 2013 · 5:05 pm

Coming soon…

Reshas (biscochos)

Reshikas (biscochos)

A household of one has to go slowly testing baked goods!

As this half-full jar (or is it half empty?) implies, I’ve been baking – and eating. This is my latest test batch of biscochos, and I’m getting very close to a recipe I really like, i.e. with the flavor and texture of my great grandma’s. I aim to get there, but I’m pacing myself – biscochos are so good, even a mediocre recipe is irresistible.

Stay tuned!

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April 19, 2013 · 5:05 pm

Chocolate counts.

I can’t think of a single holiday when chocolate confections weren’t served in our home. It was the Sephardic relatives, not the Ashkenazim, to whom it mattered most. It had to be on the dessert table, or some kind of self-imposed shame would befall the hostess.  Not in the recipes, mind you. On the side. Boxed chocolates, and the fancier the better.

I’ve only occasionally dwelled on that distinction between the two groups of relatives, probably precisely because we don’t incorporate chocolate into very many of our traditional recipes.  But when you stop to think that Spanish & Portuguese Jews and conversos were among the earliest (and most active) traders during the Age of Discovery, a strong historical link between Sephardim and chocolate seems fairly obvious. Continue reading →

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