Jewish Barcelona – Past and Present

Stroll virtually through the streets of Barcelona with Victor and Eva — two heritage experts and members of the Jewish cultural platform Mozaika — and uncover key chapters of the story of Jews in Barcelona from the 9th century to today. This engaging presentation, with a live Q and A, reveals the secrets of the city’s Jewish history and explores its Jewish community in the present day. Glimpse Barcelona’s medieval Jewish community and discover the return of Jews to Sepharad. Learn more about the Spanish Civil war and get insight into the development of Barcelona’s modern Jewish communities, applying a critical eye to the narratives that have been built around the city’s Jewish history.

The Jerusalem of Sefarad

Welcome to Toledo — a Jewish city currently without any Jews. Join our guide Jonathan as he explores the Jewish history of this Spanish city. An Israeli living in Spain since 2003, Jonathan has been a resident of Toledo for the past two years. A musician and tour guide, he finds Jewish history around every corner in this medieval city, walking in the streets where Yehuda ha-Levi, Rabbi Don Isaac Abarbanel, Samuel ha-Levi, Solomon ibn Gabirol and many more used to walk. Learn more about the amazing synagogues, including the El Transito synagogue that became a museum during the last century, and share in Jonathan’s discoveries!

Unraveling Girona’s Jewish quarter

Cohabitation, coexistence, convenience. Join our guide Marc to discuss how these three words summarize the life of Girona’s Jewish community in its role as a social minority. How was their daily life? What was their cultural, political and religious life like day-to-day? How was their relationship with the Christians, among others? Together, we will seek answers and ask ourselves new questions about Girona, city mother of Israel as we discover the Museum of Jewish History and the Jewish quarter of Girona, together.

Shai is the current chair of the Judaism department at Universidad Católica del Uruguay and is the director of Bereshit: The Jewish Experience. He has received a Master’s Degree from the University of Barcelona as well as a Bachelor’s from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Uruguay has a population close to 16.000 Jews, mostly located in Montevideo. This virtual Jewish tour of Uruguay offers a journey into the past and present of the vibrant Jewish Community of Uruguay. Participants will learn about the most iconic sites of Montevideo, discovering hidden treasures of Jewish heritage.

Jews have been living in Ecuador since the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, but those early Sephardic families almost completely assimilated. Today Ecuador has only about 800 Jews. The majority live in Quito, the beautiful capital nestled near the equator at an elevation of 9,350 feet. Our guide Jorge was born in this city. He found out about his Sephardic roots from his father who told him they were descendants from Spanish Sephardic Jews. As Ecuadorian Jewry is small, he only learned about Judaism when he moved to the US to study at university and discovered the religious aspect of Judaism through his university friends. Jorge lives today in Stockholm, Sweden and is currently researching his Jewish roots.

Marcos was born and raised in Recife, Brazil, from an Ashkenazi family. He is a Jewish educator in the youth movement Habonim Dror. The Jewish history in Brazil began a long time ago, with Sephardic Jews arriving under Portuguese and Dutch colonial rule. Actually in Recife specifically, the first synagogue built in the Americas named “Kahal Zur Israel” was recovered in 2000. In this talk we are going to introduce participants to the Jewish history in Brazil, throughout the colonial times and during the recent history, and learn how Jews arrived in this beautiful city and created the current Jewish community.

Leon is an artist who also co-leads the Taiwan Jewish Community together with the 102-year-old Rabbi Einhorn. The community, which began in 1955 on a military base and is now deeply rooted in the life of the island, may be one of the world’s only shuls unaffected by the pandemic! In fact, our Chanukah gathering of 200 may have been the world’s largest (legal) celebration. Leon’s art is a powerful form of storytelling and much of his latest work, including ‘dream-scapes’ and a haggadah, is a journey into the exciting revival of Jewish life in his current corner of Asia. 

For many people it is surprising to learn that there is a long and rich history of Jewish communities in China. In this talk we will explore the three places with the most relevant historical presence of Jews: Kaifeng (where a community was established in the Middle Ages and whose descendants still live today); Harbin (where a community from Russia thrived around the Trans-Siberian Railway), and Shanghai (where thousands of Jews came as refugees during WWII). We will also learn how Jewish life is today for those who currently live in China. Originally from Argentina, Pablo Faivel Levinton is a fluent Yiddish speaker currently studying a Master’s degree in China, from where he runs the popular traveling YouTube channel “A mole around the world” dedicated to show faraway places where there are, or have been, Jewish communities to his more than 24,000 subscribers.

Jerry came to Japan in 1972 with his wife Marsha. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio he has lived in Japan for almost 50 years. During this time they have been very active in the Jewish community of Japan. In the Hot Air Zoom Balloon, we will  uncover the history of Jews in Japan and how the community was established in 1953.  You will learn why Vodka was so important to the founders of our community.

Rabbi David Kunin has spent more than 60 days along with his wife Shelley and colleague Rabbi Shoshana, working with the vibrant re-emerging Jewish community of Indonesia. As rabbi he served communities in Glasgow, Elmira, San Diego, Edmonton, and Tokyo. In Indoneisa, which is stretching across a 3000 mile archipelago, small Jewish communities have re-emerged from Sumatra to Papua. Each of these vibrant communities have long and diverse Jewish connections.  Today they are united in rediscovering their identity, and also developing a minhag Indonesia, a Judaism unique to their culture and history.