Barcelona Jewish Heritage Tour

[silver11230]

Is anyone interested in joining us on a 2 1/2 hr. Jewish Heritage guided tour in Barcelona on Tuesday 9/7/10. We are a couple in our 60's from Brooklyn NY. We have located a noted Jewish activist who give tours through urbancultours.com. She charges approx. $50 per person for a tour for 3 to 6 people. My email is silver11230@msn.com.

 

Judi

[CruisinGerman]

Dear friends:

 

As someone who has lived between Madrid and Barcelona for the last 40 years (and by the way, my wife was also born in Brooklyn), I would like to perhaps caution you against taking this tour, depending on how long you will be staying in Barcelona, or if you have been there before.

 

That is, Barcelona is definitely not Toledo or Córdoba as far as Jewish heritage and history is concerned, and I really don't feel the Jewish theme in Barcelona would merit foregoing the Gaudí architecture and many other wonderful sights Barcelona offers.

 

I read the website of the tour company and I honestly feel they are exaggerating the importance of Jewish life in Barcelona as may be of interest to a New York tourist.

 

Then again, it may very well be a chance to spend the day with like-minded people and make new friends. But please don't do this tour to the detriment of many other sites in Barcelona if you have never been there.

 

Please bear in mind that, unfortunately, modern Jewish life is not very visible in Spain, mostly due to the fact that there are more Jewish people that live on any given street in New York City than there are in all of Spain (a country with a population of 46 million). I believe the last count yielded 5,000 Jews in all of Spain (as opposed to 600,000 in cities such as Paris).

 

Please let me know if I can be of any assistance and, by all means, have a wonderful time whatever your plans are.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[riffatsea]

I grew up in Bklyn and am also interested in the Jewish connection. IF your cruise goes to Venice DO go to the ghetto and take the tour given by the Jewish museum where you will see 4 synagogues, 2of which are secret and can only be seen on the tour.

In Barcelona you may here a lot of history but there is no active synagogue in the old town and you will just see some winding streets. There are many other things to see and do there ,especially if you only have one day from a cruise.

[hubofhockey]

Great Synagogue of Rome is beautiful as well and there is a decent tour there too, which could be rolled into a day in Rome (takes less than hour).

[MarleneAm]

Great Synagogue of Rome is beautiful as well and there is a decent tour there too, which could be rolled into a day in Rome (takes less than hour).

 

If you are in the Rome Ghetto, I suggest you eat supper at the Taverna Della Ghetto-the food is kosher and delicious! All Italian jewish specialites,

including the famous fried artichoke.

 

There's a beautiful synagogue in Florence with a small museum- about 20 minues walk from all the other highlights. And down the street is a wonderful kosher vegeterian restaruant that is open for lunch.

[baggal]

If you are in the Rome Ghetto, I suggest you eat supper at the Taverna Della Ghetto-the food is kosher and delicious! All Italian jewish specialites,

including the famous fried artichoke.

 

There's a beautiful synagogue in Florence with a small museum- about 20 minues walk from all the other highlights. And down the street is a wonderful kosher vegeterian restaruant that is open for lunch.

 

The synagogue in Florence offers tours - I think every hour on the hour. We got there at an off time and couldn't give up the time to wait. See if you can check the schedule before you go. Looked worthwhile to visit.

 

As far as the Jewish neighborhood in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona it really is DIY as there is not much to see. There's a contemporary sign in a few languages noting that the area was the Jewish quarter, a reproduction of a plaque with a Hebrew inscription, and then the recently discovered medieval synagogue itself. If you follow a map, its about a 10 minute walk from Las Ramblas.

 

As I understand it, the active synagogue(s?) are in the Barcelona suburbs.

[FTLcruisers]

We visited the synagogue in the Gothic area of Barcelona and it is very tiny (2 small rooms). It was interesting and the person there gave us a lot of history but I think we were only in there for 15-20 mins. They requested a small donation - I think maybe 3 euros.

[silver11230]

Jewish Heritage Tour of Barcelona

 

If you are spending a few days in Barcelona and have some extra time, I recommend a wonderful tour guide in Barcelona. Her name is Dominique Tomasov Blinder and her website is http://www.urbancultours.com. My husband and I spent 3 hours touring a very small section of the “The Gothic Quarter” that was filled with history. Dominique lead us through medieval alleys known collectively as the “Call”, which included the site of the partly restored “Sholomo Ben Adret Synagogue” that dates back to the third and forth centuries. It may be the oldest synagogue in Europe. She kept us enthralled with knowledge of every building in the area and it’s Jewish history. We stopped at several buildings,and were amazed to find Hebrew inscriptions still visible on the buildings, including Jewish tomb stones taken from the ancient cemeteries on Montjuic, to build Catholic Churches. Dominique turned the cement walls into living history. On our own we never would have known of the present day struggle to save the ancient burial grounds of the city’s Jews from desecration, or of the details of Jewish life in ancient Barcelona. I also recommend a visit to the Barcelona “Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat”, which has a wonderful exhibit on ancient Jewish life in the “Call” from the 8th through the 13th centuries.

[frank wilson]

We visited the synagogue in the Gothic area of Barcelona and it is very tiny (2 small rooms). It was interesting and the person there gave us a lot of history but I think we were only in there for 15-20 mins. They requested a small donation - I think maybe 3 euros.

where exactly is the synagogue please