Prof. Jesús Jambrina of Wisconsin’s Viterbo University, founder of the Isaac Campantón Center for the study and recovery of the historical Jewish memory of Zamora, Spain, commenced this year’s edition of his International Sephardi Congress with a demand for the release of the hostages still in Hamas captivity in Gaza.
Now in its 13th year, the congress has become a July highlight on Zamora’s calendar of events, attracting locals and visitors to the city that is the capital of the province of Zamora, in the northwestern Spanish autonomous community of Castile and Leon.
Jambrina, a descendant of emigrants from Zamora who left Spanish shores for those of Cuba in the early 20th century, inaugurated the first congress in 2013, gathering local and international experts to study its Jewish past. He had been shocked at the dearth of information available.
During that first congress, attendants were introduced to the forgotten figure of Rabbi Isaac Campanton, who lived to be 103 and headed a yeshiva that was the most important center of Jewish learning in Spain in the years before the 1492 expulsion. Known as “the light of the exile” and “the gaon [sage] of Castile and Leon,” he was the author of Darkei HaTalmud, aka Darkei HaGemara, a guide to the Talmud, still in use by Torah scholars. Abraham Zacuto (1450-1515), astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, Kabbalist, and head of a yeshiva in Salamanca, described meeting Campanton as being in a “divine presence.”
Following the first congress, Jambrina established the Isaac Campantón Center to further study the Zamora area. After the second congress in 2014, Jambrina was awarded the Medal of the Four Sephardi Synagogues by the Council of Sephardi and Oriental Communities of Jerusalem for his achievements in the recognition, signposting, and preservation of the medieval Jewish quarters of Zamora. The congress has been held annually, going online during the COVID pandemic. In 2019, it included a trip to Jerusalem.
This year, events were held at the NH Palacio del Duero, the hotel that has hosted the congress since its inception and now includes Sephardi dishes on its menu. Meetings were also held at the Hosteria Real, once a medieval palazzo and now a small hotel with an ancient mikveh (ritual bath) that is open to visits by the public.
La Raya
The theme of this year’s congress was Jews of the Luso-Spanish border and the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Diaspora. The border, known as La Raya (“The Line”), is the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union. It is the delineation between Spain and Portugal, a small portion of which is represented by the Douro River. In that context, research for the congress has been expanded to include the entire Spanish-Portuguese border.
Previous congresses highlighted that some 30,000 Jews crossed into Portugal from the Zamora region in 1492, with thousands more crossing from Galicia, Extremadura, and Andalucia (although they were forcibly baptized there in 1496).
At this year’s congress, one of the speakers was María José López-Palop, founder and president of Ner Tamid, a project that aims to create a network of towns on both sides of the Spanish-Portuguese border that have a Jewish history. She explained how Jewish families would alternate between living on one side or other of the border in accordance with the changing political climate. She presented a map that suggested a much larger presence of Jewish-affiliated villages, “even if not full communities,” Jambrina said.
Genealogist and researcher José María Domingues discussed the historical context and geography, suggesting that in addition to other areas already known to have been home to Jews, the Zamoran village of Nuez was likely a crypto-Jewish nucleus.
Lisbon University researcher María de Fátima Reis presented an analysis of the movements of New Christians between Portugal and Castile in the Inquisition era. And, with an emphasis on the areas around Galicia in Portugal, researcher Suso Vila examined cross-border marriages among New Christians in the area of Galicia and Portugal.
Genealogist María Elena Cuartas y de Marchena presented a chronicle of her family’s comings and goings across La Raya to Amsterdam and Curacao, and then on to Cuba in the 19th century, returning to Curacao in 1959 and now based in Amsterdam and Miami. This reflected similar trajectories of many Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Many families also had New Christian members who continued to celebrate Shabbat with their Jewish relatives, precisely the type of crime that the Inquisition was pursuing.
Speakers at the conference
Ethno-musicologicist Judith Cohen of Toronto’s York University, who has been a staple of the conference since its inception, gave a lecture titled “From the Spanish-Portuguese Border to the Northeast of Brazil: Music among Crypto-Jews.”
Two Israelis made their presentations via Zoom. Prof. Abraham Haim, president of the Council of Sephardi and Oriental Communities of Jerusalem, presented his book on 40 years of travels and research in Spain, titled Mi Sefarad: Cuatro decadas con los Españoles y espacio Ibero. And documentarian Nili Portugali discussed her film El callejón que ella pintó de azul celeste, an exploration of Sephardi Jewish identity through the art and architecture of Safed.
Many participants return, year, after year. “The congress is not only about the speakers but also about the interaction among the participants,” Jambrina told the Magazine. “Over the years, it has become a community. This was the second time for tour-guide educator Rabbi Haim Casas from Seville and Monica Montemayor from Mexico. Another returnee was Isaac Benabraham, of the Centro de Documentación y Estudios Moisés de Leon, who spoke about the powerful 16th-century Portuguese Jewish businesswoman and philanthropist Dona Gracia Nasi.”
Another colorful guest was Morocco-born and Madrid-raised Esther Bendahan Cohen, director of culture at Centro Sefarad-Israel in Madrid, and former director of the Spanish TV program Shalom. She presented her books and regaled participants for an hour longer than anticipated.
Another colorful guest was Morocco-born and Madrid-raised Esther Bendahan Cohen, director of culture at Centro Sefarad-Israel in Madrid and former director of the Spanish TV program Shalom. She presented her books and regaled participants for an hour longer than scheduled.
Asked whether there was ever an official Arab presence in Zamora, Jambrina cited Prof. Felipe Maillo Salgado of Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Salamanca, who said there had never been one, and that no mosques were ever built there. “There were only churches and synagogues in Zamora, Salamanca, and Leon.”
Jambrina encourages people to attend future congresses in Zamora. “Participation is free, but registration is mandatory,” a sign read this year. ■
For more information: www.zamorasefardi.com and www.campanton.com