Jews of Catalonia
The Catalan Jewish community developed unique characteristics, which included customs, a prayer rite (Nusach Catalonia),[2] and a tradition of its own in issuing legal decisions (Halakhah).
[3] Although the Jews of Catalonia had a ritual of prayer[4] and different traditions from those of Sepharad[5], today they are usually included in the Sephardic Jewish community.
Following the expulsion of 1492, Jews who did not convert to Christianity were forced to emigrate to Italy, the Ottoman Empire, the Maghreb, North Africa and the Middle East.
[6][7][8] Historians affirm that Jews arrived at the Iberian Peninsula before the destruction of the Second Temple although the oldest gravestones date from the third century.
[12] The reconquest of Catalonia began under the auspices of the Frankish kings, who forced the Muslims who had managed to cross the Pyrenees at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 to retreat to the south.
The Catalan counties, led by the counts of Barcelona, slowly broke free from the Franks and began to govern themselves independently.
The fact that many of them spoke Arabic and also the vernacular Romance languages enabled them to serve as translators and acquire important positions in both Muslim and Christian governments.
Also, from Girona was Rabbi Avraham ben Yitzchaq he-Hazan (12th-13th centuries) author of the piyyut[15] Achot qetanah (little sister).
In Catalonia in the 13th century Jews were victims of blood libels and were forced to wear a distinctive sign called Rodella.
From this same period, we can include the cartographer of Mallorca Avraham Cresques (14th century) and the poet Shelomoh ben Meshullam de Piera (1310/50-1420/25).
Rabbi Nisim ben Reuven Girondi (Ran) resumed the activity of the Barcelona Yeshivah in the 50s and 60s, after the Jewish community was heavily affected by the Black Death in 1348.
[16] In summary, we can conclude from his account that the riots began on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz (Sunday, 4/6/1391) in Seville, Cordoba, Toledo and close to seventy other locations.
From day seven of the month of Av (Sunday, 9/7/1391), they extended to other communities of the Crown of Aragon: Valencia, Barcelona, Lleida, Girona and Mallorca.
During the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the kings of the Crown of Aragon expanded their territories to the lands of the Mediterranean; they conquered Sicily (1282), Corsica (1297-1516), Athens (1311), Neopatria (1318), Sardinia (1323-1326) and Naples (1435-1442).
Many of the Catalonian Jews arrived in Italy and found refuge in Sicily, Naples, Livorno and the city of Rome.
[17] The famous Kabbalist Rabbi Avraham Abulafia (1240-1291), who studied many years in Catalonia, settled in Sicily, where he wrote most of his works.
We know of the existence of a Catalan Jewish community in the island thanks to the identification of a manuscript[19] of the 14th century as siddur nusach Catalonia.
[21] It was found in the church of Sancta Sanctorum Salvatore and commemorates the construction of the synagogue of the Catalan Jews in 1453, it is one of the oldest Aron ha-Qodesh in Europe.
In 1517 the Catalonian Jewish community of Rome was well organized and built a synagogue following the minhag[22] Catalonia (Schola hebreorum Nationis Catalanorum).
[23] In 1519 Pope Leo X (1475-1521) granted them a permit to widen the community and move the synagogue to a new location, allowed them to remodel and adapt it into a house of prayer according to their rites and customs.
The exiled Jews of Catalonia also migrated to the Ottoman Empire where they were organized in communities according to the place of origin that were called Qehalim.
[26] Despite being a minority, the Catalonian Jews fought to avoid merging with the Sephardic communities and maintained their ancient customs.
In 1863 they printed an edition titled "Machzor le-Rosh ha-Shana ve-Yom ha-Kippurim ke-minhag qahal qadosh Catalan yashan ve-chadash be-irenu zot Saloniki".
The editors were: Moshe Yaaqov Ayash and Rabbi Chanokh Pipano, and those who carried out the impression were: David, called Bekhor Yosef Arditi, Seadi Avraham Shealtiel.
At that time, three kingdoms were established in the Maghreb after the fall of the Almohad, one in the area of present-day Morocco, another in Tunisia and a third in Algeria, which was ruled by the dynasty of Beni-Ziyan from the ancient capital of Tlemcen.
As soon as the Christian authorities saw that Jews and converts fled to the Maghreb, they forbade them from leaving the country, increased their persecution and flight became more difficult.
The Jews who settled in the central Maghreb received the status of dhimmis, as is usual in Islamic countries in exchange for paying taxes.
Peninsular refugees contributed to raising the country's economy thanks to commercial activities with European lands and also improved the level of Torah studies.
Ribash had long been the grand Rabbi of Catalonia, and Rashbatz, despite his great preparation and knowledge of the Torah, had been dedicated to the medical profession.
[44] In the eighteenth century, scholars questioned some of the ancient customs saying that they contradicted the dictates of Rabbi Yitzchaq Luria Ashkenazi (Arizal) (1534-1572).
