Balmes Street Synagogue and the Sephardic Return to Spain
This modern synagogue was founded by Sephardic Jews whose ancestors fled Spain in 1492 and whose descendants returned centuries later. The verses on its walls honor a synagogue built six hundred years earlier in Toledo, the Samuel ha-Levi Synagogue (renamed to El Tránsito). After Jews were officially readmitted to Spain in 1968, a group of Sephardic Jews from Morocco settled in Madrid and built a major community center with an impressive synagogue. They chose two key motifs for the sanctuary: walls lined with Jerusalem stone, linking the space to the holy city, and Hebrew verses etched in the calligraphic style of Toledo’s El Tránsito synagogue. Together these elements express layers of exile, memory, and resilience, recalling both the ancient loss of Jerusalem and the expulsion from Spain.
Credits
Public domain, via Wikimedia.
Discussion Questions
Why would these Jews be interested in invoking the style of the Toledo synagogue and in linking the style to Jerusalem?
Visit in person or look online for images of a local synagogue. Does the building blend into the neighborhood?
Would you consider the modern Spanish synagogue to be a monumental building or something more humble? What is the significance of the verses that it incorporates?
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