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View of Toledo, Spain with the Samuel Halevi Abulafia synagogue at the center and the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes in the background (Photo: Yildori, CC BY-SA 3.0)
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As the Jewish people gear up to celebrate Passover, they are reminded of the ancient Egyptian oppression, what it was life for the Jewish people to be slaves under the pharaohs, and every other instance throughout Jewish history, where the Jewish people were persecuted merely for being Jews.
As the Passover Haggadah reads, “In every generation, a person is obligated to regard himself as if he personally left Egypt.”
Back in ancient Egypt, one of the reasons why Pharaoh enslaved the Jewish people was because he feared that we Jewish people were becoming too numerous and prosperous. So, he enslaved us and murdered Hebrew baby boys, so that we could diminish in numbers and become weaker. Nevertheless, he did not repress the Jewish faith. In fact, Cohens and Levites were not enslaved, so that they could continue to provide for the religious needs of the Jewish people.
Later on in history, like in ancient Egypt, other oppressors of the Jewish people feared that we were becoming too numerous and prosperous, just like pharaoh. In Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella very much feared the flourishing Jewish community. However, they did not choose to enslave the Jewish people. Instead, they decided to expel the Jewish community from Spain in 1492 and then subsequently wage the Spanish Inquisition.
During this period, 200,000 Jews were expelled from the only country that they knew. Many Jews died while trying to reach safety. In many cases, Spanish ship captains charged Jews great fees to leave Spain, only to dump them overboard dead. Pogroms against Jews also erupted around the same period of time.
Following the expulsion of Jews from Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella enacted the Inquisition in order to root out heretics. The Inquisition targeted many Jews who continued to practice Judaism in secret.
If one visits Spain today, one can witness the after effects of both the expulsion of Spanish Jewry and the Inquisition. All that remains of the Jewish Quarter of Seville is a garden. In Toledo, the Samuel Ha-Levi and Ben-Shushan Synagogues were converted into churches and today are museums.
Unfortunately, today the Ben-Shushan Synagogue is in horrible condition, for the holy site was used as a stable for pigs in the Napoleonic era. However, the Samuel Ha-Levi Synagogue is in better condition, for it was used as a military office during the Napoleonic era.
However, it is important to recall that we Jews were not the only victims of Spain’s horrific policy. The Muslim community in Spain in fact suffered a similar fate. The Cordoba Cathedral used to be a mosque. However, the Christians merely tore the roof out of the mosque and turned it into a church. Similarly, the Santa Maria Cathedral in Toledo used to be a mosque but today is a church, although more of the Moorish architecture is preserved in that church than in the Cordoba Cathedral.
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What the Spaniards did to the Jewish and Muslim community later on served as a role model for modern day oppressors like Armenia, who sought to follow in the footsteps of the Spaniards by rooting Muslims and Jews out of their country, and subsequently destroying Muslim mosques and cemeteries inside of Armenia. Ulviyya Zulfugar, the representative of the Western Azerbaijani community, declared that Armenia turned into a mono-lithic country after the deportation of Azerbaijanis between 1988 and 1991: “More than 300,000 Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their homes and 216 Azerbaijanis were killed.”
In today’s Armenia, the Blue Mosque in Yerevan is the only mosque among 300 places of worship still intact in Armenia. And according to Zulfugar, the Armenians present this Azerbaijani mosque today as Persian: “While the destruction of 300 mosques is a crime, it is also inhuman to present the heritage of one country as the heritage of another.”
Although in 1959 10,000 Jews lived in Armenia, less than 100 Jews live in Armenia today. The widespread violence that accompanied the dissolution of the Soviet Union that included the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis caused most of the Armenian Jewish community to leave. According to the World Jewish Congress, there have been “manifestations of anti-Semitism” targeting the local Armenian Jewish community since the country has obtained independence. The Holocaust Memorial in Yerevan has been desecrated on more than one occasion.
Thus, as Jewish people prepare to celebrate Passover, we should never forget how more modern oppressors have targeted the Jewish people and the plight of other nations like the Azerbaijanis, who were targeted merely because they were Azerbaijanis and non-Christian.
Today, we should cry out that the victims obtain justice, for as Exodus 23:9 proclaims, “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, since you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Rachel Avraham is the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and an Israel-based journalist. She is the author of “Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media.”
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
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