Sephardic Jews in Madrid and a kosher stew

According to the Moisés de León Study Centre, the presence of a small Jewish community in Madrid dates back to the 12th century, settled in the area that today runs from Plaza de Pedro Zerolo and Gran Vía to Puerta del Sol on one side, and the area now occupied by Cuesta de Santo Domingo, Plaza de San Martín, Calle Mayor and Calle de Bailén on the other. 

What is now Calle de Tetuán, where the Socialist Party was founded in the 19th century in the Labra tavern, was formerly Calle de la Zarza, which ended at a cliff overlooking what is now Calle del Arenal, which, as its name suggests, was the area where aggregates were extracted for the construction of the small buildings of the time. 

Passing through this place, Itzaj Benabraham recalls how two Jews falsely accused of stealing from the church of San Ginés were executed by being thrown off the cliff. In those centuries following the Edict of Granada, which ordered Jews to convert or leave the Peninsula, the belief was that Christians were not thieves on principle, and therefore only Muslims or Jews could be thieves.

There are hardly any visible traces left, but at eye level there is an inscription on what was clearly the doorway of a house. Although it refers to Mary, Jesus and Joseph, and the year 1699, Benabraham explains that this was one of the most obvious ways for converted Jews to demonstrate their renunciation of Judaism. The inscription is on the Puerta de San Martín, opposite the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, which obviously had no need to proclaim its affiliation to a particular religious faith. 

Even before the decree of expulsion, the Catholic Monarchs issued the decree of separation, which ordered Jews to live apart from the rest of the population. Thus, they had to vacate their old homes and settle outside the city walls, specifically in an area that today would be the esplanade between the Plaza de la Armería del Palacio Real and the Almudena Cathedral.

During the excavations to build the impressive Royal Collections Museum, various symbols were found that would prove the existence of these houses, to which the Jews of Madrid were banished. The findings remain buried, although those who support Benabraham are calling for at least some kind of sign or plaque to mark the site of this banishment. 

It is a safe bet that very few Madrileños, and certainly far fewer tourists, know that the first major anti-Semitic attack in modern Europe took place in Madrid in 1932. Specifically, it occurred in the then gigantic SEPU department store, owned by two Swiss Jews. But unlike what happened in Nazi Germany, the attack on the department store now occupied by PRIMARK was carried out by thugs from left-wing trade unions, who destroyed the goods on display, started a fire and beat up employees who tried to defend the premises on the pretext that ‘their Jewish owners exploited the workers’. 

Not far from there, in the Plaza de Santo Domingo, stood the Convent of Santo Domingo el Real, where many ‘private’ autos-da-fé were held since the 13th century. A few metres away, on the corner of Isabel la Católica Street and Leganitos Street, were the houses of the Inquisition and the so-called ‘secret prisons’.

The Inquisition, which was in fact the first political police force organised for the defence of the State, has gone down in history, thanks to the image it projected as a persecutor of religious heresy, as the most ruthless source of torture and executions, when in fact it was far surpassed in these activities by its European counterparts. It should be noted that the last headquarters of the Supreme Council of the Inquisition in the 18th century was located at number 12 on the current Calle Torija. Its records and documents, far from feeding the ‘Black Legend’ that the Anglo-Saxons and Dutch fabricated about Spain, would put many things in their proper place, although there is little interest in doing so. 

And finally, this walk to discover or rediscover the Madrid of the Sephardim can have an original ending: the tasting of an authentic kosher stew. This is a brilliant idea from one of the great temples of Madrid's quintessential dish, La Bola, which makes one of the most precious treasures of Madrid's gastronomy accessible to non-Christian diners. The replacement of pork with venison, lamb and beef, certified as kosher, is a commendable effort by Mara and her team at La Bola, which is sure to further enhance their well-deserved reputation.