The Red de Juderías de España (literally "Network of Jewish Quarters of Spain") is a non-profit organisation comprising cities which have a medieval Jewish quarter. Its goals are to preserve the architectural, historical, artistic and cultural legacy of the

Sephardi Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

, who were expelled from Spain in 1492. Since October 2016, the organisation is permanently headquartered in Córdoba, while its presidency rotates annually between mayors of member cities.

History

The organisation was founded in 1995 and its founding members were Cáceres, Córdoba,

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in ...

Hervás Hervás (; ext, Ervás) is a Spanish town in the north of the province of Cáceres. It had 3,839 inhabitants in 2005. It is 120 km from Cáceres and 90 km far from Salamanca. It is the capital of the Valle de Ambroz comarca in the ...

Ribadavia Ribadavia is a town and municipality located in the southwest of the province of Ourense, autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. The urban area lies on the right bank of the Miño river and the last course of the Avia river. It is the capital o ...

, Segovia,

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

and

Tudela Tudela may refer to: *Tudela, Navarre, a town and municipality in northern Spain ** Benjamin of Tudela Medieval Jewish traveller ** William of Tudela, Medieval troubadour who wrote the first part of the ''Song of the Albigensian Crusade'' ** Battl ...

. Tortosa and

Oviedo Oviedo (; ast, Uviéu ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located ap ...

joined before the end of the century.

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and León joined in 2003, alongside

Ávila Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m abov ...

and Jaén two years later. In 2008 there was a significant expansion, with

Besalú Besalú () is a town in the ''comarca'' of Garrotxa, in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. The town's importance was greater in the early Middle Ages, as capital of the county of Besalú, whose territory was roughly the same size as the current ''comarca' ...

, Calahorra, Estella-Lizarra, Monforte de Lemos Plasencia and Tarazona joining. Lucena became the 24th member in 2012, having first applied in 2003. In June 2016, the Catalan members Besalú,

Castelló d'Empúries Castelló d'Empúries is a town and municipality in the Alt Empordà in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It lies 9 km east of Figueres. In 1079, Castelló d'Empúries became the capital of the Empúries county due to the previous capital, Sant Mart ...

, Girona and Tortosa quit the organisation. These cities – where Jewish quarters are known as ''calls'' from a Hebrew term – saw the organisation as focused on tourism, while they considered education and research to be more important. The split made headlines in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and Israel's ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

''.

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

, a member since 2011, also left in 2016. Mayor

Juan Espadas Juan Espadas Cejas (born 30 September 1966) is a Spanish politician of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Minister of Housing and Planning for the Government of Andalusia from 2008 to 2010 and a senator from 2010 to 2013. Fr ...

saw membership as not financially viable.

Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...

ended its 12-year membership in 2017 in order to put the €22,500 fee towards promoting its Jewish history independently. Oviedo's membership ended in 2020 due to a €54,000 debt.

Béjar Béjar () is a town and municipality of Spain located in the province of Salamanca, autonomous community of Castile and León. As of 2018, it had a population of 12,961. The historical development of the town has been linked to its once thriving ...

, Lorca,

Sagunto Sagunto ( ca-valencia, Sagunt) is a municipality of Spain, located in the province of Valencia, Valencian Community. It belongs to the modern fertile ''comarca'' of Camp de Morvedre. It is located c. 30 km north of the city of Valencia, cl ...

and Tui joined in 2019.

References

{{reflist 1995 establishments in Spain Organizations established in 1995 Non-profit organisations based in Spain Historic Jewish communities in Europe Jewish Spanish history