Spain’s Jews: A legacy of Jewish-Muslim friendship - opinion

I have been to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York on many occasions. Yet visiting there with a Muslim guest from Saudi Arabia carried with it special meaning, which felt like this visit was more than 1,000 years in the making. The oldest congregation in America, established in 1654, brought with it the traditions of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs, whose culture was also deeply connected to the Muslim and Arab world.

When my friend Zahak Tanvir from Riyadh arrived, I felt like a circle had been closed. I got to show him the stories of great Jewish scholars like Isma’il ibn Naghrilla, known in Hebrew as Shmuel HaNagid, who was the prime minister of the Muslim state of Granada in the 1020s; and Abu Yusuf ibn Shaprut (aka Hasdai ibn Shaprut), a close confidant of the Muslim caliph in Cordoba. Sometimes the dramatic history of the barbaric expulsion of Jews from Spain and the Spanish Inquisition’s persecution of Jews and Muslims draws away attention from the centuries of close friendship between them in Spain and North Africa.

Yet even in the tragedy of the Spanish expulsion of 1492, it is important to remember the many Ottoman Empire Muslim countries, including Turkey, Tunisia, and Algeria (and even Israel under the Ottoman Turks), that absorbed Jews and helped them make new lives for themselves after the Spanish expulsion. At its height (16th-18th centuries) the Ottoman Empire controlled Southeast Europe, Southwest Asia, and North Africa, but not Morocco, although because of Spain’s proximity to Morocco, many Jews expelled from Spain ended up going there.

And so powerful was the influence of Spanish Jews on the Jewish communities in the Muslim countries they integrated, that many of those communities adapted their customs to fit with the Castilian traditions, and also became known as Sephardic Jews – the Jews of Spain. When my friend from Riyadh came to the synagogue, I had the opportunity to say thank you on behalf of all those Jews who found safe refuge from Christian fundamentalism. 

What we can learn from Jewish-Muslim partnership

Looking at the world around us today, there is a great deal to be learned from the thriving cooperation, coexistence, friendship, and mutual kindness that Jews and Muslims enjoyed in the golden age of Jewish culture in Muslim Spain. From medicine to math and music, from science to commerce and so many other aspects of shared life, Jews and Muslims proved their ability to thrive in partnership.

I hope we see many of those partnerships rekindled in the near future in the form of peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, increasing partnerships between Jewish and Muslim communities, and strengthening mutual understanding between all of the children of Abraham. 

The writer is a New England-based 11th-generation rabbi, teacher, and author. He has written Sacred Days on the Jewish Holidays, Poupko on the Parsha, and hundreds of articles published in five languages. He is the president of EITAN – The American Israeli Jewish Network.