ABOUT
SMP
The sephardic memorialization project is an independent research project into the memory landscape of Jewish life in the Iberian peninsula using the lenses of Barcelona and Girona as case studies.
A personal reflection on the uncovering of Sephardic Jewish memory among the "urban drama" of Barcelona and Girona
why sephardic memorialization?
Seeking to understand the past of Sephardic Jews in Spain is a search that often provides more question marks than conclusive points.
The historical narratives that seek to explain all the became, got lost, and still remains of the Jewish communities in Spain are multidirectional and ambiguous. Traces of the Jewish community can be found as far back (in documented form) to the year 418 in the Iberian peninsula although many argue that waves of Jews from the Mediterranean arrived as early as the 1st or 2nd century (Planas and Forcano). Their presence in today's Spain was met tumultuous centuries of persecution, exile, and eventual return of a community that still remains to this day. However, this history is told in countless forms by the various entities each with their own motivations in telling the story of the Jewish people.
The remains that are carried.
"History is the ship carrying living memories to the future." -Stephen Spender
Therefore, by recognizing the various tales of Jewish history in Spain, it becomes all the more interesting to study the memory work of the places that carry the remains (whether physical or metaphorical) of Sephardic Jewry in Spain. By distinguishing between history (as the chronological organization of representations of past timely events) and memory (as the malleable and intentional remembering in the present) and the clear contentions between the history and the way it is remembered, one begins to understand Spain's various tales of Jewish history as an issue of memory work (Pierre Nora). In delving into French historian Pierre Nora's Lieux de Memoires (Sites of Memory) and using his definition of such sites, we can find that there remains an intentional push to preserve physically, symbolically, and functionally through a "will to remember" in the various institutions and informal places that houses memories of Jewish Spain (Nora).
why sephardic memorialization?
Seeking to understand the past of Sephardic Jews in Spain is a search that often provides more question marks than conclusive points.
The historical narratives that seek to explain all the became, got lost, and still remains of the Jewish communities in Spain are multidirectional and ambiguous. Traces of the Jewish community can be found as far back (in documented form) to the year 418 in the Iberian peninsula although many argue that waves of Jews from the Mediterranean arrived as early as the 1st or 2nd century (Planas and Forcano). Their presence in today's Spain was met tumultuous centuries of persecution, exile, and eventual return of a community that still remains to this day. However, this history is told in countless forms by the various entities each with their own motivations in telling the story of the Jewish people.
The remains that are carried.
"History is the ship carrying living memories to the future." -Stephen Spender
Therefore, by recognizing the various tales of Jewish history in Spain, it becomes all the more interesting to study the memory work of the places that carry the remains (whether physical or metaphorical) of Sephardic Jewry in Spain. By distinguishing between history (as the chronological organization of representations of past timely events) and memory (as the malleable and intentional remembering in the present) and the clear contentions between the history and the way it is remembered, one begins to understand Spain's various tales of Jewish history as an issue of memory work (Pierre Nora). In delving into French historian Pierre Nora's Lieux de Memoires (Sites of Memory) and using his definition of such sites, we can find that there remains an intentional push to preserve physically, symbolically, and functionally through a "will to remember" in the various institutions and informal places that houses memories of Jewish Spain (Nora).
why sephardic memorialization?
Seeking to understand the past of Sephardic Jews in Spain is a search that often provides more question marks than conclusive points.
The historical narratives that seek to explain all that became, got lost, and still remains of the Jewish communities in Spain are multidirectional and ambiguous. Traces of the Jewish community can be found as far back (in documented form) to the year 418 in the Iberian peninsula although many argue that waves of Jews from the Mediterranean arrived as early as the 1st or 2nd century (Planas and Forcano). Their presence in today's Spain was preceded by tumultuous centuries of persecution, exile, and eventual return of a community that still remains to this day. However, this history is told in countless forms by the various entities each with their own motivations in telling the story of the Jewish people.
The remains that are carried.
Therefore, by recognizing the various tales of Jewish history in Spain, it becomes all the more interesting to study the memory work of the places that carry the remains (whether physical or metaphorical) of Sephardic Jewry in Spain. By distinguishing between history (as the chronological organization of representations of past timely events) and memory (as the malleable and intentional remembering in the present) and the clear contentions between the history and the way it is remembered, one begins to understand Spain's various tales of Jewish history as an issue of memory work (Pierre Nora).
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In delving into French historian Pierre Nora's Lieux de Memoires (Sites of Memory), I became intrigued by his term "sites of memory" and have used it loosely throughout this site. My usage of his term likewise intersects with his distinction between sites of memory and environments of memory (milieux de memoires) which are much more organic and permeable. I have therefore taken on the term "sites of memory" intentionally blurring the lines between site and environment and taking on specific analysis of the intentional or unintentional push to preserve physically, symbolically, and functionally through a "will to remember" in the various institutions and informal places that houses memories of Jewish Spain (Nora).
"Sites of Memory"
History of Memory Work in Spain
Below is a timeline that outlines some important contextual date to Spanish Jewish history according to various sources. The timeline also highlights some key dates to understanding heritage work in Spain. These dates are not all inclusive of Spain's incredibly vast Jewish history.
contextualizing the project
Establishing Purpose
The purpose of the Sephardic Memorialization Project is to uncover the narratives of Jewish Spanish history through the various "sites of memory" that work to functionally memorialize. I do not seek to provide a correct version of such a long and complex history but rather, seek to understand the main players who contend with what remains. I will use the cities of Barcelona and Girona as my case studies due to their intriguing and very differing tales of Jewish History. Barcelona, on one hand, has its Jewish Quarter in the background of Jewish life which rather, exists on the other side of the city. Its Jewish narrative is multidirectional and ambivalent. Girona, on the other hand, although only 30 minutes away by train has a much more central Jewish narrative due to the almost pristine preservation of its Call. This project seeks to find out:
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1) Where do the memories (physical or not) of Jewish Spain lie in Barcelona and Girona?
2) What do the different sites of memory tell us about Sephardic Jewish History?
3) Who are the main players in creating the narratives of Jewish Spain and what are they motivated by?
4) How do these sites of memory permeate the "urban drama" (borrowing from American sociologist Lewis Mumford) of their cities?
Methodology
The execution towards answering the above question was accomplished through three months of academic research to understand Barcelona and Girona's individual histories with regards to Sephardic Jews. From this research I compiled a list of sites of memory in heritage institutions, oral history and tourism, living communities, and public spaces that felt most relevant to understand the various narratives of Spanish Jewish History. Through my conversations with scholars, my physical visit, and further readings, I was able to compile a holistic (though incomplete) guide to Sephardic memorialization in Barcelona and Girona. Please visit the above tabs, explore my written reflections, photographs, and audio clips that uncover the surface of Barcelona and Girona's Jewish memory.
About Me
Sarah Chocron
Although a Montreal native and Wichita, KS high school graduate, I find myself as an incoming sophomore at the University of North Carolina studying Information Science (con. human computer interaction) and History (con. religion, culture, and intellectual life). As a Sephardic Jew with ties to both Spain and Morocco, I became invigorated to start the Sephardic Memorialization Project both from an academic and personal standpoint. I am deeply interested in the intersection of the sciences and the humanities and have found affinities for both contrasting disciplines and hope to pursue information and museum studies in the future. Outside of school, I am the co-founder of Griatitude Coffee Co and work as co-leader of Project Literacy, as a committee of the Campus Y.
Photograph by Rose Helen Cunningham
Acknowledgements
The Sephardic Memorialization Project is not simply a product of my own curiosity and drive to connect the dots of a seemingly tangled web of historical narratives. I have been lucky enough to have been supported by a variety of incredible professors, professional contacts, scholars, organizations, friends, and family members. I would like to recognize and thank Professor Yaron Shemer at UNC for almost immediately supporting my ambitions for this project and for staying on as my advisor while I did so, his support has been essential to lifting this project off the ground. I want to thank Professor Chad Bryant for making me love history enough to pursue a major and for inspiring me, through his class about Prague, to study sites of memory. In my three months of research, I was lucky enough to meet with and converse with Dr. Tabea Alexa Linhard of Washington University at St-Louis, Dr. Stacy Beckwith at Carleton College, Victor Sorrensen at the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ), Leah Stoch, and Devyi Papo about his project at El Transito Synagogue and Sephardic Museum - I am truly grateful for their knowledge and advice. I am likewise thankful to the wonderful heritage workers, tour guides, scholars, and contacts I was able to meet and interview during my time in Spain including Flora Hastings, Dominique Tomasov Blinder of Urban Cultours, Victor Sorrensen and Monica Buzali at Mozaika, Ramon Pujades from MUHBA El Call, Ona from Girona Experiences, Leah Stoch (once more), and Lidia Donat. I am infinitely thankful to the Morehead Cain Foundation for funding this Lovelace Fund for Discovery to make the Sephardic Memorialization Project possible and to my unfailing friends and deeply adored family, I am eternally grateful.
Research Sources
To read more about the material used in the months of research for this project, please visit this public google document with the sources I consulted for background research, sources cited.
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All photographs and web design was done by me unless otherwise noted. Please contact me for any further information.