Great Synagogue of Palma

RESUMEN

La historia de Great Synagogue of Palma

Palma, called Ciutat de Mallorca in the Middle Ages, had one of the largest Jewish communities of the Crown of Aragon's lands. Around 1300 King Jaume II of Majorca ordered the Jews to live in the Call Major, the quarter around today's Carrer de Monti-sion, and there the community put up a large synagogue, built, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, with the king's permission. It had only just been completed when it was lost. In 1314, after Jews of the island were accused of converting two Germans to Judaism, the bishop imposed a huge fine, and King Sancho of Majorca confiscated the community's books and property and took the new synagogue from it, converting the building into a church dedicated to Santa Fe (Holy Faith). The community bought back immunity for 95,000 florins and was later allowed a plainer replacement synagogue, which James III helped it build in 1331. The confiscated building served as the chapel of Santa Fe; a heritage declaration of 2004 calls it 'the synagogue converted into the chapel of Santa Fe (now Montision)', and a local guide dates its demolition to 1323, when King Sancho ordered a church built. From 1571 the Jesuits raised the present church of Monti-sion on the site. Whether any of the synagogue's masonry survives inside that church is not established.

UBICACIÓN

Where it stood

Historic: Call Major, Ciutat de Mallorca, site of the chapel of Santa Fe. Today: Església de Monti-sion, Carrer de Monti-sion 22, 07001 Palma (approximate: the church building on the synagogue's plot).

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La comunidad judía

Jews lived on Majorca before the Catalan conquest of 1229, and under the kings of Aragon and Majorca the community of Ciutat de Mallorca grew into a centre of trade and learning. Settlers who later went to North Africa claimed it had numbered more than a thousand families before the massacres, a figure the Encyclopaedia Judaica calls exaggerated but a sign of its standing. Around 1300 Jaume II gathered the Jews in the Call Major, near the present Carrer de Monti-sion and Carrer del Sol. The community was run by secretaries; the Jewish Encyclopedia names Astruc b. Nono as appointed by Sancho I. The island produced scholars such as Aaron ha-Kohen, author of the code Orhot Hayyim, the translator Isaac ben Nathan, and later Rabbi Jonah Desmaestre and his son-in-law Simeon ben Zemah Duran. The confiscation of 1314-1315 and the fine that came with it were a heavy blow, and the community levied a ten-year tax in 1315 to pay.

Arquitectura y diseño

No description, plan or image of the synagogue is known from the sources read. The Jewish Encyclopedia calls it a fine synagogue and Wikipedia a large one, and the Encyclopaedia Judaica records that the replacement allowed in 1331 had to be less splendid than the one taken away, which implies the confiscated building was notably grand. Its architect, builder, dimensions, capacity and interior arrangement are unknown. A 2004 heritage declaration for the present church of Santa Fe in Palma notes that that church is sometimes identified as a reused former synagogue and that its present structure may give an approximate idea of the dimensions of the old synagogue; the same text, however, says the chapel of Santa Fe was moved there from the converted synagogue at Monti-sion, so this is a hypothesis rather than evidence about the confiscated building itself. No archaeological study of the Monti-sion site was found.

La vida dentro de la sinagoga

Almost nothing is recorded of worship in this particular building, because it served the community for only a very short time: a local guide says it functioned only from about 1300 to 1315, and the encyclopaedias describe it as recently completed when it was taken. The congregation that used it was the main community of the Call Major, whose leaders dealt with the kings of Majorca through appointed secretaries. A tradition reported by the Red de Juderías travel diary says the main synagogue had a great lamp with 355 lights, said to have come from the Temple of Solomon, which now hangs in the central nave of Palma Cathedral; the source ties this lamp to the synagogue that disappeared after 1435, so it may belong to a later synagogue rather than to this one. No rabbi, cantor or builder is named for this building in the sources read.

Destrucción

The synagogue was not wrecked by violence but taken from the community by the Crown. According to Wikipedia's account, based on the Jewish Encyclopedia article on the Balearic Isles, Jews of the islands were accused in 1314 of converting two Germans to Judaism. Bishop Guillem de Vilanova imposed a fine of 150,000 florins, and the king confiscated the Jews' books, property and real estate and turned their recently completed synagogue into a church. The Jewish Encyclopedia names the king as Sancho I of Majorca and says he took the building as punishment shortly after its completion; the Encyclopaedia Judaica says Sancho acted under the influence of the bishop. The community paid 95,000 florins for immunity. The building became the chapel of Santa Fe, and visitpalma.com dates the conversion to 1315. A local guide says the synagogue was demolished in 1323, when, according to visitpalma.com, King Sancho ordered the church of Santa Fe built; the chapel was later moved away and the Jesuits built Monti-sion on the site from 1571.

El destino de la comunidad

After losing their main synagogue the Jews of Palma were allowed to build a new, plainer one; James III ordered his viceroy to help in 1331 despite the opposition of Pope John XXII. The community recovered, but in the summer of 1391 rioters broke into the Call, killed about 300 Jews, and forced most survivors into baptism; about 800 sheltered in the royal castle and many fled to North Africa, among them Simeon ben Zemah Duran. A responsum of Duran, studied by Eduard Feliu, records that both of the city's synagogues were destroyed when the rioters entered the quarter. A smaller community re-formed, but in 1435, after a false accusation of ritual murder, the remaining Jews were baptised or fled, and the Encyclopaedia Judaica says the community then ceased to exist. Their descendants, the Chuetas, remained a distinct group in Palma for centuries. A new Jewish community was founded in Palma in 1971.

El lugar hoy

The Jesuit church of Monti-sion (Iglesia de Montesión), Carrer de Monti-sion 22, stands on the site. The Jesuits arrived in 1561 and began the church in 1571; the facade was finished in 1683, and the interior is a single nave with side chapels. The tourist portal mallorca.com says the church was built on the walls or over the remains of the main synagogue but does not preserve it as a historical space. A local audio-tour guide points to the outline of a door in the left side wall as a possible synagogue entrance, where Chuetas are said to have touched the wall and visitors now leave notes; this is a tradition, not a documented survival. No source read confirms that synagogue masonry stands above ground.

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