A Tale of Three Kingdoms: The Jews of Andalusia, Morocco and Gibraltar
Thu, Dec 16, 2021 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM Central European Time (UTC+1)
Tickets ($18) here.
Travel with us in the footsteps of the Jews of Andalusia, Morocco and Gibraltar and learn about their fascinating history.
About this event
Andalusía (Andalucía) -the southern region of Spain once considered the most advanced and educated society in the western world, and where Judaism developed profusely and reached great heights of excellence, is the same land where all of this came to an abrupt end. This is the land where, on an unfortunate day of heart-breaking memory, an infamous decree was published -within the walls of the most beautiful palace anyone could ever imagine- and forced into exile a group of Spaniards whose only sin had been to think differently about their relationship with God.
Some of these Jews went south crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and settled down in the land of the Wattasid Sultan Abu Zakariya Muhammad al-Saih al-Mahdi. There they became a scholarly mercantile elite and quickly dominated Jewish communal life in the land already known as Morocco. Two hundred years later, some descendants of these Jews from Morocco returned -mostly as traders- to Gibraltar, a rock of less than two square miles located at the very bottom of the Iberian Peninsula that had just become part of the British Empire after the Spanish Succession war. They were given the right of permanent settlement in 1749 and since then, there has been a significant Jewish presence in the Rock.
About Moisés
Moisés Hassán-Amselém, born in Seville of Moroccan heritage, is an honorary lecturer on Holocaust-Shoa Studies and Antisemitism at the University “Pablo de Olavide” in Seville, Spain.
He was an Exchange student in California during his senior year in High School. After his graduation, Moises returned to Spain and attended the University of Seville, where he obtained a law degree in 1995. However, he decided to make a complete career change and focus on the Jewish history of Spain. Therefore he set out to found Jewish Spain Tour, a fully licensed Tour Operator specializing in Jewish travel inside the Iberian Peninsula as well as in Morocco.
In addition to his role at the University “Pablo de Olavide”, Moisés is also involved in informal Jewish education.
