Free Republic

Speaking to the JTA news agency, Rabbi Meir Bar-Hen, the chief rabbi of Barcelona, is giving up on Europe as a safe home for Jews. "Jews are not here permanently," he said of the city and region. "I tell my congregants: Don't think we're here for good. And I encourage them to buy property in Israel. This place is lost. Don't repeat the mistake of Algerian Jews, of Venezuelan Jews. Better [get out] early than late." With North Africans, mostly Muslims, flooding into Spain daily, bringing with them deep, theologically based hatred of Jews, the situation for Jews there can...

Two armed men reportedly entered a restaurant after the van crash occurred, incident in progress. BARCELONA - A van plowed into crowds in the heart of Barcelona on Thursday and Spanish media reported at least 13 people were killed, in what police said they were treating as a terrorist attack. The death toll was reported by Cadena Ser radio, citing police sources. Police said some people were dead and injured but did not confirm the number of casualties. They said were searching for the driver of the van. Spanish newspaper El Periodico said two armed men were holed up in...

Ask Jews which country they consider to be the European hotbed of anti-Semitism, and you will probably get a variety of responses. Some will no doubt invoke Poland and Germany, in light of the Holocaust, while others will insist that France has become the home of modern anti-Jewish sentiment on the continent. Still others may argue that the Swiss or the Hungarians are competitive candidates for this dubious distinction. And yet, if three recent studies and a host of nasty incidents are any indication, then the top spot, as it were, would belong to Spain, which is far and away...

just as Spaniards get smug about their perceived racial superiority, along comes a new study which implies that many Spanish anti-Semites actually have Jewish blood. An examination of the genetic signatures of the Spanish population shows that 20 percent of contemporary Spaniards have Jewish origins. As it turns out, far more Jews than previously thought did not comply with the order to leave Spain back in 1492 and simply converted to Catholicism instead. Many of those conversos tried to blend in by adopting surnames that indicated trades or professions...

For the first time, a group of 19 Bnai Anousim (people whose ancestors were forcibly converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition) has arrived on a solidarity visit with the Jewish state organized by the Amishav organization.The members of the group, who hail from Spain and Portugal, will tour the country, hear lectures on Judaism, Israel and anti-Semitism, and spend Shabbat in Jerusalem. They will also visit Safed, home to a number of famous synagogues built by Sephardi exiles from Spain in the Middle Ages, and meet with Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Amar. “This is an historic event,”...