Mónica Manrique
The Project of Return to Sepharad in the Nineteenth Century
Translated from Spanish by Justin Peterson
Original title: Proyecto de regreso a Sefarad en el siglo XIX
Academic Studies Press, Brookline, MA 2020, ISBN: 978-1-6446-9437-4
Reviewed by Regina Igel*
According to a succinct biography of the book’s author on its back cover, Mónica Manrique was born in Hungary, in a family of Spanish diplomats. After graduating in History at the French university at Pau, she earned a doctoral degree in History at the University of Alcalá de Henares, in Spain. Her interest in the history of Jews in Spain, besides this book, spans through several essays published in academic journals and her Ph.D. thesis (2005), entitled “La cuestión judía en España a través de los debates parlamentarios en las Cortes del siglo XIX y las reacciones de las comunidades judías ante los cambios políticos en España a la raiz de la Septembrina.”
This essay involves an examination of the “Septembrina” or the 1868 revolution by liberals that took place in September of that year in Spain. Among its accomplishments were the fall and forced exile to France of Queen Isabel II, replaced by a provisional government, composed of liberals, the elaboration of a constitution, and the announcement of freedom of religious worship. In view of this news, mainly the latter announcement, Spanish and foreign Jews supported the changes, as the revolution was openly celebrated by Jewish European communities through newspapers. The non-Jewish press in Europe was also very much interested in the changes occurring in Spain, since they would, later on, influence many political attitudes in other countries as well. Leaders of Jewish Sephardic (descendants of Jewish Spanish and Portuguese) communities dreamt of returning to Sepharad, the Spain of their predecessors. The movement of return addressed by this book-length essay was headed by Haim Guedalla, a British subject, a person of influence in the European and British Jewish communities, who dealt with the return of Sephardim to Spain for most of his life.
The volume consists of an Introduction, followed by three chapters: 1. The Press and the Jews’ Return to Spain; 2. Guedalla’s project; 3. Reticence in the Jewish community. The Conclusion is tailed by an Annex: Letter from the “Libéral Bayonnais of October 17, 1868,” Sources, and Bibliography.
After the revolution, it became common knowledge that the return of Jews to Spain couldn’t be imminent, but in the minds of many Jews of Spanish descent, it wouldn’t be unreasonable at all, either. The Jewish press, mainly in places where large Jewish communities existed, brought out articles, open letters, reports about the changes in the Spanish atmosphere, and the possibility of freedom of religious pursuits. Some of the papers were Le Courier de Bayonne and the Libéral Bayonnais, both published in the city of Bayonne, in the southwest of France, close to the frontier with Spain, where a significant Jewish community existed at the time. Chapter 1 does a profound analysis of these papers and the role played by Isaac Adolphe Crémieux, a French Jewish politician, who conducted a successful and brilliant career promoting French interests and Jewish protection abroad, including Spain. As expressed in the same chapter 1, Haim Guedalla, who would become the soul and spirit of the movement of return, contacted Crémieux “about the construction of a synagogue in Madrid” (p.9). That was a daring proposition, but even more audacious was the Bayonne Jews’ “interest … to pressure the new government to formally revoke the expulsion edict” (p. 9), in the 19th century. At the same time, there were waves of antisemitism expressed by Catholic liberals, a situation described by the author: “Both the liberals and conservatives (sic) were equally anti-Semitic, although some more unconsciously than others” (p. 13). Against the return of the Jews to Spain, and also against the opening of a new phase for free worship (for Muslims, Protestants and Jews), was a Vicente Manterola, a priest who decided to belittle Jews, the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud, claiming that Jews would find all ways to rob Christians, whom they cursed three times a day…
From there we reach the second chapter, where “Guedalla’s Project” is deeply examined from all viewpoints, starting with Guedalla’s own perspective, besides an improvement of the Jewish situation in Spain: developing a welcoming atmosphere toward Jews abroad, once freedom of worship was authorized; urgency in preparing Spain to receive Sephardim who were spread out over Europe; raising funds among Jews in and outside Spain in order to make possible the building of synagogues, schools, cemeteries, among other plans of interest for Jewish descendants of Spaniards. Though not all the Jews in Europe ran to Spain, many Sephardim did so, taking advantage of the fact that doors were opened for them, and Guedalla was the man entrusted with the task of making it possible to immigrate to the country. He was able to mobilize several Jewish communities, mainly in France, with the objective of accomplishing other items in his agenda, all in favor of a decent life for Jews in Spain. It was Crémieux, already mentioned, who, as suggested possibly by Guedalla, contacted the Jewish community in the United States, requesting financial help in the building of a synagogue in Madrid. As the author indicates, “At the end of 1868 and throughout 1869 the Jewish press was extremely enthusiastic about the news coming out of Spain. Guedalla’s project was widely supported by the Jewish press: French and English, liberal and conservative” (p. 34).
Running the risk of creating a spoiler for those who will read the book here reviewed, unfortunately, Guedalla’s plan of building a synagogue in Madrid failed, though he “did manage to bolster the Jews’ situation in Spain. The failure of this project might be attributed to several factors … the Spanish Jewish community was very small at that time … they even wondered whether the number of believers in the capital was enough to form a community” (p. 47). It was in 1917 that the first synagogue was built in Madrid.
In spite of Guedalla’s exhausting efforts to have Jews come to Spain, having even tried again the construction of a synagogue in 1881 (p. 49), he faced ‘Reticence in the Jewish Community,” as explained in chapter 3. The political troubles in Spain did not inspire Jews to enter the country, as public hostilities between the Church and the “Carlists” (who were against Prince Carlos’ niece becoming heiress to the throne, which she did, as Isabel II). It is important to remember that among the Carlists, there were followers of Catholic integralism, a group that opposed any religion in Spain except for Catholicism. Furthermore, these Catholic people rebuffed separation between State and Church, a fact that was of the uttermost inconvenience for Protestants, Jews and Muslims who might plan to immigrate to Spain.
Concluding this chapter, the author observes that “We know there was no massive wave of Jewish emigration to Spain between 1868 and 1870. In spite of the intense work of rapprochement spearheaded by Guedalla, the support he obtained, and the mobilization of the Jewish community in the wake of the Revolution, the studies carried out in relation to this question indicate that the Jewish population in Spain hardly increased, and that no major Jewish communities were established in the Peninsula, except in Gibraltar” (p. 73).
In her concluding remarks, the author notes, among a stream of provocative thoughts, that “the interest in Spain illustrated by H. Guedalla and his followers suggests that, if the government born of the September Revolution had survived, and been consolidated, Spain may have become a major haven for Sephardi Jews.… In relation to the Jews, this represents a key period, as the philosemitism spawned by liberalism began to mature.… This study has, surely, served to clarify an important period of Jewish mobilization with respect to Spain” (pp. 78-80).
There is no doubt that this is a very interesting book, whose readership aims at academics and non-academics, given its highly informative yet gentle narrative style. The research undertaken by the author includes a number of sources, Jewish and non-Jewish, like French, German, and Spanish periodicals, besides a letter from an anonymous writer, published in the Libéral Bayonnais (the original is in French), addressed to a ‘Dear friend’, dated October 17, 1868. It calls upon Europeans, underscoring followers of two distinctive religions, to come to Spain. It emphasizes that “our provisional government works well … Spaniards, who no longer take into account religious distinctions, look upon the Jews and the Protestants as brothers … The people of Madrid will happily welcome all the foreigners who come to live here.”
* Regina Igel is Professor Emerita, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.