The Spanish government and the Spanish Parliament are about to vote a special law recognizing the Jewish community’s rights and granting it the same privileges enjoyed by the Catholic church and the various Protestant congregations.
The president of the Spanish Jewish community, Samuel Toledano, announced yesterday in Madrid that this special law, which he described as “revolutionary,” is slated to be approved “without any difficulties” before the end of the year.
Toledano said the law would take the form of a “Concordat,” the special sort of agreement binding the Vatican to various states, and would grant the Jewish community the legal rights enjoyed by the Catholic Church.
The Jewish community would have jurisdiction over matters of personal status conceming its members. Jews, just like Catholics, would be able to undergo only a religious wedding which would automatically be registered with the state registrar’s office.
Rabbis will be enjoy the same privileges as Catholic priests, will be exempted from military service and would not have to testify in court on any matter related to the ministry. They would also have free access to prisons, hospitals and other state-controlled institutions to which they might be called. Synagogues and religious and cultural Jewish institutions would be tax exempt and would enjoy other special fiscal privileges.
Some 12,000 Jews live in Spain, mainly in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga and the Costa Brava. Some 70 percent arrived from Morocco in the 1950’s while most of the others stem from Germany, Central Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
There are two rabbis and five synagogues. Two other synagogues dating from the Middle Ages have been tumed into state museums. Toledano said that a third historic synagogue in Toledo is now the property of the Catholic Church. He called on the state to take it over and convert it and its priceless art treasures into a Jewish art museum.
According to Toledano, the new law is backed by a majority of Deputies and is being held up only because of the Protestant churches’ difficulty in setting up a unified delegation able to sign a similar agreement.
He said “a new era has started for Spain’s Jews with the return of emocracy.” He said century-old privileges have nearly totally disappeared and the Jews, maybe for the first time in Spanish history, enjoy equal rights with the rest of the population.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
