The Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain held its first public meeting here to-day to consider various questions arising out of the new status obtained by the Jews of Spain and to proceed with the organisation of Jewish life in the country. (The Protestants of Spain held their first public Conference in Madrid a few days ago).
The meeting was attended by the most important Jews in Spain. Senor Ignacio Bauer presided, and a commission was formed consisting of Senons Bauer, Menahem Coriat, Antonio Goicoechea, Hilario Ayuso, and Manuel Ortega.
It was decided to establish an institute for conducting researches in the libraries and national archives of Spain with regard to matters relating to Jewish history and literature particularly affecting the Jewish communities and Rabbinical Scholarship, and to appeal to the Jews of the world for funds to enable scholars from all countries to come and study the Jewish record in Spain.
It was also decided on the motion of Senor Ortega to ask the Government to return for Jewish worship the famous synagogue in Toledo known as El Transito.
It was further decided to send a cultural and commercial mission to the colonies of Sephardic Jews in the Orient and the Mediterranean countries and to ask the assistance of the Government for such a mission.
The El Transito Synagogue in Toledo which was built in the Fourteenth Century by Samuel Abulafia, who was Treasurer to the King of Castile, and a second synagogue in Toledo, which was built in the Thirteenth Century and was converted after the Jewish expulsion into a Church known as St. Maria la Blanca, are the two most famous examples of Spanish synagogue architecture in the world. After the Jewish expulsion from Spain the El Transito Synagogue was also converted into a Church, but in 1888, it was made a national monument. The interior decorations which are in the finest Moorish style, were cleansed and restored. The Church of St. Maria la Blanca, is also now preserved as a national monument.
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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.
