Rosh Hashanah

Hello everyone! For those that don't know, this weekend (starting Friday night) is a Jewish holiday called Rosh Hashanah where we celebrate the new (Jewish) year. So, I started emailing some rabbis and various people to find out about synagogues in Madrid way before I arrived here. I found that there is one main synagogue in Madrid called la comunidad judía or Beth Yaakov, and the other that I received info about is called Bet El. Both emails back were pretty vague, but I gathered that la comunidad judía is sephardic and Bet El is masorti, or conservative. Together with Michelle and Deena I decided to try Beth Yaakov on Friday night. First, Deena went shopping for groceries and arranged a cute picnic to have with some of her Duke friends and me in Parque del Retiro, but of course, it was pouring in the hours before the service. I asked Rosario very nicely if I could have a few amigos over, and she surprisingly said yes. We ended up having a great little picnic in my kitchen which included round challah and apples and honey! (Michelle and I splurged for the honey...it was 4 euros for a tiny jar!! Maybe there aren't any native Spanish bees?)

On the metro to the shul, we kept our eyes out for people dressed in fancy clothes who we could maybe say shanah tovah (happy new year) to. No cigar. We finally made it a few minutes after the service call time to see a lot of police and a decent amount of people around the building in nice clothes. This made me excited and happy. (what did not, however, was when I relayed the message to rosario from deena that there are had been many police surrounding the building since the middle of the day and she did not seem to understand why. in spanish, she said, why? we have free speech in our country. no need for police. i tried to tell her it's dangerous when there is a large group of jewish people together, and she did not understand. oh well.) We walked in, made it safely through the security check (without having to pay! phew!) and looked around for where the service could be, as I knew it had already started. I asked a woman standing in the hall, "dónde están los servicios?" and to my dismay, she replied, "mujeres por arriba," or "women upstairs." Damn. I came all this way for an orthodox separated service? Well, we went upstairs as we were told to find a good amount of women and children sitting basically on the roof of the building. The problem was, they weren't just sitting. They were all gabbing with each other and talking so loudly, without paying any attention to the kids running around and screaming! I looked down and saw that the service was well underway, with many men swaying below to the sound of the rabbis voice. Sadly, the noise upstairs continued throughout the entire service and not only could I not see the service but I couldn't hear it either. Oh yeah, I did not see one woman holding a siddur or even trying to pray. I felt like an outcast.

Michelle was able to make a connection through email with the vice president of the synagogue because he went to Georgetown University, as does she. He must have told a member of the congregation, Daniel, that there were two students coming and he invited us to his parents house for dinner. He found us in the lobby after services and was muy amable, very friendly! We walked to his car and he drove Michelle and I to his parents' house--a little bit north of the city in a nice residential area. I knew the tides turned when Daniel's mother from Haifa told me not to call her señora, but to use the informal tú form! This is very uncommon with older women, and I immediately felt at home. Both of Daniel's parents were very nice, and they had invited this Jewish Turkish family for dinner also. This was very interesting to see; there are hardly any Jews in Spain (5,000 in Madrid, a city of 5 million), but even less in Turkey. Nonetheless, both families uphold their traditions and continue to practice Judaism fearlessly. The meal had both Spanish and Jewish qualities to it: we said the regular blessings over washing our hands and the bread, but we also said additional prayers over things like an olive, a radish, and other little foods I didn't recognize before we started the meal. The meal had a few different courses, which is very Spanish-like. Oh yes, speaking of Spanish-like: we didn't start the meal until nearly 11:15pm! The family spoke very bluntly with each other, and it was great to be able to communicate easily in Spanish with everyone. Above is a picture of the people at dinner. Daniel drove me and Michelle home around 2:30am when we finished the meal.

A few hours later, I woke up to go to Bet El, the synagogue that I thought would be conservative. In the information mailed to me I read that they begin services at 9:30am in a hotel (I don't think they have their own synagogue), so I arrived at 9:45am to see an empty room of people besides for a man in a suit playing Jewish tunes on a piano. A few things wrong with this picture? I don't have anything wrong with a piano on shabbat (I went to violin class on Saturday afternoon for 15 years, and the service in Argentina on shabbat that I loved had a piano) but I was told this was a conservative service. I sat down and waited it out. A few people trickled in, and eventually a man on a microphone started to pray. By the torah service there were about 30 people there, but I didn't really enjoy the service. The man leading didn't really know what he was doing. I am really not trying to be picky, but the two services combined made me a little sad about the (lack of?) Jewish life in Madrid. I feel bad for the Jewish people here, and I hope they are able to survive. I learned a lot this weekend and it was for sure a good experience (right dad?) At least I had an awesome dinner :)