Our Congregation was founded in 1981 by Rabbi Harris Guedaliah and Rabbi Martin van den Berg (who was than a student). They were present at a Bar Mitzvah and suddenly realised that there were a large number of men and women of Spanish and Portuguese origin living in Jerusalem and indeed in Israel in general, though hitherto no such congregation existed.
Sephardim are Jews whose ancestors lived in Spain or Portugal before,because of religious prejudice, they were officially expelled, , five hundred years ago in 1492. Many of them left immediately and tried to live in Portugal, but they were very soon expelled from there too. The great majority migrated to places like Turkey, the Balkans, Greece, and North Africa where many still speak the old Jewish-Spanish dialect, Ladino. Others went to the Middle East, and it is these groups who make up the majority of the Sephardim today.
However a significant fraction of those Jews caught in Spain in 1492 went underground as it were - that is, they pretended to adopt Christianity but maintained what they could of their Judaism in secret in their homes. Many families persisted as Jews for many generations in secret, always with the threat hanging over them of discovery and torture by the Spanish Inquisition . Others left for freer countries - Protestant places like Holland and its colonies like Curacao and Surinam, or England and its colonies such as Gibraltar and North America. It is the descendants of these who make up the Spanish and Portuguese Jews like our Congregation. We all have more or less the same prayerbook and often recognisably the same melodies, in spite of our different histories. The music is western with a few characteristic features, notably a tendancy to alternate major and minor sequences; this is in contract with the music of the major of the Sephardim which is in an Arabic mode.
The name of the Congregation, Sha'are Ratzon, is taken from the beautiful mediaeval hymn sung on Rosh Hashana. For many years we have prayed in the Istambuli Synagogue, an ancient domed edifice of the greatest beauty, built in the 1540's, destroyed in the 1940's and rebuilt after 1967. The Ehal and Tebah were brought from the ghettos of Italy; they date fromt he 17th and 18th centuries and are priceless.
On the High Holydays the Synagogue is full, may be 100 people altogether. Those congregants who live outside Jerusalem move into the city and live in hotels for the few days. On the ordinary Shabbat we face the difficulty that members live scattered all over Jerusalem and must walk to Synagogue. Some have to walk over one hour or more which can be exhausting in the summer and arduous in the winter. For that reason we hold Shabbat services once once every calendar month; programmes of forthcoming services are mailed to members.
All services are conducted by members - we have no resident Hazan. We have from time to time had visits from eminent Hazanim from all over the world and their hazanut is always particularly uplifting. In 1992 on the 500th anniversary of the Expulsion from Spain, we held a Commemoration Service which was graced by the presence of the Sephardi Chief Rabbi.
Membership fees are modest, with reductions for students and overseas members.
Here in Israel social activities of a Jewish nature are taking place all the time and the Congregation does not feel the need to organise a purely social programme as a cohesive force. The accent is on Synagogue activity, with a children's party at Hanukah and one for everybody at Purim. We sometimes hold lectures on specifically Spanish-and-Portuguese topics. We have from time to time held musical evenings when we practice familiar tunes and occasionally learn new ones; these are always well attended.
Several weddings have been held in our beautiful Istambuli Synagogue and a large number of Bar Mitzvah ceremonies.
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This page prepared by Pinchas Richard Wimberly, webwright.
August 21, 1999