I Went Back to Spain to Learn about My Sephardic Roots

Right after we got married, my wife Kylie Ora Lobell and I set off on our honeymoon tour of the world. One of our stops was Spain, where I was going to record my new comedy special, “Reconquistador!” I was tracing my Sephardic roots and learning about the Jewish community that was still there.

My family had lived in Spain before the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella forcibly converted, tortured, or expelled around 300,000 Jews from the country. I enjoyed my previous visits to Spain even though I knew its dark history of the Jewish people.

Our first stop was Girona, the Jewish quarter that dates back to the 12^th century. It was beautiful, which made me even more upset that we were expelled from the city.

I visited the Jewish museum in Girona and saw the name “Lobell” everywhere. It was interesting because I’m Sephardic on my mom’s side and went to a Sephardic synagogue growing up; now, I discovered that my dad’s side could have had Sephardic roots as well.

The museum is well done; there were antique menorahs in there, old tallit, and a mohel’s tools for circumcision. I learned that the Jews had been in Spain for at least 2,000 years following the destruction of the Second Temple. There was a golden age of the Jews in Spain during Muslim rule, but when Catholic monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella took over, they issued the Alhambra Decree and expelled the Jews from their kingdoms. We talk about the Holocaust a lot because it was so recent, but the Inquisition was just as bad. Jews were burned at the stake, tortured, and forcibly converted or thrown out of their country.

At the Girona museum, I felt the same way I did when I went to other Jewish museums around the world. Usually, the country is saying, “Jews, we kicked you out, we tortured you, and we murdered you, but hey! At least we now have this nice museum and gift shop! Please buy a keychain.”

As a comedian, I turned to humor while exploring the museum, cracking jokes with the staff. But it was overwhelming. I couldn’t process my mixed emotions.

The remnants of the Inquisition deeply ingrained in Spanish culture. For instance, while touring around Barcelona and Madrid, I noticed there were pig legs and signs for jamón, a dry-cured ham, everywhere. I joked that there must have been lots of pigs in wheelchairs all over the country.

I found out that the pig legs weren’t just there because the Spanish people found them delicious. During the Inquisition, people would put pig into everything to find out who was Jewish or Muslim. If you didn’t eat it, you could be killed.

There are still statues of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in Spain. And in 2015, the year I went on my honeymoon, Spain said it would be giving citizenship to the descendants of the Jews who were expelled during the Inquisition. Since then, they have rejected thousands of applications, and thousands of other people never got a response.

When Kylie and I went to Chabad for Shabbat services, heavily armed Israeli guards questioned us before allowing us into the synagogue. And when we went to the rabbi’s house for Friday night dinner, they accompanied us there for protection. In modern-day Spain, Europe, and the world in general, Jews are still being attacked simply for being Jewish. Not much seems to have changed.

As hard as it was for me to learn about the history of the Jews in Spain, I still love the country. It’s gorgeous and, like other European towns, full of so much history.

Most of the people you meet in Spain are lovely, too. The audiences at my standup shows were ready to laugh and have a good time. Plus, I enjoyed going to the kosher restaurants and delis in Madrid and Barcelona – even though the one in Madrid was hidden in an unmarked building in an alley. Touring the world as a comedian, I found that was often the case.

I hope that the Spanish government will make good on its promise to give people with Sephardic roots citizenship. My cousins recently moved from Turkey to Spain; I’d love to go and visit them and get citizenship myself.

And I hope that people will learn about the history of Spanish Jewry while watching my film, and laugh along the way.

Watch the “Reconquistador!” trailer

To bring “Reconquistador!” to your synagogue or city, please email Kylie@Koldigitalmarketing.com to set up a screening. Learn more at ReconquistadorMovie.com.