Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Spanish Town Holds First Seder Since Inquisition

A town in northern Spain is preparing to hold its first Passover seder since the areas Jews were forced to flee during the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.

The festive dinner will take place in the old center of the town of Ribadavia on March 25 and is being organized by the municipality’s tourism department in partnership with the Center for Medieval Studies, a Ribadavia-based association which researches the history of Iberian Jews prior to their expulsion during the Spanish Inquisition that began in 1492.

The center’s honorary president, historian Abraham Haim, will be conducting the religious ceremonies at the seder, according to a report by La Voz de Galicia, a local newspaper. Anyone is invited to attend, but a seat costs about $40, the newspaper said. The city expects a few dozen people will attend.

The project is aimed at increasing tourism to Ribadavia and “breathing new life into its old Jewish quarter.”

Like many Spanish cities, Ribadavia used to have a sizable Jewish population before the Spanish Inquisition, in which Jews were forced to emigrate or convert. Since the 1990s, several cities and towns in Spain and Portugal have undertaken tourist projects that highlight their Jewish past.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.