Letter 20

Susan Solomont with Volunteers in Action Committee

Time is slipping away, and the busier we get, the harder it is to write these Holas.  But once again, we’ve had some wonderful experiences.

Towards the end of October, we were blessed with a very special visit by friends from our synagogue at home, Temple Beth Elohim (TBE).  As I mentioned in the last Hola, Alan and I are very involved with our Temple community, and we were thrilled that 58 members of that community came to Spain to visit.  We shared a Friday night Shabbat dinner and a Saturday morning brunch.  On Friday night, Alan and I invited many of our dear friends from Madrid to join us.  It was a wonderfully warm and connecting experience.  Our own Cantor Jodi Sufrin, and her husband Cantor Roy Einhorn, sang the Friday night blessing for a gathering of 100. Everyone joined in, and it was spectacular.  Our visitors from TBE quickly befriended our Madrid guests, and easy conversation was abundant.  Our good friend, Rabbi Joel Sisenwine, led the group in prayer and our home was filled with song, spirituality and friendship.  Paco Diez, one of the great interpreters of Jewish Spanish music performed, playing instruments as varied as guitar, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes and percussion.  At the end of dinner Jodi and Roy led a sing-a-long.  We sang some American classics like This Land is Your Land and a rousing rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (I sang solo, a bit!).

On Saturday morning, our friend Shlomo Ben Ami gave an interesting talk about the history of Jews in Spain.  Shlomo was Israel’s Foreign Minister during the Camp David peace talks.  He was also Israel’s Ambassador to Spain and is a noted scholar of Spanish history.  His talk was an extraordinary treat and an insightful account of the complicated history between Spain and the Jewish people.  Joel’s D’var Torah (interpretation of the weekly Torah reading) was about the Tower of Babel and how we speak different language but share cultural similarities as well as differences.  As we joined together in the morning service, I was so happy to be part of this community and to share our Spanish life with our dear friends from home.

On Sunday, I was fortunate to accompany the TBE group to Cordoba where toured the amazing Mezquita and the old Jewish quarter.  This was my second trip to Cordoba, and I was very excited to revisit these sites.  The Mezquita began as a pagan temple, then a Visigoth Christian Church until the mid 700’s, when the Moors began rebuilding it as a mosque.  Reconstruction of the massive Mezquita took more than two centuries to complete.  During the Reconquista (reconquest of Spain by the Christians), in 1236, King Ferdinand III of Castile captured Cordoba, and he ordered a new church to be built.  Because of the beauty and grandeur of the Mezquita, the King ordered the new Catholic Church to be built inside the mosque.  The mosque and the church are both large in size.  The Moorish architecture is magical with rows of pink and white striped arches that surround a magnificent Gothic church.  It’s quite an architectural treasure and a testament to the Moors' sense of design and to grand Gothic style.

Our tour in Cordoba continued with a visit to the old Jewish quarter.  Jews lived in Cordoba from as early as the 2nd century until their expulsion from Spain in 1492.  Under Moorish rule, both Jews and Christians enjoyed religious freedom, and both communities thrived and prospered.  This period is referred to as the Golden Age of Convivencia, when Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together in relative harmony.  Jews were well integrated into society, and it was a period of great cultural and intellectual accomplishment.  The great Jewish philosopher and scholar, Maimonides, was born in Cordoba in 1135, and a beautiful sculpture of him stands in the Jewish quarter.  In 1984 UNESCO declared Cordoba a World Heritage site, and I highly recommend adding Cordoba to your must-see list in Spain.

Sadly, I said goodbye to the Temple group in Cordoba.  They continued to travel to Seville, Barcelona, and Gerona to further their understanding of Jewish Spain.  One takeaway I think the group left with is what a fascinating country Spain is and how much the Spanish government is doing to shed light on the history of Jews in Spain.

Once I returned to Madrid our hectic schedules picked up quickly, with a trip to the city of Pamplona in the region of Navarra.  In Pamplona, Alan gave a speech on terrorism and the ten years since 9/11.  Spain has its own tragic history confronting terrorism.  The ETA terrorist group has been in existence for over 50 years and killed over 800 people in Spain.   Alan spoke at a forum held in memory of a Navarran official assassinated by ETA.  Spanish police have been successful in their battle against ETA, and the organization recently renounced violence as a way of pursuing their goals.  This is not the first time, but the Spanish people are hoping they’ve seen the end of this type of violence.

On 11-11-11, Alan and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary.  We flew to Lanzarote, the northern-most island in the Canary Islands, for a few days to mark the occasion.  Like all the Canaries, Lanzarote is a volcanic island, but it’s much more barren than the others, and it’s amazing what can be grown there.  We toured the Timanfayo volcano, which was truly like being on the moon.  We visited wine producing vineyards where the vines grow in volcanic ash.  We admired the art, architecture, gardens and scenery throughout the island.  We visited a number of magical sites.  The actor Omar Sharif owned a house on Lanzarote and according to stories he lost it in a poker game.  It’s an extraordinary edifice built into a volcanic landscape, and it currently houses a museum and a very good restaurant.  We also learned about the island’s most prolific artist, Cesar Manrique.  Manrique was a sculptor, painter, architect and visionary who lived on Lanzarote and is credited with influencing how the island was developed.  There are no high-rise buildings and the architecture is said to follow Manriques’ style.  He gracefully incorporated the natural elements of the island, including volcanic landscape and cactus from all over the world in the design of some of the most interesting sights we’ve seen to date.

While on the island we joined some good friends, who live in Gran Canaria and Madrid, on their boat.  It was wonderful to be on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, 125 km from the African coast, enjoying its sun, warmth and beauty.

During our time on Lanzarote, while learning about Cesar Manrique, it struck me how many extraordinary Spanish artists we’ve gotten to know.  Everyone knows Goya, Velázquez, Picasso, Miro, Dali and Sorolla, but we’ve been fortunate to discover the works of more contemporary artists like Cesar Manriques Antonio Saura, Cristobal Toral, Manolo Valdés, Gustavo Torner, Eusebio Sempere, Eduardo Chillida and others.  Some of the names may be familiar and some are not, but they are all worth checking out.

The Embassy’s Volunteers In Action (VIA) committee has been very active.  To mark the holidays, we started a campaign called “A Season of Giving.”  In November, we collected over 550 lbs of food, which we delivered to Our Lady of Mercy, a church in Madrid that serves a large Nigerian immigrant population.  In December, working with the American Club of Madrid, our US Marine Detachment and the entire Embassy community, we collected toys for needy children in Madrid.  I’m very proud our effort is growing, and we are finding new ways to help those in need in local communities.

Speaking of the Marines, because Alan was traveling, I went solo to the 236th Marine Ball.  Or as they say in Spain, I was “de Rodriquez.”  It was my honor to read Secretary of State Clinton’s words of congratulations to the young men and women in uniform who serve our country so well.  The Marine Ball is an annual tradition, filled with military pomp and circumstance, along with good food, good wine, conversation and dancing.

As many of you know, Spain just held national elections and elected a new government that will take office later this month.  The right of center Popular Party (PP) won convincingly and Mariano Rajoy will soon become Spain’s President of the Government, replacing Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero.  The election process is quite different in Spain from what we are accustomed to in the US.  First of all, while elections are discussed and anticipated for some time, the actual campaign lasts only two weeks.  The day before people go to the polls (which happens on a Sunday), no campaigning is allowed.  There was only one televised debate between the candidates.  Spain is a very young democracy, and over 70% of the population votes.  The election was all about the economy and the new government will have its hands full trying to pull Spain out of its economic slump.  As I have written before, this is a time when relations between Spain and the US are very strong, and that will no doubt continue with the new government.

Thankfully, Stephanie and Becca both came to Madrid for Thanksgiving.  They were great sports about joining us for an early Thanksgiving event on Wednesday.  As we did last year, Alan and I hosted about 100 Spanish friends and colleagues to share the American tradition of giving thanks and to acknowledge the people who have made our stay in Spain so rewarding and successful.  Although we are a large group, our Thanksgiving celebration has the intimate feel of a family gathering.  We serve the best turkey in all of Spain, and we try to convey a genuine message of gratitude on El Día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving Day in Spanish).

Becca and Stephanie each stayed for a week and we were truly thankful to have our family together.  I think it’s fair to say that one unforeseen benefit of being separated is that we treasure the time we are together. While we missed being at the annual gathering of the Lewis family in New York City, we were with them in spirit.

I’ll end this Hola here.  Alan, Becca, Stephanie, Stella Blu and I send you all our love and very best wishes for this holiday season.

Con carino

Susan

P.S.  Holas can also be found on the US Embassy Madrid website