Jewish Spatial Practices in Barcelona as Claims for Recognition

Abstract

In this article, I argue that the spatial practices of the contemporary Jewish organisations in Barcelona’s medieval Jewish neighbourhood represent claims for public recognition. As a small and quite invisible minority within the diverse city population, Jewish groups increasingly claim that their presence in the city should be recognised by political authorities and ordinary citizens alike. They do so through a series of spatial practices around the medieval Jewish neighbourhood, which include (1) heritage production, (2) the renaming of streets and (3) the temporary marking of urban spaces with Jewish symbols. I have grouped these practices under the umbrella concept of ‘place-recovering strategies’ because all of them attempt to ‘recover’ the lost urban environments inhabited by their Jewish predecessors before they were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By recovering I do not mean a mere passive restoring of urban spaces and places but rather a creative process in which historical narratives and myths of the past play a crucial role. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, I argue that these place-recovering strategies are part of a quest for the visibility, legitimacy and recognition of Jews.

The Jewish religious heritage continuum : Jewish religious communities’ interactions with synagogues and ceremonial objects in Amsterdam

“…In a study of Jewish spatial practices in Barcelona, sociologist of religion Martínez-Ariño presents the concept of ‘place-recovering strategies’: Jewish communities and organisations seek recognition of their presence due to their historical and contemporary role as a minority group. These strategies include heritage production, place-making and place-marking as a way to reaffirm a Jewish presence at sites where this has previously been lost or is currently vulnerable (Martínez-Ariño 2020 ). A striking aspect of the creation of the Amsterdam Jewish Cultural Quarter is its use of historic religious space as a vehicle for the explication of a contemporary, but not necessarily religious Jewish presence.…”

“…However, rather than describe the phenomenon examined here using predefined concepts, the present article explores the lived experience of people associated with Jewish communities and then develops a framework that explains in conceptual terms the interplay between embodied rituals, the spatial and material forms in and through which these people act, and their cultural stories and histories. Moreover, by recognising Jewish communities as ‘subjects’ rather than ‘objects’ of memory, the article espouses an increased awareness of the social significance of heritage (Martínez-Ariño 2020 , 247; Pignatelli 2020 ).…”