CADIX

Certain historians have identified Cadix with the biblical Tarshish. Jewish presence in the city could go back to the Phoenician period.

There may have been a small Jewish community during the Islamic period as it is shown in the records of the time of the Christian conquest of the city at the 13 th Century.

The Jewish population increased in importance when the island on which Cádiz was situated became linked with the mainland by silt from the Guadalquivir. More about Cádiz Jewry is known during the 15th century. The Inquisition’s ruthless handling of cases from Cádiz tried in 1481 in Seville shows that a community of Conversos existed there at this time.

When Jews were expelled from Andalusia, those of Cádiz moved to Castile. A number of Jews – Moses and Isaac Aben Zemerro among others – were granted safe conducts to settle their affairs in the city.

According to the chronicler Bernaldez, 8,000 Jews left from Cádiz, mainly for North Africa, on the expulsion from Spain (1492). The 1877 census showed 209 Jews in Cádiz, mostly from Morocco, but no permanent community was formed.

During World War II, the port of Cádiz became one of the escape routes for Jews who crossed Spain clandestinely fleeing Nazi barbarism.

Cadiz is one of the oldest cities in Europe, founded by the Phoenicians at the time of the reign of King Solomon Cadiz has an unknown but fascinating Jewish history.