Swim and Live!

In 1492 when Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand decided to consolidate their kingdoms, they expelled the Jews and the Moors from Spain. After almost 2000 years of Spanish Jewry in Spain, that period came to an end. History tells of some rabbis who converted to Catholicism and advocated that other Jews convert alike. One such rabbi was Alfonso de Zamora. However, not all of the Jews in Zamora converted. According to the priest and chronicler Andrés Bernâldez, 30,000 Jews entered Portugal from Spain at Miranda do Douro. King João II permitted 630 wealthy families to stay in Portugal on a permanent basis upon payment of 100 cruzados. He allowed the rest of the Spanish Jews to enter his kingdom and remain for eight months on payment of a fee of eight cruzados per person. What about the poor Jews who could not afford payment? At the time of the expulsion, many Jews who didn’t have enough money to pay their way out of Spain escaped by swimming across the Mirando do Douro River to Miranda. These Spanish Jewish exiles resettled in the Portuguese towns: Bragança, Vinhais, Vimioso, Miranda, Arguzelo, and Carção.

Yesterday I was able to visit this river. As I looked at the mountains and the river beneath, I started to imagine a caravan of Jews swimming across to escape from their enemies. Paradoxically, this place was serene and inspired tranquility. The combination of the landscape and the sound of the birds singing almost opaqued the screams of the persecuted and the marginalized. It was at that moment when I felt a shivering from within me and began to imagine the chaotic splashing of water, and the shrills and shrieks of people drowning. Every day, Jews remember the splitting of the Yam Suf (Sea of Reeds) in communal prayer. I am convinced that the 15th-century Spanish Jewish exiles swimming across the Miranda do Douro River did not wait for the water to disperse, but obeyed the call of the Infinte One, "Go forward and march." Swim and Live!!!