Foundation for Jewish Heritage Chief Executive Michael Mail recently visited Spain to
discuss next steps regarding the medieval synagogue project in Hijar.
The synagogue is one of the very few that survived following the expulsion of the Jewish
community in 1492. The Municipality of Hijar recently took ownership of the historic site,
which had been used as a church for the last 500 years, with the vision of transforming the
building into a Sephardi Heritage Centre that will present the culture, history and traditions of
the remarkable Spanish Jewish community of that time.
As a result of recent archaeological work, ancient decorative wall murals have been
discovered that are unique and have significantly added to the importance of the site.
The Foundation had prepared a Masterplan for the synagogue project working with local
volunteer leader Lucia Conte Aguilar, and Michael and Lucia together visited the Aragon
region to take the process forward.
They had meetings in the regional capital Zaragoza with Aragon Regional Government
representatives, namely Gloria Perez Garcia, Director General for Cultural Heritage, Jose
Antonio Andres, Head of the Cultural Heritage Service on Prevention, Preservation and
Research, and Luis Carlos Marquesan, Assessor to the Counsellor of the Presidency on
European Affairs and himself a former Mayor of Hijar.
Michael and Lucia also visited Hijar and met Mayor Jesus Adell Puyol, and Marian Aguilar
Monzon, the Municipal Counsellor for Culture.
It was agreed that the next step would be to produce a detailed Feasibility Study that would
more fully test the viability of the Heritage Centre concept, and this would be pursued after
the summer break.
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