This thread is a copy from 'your question about Israel', u just have to write here a question, and i'll try to answer it, if i can´t, another one can do it.....

ONLY: ENGLISH, SPANISH, LADINO

cuentos judios hay en espana?

14,000

NOOO, EN ESPAÑA HAY 50.000 JUDIOS
NO, IN SPAIN THERE ARE 50.000 JEWS

cual es el la relacion a Israel y judio en Espana? y cual es la relacion a los arabes en Espana?
contestacion yo en el espanol

Hola foreros de Israel:
Me permito dar mi opinión acerca de la visión de los españoles sobre Israel y los israelitas.
La imagen actual de Israel en España está demasiado influida por las opiniones políticas y por el conflicto arabe-israeli. De hecho, no se habla de casi otra cosa en los medios de comunicación españoles sobre Israel que no sea este conflicto. Por lo tanto, no hay un conocimiento auténtico de lo que es Israel y su gente. Además, en España hay muy pocos judios, ya que la mayoría fueron expulsados en 1492 por los Reyes Católicos (Isabel y Fernando), por ello no ha habido casi convivencia con el pueblo judío y la ignorancia es muy grande.
Si debiera decir a qué bando apoya la mayoría de la ciudadanía española, diría que el palestino. La gente critica mucho a Sharon y su política (sobre todo el levantamiento del muro), aunque aplaude la retirada de Gaza y Cisjordania. Creo además, que la gente no tiene un conocimiento profundo del asunto, y si simpatiza es porque el pueblo palestino es retratado como el débil frente al fuerte por los mass media (una especie de David contra Goliath). En cualquier caso, insisto en que el conocimiento del asunto por mucha gente es superficial.
Un saludo afectuoso desde España

Hola... gracias !
Un saludo afectuoso desde Israel :)

Exacto, no hay demasiado aprecio por los judíos en España, pero no creo tampoco que haya odio, noo, hay indiferencia.....
Y tampoco aprecian a los árabes, también les igual.

Creo que hay que diferenciar, Zazo, los judios de los israelitas. Hay más judios que sólo en Israel. La gente en España es más severa con los israelitas por motivos puramente políticos. Al hablar de judios estamos hablando de factores religiosos, y en cuanto religión, no creo que en España haya odio hacia ninguna religión, sino más bien indiferencia, como tu bien apuntas. Otra cosa es que la gente critique la política de Sharon y por eso Israel no sea popular.
Un saludo a todos y feliz año nuevo.

hola por todos foreros aqui

we need some translation here, what Don Pimpon wrote ?

hola por todos foreros aqui

we need some translation here, what Don Pimpon wrote ?

He has said that jews are not hated, they are there, but spanish are'nt interested in them, but talking about israel, he has said that sharon is very criticated, and most of spanish don't like what israel is doing....

Yes, Zazo, that´s the idea. There are not much oppinions about Israel and jews because there are not a lot in Spain (Most of them were expeled from Spain in 1492. The only view we have comes from the mass media which are very critic with Sharon´s policy.
Happy year!

^^ Its nothing new, Europe is ignorant. They were against US policies in Iraq because they were selling weapons to Saddam, and now the same case with other arab nations and Iran.. the EU is mostly playing it either hypocrites or ignorant.

^^ Its nothing new, Europe is ignorant. They were against US policies in Iraq because they were selling weapons to Saddam, and now the same case with other arab nations and Iran.. the EU is mostly playing it either hypocrites or ignorant.

that's what you think, not everybody is ignorant here,....

^^ Its nothing new, Europe is ignorant. They were against US policies in Iraq because they were selling weapons to Saddam, and now the same case with other arab nations and Iran.. the EU is mostly playing it either hypocrites or ignorant.

Who was against US policies? You can see than the most part of EU countries sent troops to Iraq after the war, for example. I don´t see USA makes a different policy. They sell weapons to the countries which they do not considere rough, like the "exemplary" Saudi democracy. It´s all the same. And about if EU is ignorant or not, well, I simply won´t answer. You haven´t showed to me that you are not ignorant...

Why Spain in Israeli forum? If I had some questions about Spain I would go to the Spanish forum.

As a friend of Israel forum, I would like the see only the nobel language of Moses and other prophets here.

sorry for my style, but I had to be honest.

once they called my mom in spain a jewish bitch, plus u have fucking ugly words towards us like judadia or something like that, that means a dirty trick or something bad and another that is "you eat like a jew" in ur everyday talking spaniards show that they dont like jews, and i know this cause my grandfather on my mothers side was from spain, i have go to spain and once of my ex gf was spaniard and i feeled how her family din't like her little girl to have a jewish bf!!!!

once they called my mom in spain a jewish bitch, plus u have fucking ugly words towards us like judadia or something like that, that means a dirty trick or something bad and another that is "you eat like a jew" in ur everyday talking spaniards show that they dont like jews, and i know this cause my grandfather on my mothers side was from spain, i have go to spain and once of my ex gf was spaniard and i feeled how her family din't like her little girl to have a jewish bf!!!!

sorry to hear man :(
before how many years it happen?

once they called my mom in spain a jewish bitch, plus u have fucking ugly words towards us like judadia or something like that, that means a dirty trick or something bad and another that is "you eat like a jew" in ur everyday talking spaniards show that they dont like jews, and i know this cause my grandfather on my mothers side was from spain, i have go to spain and once of my ex gf was spaniard and i feeled how her family din't like her little girl to have a jewish bf!!!!

yeah, spaniards use to say words like judiada, eres un judío...., but not many people, and they don't feel it, it's historic, our grandparents said that because they heard it from their grandparents...etc...., and we don't think about what it means( i dont say that expresions), we just say that, and that's all. And about your girlfriend's family, uuuf, it might happen many years ago, or that family is very xenophobic....my family and the families of everyone i know wouldn't mind if their daugther were a jew's girlfriend...

And talking about what somebody called your mother in spain,.... we don't use to recognise jews when they're walking on the street ( except ultra ortodoxos), and we don't call people that (jewish bitch)we just say bitch....and please where and when happened that???
Simply we don't talk about jews, except the historic expresions, and i've said that we don't think about what it means, it's just a expresion,..and i've never heard it in my life....

once they called my mom in spain a jewish bitch, plus u have fucking ugly words towards us like judadia or something like that, that means a dirty trick or something bad and another that is "you eat like a jew" in ur everyday talking spaniards show that they dont like jews, and i know this cause my grandfather on my mothers side was from spain, i have go to spain and once of my ex gf was spaniard and i feeled how her family din't like her little girl to have a jewish bf!!!!

The problems are MUCH worse in Latin America.

Even my old roomate who is a non-practicing son of a rabbi would say whenever someone was being cheap, "Stop being such a Jew." So, it goes both ways.

yeah, spaniards use to say words like judiada, eres un judío...., but not many people, and they don't feel it, it's historic, our grandparents said that because they heard it from their grandparents...etc...., and we don't think about what it means( i dont say that expresions), we just say that, and that's all. And about your girlfriend's family, uuuf, it might happen many years ago, or that family is very xenophobic....my family and the families of everyone i know wouldn't mind if their daugther were a jew's girlfriend...

And talking about what somebody called your mother in spain,.... we don't use to recognise jews when they're walking on the street ( except ultra ortodoxos), and we don't call people that (jewish bitch)we just say bitch....and please where and when happened that???
Simply we don't talk about jews, except the historic expresions, and i've said that we don't think about what it means, it's just a expresion,..and i've never heard it in my life....


it happened like 9 yrs ago and they knew my mother was jewish because she was holding hands with me and my brother and we where both wearing our kippots, and in latin america they situation is not worse that's a lie i have almost never feeled an act of antisemitism in latin america of course it happends but is very very rare, and about the son of that rabbi they should make a drug test on that asshole!!!!

Please, a question:

Would someone know if some of the following spanish surname have some jewish origins??...the surnames are "HARO" / "BALDERRAMA" / "GIMENEZ"

Yes I checked and Gimenez of Gimnez is found as a surname of some Israelis, ie. Zvi Gimnez - movie photographer. as for the other two - I dont think balderama is, haro I dont know.

Thanks...my great-grandfather came to Brazil from Granada - Spain, a region where historically the jewish presence was important in medieval times...he used to said that his antecessor has "strange" costumes, like lighting candles on Fridays and almost never eating pork meat (something very strange in the country of "jamón")...his surname has Gimenez Haro and I've always thought about the possibilty of being a kind of Crypto-Jewish...
I also would like to know the current situation of Sephardic Jews in Israel...
Greetings from Brazil and I'd be very pleased about answering questions about Brazil and it's jewish community...sorry about using English, but my Spanish isn't anything of respect...if you prefer, I could write in Portuguese also...

There are lots of jews that were forced to change to christianity and also fled from spain to portugal and from portugal to the colonies like brazil after the inqisition, they are called "mumarim" or converted, some hid their religion so what you describe is very common and only now is it being investigated more deeply. Its actually estimated that there could be up to millions of people who are similar to you in south america.

here is an article I found:
from:
http://home.earthlink.net/~benven/

FINDING OUR LOST BROTHERS AND SISTERS:
THE CRYPTO JEWS OF BRAZIL

by Arthur Benveniste
From Western States Jewish History, April 1997 Vol XXIX No. 3
Editor's Introduction-Arthur Benveniste is a distinguished writer in the Sephardic community. What follows is a personal account by him of his Jewish adventures in Brazil. Benveniste is a close friend of the editor. Mr. Robert J. Linden of Heliotrope Production, another friend, introduced the editor to writer Judith Fein who has lectured widely on the same trip. The present article verified her statement, "The reality of Crypto-Jews today is not an easy one," she said, "not only for 500 years have they struggled to keep their religion alive, but the resistance they encounter when they come out can be devastating."-WK.
Helio Daniel Cordeiro has been on a quest. A quest for his Jewish roots. He found them and he has been helping other Brazilians find theirs.
In October, 1996 I traveled to Brazil with Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn and the Society For Crypto-Judaic Studies. We were interested in contacting the descendants of Spanish and-Portuguese Jews who had been forced to convert to Catholicism. Many of these Jews had maintained a Jewish identity and some Jewish practices. These Jews had been known as Marranos, Conversos, Anusim or Crypto Jews.
In 1497, five years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the king of Portugal forced the Jews of his country to gather in a public square where they were harangued by priests, sprinkled with holy water and "converted" to Catholicism. Soon a Portuguese Inquisition was instituted which equaled or exceeded in viciousness the Spanish Inquisition. Many Jews began practicing their religion in secret and many sought refuge in the New World.
In 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil and claimed it in the name of the King of Portugal. A colony was established and thousands of Jews settled there. Unfortunately, the Inquisition followed them. Again they went underground.
In 1630 the Dutch gained control of Recife at the far eastern edge of Brazil. Dutch rule lasted only until 1654, but in this short period an island of religious tolerance formed which allowed Jews the freedom to worship according to their traditions. Jews came out into the open and two synagogues were established. Jewish merchants traveling back and forth between Dutch and Portuguese Brazil became Jews or Catholics depending on which side of the border they were on. Many Jews moved from the Portuguese to the Dutch colony.
When the Portuguese regained control of Recife in 1654, the Jews were again subject to the Inquisition. Some left for Holland. Some went to Curacao and then to New Amsterdam where they established the first Jewish community in the colony that eventually became New York. The majority, however, went underground again. Most of them went inland to the area around Rio Grande Do Norte. Their descendants still live there and it was these Jews we sought to contact.
In some cases the awareness of a Jewish heritage was passed from generation to generation. Children were told about it when whey reached teenage. Much of their Jewish knowledge was lost in the ensuing 350 years, however many families maintained certain rituals which indicated a Jewish background: They lit candies on Friday nights; They slaughtered animals in a kosher way; They read only the "Old Testament"; They shunned pork and shellfish; They refrained from eating bread in the week before Easter; They would not cook meat in its own blood.
Some found their Jewish descent by tracing their genealogy.
In his teens Helio Cordeiro became aware his Jewishness. His grandfather was a Crypto-Jew from Braganza, Portugal. The family avoided pork, kept the Sabbath, did not go to church, observed some biblical holidays, and "koshered" their meat. He sought to return to the faith of his ancestors but Orthodox rabbis of Brazil discredited accounts of a Crypto Jewish tradition in their country and they refused to accept him as a Jew. They insisted that he undergo a formal conversion. He had a better reception from liberal Rabbi Henry Sobel of Sao Paulo. Rabbi Sobel conducted a ceremony of T'shuva (return) and Cordeiro was accepted by the Reform Jewish community. Rabbi Cukierkorn, who was raised in Sao Paulo but who now practices in the Pennsylvania, was also instrumental in aiding Cordeiro in his return.
He began a study of Judaism and of the history of Portuguese Jews. He wrote of these for the press. His articles inspired other Crypto Jews to contact him for aid in returning to Judaism. They came to him asking questions which indicated that there was a tremendous lack of information about Judaism. Cordeiro formed an organization, SHEMA. The name is an acronym for the Portuguese words, "Hebrew Society for the Study of Marranism." He also published "Sefarad Report" on the internet. SHEMA trains leaders who then go out and conduct-workshops for returning Jews. The workshops have been held in ten cities and so far more than 2000 people have attended.
Many Crypto Jewish communities have been asking for help. Rabbi Cukierkorn went to a small village of Crypto Jews. When they learned that he was coming to them, they expected that he would be there to "convert" them. All the men had themselves circumcised in preparation for his visit.
Our group traveled to Sao Paulo to meet with Helio Cordeiro and Rabbi Henry Sobel. Sobel was born in Portugal but grew up in the United States. He has spent his professional life in Brazil. He has a special sensibility to Crypto Jews. Each year he receives four or five inquires from people who suspect that they have Jewish ancestry and would like to return to Judaism. If they have documentation Sobel performs a ceremony of return. Otherwise he studies the individual case, seeks contacts and tries to establish a Jewish connection. Then he decides if he will conduct a ceremony of Return or of Conversion.
In Recife our taxi driver, when he learned of our mission, volunteered that he suspected a Jewish background in his family. His evidence: when a chicken was slaughtered only a very sharp knife was used, and the blood was drained; other people cooked a chicken in its own blood, but his family never; pork was not eaten, the reason being that the pig, since it looked down to the ground and never up to heaven, was an "enemy of God." His family's funeral traditions differed from those of most Brazilians: the body of the deceased was washed and in times past, it was buried in a shroud; caskets were carried by six men along with flowers and candles; there was a three day mourning period and each year candles were lit in memory of the deceased. These practices do not prove an Jewish connection, but they raise suspicions. His family does not practice circumcision. They call it "Black Magic."
Gilvanci ben Shmuel Portillo traveled 2000 miles from Goiana to Natal to tell us his story. Gilvanci had a grandmother who spoke a strange language. His family also did "strange" things: They used a Christian Bible but cut out the New Testament; His father attended church but never uttered the name of Jesus and he began prayers with the words, "Baruch Atah Adonai, G-d of Abraham, Itzchak and Yaacov." Candles were lit on Friday nights; After leaving a cemetery, his grandmother washed and changed clothes; When a baby boy was born there was a celebration on the eighth day; Baby boys were circumcised by the grandfather (Gilvanci was born after the death of his grandfather, so there was no circumcision in his case). "My grandfather was like one rabbi and he made the religious services, as well as he prepared the foods to be kosher." His grandmother had a statue of the Madonna in the house. He often saw her kissing the Madonna's foot. Once he saw her take a "little box" out of it while cleaning it. His grandmother often said that she wanted the family to be "living Judaism." His father had a special love for Israel, calling it "our country."
At the age of eleven Gilvanci began researching his family roots and found that they were descended from converses. At seventeen he spoke to a rabbi and was told that the strange practices indicated a Jewish background. The strange language was Hebrew with many words in Ladino. The rabbi showed him a mezuzah. Gilvanci recognized it as similar to the "little box" in the Madonna's foot.
Gilvanci gathered his family and confronted them with the results of his research. They confirmed that they were Jews, but out of fear of persecution had hidden their identity. This happened in 1990. Since then ".... we have been in a process of returning to our roots." "We are Jewish," they said, "but we lost many parts of it. You are responsible for bringing the family back to Judaism." Gilvanci's brother has joined Chabad and dresses as a Chabadnik. Other relatives are not as observant. Some are not interested in returning. Most are supportive of him, some "scoff' at him. "Brazilian Jews say, 'we are not Jews,' but my father says, 'no matter, we are Jews."' Some say we have to convert, but my father says, 'I will never convert. I never will come back if I have to convert."' "We follow the commandants. I came here to establish contact with other Jews."
His people always married within their own group. His parents were betrothed to each other as infants. The grandparents recognized each other as Crypto-Jews by a secret sign that each carried. It was a small Mogen David. They agreed that if one had a boy and the other a girl they would have them marry. It happened. Some elements of the Ladino language have survived. Gilvanci found a CD of Sephardic music that contained a song that he had learned from his mother. He cried when he heard it.
Joao Madeiros grew up in Serido and rarely tasted milk. The local Catholic priest told the local dairy not to deliver milk to the family because they were Jewish. Joao left the Catholic church as a youth and studied to become a Presbyterian minister. He fell out with the Presbyterian leadership over an essay he was to write for his graduation. He was asked to write on how the Presbyterian Church had replaced the people of Israel as being "special" in the eyes of God. He wrote the opposite. Once again he broke with a Christian church.
He knew that his family was of converso origin. His father gave the children biblical names, not saints names. His grandmother used to take him outside to pray and never took a graven image (His original attraction to Protestantism was because they had no images). The local schools were dominated by the Catholic Church so his father hired a private tutor to teach the children at home. He returned to Judaism.
Madeiros moved to Natal and found an Ashkenazi Jewish center. He celebrated his return to Judaism there but there was a controversy over his return. Rabbinical authorities visited him and concluded that he had to go through a formal conversion.
"(I) was forced to conclude that we must follow our own way." Madeiros gathered a group of former conversos and they formed their own synagogue. There are now 106 members and twenty men are eligible to be called to the Torah. Several have visited Israel. Madeiros acts at the "rabbi." They acquired ownership of a very small building that had served as a synagogue in the last century. Some of the Ladino language remains with them. Mostly in songs sung after meals.
Controversy follows Madeiros. He decided that they would follow "Judaism of Iberia." But he is his own judge as to what is "Judaism of Iberia." Max Gabbay, a Moroccan Jew, is very critical of Madeiros. Gabbay met with us for more than an hour to tell how he rejects Madeiros' Judaism. Madeiros writes his own mezuzot and is now writing his own Sefer Torah. He does not conduct Kabbalat Shabbat in the traditional way. He does not have a license to convert, marry, divorce or write a Torah. "They want to do things in their own way. They will not accept any rabbi. They want to follow what they believe is true."
Madeiros insists that he is a Jew. "I am a returned Jew as was Moshe Rabenu. Moshe had experiences outside of Judaism, he was raised an Egyptian. He came back." He sees himself as fulfilling the laws of Israel. "Rules of law should not prevent one from following the law."
One must drive four hours from Recife to get to Caico'. The paved road has been there only a short time, so, until recently, Caico' was almost isolated from the rest of the world. Outside of the town there is a castle, complete with moat and drawbridge. This is the home of the local Catholic priest, Monsignor Araujo. There is a Mogan David over the entrance of the castle. Inside there is a menorah and on the wall are pictures of Golda Meier and Theodore Herzl.
Monsignor Araujo and most of the people of Caico' are devout Catholics, but they know that they are descended from converted Jews. A few Jewish rules have remained with them, they do not eat pork and few of them cook meat in its own blood.
We met with them at a town meeting. The people of Caico' had been torn away from the Jewish world four and a half centuries ago and they hungered to reestablish contact with the Jewish world outside. They want to remain Catholic, but there is an inner need to know of their Jewish roots. Their excitement at being visited by a delegation of Jews was evident. They wanted to talk to us all night. At the end of the evening one of their women took the podium and asked. "We have met, but will it end here? Or will we remain in communication?"
We told them that we would.


more material:

http://www.cryptojews.com/

http://home.earthlink.net/~benven/cryptoJewsofBrazil.htm

entire history (also in spanish I think): http://www.sephardim.com/

also see this book: "Jews in Colonial Brazil", by Arnold Wizhitzer

Very nice...I think that I'll try to find the missing links to my past...but it's soooo difficult to find any trace of jewish heritage in a almost homogeneous Catholic country..
A hipotetical question: Does the Judaism accepts coverts, even if the person can't prove family links with a Jewish past??

it depends what kind of judaism. Orthodox want a very long process which a lot of people find hard. Reform judaism is much easier and quicker and I dont think that anyone will have a problem if he really wants to do a process. Then secualr judaism is just keeping the basic traditions and living as much as possible according to basic traditions such as kosher food, observing shabbat, candles, bar mitzva, holidays etc.. so it depends what you want to do with it in your life, it can be just going back to being jewish or doing a full conversion-back process. As for family links, there are lots of ways for example there is a jewish gene that passed from the days of the bible in priests and levites, there's certain surnames that can be traced back, I dont know enough to tell you but you can write to these groups in the links they probably know many cases and can help you, sounds interesting.

Thanks a lot....I'm trying to trace my origins, but it's very difficult to pass from the 3th. or 4th. generation here in Brazil...in this country civil records appeared only from 1900 onwards (before the records were made, if they where, by the Catholic Church, so it didn't have much motivation to keep registers of jews or crypto-jews)...as I said, my grandparents where Spanish, but the records of their origin city were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War...so I think that a conversion would be more a matter of personal feeling (and, it's very strange, but I have ever felt something special about Israel and jews, even living in one of the most Catholic - Evangelical countries in the world) and traces of a hidden history inside my family...let's see where the road ends...
And, for the register, I found HARO as a jewish-origin surname in the website that you suggested...

Do you really lives in Hebron?? Do you live in a colony??

I live in Haifa.

Hebron is the second holiest jewish city, it was always a city with a jewish population until in 1929 the arabs massacred the jews of Hebron - http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron29.html
In 1948 Judea and Samaria inc. Hebron were captured by Jordan and arabs seized all the property owned by Jews in the city, even the jewish cemetary that was used by jews from 1540 - they uprooted jewish gravestones and used them for buildings..

After 1967 when these lands were liberated, the jewish presence was restored in nearby Kiryat Arba (the biblical name of Hebron), and after that attempts were made to renew one of the synagogues - it was turned back after the arabs made it into a stable and today Hebron has got a small jewish population that is fighting to get back confescated property that the palestinians took after the 1929 massacre.

Unfortunately our puppet government thinks that to gain points with the world public they now have to turn against their own citizens..
So if anything, arabs are colonising a jewish city.. 6000 jews live in kiryat arba and 500 in parts of the restored jewish quarter of hebron.

Ma'arat HaMachpela - Cave of the Patriarchs - bought by Avraham 3,700 years ago - the first Jewish transaction in the Land of Israel - is the final resting place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. The building atop the caves was built by Herod, King of Judea, 2,000 years ago.

http://www.hebron.com/1st.html

But it's appears that the Israeli government is unilateraly drawing the borders with a hypotetical Palestinian state...wouldn't Israel includes importante places for Judaism, like Hebron, inside it's new political borders??

That guy was writing from Venezuela wasn't he? Well of course it's different in Latin America, they have lots of prejudice and taboos about things that we don't have here in Spain. They may speak Spanish but they have nothing to do with us.

Anyway, it's silly to say Spaniards dislike Israel because of the critizism towards Sharon policies... Following that stupid way of thinking, you could say millions of Spaniards hate their own country, because so many were against Aznar policies. I personally support Israel and the right of Israelis to protect themselves from the Palestinian terrorists and from their hostile neighbours too. However, that does not mean I always approve of their ways... To support someone you don't have to agree with him in all he does, right?

One last comment.. about "judiada" and disgusting expressions like that one, I haven't heard that word in all my life... I mean, I know it was used before, maybe at the time of my grandparents, but I honestly don't know anyone that makes a regular use of that word. I never heard it from anyone's mouth.

That guy was writing from Venezuela wasn't he? Well of course it's different in Latin America, they have lots of prejudice and taboos about things that we don't have here in Spain. They may speak Spanish but they have nothing to do with us.

El sentimiento es mutuo...

It's good to know, I have nothing against you guys, though.

No hablo mucho espanol! Que deportes es favorito en Espana? Que tiempo hace?
Donde place ir de compras? Supermercado favorito? Excuse my awful Spanish I am just learning :)

What do you think of Spanish speaking Latin American countries like Venezuela Cuba, Mexico?

Hey macon4ever, I guess soccer is the most popular sport over here... although people practice many other sports, such as basketball, volleyball, tennis... About the weather, it all depends on which part of Spain we're talking about. For example, northern Spain (atlantic coast) is similar to Ireland (this is an example which is often used to give people an image of it) whereas the south is clearly Mediterranean with hot temperatures in summer and drier landscapes (while the South is mostly brown, the North is wet and green).

About shopping... well, there are obviously shopping malls in every city... but my favourite way of shopping is going to the city center of the city (where most of the times there's a pedestrianised area full of shops and cafés) and spend an afternoon there shopping, walking along the streets and then rest in a terrase café while having a drink or an ice cream.

As for favourite supermarket, maybe I'd say Mercadona, cos they own a brand of nice products which are really good too. Then you have hypermarkets, like Carrefour or Alcampo, but because of their big size they're located in the outskirts of the cities, so you necesarily have to go there by car or public transportation...

About Latin America... well, I've never been there but there are thousands of Latin American inmigrants living in Spain, and you can learn from them a lot of stuff of their countries.

Hey if Im not mistaking is it true that Argentina has one of the largest Jewish Communities in the world?

yes...250,000

Zazo are you from Madrid? If so i got a question.
When i stayed in this amazing city (probably the best city i've been too ),
I was treated great, but i do look Spanish and when i told them
I'm from Israel they refused to believe and claimed I'm Italian.
However i had a gut feeling that people that do not look local,
Oriental, black or brown are looked down at. I didn't see many of
them either, is it just me or is it true?
Barcelona does seem more tolerante and is a great city (but not like Madrid).
Also what is the differance between Castilian and Catalonian languages?
I was able to have conversation in both after a week there, so what
all that big deal all about?


yeah, spaniards use to say words like judiada, eres un judío...., but not many people, and they don't feel it, it's historic, our grandparents said that because they heard it from their grandparents...etc...., and we don't think about what it means( i dont say that expresions), we just say that, and that's all. And about your girlfriend's family, uuuf, it might happen many years ago, or that family is very xenophobic....my family and the families of everyone i know wouldn't mind if their daugther were a jew's girlfriend...

And talking about what somebody called your mother in spain,.... we don't use to recognise jews when they're walking on the street ( except ultra ortodoxos), and we don't call people that (jewish bitch)we just say bitch....and please where and when happened that???
Simply we don't talk about jews, except the historic expresions, and i've said that we don't think about what it means, it's just a expresion,..and i've never heard it in my life....

Zazo are you from Madrid? If so i got a question.
When i stayed in this amazing city (probably the best city i've been too ),
I was treated great, but i do look Spanish and when i told them
I'm from Israel they refused to believe and claimed I'm Italian.
However i had a gut feeling that people that do not look local,
Oriental, black or brown are looked down at. I didn't see many of
them either, is it just me or is it true?
Barcelona does seem more tolerante and is a great city (but not like Madrid).
Also what is the differance between Castilian and Catalonian languages?
I was able to have conversation in both after a week there, so what
all that big deal all about?

Asking what is the difference between Spanish and Catalonian is like asking what's the difference between Italian and Spanish. Sure, they're all languages which have their origin in the ancient Latin language, but their evolution was different and therefore those which were "dialects of Latin" evolved into different languages. Same happened with Galician (another of the four official languages of Spain). However, the Basque case is different since it doesn't have its origins in latin.

About "what's the big deal about"... well, it's about culture and identity buddy. Those of us in Spain who do not belong to the Castilian culture were humiliated and looked down at during the dictatorship (more than 40 years ago). Nowadays there's a big effort from the government to restore our dignity and I think that's just fair. I don't understand why some people see multiculturality as a problem... we have different cultures and languages in Spain... I'm personally proud of that.

You mentioned something about racism... well there're big communities of Latin Americans, Asians and Africans (both black and Arab) in Spain (especially in the bigger cities and in the countryside where they work in agriculture). Except from some marginal racism, I do not think non Caucasians are looked down at... but I agree it is true that some people see with fear how the inmigrant population grows each year. Sometimes it's easier to see the cons before the pros... so, even though it's true the inmigrants are helping to our economy in an important share (they do tasks we refuse to do now), it's also true they're bringing new problems we didn't have before, such as youth bands in the big cities (made up by Latin American kids) and more crime.
I think racism in Spain works pretty much as in any other European country... conservative people are less accepting of inmigration while progressive people stand in the opposite side.

Thanks, great answear.

No hablo mucho espanol! Que deportes es favorito en Espana? Que tiempo hace?
Donde place ir de compras? Supermercado favorito? Excuse my awful Spanish I am just learning :)

The weather here depends of the region u are on and the month you come, so if you go to the north area, it's always raining and sun is not often seen, but if you go to areas like andalucia, the cost, in spring and summer you'll find sun in everywhere, and the temperature will be quite hot, but that's the problem of Spain, everybody think that we're all day dancig flamenco, eating paella and sayng olé olé in the bullfigth, aaaah, and of course, it never rains here and every beach is full of people, but it's not true, i've never seen a bullfight and not many people here can dance flamenco, and we just have paella once a month (not everyone), and that beaches full of people are just on the est coast, in benidorm, malaga, sitges... in the south and north area there is no one, so if you came, bring every kind of clothes, you don't know the weather is gonna be like. Talking about shopping, Spain is a paradise, in cities like Marbella, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Palma de Mallorca... you'll find every kind of shop you want, specially in Madrid, where everythig of the world is sold there, and in tis city , every sunday takes place El Rastro, a huge market where you'll find everythig( ancient thigs specially), and our Spain is the country with most malls of Europe, Almost every village has one. And here you can do everythig you want, everything, and the best supermarket.... i don't know, there are thousands......

Zazo are you from Madrid? If so i got a question.
When i stayed in this amazing city (probably the best city i've been too ),
I was treated great, but i do look Spanish and when i told them
I'm from Israel they refused to believe and claimed I'm Italian.
However i had a gut feeling that people that do not look local,
Oriental, black or brown are looked down at. I didn't see many of
them either, is it just me or is it true?
Barcelona does seem more tolerante and is a great city (but not like Madrid).
Also what is the differance between Castilian and Catalonian languages?
I was able to have conversation in both after a week there, so what
all that big deal all about?

I was borned there, but i live now in a very near city from Madrid, Toledo, wonderfull, and famous for its jewish quarter, but i could say that i live there, i go there every week, and i know it perfectly, and almost all my family live there! and mmm people from Israel seem italians a little bit, not every one, but i use to mix them, so i have to hear them speak, cause i know how is hebrew like

It took me 45 min to get to Toledo from Madrid so you are not that far away.
Toledo is an incredible city and the only city on earth i had a problem
finding my way. we got there on corpus christi day and it was insane, but
i got got pictures. I bought a sword in Toledo and had to carry it the entire
backpack trip all the way to Rome. It was worth :)

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3001/corpus111vf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/8709/corpus69kz.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/641/corpus6li.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

..................

What do you think of Spanish speaking Latin American countries like Venezuela Cuba, Mexico?

Really I have a very good opinion of this countries, in fact i've family from Peru. In Spain in a general sense i dont think is as good

The problem with Latin America in Spain are two. The first one are a minority of latin american population, racists like forumer antonio estay who hates Spain... and the second one is not versos Venezuela or Cuba, is a feeling versus Ecuador Central America Colombia or Bolivia, well i think is proper to say is a feeling the inhabitants of this country, because in Spain live more than 2 millions of Latin American immigrants, and a lot of times, because the action of street gangs like Ñetas or Latin Kings, composed mainly by youngs from Ecuador Bolivia Colomia or Central America, people from this country are oftenly linked with crime

more questions!!!!

Hi, people of Israel.

I think about this interesting matter different things:

First of all, I would say that some Spanish don´t look well Israel´s politics against palestinians but many others know and understand that Israel was born one day in 1948 and the next day was attacked by the arabs to throw the Israeli people to the sea so Israel has had to defend from this from that moment on. Many people see this question with their lights and shadows, not only as black and white.

The Jewish comunity here is relatively small but each day there are more. The Israeli ambassador is present in the TV often, there are kosher restaurants and food in big supermarkets, the Holocaust day is remembered by the Town Council of Madrid and other goverment institutions, etc, etc, etc. Many Jewish writers like Amos Oz publish regularly articles in Spanish newpapers and sell thousands of books (A history of love and darkness has been a real bookseller here) and people like Woody Allen come each year to Spain to present their work and his films are greatley admired and widely seen.

In other words, in the last decades the knowdledge of your culture has increased a lot and the relationship with many Jewish artists and polititians with Spain has grown and the mutual admiration too, which is something highly positive of course. Shalom.

Dear European "friends" - Hello

May I start by noting we here in Israel also dont look favourably on EU politics to say the least, just as you do on ours

I think the current EU nations were spineless in Iraq, which allowed for it to become terrorized by fanatic jihad.
If all europe would send forces it would look different and I blame Europe among others for the mess in Iraq, especially spain that withdrew troops instead of organizing more european and muslim countries to help Iraq.

Its not the first time the EU does nothing, we saw Rwanda, we saw Somalia, we saw Kosovo, we saw Darfur. Its easy for you to scapegoat Israel one-sidedly when Israel has faced 6 years with 3000 missile attacks from gaza, and also after a full withdrawal from Gaza. A Hammas led palestinian govt. openly refusing to acknowledge any former accords and the two state solution is also getting zero EU condemnations. Well, perhaps we should see ourselves as well free from these accords at last, only more terror has resulted from them, and we cant trust EU to push palestinians to stop their "one arm terror, one arm talk" routine.

still we get zero EU backing, and on top of that you have EU muslims calling EU and American diplomacy one sided, while 50 muslim states are allowed to have a one-sided diplomacy with no relations or recognition of Israel. The mess in Iraq and Europes role not helping solve it will fuel now more fanatic jihad terror and you can roll your eyes and say who is to blame and use scapegoats - YOU ARE TO BLAME!

I think the EU is spineless, tired, weak, too obssesed with itself and its image and not willing to fight for values it believes, and so what we will get is more fanatic terror and more EU worthless condemnations and using us as scapegoats as . You have a history of using us as scapegoats, you do it well

And to top it all - again EU troops in lebanon are doing nothing and going on daytrips to the beach instead of implemeting UN resolutions to disarm terror groups. Oh wait. and france is covering up not doing anything by warning to shoot down israeli planes. thank god they had a new excuse for doing nothing, wow, the big french heroes.. god forbid they actually do someting that dangers them.. o la la! cest pas, la la la.. You have to wonder who chirac will blame once Seniora gets blown up by Syria or Iran`s hizbalitia..

The only two countries that stood up and did something were US and UK, which surprise surprise is the only two countries that actually stood up to Hitler`s germany in WW2. We all remember spain and france and all the big EU hero countries...

It is little wonder Irans president is right now openly laughing at Europe and saying they will back down and time is on Iran`s side, of course, he knows he can count on Europe to do nothing and to negotiate forever in useless talks, its what they do best. You also did it very good in 1939.. lots of papers and promises were signed and we all know how it ended.

For more details - Bat Ye'or's books - Eurabia. google it, its worth it.

I agree with you saying that the European Union speaks a lot and does nothing. For example, just today Spain, France and Italy has declared that they have a specific plan of peace for the Middle East.

Of course it´s only empty words, and none of the countries will send any big force to put peace in that hot area.

Europe has been fighing with itself until very recently (the Worl War Two) so now it employs all its energies in donstructing the European Union. For the moment we can´t ask for more.

Plus we prefer to protest and critisize the USA but never taking a risk of sending big armies to the difficult areas. It´s just like that. Plus, Europe is very afraid.

The muslim question is probably the most difficult for the XXI century. Irak has become very difficult even for the Americans, I think they honestly didn´t expect so much danger and bombs, etc. But on the other hasnd the USA have been the only ones that have put some peace in areas like Servia, Afganistan and others, with a little help of Europe, but only little.

So I agree with you in many aspects.