2022 Trip to Spain

“Travel,
because if you don’t travel then
your thoughts won’t be strengthened,
won’t get filled with ideas.
Your dreams will be born with fragile legs and then you end up believing in tv-shows, and in those who invent enemies
that fit perfectly with your nightmares
to make you live in terror.

Travel,
because travel teaches
to say good morning to everyone
regardless of which sun we come from

Travel,
because traveling teaches to resist,
not to depend,
to accept others, not just for who they are
but also for what they can never be.
To know what we are capable of,
to feel part of a family
beyond borders,
beyond traditions and culture.”

(From the poem Viaggiate by Gio Evan)

 

Join Rabbi David Straus and Julian Resnick as we travel through the best that Spain has to offer in art, architecture, history, cuisine with our special lens, our Jewish Journey through the history and geography of a once powerful and now (almost) absent Jewish community.

Lynne and I have been blessed to travel with you, our MLRT family to Israel, Cuba, Prague, Berlin and to Morocco.  We have made lifelong friendships together; had the experiences of a life time; learned and made connections with Jewish communities in each of these places.  We invite you to join us in our next travel adventure to Spain, March 30-April 11, 2022.

A trip to Spain will take us back in time to one of the greatest periods of Jewish history, the Spain of the Golden Age, which produced an abundance of Jewish poets, philosophers, kabbalists, and intellectual giants, such as Maimonides and Judah HaLevi. The Golden Age came to a brutal and horrific end in  1478 with the Spanish Inquisition, which forced hundreds of thousands of Jews to either convert to Christianity – or die. Our journey will follow the story of the Jews of Spain, those who were expelled, those who stayed behind in secret, hiding (conversos) as well as meet those who live in Spain today, creating new, exciting liberal Jewish communities.  We will celebrate Shabbat together with the Reform Jewish communities in Madrid and Barcelona.

“They are permitted to take all their belongings (except gold, silver and minted money) with them, and were promised safe passage during that three-month period. If they failed to comply and leave by the deadline, however, they would face execution….

They have had means and ways they can to subvert and to steal faithful Christians from our holy Catholic faith and to separate them from it …… and subvert them to their own wicked belief and conviction, instructing them in the ceremonies and observances of their law, holding meetings at which they read and teach that which people must hold and believe according to their law, achieving that the Christians and their children be circumcised….. ”

When traveling on a Jewish Journey through Spain, one cannot but cry out on occasion, “But where are they? Where have they gone? Why only memory traces?”
For most travelers can there be anything more romantic than Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Barcelona, Girona?
Think Prado, Santa Maria La Blanca, Mezquita, La Giralda, Alhambra, Sagrada Familia, Banys Arabs.
For us the same wonderful cities with the same extraordinary sites and ….. another powerful layer, a complex story, Dickensian almost:
“The Best of Times, The Worst of Times”. A Golden Age and an Expulsion

DEADLINES AND REFUNDS FOR TRIP AND GROUP AIR

2022 MLRT TRIP TO SPAIN & GROUP AIR

By December 20, 2021 – a nonrefundable* deposit of $750 per person must be received in order to participate in the trip and a nonrefundable deposit of $150 must be received to participate in the group air.

  • *If cancellation is received in writing by World Passage Ltd (worldpassage@comcast.net) prior to close of business on 12/20/2021 – you will receive a full refund of your deposit
  • *If based on deposits received and prior to December 23, 2021, MLRT decides to cancel, then you will receive a full refund of your deposit

By February 14, 2022 – the nonrefundable* balance payment for the trip to Spain and (if applicable) the group air must be received.

  • *If cancellation is received in writing by World Passage Ltd (worldpassage@comcast.net) prior to close of business on 2/14/2022 – you will receive a full refund of your balance payment

COVID

  • All participants must be fully vaccinated and bring their proof of vaccination
  • As travel requirements related to travel are in flux, you will receive updated information as to entry into Span and reentry in the USA, closer to the time of departure
  • To date, 77.7% of the Spanish population has been fully vaccinated.
  • We urge all participants to purchase Trip Cancellation/Health Insurance