Presentation of the projects of the AEPJ in Limmud Mallorca
Last Sunday the second edition of Limmud was held on the island of Mallorca.
A Festival inspired, led and managed by volunteers of different ages, motivated, committed and excited to offer a high quality program, to experience a festival of learning and sharing of experiences and Jewish culture.
Mallorca has a great past and Jewish legacy, but also a dramatic history of medieval persecution. The history of the "chuetas" of Mallorca is very particular. Descendants of Majorcan Jews that either were conversos (forcible converts to Christianity) or were Crypto-Jews, forced to keep their religion hidden. The chuetas were stigmatized up until the first half of the 20th century. Today, there are some 20,000 chuetas in Mallorca. In recent years, dozens of chuetas have returned to Judaism, including some who converted.
In this way, the symbolic value of celebrating Limmud in Mallorca is very great, it was the largest Jewish event in Mallorca since the Middle Ages. In this special framework, Victor Sorenssen, director of the AEPJ, offered one of the sessions, where he presented the work at European level developed by the AEPJ in the field of Jewish heritage, as well as some reflections on the vision of the role of Jewish culture today in Europe.