Dear Spain,

Our learning of Spain’s history rested between two extremes. On one side was the Sephardic golden age. It was the height of Jewish civilization and culture, which produced poetry, medicine, and scientific thought; a time when Spain’s Jews, Muslims, and Christians all lived in relative harmony. At the other end was the trauma of the Inquisition when all Jews were forced to convert, flee, or be killed. We are the only Jewish group in centuries to pray in the ancient synagogues of Cordoba and Toledo, bringing the Ladino songs we had learned from the Balkans, Morocco, and Israel back to their true home. Today Spain highlights their legacy of Jewish heritage with Judaica souvenir shops, streets marked with menoras and Jewish stars, and offering citizenship to Sephardic Jews. We marveled at the architectural wonders of the Mosque/Cathedral in Cordoba and the Alhambra Palace in Granada, grappling with how Spain still honors the architects of the Inquisition, and sidelines their country’s equally important Muslim history. Despite the Jewish void we felt in Spain, our time ended on a high note, meeting young Spanish Jews our own age in Madrid.