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| Understanding medieval Spain and Portugal (Sefarad in the context of Jewish History) requires familiarity with geography, maps and timeline. The map above helps to locate referred populations and historical figures in the two entries of the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906, which are relevant to Zamora. In the second entry Castile includes León since these two kingdoms were historically connected since the early 11th century |
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"In the former Kingdom of León (the presence of Jews) was much larger, among the most prominent communities being those of Zamora, Valladolid, Mayorga, Medina del Campo, Salamanca, Ponferrada, Bobadilla and Ciudad Rodrigo"
Section "The Spread of the Jews in Spain" under Spain entry
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"The last Rabinnical authority of Castile (and León), likewise its last Gaon, was Isaac Campanton, among whose pupils were Isaac de León, Isaac Aboab (referring to the II) and Samuel Al Valensi. The last preachers of renown were the religious philosopher Joseph ibn Shem-Tob, Joseph Albo, and Isaac Arama".
Section "The Karaites in Spain" under Spain entry (1)
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The number of immigrants amounted to
nearly 100,000. From Castile alone more than 3,000 persons embarked at
Benevento for Bragança; at Zamora, more than 30,000 for Miranda; from
Ciudad-Rodrigo for Villar, more than 35,000; from Alcantara for Marvão, more than
15,000; and from Badajoz for Elvas, more than 10,000—in all more than 93,000
persons (Bernaldez, in A. de Castro, "Historia de los Judios en
España," p. 143).***
Notas
1- It is not clear why the Encyplopedia authors decided adding this information in this section. Campanton and its pupils were known for applying Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah to interpretations of the Scriptures.
