About Urban Cultours project
Here, where our ancestors lived, a remote past and a lively present meet. The oldest synagogue in Barcelona, dating back to the ninth century or even earlier, was identified in the last decades of the twentieth century, just as a new congregation, Atid, was born from an ember.
Our programs and tours focus on all aspects of Judaism in Barcelona and Catalonia. Urban Cultours is actively involved with current Jewish issues and with the local Jewish community. Our team will take you along an emotional journey where you will share, understand and enjoy the uniqueness of Jewish past and present-day life in Spain.
Together, we can keep this story alive.
On a personal note
I always start my tours explaining “what brings us together here today”, and this requires a brief personal presentation.
My grandparents arrived in Argentina from Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century.
My parents married in Buenos Aires and went to New York. I was born there but we soon returned to Buenos Aires, where my sister was born.
My strongest childhood Jewish memories are the family reunions for the High Holidays, and my grandma's cooking: gefilte fish, chicken soup, knishes, latkes, blintzes. All those delicious recipes I learned and cook today.
In the late 70's, already an architect, I spent a couple of years in Europe and then decided to move to my native New York City where I lived the next 12 years.
As I frequently traveled to Spain to visit family, I became very attracted to its culture and lifestyle. I moved to Barcelona in 1991. Four years later I met a group of Jewish families who gathered on Friday evenings for kabbalat shabbat and to celebrate the High Holidays.
In the beginning, nothing was very familiar; nothing related to my childhood memories. Soon, however, I felt very comfortable in that atmosphere and joined them in their efforts to make an old project come true: founding a congregation of progressive orientation.
Traveling Jews, surprised at the news that there was a new temple in Barcelona, came to visit. We invited them to commented walking tours through what had once been the Jewish Quarter in the Middle Ages, and I was called upon to translate the explanations into English or French. This is how it all began back in 1997. So it is in Barcelona, of all places, where I explore the local Jewish history and our common roots.
I believe that our memory must be kept alive, brought back after 600 years of oblivion. And this is my contribution to it. I've had a lot of support in my project, and I'd like to thank my family, friends, colleagues and clients for their unwavering enthusiasm, trust, and always useful feedback.
I really hope that you will enjoy these visits as much as I enjoy sharing what I continue to learn about our heritage.
Hope to see you soon.
Dominique Tomasov Blinder
Urban Cultours project
info@urbancultours.com
