They told my daughter: do not look Jewish!

The Jewish community Atid (future in Hebrew) was born in 1992 when a group of Jews, mostly Argentines, decided to separate from the Israeli Community of Barcelona, ​​the only then, consisting essentially of Sephardic Jews ( from Morocco, North Africa, Turkey). 'The community was also created because families needed a Jewish restraint and frame for their children,' says Sílvia Leida. Atid, who was defined as a reformist ('among other things means that the precepts are followed in an inaccurate way as the Orthodox or Conservatives do') today is Mazortine. 'The line between reformist and Mazortin is very fine, but it exists', says Leida.

Ours is an egalitarian community, where women have the same functions as men

There are a few days left for two of the most important celebrations of Judaism, Roix ha-xaná, the new Jewish year, and Yom Kippur, the day of apology, of the atonement. We speak with the president of the Atid community, Sílvia Leida, who reminds us that the Jews, like the Catalans, do not celebrate the 'End of the Year', but the 'New Year's Eve' principle. Thus Roix ha-xanà means beginning of the year. This time on 5779.

How do you celebrate the new year?
The Jewish calendar is guided by the moon and the new year usually coincides between September and October. This year we celebrate it on September 10th. Normally we make a religious ceremony when the sun goes down the day before and a family dinner. Usually the Jewish holidays are very familiar, to be with close people, family and friends.

And ten days after this party sees Yom Kippur. Is the party to apologize?
Yom Kippur is the day of forgiveness. In Judaism, unlike, perhaps, Catholicism, the Jew does not need intermediaries to atone for his sins. You have to ask forgiveness for the person and then this day a 24-hour fasting is made so that we all remember that it is a day when you should ask for forgiveness. It's a very special day, I would say that even Jews who do not have the need to pray throughout the year or people who do not go to the synagogue, Yom Kippur's day go to the synagogue. That day the synagogue is small. Then at home and to break the fast, he makes a small family celebration again.

Do not you think that the reality of the Catalan Jews is very unknown?
Look, when my daughter went to college one day she said she was Jewish. And a girl told her: 'Ui, because you do not look like it!' They said 'they do not seem' because people have no idea what it is to be a Jew, who we are, or what we do. There are many Jews in Catalonia, there are Jews in Catalonia from the Middle Ages, even though the Inquisition did very badly. What has happened in Catalonia is that there have been 500 years of ignorance and of spreading a stereotype of something that does not exist. People do not know what it is but just in case ... uffff! Jew was an insult. And not knowing what it is to be a Jew. This is very serious.

Maybe that's why, by ignorance, there are people who are not ashamed to accuse the Nazi independenceists?
It is a terrible thing to banish something that was horror. People who trivialize Nazism in the first place I think they should read a book by Primo Levi that is called If this is a man to understand what was that horror and that Nazi can not be used as an insult. We should not take it as an insult: it is a much more serious thing. What we need to do is pedagogy, from schools to universities. Ignorance is very bold: things get confused, people talk without knowing it.

How has this part of history been so quickly forgotten?
It has been forgotten because it never wanted to deepen. He wanted to go through the page very quickly and at the same time schools were passing on the tips and now or that. Those who survived at that time almost all died. Soon nobody can explain it in the first person and we run the risk of oblivion.

How is your community?
Ours is a traditional, egalitarian community, where women have the same functions as men; can make any ceremony This would be one of the great differences with the Orthodox community, for example.

And there are many conversions?
Lots of. There are people who started to turn twenty years ago. But in recent years there have been many conversions ... or because there are people who have wanted to make the return or because their ancestors were and they felt the need to do it. There are also many people with a lot of affinity for Judaism and the Jewish people but that does not end up making the conversion perhaps for the most religious part.