Leon's "Kill Jews" cocktail tradition hate or innocuous?
ASPartOfMe
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‘Kill Jews’ cocktail rocks Spanish town’s Holy Week: ‘An expression, it’s not racist’
“Semana Santa,” or Holy Week, is the most important religious period in Spain. León’s celebrations are particularly spectacular, marked by 10 days of music, sermons and about 30 processions, featuring some 16,000 penitents. It’s also a high season for visitors — in 2002, the city’s Holy Week was declared a “Festival of International Interest for Tourists.”
One fixture of these frenzied days is a Leonese cocktail made from red wine, lemons, cinnamon and sugar, sometimes with oranges and figs. Here it is called “limonada,” and virtually every bar in Barrio Húmedo, the city’s nightlife-packed medieval quarter, is plastered with signs advertising their version. It’s a local tradition to drink 33 limonadas during Holy Week, representing the age of Jesus when he was crucified.
t’s also a centuries-old tradition for revelers seeking limonadas to say they are going out to “kill Jews.”
“It’s an expression here,” Margarita Torres Sevilla, a professor of medieval history at the University of León, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “For example, you tell me, ‘Have a drink with me? Okay, let’s go kill Jews.’ Another typical sentence of Holy Week is, ‘How many Jews have you killed? Three, four, five [limonadas]? Oh, you have killed a lot.’”
In León, a city of about 124,000 that has no visible Jewish community, locals told JTA the phrase is not seen as vulgar or antisemitic. Some bars celebrate it as a point of pride in the city’s heritage, using the phrase as a hashtag when advertising their seasonal specials on social media.
“With the arrival of Holy Week also comes the season of Leonese limonada, a tradition that is popularly known as ‘killing Jews,’” said a Spanish-language Facebook post from Bar Genarín on March 10. “We offer you two varieties, the classic and a white.”
“It’s strange to foreigners, but they take it with a laugh,” said Sonia Da Costa, a server rushing plates and glasses to the swell of customers at Cafetería Chamberí, a local tapas bar. “Here it’s normal.”
The historic Jewish quarter of León, which has not seen a Jewish population in hundreds of years, comprises two streets embedded in the very Barrio Húmedo overflowing with limonadas today.
Few traces indicate where the community lived; its three medieval synagogues were lost, the final one commemorated by a small plaque recently installed on Misericordia Street: “The third Jewish synagogue of León was built here (1370-1481).” On a side street branching off León’s central square, one stone doorway bears two vertical markings, which Torres Sevilla believes were left by a mezuzah.
Jews settled in the area starting in the 10th century. León produced Moses de León, a famed Jewish mystic thought to have composed the Zohar, the foundational text of Kabbalah.
The town became a center of Jewish religious thought, where Jews lived in relative equality to León’s Christians, interrupted by sporadic spurts of violence, until 1293, when King Sancho IV banned them from owning farmland. Two decades later Jews were forced to wear a yellow badge, and starting in 1365 they had to pay a special tax, similar to one borne by Muslims.
The expression of “killing Jews” on Holy Week goes back to an episode in the 15th century, according to Torres Sevilla. León was economically devastated by war and the Black Death, leaving many Christian noblemen in debt.
One such knight, Suero de Quiñones, owed payments to a Jewish merchant. To avoid paying his debt, Quiñones whipped up a religious fervor against León’s Jews on Holy Week in 1449. He organized a group of knights to attack the Jewish quarter, murdering the lender and several others on Good Friday.
“Quiñones said on Holy Week, our Lord was accused by the Jews and the Jews killed him,” said Torres Sevilla. “So what do we do with the Jews? Kill them. But the real reason was not a Christian motive — the real reason was that he had an important debt to an important merchant of the Jewish community.”
To celebrate their supposed vengeance for the death of Jesus, Quiñones and his allies went to drink wine in Barrio Húmedo. Thus commenced the ritual of downing limonadas to the refrain of “killing Jews,” said Torres Sevilla.
Other stories say the phrase emerged from the taming powers of limonada, authorized by medieval leaders in the midst of Holy Week’s abstinence and fasting to stop Christians from committing pogroms against Jews — by keeping them occupied in the taverns.
The Leonese tradition of “Matar judíos” does not appear to be connected to the Spanish town about 150 kilometers east that was called Castrillo Matajudíos — or Fort Kill the Jews — from 1627, during a period of antisemitic persecution, until a few years ago.
The region’s Jewish community did not last long after Quiñones’s attack. Jews were expelled from León in 1481, and 11 years later, under the Alhambra Decree of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I, from all of Spain. Some historians have also linked limonada’s association with “killing Jews” to a quote attributed to Ferdinand, upon signing the expulsion decree in 1492: “Limonada que trasiego, judío que pulverizo” (“Limonada that I decant, Jew that I pulverize”).
Today, residents say the phrase is a social custom devoid of any connection to murder, religion or real-life Jews.
“People are used to it here, it’s an expression that is not racist at all,” said José Manuel, who works at Vychio Cafe Bar. “It’s an expression from a time period of racism but now, no, it’s an expression out of custom.”
Torres Sevilla said that a Jewish past lies dormant in León, even among locals who may not know their own history. While tens of thousands of Jews fled Spain as a result of the Alhambra Decree, thousands of others stayed and converted. Torres Sevilla believes she is among the Spaniards descended from “conversos,” who preserved some distinct traditions despite becoming Christian. “Sevilla” is a historically Jewish surname. Her family goes to church on Saturday — not Sunday — and begins prayers on Friday, the Jewish Shabbat. She grew up with a ritual, also found in other “converso” families, of cleaning the home and having clean clothes ready before Saturday.
Many Leonese Jews stayed and converted after 1492, she said, but their descendants may have no idea — and may even be among those calling to “kill Jews” with their limonadas on Holy Week.
“Everybody knows about ‘kill Jews,’ but nobody knows about the Jewish history of León,” said Torres Sevilla
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Charming "custom".
Here in the US they somehow got the children of America to change "eeny meeny minie moe" from "catch a n****r by the toe" to..."catch a tiger by the toe". And did so almost overnight sometimes in the Fifties. In time from my early Sixties grade school child self to only knew or say the "tiger" version.
So...maybe adults in that province of Spain can do something like that. "Kill" something else in that expression.
Here in the US they somehow got the children of America to change "eeny meeny minie moe" from "catch a n****r by the toe" to..."catch a tiger by the toe". And did so almost overnight sometimes in the Fifties. In time from my early Sixties grade school child self to only knew or say the "tiger" version.
So...maybe adults in that province of Spain can do something like that. "Kill" something else in that expression.
Basques? Catalans?
Ironically, in my experience Spanish people (as compared to French for example) don't usually hold personal animosity towards real-life Jews, as most have had very little direct exposure to them, for what should be obvious reasons. For example, certain businesses, such as jewelry stores, that are typically Jewish-run in many Western countries, aren't in Spain because the ancestors of those who would otherwise be running them departed in 1492.
Well if you know Spanish history, the main event was always the Reconquista during which Enemy #1 was Muslims, but Jews were lumped in (they by and large coexisted with Muslims). I guess pre-Reconquista, Jews may have been seen as a Fifth Column. But antisemitism as we know it in many other Western countries didn't really exist in recent times, due to lack of contact. For example, tropes such as the young Jew who dates a "shiksa" because she's easy but would never marry her, despite promises, couldn't arise there.
Historically and into the present, Spain has struggled with antisemitism like other Western countries have.
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2008 ... in-europe/
According to the "Report on Anti-Semitism in Spain in 2010" which was jointly produced by the Observatory on Anti-Semitism in Spain and a nongovernmental organization called the Movement against Intolerance in 2010, while Spain was mired in the worst economic recession in its modern history, it emerged as one of the most antisemitic countries in the EU. According to a poll commissioned by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 58.4% of Spaniards believe that "the Jews were powerful because they controlled the economy and the mass media. This number reached 62.2% among university students and 70.5% among those who are "interested in politics." More than 60% of Spanish university students said they did not want Jewish classmates. In other polling data, more than one-third (34.6%) of Spanish people had an unfavorable or completely unfavorable opinion of Jewish people. Another interesting finding is that antisemitism was more prevalent in the political left than it is on the political right - 34% of those on the far right said they are hostile to Jews, while 37.7% of those on the center-left were hostile to Jews. Sympathy for Jews among the extreme right (4.9 on a scale of 1–10) is above the average for the population as a whole (4.6). Among those who recognized themselves as having "antipathy for the Jewish people," only 17% says this was due to the "conflict in the Middle East." Nearly 30% of those surveyed said their dislike of Jews had to do with "their religion," "their customs," and "their way of life," while early 20% of Spaniards said they dislike Jews although they do not know why.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Spain
There’s interesting data on this PDF from an online survey regarding the experiences and perceptions of Spanish Jews concerning antisemitism dated 2019 from the European Agency for Fundamental Rights.
While I think that things may have been improving, they have worsened since the current conflict.
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Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 30 Mar 2024, 1:43 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Here in the US they somehow got the children of America to change "eeny meeny minie moe" from "catch a n****r by the toe" to..."catch a tiger by the toe". And did so almost overnight sometimes in the Fifties. In time from my early Sixties grade school child self to only knew or say the "tiger" version.
So...maybe adults in that province of Spain can do something like that. "Kill" something else in that expression.
Basques? Catalans?
.
Huh?
The folks in question are in the transition zone between Galician speakers and Castilian (regular Spanish) speakers.
The place in question is the city of Leon, in northwest Spain. So they are not Basques, who straddle the northern border with France, nor Catalan speakers who live on the northeast coast around Barcelona.
The city is the capital of the province of Leon, and in the middle ages was the capital of the Kingdom of Leon. The kingdom took up the whole northwest corner of Spain (the part that sits on top of Portugal) and including the whole Galician speaking area (a language intermediate between Spanish and Portugese).
In 1492, when Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue, and when Jews were evicted from Spain, a large number were welcomed into the Ottoman Empire, into what is now Greece and Turkey. They continued speaking Ladino (basically, Spanish). The Nazis eventually murdered most of their descendants on the Greek side. My personal opinion is that joking about killing Jews is inappropriate.
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.
Huh?
The folks in question are in the transition zone between Galician speakers and Castilian (regular Spanish) speakers.
The place in question is the city of Leon, in northwest Spain. So they are not Basques, who straddle the northern border with France, nor Catalan speakers who live on the northeast coast around Barcelona.
The city is the capital of the province of Leon, and in the middle ages was the capital of the Kingdom of Leon. The kingdom took up the whole northwest corner of Spain (the part that sits on top of Portugal) and including the whole Galician speaking area (a language intermediate between Spanish and Portugese).
I know where Leon is. I was suggesting Basques and Catalans as substitute bogeymen as Castilians (and Leonese) have had friction with both.
EDIT You might also want to check out Medinaceli, where at an annual festival, the townspeople set a bull on fire and cheer wildly while it burns to death.
.
Huh?
The folks in question are in the transition zone between Galician speakers and Castilian (regular Spanish) speakers.
The place in question is the city of Leon, in northwest Spain. So they are not Basques, who straddle the northern border with France, nor Catalan speakers who live on the northeast coast around Barcelona.
The city is the capital of the province of Leon, and in the middle ages was the capital of the Kingdom of Leon. The kingdom took up the whole northwest corner of Spain (the part that sits on top of Portugal) and including the whole Galician speaking area (a language intermediate between Spanish and Portugese).
I know where Leon is. I was suggesting Basques and Catalans as substitute bogeymen as Castilians (and Leonese) have had friction with both.
EDIT You might also want to check out Medinaceli, where at an annual festival, the townspeople set a bull on fire and cheer wildly while it burns to death.
Well...if THAT was what you were going for ...you didnt make it clear.
Second...TP showed that they do have anti semitic history.
Third ...you're proposing substituting real ethnic neighbors of Leon. That would be just as bad, and would not be analogous to substituting "tiger" for the N word.
What I had in mind was swapping "Jew" for some kind of game animal with a similar sounding name.
Last edited by naturalplastic on 30 Mar 2024, 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
old_comedywriter
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The numbers from a 2019 poll from Pew shows that the perception of Jews improved from 2008. Apparently, 19% of those polled in Spain had an unfavorable view of Jews and 5% didn’t know. Here’s how Spain compared to other European countries:
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019 ... ty-groups/
I’m sure the positive trend has shifted, unfortunately. I still find the PDF I linked earlier with data collected from surveyed Spanish Jews interesting. Discrimination isn’t always apparent when you aren’t part of the group.
As far as the question in the title goes, I don’t think the tradition is innocuous, especially considering the history of antisemitism in Spain that is obviously still present today.
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This is sort of difficult topic for me. As a young person, I spent time in both France and Austria and encountered what seemed like casual, matter-of-fact sort of antisemitism, aimed at Jewish members of the community, that was shocking from an American point of view. I have since visited Spain quite a few times, and never directly encountered antisemitism, however very intense animosity towards Catalans (to some extend) and, in particular, Basques. Once I was riding in a car at night with a young woman from Madrid as one of the passengers, and when it was brought to her attention that we had entered the part of the country where the Basques live, she freaked out incredibly, convinced she'd become a victim of terrorism.
My understanding of Spanish antisemitism is that it's more historical and cultural. Historically, tied up with feelings toward Muslims and the Reconquista, but as you know both Islam and Judaism were eliminated as religions at that time. Recently, Muslim and Jewish immigrants have shown up, but it's unlikely anybody my age ever met either a Jew or a Muslim, when they were young, except while traveling or they might have possibly encountered Jewish tourists from North America (but then would not necessarily have recognized those people as Jewish).
I see the numbers in that article. I also saw the article, and from personal contact with French people and stories I've heard from Jews living in France, I have a hard time believing those poll results, even if they are valid.
More personally, my wife, my son, and I are going to attend a wedding in Spain later this year, and I really don't want to think about the bartender. I actually don't think he's a bad person, like I said, this was inspired by the Reconquista not by any bad run-ins he's had with Jews, but there's also no question that the typical Spaniard on the street has gotten uniformly negative messages about Jews since 17 October, but given the uniformity of that message, it's really about the same thing as a bartender in Manhattan promoting a cocktail called "Kill MAGAs". Otherwise I would just prefer to forget the whole thing.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-his ... 6c3675c604
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If people were to visit my neck of the woods from another country, they might not think there’s a problem with antisemitism here because there haven’t been many, if any, Jews in most of the small towns I lived in. People don’t talk about them very much. However, it doesn’t mean that antisemitism doesn’t exist. I suspect that it’s a bigger problem here per capita than in places that have a sizable Jewish population, but I have no data to back that up. I’m just going off of my experience of living in a certain location for many years.
Spain does have a problem with antisemitism according to various studies and polls that have been conducted over the years by different organizations AND according to Jewish citizens themselves. It’s just not always going to be apparent to outsiders. People are often aware enough to keep their bigotry to themselves and, maybe, only share it with people who think similarly.
It doesn’t mean that Spain is not a wonderful place in many respects, just like other parts of Europe. It just means that a portion of their population is antisemitic. Antisemitism has probably always been a problem there to a greater or lesser extent as it is elsewhere.
Our personal experience is always going to be too narrow to say anything about a country, demographic, or gender. That’s where research comes in handy. It can make us more aware of issues we wouldn’t be cognizant of otherwise, and it can put stuff we’ve observed firsthand in perspective.
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Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. – Satan and TwilightPrincess
When I was in France in the early 1970s, I encountered not only antisemitism, but anti-Americanism as well. I travelled there a decade later, and did not encounter much anti-Americanism then (I have a theory about that) but a lot of anti-English sentiment.
Like I said, a young person living in Spain in the 1970s would most likely not have known or known of any Jews living in their community. If they had anti-Jewish sentiments, it would probably be due to traditions based on pre-Reconquista Spain, of Christ-killers, hook-nosed moneylenders, etc. If you grew up hearing only that sort of thing, then of course you'd think ill of Jews as you'd never heard otherwise. No matter what country you grew up in, I can guarantee you learned all sorts of prejudicial stuff about one minority group or another. At some point in your life, you might have come to understand how some of it (at least) was inaccurate or dead wrong.
In post-WWI Europe, antisemitism became a serious factor because people were encouraged to be hostile towards Jews they saw every day, including even people who had previously been friends. During Kristallnacht, it's likely many young people threw bricks through the window of shops at which their family had always gone and with whose proprietors their family had always had amicable business relations. That is the sort of antisemitism that concerns me the most, more so than a priest telling his congregation in rural Spain, who had never seen a Jew IRL, that the Jews killed Christ.
funeralxempire
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Both are problems though.
For Christians who have no day-to-day contact with Jews, anti-Jewish tropes like accusations of deicide poison their minds before they've ever had any actual interactions with Jewish people.
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