Webinar explores story of Jewish refugees’ escape to Majorca during the Shoah

The imprint of the Holocaust on the island of Majorca was due to be explained in detail on Wednesday evening, shedding light on some of the Jewish interest in the Balearics.

The Zoom webinar, which had initially been scheduled for  last April but was postponed due to the pandemic, is organised by Limmud Majorca and was available to listen in three languages – English, Spanish and Catalan.

Called Holocaust Footprints in Majorca, it explores how German Jewish refugees hid on the island, how the Shoah is taught in the capital Palma and featured a man interviewing his survivor father.

Jewish history on the island goes back hundreds of years, with scholars still learning about the Chuetas, or crypto-Jews, who, during the Inquisition, publicly professed Catholicism while privately adhering to Judaism. Signs of this “secret people” can still be found today, particularly in the island’s traditional jewellery.

Among the Balearic island’s Jewish leaders is New Yorker Dani Rotstein, who moved to Majorca with his wife and grew fascinated in the Chuetas, co-founding Limmud Mallorca.