El Transito Synagogue and Sephardic Museum

The El Transito Synagogue in Toledo, Spain, was built by Samuel (Shmuel) Ben Meir Ha-Levi Abulafia Scion of an old Jewish family The original name of the synagogue is not known; some modern authors tend to call it after the name of its founder instead of El Transito, the name given by the Christians and by which name the building has been known for the last three hundred years. The synagogue was spared when the Jewish district of Toledo was attacked by the mob in 1391, during a wave of anti-Jewish massacres. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, "the great synagogue that the Jews used to have in Toledo" was granted by the king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, to the religious order of Calatrava. Two years later the complex was turned into the San Benito priory with the former women's section and the study rooms serving as hospice for the knights of the order while the main prayer hall was converted into a church known as the Iglesia de San Benito. During the 16th century some minor alterations were made in order to fit the needs of Christian worship and a bell tower was built on to the exterior. From the 17th century the San Benito church was known as Ermita del Transito, shortened popularly from El Transito de Nuestra Senora ("Our Lady's Transit"). In 1970 the synagogue, along with the neighboring Sephardi Museum (Museo Sefaradi), established in 1964, became the National Museum of Judeo-Spanish Art, a state institution under the control of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture. The style of the El Transito synagogue as well as other surviving Jewish medieval monuments in Spain served as source of inspiration for numerous synagogues that were built in Europe during the 19th century. The richness of the decoration was considered by the post-emancipation Jews of Europe as a proof of the high social status that the Jews of Spain enjoyed prior to their expulsion.