The Rock and Rosia Bay, F. Shore 1884. Courtesy Jewish Museum, Camden.
The Jewish Museum in Camden Town, London, celebrates 300 years of British history in Gibraltar with the exhibition 'Gibraltar Rock – British Fortress, Jewish Haven.' until October 31, 2004.
The exhibition explores the heritage of the Gibraltar Jewish Community from the moment the British captured the Rock during the War of Spanish Succession in 1704 until today. Visitors can see a collection of Jewish items preserved by families and synagogues for centuries.
"Celebrating 300 years of Gibraltar being British illustrates how a connection with England and Gibraltarians as an entity developed," said Isaac S. Hassan, who produced the exhibition with members of the Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society. "We gave small snippets of significant eras, major events and connection to international affairs, like Cardozo and Nelson or Sir Joshua Hassan."
The interior of Sha'ar Hashamayim Synagogue, Gibraltar. Photograph by Ruth Morris. Courtesy Jewish Museum, Camden.
Aaron Cardozo, 1761-1832, a Jewish magnate living in Gibraltar and a close friend to Lord Nelson, foiled a plot to turn Gibraltar over to Spain shortly after the Great Siege of 1778, one of many attempts to remove the British from Gibraltar over the centuries.
Sir Joshua Hassan, 1915-1997 (no connection to Isaac S. Hassan), was a former member of the Queen’s Council in Gibraltar and a defendant of Gibraltar’s case against Spain at the UN in New York.
The exhibition starts with a brief historic survey of Gibraltar and how it was discovered by Tarik Ibn Zeyad in AD711: he named the rock Jebel Tarik (Tarik’s Rock). The exhibition describes the central role of Jewish merchants from Morocco and Holland, who provided the material used by the British garrison to build the city fortress.
Jewish Woman of Gibraltar in a Fiesta dress. Original print by J.F. Lewis, 1835. Courtesy Jewish Museum, Camden
By 1805, during The Battle of Trafalgar, Jews comprised more than half the Rock’s civilian population. Many of those families remain today.
The collection of items compliment the wealth of historic information contained in the exhibition. Some artefacts date back to the 1600s and are the property of families and synagogues that have conserved them for hundreds of years.
Only a few of the loans come from other museums, such as the National Maritime Museum, the National Army Museum and the Gibraltar Museum.
Postcard of the Jewish market, Gibraltar. Courtesy Jewish Museum, Camden
On display is a brass oil lamp from 17th century Holland brought to Gibraltar by the Mattana family almost a hundred years later. The lamp was damaged by a Spanish shot during the great siege of 1783.
"The families who lent these items do not give them financial value, rather a sentimental value because they’ve been in the family for so long," noted Mr. Hassan, "for many of these families, it is not conceivable to sell them at this point."
As well as antiquities and war paraphernalia there a porcelain bust of Lord Nelson and medals awarded to soldiers who defended Gibraltar during the Great Siege. The show also features the work of artist Jacobo Azagury OBE, 1889-1980, whose paintings are on display for the first time outside Gibraltar.
'Los Olvidados' (The Forgotten Ones), Jacobo Azagury OBE, 1944. Oils on canvas. Courtesy The Jewish Museum, Camden
The highlight of this sub-exhibit is 'Los Olvidados,' an oil-on-canvas of El Greco, Goya and Van Gogh influence painted in the early 1940s. It conveys the anxiety and isolation wrought by the evils of war - a work inspired by the evacuation of part of the Gibraltarian population to Madeira during World War II.
