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For the First Time in 500 Years, Couple Wed in Cordoba Synagogue

The centuries-old synagogue in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, long in existence as only a museum of a vanished Jewish community, briefly came to life on Sunday to celebrate the wedding ceremony of a Canadian Jewish couple. Some 501 years after its closure following the expulsion of the Jews of Spain, Edward Mirsky and […]

June 2, 1993
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The centuries-old synagogue in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, long in existence as only a museum of a vanished Jewish community, briefly came to life on Sunday to celebrate the wedding ceremony of a Canadian Jewish couple.

Some 501 years after its closure following the expulsion of the Jews of Spain, Edward Mirsky and Rebeca Romero Varo of Montreal were wed in the small, ornate Moorish-style synagogue, built in 1315 and closed in 1492.

The local media gave the event wide coverage.

The couple chose the site in Andalusia because it was the most convenient place to gather all their relatives.

The family of the bride, the former Maria Jose Romero Varo, is from Aguilar de la Frontera, a town near Cordoba. She converted to Judaism from Catholicism.

The synagogue in Cordoba — the city is the birthplace of the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides — is one of three in Spain remaining from the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. The other two are in Toledo.

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