Travel to Spain with the International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews and Rabbi Sherwin Wine

Limited Number of Seats Still Available - Act Now to Reserve Your Place!

NEW YORK, March 8, 2005 - The International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews with Rabbi Sherwin Wine will offer travelers the chance to visit Spain this summer to explore the glory of Jewish life in Medieval Spain while savoring the pulse of modern Spain.

The custom-designed trip will offer like-minded cultural Jewish travelers a unique experience into Spain’s rich history, with daily lectures by Rabbi Wine, founder of Humanistic Judaism.

The capital city, Madrid, stands out among the tour’s many highlights with visits to the Royal Palace, the Beth Yaacov Synagogue for a briefing on Spanish Jewry, and an afternoon in the Prado Museum.

In Toledo the tour will visit the Grand Toledo Cathedral, the former Grand Synagogue, El Greco’s House and the El Transito Synagogue with its Museum of Sephardic Culture.

The tour will also visit the birthplace of Maimonides, Cordoba, with its pre-Inquisition Jewish Quarter and the statue of Maimonides.

The magical city of Barcelona will host tour participants for four nights, allowing participants time to explore this spectacular city, including the Casa Sefardita Jewish Community Center and the dual Sephardic-Ashkenazi synagogues, which opened in 1954. The Gothic Quarter, the former Jewish Quarter, and the famed Picasso Museum will be other unforgettable sites on the tour.

Girona, a major Jewish center before 1492, and Figueras with its spectacular Salvador Dali Museum, will complete the itinerary of this unique trip.

The package includes airfare from New York to Madrid, returning from Barcelona, on Iberia and a domestic flight from Seville to Barcelona, with first class hotel accommodations throughout and air-conditioned motor coach. The tour manager will be Avi Camchi, who led the IFSHJ trip to Cuba.

For additional tour information and registration, contact 212 564 6711 x 303 or visit www.ifshj.org/news.html

The International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews is a coalition of 50,000 secular Jews in 12 countries who are organized into communties and schools. The Federation links national organizations in Israel, the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Sweden and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Additional communities are emerging in England and South Africa.

Honorary chairs of the International Federation are Albert Memmi, the well-known French writer and professor of sociology at the University of Paris, and Yehuda Bauer, the noted historian, Holocaust scholar, and Academic Advisor of the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research.

The International Federation is affiliated with the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, the educational arm of the Secular Humanistic Jewish movement, training rabbis, leaders, and educators for Secular Humanistic congregations and communities. The Institute has been ordaining humanistic rabbis since 1999, and recently introduced the Israeli branch of its rabbinical program. In North America, the Federation is also affiliated with the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, and Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring.

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