Centro Bet David is named in honor of my dear father Rabbi David Yosef Bar-Hen (1929-2011) of blessed memory. It was him who insistently encouraged me to move to Barcelona –like it or not!— in order to strengthen Jewish life in the city.
My father was born in Morocco on the day of Shavuot of 1929. After losing his father at ten years old, he begun his studies at the Meknes yeshivah. Subsequently educated in well-known yeshivot such as Otzar Hatorah and Or Yosef Novardok, R. David Bar-Hen was later named chief rabbi of Sderot, Israel. Due to his vast knowledge of halakhah, hagadah and kabbalah, my father became a referent for the entire Jewish community in Israel. Furthermore, R. David Bar-Hen left an impressive footprint and legacy, as many chief rabbis of Israel studied with him.
But let’s get back to the history of our kehillah. When my father advised me to move to Barcelona I was still serving as the Chief Rabbi of Perpignan, France (1996-2000), a position I held after working as a rabbi in Strasburg for almost a decade. To my surprise, soon after the conversation with my father, I was talking with another great tzadik of the generation, R. Chaim Kanievsky z.l. As soon as I mentioned my project of going back to our ancestral land, Eretz Yisrael, the great sage gave me the exact same advice: to move to Barcelona! I believe that their vision responded to the urgency expressed in Pesachim 87b: “The Holy One, blessed be He, exiled Israel among the nations only so that converts would join them”. This is precisely the task that I proudly carry out to this day, thanks to our Bet Din.
After resigning as the rabbi of Comunidad Israelita de Barcelona –where are I served from 2000 to 2017– I felt the need of creating a new congregation in the heart of Barcelona’s Barri Gòtic, in what had been the Call whose Jewish life was erradicated 627 years prior. Today, five years after the restauration of the Jewish presence in the Call, Centro Bet David is a growing community whose members come not only of Spain, but from accross the world: Israel, Morocco, Afghanistan, Belgium, Italy, Romania, Russia, Lebanon, Mexico, Ecuador and Brazil are among the countries of origin of our constituency. This rich melting pot of cultures and identities is a vivid portrait of our most cherished anthem: behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity