Rabbi Haim Casas, a native of Spain, visited the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School in Beachwood Dec. 1 to speak about his journey to becoming Jewish, his approach to being a source of guidance for people of all faiths, the Jewish programs he has organized and his travels around the world as he strove to find the place where his talents would best benefit the community.
Casas, who was born to a Catholic family in Córdoba, said 500 years ago, the city had strong Jewish and Islamic presences, but over time, they faded. By the time he was born, Catholicism had become the dominant faith. He pointed out that over the course of those 500 years, it became a belief that in order to be a “real Spaniard,” one must be Catholic.
Casas recalled being exposed to a variety of faiths as he grew up and said his maternal grandfather took him on a religious tour of the city every Sunday. They visited the city’s 14th century synagogue, then went to Sunday mass, then visited the ancient mosque of Córdoba.
“I was born in a city with a lot of Jewish history, but without Jewish community, without Jewish life,” he said.
Due to its strong history in Córdoba, Casas grew up with a fascination for Judaism. As a young student, he frequently sought permission to explore Judaism in his assignments for history class and other courses, he said.
Casas first studied law in Seville. While studying there for college, he met a Jewish person for the first time.
“Thanks to him, I had the opportunity to start practicing Shabbat and holidays,” he explained. “For the first time, I went to a real synagogue – to a working synagogue, because the synagogue we had in Córdoba that you visit is a beautiful monument, but it’s an empty synagogue.”
The synagogue in Seville was not very welcoming, he said, which made it difficult for him to connect to his Jewish roots.
“I had a short tour of Jewish Cleveland,” he said as a side note. “For you, it’s so easy. ... Imagine me, trying to discover, trying to reconnect with my Jewish roots, which were almost totally lost because the only thing we had in the family was a fraction of a teeny, tiny, faded thread of memory.”
After finishing college, Casas wanted to improve his English and move a bit far from home to think about who he wanted to be, he said. He moved to Reading, England, a suburb of London, and decided to get in touch with the local Jewish community there.
“I got in touch with the senior rabbi of United Synagogue,” he said, noting that United Synagogue is the equivalent of the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States.
While there, a family “adopted” him and he spent time with them every Friday, he recalled. After a year living there, he decided to return to Córdoba where he prepared for an exam to work as a government lawyer.
“While I was studying for that exam, I met a couple – a Spanish couple, not Jewish – but they were a serious Judaic connector,” Casas said.
The couple had a home near the ancient synagogue and were planning on opening a small Jewish museum, he said. They asked him to serve as a cultural and educational tour guide. He accepted the position, abandoning his preparation for the legal exam.
“I was working as a tour guide in the museum as the programming director of their activities and, during my time there, I saw that a museum was not enough for me, was not enough for Córdoba, was not enough for our visitors,” he said.
Casas said when a museum is needed to show a culture or identity, it means the culture or identity is dead.
“I wanted to show that Judaism was something alive,” he said. “So, although I was not yet even officially Jewish, I started organizing Shabbat every Friday.”
In addition to organizing weekly Shabbat services and dinners, he organized Jewish holidays, he said.
“Without even (being) officially Jewish, I was a kind of (unofficial) rabbi there,” Casas said. “It was important that Judaism was again alive in the city of Córdoba.”
Having become so passionate about it, he created a small Jewish community for people in Córdoba and its surrounding areas, he said.
As the community grew, Casas said he realized he not only needed to become Jewish, but also a rabbi. He attended Leo Baeck College in London, a rabbinical seminary.
He was ordained in 2017, after five years of study. His first job was splitting his ministry between Léon, France and Geneva, Switzerland. A full-time rabbi was eventually needed in Toulouse, France, leading him to leave Geneva.
Three years ago, he returned to Spain, which he said was a difficult decision due to the persisting absence of Judaism there.
Though the Jewish population in Córdoba remains minuscule, Casas said he considers himself a “rabbi without borders.” His congregation extends beyond Jews, he said, and consists of all residents of Córdoba. He sees himself as a bridge between faiths, not belonging entirely to the Jewish or Catholic faiths.
Today, Casas is still in Córdoba, where he continues to host tourists and b’nai mitzvah students. He is pursuing his Ph.D., with a focus on the mix of religions. He said he strives to plant a seed of curiosity in students and, being the “bridge” between religions, also host gatherings on Friday nights that welcome Jews, Christians and Muslims.
“My theology is Jewish, but my sense of belonging is more open,” he said. “People are thirsty for spirituality.”