Andorra's 73 Jews worship from a community center they are barred by law from calling a synagogue
To the south, in Spain, raucous protesters emboldened by their government’s recent recognition of Palestine are urging Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to go even farther and cut diplomatic relations with Israel.
And to the north, in France, Jews fear an escalation of antisemitism following elections that saw a far-left party grab the biggest share of votes.
Wedged between these two big countries, however, is a tiny one where anti-Israel rallies are unheard of, ties with Israel remain strong, and the Jews enjoy prosperous, quiet lives — as long as they don’t officially call their subterranean cultural center a synagogue.
Welcome to Andorra, a mountainous microstate of 82,000 nestled in the eastern Pyrenees. Just 181 square miles in size — about three times bigger than Washington, D.C. — this principality is a skiing and duty-free shopping paradise. Andorra is also the world’s only self-declared Catalán-speaking nation, and since its founding in 1278, its state religion has been Roman Catholicism.
more...