Overview
Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, treasurer to King Pedro I of Castile, sponsored the Toledo synagogue now known as El Tránsito. Its prayer hall combines Hebrew dedicatory inscriptions, royal heraldry, geometric designs, vegetal plasterwork, and architectural forms shared with contemporary Islamic and Christian monuments. The building expressed communal devotion and the exceptional status of its patron, whose political position later collapsed violently. Converted after the expulsion, it now houses the Museo Sefardí. El Tránsito records the possibilities of Jewish courtly patronage while also exposing the dependence of such prominence upon unstable royal favor.
