In Majorca, Atoning for the Sins of 1691
PALMA, MAJORCA — The old stones of the historic quarter of the Spanish island of Majorca are worn smooth with secrets ignored by most tourists that pour into this city from cruise liners on the sparkling Mediterranean.
Rarely do visitors come with missions as precise as Joseph Wallis and a small contingent of Orthodox rabbis from Israel: To touch the smooth sandstones of a 14th-century synagogue turned into a Roman Catholic church. To offer a special 15th-century version of the Kaddish, a prayer for the dead that was once forbidden under threat of death and was delayed for 320 years.