The original was written in Hebrew around the year 1160 and the audience would have been fellow Jews wishing to know something about the status of other Jewish communities. I selected this version of the translation and was quite pleased with the quality of the binding and the layout of the text. There they have a wonderful diorama with a narrative of Rabbi Benjamin's travels. I first learned of Benjamin of Tudela while first touring Beit Ha-tefutsot (Museum of the Jewish Diaspora) in Tel Aviv Israel. But the fact is that he did take the long road, stopping frequently, meeting people, visiting places, describing occupations and giving a demographic count of Jews in every town and country. A pilgrimage-an Aliyah-probably with the thought to stay there for the rest of his life.
despite the Crusades, retained a magic attraction for the pious Jew. What exactly did Benjamin plan to accomplish when he started out on his fantastic journey? At first, probably nothing but a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But the author actually intended to give his contemporaries a factual account of his travels. The modern reader might regard it as an exotic tale. Written originally in Hebrew, it was translated into Latin and later became an extremely popular piece of Jewish literature in many languages. Benjamin of Tudela, Spain, a famous world traveler of the 12th century is considered by some modern historians as giving the most accurate description of every-day life in the Middle Ages.