Aaron D.
Yelp
Sorry, but I found this pretty depressing.
I mean, it's nice that Cordoba has decided to keep a tiny reminder of the city's former Jewish population, but really I looked around the simple, bare room - apparently the only synagogue in all of Andalucia that survived the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 - and my thought is "Really? The Jews must have been a tiny proportion of the population to have such a small synagogue relative to the mighty churches - and mosques - scattered throughout Andalucia. And you had to persecute and expel these people?"
After the expulsion, the synagogue was turned into a church, which I believe is the only reason that it survived to the present day when (I think) it has been deconsecrated for use as a museum.
Try to visit before or after one of the many tour groups that squeezes its way inside. The synagogue really is small and you may be able to better appreciate the space and enjoy a moment of contemplation if you can visit when it's not jam-packed with tourists.
So there you go. There's not much to see here and (especially if you're Jewish) you may find it pretty depressing, but it does serve to commemorate the expulsion and I guess that makes it better than just sweeping it under the rug entirely.
There is a statue of Cordoba-born Jewish philosopher Maimonides near the synagogue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides Again, it may be hard to appreciate and contemplate the memorial amid the crush of tour groups that stop there, but I suppose it is nice that Maimonides is honored by Cordobans and admired by tour groups from around the world. Maimonides was ultimately forced to leave Cordoba when the intolerant Almohad dynasty conquered the city and demanded that Jews and Christians convert to Islam, flee or be killed. He ultimately ended up in Morocco and then in Egypt, where he served as physician to the sultan.
The Muslim philosopher Averroes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes#Biography) was also born in Cordoba. I think there is a statute to him there too. Averroes was eventually banished from Andalucia for his writings, especially his commentaries on the work of Aristotle.
FYI, there is a museum nearby (Casa de Sefarad, http://www.casadesefarad.es/in/entrada.html) that contains stories of Sephardic Judaism - http://www.casadesefarad.es/in/entrada.html. And the gift shop there has some Judaica items - mezuzot, kippot, jewelry - some made in Spain, some made in Israel.