Full-page miniature from the Sister Haggadah, Barcelona, 1350
After almost a millennium of harmonious existence in Spain, what had been the most populous and prosperous Jewish community in Europe ceased to exist on the Iberian Peninsula. The thousand-year history of Jews in Spain is a dramatic chronicle of power and influence, of the horrors of the Inquisition, and finally, the Expulsion.
It was a community that flourished under both Muslim and Christian rule, enjoying prosperity and power unsurpassed in Europe. But it also endured considerable hardship. Fundamentalist Islamic tribes drove Jews from Muslim to Christian Spain. In 1391, thousands were killed in waves of massacres throughout the country, and more than a third of the Jewish population were forced to convert by anti-Jewish rioters.
A century later, the Spanish Inquisition began, accusing thousands of these converts of heresy. By the end of the 15th century, Jews had been expelled from Spain and forcibly converted in Portugal and Navarre. Author Jeffrey Gorsky shares their story and discusses the impact of these early examples of racial and religious discrimination and persecution on later cultures.
Gorsky’s book Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain (The Jewish Publication Society) is available for sale and signing.
