Folklore of the Expulsion

As told by Rachel Benhabip Levi, 80 year old Sephardic resident of Istanbul.

In Spain, there were many rich people; of those some were jewelers. You know what a jeweler is? So, an old jeweler who did not work anymore, had in his possession one ring so valuable that when he tried to sell it no one could afford it, for he put a very high price on it.

He finally tried to sell it to the King, who liked it very much but couldn't buy it either... even though the Queen's eyes were dazzled by it. The King said, "I don't have that kind of money to buy it."

There was a Jewish ambassador by the name of Don Isaac Abravanel who could pay what the jeweler asked for the ring. And he did.

A month later, at a ball in the Royal Palace to which the Ambassador and his wife were invited, she wore the precious ring. When the Queen saw the ring she got very upset and said to the King, "you, the rich King, you couldn't buy this ring for me... But the dirty Jew bought it for his wife... The Jews are going to have to leave from here..."

So, the Jews were expelled from Spain, and Turkey received them with open arms. Afterwards, the Turkish Sultan was heard to have said about the Spanish King, "you made your country poor and made mine rich..."