Resources for a Study of Sephardism and Gracia Mendes

A Timetable of Jews in Iberia

The story of Gracia Mendes is one of hundreds of thousands that can be told about Sephardic Jews in the 16^th century. We generally think of them as "Spanish Jews" although their story takes them into Portugal, Holland, Italy, Turkey, and the Americas. And they are only part of a larger picture of expulsions of Jews throughout Europe. (See the map following, showing expulsions of the Jews between the years 1000 and 1500.)

This timetable is a teacher resource to put the story of Jews and the Iberian Peninsula in perspective.

How did Jews get to Spain

Early legends

Biblical Times

City of Tarshish (Jonah 3. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Jaffa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare for it, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord) is believed to be a Spanish seaport, probably on the Western Coast.

Mention of Sepharad as found in Obadiah (20. And this exiled host of the people of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the Negev.) refers to Spain. The mention of the exiles of Jerusalem is a piece of the belief that the Sephardim are descended from the family of David.

The tombstone of one of Solomon’s general Adoniram has been unearthed in Murviedro, Spain.

Esther is believed by some to be of Spanish origin (Esther 5. There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital, and his name was Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite; 6. Who had been exiled from Jerusalem among the captives exiled with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled. 7. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was beautiful and of good presence; and, when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as a daughter.) because Mordecai’s ancestry was of the exiles from Jerusalem.

After Biblical Times

Jerusalem aristocracy (family of David) was taken to Babylon in 586 B.C.E., exiled by Emperor Titus in 79 C.E., and according to Sephardic legend landed on Spanish soil. Josephus relates that the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar reached as far as the Peninsula, adding plausibility to this tale.

Roman Diaspora 200 B.C.E. — 200 C.E.

Antiochus III takes Palestine from Egypt (198 BCE)

Archeological evidence of widespread dispersion after Bar Kochba’s revolt in 135 C.E.. Jews move to Spain, Italy and Northern Africa.

Trilingual (Hebrew, Greek, Latin) tombstones; catacombs

Jews lived in the local communities; absorbed surrounding culture but retained Jewishness

Jews in Roman Spain

Jews are merchants and traders; important economic force

Religious toleration; Jews not required to recognize the cult of the Emperor

Permitted to retail ties to Palestine

Jews made up 25% of Roman population in Eastern Mediterranean

Christian Rome

Early Christian Councils begin to promulgate rules to separate Jews from Christians: If any of the priests or believers eats his meal with a Jew, we decide that he does not participate in the communion so that he atones.(Council of Elvira, Canon 50)

Christians instructed not to ask Rabbis to bless their fields

The Empire converts to Christianity UNDER Constantine; 337 C.E.

A paradoxical doctrine

Jews must be preserved as a people because the Christians taught that predict the Jewish prophets predicted Christ

Jews must be debased to represent their rejection by God

Second Coming cannot happen until Jews accept Christ

Growth of intolerance

Spain under the Visigoths

Spain conquered by Germanic tribes — Suevi, Alani, and primarily Vandals 409.

Visigoths sack Rome in 410, conquer Spain in 415

Visigoths did not recognize the Trinity (Aryan Christians); more tolerant to the Jews than were the Catholics.

King Raccared converts to Catholicism in 587

Jews could not hold slaves — effectively removing them from agriculture

Jews could not hold public office

No intermarriage

Forced conversion of all Jews — King Sisebut, 613

Jews who did not accept baptism whipped, banished, deprived of property

Christians who had become Jews must revert or be flogged and enslaved

90,000 Jews converted; thousands escaped

Converts were not seen as equals: terminology like "Old Christians" and "New Christians," "baptized" and "non-baptized" Jews appears.

King Erwig (680-687) requires that all business transactions between Jews and non-Jews begin with the Lord’s Prayer and the eating of pork.

Many Jews practice Judaism in secret

Jews attempt revolt in 694; foiled by informers. All Jews declared to be slaved; required to bind their children to Catholic slavemasters to be raised as Catholics.

Bad harvests, locusts, famine reduce population of Spain by half before 700.

Disputes of succession to throne 710-711

In 710 Muslims send a force of 400 to investigate rumors of great wealth; find widespread discontent.

711-715: A larger Muslim force conquers Spain.

Christians flee; Jews remain in cities. In the Middle Ages this leads to charges that Jewish "treachery" was responsible for the fall of Spain.

After the Muslim Conquest

Islam rated monotheistic religions higher than others, although lesser than Islam

Many restrictions (9^th Century Pact of Umar [found elsewhere in this document]), but many freedoms; practice of Judaism allowed, most professions open, freedom to travel and settle

Muslim expansion westward stopped by France at Battle of Tours (732)

Jews and Christians held many administrative positions

752-3: coup in Damascus; last member of old caliphate takes power in Cordoba and begins to pacify and unite the country,

The Golden Age (10^th — 12^th Centuries)

"Spain is the only country of the Diaspora in which the Jewswere completely integrated and in which their genius gave of itself everything of which it was capable, influencing … in a very decisive manner, Castilian development and the Spanish Golden Age"

Christian Spain (11^th Century to 1492)

A period of four hundred years of invasion of Muslim Spain by Christians from the North

El Cid takes Valencia from the Moors (1094)

Massacres of Jews in the Rhineland. This leads to medieval rabbis taking a sympathetic and lenient view of forced converts who attempted to follow some Jewish laws and did not publicly violate others.(1096)

Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)

Birth of King Ferdinand III of Castile(1217-52). He later refuses Pope’s demand that Jews be forced to wear special badge and clothing; the reason given is in that the Jews would flee to Muslim Granada, which would be disastrous for the revenues of the kingdom

Arabs lose Cordoba to Castile (1236)

James I of Aragon conquers Majorca; grants privileges to the Jews and offers financial inducements for them to settle in his combined kingdom.

Nahmanides forced to defend Judaism in debate. Debate is stopped when Nahmanides seems to be winning. (1263)

Pogroms and attempted forced conversions(1391) The conversos of Majorca are ordered to learn the art of weaving.

Pogrom in Toledo aimed specifically at converted Jews The Toledo City Council approves an ordinance linking Jewishness to blood (ancestry) rather than to belief and practice(1449)

Pope Nicholas V overrules the Toledo statute on the grounds that "all Catholics are one in body according to the teaching of our faith." However, the Kings approve the racial laws. (1451)

Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile (1469)

Isabella becomes Queen of Castile(1474)

Union of Aragon and Castile (1479)

Ferdinand and Isabella appoint inquisitors against heresy among converted Jews, (1480). Isabella attempts to expel Jews from Andalusia but the order is never carried out, probably because Jewish money is needed to finance the reconquest of Spain.

Beginning of Spanish Inquisition (1481) under joint direction of church and state

Columbus arrives in Spain (1484)

Spanish capture Malaga from the Arabs (1487)

Columbus receives royal stipend, with backing from important Jewish advisors to the King and Queen (1487)

Jewish community ion Spain contributes significantly to fund Ferdinand’s conquest of Granada (1490)

Spanish conquer Granada (1492)

Order expelling Jews from Spain signed (March 31, 1492)

More than 100,000 (some sources say 200,000) Jews expelled from Spain (July 31, 1492)

Columbus sails (August 3), lands in Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti (1492)

After Spain

Maximillian I becomes Holy Roman Emperor (1493)

Jews expelled from Portugal (1495)

King Manuel of Portugal marries Isabella of Spain (1497)

Torquemada, Inquisitor-general of Spain dies (1420-1498)

Spanish inquisitor-general introduces forced mass conversions of Moors. (1489)

Isaac Ibrabanel dies (1437-1508)

Gracia Mendes born (1510)

Suleiman The magnificent becomes Sultan of Turkey (1520 — 1566)

Isaac Luria born (1533-1572)

Joseph Caro (1488-1575) moves to Safed.

First records of Portuguese Jews in Ferrara, Italy (1538)

Closure

14 December, 1968. Spain recognizes the Jews of Spain as a practicing religious body and revokes the edict of expulsion of 31 March 1492.

Spain is last Western country to recognize State of Israel (1986)

Jews in Spain given same legal rights as Catholics (1990)