Spanish & Portuguese Expulsion; Inquisition

In the middle of the 12th Century, fanatical Almohad Muslims overran Southern Spain, causing a massive Jewish exodus to the Christian North. At first, the Christians proved to be as tolerant to Jews as were the Muslim rulers of the Golden Age. However, in...

This class covers the tumultuous period that included the Inquisition and the expulsion from Spain. Much of this class focuses on the life of Don Yitzchak Abarbanel.

Having become a virtual vassal of Spain, the Republic of Genoa expelled the Jews at the behest of their Spanish overlords.

On July 15, 1834, the Office of the Spanish Inquisition was abolished by the Queen Mother Maria Christina, after nearly three and a half centuries. However, the right of public worship (including permission to mark places of worship and advertise religiou...

The 9th of Av, Tisha b'Av, commemorates a list of catastrophes so severe it's clearly a day set aside by G‑d for suffering. Another confirmation of our deeply held conviction that history isn't haphazard.

Question: I've heard it said that after the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, the rabbis banned any Jew from living in Spain—punishable by excommunication. Is this true? Answer: Recent halachic authorities have discussed this question extensively. Re...

The Spanish cabinet approved a bill which granted religious freedom to Spain's Jews as well as other religious minorities. Since 1492 it had been officially forbidden to practice Judaism in Spain -- though this law had not been enforced for many years bef...

Following the Portuguese Expulsion in 1496 (see Jewish History for the 22nd of Tevet) many Jews who chose to remain in Portugal became known as "Marranos," openly identified themselves as Christians, while secretly maintaining Jewish beliefs and tradition...

The Inquisition was created in the twelfth century to find "Christian heretics" who would be punished or killed. Eventually, Jews too were open to such charges of heresy, simply for being Jewish; and torture was routinely used to extract "confessions." Ov...

Pope Sixtus IV instructed his local bishops that all Jews who had fled the Spanish Inquisition (see "Today in Jewish History" for Adar 7) should be sent back to Spain.