Jews

D

A Golden Age in Spain

The Jews in Spain entered a golden age in the 12th and 13th centuries, while Jews in the north experienced persecution. Only in Spain did a many-sided Jewish culture truly flourish in Europe. It thrived alongside Islamic culture, largely in the south of Spain, and Christian culture in the north of Spain. Many Jewish intellectuals in Spain, as elsewhere in Europe, focused primarily on Talmudic learning. Yet the Jews of Spain also received an education in philosophy, science, poetics (basic principles of poetry), Hebrew grammar, and even some history. The versatile 12th-century scholar Abraham ibn Ezra and the many followers of Maimonides, who had been born in Spain, produced numerous works in all these areas. The Zohar, the basic work of Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah, was composed in Spain in the 13th century. This text (in full, Sefer ha-zohar, or The Book of Splendor) became the cornerstone of all subsequent mystical Jewish thought.

Jews in Spain also flourished in the political and economic spheres. The Christians had reconquered almost all of Spain from the Muslims by 1248, and this created opportunities for Jews. Many Jews spoke Arabic, the language of the inhabitants of the conquered territory, and had extensive experience in providing administrative services to the government. Their fluency in Arabic enabled them to serve as cultural translators between the Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking populations.

The golden age of Jews in Spain did not last, however. During the 14th century Christian monastic orders became increasingly powerful in Spain and routinely preached against the Jews. The Black Death further incited the masses against the Jews. In 1391 intensive anti-Jewish preaching led to attacks on many Jewish communities. To escape death many Jews accepted baptism and conversion to Christianity. Many others converted without overt coercion.

E

The Inquisition and Expulsion from Spain

The large number of Jewish converts to Christianity set in motion a century-long process that culminated in the disappearance of Spain’s remaining Jewish communities in 1492. Some of the converts became sincere Christians and successfully integrated into the dominant community. Other converts, although sincere, maintained relationships with relatives and friends who continued to practice some form of Judaism. The Spanish converts who continued to practice the Jewish religion, whether out of habit or commitment, were known as Marranos.

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Problems arose when a number of the converts and their descendants became prominent members of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain and the government bureaucracy. The leaders of those institutions believed it essential to determine the sincerity of the so-called new Christians for the institutions’ survival. In 1478 King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I introduced an Inquisition to Spain to inquire into the status of recent converts to Christianity, whether former Jews or former Muslims.

The Inquisition was not, as is often thought, an agency for the persecution of Jews; its sole responsibility was to determine whether newly baptized Christians had converted insincerely. Once baptized, converts could not return to their previous faith, and only baptized Christians were subject to the Inquisition’s authority. Although hardly devoid of corruption, the Inquisition was not as violent as is often depicted. Even so, no one wanted to run afoul of the Inquisitors, since defending oneself against a charge of judaizing (practicing Judaism) often proved impossible.

In 1492, after Ferdinand and Isabella reconquered the last piece of Spanish territory under Islamic rule, they decided to expel all the unconverted Jews and Muslims who remained in Spain. To avoid the expulsion order, many more Jews chose to convert, but tens of thousands chose to leave. Most went to neighboring Portugal, although many found their way east to Italy and to the lands of the Ottoman Empire, including Greece, North Africa, Palestine, and Turkey. Portugal proved to be a short-term refuge because in 1497 King Manuel I decided to forcibly convert the Jews of Portugal to Christianity. However, because he did not immediately establish an Inquisition in Portugal, many converts continued to secretly conduct themselves as Jews as best they could. In time, the descendants of these Marranos openly returned to Judaism outside the Iberian Peninsula.

The expulsion from Spain and the conversions in Portugal brought to an end one of the oldest and richest Jewish communities. Yet many of these expelled Jews and Marranos retained their distinct Spanish or Sephardic identities wherever they eventually settled.

The expulsion of the Jews from Spain also marked the end of the wholesale expulsion of Jews from European countries, at least until the Nazi era of the 1940s. However, expulsions of Jews from major European cities continued to occur from time to time until the beginning of the 20th century.

VI

The 16th Century Through the 18th Century

Many changes occurred in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century. These changes influenced science, religion, philosophy, and industrial and economic life. They had an impact on Jewish life and thought as well. But first, countries in Western Europe had to readmit Jews.

A

Return to Western Europe

At the beginning of the 16th century, Poland had the largest concentration of Jews in the world. Few or no Jews lived in most of the lands west of Poland, but this situation changed in the 17th century, when Jews began to migrate back to the German states and to eastern France. In 1654 England readmitted Jews. In addition, many of the Marranos, who secretly maintained some form of Jewish identity on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), were able to resume open commitments to Judaism in Holland, southern France, and the German city of Hamburg.

Many Marranos settled in Holland, especially in Amsterdam, which granted them freedom of worship and offered many economic opportunities. Holland entered an era of commercial prosperity upon gaining independence from Spain in 1648. In southern France, Marrano communities developed in the port cities of Bordeaux and Bayonne. Hamburg, another important trading center, became a haven for refugees from other parts of Europe and welcomed Jews, who became financiers, importers, and shipbuilders. As former Christians, the Marranos were the first Jews who had a broad general education and fluency in at least one European language. In many ways, they were the first modern Jews and a sign of the future, although they were too few in number to exercise much direct influence on Jews in other regions.

B

Growing Religious Tolerance

During the 17th century a scientific revolution and the first stirrings of the Industrial Revolution changed the ways many Europeans thought and behaved. The scientific revolution brought nonreligious explanations for the way the natural world operated, and the Industrial Revolution brought new forms of economic organization. Wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants had occupied Europe in the 16th century; in the 17th century these wars ended in settlements that led to greater, if often grudging, acceptance of religious differences. European trade with Asia as well as the establishment of European colonies in the Americas brought interaction with other cultures. Moreover, a greater acquaintance with the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans called many cherished truths into question.

The 17th century, then, was a period of greater intellectual openness and economic opportunity, and it had an enormous impact on all residents of the European continent. The scientific achievements, the reliance on scientific reasoning, and the exposure to non-European cultures led to a new respect for human rights during the 18th century, a period in European history known as the Age of Enlightenment.