Anti-Jewish riots occurred in Spain during the summer of 1391. Large communities were completely destroyed, many Jews died and many others converted to the Catholic faith. Efforts to force the Jews to convert to Christianity continued until 1414 (the year of the Disputation of Tortosa). During this period about one third of the Jews died, and another third converted to Christianity. The forced converts (called anussim in Hebrew), were called "New Christians" to distinguish them from the "Old Christians;" they were also insultingly called "marranos," "tornadizos," and "alboraicos." In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain; the majority of them went to Portugal, where they were again subject to forced conversions in 1497. Spain in 1480, and Portugal in 1536, established in their lands the Holy Office of the Inquisition, to investigate the loyalty of the "New Christians" to the Catholic faith. Thousands were accused of secretly practicing Judaism, and were put on trial. The phenomenon of crypto-Judaism in Spain seemed to disappear after the first decades of the 16th century. After 1580, when King Philip II of Spain became king of Portugal, many Portuguese New Christians fled from Portugal to Spain, and there was an important revival of crypto-Judaism there. From that time onwards the terms "Portuguese," "crypto-Jew" and "Jew" became synonymous (and this happened when there were no Jews in Spain!). Perhaps the largest proportion of New...
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Italy is located centrally in the Mediterranean sea and served as an important crossroad and an intersection between North and South, East and West, Sephardic and Ashkenazi culture. That's why Italy has a very important role in Jewish history and genealogy. Italy contains some of the oldest Jewish Communities in Europe. Jews arrived in South Italy ...
If Messianic Judaism claims to be a Judaism within the wider Jewish Community, than it behooves us to consider the place of halachah (The way we understand Torah and do what it says) in our midst. Messianic Judaism is more than just a form of “Biblical Judaism.” To make such a claim denies the history of the Jewish people over the last ...
The Jewish community of Croatia dates back to at least the third century AD, although little is known of the community until the tenth and fifteenth centuries. The community, over 20,000 strong on the eve of World War II, was almost entirely destroyed in the Holocaust. After the WWII half of the survivors choose to settle in Israel while some 2,50 ...
The beginnings of Jewish history in Iran date back to late Biblical times. The biblical books of Isaiah, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, and Esther contain references to the life and experiences of Jews in Persia. In the book of Ezra, the Persian kings are credited with permitting and enabling the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their ...
The largest Jewish community of Indian Jews is that of the Bene Israel. Earlier the Bene Israel lived in the villages of west Maharashtra in the Konkan coast. In the nineteenth century they started moving to the cities, mainly to Bombay (now called Mumbai) and to other cities among them Pune, Ahmadabad and Karachi which is now part of Pakistan. Fr ...
Responsa from two Gadolim Hador. In recent years there being 2 major Responses (Theshuvot) from Gadolim Hador one from The Rischon Lezion HaRav Mordechai Eliahu, Former Chief Rabbi of Israel and from the Late Gaon Ahron (Aaron) Soloveichik z”l they clarify once and for all the matter on how present day Orthodox Jewish Communities shoul ...
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