Sephardic Jews are Jews from Middle Eastern countries. They make up 16% of the world Jewish population. Many of them are found in Israel, France and America, but now, they are spread out all over the world, and this is because of the Spanish Expulsion and Inquisition, when all Jews were expelled from Spain. The Jews who lived in Spain experienced a normal life of freedom, up until the increase of the Jewish population and when the King and Queen feared that the Jews would one day rule over Spain, which linked to the increase of Anti Semitism and the lead to the Expulsion and Inquisition.
The word Sephardic originates from the word Sepharad, which means Spain in Hebrew. Sephardic Jews are those who have immigrated from countries in the
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Roughly 300 000 Spanish Jews were affected by this, which was almost a quarter of the population in Spain. Historians believe that 100,000 Jews chose to leave and move to countries where they were accepted as Jews. These Jews found refuge in countries such as Turkey, North Africa and Italy. Turkey was known as the Ottoman Empire at the time of the Expulsion, and it was under the ruling of Beyazit II, who was very accepting and welcoming of the Jews. North Africa was being ruled by the Marinid Dynasty and they were very accepting of Jews into their country as well. Italy was another country where Jews found refuge in. These countries were located in the Middle East and they got their name as Sephardim due to the fact that they used to live in Spain because Sepharad means Spanish in Hebrew. Many kept their traditions from their home country and some have managed to live on until today. These Jews did not let the fact that they were not in their homeland stop them from practicing their culture. The Jews who had moved out out Spain had made an unofficial rule amongst themselves that they would not go back to live in Spain, due to the way they were treated and the chance of another Expulsion happening in the future. This Expulsion was the lead up to the …show more content…
Even though Spain is now offering citizenships to the descendants of those were were expelled from Spain, many Jews will not return due to the way their ancestors were treated. The Expulsion and Inquisition are huge events in Jewish History and they story will always be passed
Throughout history, Jews have been persecuted in just about every place they have settled. Here I have provided just a small ...
Both take an Orthodoxal approach to the written law of the Torah, and the differences in its interpretation are subtle enough to be dismissed. However the traditions aquired, and at times given the power of laws, in the course of the long centuries of diaspora differ considerably from one branch of Judaism to another. Just as the worldwide language of the Ashekenazim, Yiddish, is a mixture of Hebrew with German, the common language used by the Sephardim Ladino, still in use in some parts of the world, is a dialect formed by combining Hebrew with Spanish. The Sephardim who have historically been more involved into the lives of the gentile societies where they settled don't have as strict a set of observances as do the Ashkenazis who have been contained in closed ghettos up until two centuries ago.
After Goebbels ended the pogrom on November 10th, the man in charge of making decisions for the Reich, Reichmarschall Herman Wilhelm Goring, enacted laws that further oppressed the Jews. These laws stated that Jew had to pay a one billion Reichsmark fine while at the same time their wealth would be exchanged for government bonds, and that their property would be confiscated. The more oppression that the Jews came face to face with in the weeks and months following Kristallnacht, the more they wanted to get away from Hitler’s regime. When Hitler realized that he wanted to eradicate all the Jews of Europe instead of getting them out of the Reich in January 1939, it became too late for any Jews to emigrate.
The Reconquista is commonly recognized as the time when the Christians rulers “retook” the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims. However, the significant impact the Reconquista had on the Jews living in Iberia is often disregarded. How did the standard of living for Jewish communities residing in the Iberian Peninsula shift during Muslim rule in comparison to the Reconquista and Inquisition wherein the Jews were living under Christian rule? According to several sources, Jews were tolerated under Muslim rule as their culture thrived and various cities such as Cordoba, Granada, and Toledo had large as well as prosperous Jewish communities. This changed overtime as by the 1300s, when Christians began to rule most of Spain, prejudice against Jews became prevalent. As the years passed, bigotry began to increase, the outbreak of the Black Death contributed to this discrimination because many individuals blamed the Jews for the plague. Subsequently, this hatred gained momentum in the 1400s whereby the Spanish Inquisition resulted in an abundant number of Jewish victims.
People are often afraid of what they do not know. The Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust were both times when fear overwhelmed the world; hysteria played a major role because it caused most of the horrific events to occur. During the times of the Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust, fear drove people to act rashly based on fear of the unknown.
History provides several horrible periods of violence, fear and murder. Such horrible acts against humanity have been committed in the name of religion, colonization, and racial superiority. The Holocaust, was one of the most catastrophic and saddest events in history, where about 11 million people, including Jewish children, families, and political dissenters were mass murdered. However, there exists another mournful and cruel period that marked the lives of many Sephardic Jews with secrecy and fear. One hardly hears about the harassment, rejection and humiliation of Sephardic Jewry in Spain, Portugal, and countries like Mexico, at the hands of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, which began in 1492. Due to these events, Sephardic Jews found themselves facing one of the most complex decisions of their lives and those of future generations; conversion, expulsion or death. The reasons for conversion are complex, as many converted by force and others for social or political reasons. As a result, converts became known as Conversos and “marranos /chuetas, and the latter are derogatory terms, as the names imply “swine” (Hordes 6). Another important term is Anusim, referring to those "whose conversion was prompted by violence and fear not sincerity” (Hordes 6). Marranos, were secretive people often, “keeping their children from their Jewish identity, until they reached an age where discretion could be trusted "(Telushkin 195). All of these events, have led to the complex phenomena, of the crypto-Jews in the new world, including Mexico and the American Southwest. Thus, sparking new areas of interest and research of their practices, customs, authenticity, and identification.
... The long history of the Spanish Inquisition serves as a reminder of the bigotry and the persecution that took place. It is only one of many persecuting acts that are piled on top of Jewish history. Many Christians look back onto the Inquisition with shame and humidity.
They were deported on packed trains. Many people died on the trains from hunger, disease, thirst, and suffocation. The Jews could be on the trains for months at a time. Soon after Germany separated from Austria in March 1938, the Nazi soldiers arrested and imprisoned Jews in concentration camps all over Germany. Only eight months after annexation, the violent anti-jew Kristallnacht, also known as Night of the Broken Glass, pogroms took place.
Judaism, the religion of the Jews, is one of the oldest religions in the world. Judaism, in fact, is the oldest of the three major religions that believe in a single God. The other two, Christianity and Islam, have been strongly influenced by Judaism, which is a big part of western civilization today. In the beginning, Jews were a tribe, a band of nomads, more than likely shepherds that may have died out if they would have remained merely shepherds. Jews were one of many “nations” to be found in the ancient Near East.
Judaism is practiced by about 500,000 Jews in the region. Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil host large communities and are faced with large amounts of anti-semitism leftover from Spanish hatred. The Jewish and Muslims were forced out of Spain, even those who had converted to catholicism, by the Spanish Inquisition. This systemic hatred had taken root in Latin America (Class Notes).
They were not allowed to go to any other school unless it was a Jewish school.” (Rossel 54) The Jews were moved into towns called ghettos, forced to live away from non Jews.... ... middle of paper ... ...
When the infamous Hitler began his reign in Germany in 1933, 530,000 Jews were settled in his land. In a matter of years the amount of Jews greatly decreased. After World War II, only 15,000 Jews remained. This small population of Jews was a result of inhumane killings and also the fleeing of Jews to surrounding nations for refuge. After the war, emaciated concentration camp inmates and slave laborers turned up in their previous homes.1 Those who had survived had escaped death from epidemics, starvation, sadistic camp guards, and mass murder plants. Others withstood racial persecution while hiding underground or living illegally under assumed identities and were now free to come forth. Among all the survivors, most wished not to return to Germany because the memories were too strong. Also, some become loyal to the new country they had entered. Others feared the Nazis would rise again to power, or that they would not be treated as an equal in their own land. There were a few, though, who felt a duty to return to their home land, Germany, to find closure and to face the reality of the recent years. 2 They felt they could not run anymore. Those survivors wanted to rejoin their national community, and show others who had persecuted them that they could succeed.
Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.
The Spanish people are essentially a mixture of the indigenous peoples of the Iberian Peninsula with the successive peoples who conquered the peninsula and occupied it for extended periods. These added ethnologic elements include the Romans, a Mediterranean people, and the Suevi, Vandals, and Visigoths (see GOTHS), Teutonic peoples. Semitic elements are also present. Several ethnic groups in Spain have kept a separate identity, culturally and linguistically. These include the Basques (Euskal-dun), who number about 2.5 million and live chiefly around the Bay of Biscay; the Galicians, numbering about 2.5 million, who live in northwestern Spain; and the nomadic Spanish Gypsies (Gitanos; see GYPSIES).
Mostly members of the upper class, consisting of royal family, nobility, bureaucrats, priests, Temple personnel, merchants, and artisans, were deported to Babylon. The deportation was the first time Jews were “compelled to maintain their religion identity while being separated from their spiritual land.” Many small, unfortified towns and villages back in Judah were left unharmed; they reemerged and strengthened themselves by continuing the religion and literary activities. Additionally, they remained in active communication with Judeans in Babylon. “Mutual influence and interchange took place which eventually lead to the support of the reestablishment of Judah and Jerusalem.”