The expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 was a seminal event in Jewish history. The Alhambra Decree put an end to 1,500 glorious years of Jewish community life on Spanish soil, by ordering all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity to leave the realm.
Jews likely began settling on the Iberian Peninsula at the start of the first millennium of the Common Era. Over the centuries, local Jews experienced many changes and shifts in overlords and ruling entities. The Muslims conquered the region in the 8th century. Christian forces soon began a long series of military campaigns to regain the lost territories, an effort that was finally successful in 1492 and which came to be known as the Reconquista. During these centuries of Muslim rule, the local Jewish community flourished. Many of its members assumed senior official positions, while others became prominent sages, biblical commentators, poets, scientists and thinkers. Their outstanding cultural, spiritual and scientific contributions shaped what is often described as the "Golden Age" of Spanish Jewry.
However, with the Christian military advances, the standing of the Jewish community began to deteriorate. Not only were its members forced to convert to Christianity, they were also tainted by blood libels – falsely accused of murdering Christians for Jewish rituals. Jews were persecuted, attacked and sentenced to harsh punishments. Many fled Spain after the Massacre of 1391, a wave of antisemitic pogroms. Some of those who remained agreed to convert to Christianity, while others were forced into conversion. These forced converts were referred to asAnusim ("coerced" in Hebrew) or "New Christians". When the authorities suspected that practicing Jews were encouraging the New Christians to continue observing Jewish law in secret, they decided to segregate the two groups. Thus, Jews were expelled from their homes and moved into separate neighborhoods. In 1481, the Spanish Inquisition began brutally persecuting theAnusim and in 1483, a deportation order was issued for the Jews of Andalusia. In 1492, the Catholic monarchs were finally able to complete the Spanish Reconquista, shifting their focus to thwarting Jewish influence on theAnusim.
The Alhambra Decree
On March 31st, 1492, the joint Catholic monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon, and Isabella I of Castile, issued an edict of expulsion for the Jews of Spain. All Jews refusing to convert were to leave by the end of July and never return. The objective was to separate practicing Jews from the New Christians to ensure that the latter would not revert to Judaism. Those who violated the order would be sentenced to death, including anyone that sheltered the deportees. In response, thousands of Jews converted to Christianity to avoid expulsion, even though it was just a facade for some. The number of expelled Jews is unknown, but most of the community, estimated at tens of thousands, settled in neighboring Portugal. Others journeyed to the Kingdom of Navarre. Thousands, suffering great tribulations, made their way to North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and France. Those that settled in Portugal once again faced an expulsion decree in 1497, this time issued for the Jews of Portugal. A few months later, the order was modified to coerce Jews to convert to Christianity by forced baptism. Shortly after, in 1498, those that settled in the Kingdom of Navarre in Spain were also deported.
The expelled Jews and their descendants wandered and then settled in numerous countries, assimilating into existing communities or setting up new congregations. They established their new abodes in the Balkans, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and the Land of Israel. Subsequently, many arrived in America and Europe. These Jews continued to speak Ladino and maintained their outstandingly rich customs and deeply rooted traditions, which contributed significantly to the culture of their newly-adopted homelands. Judaism has benefited immensely from the contributions of Sephardic-Jewish sages, authorities on Jewish law, commentators, poets, scientists, and philosophers.
The National Library of Israel has collected numerous historical materials on the Jewish expulsion from Spain. The rich compilation chronicles and elucidates stories of Sephardic Jews, their extraordinary creativity, their political structures and their community life. The items in the collection shed light on the circumstances of the expulsion, the lives of theAnusim and the challenges faced by Sephardic Jews while assimilating into various communities around the globe. The Library's collection originates from diverse periods and locations. It comprises books and manuscripts, religious and secular literature, prayer books, articles, and studies, as well as poetry and prayer recordings in Ladino.
An impressive selection of early printed books (incunabula) has survived from the period leading up to the expulsion of Spain's Jews, even though only a few decades passed between the invention of the printing press and the day of the Alhambra Decree. The fascinating publications dating to this era reveal much about Sephardic cultural life and its diversity. While the Jewish-Ashkenazi congregations focused primarily on the Talmud, the Sephardic communities dealt with a broad variety of religious literature, indicative of the remarkable perseverance of its members – even with the impending expulsion and the preceding riots.
In the vast Archives Department of the National Library of Israel, a special place is reserved for the works and literary estates of the great minds and cultural figures who emerged from the Sephardic diaspora. These include the personal archives of rabbis and community leaders such as Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elisher and Rabbi Chaim Abraham Gagin, archives of institutions and Mizrahi-Jewish communities whose members are descendants of the expelled Jews, as well as archives of scholars of Sephardic Jewry, led by Abraham Shalom Yehuda and Moshe David Gaon, whose research contributed greatly to the awareness of the unique heritage of this community. In these archives you can find unique material that has not yet been published, original certificates and surprising data about the histories and development of communities of Sephardic origin, as well as interesting photos and a variety of documents. Some of the archives were cataloged and scanned thanks to the generous support of the Samis Foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, and dedicated to the memory of Samuel Israel.
Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish,Judesmo, orSpaniolit, is one of several Jewish languages. Ladino developed throughout the Mediterranean basin following the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492, when the descendants of those expelled from Spain spread across the region.
Liturgy has had a central place in Sephardic-Jewish culture since the Middle Ages. A large portion of the piyutim (Jewish liturgical hymns) that exist today were originally written on Spanish soil hundreds of years ago. Alongside the writing of liturgical texts, a rich liturgical musical culture also developed over the centuries. After the Alhambra Decree, these musical traditions were preserved and continued to develop in the communities of the Sephardic diaspora. In the last few centuries, and especially in the context of the eastern Sephardic communities where Ladino culture developed, a new and rich tradition of non-liturgical music also emerged. Here you can find several examples from the Sound Archive at the National Library of Israel.
The migrations of Sephardic Jews following the expulsion from Spain in the late 15th century led to the development of local communities and traditions all over the world. Magnificent Sephardic-Jewish communities arose in Europe, North Africa, South America and the Middle East, and these were also influenced by the existing traditions they encountered in their adopted homelands. 20th century technology, as well as the growing awareness of the importance of documentation and the study of history, have given birth to several important enterprises dedicated to documenting the traditions of Sephardic Jews, wherever they may be found. Chief among these were the Oral History Archives that operated at the Hebrew University, and whose recordings were transferred to the National Library of Israel. Here you can listen to a selection of interviews presenting the diverse traditions of Sephardic Jewry.
The archives appearing on this page were cataloged and scanned thanks to the generous support of the Samis Foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, and dedicated to the memory of Samuel Israel.
