Why did so many Iberian Jews convert to Christianity when faced with violence? Why did they not respond to persecution the way that German Jews did? These are common questions that are often raised when the history of Jews in Spain and Portugal is studied. Jews lived in the Iberian Peninsula for more than one-thousand years.
They experienced Roman rule, Visigoth rule, Islamic conquest, and the Christian Reconquista. Iberian Jewish attitudes towards violence and persecution were formed from a matrix of Biblical, Talmudic, philosophical, Kabbalistic, and outside influences that created a unique set of circumstances within the Jewish community.
This book explores this fascinating topic by analyzing Jewish views on martyrdom and dissimulation. It also reviews the responses of German Jewry revealing a more complicated response than is often assumed. It surveys the changing dynamics within the Iberian Jewish community in the medieval period which created a crisis of religious thought. It also investigates Islamic influence on Iberian Jewish thought.
Pick up your free Kindle copy 7/17 and 7/18 at the link below:
Posted by Rabbi Juan Bejarano Gutierrez the director of the B’nei Anusim Center for Education. For a more complete review of Iberian Jewish history and the Crypto Jewish Experience see Secret Jews: The Complex Identity of Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Judaism.
B'nei Anusim Center for Education 