Exiles in Sepharad Quotes

“For example, in one story a Jew convinces a Christian executioner to sell him the heart of a recently executed man for use in a black magic ritual. The executioner’s wife, discovering this deal, convinces her husband to substitute a pig’s heart for the criminal’s. A few days later a huge crowd of pigs appears in the field, and the animals tear each other apart: had a Christian heart been used, the victims would have been Christians instead. When the king of France learns of this, he orders all the Jews in the region killed.8”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Because Espina claimed an inherited basis for Jewish evil, he considered conversos to be as untrustworthy as the Jews. Overtly Espina advocated that all Jews be exiled; for conversos he favored the establishment of an Inquisition that would find and burn conversos responsible for the heresies he believed had been uncovered by the rebels in Toledo. But Fortalitium Fidei goes further than this, implying that the solution to the converso problem is what we would now consider genocide.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Another significant factor that increased pressure on the Jews was the rise of the mendicant orders of preaching friars, the Dominicans and the Franciscans. The Dominicans in particular were to become leaders in the campaign against the Jews. Saint Dominic probably never imagined that his order would initiate the Spanish Inquisition and oversee the public immolation of heretics. The only torment he advocated was self-directed.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Soon after the pogrom in Granada, the world of Jewish culture in Islamic Spain effectively ended.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Had Moses seen how my friend’s face blushes when he is drunk, and his beautiful curls and wonderful hands, he would not have written in his Torah: do not lie with a man.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“While the colony was small—only about 105 men, and fewer women—its isolation made it practically autonomous, probably the only politically independent, Jewish-led society in the world.36 Located in the Surinamese jungle, it eventually consisted of a few dozen Jewish-run sugar plantations. Much of the labor was supplied by African slaves, and the mixing of Jews and blacks, combined with the relative scarcity of Jewish women, produced, over time, a significant community of black Jews. At the end of the eighteenth century, black Jews had their own synagogue in Suriname’s capital city of Paramaribo, as well as their own society, founded in 1759, called Darkhei Yesharim (The Ways of the Righteous).”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“As one of the German employees of the WIC in Brazil noted, “the Jews, more than anyone else, were in a desperate situation and therefore, preferred to die sword in hand than face their fate under the Portuguese yoke: the flames.”32 The Amsterdam Jews showed their support of the Jews in Brazil by helping to finance a privateering campaign that captured approximately 220 Portuguese vessels, effectively imposing a blockade on”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“When a Dutch ship with three Jewish merchants on board dropped anchor in August 1645 at a part of the Brazilian coast that, unbeknown to them, had been captured by Portuguese rebels, two of the Jews—because they were conversos born as Christians—were arrested and executed as apostates.28”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The local slave brokerage was also dominated by Jews, although the importation of slaves from Africa was monopolized by the WIC.22”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The arrival of the tolerant Dutch prompted many of the local conversos to revert openly to Judaism. Manoel Calado, a contemporary Brazilian chronicler, complained that many conversos had in fact been “secret Jews” who, after the arrival of the Dutch, had themselves “circumcised in public and openly declared themselves as Jews . . . greatly scandalizing the Christians.”17”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The Spanish Diaspora meant that Jews had contacts with fellow Sephardic Jews and conversos all over the world, including commercial ties to the Ottoman Empire, a trade relationship not accessible to Christians. The Dutch Jew’s most significant commercial ties were with the conversos in Brazil.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Thomas Jefferson expressed similar concerns about miscegenation (without regard to his personal practices). He advocated removal of blacks from the United States, due in part to concerns over maintaining blood purity. He stated that Negro “amalgamation with the other color produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently consent.”45 Resettlement of blacks would mean that they would “be removed beyond the reach of mixture” so that they could not stain “the blood of [their] master.”46”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“one drop” rule did not come into common use in the United States until after the Civil War, when it was used to implement Jim Crow racial segregation.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Cursed be Canaan / the lowest of slaves / Shall he be to his brothers.’ And he said, ‘Blessed be the Lord / the God of Shem; / Let Canaan be a slave to them. / May God enlarge Japheth, / And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; / and let Canaan be a slave to them.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Who can deny that in the descendants of Jews there persists and endures the evil inclination of their ancient ingratitude and lack of understanding, just as in the Negroes [there persists] the inseparability of their blackness. For if the latter should unite themselves a thousand times with white women, the children are born with the dark color of the father. Similarly, it is not enough for the Jew to be three parts aristocrat or Old Christian, for one family line (that is, one Jewish ancestor) alone defiles and corrupts him.”16”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The nineteenth-century German explorer Alexander von Humboldt noted the parallel between the limpieza restrictions in Spain and the racial discrimination he found in the Spanish colonies in the New World: “In Spain it is a kind of title of nobility not to descend from Jews or Moors. In America, the skin, more or less white, is what dictates the class that an individual occupies in society. A white, even if he rides barefoot on horseback, considers himself a member of the nobility of the country.”15”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Impure blood” was understood literally, not as a metaphor. This contributed to the belief in seventeenth-century Spain that Jewish males menstruated. Menstruation was thought to involve the body trying to purge impure blood, since woman’s menstrual blood was commonly believed to have contained excess humors.12 As a result it was believed that female saints did not menstruate; since their holy bodies contained only pure blood, they had nothing to purge.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The second justification cited by supporters of limpieza was the accusation of deicide. The Jewish role in the killing of Christ was seen as a kind of original sin, inherited by succeeding generations of Jews.3 Because the act superseded the rite of baptism, even baptism could not purge the conversos of the taint of this crime.4 The belief that all people of Jewish descent were permanently stained by a curse made purity-of-blood restrictions an early version of modern racism, an inheritable religious curse mirroring the modern belief in inherited biological characteristics.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Dom Manuel, who was troubled in his soul that so many millions of men would suffer eternal punishment, devised a plan which would at least save their children. The plan was unjust; it was unfair, even though it was born out of laudable purposes. He ordered that every child of a Jew who was not beyond the age of fourteen years be taken away from the parents so that, removed from their sight, they be indoctrinated in the Christian religion.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“King João II did not wait long before retaliating against Jews who overstayed or failed to pay the required tax. In his most shocking action, he enslaved Jewish children, had them converted to Christianity, and then shipped them to a new experimental colony in São Tomé, an uninhabited island near the equator, about 120 miles off the African coast. By the mid-fifteenth century, the Portuguese had already established profitable sugar plantations on the island of Madeira, and the king hoped to emulate this success in São Tomé, using Jews, criminals, and African slaves from northern Angola as laborers. Several later Jewish commentators bewailed the mistreatment of these children, whose suffering on the island reportedly included being eaten by crocodiles. As recorded by Samuel Usque in the mid-sixteenth century: “They were thrown ashore and mercilessly left there. Almost all were swallowed up by the huge lizards on the island, and the remainder, who escaped these reptiles, wasted away from hunger and abandonment. Only a few were miraculously spared that dreadful misfortune.8”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“the Kabbalistic scholar Judah ben Jacob Hayyat, who left by boat from Lisbon to North Africa in 1493 with 250 Jews, wrote that after embarking they could not find a port to receive them. They sailed for four months, with few provisions. They were then waylaid by a Basque crew that took them captive, looted their property, and took them to Málaga. There they were imprisoned in the ship, while priests came aboard at the order of the bishop, to proselytize to them. After seeing that the Jews refused to convert, the bishop ordered them to be deprived of food and water until they converted. This continued for five days while city notables and priests made many visits to the ship. Close to one hundred souls apostatized in one day, but ben Jacob Hayyat’s wife died from the deprivations, as did nearly fifty others, including women and children. Ben Jacob Hayyat himself lay near death. At that point the bishop relented and allowed the ship to sail on to Fez.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The year 1492 was Spain’s annus mirabilis, the year that, more than any other, shaped the country’s destiny and changed the fate of the world. On January 2, one year after Granada had capitulated, ceding the last piece of Muslim soil to Spain, the victorious monarchs marched into the city; on August 3, Columbus set sail for the western seas; and on March 31, the king signed the Edict of Expulsion, ordering all Jews to leave Spain.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Jewish intellectual and cultural activities also flourished under the monarchs. The Jewish astronomer Abraham Zacuto won an appointment to a chair in astronomy and astrology at the University of Salamanca, the oldest and most respected university in Spain and normally closed to Jews. His astronomical studies contributed to the voyages of discovery of Columbus and Vasco da Gama, among others. He personally consulted with Columbus and advised the monarchs on the advantages of the voyage. In 1497 Zacuto created the first mariner’s astrolabe. Astrolabes that allowed for measurements of latitude by sighting the pole star at night had long been in use. Such astrolabes, however, became ineffective near or below the equator and could not be used at night. Zacuto’s astrolabe allowed for measurements to be made using the position of the sun. The device he designed was the first one small and sturdy enough to be used abroad ships. He personally handed one to Vasco da Gama, who used it on his first voyage to India.5 After the expulsion Zacuto would become court astronomer to the king of Portugal. The twentieth-century Portuguese monarch Manoel II said of him: “Truly the great astrologer . . . gave grand, enormous service to Portugal, his knowledge. Zacuto’s science served not only the Portuguese, but also Spain, beginning with Columbus, who possessed a copy of Almanach Perpetuum.”6 Zacuto managed to evade the 1497 Portuguese mass conversions of Jews. He and his son escaped to North Africa, where they reached Tunis in 1504 after twice being imprisoned by pirates. He died in 1515 in Jerusalem, where he had taught in a rabbinical seminary.7”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The Last Iberian Jews Fig. 3. Decree of Expulsion of the Jews, Granada, March 31, 1492. Manuscript on paper; uncertified copy. Courtesy of Simancas (Valladolid), Archivo General de Simancas (PR 28-6). 24 Spain and Expulsion After Conversion: The Jews, 1391–1492 From the perspective of the Jews, the Catholic Monarchs were like the little girl with a little curl from Longfellow’s nursery rhyme: when they were good they were very, very good, and when they were bad, they were horrid.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“Other versions, all glorifying the child as a sainted martyr, followed. Spain’s greatest playwright, Lope de Vega, produced his version, El Nino Inocente de la Guardia, around 1610. His play opens with Queen Isabella receiving a vision from the founder of the Dominicans telling her, in a dream, to found the Inquisition and expel the Jews. The dream is followed by a lament from converso/Jews. Any sympathy for the Jews ends as Lope de Vega portrays them first as buffoons, then as villains who kidnap a young child. The child has a chance to escape but embraces martyrdom and receives his torments happily, watched over by an angel who promises him redemption.19 The child became known as “Little Christobalico,” the patron saint of La Guardia, and his shrine was visited by several kings (though the child was never formally recognized as a saint by the Vatican). The shrine is still maintained; in the Church of La Guardia, parishioners still gather before it to sing the hymn named for it (videos of the hymn and images of the child can be readily found on the Internet).”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The Blood-Libel Cult This blood-libel accusation may be the longest lasting anti-Jewish blood libel in history. It was not until 1544 that a popular account was published, the Memoria muy veradero de la passion y martirio, que el glorioso martir, innocent nino llamado Cristobal, padescio . . . en esta villa de la guardia (Very true account of the passion and martyrdom of the glorious martyr, the innocent child called Cristobal, that was suffered in this town of La Guardia), by Licenidado Vegas, the apostolic notary of the town of La Guardia. This account describes the tortures that the child suffered in imitation of the passion of Christ, saying that the child received 6,200 lashes but complained only of the last one thousand, since they were more than Christ had received.18”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“By July 19 Yuce began to give inquisitors the full story that they had been demanding. He claimed he had not admitted it sooner because he had sworn an oath to keep it secret until he had been imprisoned for a full year. Approximately three years earlier, he said, the conspirators had met in a cave. There they handed the heart and host to the physician, who retreated to the back of the cave to perform a magical ceremony. Later, on the nineteenth, Yuce described the killing of the child. Those present at the ritual, mimicking the passion of Christ, he said, had abused and crucified the child.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The trial began in Ávila on December 17. Defendants were accused of the ritual murder of a Christian child on Holy Friday and of stealing a consecrated host, with the intention of using it to stage a magical ceremony on Passover—also involving the heart of the murdered Christian child—in order to infect all Christians with rabies. With this magic, the accusation went, the Jews would destroy all Christians and take over Castile.15 Yuce Franco, when he heard the charges, responded that it was “the greatest lie in the world.”16”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“The guilt of the accused was assumed, and he was treated as a sinner who was expected to seek salvation by unburdening his conscience and contritely accepting whatever penance might in mercy be imposed on him.”14”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain

“In the other method, the potro, a type of waterboarding (the Inquisition considered waterboarding a form of torture), the victim was tied lying down on a trellis with the head in a depression lower than the feet. The head was bound with an iron band, while tight cords tied the victim’s arms and legs to the trellis. The toca, a linen strip, was stuffed into the mouth. A jar holding about a quart of water dripped onto the toca, slowly saturating it, and thereby giving the victim the impression of drowning. The victim would flail about, but the movements of the limbs only made the restraints, sometimes tightened by tourniquets twisted into the cords, dig into the victim’s flesh. The intensity of the torture session could be measured by the amount of water consumed. A lengthy session would require six or eight jars. The victim, male or female, wore no or minimal clothing during the torture session. Nudity induced shame, but the primary reason for nudity was that clothes interfered with the torture restraints.”
― Jeffrey Gorsky, Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain