In the spring of 1492, shortly after the
Moors were driven out of Granada, Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain expelled all the Jews from
their lands and thus, by a stroke of the pen,
put an end to the largest and most distinguished
Jewish settlement in Europe. The expulsion of
this intelligent, cultured, and industrious
class was prompted only in part by the greed of
the king and the intensified nationalism of the
people who had just brought the crusade against
the Muslim Moors to a glorious close. The real
motive was the religious zeal of the Church, the
Queen, and the masses. The official reason given
for driving out the Jews was that they
encouraged the Marranos to persist in their
Jewishness and thus would not allow them to
become good Christians.
The following account gives a detailed and
accurate picture of the expulsion and its
immediate consequences for Spanish Jewry. It was
written in Hebrew by an Italian Jew in April or
May, 1495.
And in the year 5252 [1492], in the days of
King Ferdinand, the Lord visited the remnant of
his people a second time [the first Spanish
visitation was in 1391], and exiled them. After
the King had captured the city of Granada from
the Moors, and it had surrendered to him on the
7th [2d] of January of the year just mentioned,
he ordered the expulsion of all the Jews in all
parts of his kingdom-in the kingdoms of Castile,
Catalonia, Aragon, Galicia, Majorca, Minorca,
the Basque provinces, the islands of Sardinia
and Sicily, and the kingdom of Valencia. Even
before that the Queen had expelled them from the
kingdom of Andalusia [1483]
The King gave them three months' time in
which to leave. It ,vas announced in public in
every city on the first of May, which happened
to be the 19th day of the Omer, and the
term ended on the day before the 9th of Ab. [The
forty-nine days between the second of Passover
and Shabuot are called Omer days.
The actual decree of expulsion was signed March
31 and announced the first of May, the 19th day
of the Omer. The Jews were to leave
during in May, June, and July and be out of the
country by August I, the 8th of Ab.]
About their number there is no agreement,
but, after many inquiries, I found that the most
generally accepted estimate is 50,000 families,
or, as others say, 53,000- [This would be about
250,000 persons. Other estimates run from
100,000 to 800,000.] They had houses, fields,
vineyards, and cattle, and most of them were
artisans. At that time there existed many
[Talmudic] academies in Spain, and at the head
of the greatest of them were Rabbi Isaac Aboab
in Guadalajara [probably the greatest Spanish
rabbi of his day], Rabbi Isaac Veçudó in Leon,
and Rabbi Jacob Habib in Salamanca [later author
of a famous collection of the non-legal parts of
the Talmud, the En Yaakob]. In the last
named city there was a great expert in
mathematics, and whenever there was any doubt on
mathematical questions in the Christian academy
of that city they referred them to him. His name
was Abraham Zacuto. [This famous astronomer
encouraged the expedition of Vasco da Gama.] . .
.
In the course of the three months' respite
granted them they endeavoured to effect an
arrangement permitting them to stay on in the
country, and they felt confident of success.
Their representatives were the rabbi, Don
Abraham Seneor, the leader of the Spanish
congregations, who was attended by a retinue on
thirty mules, and Rabbi Meïr Melamed, who was
secretary to the King, and Don Isaac Abravanel
[1437-1508], who had fled to Castile from the
King of Portugal, and then occupied an equally
prominent position at the Spanish royal court.
He, too, was later expelled, went to Naples, and
was highly esteemed by the King of Naples. The
aforementioned great rabbi, Rabbi Isaac of Leon,
used to call this Don Abraham Seneor: "Soné
Or" ["Hater of Light," a Hebrew pun on
Seneor], because he was a heretic, and
the end proved that he was right, as he was
converted to Christianity at the age of eighty,
he and all his family, and Rabbi Meïr Melamed
with him . [Seneor and his son-in-law, Meïr,
were converted June 15, 1492; Ferdinand and
Isabella were among the sponsors.] Don Abraham
had arranged the nuptials between the King and
the Queen. The Queen was the heiress to the
throne, and the King one of the Spanish
nobility. On account of this, Don Abraham was
appointed leader of the Jews, but not with their
consent.
The agreement permitting them to remain in
the country on the payment of a large sum of
money was almost completed when it was
frustrated by the interference of a prior who
was called the Prior of Santa Cruz. [Legend
relates that Torquemada, Prior of the convent of
Santa Cruz, thundered, with crucifix aloft, to
the King and Queen: "Judas Iscariot sold his
master for thirty pieces of silver. Your
Highness would sell him anew for thirty
thousand. Here he is, take him, and barter him
away."] Then the Queen gave an answer to the
representatives of the Jews, similar to the
saying of King Solomon [ProverbS 2 1: 1]: "The
king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the
rivers of water. God turneth it withersoever He
will." She said furthermore: "Do you believe
that this comes upon you from us? The Lord hath
put this thing into the heart of the king."
[Isabella says it is God's will that the Jews be
expelled.]
Then they saw that there was evil determined
against them by the King, and they gave up the
hope of remaining. But the time had become
short, and they had to hasten their exodus from
Spain. They sold their houses, their landed
estates, and their cattle for very small prices,
to save themselves. The King did not allow them
to carry silver and gold out of his country, so
that they were compelled to exchange their
silver and gold for merchandise of cloths and
skins and other things- [Ever since 1480 Jews
and Gentiles were forbidden to export precious
metal, the source of a nation's wealth.]
One hundred and twenty thousand of them went
to Portugal, according to a compact which a
prominent man, Don Vidal bar Benveniste del
Cavalleria, had made with the King of Portugal,
and they paid one ducat for every soul, and the
fourth part of all the merchandise they had
carried thither; and he allowed them to stay in
his country six months. This King acted much
worse toward them than the King of Spain, and
after the six months had elapsed he made slaves
of all those that remained in his country, and
banished seven hundred children to a remote
island to settle it, and all of them died. Some
say that there were double as many. Upon them
the Scriptural word was fulfilled [Deuteronomy
28:32]: "Thy sons and thy daughters shall be
given unto another people, etc" [all Spanish
Jews, who were still in Portugal in 1493, were
enslaved by King John (1481-1495). The children
were sent to the isle of St. Thomas, off the
coast of Africa.] He also ordered the
congregation of Lisbon, his capital, not to
raise their voice in their prayers, that the
Lord might not hear their complaining about the
violence that was done unto them.
Many of the exiled Spaniards went to
Mohammedan countries, to Fez, Tlemçen, and the
Berber provinces, under the King of Tunis.
[These North African lands are across the
Mediterranean from Spain.] On account of their
large numbers the Moors did not allow them into
their cities, and many of them died in the
fields from hunger, thirst, and lack of
everything. The lions and bears, which are
numerous in this country, killed some of them
while they lay starving outside of the cities. A
Jew in the kingdom of Tlemçen, named Abraham,
the viceroy who ruled the kingdom, made part of
them come to this kingdom, and he spent a large
amount of money to help them. The Jews of
Northern Africa were very charitable toward
them. A part of those who went to Northern
Africa, as they found no rest and no place that
would receive them, returned to Spain, and
became converts, and through them the prophecy
of Jeremiah was fulfilled [Lamentations 1:13]:
"He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath
turned me back." For, originally, they had all
fled for the sake of the unity of God; only a
very few had become converts throughout all the
boundaries of Spain; they did not spare their
fortunes; yea, parents escaped without having
regard to their children.
When the edict of expulsion became known in
the other countries, vessels came from Genoa to
the Spanish harbors to carry away the Jews. The
crews of these vessels, too, acted maliciously
and meanly toward the Jews, robbed them, and
delivered some of them to the famous pirate of
that time who was called the Corsair of Genoa.
To those who escaped and arrived at Genoa the
people of the city showed themselves merciless,
and oppressed and robbed them, and the cruelty
of their wicked hearts went so far that they
took the infants from the mothers' breasts.
Many ships with Jews, especially from Sicily,
went to the city of Naples on the coast. The
King of this country was friendly to the Jews,
received them all, and was merciful towards
them, and he helped them with money. The Jews
that were at Naples supplied them with food as
much as they could, and sent around to the other
parts of Italy to collect money to sustain them.
The Marranos in this city lent them money on
pledges without interest; even the. Dominican
Brotherhood acted mercifully toward them. [The
Dominican monks were normally bitterly opposed
to Jews.] On account of their very large number,
all this was not enough. Some of them died by
famine, others sold their children to Christians
to sustain their life. Finally, a plague broke
out among them, spread to Naples, and very many
of them died, so that the living wearied of
burying the dead.
Part of the exiled Spaniards went over sea to
Turkey. Some of them were thrown into the sea
and drowned, but those who arrived, there the
King of Turkey received kindly, as they were
artisans. He lent them money and settled many of
them on an island, and gave them fields and
estates. [The Turks needed smiths and makers of
munitions for the war against Christian
Europe.]
A few of the exiles were dispersed in the
countries of Italy, in the city of Ferrara, in
the [papal] countries of Romagna, the March, and
Patrimonium, and in Rome. . . .
"He who said
unto His world, Enough, may He also say Enough
unto our sufferings, and may He look down upon
our impotence. May He turn again, and have
compassion upon us, and hasten out salvation.
Thus may it be Thy
will!
