We all know the childhood poem, “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue...” We’ve added a new line, so it becomes, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, when it wasn’t good to be a Spanish Jew.”
In March 1492, the Alhambra Decree declared that all Jews were to be expelled from Spain by the end of July of that year...
As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution in prior years, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled, an indeterminate number returning to Spain in the years following the expulsion.[3]:17
en.wikipedia.org/...
The decree was formally revoked in 1968, which was 100 years since Jews had been allowed to practice their religion openly in Spain.
To atone for the decree...
In 1992, the 500th anniversary year of the Alhambra Decree, King Juan Carlos I promised visiting Israeli President Chaim Herzog that “never again will hate and intolerance provoke desolation and exile.”
www.latimes.com/...
By 2014 the Spanish government passed a law offering citizenship to decedents of the Sephardic Jews who were expelled via the Alhambra decree. I have a cousin who thinks that our Mexican family may have originally been Jews from Spain, based on some genealogy work her mother had done on our ancestry. My Ashkenazi Jewish husband and I laugh that it could be my heritage, (I was raised as a Catholic), that could give us European citizenship based on my possible Jewish ancestry.
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Religious purity was not only directed to the Jews in Spain, but also to the Muslims. They too were expelled via the Alhambra Decree. The Moors ruled southern Spain, until one of the early power couples, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand successfully fought for control. Throughout southern Spain you can still see the beauty of the Moorish kingdom, especially in Granada, Sevilla and Cordoba.
We spent a few days in Cordoba, the home of an enormous Muslim mosque, the Mesquita, that long ago was converted into a Catholic cathedral. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage sight, and well worth a visit if you’re in the area.
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Being in Cordoba was incredible, combined with prior visits to Granada, and Seville, you can see the beauty and intelligence of the Moors. You can also see the damage done by the bigoted Inquisition.
It’s easy to to understand that the anti-immigration stands of the GOP are just as wrong as the expulsion of the Jews and Moors from Spain.
In the words of the former King of Spain, “never again will hate and intolerance provoke desolation and exile.”
It’s too bad that our own president can’t understand the damage done by bigoted, and racist policies.