Spain

Jews in Spain (Hebrew: “Sepharad”) have a long and storied history. Jewish residence in Iberia goes back to Roman times, but the height of Jewish life and culture in the Spanish kingdoms took place during Muslim rule. Jews living in the Muslim Caliphate of Cordoba realized extraordinary accomplishments in law, poetry, philosophy, and even government, as the elite among them flourished while pursuing the studies and arts of their Muslim neighbors. Maimonides is the best-known exemplar of this period, and though his most famous accomplishments were realized in North Africa and Egypt, after his family was forced to flee Andalusia from before a reactionary Muslim regime,  the seeds of those accomplishments were planted during his youthful education in the “Golden Age.”

Even in territories of the Christian reconquest, Jews continued to live and enjoy notable creativity, though they were subject to increasing pressures, particularly following the anti-Jewish riots of 1391. Still, the legacy of the Muslim past was not erased, and the arts that enhanced Jewish life in Spain continued to find expression all the way to the expulsion of the Jewish community by royal decree in 1492. Notably, the Sephardic identity of Spanish Jews did not vanish even after the expulsion, and the Sephardic Jewish community relates with pride to its Spanish roots even to this day.