Spanish Inquisition
Latin American Jews Whose Ancestors Fled Inquisition Will Get First Rabbi
A wave of Jews actually came to El Salvador centuries ago, to escape the Spanish Inquisition. They were forced to practice Judaism in secret.
Conservative Magazine Defends Spanish Inquisition, Calls It ‘Ahead Of Its Time’
Northern European kingdoms painted the Spanish Empire as “constitutionally evil; not just a political, religious and military rival,” the author said.
The Spanish Inquisition Was ‘Moderate’ Solution. So Says This Conservative Columnist.
Here’s something no one expected: A reputable conservative magazine has published a column defending … The Spanish Inquisition.
Spain And Portugal Naturalize Nearly 5,000 Sephardic Jews
The laws follow economic recessions and vigorous attempts by Lisbon and Madrid to attract wealthy investors, residents and tourists.
Drawing 'My Spanish Inquisition'
How do you sum up 500 years of Sephardic history in just a couple of illustrations? That’s the challenge Kurt Hoffman had to answer in the pages of the Forward.
The ‘Portuguese Schindler’ and Me
Aristides Sousa Mendes is in search of his past. His grandfather is lionized for saving Jews from the Nazis in Portugal-but it wasn’t always that way.
Reviving Dona Gracia
Before Golda, and even before Herzl, there was Dona Gracia Nasi, the 16th-century Zionist, feminist, and the Harriet Tubman of the Jewish people. She is one of the most remarkable women in Jewish history — and in history, period. It’s a tragedy that so few people know her name.
Jewish School Graduates Focus on Themes of Persecution
Jewish day school graduates mostly want to study the Holocaust. A college lecturer asks if they should focus more on cultural empowerment, like their classmates from other groups.
At Some Point During Shabbes I Apparently Became an Enemy of the Torah
Well, here it is, Saturday night. Some time around 8:30 I observe that Shabbes is over, so I crank up the old laptop to see what’s new and catch up with my Forward fan mail. My latest column on Palestinian statehood had some pretty lively back-and-forth going on as of Friday evening, and I’m eager to see what new pearls of Torah have been shared while I was off-line.
Who's a Pirate? Jewish Naval Battles, from Gaza Coast to La. Oil Smear
The news this week is chock-full of outrage over the Israeli naval action that Turkey and others are calling an act of naked piracy on the high seas. And in the week’s other top story, by incredible coincidence, the oil slick oozing across the Gulf of Mexico made its first major landfall Thursday at, of all places, Grand Isle in Barataria Bay at the mouth of the Mississippi, 15 miles south of New Orleans. Barataria and its three islets are probably best known as the place where a private kingdom was established around 1800 by the greatest Jewish pirate of them all, Jean Lafitte.