The History of the Bene Anusim

The Jews of Spain  

The roots of Spanish anti semitism can be traced to the early Christian theologians. These theologians taught that Judaism was an inferior religion, Israel was rebellious and had persecuted its prophets and that Christianity was the true Israel. The Church instilled in every Christian that the Jewish people had no reason to exist as they had rejected the Messiah and brought about his death.

Early in the 12th century, Christian church leaders restarted the earlier prohibition as to Jews holding public office. The economic activities of Jews were limited, Jews were prohibited from employing Christian servants and Muslims were forbidden to convert to Judaism. Royal debts to Jews were cancelled, public disputations were held placing Judaism on trial with the aim of converting Jews to Christianity and most Jews were forced to leave the political area. Many Jews were pressured to accept baptism. 

The Pogroms  

In 1391 violent pogroms broke out all over Spain where there were Jewish communities. Thousands of Jews were murdered; Jewish women and children were sold as slaves to Muslims, most synagogues and many homes and businesses were burnt to the ground. Although there were economic reasons for the pogroms, the killings and burnings continued until forced conversion took place. Many thousands of Jews were converted. As a result, open Jewish communities ceased to exist in many cities and towns throughout Spain. The Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity were called conversos (New Christians) and they lived in the cities and towns alongside the old Christians (pure Christian blood and lineage).

 

Practing Judaism Secretly  

Many of the conversos secretly practiced Judaism. Although forced conversion was theoretically illegal in the eyes of the Church, a converso was considered a true Christian and was forbidden to return to Judaism. In Hebrew, the conversos were called anussim, the forced ones. The Christians referred to the conversos as Marranos or swine. In the kingdom of Castile there were over 30,000 converso families. Leading conversos later became successful at all levels of government, as tax farmers, landowners and in the professions spawning the envy of Old Christians.

 

The Inquisition  

The next tragic event in the persecution of Jews in Spain was the Inquisition. The Inquisition has its origin in the earliest beliefs of the Church, that Judaism was an abomination and a rejection of G-d's chosen one. Jews who were forcibly converted and continued to practice Judaism were considered heretics and Judaizers and were tried in religious courts and punished for their heresy. From the earliest Jewish settlement in Spain to 1480, the number of converted Jews who were burnt at the stake by the Church were relatively few. This soon changed. In 1478 the Church authorized a powerful Church/State national Inquisition which would operate throughout Spain under the direction of Catholic monarches, Ferdinand and Isabella. Commencing in Seville in 1481, and later in other cities after trials, seven hundred conversos were burnt at the stake and by 1488 many thousands were tortured, punished, humiliated and others were reconciled to the church. The Inquisition continued for another years as did the autos de fe (burnings of unrepentant conversos at public spectacles), other punishment and confiscations of converso property.

The monarches, Ferdinand and Isabella, ranked with the foremost statesmen of the late Middle Ages. After repressing the mutinous nobles and anarchy, they sought to reorganize the State under their absolute power. They considered it their sacred duty to improve the status of the Catholic Church and make Spain a truly Catholic state. Their plan was to first obliterate all Muslim rule from Spain and resolve the converso and Jewish problems. The Inquisition was formulated by the monarches and approved by the Pope as a final solution to the converso problem. It was also a source of great wealth and power to the crown from the confiscation of converso property and control of the population through the Holy Office of the Supreme Inquisition. Isabella appointed the notorious Tomas de Torquemada as Inquisitor General of the ÒChurch MilitantÓ to exterminate heresy. 

 
The Expulsion of Spain and Portugal  

On January 2, 1492, the last stronghold of Muslim power, Granada, surrendered to the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella. The doom of Spanish Jewry was sealed at Granada in the Alhambra Palace on March 31, 1492. On that day the Edict of Expulsion was signed, however, it was not released until May first for cynical reasons. The Jews were given three months to dispose of their homes, property and assets at a fraction of their value. The expulsion began on May 1 and by July 31, 1492 the last Jew had left Spain. The stated reason for the expulsion was to prevent the Jews from inflicting further injury upon the Christian faith and to prevent Jews from influencing the conversos.

Upon leaving Spain and later Portugal, a large number of Sephardim settled in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey and the Balkan countries) and others went to North Africa, the Middle East (including Palestine) and to Italy. The Ottoman Empire welcomed the Sephardim and permitted them to practice their faith openly.

During the Inquisition and after the expulsion, the conversos were forced to remain in Spain; intimidated by the ongoing Inquisition they eventually (with few exceptions) became extinct as practicing Jews. Some conversos managed to escape to the New World ( South America, The Islands, and New Mexico) where they found the Inquisition waiting for them.

source: A History of the Jews of Spain, by Charles  Stein  

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