Aside from the insights I have gained from my colleagues and students, I have been deeply impressed by several contemporary Sephardic leaders who, in the course of our friendship, have imparted to me the special sense of dignity and pride so integral to Sephardic Jews. Cohen, and Yerushalmi, as well as to the younger scholars pursuing new avenues of research today.

Specialists will recognize my debt to the pioneering studies of Ashtor, Baer, Beinart, G. It is directed to the general reader who is interested in the history of the Jewish people and to the student for whom a one-volume overview is sorely needed. This book is intended to serve as an introduction and scholarly guide to that history. Nor have five hundred years of wandering extinguished the identity of the Sephardic Jews, or diminished the proud memory of the dazzling civilization which they created on Spanish soil. Indeed, in defiance of all logic and expectation, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain became an occasion for renewed creativity. Summarily expelled in 1492 and forced into exile, their tragedy of expulsion marked the end of one critical phase of their history and the beginning of another. For more than a thousand years, Sepharad (the Hebrew word for Spain) was home to a large Jewish community noted for its richness and virtuosity. The history of the Jews of Spain is a remarkable story that begins in the remote past and continues today. Where are they, the hundred seventy and seven holy communities, overflowing with good, which once lived in Castile at ease and in contentment? How they were all destroyed in an instant, from the smallest to the biggest…

Revival and Return: Sephardic Jews in the Post-War Era Encounter with Modernity: Ottoman Decline and the Ascendance of the Westĩ.

The Westward Journey: Europe and the New WorldĨ. Return to the Islamic World: The Sephardic Diaspora in Muslim Landsħ. Path to Expulsion: The Decline and Destruction of Spanish JewryĦ. The Reconquista: Jews and the New Realities of Christian Spainĥ. The Golden Era: The Emergence of Sephardic CivilizationĤ. The Birth of Sepharad: From the Muslim Conquest to the Caliphate of Córdobaģ. Volatile Origins: The Early History of Jewish Life in SpainĢ.

The Jews of Spain by Jane S. Gerber