Weekend in Quest 2013 Study Sessions
Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews
in Iberia and the Americas
with Prof. Matthew Warshawsky
Session 1: Convivencia and Conflict: the Three Cultures of Medieval Iberia
Medieval Spanish Jews fulfilled crucial roles in Islamic and Christian society and achieved a cultural renaissance that would not be equaled again for centuries. Nevertheless, while Jewish contributions to public life and scholarship reached a zenith, Jews also had to contend with discriminatory legislation and popular opinion that scorned and resented them, and worse, accused them of deicide. In this session we will examine the conditions that made possible the antithesis between the importance of Jews in multiple fields and their marginalization as a threatening other.
Session 2: The Gathering Storm: Riots, Inquisition, and Expulsion; How the "King's Jews" Became Expendable
This session will cover the decisive period from 1391, when large-scale rioting destroyed many centuries-old Jewish communities in Spain, to the expulsions and forced conversions of Iberian Jews during the 1490s (1492 in Castile-Aragon, 1496-97 in Portugal, 1498 in Navarre). Points to be covered include rabblerousing by Christian preachers that provoked the destruction of 1391; disputations between Jewish and Christian clerics of the early 1400s; establishment of the Inquisition (1478) and how it worked; motives for and accounts of the expulsion; and how crypto-Judaism took root in Portugal and the consequences of this reality for the Sephardic diaspora.
Session 3: A Trans-Atlantic Sephardic Diaspora: Jews and Conversos in the Conquest of the Americas and Crypto-Jews in the Shadow of the Colonial Inquisition
This session will examine the importance of Jews and conversos in the Spanish imperial project, as scientists, financiers, and participants in westward expansion. It will also shed light on how crypto-Jewish conversos in the Spanish colonies practiced their religion despite the great danger to their lives they faced in doing so.
Session 4: Treasures of a Remnant Culture: Jewish and Converso Perspectives in Spanish Literature post-1492, and Crypto-Judaism in the American Southwest Today
This session will consider the Jewish and converso perspective in Spanish literature after the expulsion despite the absence of Jews from the country. It will also show how Jews have been depicted in later Spanish literature and how Spaniards have addressed their country's Jewish heritage. Finally, it will introduce the characteristics of crypto-Judaism in the American Southwest today and how crypto-Jews have maintained their identity over the course of centuries.
Medieval Spanish Jews fulfilled crucial roles in Islamic and Christian society and achieved a cultural renaissance that would not be equaled again for centuries. Nevertheless, while Jewish contributions to public life and scholarship reached a zenith, Jews also had to contend with discriminatory legislation and popular opinion that scorned and resented them, and worse, accused them of deicide. In this session we will examine the conditions that made possible the antithesis between the importance of Jews in multiple fields and their marginalization as a threatening other.
Session 2: The Gathering Storm: Riots, Inquisition, and Expulsion; How the "King's Jews" Became Expendable
This session will cover the decisive period from 1391, when large-scale rioting destroyed many centuries-old Jewish communities in Spain, to the expulsions and forced conversions of Iberian Jews during the 1490s (1492 in Castile-Aragon, 1496-97 in Portugal, 1498 in Navarre). Points to be covered include rabblerousing by Christian preachers that provoked the destruction of 1391; disputations between Jewish and Christian clerics of the early 1400s; establishment of the Inquisition (1478) and how it worked; motives for and accounts of the expulsion; and how crypto-Judaism took root in Portugal and the consequences of this reality for the Sephardic diaspora.
Session 3: A Trans-Atlantic Sephardic Diaspora: Jews and Conversos in the Conquest of the Americas and Crypto-Jews in the Shadow of the Colonial Inquisition
This session will examine the importance of Jews and conversos in the Spanish imperial project, as scientists, financiers, and participants in westward expansion. It will also shed light on how crypto-Jewish conversos in the Spanish colonies practiced their religion despite the great danger to their lives they faced in doing so.
Session 4: Treasures of a Remnant Culture: Jewish and Converso Perspectives in Spanish Literature post-1492, and Crypto-Judaism in the American Southwest Today
This session will consider the Jewish and converso perspective in Spanish literature after the expulsion despite the absence of Jews from the country. It will also show how Jews have been depicted in later Spanish literature and how Spaniards have addressed their country's Jewish heritage. Finally, it will introduce the characteristics of crypto-Judaism in the American Southwest today and how crypto-Jews have maintained their identity over the course of centuries.
