The Crypto-Jews and the Inquisition

Glatt kosher holidays are not only about leisurely travels, they also about revisiting the heritage of our ancestors and learning from them. The era after the Golden Age in Iberia was difficult. Such was the life of the Crypto-Jews or Conversos. 

In the summer of the year 1391, the mass baptisms of the Sephardic Jews started after mobs in Iberia threatened to kill Jews who wouldn’t convert to Christianity. Riots broke out, with more than 4,000 people beaten to death in the Jewish Quarter of Seville. The violence spread to Cordoba, where 2,000 were killed, and then to Toledo. During this time, it is said that about 10,000 Jews received baptism. 

The violence only grew from there, until the year 1492 when the Spanish government enacted the Alhambra Decree or the Expulsion decree, which forced Jews to either convert to Catholicism or to leave the country. Some conversos took advantage of Spain’s expedition to the New World, or Latin America, and lived there for good.

In order to fully eradicate Jewish practice in Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella petitioned for the Pope to establish an Inquisition to deal with the “Judaizing heresy”.  Judaizing is the term used to describe the continuation of Jewish practices by the “New Christians”.

The inquisition worked efficiently and drew up very detailed procedures. First, they round up accusations and would verify it, observing the accused for months until they are certain. When arrested, the accused are sought out for two responses: (1) confession of guilt, repentance, and request for pardon, and (2) names of those who do similar practice. 

Crypto-jews who were found guilty, especially with grave offense, had to wear a sanbenito, a long yellow robe that is despised by the population. This punishment, however, is only catered to first offenders; secondary offences lead to execution by strangling, while the unrepentant are burned alive.

Getting a proper statistics on past literature about the victims of the Inquisition has proven to be difficult. The best attempt in getting the overall statistics for the cases of Judaizing in Spain, Portugal, and the Latin American colonies was 10.5% of the whole. Out of the 10.5%, 3.48% ended with death sentences, 1.83% were executed, and 1.65% were burned alive. 

The history of our ancestors in the three colonies of Spaniards, can be considered one of the most tragic events that occured on Earth. When going on a Kosher vacation on the Iberian peninsula, hearing about these tragedies is inevitable. However, with the knowledge that we can glean from them, we can grow and remember the past, and move forward to the future. 

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