Book Description

According to legend, in 1492, 200,000 Jews marched from Spain, singing religious songs, led by their rabbis. They were called Sephardim. They left at the orders of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, whose Edict of Expulsion gave Spanish Jews the choice of conversion to Christianity or exile. To commemorate the five-hundredth anniversary of their expulsion, Yale Strom represents a memorable, beautifully crafted portrait of the subsequent Jewish existence in these secluded exilic lands--their sorrows, their courage, and the awe-inspiring attributes that have kept them religiously and culturally whole for half a millennium. From Spain, these courageous refugees settled in the Ottoman Empire--in Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, the Balkans and elsewhere. Traveling along perilous paths to uncertain futures, the pilgrims formed a new diaspora, a dispersion within a dispersion. As they found new homes in the strong and powerful Ottoman Empire, they of course longed for the land of Israel; yet, with steadfast tenacity, they determined to retain their Judeo-Spanish tongue (a composite of mainly Castellan, Turkish, Arabic, Greek and Hebrew words and idioms). With their strong-willed consciousness of Sephardic culture, they soon assimilated other Jews living along the Aegean Coast and in the Balkans. Even into the 1930s, two hundred thousand Jews of that region are Sephardim. But the Holocaust, and the aliyah to Israel and natural attrition due to ageing, has caused this number to dwindle to 50,000. Rich in historical detail, this tribute to Sephardic life reveals the Sephardim's contributions to Judaism throughout the world. Through vivid personal narrative and sensitive photography, it introducescurrent descendants of the exiled Jews--the Sephardim who still live in the countries where their ancestors sought refuge five hundred years ago. As well, it commemorates those Jews who chose to return to Spain and Portugal at the start of this century. An inspiring, highly readable account of a significant and dramatic chapter in Jewish history.