The Treatment of Jewish People in the 15th Century

 

When doing the readings, it was interesting to see how the Jewish people were treated under Islam. Under Suleiman and the Ottoman empire, Jews were not taxed excessively, and “Jewish visitors from Europe were struck by the freedom enjoyed by the Jews of Palestine… David dei Rossi, an Italian Jew, noted that Jews even held government positions, something that would be inconceivable in Europe” (Armstrong 1996, 343). This is very interesting and different from other geographic locations when contrasted with Europe during the time period. In Europe, Jews were dealing with extreme persecution and deportation. When I read this, I realized that I had never heard about this before and I was curious as to why it occurred. I looked up anti-Semitism in Europe in the 15th century, and found that the rulers of Spain issued a decree known as the Edict of Expulsion, where its purpose was to prevent Jewish converts to Christianity from converting back to Judaism. Jewish people were expelled from Spain and even killed to try to achieve this goal. Despite this, many Hispanic surnames have Jewish origins. What was more shocking to find out was that the decree was not revoked until almost 500 years later in 1968. (https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/03/alhambra-decree-521-years-later/). Learning about this decree and the history behind it made me realize how deeply rooted anti Semitism is. In the case of the decree, it relates to deicide, or the belief that Jews are responsible for the death of Christ. To me, this seems quite backwards, especially since Christianity generally preaches forgiveness and since Jesus is supposed to have died to save humanity from their sins. In class, it was mentioned how anti-Semitism has had a role in leading people to believe that there should be a Jewish state. Considering the history of the Jewish people and how anti-Semitism is intertwined with it, I understand why people believe this. With so much persecution and exile, it is understandable that people of this ethnicity and culture would want a place where they would not have to worry about facing discrimination.