Spanien und die Sepharden

One writer wrote recently that from the 8th to the 15th century, the Iberian peninsula was a 'locus of encounter' without parallel in the history of the world. Only in Spain did Moors, Jews, and Christians live together relatively peaceably for almost a thousand years. Their cultural achievements were without peer in the rest of Europe and had a major and lasting influence on the Renaissance. After the Jews were driven out of Spain (1492), they made a crucial cultural and economic contribution to their new homes (Amsterdam, Hamburg, Saloniki, etc.). In Spain itself, the history of the Jewish presence there was 'forgotten'. Only in the 19th century was there a gradual rediscovery of these covert cultural traditions, which now, with 1992 marking the 500th anniversary of this involuntary exile, are officially recognized as part of the national heritage. The articles assembled here provide an in-depth review of the past and present history of the multifarious relations between Spain and the Sephardim.