Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience

by Jane S. Gerber

Book Overview

The history of the Jews of Spain is a remarkable story that begins in the remote past and continues today. For more than a thousand years, Sepharad (the Hebrew word for Spain) was home to a large Jewish community noted for its richness and virtuosity. Summarily expelled in 1492 and forced into exile, their tragedy of expulsion marked the end of one critical phase of their history and the beginning of another. Indeed, in defiance of all logic and expectation,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0029115744
• ISBN13: 9780029115749
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

This book has absolutely nothing to do with Israel, and the twelve tribes.

If you’re looking for Israel existence in Spain it is not there. Appear to be published in 1992.

A great introduction to the history of a great nation

I came to this volume as part of a project to further my education about Islam and its relationship with the rest of the world, which had led me to an interest in the Golden Age of ha Sefarad, and to inform myself further about Judaism, about which I have had too little information to understand its relationship with the world at all. This book serves both purposes beautifully. While serious in tone, it is very readable indeed and provides what I would judge to be a good, neutral perspective. My purpose and conclusions are probably different to those of a student of Sephardic studies, who will probably already be intimately aware of the tenets of Judaism and less interested in the comparative lessons I draw between Islam and Christendom. (As the astute student will immediately grasp, I am one of what I might lightly refer to as the goyish diaspora.) The book provides insights on Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Spain and the Jewish Diaspora more generally. I recommend it highly to the serious reader and less so for the seeker after simplistic propaganda formulations. It does not pull punches about the treatment of Jews by the two major rival religions, but I find it fair and carefully-researched.

A refreshing, compact look at Sephardic history

It has often been difficult for me to keep old textbooks. Oftentimes they're dry as toast and I can't wait to foist them off to the university bookstore again. However, I kept Gerber's book after my Spanish Jewry class ended. Simply put, it's a nice little treasure. At 300 pages, this is a compact volume. I don't know how Gerber managed to include Roman-era Jewish origins on the Iberian peninsula to Jewish revival in the post-Holocaust era - but she does it, and it never feels like she had to cram anything in. Her writing is fluid (there's no literary jargon, no dry analysis, just tight and concise writing that's a pleasure to read). Moreover, her historical analyses touch on Jewish interactions with both the Muslim and the Christian worlds, from the former's invasion of Spain to its overthrow by Christian rulers and then Jewish persecution under the Inquisition. In short, Gerber's book is informative and FUN. At the back, there is a map section and an enormous list of further reading, should the reader be interested in delving further into Sephardic history. Highly recommended.

True Experience

I am a Sephardic Jew, I have thought these thoughts and felt these feelings. I read the book and was surprised that my thoughts and feelings were far from uncommon among Spain's exiles and Jane Gerber captured it truly.

This book is an exciting journey to adventure and despair

This book is so interesting and well written that I read it in two days --I just could not put it down.

Winner of 1993 National Jewish Book Award:Sephardic Studies

THE JEWS OF SPAIN - A History of the Sephardic Experience Author: JANE S. GERBER Catergory listing: History/Judaica Winner of the 1993 National Jewish Book Award for Sephardic Studies An advanced and scholarly research on the history of the Tribe of Judah, (House of David) to its present status. "Jane S. Gerber is to be congratulated for her rare achievement, a work of serious popularization that will be welcomed by anyone interested in Jewish history and the Sephardic experience. The Jews of Spain compresses a wealth of information into one volume with authority, intelligence, and lucidity. It deserves the widest possible audience." -- Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi - Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society, Columbia University "This unusually valuable book fills a long neglected need: a readable and highly accessible one-volume treatment of Sephardic Jewry from their earliest origins until today." -- Benjamin R. Gampel - Associate Professor of Jewish History, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America "Gerber has brought [a] scrupulous sense of scholarship to The Jews of Spain...Her intelligent, gracefully written history is a welcome volume for the general reader; it fill an important historical vacuum." -- Barbara Probst Solomon, The Washington Post "...Stirring and riveting...a remarkable story of creative adaptation, minority achievement, and survival." -- Publisher's Weekly