X-Vms-Mail-To: HISTORY-L
X-Vms-Mail-Cc: BOB
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
Date:         Thu, 20 Aug 1992 07:40:25 PDT
From:         bob pasker <bob@HALFDOME.SF.CA.US>
Subject:      Columbus Jewish?
Comments: To: well!rutvm1.BITNET!history@uunet.UU.NET

lynn writes:
>I offer this as a curious aspect of the Expulsion. The Sephardi became more
>numerous and wealthy, and their culture became richer and more varied, than
>would ever have been possible if they had remained simply a Spanish minority.

using the same logic, one could offer the bizarre argument that the
same thing happened after the holocaust, esp. in light of the fact
that the establishment of the state of israel came hot on the war's
heels.

from the perspectives of the jews, the expulsion marked the end of a
multi-century period of religious tolerence, the last time in history
when these three groups worked together in creating a thriving and
longstanding multicultural intellectual environment.

furthermore, lynn, your argument assumes that the "richer and more
varied" is better: the diaspora was never a good thing (esp. after the
expulsion) for the jews because it denied them that which would have
put them on equal terms with the rest of the europeans: a
nation-state.  scattering the jews across the world made them weaker
no stronger. and if they became richer, it did not reverse the
economic and religious disabilities which prevailed throughout the
renaissance and elightenment period in europe, but perhaps made *some*
people richer, and some people poorer.

i think we as historians do ourselves a disservice if we look at a
group and determine that after a few hundred (or even 50!) years their
lives became better that therefore the disabilities they suffered in
the meantime don't count.  will it be said after the establishment of
a palistinian state that the oppression under which these people lived
in kuwait, syrian, jordan, and the occupied territories was "worth
it?"  if we are to make valid judgements, we need to look at the means
as well as the ends, and the means by which some jews might obtained
better lives after the expulsion was not a happy one for them.

after 1500, there was a general trend towards greater wealth for
europeans, culminating in the (post)industrial society which we who
have computer terminals on the internet now share.  because the
explusion of the jews from spain took place before this trend began
and even if some of those jews benefitted economically (and had more
varied lives, whatever that means) it doesn't mean that the expulsion
was the cause of it: your reliance on the temporal sequence of the
events falls victim to the fallacy of "post hoc, propter hoc." there
is no reason to assume that had the expusion not taken place that the
betterment which you suggest would not have taken place anyway.

i guess i forgot to ask about the wealthier and more varied lives
enjoyed by those jews (and their descendants) who were tortured and
murdered during the inquisition in the name of god,  and about those
who were expelled but never made it to their destinations.

and finally, however much i dislike having to repeat this, i can't
help believing that the words "wealthy" and "jewish" don't belong in
the same sentence without irrefutable evidence, lest we perpetuate or
lend credence to stereotypes.  this is not meant to offend, lynn, but
to increase awareness.

*** TV SPOILER FOLLOWS ***



ps: tonite, bart simpson is expected to the rebutt bush's accusation
that america needs more families like the waltons and less like the
simpsons with the statement that "we're just like the waltons: we're
both waiting for the depresssion to end."

--
-- bob pasker
-- bob@halfdome.sf.ca.us
--
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU