page_title: Expulsion of Jews from Spain
section_title: The conditions of expulsion
hierarchical_section_title: Expulsion of Jews from Spain / Expulsion / The conditions of expulsion
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato de Luis de Santángel (m. 1498), conservado en el Museo Naval de Madrid.
context_page_description: Following the Alhambra Decree in 1492, to eliminate their influence on Spain's large converso population and ensure its members did not revert to Judaism, many Jews in Spain either converted or were expelled. Over half of Spain's Jews had converted to Catholicism as a result of the religious persecution and pogroms in 1391. Due to continuing attacks, around 50,000 more had converted by 1415. Those who remained chose to convert to avoid expulsion. As a result of the Alhambra decree and the prior persecution, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled. An unknown number returned to Spain in the following years.:17 This led to Mass migration of Jews from Spain to Italy, Greece and the Mediterranean Basin. This can be seen with Jewish surnames as they began to show up in Italy and Greece at this time, like Faraggi, Farag and Farachi a surname which originates from the Spanish City of Fraga.
  The edict was formally and symbolically revoked on 16 December 1968, following the Second Vatican Council.
context_section_description: The second part of the decree detailed the conditions for expulsion:
  The expulsion of the Jews was final: "We agreed to send all Jews and Jews out of our kingdoms and never return or return to them or any of them."
  There was no exception, neither by reason of age, residence, or place of birth - it included both those born in the crowns of Castile and Aragon and those from outside.
  There was a period of four months, which would be extended ten more days, until August 10, to leave the kings' domains. Those who did not do so within that period or who returned later would be punished with the death penalty and the confiscation of their property. Likewise, those who aided or concealed the Jews were liable to lose "all their goods, vassals, and fortresses, and other inheritances."
  Within the set period of four months the Jews could sell their real estate and take the proceeds of the sale in the form of bills of exchange, not in coinage or gold and silver because their exit was prohibited by law - or merchandise - as long as they were not arms or horses, whose export was also prohibited.
  Although the edict did not refer to a possible conversion, this alternative was implicit. As the historian Luis Suárez pointed out, the Jews had "four months to take the most terrible decision of their lives: to abandon their faith to be integrated in it [in the kingdom, in the political and civil community], or leave the territory in order to preserve it."
  The drama that the Jews lived is documented by a contemporary source:
  Some Jews, when the term ended, went by night and day as in despair. Many turned from the road ... and received the faith of Christ. Many others, not depriving themselves of the country where they were born and for not selling their goods at that time at lower prices, were baptized.
  The most outstanding Jews, with few exceptions among which the one of Isaac Abravanel stands out, decided to convert to Christianity. The most relevant case was that of Abraham Senior, the chief rabbi of Castile and one of the closest collaborators of the monarchs. He and all his relatives were baptized on June 15, 1492 in the Guadalupe monastery, being his godfathers the kings Isabel and Fernando. He took the name of Fernán Núñez Coronel and his son-in-law Mayr Melamed, Fernán Pérez Coronel - the same name of pile that the one of the king. In this case, like that of Abraham de Córdoba, he was given much publicity to serve as an example for the rest of his community. In fact during the four-month tacit term that was given for the conversion many Jews were baptized, especially the rich and the most educated, and among them the vast majority of the rabbis.
  A chronicler of the time relates the intense propaganda campaign that unfolded:
  In all the synagogues and in the squares and in the churches and in the fields, by the wise men of Spain, and was preached to them by the holy gospel and the doctrine of the Holy Mother Church, and was preached and tested by their own Scriptures, how the Messiah who waited were Our Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ, who came in the time to be agreed, which his ancestors with malice they ignored, and all the others who came after them never wanted to give ear to the truth; before being deceived by the false book of the Talmud, having the truth before their eyes and reading it in their law every day, they ignored it and ignored it.
  The Jews who decided not to convert "had to prepare themselves for the march in tremendous conditions". They had to sell their goods because they had very little time and had to accept the sometimes ridiculous amounts offered to them in the form of goods that could be carried away because the gold and silver output of the kingdom was prohibited - the possibility of taking bills of exchange were not much help because the bankers, Italians for the most part, demanded enormous interest. A chronicler of the time attests this:
  They sold and squandered everything they could of their estates ... and in everything there were sinister ventures, and the Christians had their estates, very many and very
caption: Luis de Santángel, a Valencian convert who collaborated with Isaac Abarbanel in the organization of the journey of the expelled Jews.
exif: {"Image Software": "Google", "Image Artist": "Picasa"}