He died today at 102. I met Prof. Ben Zion Netaniyahu at the University of Tel Aviv. He took part in several "encuentros" on the history of Spanish Jews, combatting the ideas of Americo Castro, who is even today the authority on the subject. Castro's thesis is that the "limpieza de sangre" exclusion and persecution of conversos was the mirror image of Jewish racism. I helped him to translate to Spanish things although he spoke Spanish. In person, like many of his generation, like Shimon Peres, he was obsessed by the Holocaust and in his mind, the Inquisition was Heydrich's Einsatzgruppen. I read some of his books and felt that his historic research was nothing less than a desperate almost kabbalistic way of trying to undo the Holocaust, to save Polish Jewry. That is the true origin of Bibi's behaviour, I recognize his father in everything he says.
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PLEASE update your "worth visiting" links already.
Just add the sites where you frequently comment
the westhunts, halfsigmas and so on... thanks.
You are well connected.
Anon.
Well connected to the dead.
A friend of the father is a friend of the son.
Anon
I voted for Bibi because he is the best leader ever, but have no personal connection. It's a pity that his rivals forced him to go to election this year.
Ben Zion's idea was that even though the conversos WANTED to convert and become good Catholics, they were not accepted because of their racial taint (as viewed by the Spanish). The Jews, being good at everything (in the intellectual sphere) made good Catholics too and became the subjects of jealousy by the "old" Catholics as they rose to prominence and they drummed up false allegations against the successful conversos. I'm sure Ben Zion viewed this as an argument for Zionism - no matter how hard the Jews try to assimilate in the golus, they will never be fully accepted and will be resented for their success and brains. I think he may have overstated how willing the Jews were to convert, at least initially, in order to make his political point.
What is remarkable to me is that the Jews are actually making an economic success out of Israel. When my uncle made aliyah (in the late '40s) Israel was dominated by socialists and they smothered his economic ambitions (to open a shoe factory with his brothers, including my father) sufficiently that my father ended up not making aliyah himself and went to the US instead. When I visited in the late '70s, the standard of living was still noticeably lower. My uncle had waited years to get a phone line from the state controlled PTT. Etc.
K
Yes, now I remember that one of the pointsin dispute was the sincerity of the conversos. The Spanish historians maintained that they were discriminated because their conversion was insincere, benzion n. said that they WANTED to convert, and researched letters to Sepharadi rabbis living in Holland, and the problems of conversos escaping to Holland being accepted or not into the Jewish community. The debates were technical and specific and I was not much interested. Apparently a large group of Jews wanted to assimilate but were locked out by Old Christians. Old Christians meant poor peasant stock, as Spanish middle and high class was "tainted" by Jewish blood. The University of Salamanca was 100% Jewish, so academics were suspected. On the other hand, there were large groups of Muslims in Spain and the Protestants were making converts, so it seems possible that Jews and Conversos were leading the opposition to the royal regime.
"as Spanish middle and high class was "tainted" by Jewish blood. The University of Salamanca was 100% Jewish"
J,
The claim was made that the higher classes were tainted by Jewish blood, but it is doubtful that Jewish/converso ancestry ran so extensively in them. As for the University of Salamanca being 100% Jewish, what is the source for that difficult-to-believe statement?
Libros Verdes (Green Books) were in wide circulation in Spain detailing the claimed Jewish ancestry of every notable family, even the Queen's granmother. Only a miserable, ignorant, peasant ancestry guarantized a credible Cristiano Viejo status.
Regarding the University of Salamanca, it was the nest of anti-Inquisition movement, so the claim was made. I cannot vouch for the Judaism of any Spaniard after 1492, as all "real" Jews had left for Portugal or Amsterdam.
And Turkey.
But claimed ancestry (or rather "accused ancestry") is not the same as real ancestry. Accusing people of having Jewish ancestry was almost certainly a powerful way of undermining them in Inquisition-period Spain and could have played a part in many rivalries, including class rivalries. Only a small number of cases need have been true to give the accusations credibility among the ignorant masses.
Agreed.
The situation may have been like Hungary, Poland, Ucraine today. People sees phantom Jews everywhere, specially in the government.
Many went to the New World, and there are whole villages of their descendants in New Mexico.
Assimilating Jews always gave off a burst of energy to the host society, attaining social prominence and making great achievements before dissolving or dying out. See the Muslim Golden Age, 20th century America (Oppenheimer, Feynmann, etc.) etc. I hope to one day see a Jewish people which can achieve greatness and improve the world without compromising its identity. I see some promise in the Judaism of David Bar Haim, etc...
What's the basis for the "whole villages" claim, B? Fanciful semi-accurate genealogies? People who belong to Y-chromosome haplogroup J or have the (inaccurately named) "Cohen gene." People who swear their grandparents swept the house in a funny way or avoided attending church? Some of the claims made are just so ridiculous that I can't help but be skeptical. Even for those who can prove a few Converso ancestors, the bulk of their ancestry may not be Jewish.
I get the feeling the Spanish "conversos" of New Mexico are about as Jewish as the Falashas - not very.
K
See this article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/12/ferry3.htm
K
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