Jew'els of Spain

For over 500 years there has been a story in the collective memory of the civilized world… A story told as the tragedy of a community when they were sent to exile because of their religion, beliefs and traditions. Their tragedy and its aftermath will forever be engraved on their people and in the world’s history as a great injustice. However, like in any other story, there is another side…

This is the story of the Sephardic Jewish community and their journey through the centuries before and after their eviction from Spain in 1492. This documentary narrates the most significant events in the world from the 13th century to the present, placing the story of the Sephardic Jewish people’s life in Al-Andalus and their struggle to survive after their expulsion in a global context.

After Tariq ibn Ziyad invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 711 A.D., Al-Andalus was the name given to what today is known as Spain, Portugal and France. Al-Andalus became a province of the Umayyad Caliphate and the new rulers allowed absolute freedom of worship among all people, as the Quran mandates. Islam regards Jews and Christians as “People of the Book” whose holy writings have to be respected as foreigners of the prophet Muhammad’s final revelation. Thus, Moorish Muslims lived in relative harmony with Jews and Christians for almost 300 years.

In the Golden Age of Al-Andalus, during the 9th and 10th centuries and under the ruling of the Caliphate of Cordoba, the Moorish civilization flourished, making the city of Cordoba the busiest city in Europe. Their libraries held more books than all the libraries of Europe together. Jews and Christians had prominent positions in the Islamic State and they prospered together…

With the capitulation of the Emirate of Granada on January 2, 1492, the “Reconquista” was finally over. On March 31, 1492, the Alhambra Decree, also known as the Edict of Granada, was signed ordering the expulsion of Jews from Spain by July 31st of that year.

The time of tolerance in Al-Andalus was lost forever…

Until that time, knowledge had traveled from East to West…

Al-Andalus was like an oyster that cultivated and enriched Sephardic Jewish people like pearls. As the oyster’s shell protects the pearl that it carries inside, Sephardi Jews protected their beliefs, customs, traditions, heritage and language. Like pearls of knowledge scattered around the world, they spread their culture and wisdom they acquired during Al-Andalus’ Golden Age towards the East, the Ottoman Empire, different parts of Europe and the new continent, America…

The Ottoman Empire issued a formal invitation to the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal and they started arriving in the empire in great numbers. The Sultan Bayezid II is said to have exclaimed thus at the Spanish monarch’s lack of wisdom: “Ye call Ferdinand a wise king, he who makes his land poor and ours rich!”

This is just the prelude of a marvelous, tragic, incredibly complex, vast and fascinating story that is still ongoing and it connects us to the times when tolerance among religions was possible.