Addressing Time In Our Evolution Of Jewish History

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

• It was Haman  of Persia;, the king's advisor,  who had started killingJews back in Queen Esther's day, before 330 BCE. In those days,  Persia  covered much land.   That was about 2,355 years ago.  

1492 was the date given for the Spanish Inquisition when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella put out a statement that Jews had to leave their country or convert.  Actually, the government had been coming down on Jews even before that date.  

In 1492, during the reign of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia), the Spanish Inquisition was already well-established, having been authorized by Pope Sixtus IV in 1478 at the request of Spain's Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, to enforce Catholic orthodoxy, especially after the conquest of Granada and the expulsion of Jews, with the Pope granting the monarchs power to appoint inquisitors to root out heresy and enforce religious uniformity. 

• Grand Inquisitor: Tomás de Torquemada(Oct 14, 1420-Sept 16, 1498), a Dominican, became the most famous, leading the charge against heresy.  Any hidden Jew was charged with heresy and tortured to death.   Tomás de Torquemada (born 1420, Valladolid, Castile [Spain]—died September 16, 1498, Ávila, Castile) was the first grand inquisitor in Spain, whose name has become synonymous with the Christian Inquisition’s horror, religious bigotry, and cruel fanaticism.                                
  
       A torture chamber where you must admit you are a Jew;  then death, possible at the stake by fire, or in the torture chamber itself
• As it happened, there were Jews with businesses or older relative who could not pick up and leave quickly.  They were not interested in becoming Catholics.  They had to go through baptism but practiced Judaism on the   sly.They became the Marranos, conversos or anusim. Jews were even trackeddown who had immigrated to Mexico much later.  

When did Protestant Christianity enter the picture?  Protestantism officially started on October 31, 1517, when German monk Martin Luther posted his "95 Theses" in Wittenberg, Germany, challenging Catholic practices like indulgences and sparking the Protestant Reformation, though its ideas grew from earlier reform movements and took time to develop into distinct denominations.

This was only 25 years after the Spanish Inquisition that was still in force.25 years is a long time.  Think of a baby girl  born in 1492. She can be awife and mother of 5 children by 1517.  

Martin Luther, a German monk and theologian, is credited with leading the Protestant Reformation starting in 1517 by challenging the Catholic Church's practices, particularly the sale of indulgences, with his 95 Theses, sparking a movement that reshaped Christianity and led to new Protestant denominations like Lutheranism. Other key figures like John Calvin also became crucial leaders, but Luther was the catalyst. 

Martin Luther's views on Jews shifted significantly over his lifetime, moving from an initial hope for their conversion to Christianity to later extreme hostility when this did not occur. His later writings are considered virulently antisemitic and have been widely condemned for their influence on German antisemitism and their use by the Nazi regime.   

• Early Period (until approximately 1536): Luther expressed a more favorable view, criticizing the mistreatment of Jews by the Catholic Church in his 1523 essay That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew. He believed that presenting the "pure" Gospel could lead to their conversion.  This viewpoint is still being viewed by many. This viewpoint was introduced 31 years after the Inquisition.
• Later Period (after approximately 1537): Following the failure of his conversion efforts, Luther became increasingly hostile. This period is marked by harsh anti-Jewish treatises, most notably On the Jews and Their Lies (1543). This conclusion took place 51 years after the inquisition. He called  Jewis
• h  defense of the Old Testament, etc, lies, as they only accepted the New Testament.  51 years covers grandparents still alive after the Inquisition.  
• On the Jews and Their Lies is a significant work in which Luther proposed a plan of persecution. His suggestions to German princes included destroying synagogues and homes, confiscating religious texts, forbidding rabbis from teaching, and seizing their property. He also made statements advocating violence against Jews. In another work from the same year, he employed derogatory language and associated Jews with the Devil. 
  Legacy and Modern Condemnation
  Luther's anti-Jewish rhetoric is widely acknowledged by historians as a major factor in the rise of antisemitism in Germany. Centuries later, his writings were utilized by the Nazi Party to justify their ideology and actions, including the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. Time from 1492 is 446 years.  Anti-Semitism brought about by the Spanish Inquisition has been active for about 500 years up to Nazi period.  
• The United States will be  only 250 years old in 2026. A lot has taken place. 
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• We have been burdened with 500 years of anti-Semitism.  From Kristsalnacht to today has been 87 years.  So we can figure about 600 past years of dealing with anti-Semitism.  Today, the Nazis havebeen replaced by fundamental terrorists of the Middle East, who areaiming to kill all Jews.  
• Today we have several Christian groups backing Israelis.  CUFI is one.  CBN is another.  Also, so far, we have the American President on our side,Trump, who Netanyahu is trying to work with.    

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Aleppo, Syria's Most Dashing Israeli Spy, Eli Cohen

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

Eli Cohen was a Mizrachi Jew.  That means he is a Jew from the Middle East.  Mizrah means East, and that's the name of Egypt, Mitzrayim. Often they are classed together with Sephardi Jews of Spain and Portugal.   He was born in Alexandria, Egypt  December 16,  1924 to an orthodox as well as Zionistic family.  His father sought refuge there from Aleppo in 1914 when Jews were being treated so terribly in Syria.  Aleppo had been the largest city and province where Jews lived.  Damascus also had a large population of Jews as well.  The original people had been there from the time of King David.  Later they were joined by Spanish Jews who needed refuge from the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 when Jews had to either leave the country or convert to Christianity.

He tried to enlist  in the Egyptian Army in January 1947.  Otherwise, being Jews, they  were treated as dhimmis all over the Middle East, meaning that they were penalized for being Jewish and were 2nd class citizens, and  would have had to pay a high poll tax.  They turned him down because they questioned his loyalty.  He had been studying at the university, so later that year he left and had to study  at home after facing harassment by the Muslim Brotherhood for being Jewish.

Israel was created on May 14, 1948.  After that, many Jewish families left Egypt to live there as the Muslim countries reacted to this by throwing out their Jewish populations.  His parents emigrated with his  brothers, Abraham and Maurice in 1949, but he remained in Egypt to finish a degree in electronics and to work on activities that would aid Israel.

By 1951, Egypt had a military coup and they were against any Jews in the country involved in any activity that was Zionistic.  He was arrested and questioned by the police.  In Syria the methods of interrogation are brutal, and they are known to have used electric shock treatments.  Egypt was probably practicing similar brutal methods which even Brooklyn police used in early days, such as the rubber hose  treatment in the 20's and 30's.  Luckily, the Egyptians could find no proof of his actions in Operation Goshen when Israel smuggled out Egyptian Jews and resettled them in Israel because of Egypt's hostility towards Jews then..  There have been several follow up rescues taking out Jews in groups that had been virtually imprisoned in their own neighborhoods with no freedoms at all.

I taught with a young  Egyptian Jewish lady in 1981in Safed at the junior high  and she told me she was one of the last to leave Egypt.  Only a few older ladies remained.

Eli emigrated to Israel, arriving in Haifa in a ship from Naples Italy in December 1956 after the Suez Crisis which had caused more persecution of Jews.  Many were expelled from Egypt then.  In 1957 he was recruited by the Israel Defense forces and placed in military intelligence where he became a counterintelligence analyst.  This was boring for him so he tried to join the Mossad who rejected him.  He left in a huff and worked as a filing clerk in an insurance office in Tel Aviv, quite a humble position for this talented young man.

There he met and married Nadia Majald, an Iraqi-Jewish immigrant in 1959.  They had 3 children, Sophie, Irit and Shai and settled in Bat Yam.  Now he was recruited by Mossad after someone re-visited lists of rejected candidates.  They watched him for 2 weeks and it was decided he was perfect for the job.  This was followed up with a 6 month course in their training school.  He was then a field agent and was given a false identity.

Finally Eli Cohen was caught as a spy and hung  in Al-Marjeh Square, Damascus on May 18, 1965 at the age of 40 years.   With him was 80 year old Chief Rabbi of Syria, Nissim Andabo.  Nadia sent a letter to President Hafez al-Assad and asked his forgiveness for Eli's actions in November.  She hoped to receive his remains but the Syrians refused.  Syria buried him 3  times so no one could find him.

A film about him is "The Impossible Spy" a story about his life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQEyTlaLOR4
Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen
The Jews of Aleppo  http://www.jewishgen.org/sefardsig/aleppojews.htm 

Jerusalem Facts You May Not Know

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                     

King David made Jerusalem his capital more than 3,000 years ago, and Jewish people have lived in this city for over 3,000 years.  It was also well known as "The City of David."  Jews have constituted the largest single group of people living in Jerusalem since the 1840's.  In 1844 there were 7,120 Jews, 5,000 Muslims and 3,390 Christians.    This city has played a central role in Jewish existence.  The Western Wall in the Old City is the last remaining wall of the ancient Jewish Temple and has been the object of Jewish veneration and a focal point for Jewish prayer.

Three times a day since 70 CE Jews have prayed "To Jerusalem, thy city, shall we return with joy."  Israel became reborn on May 14, 1948, but Jews couldn't enter east Jerusalem.   Jews have united the whole city through the terrible war when they were attacked by neighboring Arab countries in  1967.

Muslims have their own special places which are outside of Israel.  Their cities of reverence are Mecca or Medina in Saudi Arabia.  Jerusalem has no major Islamic importance.  They are only interested in the majestic Dome of the Rock that is in Jerusalem.  Jerusalem has never served as a provincial capital under Muslim rule.  Nor was it ever a Muslim cultural center.  If anyone has the audacity to say that Jerusalem need not be the capital of Israel and are Americans, then they should consider someday losing Washington DC.   How would they feel to return to the land and consider having to take another city as their capital when they have always had Americans residing in Washington DC.  Does that make sense?  The USA's history started only almost 400 years ago with the 1620 ship, Mayflower landing.  Israel's history goes back to the 2nd millennium BCE which would be about 4,000 years ago.

Let's look at Jerusalem's population history with Jews and Muslims living there. Muslims lived in the East section, and Jews lived in the rest of Jerusalem.  It is no longer a divided city but united.
1876- 12,000 Jews and 7,560 Muslims
1896- 28,112               8,560
1922- 33,971             13,411
1931- 51,222             19,894
1948-100,000            40,000
1967-195,700            54,963
1990-378,200          131,800

                                                                         

The former mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek had said that, "Throughout centuries of exile, Jerusalem remained alive in the hearts of Jews everywhere as Jerusalem was the focal point of Jewish history.  It is the symbol of ancient glory, spiritual fulfillment and modern renewal.  This heart and soul of the Jewish people engenders the thought that if you want one simple word to symbolize all of Jewish history, that word would be, Jerusalem."

Leon Uris and his wife, Jill, wrote in Jerusalem.  "Jerusalem "has known only 2 periods of true greatness, and these have been separated by 2,000 years.  Greatness has only happened under Jewish rule.  This is so because the Jews have loved her the most, and have remained constant in that love throughout the centuries of their dispersion...It is the longest, deepest love affair in history.  Uris wrote "The Source", a history of Israel through finding artifacts in digs.

What has happened to Jerusalem since 1947?  The UN took up the Palestine question then and they recommended that all of Jerusalem be internationalized.  The Vatican and other Catholic delegates wanted this, but the real reason for this decision was the Soviet Bloc's need to embarrass King Abdullah and his British patrons.  It was this king who would take Judea and Samaria in 1948 illegally even though it was designated to become part of the Jewish National Home, passed by all in the League of Nations.

The leaders to be of Israel, the Jewish Agency, then agreed in 1947 to this internationalization hoping to protect their dear city from conflict.  The Arab states were against the idea as well as the partition plan itself.  They wanted it all.  Abdullah then invaded in 1948 and occupied east Jerusalem along with Judea and Samaria.  Jordan's army drove out thousands of Jews whose families had lived in the city for centuries in exile.  The UN's partition plan and internationalization went up in smoke.

The Arabs had rejected UN Resolution 181.  The UN established the UN conciliation Commission for Palestine on December 11, 1948 after Israel's birth on May 14, 1948.  Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion said that Israel would no longer accept the internationalization of Jerusalem.

The city was divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, when the Arabs lost their attack on Israel in the 67 War.  During this period between 48 to 67, Israel had made its capital in the western part of Jerusalem while Jordan occupied the eastern section.  There had been no peace pact yet with Jordan, so they were officially in a state of war, like all the other Arabs were.  The city was divided with concrete walls and bunkers, barbed-wire fences, minefields and other fortifications that military people use.
                                                               

1967 after Six Day War, Jews could finally after 20 years see Jerusalem once again.  Here they are celebrating with dancing.  

When the 1967 Arab attack started, Israel pleaded with Jordan not to be a part of the attack and to stay out of the war, but they didn't listen.  Within about 2 days, the IDF drove out the Jordanians and after the war Israel moved to unite the city.

Steven Schwebel, international legal scholar, wrote that because Israel was defending itself from aggression in the 1948 and the 1967 wars, it has a better claim to sovereignty over Jerusalem than that of its Arab neighbors.  The land was all to be the Jewish National Home once again as it had been long ago.

There has been no other people who have been picked on as much as the Jews.  They have suffered from anti-Semitism since they were exiled in 70 CE by the Romans till today.  Since Jews have been such an anathema to the world, the least it can do is back their right to inhabit their old homeland.  The UN has been doing quite the opposite.  In every which way they back the Arabs who would like to see Israel disappear and who have taken it upon themselves to finish Hitler's goal.  Every country in the UN has a history of anti-Semitism, so it's like asking the fox to become a vegetarian.  One nation only has stood up to the injustice against Israel, and that has been the USA.
                                                                     

Back in biblical history, Joshua entered Canaan with the Israelites in 1320 BCE and defeated the Canaanite king of Jerusalem, Adoni-Zedek.  The city was then an independent city between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah.  In the 12th century, Jebus-Jerusalem maintained its independence with some Philistine help, until its was captured by David in about 1010 BCE and became the capital of a united Israel.  This is documented in II Samuel 5: 6-8; and I Chronicles 11:4-6.  King David was lenient with the Jebusites.  He added the fortress of Zion and a House of Heroes for his guard.  Then he built a tomb inside the city for himself and his dynasty.  The Ark of the Covenant was transferred to Jerusalem and it became the religious center.  His empire reached from the Red Sea to the Euphrates.

King Solomon, his son, (970-930 BCE) added to the city with his commercial ventures and heavy taxes.  He added the Palace and the Temple.  It was then that Jerusalem truly became the religious capital.  When Solomon died, the northern tribes seceded.  Judah was created out of Israel who kept Jerusalem as their capital.  The Davidic dynasty lived in Judah.  All went well until it's destruction in 701 BCE by Sennacherib of  the Assyrians. The city fell again in 586 BCE to Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians who deported most of the population and destroyed the temple and Royal Palace.  Fifty years went by and most of the exiles returned and rebuilt the Temple in 519 BCE.  Jerusalem then became the capital of a Persian province but was autonomous in internal matters under the rule of the high priest of the House of Zadok.  All nobles and a 1/10th of the of the people were brought in to fill the half-empty city. Theocratic rule continued in Hellenistic times when the city was prosperous.

The city was captured by the Parthians in 40 BCE and fell after a long siege to Herod in 37 BCE who was a Roman vassal who was the ruler.  He built a palace in the NW quarter of the city with 3 giant towers.  One is still there and is called the "Tower of David."  He even rebuilt the Temple with a huge surrounding esplanade.  This outer wall  still stand and is called the Western Wall.  It had been called the "Wailing Wall."  Herod died in 4 BCE which caused the city to be ruled by a Roman Procurators except when Agrippa I reigned from 41 to 44 who built a 3rd wall to the North.  When the procurator, Pontius Pilate was in charge, Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem  in 29 CE.  Roman rule was unbearable and the people revolted in 66.  They were independent for 3 years when it was again besieged by the Romans under Titus and fell in 70 CE.  The Temple and most of the buildings were destroyed.

Bar Kochba revolted from 132 to 135 and Jerusalem was then liberated.  The Roman emperor Hadrian had had it rebuilt as a Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina and forbade Jews  to near it with a death decree if they did.

Finally, the Roman Empire was Christianized and under Constantine, Jerusalem became a Holy City for their new religion.  His mother, Helena, visited Jerusalem in 325 and had the Church of the Holy Sepulcher built in 335.  Now it became a city of churches and monasteries, pilgrimages and religious disputes.  In 363, Emperor Julian tried to restore the Temple unsuccessfully.  In 614, it was occupied by the Persians who were assisted by a Jewish force, but by 628, Byzantine rule was restored by emperor Heraclius.

In 638, the city fell to Caliph Omar who set up a place of prayer in the Temple esplanade, which was rebuilt in 691 as the Dome of the Rock by the Umayyad caliph Abed-el Malik.  The Arabs allowed the Jews to return, but the city began to decay after they transferred the center of Abbasid rule to Baghdad in 750.  The Fatimids in the 11th century built the 2nd mosque, El-Aksa, on the Temple site.  Then in 1099 Jerusalem was invaded by the Crusaders  led by Godfrey of Bouillon.  They made Jerusalem a capital of the Latin Kingdom.  Not for long, though, because by 1187 the Ayyubid sultan Saladin took the city for Islam again and it remained in Muslim hands.  Under the Ottomans, it decayed and in the 18th and 19th century the population sank below 10,000 and part lay in ruins.
                                                             

                              Paratroopers see Western Wall for first time after 1967 War

The Jewish community was destroyed by the Crusaders and was almost non-existent in the 13th century, but not for long.  The Spanish Inquisition of 1492 caused many Sephardim Jews to pour into Jerusalem when the government was restricting their entrance.  In 1625 the local pasha Muhammad ibn Farukh killed many of them.  A revival of population started in the 1880's when the first aliyah from Russia returned.  By 1838 the population rose from 11,000 to 68,000 with 50,000 being Jewish.
                                                                     

Women at Western Wall in early 1900s by looks of clothing  ..

Who does Jerusalem like best?  The Jewish people.  Why?  Because they take care of her.  They love her.  Nothing was done with Jerusalem when the Jews were forced out.  It lost its special aura, its sheen, its specialty.  It was just a city without the Jews.

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-israeli conflict by Michell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb

Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and Jews of Spain and Portugal

                                                                           

 Nadene Goldfoot                                  Synagogue in Lisbon, Portugal 

Today is the sad anniversary of the edict for Jews to leave Spain on March 31, 1492 known as the Alhambra Decree to the Jews living there. If  they converted to Catholicism, they could stay.  They were given 3 months.   Jews had inhabited Spain ever since  the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem  in 586 BCE.  More came in the 1st century CE.  Jews were treated well by the Visigoths after the fall of the Roman Empire as long as the Visigoths followed the Arian form of Christianity.  In 589 they switched over to Catholicism and changed their attitude.  From 612 on there was persecution of Jews under the councils of Toledo and they prohibited the practice of Judaism over a great part of the period.

In 711 the Muslims invaded Spain and did not leave until 1250.  

Living under Muslim rule and thought of as "people of the book" allowed Jews to thrive considering they were also dhimmis or 2nd class citizens.   The Ottoman Empire actually started on February 31, 1299 with Osman I. We know it lasted 400+ years, ending in 1917 at the end of WWI.    Medival Inquistions started in 1184 and lasted until the 16th century.  The first was called the Episcopal Inquisition of 1184 that lasted until 1230.  Then the Papal Inquisition followed from 1230 following Christian Inquisitions.  

In the 13th century, the Dominican order initiated constant anti-Jewish propaganda which was involved in the Disputation of Barcelona, including conversionist sermons and the implementation of the persecutory code of the 4th Lateran Council.  In 1391 there were waves of massacres, actual pogroms, beginning at Seville which were very bloody, that swept through the whole Peninsula causing hundreds of Jews to be killed and the rest to become baptised in order to live.  The synagogue was completely destroyed   These Jews were then called the"New Christians" and later referred to as "the Marranos," a derogatory term, or Conversos.  The Spaniards became jealous of them as they progressed in social and economic circles. and those jealous of them caused problems, thus the outbreaks against them.

What had happened long ago after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE was that the great centers of Jewish life became areas under Christian rule.  The expanding Christian kingdoms had a  more tolerant policy towards Jews and had found them useful as diplomats, financiers and agricultural colonists.  Samuel Abulafia in the 14th century and Isaac  Abravanel in the 15th century were court financiers and held in important place in the Spanish public life.

The Spanish Inquisition started in 1478.  Then  an edict came out written by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella due to the Spanish Inquisition's main leader, Torquemada,  expelling the Jews from Spain in 1492.  "Ferdinand and Isabella took seriously the reports that some crypto-Jews were not only privately practicing their former faith, but were secretly trying to draw other conversos back into the Jewish fold."  About 150,000 Jews were expelled who found refuge mainly in North Africa and the Turkish Empire where their descendants (Sephardim) have continued to keep the Spanish traditions and language.  Others who could not leave remained hidden in their religion.

Many died in ships while trying to sail to another land.  The captains would charge them huge amounts of money and then throw them overboard in the middle of the waters to drown..  Before Jews left a rumor went about that they had swallowed large sums of money so that people had attacked many with knives to get the money out of their bodies.

It is questioned  if Christopher Columbus was Jewish.  He was an Italian who sailed with the help of the royalty of Spain in 1492 in the ships Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria..  He wrote letters to his son in Hebrew.  Obviously he must have had some sailors on board who were escaping the Inquisition, and he had to know about it.  He spent his time sailing on the seas.  By 1542 the Roman Inquisition would commence in Italy and last until 1860.

Those who remained kept their Jewish practices a secret.  They even went through baptism  of Catholicism in order to cover their identity, but in their hearts they were very Jewish.  In 1497 due to the stresses of the Inquisition,  many of those who had remained moved to Portugal, the neighboring country.  Some went to Navarre in 1498.  The Jews who settled in Portugal were probably there while it was still under Arab rule.  When it became a Christian state there were Jewish communities in Lisbon, Beja and Santarem.  Little is known about them until the 13th century.  Things were pretty peaceful till riots in Lisbon in 1373.  To enter Portugal the Jews had to pay a poll-tax but many were then held in the country and sold as slaves.

 Among the most unfortunate refugees were those who fled to neighboring Portugal. In 1496, King Manuel of Portugal concluded an agreement to marry Isabella, the daughter of Spain's monarchs. As a condition of the marriage, the Spanish royal family insisted that Portugal expel her Jews. King Manuel agreed, although he was reluctant to lose his affluent and accomplished Jewish community. He had almost the entire community converted by force in 1497 by pain of death if they refused.  .  This means that many Jews were converted unwillingly in Portugal.  Only 8 were found that were expelled.  "The chief rabbi, Simon Maimi, was one of those who refused to convert. He was kept buried in earth up to his neck for seven days until he died." The actual Portuguese Inquisition is said to have officially started in 1536 and lasted until 1821.

The refugees of Portugal who escaped formed the Portuguese synagogues in London, Amsterdam, and New York in the 16th and 17th centuries.  At the end of the 18th century, Jews from Gibraltar and N. Africa moved to Lisbon.  Freedom of worship was permitted only after the Revolution of 1910.  Ashkenazi immigrants from Central and E. Europe arrived there in recent years, probably escaping the Nazis of WWII.    A tiny community at Faro existed.  A movement to rescue Jews was started in 1925 and in 1938,(the beginning of the end for Ashkenazi Jews in Germany)  a synagogue was built as their religious center in Oporto.  A large group was found in Belmonte.  Though most never left Judaism and have practiced secretly for this whole time,  many are starting to study Judaism more as they wouldn't have had the guidance of any rabbis.  In 1990 the Jewish population in Lisbon was only 300.

The Spanish Inquisition even chased Conversos to Mexico between 1571 to 1700's.  They executed  29 Judiazers and prosecuted 324 practicing Judaism there.  .

 A limited Jewish immigration into Spain took place in the 19th century.  The law prohibiting building of any synagogues was finally abolished in 1909.  There are some small congregations in Madrid and Barcelona now.  The expulsion was officially revoked in 1931.  That means they kept Jews out of their country for a good 439 years.  The Jewish population in Spain in 1990 was 12,000. with more than half living in Madrid and Barcelona.  Many had come from North Africa and Latin America, where times were probably bad for Jews there.  The hidden Jews have endured at least 25 generations of keeping their faith a secret.  Now they are just starting to come out.

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/expulsion.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Inquisition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
My friend, who sent me knowledge and this picture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Ottoman_Empire
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jews-to-be-expelled-from-spain
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-03-31/news/9201290549_1_house-arrest-six-month-period-clemency-program
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree