RL/HS 372 - Memory and Identity of Sephardic Jews

This course is a historical, literary, sociological and anthropologic approach to the Jews of Iberian/Spanish origin, who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the Middle Ages.

The course is organized around 5 main central topics:

• TOPIC I. Jews in Spain before 1492: The Jews’ presence in the Iberian Peninsula and the history, preliminary events and contexts that determined a key moment in the History of Spain: the expulsion of Jews dictated by the Catholic Monarchs in their 1492 Edict.
• TOPIC II. Sephardic Jews and the Sephardi diaspora (15^th to 19^thcenturies): The Sephardic Diaspora: dates, routes and main settlements. How the Jewish identity is constructed during the diaspora and how this identity changes and becomes increasingly complex over centuries. The Jewish-Spanish language as a constituent element of the Sephardic identity.
• TOPIC III. 20th century. Sephardic Jews in their traditional settlements and the second diaspora. The second Diaspora: causes for the new migratory flow during the 19^th century, where the Sephardic moved from their traditional geographical settlements to younger countries (United States, Mexico, Argentina, Israel) and to Western Europe countries.
• TOPIC IV. Sephardic Jews in Europe and the Shoá. History and Memory of the Sephardic Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust: in this course we will approach this topic from two perspectives: a) how the Nazi genocide completely destroys the European Sephardic settlements and their Jewish quarters, and how it nearly causes the extinction of their language and traditions; b) the role played by Spain in the conflict regarding their Jews (the Jews with a Hispanic origin who lived in the European occupied territories).
• TOPIC V. Spain and the Sephardic Jews in the last century. The Sephardic Jews’ return to the country they were expelled from more than 500 years ago: the reunion of the Spanish people with the Sephardic Jews coming from the Balkan and Mediterranean communities at the end of the 19^th century and the Bill Granting the Spanish Citizenship to Sephardic Jews (2015).