Q: How did you first become
interested in Spanish Jewish history, and why did you decide to write this
book?
A: The 1980s were my Spanish
decade. I worked as U.S. vice consul in Bilbao, Spain from 1982-1984, and from
1985-1987 I was the State Department intelligence analyst (in the Bureau of
Intelligence and Research) for Iberia.
I had always wanted to write
fiction, and my involvement with Spain inspired me to work on a historical
novel set at the time of the Inquisition. I worked on it for five years, but
could not get an agent.
One successful agent, who had
retired to Italy, told me she would take me on if I agreed to rewrite the book,
at her direction, in the “style of Siddhartha.” Another agent said he liked the
book but it was a tough subject to sell--he sent me a David Ignatius novel and
asked me to write a thriller like that.
My historical novel, Acts of
Faith/Auto da Fe, is now available on Kindle. I took up the second agent’s
suggestion and wrote a thriller based in part on my experiences as vice consul
in Medellin and Bogota, Colombia in the early ‘80s (Humpty Dumpty, also on
Kindle) and I then wrote a YA fantasy novel based on The Tempest called Rough
Magic (also on Kindle), so that at least my two daughters could read one of my
books.
The subject of the Spanish
Jews stuck with me. It is a compelling story, one of the most important in
Jewish history. About 20 percent of modern Jews descend from Spain.
The story made its mark on
world history—everyone knows about the Spanish Inquisition. It may be the
greatest modern trauma to the Jews after the Holocaust. But few people know the
real story.
The only history in print,
Jane Gerber’s The Jews of Spain, was written in 1990. It is well written, but
because it covers Sephardic history until modern times it is more of a survey
than a comprehensive history—it covers 1,000 years of Jewish life in Spain in
only 140 pages.
So I started this book both
out of personal compulsion, and the belief that there should be at least one
book in print covering the history of the Jews in Spain. Even though I was not
an historian, I thought that I could write the best history on the subject
since there was almost no competition.
Q: How did you research the
book, and what surprised you most in the course of your research?
A: Over the years I had had
collected a large library of books on the Spanish Jews, including Yitzak Baer’s
two-volume history of the Jews in Christian Spain, and Benzion Netanyahu’s (the
father of the Israeli PM) Origin of the Inquisition in 15th Century Spain—I
have two large plastic bins in my house filled with research material.
There is a lot of material
available on-line, including H.C. Lea’s classic four-volume History of the
Inquisition in Spain. I am a George Washington University alumnus (BA and JD),
and work a few blocks from the school, so I could check out books there on my
lunch hour or after work.
I also appreciate the
Arlington County, Va., Library inter-library loan service, which provided me
many books I couldn’t afford to collect on my own—many academic books cost over
$100 a copy, but were available through the inter-library system.
My bibliography is over 10
pages long and contains books in both English and Spanish (and a few in
Portuguese). Since I work full-time at the State Department I did my research
after-hours and on week-ends—my youngest daughter was an athlete, and I even
snuck in some reading during her soccer games or basketball meets.
I also read heavy history
books on our annual summer beach vacations.
It took me 10 years to complete all the research and writing.
My biggest surprise came when
I first researched the subject, preparing my novel. I knew about the expulsion
in 1492, but did not know about the importance of 1391.
In 1390 there were more Jews
in Spain than all the rest of Europe combined, and they had achieved levels of
power, wealth and a breath of cultural knowledge greater than anywhere else in
the world.
All this ended in 1391, when
a rogue priest named Ferrand Martinez incited anti-Jewish mobs through two
Spanish kingdoms with the slogan “convert or die.”
This led to what might be the
largest mass conversion of Jews in modern history. While many of the
converts—called New Christians, conversos, or (as an insult) Marranos—enjoyed
great success, tensions developed between the “new” and “old” Christians, which
eventually led to the formation of the Spanish Inquisition, and was a major
factor in the decision to expel the Jews from Spain. The story of the
“conversos” became an important part of my history.
Q: You ask, “Was the history
of the Spanish Jews a story of religious tolerance or of religious conflict?”
How would you answer that question?
A: Today most books on this
period look at it in the context of “convivencia,” a Spanish word that
literally means “living together.” This
term was popularized by the Spanish historian Americo Castro, who demonstrated
how Spanish history and culture reflects the cooperation and blending of
Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures.
Some writers describe Spain
as a kind of unique island of tolerance, the one place in the world where the
three faiths met and worked and developed together.
While convivencia is a useful
concept, it is only one side of the story. The traditional Spanish view of the
history is very different. It viewed Spain as a nation of pure, devout
Christians who struggled for centuries to rid their country of Muslim and
Jewish invaders. So the traditional Spanish historical model is of ethnic
conflict, not cooperation and tolerance.
I came up with a different
way to describe this history: as a marriage of convenience. Special
circumstances made it advantageous for Spanish rulers to make a place for the
Jews, first in Muslim Spain, and later in the Christian kingdoms.
The Jews in turn benefited
both in wealth and power, and in cultural growth, from this protection. But the
Jews remained a separate community, and the underlying tensions between the
different faiths remained.
As a result, at times of
political instability, this “marriage” could break down, leading to anti-Jewish
violence. Ultimately, this resulted in the end of Jewish presence in Spain,
first in the Muslim region, and finally in all of Iberia.
Q: What is the legacy of the
Spanish Jewish community today?
A: When I lived in Spain I
remember listening to a Spanish radio program discussing the history of the
Jews of Spain, and the final question on the program was, “What can we see in
today’s Spain of the legacy of the Jews,” and the answer was: “solamente sangre,
muchisimo sangre”—only blood, lots and lots of blood.
I interpreted this response
as having two meanings—many of today’s Spaniards are descended from the Jews;
and Spain bears the burden of the blood of thousands of Jewish victims of
repression.
Many the synagogues remained
after the expulsion, and were converted into churches. Spain is now actively
promoting Jewish tourism, and restoring many of these buildings.
Probably the greatest of
these is known as the Sinagoga del Transito, and had been built as the private
chapel of Samuel Halevi, the Jewish treasurer to Pedro the Cruel of Castile. I
used his coat of arms, which is carved in the synagogue and is a mix of Spanish
heraldry with Hebrew lettering, for the cover of my book.
In the last section of my
book I describe three ways in which the fate of the Spanish Jews and
“conversos” made an important impact on world history.
Tensions
between the “conversos” and “old Christians” led to the first racial exclusion
provisions, discriminatory rules applied to Christians of Jewish descent. These
provisions became known as “limpieza de sangre” or “purity of blood” rules, and
“limpieza” became the template for racist practices against Africans and
Indians in the New World.
These discriminatory practices,
and prosecution under the Spanish Inquisition, alienated conversos from the
Church and society. This alienation found expression in art, and books by these
conversos, who invented the “picaresque” genre of literature, became a
foundation for the modern novel.
Finally, the Spanish Jews
played an important role in the colonization of the Americas, mainly under the
Dutch. By 1640 the Dutch-controlled Brazilian city of Recife was a third to a
half Jewish.
The Portuguese re-conquest of
Brazil forced these Jews to flee, but many remained in the Americas. One small
group in 1654 went to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam—now Manhattan—where
they received permission to form a congregation—the first Jewish congregation
in what is now the U.S., and the first New York Jews.
Q: What are you working on
now?
A: I am adapting some
chapters of my book into an article called “The Invention of Race: How Spanish
Anti-Semitism Gave Birth to Modern Racism.” I have a few other ideas, including
an article on Trollope’s attitude towards the Jews called “The Hate that Dared
Not Speak its Name,” but I’m not actively working on anything now.
Q: Anything else we should
know?
A: I can give you some
biographical trivia: I am a D.C.
native. I went to GWU, getting a BA in
English and a JD. After law school I became a “fifth streeter,” a court-appointed
criminal defense attorney (I like to joke that I made my living on drugs and
prostitution, but I was paid by the courts).
I did that for two years, and
then joined the State Department Foreign Service, and did my initial service in
Colombia—I was the last consular officer in history to be stationed in Medellin.
Renee, my wife of 26 years, is from Sao Paulo, and I have two daughters, Laura
and Adrianna.
I won 15,000 dollars on
Jeopardy (after doing well on movie trivia Alex Trebek told me that my wife let
me watch too many movies), and I received the President’s Award from the
International Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigator’s Association.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Jeffrey Gorsky will be participating in the Local Author Fair at the Washington DCJCC, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, at 7:30pm.
