Item Description:

The final hundred years of Jewish life in Spain mark one of the bitterest periods of Jewish history. Under Torquemada, the Church's fanatic push toward conversion became the Inquisition, an instrument for torture and death. Yet in one of the ironic twists of history, while the royal couple Ferdinand and Isabella favored Torquemada, they also favored their three Jewish advisors. Rabbi Wein recounts the heroism of Don Isaac Abarbanel who attempted to use his influence to save the Jewish people and who accepted expulsion and a life of Torah over a protected life without it.

• how masses of Jews were led to the baptismal font
• Paul of Burgos and Joshua Lorqui - converso Jews
• political intrigue in the court of Ferdinand and Isabella
• the financing of Columbus' expedition to the New World
• the terrible tortures of the auto de fe