Jewish History and Culture Within Spain

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this current Course is to enable students to become knowledgeable about the presence of
Jews in Spain from the Period of the Romans until their expulsion at the close of the Middle Ages and
about the lasting presence of a Sephardic consciousness within the Hebrew communities of the diaspora
as found in historical sources and materials.

METHODOLOGY
The Syllabus will be carried through in two-hour theoretically-based sessions with the aid of audiovisual
and didactic materials as input. Also scheduled is a visit to Sevilla’s Jewish Quarter.
SYLLABUS
Part I: History and Culture of Sepharad (‘Spain’ in Hebrew) in Ancient and Visigothic Times.
Item 1- The Jews in Spain under the Romans (1st to 4th centuries): Living Together within an Empire.
Item 2- The Jews in Visigothic Spain (6th century): A Hundred Years of Tolerance
Item 3- The Jews in Visigothic Spain (7th century): A Century of Persecution.
Part II: History and Culture of Sepharad in the Spanish Middle Ages.
Item 4 - The Jews of Al-Andalus (8th to 10th centuries): The Consolidation of Sepharad
Item 5 – From Al-Andalus to the Christian Kingdoms (11th to 3th centuries): The Splendor of Spanish
Judaism.
Item 6 – From the First Signs of Intolerance to the Period of Actual Expulsion (14th to 15th centuries):
The Downfall of Sepharad.