An illuminating biography of the great Amsterdam rabbi and celebrated popularizer of Judaism in the seventeenth century Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657) was among the most accomplished and cosmopolitan rabbis of his time, and a pivotal intellectual figure in early modern Jewish history. He was one of the three rabbis of the "Portuguese Nation" in Amsterdam, a community that quickly earned renown worldwide for its mercantile and scholarly vitality. Born in Lisbon, Menasseh and his family were forcibly converted to Catholicism but suspected of insincerity in their new faith. To avoid the horrors of the Inquisition, they fled first to southwestern France, and then to Amsterdam, where they finally settled. Menasseh played an important role during the formative decades of one of the most vital Jewish communities of early modern Europe, and was influential through his extraordinary work as a printer and his efforts on behalf of the readmission of Jews to England. In this lively biography, Steven Nadler provides a fresh perspective on this seminal figure

Approximately 200 years of Spanish history (1300-1500) are the focus of this book. Paris sketches the medieval history of the Iberian peninsula, stressing the tolerance of most of the Islamic dynasties, the relative amity between the three major religions of the area, and the flourishing culture that this relatively peaceful era nourished. The 14th century brought division within the Catholic Church itself; a plague that killed 25-30% of the population of Europe; and, in Valencia in 1391, a pogrom that gave its Jewish residents the choice of conversion or death. The "end of days" refers to the second coming of Christ, which would happen only if all the Jews were converted. Over half of the Jewish residents of Spain converted in the 14th and 15th centuries. These "conversos" were the primary target of the early Inquisition. Paris describes the early period of the Inquisition, the motives and actions of the inquisitors, and the fate of those accused. The actual expulsion of the Jews (not the conversos) in 1492 and the Moors (who were also given the opportunity to convert) in 1502 mark the climax of the events of this book.

In 587 the Visigoth rulers decreed that only Christians may live in Spain, but later Spanish kingdoms, which emerged in the process of the Reconquest, were for centuries multicultural and the most tolerant in Europe. In the late 14th-15th centuries, however, Spain became increasingly intolerant toward its minorities, culminating in the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 and the Moriscos in the 16th century. This change occurred because, in the course of the Reconquest, the Church and state power merged. The epitome of this merger was the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, and the power held by Torquemada. The intolerance toward Jews developed racist traits, manifested in the introduction of "purity of blood" statutes and increasing persecution of Conversos by the Inquisition. Traces the stages of this process. Discusses the pogroms of 1391, the disputation of Tortosa (1415), the establishment of the Inquisition, the La Guardia blood libel case of 1491, and the expulsion of 1492. The epilogue (pp. 267-309) reflects on parallels between 15th-century Spain and 20th-century intolerant societies.

"Why the story of the exile is the heart of the modern condition"--

"At eight years old, Gerta Pieters is forced to disguise herself as a boy and sent to work for a genteel Dutch family. When their brilliant and beautiful daughter Maria sees through Gerta's ruse, she insists that Gerta accompany her to Amsterdam and help her enter the elite, male-dominated art world. While Maria rises in the ranks of society as a painting prodigy, Gerta makes herself invaluable in every way: confidante, muse, lover. But as Gerta steps into her own talents, their relationship fractures into a complex web of obsession and rivalry--and the secrets they keep threaten to unravel everything"--