History of The Jews in Spain | History Jews Spain

History Of The Jews In Spain

Spanish Jews once constituted one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish communities under Muslim and Christian rule in Spain, before the majority, together with resident Muslims, were forced to convert to Catholicism, be expelled or be killed when Spain became united under the Catholic Monarchs King Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.

An estimated 13,000 to 40,000 Jews live in Spain today. However, descendants of Spanish (and Portuguese) Jews, the Sephardic Jews, still comprise around a tenth of the global Jewish population. The Jews of Spain preserve, but do not generally speak, Ladino, a Romance language derived mainly from Old Castilian (Spanish) and Hebrew. The relationship of Ladino to Castilian Spanish is comparable to that of Yiddish to German. Nowadays, Jews in Spain speak Spanish, while Ladino is mostly folkloric.

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