On the occasion of the edict expelling the Jews from Spain by the Catholic Monarchs Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, Isaac Abravanel (Isaac ben Judah Abravanel), royal treasurer and personal advisor to Isabel, writes this letter that clearly illustrates what was happening, which the kings, in their fanaticism and personal interests, did not perceive. On one hand, the coexistence between both religions, and on the other, the voluntary conversion of many Jews to Christ.

“Your Majesties,

Abraham Senior and I appreciate this opportunity to make our final expression in words, conveying the voice of the Jewish communities we represent to you, counts, dukes, and marquises of the courts, knights, ladies—it is a great honor when a Jew is called upon to assist in the welfare and security of his people, but it is a greater misfortune when the King and Queen of Catalonia-Aragon and Castile, and of course of all Spains, seek their own glory in innocent people such as the Jews.

I find it very difficult to understand how all Jewish men, women, and children can be a threat to the Catholic faith. Tell us, how do we destroy your faith? Quite the opposite, isn’t it? Are you not admitting in this edict to confine all Jews to restricted places with so many limitations on our royal, legal, and social privileges, not to mention forcing us to endure humiliating disturbances? Were the oppressions imposed not enough, were we not already terrorized by your diabolical Inquisition? Let me make this statement: I will not let the voice of Israel be silenced on this day. Hear, O heavens. And may King and Queen of the Spains listen to me, Isaac Abarbanel, addressing You:

I and my family are direct descendants of King David, true royal blood, the same blood of the Messiah flows through my veins. It is my heritage and I proclaim it in the name of the King of Israel. In the name of my people, the people of Israel, the chosen ones of God, I declare them innocent and blameless of all crimes declared in this abominable edict of expulsion. The crime and transgression are for you, not for us to bear the decree without justice that you have proclaimed today; it will be your downfall, and this year that you imagine as one of great glory will be the year of greatest shame for the Spains.

My King and my Queen, hear me well, your error has been your deep and inconceivable error as Spain has never seen before now. You alone are responsible, as weapons of a state power, just as arts and letters provide guidelines for the most refined sensitivity, if you have placated the pride of the Infidel Muslim with the force of your army, giving evidence of the knowledge of the art of war by the internal state of their conscience. By what right do your inquisitors traverse the fields burning books by the thousands in public bonfires? With what authority do the members of the church now wish to burn the immense Arabic library of this great Moorish palace and destroy its precious manuscripts? They do all these excesses by your authority, my King and my Queen.

From the deepest of their hearts, Your Majesties have distrusted the power of knowledge. With us, the Jews, it is different. We Jews admire and encourage knowledge. In our homes and places of worship, learning is a goal and we practice it throughout life. Learning is our passion that lasts a lifetime. It is the heart of our being, it is the reason for our agreement with our beliefs for which we have been created. Our intense love of learning could have balanced your excessive love of power. We could have benefited from the protection offered by our royal arms, and you could have benefited from our advances throughout our community and the exchange of knowledge, and so we could have benefited from each other.

Just as we have been reminded of our lack of power so that your nation will suffer from the forces of an imbalance to which your Majesty has started. For future centuries, your descendants will pay for their huge mistakes in the present. Your Majesties will verify and the nation will transform into a nation of conquerors looking for gold and wealth living back and with steel fists. At the same time, you will become a nation of illiterates, your institutions of knowledge, intimidated by the heretical continuation of strange ideas and of other lands and other people, will not be respected. Over time, the so admired name of Spain will become a whisper among the nations of the world. Your Spain has always been poor and ignorant, Spain the nation that presented so many promises and hopes and that has fulfilled so few and then Spain will ask itself: What have I done, what has happened to us? Why are we the laughingstock among the nations of the world? And the Spaniards of that time will look to their past and know why this has happened and those who will be honest will point to this day and this time, which is when all this began and as a cause of its decline will not show more than their Majesties, the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel, conquerors of the Moors, expellers of the Jews, founders of the inquisition, but destroyers of the illustrious minds of the Spaniards.

This edict is a witness to the weakness of the Christian faith. This is proving once again that the Jews are beating the centuries. Old argument about these two beliefs … This explains why there are false Christians: Christians whose beliefs have been shaken by arguments that the Jew knows better.

After today, this is the last opportunity to discuss this issue on Spanish soil. In these last times of freedom granted by the King and Queen and I as a representative of all Spanish Jewry will rest on a point of theological dispute. I will leave it with a message of departure even though your Majesties do not like it. The message is very simple. The historic people of Israel, as characterized by their traditions, are the only ones who can issue their judgment on Jesus and his demands to be the Messiah and if as Messiah, save Israel. So it must come from Israel how and when it should be saved. Our answer is the only answer that matters. Also in the case that if Jesus were a false Messiah. As long as the people of Israel exist, as long as the people of Jesus continue to reject it, their religion cannot be validated as true. Your Majesties can convert all peoples, all the savages of the world, but until you convert the Jews, Your Majesties will have proved nothing, except that you can only persuade with force those who are uninformed.

We leave you with this comforting knowledge. Your Majesties may have their powers, we possess the truth from above. Your Majesties may kill many Jewish individuals, but you will never be able to deprive us of our sacred souls nor of the historical truth which is our only witness.

Listen, King and Queen of Spain, on this day, Your Majesties have added to the list of the makers of evil against the descendants of the House of Israel. If Your Majesties insist on destroying us, think that you have already failed. However, we, the Jews, will thrive in all the lands far away to where we go. And wherever we go the God of Israel will go with us. To Your Majesties, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, the hand of God will catch and punish them for the arrogance of their hearts.

Be done only, to Your Majesties, authors of this iniquity for generations of future generations. It will be repeated and told continuously as their faith was not benevolent and as their vision was blinded by more of their acts of hatred and fanaticism. The people of Israel will be remembered for having faced the powerful Spanish empire and we have adhered to the religious inheritances of our fathers, resisting false arguments. Expel us, throw us out of this land that we have loved as much as you. To you we will remember as those who appear in our holy books as those who sought our evils, us, the Jews, with your deeds in the pages of history and of the memories of our sufferings and you will incur greater damage to your men much more than the harm that you have caused us.

We will remember you alongside your vile edict of expulsion, for the centuries of the centuries.”

Notes of interest:

• Rabbi Abraham Senior converted to Christianity two months later in Segovia under the names of Fernando Pérez Coronel or Fernando Nuñez Coronel, being the founder of the surname and lineage Coronel. One of his sons, Pedro Fernandez Coronel, was a member of Columbus’s expedition and appointed by him as Marshal of the Indies.
• Isaac Abravanel refused to convert, fleeing from the persecutions against the Jews that grew throughout Europe and North Africa, first exiled in Naples, then in Sicily, in Corfu, and finally in Venice where he died.