Echoes of the Spanish Expulsion in Eighteenth Century Germany: The Baer thesis revisited

Abstract

Yitzak Baer's A History of the Jews in Christian Spain is a magisterial presentation of the dramatic story of one of medieval Europe's most significant and colorful Jewries. Utilizing a vast array of Hebrew, Spanish and Latin primary sources, and in control of an extensive secondary literature, Baer traces the history of Spanish Jewry from the days of the early reconquest of parts of the Iberian peninsula from the Moslems in the eleventh century until the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. 1 But it is also much more than a history of a particular Jewry. In the process, it presents a definite philosophy of Jewish history, one which is stimulating, comprehensive and controversial. (from Introduction)