Dreams of Spain: Memory, History, Politics

Free, online via Zoom 4:00PM - 5:00PM CST

Due to COVID-19 this event will no longer be held in person.
Please join us for a virtual lecture with Associate Professor Cohen (registration required). Register at: https://z.umn.edu/JuliaCohen

In 2015, the Spanish government approved legislation granting citizenship to the descendants of Jews expelled in 1492. This development, which Spain’s Justice Minister described as a “historic reparation of … the greatest mistake in Spanish history,” sparked a flurry of interest from people of Iberian Jewish origin, and as many as 132,000 have applied for Spanish citizenship. The legislation also presents the offer as a reward for Sephardic Jews’ continued “fidelity and special ties to Spain”—even five centuries after their ancestors were cast out of the country. Yet why did Spanish legislators believe that Sephardic Jews have remained faithful to Spain, despite the painful history and centuries that separate them? This talk probes the evolution of Sephardic Jews’ ties to Spain in the centuries following their expulsion, uncovering numerous twists and turns in the story of Sephardic-Spanish relations.

Julia Phillips Cohen is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Vanderbilt University. She has authored two award-winning books, Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era (Oxford, 2014), and Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700-1950 (Stanford, 2014). She is currently working on a project exploring Sephardi Jews’ evolving relations with Spain in the centuries following their expulsion.

Cosponsored by: Center for Early Modern History, Department of History and Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies.