Jews in the Canary Islands

Book excerpt: In 1492, the Jews of Spain were given a choice: convert to Christianity or be expelled from Spain. Many chose to hide themselves as 'New Christians, ' or conversos, outwardly professing to be Christians while practicing their true faith in secret. In 1504, the Office of the Inquisition was set up in the remote Spanish holdings on the Canary Islands to seek out crypto-Jews, sorcerers, and other heretics. Jews in the Canary Islands is a calendar of Jewish cases brought before the Canariote Inquisition between 1499 and 1818, when the Inquisition was discontinued. First published in 1926, together with an introduction analysing the work of the Inquisition and explaining its relation to general Jewish history until 1928, this is a fascinating collection of records showing not only the workings of the Inquisition, but the lives of crypto-Jews during a time of fierce repression.