THIS book describes the last days of the ‘Spanish Exile of Jerusalem’ and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. At bottom it tells the story of the sorrows of individuals and their fates, which, together, comprise the fate of an entire community. It describes what befell a people forced to forsake its life in a country where their ancestors had dwelt for many generations. Thus it also describes the end of an epoch. That com munity could not have known what was to befall it at the end of the fifteenth century, but when called upon to face the trial, unable to divine what fate had in store for them, its members accepted exile with faith in the Creator, who had put them to the test. Every individual who went into exile expressed the faith of the whole community.

While each of the ten chapters of this book can stand alone, they complement each other, and, as a whole, they illustrate the events of those times. Each chapter treats a separate subject, such as the dwelling-places of the Jews of Spain, the time of the event discussed, and its outcome. I began by examining the attitude of the Crown, the united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, towards the problem of the conversos and their presence alongside Jewish communities and the decision reached by the authorities to expel the Jews, who were seen as preventing the conversos from relinquishing the faith of their fathers. Thence derived the Edict of Expulsion, whose content and structure I analyse. As a result, Jewish public property and Jewish–Christian credit were liquidated down to the last maravedí. After these come chapters on the execution of the Edict of Expulsion and organization of the departure by land and sea; the smuggling out of property; return to Spain and conversion. To these I have added two chapters on particular familes: those of Abraham Senior and of Isaac Abravanel. Finally, to fill out the description I have presented some responses of individuals and of the exiles to their fate.

From the present description we learn not only about the fate of individuals but also about their daily life (which was brought to an end) in their places of residence: the means of livelihood that had sustained them for generations were destroyed, and the individual's involvement and the part he played in his non-Jewish surroundings ceased.