Tuesday; March 31
On this date in history Spain decreed that it was expelling all Jews from their county. The Alhambra Decree appears to have come about after decades of acts of violence and antisemitism – in other words formalizing a mindset that was already in vogue. Jews were given until the end of July to leave the country which not only resulted in personal problems, but economic pressures as well. Now, the reason I bring this up is to highlight the date – this wasn’t last month, a few years ago or even in the 1940s under a Fascist Regime – it was in 1492. The same year Columbus set off to investigate a new world, the Jews were sent on their own kind of pilgrimage. There is a lot of talk these days about how bad these times are. We lament prejudice, hatred and mistreatment of one group by another. However, this is not something new; nor is even unique to this generation. It is not exclusive to one segment of the population. It has been happen...