The history of Spanish Jewry dates back at least two thousand years to when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and brought Jews with them back to Europe. Since that time, the Jews of Spain (also known as Sephardim) have experienced times of great oppression and hardship, as well as periods of unprecedented growth and renewal. Today the Jewish community in Spain is small - numbering approximately 12,000 - but growing, and the Jewish contributions to the nation and their influence on culture is still very much alive.
Early History (250 BCE - 711 CE)
While the area of modern-day Spain (formerly a collection of kingdoms which included Castile, Aragon, and Catalonia) was still controlled by the Holy Roman Empire, the Catholic Church convened at the Council of Elvira where they issued 80 canonic decisions, many of which were intended to ostracize the Jews from the general Spanish community. Canon 49, for example, prohibited Jews from blessing their crops, and Canon 50 refused communion to any cleric or layperson that ate with a Jew.
During the early 5th century, the Visigoths captured the Iberian Peninsula from Roman rule. While initially anti-Christian, the Visigoths later converted to Christianity and adopted many of the previous laws that existed during Roman rule.
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