Abstract

1492 was the year that changed the fate of the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula. Following the Edict of Expulsion imposed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, Sephardic Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism sought refuge in different countries of Europe and North Africa, leaving behind their homeland in order to preserve their Jewish faith and cultural heritage. One important group that left mainly from Toledo, known as the Jewish capital of Spain, settled in Jerusalem, Thessaloniki, and Istanbul. These travelers created communities, in which they shared the only relics that they brought with them, their memories, religion, and traditions. With their unique customs, beliefs, and talents, these diasporic populations enriched the native culture of their new lands. Centuries after the expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula, in the main cities along the route of the Diaspora, museums were created to commemorate the Sephardic Jewish past. This paper deals with the investigation of Sephardic museums as institutions of recovery of cultural memory, and at the same time, exploring the past of the Diaspora from the present, establishing relations between the objects displayed in museums along the route. This essay also analyzes some Medieval and Early Modern texts are related to each city along this Sephardic Route and shows how the literature and the memory are so united.

Presenters

Tugba Sevin
Professor and World Languages Coordinator, Department of Language and Literature, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

2024 Special Focus—Traveling Concepts: The Transfer and Translation of Ideas in the Humanities

KEYWORDS

Identify, Diaspora, Cultural Interaction, Museums

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