BY MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST—
Last week, the Mediterranean resort city of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, was the scene of a remarkable historical event. After centuries of denial, a Spanish regional government condemned the Inquisition, and its persecution of Jews who had been forcibly converted to Catholicism.
At a special ceremony, Frances Antich Oliver, president of Spain’s Balearic Islands, uttered words that no Spanish leader before him had ever had the courage to declare.
The burning of Jews at the stake by the Inquisition was, he said, “our worst sin. It horrifies us, but we must always remember it so that it never occurs again.” Highlighting the maltreatment meted out to the Chuetas – as descendants of Mallorcan Jews who were compelled to convert in the 15th century are known – Oliver said in no uncertain terms that they had been subjected to “a grave injustice.”
This marked the first time that a Spanish official had spoken so boldly in denunciation of the Inquisition’s crimes, signaling a possible turning point in the process of Spain coming to terms with the horrors of its past.
The timing of the ceremony was rife with meaning.
It was held on the 320th anniversary of the infamous Auto-da-fé of May 6, 1691, when the zealots of the Inquisition put 37 Chuetas to death in Palma for secretly practicing Judaism. Three of the victims were burned alive in front of tens of thousands of enthusiastic locals in the city’s Gomila Square.
One of them, Rafael Valls, was the secret rabbi of the Chuetas, and despite the torture to which he had been subjected for the previous three years, he refused to renounce his faith in the God of Israel, even as the flames engulfed him.
Another victim, Raphael Benito Terongi, also demonstrated incredible fidelity to the heritage of his ancestors. While sitting in the Inquisition’s prison awaiting execution, Terongi found a piece of glass and, in a staggering act of defiance, used it to circumsize himself. He too, along with his sister Catalina, was cast onto the pyre.
Looking back on their sacrifice, one can only marvel at their valor and determination. Valls and the Terongi siblings – and others like them – were Jewish heroes, and their memories should be preserved.
THE PALMA ceremony came about as the result of a meeting I held three months ago with Oliver’s top aide, Albert Moragues. Accompanied by Rabbi Yossi Wallis, head of the Arachim organization and a direct descendant of Rafael Valls, we proposed the idea for the ceremony and, much to our surprise, the government consented.
The event drew hundreds of local participants, and generated a great deal of discussion in the local press about the misdeeds of the Inquisition and the suffering that had been inflicted on the Chuetas.
It compelled Majorcan society to take an honest look at itself, and helped educate a new generation about this dark chapter in the island’s history.
In the popular imagination, the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain are intertwined, and often confused, even though the former began before 1492 and continued long afterwards.
Among other things, the Inquisitors were hunting down Bnei Anusim (whom historians refer to by the derogatory term “Marranos”) because they clung to their Jewish faith in private even as they professed Catholicism in public.
According to the late historian Cecil Roth, the Inquisition’s henchmen murdered over 30,000 of these “secret Jews,” while countless others were condemned for covertly preserving Jewish practices.
Their descendants now live throughout the Spanish- and Portuguese- speaking countries, with many now seeking to return to the Jewish people.
IN LIGHT of the success of the Palma event, I think it’s time for other regions of Spain, as well as the Spanish national government, to hold similar ceremonies.
Spanish officials should apologize for the Inquisition, and its state-sponsored violence.
Even after the passage of so many centuries, it is not too late for Spain and its government to seek atonement for the sins of their past against the Jewish people. Pope John Paul II apologized on behalf of the papacy, so why shouldn’t Spain do so as well? Some might think there is little point in revisiting the events of so long ago. Why open old wounds? But such an attitude only compounds the wrong done to generations of hidden Spanish Jews and Bnei Anousim. They and their descendants deserve an official apology and an act of contrition.
The tenacity they demonstrated in the face of the Inquisition is a living example of the power of Jewish memory, and of our people’s refusal to succumb, submit or surrender.
Many gave their lives for the sake of their Jewish identity.
The least we can do is to ensure that their sacrifice is never forgotten.
With rabid anti-semitism still worsening and ignorant propaganda on this
evil machine that links hateful ugly homosapiens who have not yet evolved
into human sentient beings with normal intelligence I feel i must express
my sentiments re: the hideous and false accusations against the Jewish
people taught to them by neo-nazi’s and the perfidious and disgusting
Catholic church ruled by the kings of murderers. The Jewish people as
a group were not slave traders. The Muslim Africans themselves sold
other Africans into slavery! The Jewish people had better things to do ie:
fleeing murderers and sadists who just wanted an excuse to steal and kill
with impunity(which the swinish popes blessed). The Jews DID NOT KILL
Jesus. The Romans led by Pontius Pilot had him crucified. Yes! the very
ancestors of the present day Italian Putanas still with a mere man
surrounded by gilt and gold(one of the richest corporations in the world
off of stealing and killing innocent people for a thousand years and
forcing them to convert and give money to the church in order to go
to “heaven’. It gave the Nazi’s tacit permission to kill and torture Jews
and turned sadistic mad men and women let loose from institutions
for the criminally insane on missions to use little babies for target
practice only because of their parent’s religion, they tormented the
Christian population of the countries they invaded but the Jews took
the brunt of it. If Jewish people do not associate with Christians can you
blame them? If the Israeli’s are tough as nail can you blame them? As
a group, those with Jewish ancestry are waiting for the “next time” with
the fleeing from place to place and losing their families as well as
centuries of being robbed. What would your group do? What would you
think, if you came from their background? Being burned alive by the
“Much Catolico’ Espanish AND the Portuguese will never be forgtten.
Any Jew who returns to Spain, Portugal, Gemany or Italy is a F*******g
idiot because people never change. There’s a reason why the EU hates
these countries. The Spanish FINALLY apologized! Screw them! They
have a curse over them as well as other countries, especially Germany.
The EU will blow up in the stupid european’s faces. This will be the
Universe’s punishment to the evil beings they are! They will never
change in their ignorance and stupidity. Imagine a bunch of hateful
countries linked by a single currency? A true recipe for the disaster
they deserve. Unfortunately some of the righteous will be dragged
down with them but the next time they try to blame the Jews or
destroy them they will be signing their own death certificates. There’s
a Portuguese-Jewish cemetery in my city.These were the escapees
from persecution from the ugly, stupid and ignorant wogs and their
primitive ‘special” version of Catholicism. They came to the New World
with the Dutch colonists. They were free to practice their religion “privately”
but could not have any religious symbols or even their names on the
gravestones. I always say a prayer for these brave people when i pass
as a matter of fact I plan to leave flowers on the fence(the cemetery
is enclosed to prevent vandalism). Animal cemeteries don’t need these
precautions, do they? The psychotic descendents of the criminally
insane will soon know the wrath of one God who despises their ways.
Note all the natural and unnatural disasters occurring now. If they try
to bring down thw Jewish people again, they will go down. This is their
fate anyway and there’s no apology that will save them. God has a long
memory and they’ve proven themselves unworthy to live. Rot in hell
Jew haters!!!