Cretan Jews and the First Sephardic Encounter in the fifteenth century

Abstract

This article explores Jewish reactions to Sephardic settlement on Venetian Crete following the Spanish massacres of 1391, when a significant number of Sephardic Jews fled Iberia for the eastern Mediterranean. The Romaniot (Judeo-Greek) Jews native to Crete were heavily influenced by Sephardic intellectual traditions, and Spanish Jews had settled on Crete before 1391. The two Jewish communities commonly intermarried and accommodated one another. Yet, utilizing Taqqanot Qandiya, a collection of local Hebrew communal ordinances, this article argues that Crete's Jewish elite saw the Spanish newcomers as a threat to their long-held authority. Though the accusations are subtle, a close reading of this Hebrew source reveals a growing tension that provoked a self-defensive response on the part of the Cretan Romaniot leadership.