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Thinking About Deportation, from 1492 to 2025

JL;DR SUMMARY Deportation and expulsion have long been part of Jewish history, notably since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

LadinoTraumaSephardic JewsCultural HeritageExpulsionDeportationRuth BeharSpain 1492Immigrant StoriesAcross So Many Seas

Places mentioned

United States
"Deportation, a word that has become sadly commonplace in the United States, comes from the Latin portare, which means to carry, or carry away."
Granada, Spain
"At the start of 1492, they had conquered Granada, the last Muslim kingdom, and rather than demolish the architectural gem that was the fortress and palace of the Alhambra, they simply took it over and proclaimed the Edict of Expulsion from there."
Turkey
"Many of these journeys, as was the case with my family, led to the lands of what was then the Ottoman Empire and eventually to what is now Greece and Turkey."
Cuba
"It was because they spoke Ladino that my paternal grandparents felt confident about leaving Turkey and searching for a new home in Cuba in the 1920s."
Toledo, Spain
"In my search, I have visited the Spanish city of Toledo numerous times."
Miami, Florida, United States
"growing up in Spain, 1492, Turkey, 1923, Cuba, 1961, and Miami, 2003"

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Retrieved 2025-05-16 05:30:35 UTC
Curated 2025-05-16 08:31:23 UTC