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Lecture

Trudy Gold
The House of Nasi

Sunday 5.05.2024

Summary

The story of Doña Garcia and her nephew and son-in-law, Joseph Nasi, the Duke of Naxos, epitomises the stuff of dreams. As Conversos and subsequent exiles from Spain, these two wealthy, scholarly figures became great champions of the Jewish people. Embraced by the Ottoman court, Joseph served as an advisor to the Sultan and ascended to the titles of Lord of Tiberius and Duke of Naxos.

Trudy Gold

An image of Trudy Gold

Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.

Arlene, they were expelled, the Jews were expelled. The Inquisition only had sway over heresy, that’s the point. And the Conversos were heretics. If you expel the Jews, the Conversos they won’t have anyone to help them with their knowledge. However, of course, the opening up of the world and the fact that so many of the Conversos had trading ships, it didn’t quite work. Although we do know, I mean, we talked about this last time, in Spain and Portugal, there are thousands, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who believe they have Jewish or they have Jewish ancestry, both in Spain and in Portugal. And,of course, you all know the tales of people who like candles in the cellar in secret. They are, of course, from former Converso families. The images of the establishment of the Inquisition. I will have to check that.