Minority Life Under Pressure: The Crypto-Jews of Early Modern Spain
Tuesday, March 10, 2026 12:30 to 1:30 PM CDT
In 1492, the Alhambra Decree ordered the expulsion of Jews from Spain unless they converted to Christianity. Yet, some baptized Jews observed Jewish traditions in secret, under the constant scrutiny of the Inquisition.
Historians have used inquisitorial records from this period to uncover patterns of kinship, affection, and everyday life. What did this hidden community look like? What was the structure of the Converso (New Christian) family? What were marriage practices and interactions between men and women like?
In this session, Dr. Shai Zamir will examine how Converso families negotiated identity, intimacy, and religious practice under surveillance and coercion, while focusing on broader patterns of minority life under pressure.
Spertus faculty member Dr. Shai Zamir leads this session.
Dr. Shai Zamir is a historian of the early modern Iberian world, specializing in the history of the family and immigration, Jewish and Sephardi history, and religious polemics. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his PhD in History at the University of Michigan, where he received the 2025 Michael S. Bernstein Dissertation Award from the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. Before returning to Israel, Zamir was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Sephardi Studies at Northwestern University and a Collegiate Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago as part of its Society of Fellows. He recently received the Golda Meir Award for New Faculty at the Hebrew University.
Presented by Spertus Institute and JPro Chicago, Connect & Learn is an online, community-building, professional development series.
Connect & Learn workshops offer participants around the world a chance to join Spertus students and alumni for lively sessions on topics key to Jewish professional life today.
Build skills you can apply immediately to your life and work. Become part of a network of learners and Jewish community leaders. Sessions are online, live, interactive, and collaborative. Each session includes time to connect, network, meet new colleagues, and strengthen relationships. Sessions are free of charge thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.
Programs take place via Zoom. Ticket holders will receive login instructions by email 24 hours in advance.
Connect & Learn is presented in partnership with JPro Chicago.
This series is presented under the auspices of Spertus Institute’s Center for Jewish Leadership, supported in part by a generous grant from the Crown Family.
This program is Spertus Institute’s 2025 Horwitz Family Presentation on Jewish History, generously endowed by the Horwitz Charitable Fund.
If you can, we encourage you to make a gift to support this free program and others like it!