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Women in the Converso Community of Fifteenth Century Spain
Dr. Aliza Meyuhas Ginio, evaluates, on t h e basis of three case studies, the
contribution of women towards the continuity of Jewish life among
conversos during the first decade after the expulsion.

Dr. Meyuhas Ginio teaches history at Tel Aviv University.

A Letter of Recommendation for a Converso Family Who Sought to
Emigrate to Eretz Israel in 1521
Dr. Avraham David presents a letter of r e c o m m e n d a t i o n for a converso
family who sought to leave Spain and settle in Eretz Israel in the early
sixteenth century, shedding light on the attitudes of conversos in the first
generation after the expulsion.

Dr. David is engaged in research at the Institute for M i c r o f i l m i n g Hebrew
Manuscripts in the Jewish National University Library.

Antonio Enriquez Gomez and the Inquisition: Life and Literarure
Dr. Nehama Kramer Hellinex presents the exceptional story of a Spanish
writer and playwright of converso origin. Antonio Enriquez Gomez (1600-
1 663) dared to criticize and satirize the Inquisition in his writings and was
tried and imprisoned for his opinions. The article stresses the Jewish source
of his Spanish writing.

Dr. Hellinex teaches history at the City University of New York.

Antonio Enriquez Gomez: the Converso and the Picaresque
Professor Glen Dille examines one particular aspect of Enriquez Gomez's
writing, stressing the influence of his Jewish self-awareness and converso
experience on his use of the 'picaresque' — works in w h i c h the hero is a
wandering scoundrel.

Professor Dille teaches literature at Bradley University in Illinois.

Searching for Identity — The Trial of the Portuguese Converso Vicente
Fortado 1600-1615
Reuven Faingold presents a systematic analysis of the case of a converso
w h o was arrested by the Portuguese Inquisition at the age of 26. Vicente
Fortado had maintained extensive connections with conversos throughout
the Spanish-Portuguese diaspora, but at the center of this article is his
inner life, the struggle to find his own identity.

'The N e w s f r o m Sicily is Very Bad' — J e w i s h T e s t i m o n y on the N o r m a n
Conquest of Sicily
Nadia Ze/des discusses the state of the J e w s in Sicily during a crucial t i m e
in the history of the island — the end of Muslim rule and the Norman
conquest (1061-1086). Based on letters from the Geniza, the article
stresses the support of the Jews for the Muslim side in the struggle.

Ya'akov Ben Yosef: Leader of Aleppan J e w r y in the Eleventh Century
Miriam Frenke/ discusses the character and biography of a leader of the
Jewish community of Aleppo in the first decades of the eleventh century,
Ya'akov ben Yosef, w h o served as a ‫׳‬member of the permanent yeshiva' and
whose influence was felt beyond the community itself in the area
dominated by Aleppan Jewry.