The Balance of Terror

The Christian conquerors of Spain invited the Jews to populate the occupied territories, and participate in the development of Spain. There was hardly a monarch who did not have a Jewish doctor, political or financial advisor. The Jews played a vital role in the scientific renaissance of the West in the 12th and 13th Centuries, and within their success laid the seeds of evil. In 1391, religious inciting coupled with economic jealousy caused the eruption of riots in the Jewish Quarter of Seville, spreading throughout all the Spanish Jewish communities.