Heretics or Daughters of Israel?: The Crypto-Jewish Women of Castile

Between 1391 and the end of the 15th century, numerous Spanish Jews converted to Christianity, often under duress. Before and after 1492, when the Jews were officially expelled from Spain, many of these conversos maintained clandestine ties to Judaism, despite an outward conformity to Catholicism. Melammed employs the Inquisition’s own records to show how and why certain women in Castile perpetuated a crypto-Jewish society in the absence of traditional Jewish institutions led by men.