Amelia Serraller

The Sephardic presence in Poland is a subject scarcely researched. Most studies lay forgotten in Poland, published in Polish magazines in the nineteen-sixties. However, the community of Zamosc (Poland) is an unique case in Central and Eastern European History. Zamosc acquires its charter in 1580, and in 1588 its hetman Jan Zamoyski decides to grant exclusive privileges to the Sephardic Jews. Anyway, not all of them came straight from the Iberian Peninsula, but also from Italy and Turkey. Obviously, they went there after the 1492 expulsion from Spain, that doomed to exile everyone who did not embrace Catholicism. To what extent did the Sephardim contribute to the atmosphere of tolerance and prosperity that reigned in the entail of Zamosc? A veil of silence has covered the Sephardic legacy in Poland throughout the centuries. Hence the need to restore this world, full of rich, deeply interesting contradictions.