From Judaism to Christianity: The conversion that shook the Jews of Spain
Updated: 2 hours ago
Conversos: De Solomon Leví a Pablo de Santa María, obispo. Una historia sobre nuestros orígenes. David Jiménez-Blanco, Almuzara, Córdoba, España. 422 pp. Sin precio.
By Daniel Santacruz
Editor's note: The book was written in Spanish. The Spanish review can be read at https://www.kolsefardim.net/post/del-juda%C3%ADsmo-al-cristianismo-la-conversi%C3%B3n-que-sacudi%C3%B3-a-los-jud%C3%ADos-de-espa%C3%B1a
The Madrid-born writer David Jiménez-Blanco has rescued the controversial Spanish rabbi Solomon Levi from historical oblivion.
There are few cases in the history of Judaism and Christianity of a man like Levi, highly erudite and knowledgeable in biblical texts—also a tax collector and the wealthiest and most prominent Jew in his city—who converted to Christianity and rose to high positions in his adopted religion.
The new bishop didn't simply bury his religious past. He also left behind his name of clear Levite lineage and adopted the name Pablo de Santa María.
To research the fascinating life of Salomón/Pablo, the author, accompanied by his friend Samuel Bengio, originally from Morocco, visited the cities and places connected to his life, namely, Burgos, Seville, San Mateo, Valencia, Murcia, Peñíscola, and Tortosa, in Spain. In France, they visited Paris and Avignon.
In total, Jiménez-Blanco and Bengio traveled nine times over two and-a-half years, covering more than 8,600 kilometers: 2,600 by car and 2,200 by train within Spain, and 3,800 by plane to northern and southern France. A diagram listing the names of the kings of France, Aragon, and Castile, and the popes of Pablo's time, helps guide the reader..
A map in the beginning of the book shows these cities, in addition to others mentioned but not visited: Toledo, Pamplona, and Barcelona, in Spain; London; Pisa, Rome, and Anagni, in Italy; and Constance, in Germany.
The book is a blend of travelogue, scholarly treatise, biography and personal reflections, accompanied by 41 color and black-and-white photographs, some taken by the author.
A family affair
Born in Burgos, in northern Spain, around 1352, Salomón/Pablo was baptized in the city's cathedral on July 21, 1390, or, according to other sources, 1391.
His five children—four sons and one daughter—between the ages of three and twelve were baptized alongside him. His brothers, Álvar García and Pedro Suárez, followed the same path.
His wife, Joanna, on the other hand, remained steadfast in her ancestral faith. She was buried in the Church of San Pablo, built by her husband in Burgos.
The protagonist, who died on August 29, 1435, lived during periods of turmoil and trauma for the Jewish communities of the kingdoms of Spain, whose conversion shook them to the core. In the words of the Spanish scholar Francisco Cantera Burgos, quoted by the author, “no one could explain how that most knowledgeable Talmudic scholar, a zealous observer of even the smallest Jewish precepts (...) could have renounced the faith of his elders.”
The motives for his conversion appear to have been ambition and vanity, although he himself said he had been influenced by the works of Thomas Aquinas.
In September 1391, Salomón/Pablo traveled to Paris, where he obtained a doctorate in theology from the University of Paris after three years of study, and then lived briefly in London.
He was appointed Bishop of Cartagena in 1405 and, thanks to his erudition and gift for oratory, gained the trust of King Henry of Castile, who the following year appointed him custodian of the royal seal and designated him in his will as guardian of his son John. Years later, he was a member of the regency of Castile and Archbishop of Burgos, a position his son Alonso succeeded him in during his lifetime.
Salomón/Pablo became a staunch enemy of Judaism and attempted, often successfully, to convert his former coreligionists. The edict he drafted as Chancellor of Castile, promulgated in the name of the regent Catherine of Lancaster in Valladolid in 1412, had as its main objective the conversion of the Jews.
The 24-article edict sought to completely separate Jews from Christians, paralyze their trade, humiliate them, even in their dress, and expose them to contempt, forcing them to live confined to a ghetto or to accept baptism.
Motivated by his hatred of Jews, Salomón/Pablo, in the year before his death, wrote Dialogus Pauli et Sauli Contra Judæos, sive Scrutinium Scripturarum, a work in the form of a dialogue that later served as a source for Spanish writers hostile to them, among whom was Jerónimo de Santa Fe, known before his conversion from Judaism to Christianity as Joshua Ha-Lorki, a native of the town of Lorca.
What do the authors conclude about the “history of our origins,” referring to Spaniards, as the subtitle states?
A study conducted by the Universities of Leicester and Complutense, in England and Madrid, respectively, in 2008, cited by the author, analyzed the DNA of 1,140 Spanish and Portuguese men and found that the ethnic origin of the Iberian population is 20% Jewish, 10% Arab, and 70% of other origins.
The author deserves applause for following in Paul's footsteps through the places that were part of his life and the lives of his contemporaries, both Christian and Jewish, and for bringing the non-specialist reader closer to a period whose study has been dominated by scholars.
However, the lack of an index of names and subjects makes it very difficult for the reader to find what he is looking for, wasting precious time flipping through page, sometimes unsuccessfully. This is not a problem unique to Almazara, but rather one common by a large number of Spanish publishers.
September 8, 2026.
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