From the end of the fifteenth century until the eighteenth century Spanish Jews carried on Jewish practices in the shadow of the Inquisition. Those caught were forced to recant or be burnt at the stake in public “autos de fe”. This book describes the private lives of these secret Jews, drawing on their confessions and trial documents. This paperback edition covers the survival of Jewish practices into modern times in Portugal and Spain, where families descended from “conversos” (Christian converts) still carry out long-hidden Jewish traditions.

Reviews of the hardback edition:

‘Michael Alpert is to be congratulated on producing a book that is both scholarly and accessible. Not only does he interpret and bring to life the Inquisition files but he reveals with compassion the final years and months... of the Inquisition's
victims..’.
— Sephardi Bulletin

‘...a succinct and well-written survey.....detached and objective....wide-ranging and scholarly...it must be stressed that this is an important book covering many topics, rooted in wide-ranging study and
direct archival research...’
— Jewish Historical Studies

Michael Alpert is Emeritus Professor of Modern and Contemporary History of Spain at the University of Westminster. His other titles include the Penguin Classic, Two Spanish Picaresque Novels and A New International History of the Spanish Civil War. He writes regularly for Spanish popular history magazines on a variety of historical subjects.