marranos

Isabel Perez is a sixteen-year-old who dreams of writing poetry, love, and being with the young nobleman Diego Altamirano; but in Trujillo, Spain in 1481 such a love is forbidden by the boy's family because Isabel's families are conversos, new Christians, but in the privacy of their home they still practice Judaism--a secret that could destroy them all when the Inquisition reaches Trujillo and they are forced to flee to the uncertain safety of Portugal, and beyond.

During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen year old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her famlily's true Jewish identity, and when thier secret is betrayed by Estrella's best friend the consequences are tragic.

Draws upon interviews with more than 160 individuals--including some who were saved from the Holocaust through adoption by Gentiles--about the experience of learning late in life that they were Jewish.

In Spain in 1492, fourteen-year-old Maria, a Catholic orphan, becomes a servant to a wealthy family of Conversos, converted Jews, at a time when the Jews are being expelled from the country and when the Inquisition is diligently searching for religious heretics.

Discusses how the religious oppression suffered by Jewish people during the Inquisition lead some individuals to become pirates on the open seas, and describes the lives of Sinan--Barbarossa's second-in-command--Rabbi Samuel Palache--who commanded ships before founding Holland's Jewish community--and others.

During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen-year-old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family's true Jewish identity, and when their secret is betrayed by Estrella's best friend, the consequences are tragic.

During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen-year-old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family's true Jewish identity, and when their secret is betrayed by Estrella's best friend, the consequences are tragic.