‘Fleeing the Sword of the Inquisition’: Iberian Refugees in Early Modern Rabbinic Texts

The expulsion of the Jews of Spain and Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century marked the beginning of the Sephardic diaspora. Many refugees sought economic opportunity in Italy and its colonies, but their paths to safety were often blocked by fervent inquisitions and anti-migrant sentiment. This thesis considers the challenges of exile as recounted in the rabbinic texts of the eastern Mediterranean in the early modern period.