There are moments when history feels like a distant echo—something we learn about, visit in a museum or hear whispered from our ancestors. Then there are moments when that echo grows loud enough to feel present, immediate and real. Right now, that echo is coming from Spain in 1478.

The Spanish Inquisition was not just a tragic chapter in Jewish history. It was an institutional system of enforcement decreed by Ferdinand and Isabella that lasted until 1834. Jews in Spain and its territories, including the kingdom of Sicily, were given a choice: to convert or leave. If you did neither or converted but still practiced Judaism, you risked the penalty of death.

An example of the latter is my ancestor, Jacobo De Andrea (from Trapani, Sicily), who was suspected of practicing Jewish rituals in se

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