Many years ago, Rabbi Dr. Ronald Brauner encouraged me to devote greater scholarly attention to the history and experience of the Conversos. “Speak to it,” he advised. At the time, I was uncertain whether I wished to pursue such a specialized field of study. My academic interests were broad, and I wondered whether focusing on the descendants of the Jews of Spain and Portugal who had been compelled to embrace Christianity would unnecessarily narrow my scholarly horizons. As the years passed, however, I came to realize that the Converso experience occupies a unique place not only in Jewish history but also in Jewish theology. More importantly, I became convinced that the descendants of the Conversos possess a unique potential to enrich the Jewish world in ways that are only beginning to be appreciated.

During the 1990s, the Jerusalem Post estimated that approximately thirty-five million descendants of Crypto-Jews lived throughout Latin America. That number is almost certainly higher today. Even if only a small percentage were to rediscover their Jewish heritage and return to Jewish communal life, the demographic implications alone would be significant. Yet their importance extends beyond numbers. The descendants of Conversos frequently possess a unique familiarity with both Jewish and Christian traditions. This dual historical experience, born from centuries of persecution and religious ambiguity, provides an unusual perspective from which meaningful dialogue with the Christian world can emerge. At a time when antisemitism has again become a global concern, this perspective deserves serious consideration.

This possibility finds an important historical precedent in the writings of Don Isaac Abravanel. Long before modern discussions concerning Jewish identity and interfaith relations, Don Isaac Abravanel developed a remarkable theological understanding of the Conversos that extended far beyond their immediate historical circumstances. This article argues that Abravanel viewed the Conversos not merely as tragic victims of persecution, but as participants in the unfolding Divine plan of redemption. His interpretation offers an important theological framework through which both the historical experience of the Conversos and the contemporary significance of their descendants may be understood.

Whether Conversos were sincere converts to Christianity or clandestine practitioners of Judaism appears not to have been the decisive issue in Abravanel’s understanding of their role within Jewish history. While the responsa literature addressed practical halakhic questions concerning levirate marriage, testimony, kashrut, and numerous other legal matters affecting Conversos, Abravanel approached the subject from a different perspective. He sought to understand how the existence of the Conversos fit into the providential unfolding of history and how they themselves might understand their place within God’s redemptive purposes. Whatever explanation one adopts regarding the motivations behind conversion, Abravanel assigned the Conversos extraordinary theological significance. As Ram Ben-Shalom observes succinctly, “Abravanel assigns the conversos a central role in the Redemption.”[1]

Abravanel’s interpretation of Obadiah 1:20 illustrates this perspective. Prior to the expulsions from Spain and........

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