New edition of Ferrara bible shows how persecuted Jews kept faith alive in Spanish

Exiled Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had fled to Italy translated Hebrew bible into their common language

In 1553, a community of exiled Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had found refuge and patronage in the northern Italian city of Ferrara did something that would have been unthinkable, and very possibly fatal, in their former homelands.

They printed their own Hebrew bible in Spanish.