Simon Shoykhet

П о б е г о т и н к в и з и ц и и Simon Shoykhet

Spain. XVI century. For many centuries Sephardic Jews have lived here in peace and harmony with Christians. They brought their book and their historical traditions with them to the Perinean Peninsula and rose to the highest posts in the Spanish hierarchy. They faithfully served the kings as advisers, succeeded as doctors and diplomats, financiers, merchants. And now, by decree of King Ferdinand, with the blessing of the Pope, the Holy Inquisition is created. In brutal violence, thousands of Jews are converted to the Christian faith or driven out of the country and killed. Arie Alvarez master of gold and stein glass art

witnesses the execution of his father Meir. The father is brutally burned alive in the flames of the Auté de Fe, his mother is torn to pieces by the Franciscan monks. Arie escapes from Castile and faces a long journey of pain and suffering as he travels through the hot desert to Marrakech and the port of Tangier. There he is hired as a sailor on a flibustyers' sailing ship that crosses the ocean, heading for the Caribbean islands of New Hispaniola. Arie manages to rescue the dying Zalia Diaz from a shipwrecked caravella. After adventureous up's and down's, they end up together in Cuba, in San Cristobal de Havana. Their uneas, but a happy romance concluded with an exoticly beautiful Sephardic wedding . A dramatic incident brings Arie to an adviser to the governor's palace. He h've got an offer to be a successful art renovator of the chapel of a Catholic church in the palace. at the price of abandoning Judaism and the faith of his father Meir. No, this is not for him, Arie decided. He went on a difficult, but worthy path.