October 28, 2025
Converted Jews
Converted Jews entered the Christian world and therefore, from a probabilistic point of view, it is possible that each of us has some Jewish ancestors. I would say, however, that in Western Europe Jews have always been relatively few in number, so the probability is low. As early as the Middle Ages, they were expelled from many states (not only from Spain); the great majority of Jews lived in Central and Eastern Europe and spoke Yiddish — that is, an old form of German — because they originally came from Germany.