Chicago – March 04, 2026
For more than a millennium, the survival of Jewish communities across the world owed much to the protection and tolerance found within Muslim civilizations. While the Christian West was marked by persistent anti-Semitism — from medieval massacres and pogroms to systemic persecution lasting into the 19th century — the Islamic world provided an unexpected refuge for a people facing near extinction.
Throughout history, Jews found safe havens in Muslim-ruled lands such as Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), where they flourished in trade, science, and culture for over 700 years.
When the Catholic monarchs of Spain reconquered the Iberian Peninsula and expelled Jews in 1492, many found sanctuary in Ottoman territories — in cities like Constantinople, Salonika, and Jerusalem. There, they rebuilt their communities under the comparatively tolerant governance of the Muslim empires.
Historians emphasize that Islam, unlike its Western counterparts during the Middle Ages, never institutionalized anti-Jewish policies. Muslim leaderships largely valued the Jews as “People of the Book,” preserving a coexistence that shaped centuries of shared history — a legacy that continues to challenge modern perceptions of interfaith relations.
