Editing Menorca (section)

=== Jews of Menorca ===
[[File:Minorca by Piri Reis.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Historic map of Minorca by [[Piri Reis]]]]
The island had a Jewish population.<ref name="Elukin, Jonathan M 2007">Elukin, Jonathan M. (2007). ''Living Together, Living Apart: Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relations in the Middle Ages''. Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.</ref> The ''Letter on the Conversion of the Jews'' by a fifth-century bishop named [[Severus of Minorca|Severus]] tells of the [[converso|forced conversion]] of the island's 540 Jewish men and women in AD 418.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Bradbury |editor-first=Scott |date=1996 |title=Severus of Minorca: Letter on the Conversion of the Jews |series=Oxford Early Christian Texts |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/severus-of-minorca-letter-on-the-conversion-of-the-jews-9780198267645 |translator=Scott Bradbury |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=154 |isbn=978-0-19-826764-5}}</ref> Several Jews, including Theodore, a rich representative Jew who stood high in the estimation of his coreligionists and of Christians alike, underwent baptism. The act of conversion brought about, within a previously peaceful coexisting community, the expulsion of the ruling Jewish elite into the bleak hinterlands, the burning of synagogues, and the gradual reinstatement of certain Jewish families after the forced acceptance of Christianity, allowing the survival of those Jewish families who had not already perished.<ref name="Elukin, Jonathan M 2007"/> Many Jews secretly retained their Jewish faith while outwardly professing Christian beliefs. Some of these Jews form part of the [[Xueta]] community.

When Menorca became a British possession in 1713, they actively encouraged the immigration of foreign non-Catholics, which included Jews who were not accepted by the predominantly Christian inhabitants. When the Jewish community in Mahon requested the use of a room as a synagogue, their request was refused, and they were denounced by the clergy. In 1781, when [[Louis des Balbes de Berton de Crillon, duc de Mahon]] invaded Menorca, he ordered all Jews to leave in four days. At that time, the Jewish community consisted of about 500 people and they were transported from Menorca in four Spanish ships to the port of [[Marseille]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Gregory|first=Desmond|title=Minorca, the Illusory Prize: A History of the British Occupations of Minorca between 1708 and 1802|date=1990|publisher=Associated University Presses, Inc|location=Cranbury, New Jersey, US|isbn=0-8386-3389-7|page=132|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xPTtBRTfoNYC&q=Jews+of+Minorca&pg=PA132}}</ref>