There is news today that Professor Haim Beinart has died.

H-Judaic reports:

“We mourn the passing last week of Prof. Haim Beinart (1917-2010), a towering figure in the study of Iberian Jewry. Prof. Beinart spent his entire career at the Hebrew University, where he received his doctorate in 1955, rose to become full professor, and had been emeritus professor since 1988. During the course of a long and fruitful career, he published some 300 books and articles including his definitive THE EXPULSION OF THE JEWS FROM SPAIN. Many of the foremost scholars of Sephardic Jewry were Beinart's students and all students of Sephardic Jewry are indebted to Beinart's scholarship. We extend deepest condolences to his family.”



I first learned about Jewish culture and society in medieval Spain, specifically the Extremadura in his book, Trujillo: A Jewish Community in Extremadura on the Eve of the Expulsion from Spain (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1980). There I learned about the Carvajal family, of which I am a descendent, and its relationship to Extremaduran Jewish families. Curiously, from Beinart’s work I would continue my own family research in Spanish archives and learn that the Carvajals were also conversos, or Jewish converts to Christianity.