As the students learned, the ascent to the Spanish throne of Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella signaled a change in the acceptance of the Jews living in Spain. Eventually, the Jews were forced to either convert or leave the country -- though some chose to stay and live as secret Jews. The students eventually realized that great risk was associated with each of these choices. The students then put themselves in the position of one who had to leave Spain and find a new place to settle. They had a chance to participate in a “choose-your-own-adventure, during which they had to make many decisions as if they lived in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition, and their “endings” were each quite varied. The students then learned of a special area built within certain cities in which the Jews, fleeing the Inquisition, could live: a “ghetto.” There, they could practice their religion freely, but they also saw that curfews, special taxes and the identifying badges seemed necessary evils, and that periodic attacks by the surrounding citizenry made them feel like sitting ducks. During one class session, some students found themselves wearing round yellow badges, and one by one they came to realize that they were experiencing a bit of what life in a Jewish Ghetto of the Middle Ages might have been like—both for the insiders as well as those who were on the outside, but in charge. Jewish life in the Ghettos actually flourished, in spite of occasional mistreatment—with tragic results. Later, the class became acquainted with the strange story of with a man who had a huge impact on the Jewish world beginning in the 1600s. Shabbatai Tzvi claimed to be the Messiah—and was believed by perhaps hundreds of thousands of Jews. The students considered whether or not they might have been among his believers and whether or not they could be tricked into believing such a thing today. So far, the class has traveled through almost two hundred years!
