Antisemitism in Spain is the expression through words or actions of an ideology of hatred towards Jews on Spanish soil.
History Anti-Judaism in Medieval Iberia
Christian anti-Judaism began with the expansion of Christianity on the Iberian Peninsula during the rule of the Roman Empire. Its first violent manifestation occurred in the persecution of Jews in Visigothic Hispania. During the Middle Ages, Jews in al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled Iberian Peninsula, were designated dhimmis, a protected class in Islam. Despite occasional violent outbursts such as the 1066 Granada massacre, Jews were granted protection to profess their religion in exchange for abiding to certain conditions that limited their rights concerning Muslims.
After the Almoravid invasion from Morocco in the 11th century, the situation of the Jewish population in Muslim territory worsened. During the invasion of the extremist Zahiri-ruled Almohad Caliphate of North Africa, many Jews fled to the northern Christian kingdoms, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the parts of North Africa outside of Almohad control.
Iberian Jews lived in relative peace next to their Christian neighbors. The kings, especially those of the Kingdom of Aragon, regarded the Jews as royal property and it was in their interest to protect them. During this time, the Jews enjoyed relative political freedom, they had posts in the courts and were merchants and businessmen. The Jews used to live separately in juderías or "Jewish quarters".
The dynastic change entailed by the ascension of the House of Trastámara after the Castilian Civil War saw a radicalization of the antisemitic sentiment across the aforementioned crown of Castile, with a convergence of religious doctrinal anti-Judaism, aristocratic political antisemitism, and popular antisemitism exacerbated by the ongoing social and economic crisis of the Late Middle Ages.
Blood libel accusations were spreading and decrees were imposed on the Jewish people. The situation peaked with the Massacre of 1391, in which entire communities were murdered and many were forcibly converted.
Early Modern era In 1492, via the Alhambra Decree, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordered the expulsion of a disputed number of Jews from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon, ranging from 45,000 to 200,000, and thus put an end to the largest communities in Europe. The expulsion of the Jews from Navarre followed suit in 1498. The coerced baptisms eventually produced the phenomenon of the conversos, the Inquisition and statutes of limpieza de sangre.
Conspiracies about conversos featured in a notable number of vernacular works printed in the territory of current-day Spain as well as the rest of Iberia throughout the early modern era, underpinning the image of Judaizing conversos as the quintessential folk devils.
Modern antisemitism
Modern antisemitism came to Spain through France. Édouard Drumont's antisemitic tract La France juive was edited in Spain as early as 1889, translated by Pelegrín Casabó y Pagés, who also published an analogous La España judía in 1891. The brand of antisemitism imbued of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory increased in Catholic publications after 1898.
Following the October Revolution and the founding of the Spanish Communist Party in 1920, such "anti-Spanish forces" were primarily identified with the "destructive communist virus", which was often considered to be guided by the Jews.
The 1931–45 period saw the peak of modern antisemitism in Spain, which was primarily embraced by the extreme right. In a country with few Jews, this discourse was functional from an ideological standpoint to the rallying of the conservative forces against republicanism and the workers' movement rather than the minuscule Jewish community. The Francoist winning side emerging from the 1936–39 Civil War repressed the Jews, prohibiting their worship and their organizations except in North Africa.
It was during the 1960s that the first Spanish neo-Nazi groups appeared, such as CEDADE. Later on, Spanish Neo-Nazis attempted to use antisemitic discourse to explain the political transition to democracy (1976–1982) after the death of Franco. It drew on the same ideas that had been expressed in 1931 when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed; political revolutions could be explained as the result of various "intrigues".
In 1978, Jews were recognised as full citizens in Spain, and today the Jewish population numbers about 40,000, approximately 0.1% of Spain's population, 20,000 of whom are registered in the Jewish communities. Most live in the larger cities of Spain on the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa or the islands.
On 1 August 2026, the statue of Maimonides in Córdoba was vandalized with a swastika. On 8 September 2026, Real Madrid supporters made Nazi salutes and chanted "Jew that I see, Jew that I hit" before a match against Inter Milano.
Data and analysis
+ Antisemitic events in Spain recorded by the Observatorio de antisemitismo en España, 2009–2011 2009 2010 2011 Internet - 1 2 Media 10 3 7 Attacks on property 4 1 2 Attacks on persons 5 4 2 Trivialisation of the Holocaust - 1 3 Delegitimizing Israel - - 5 Incidents - 1 1 Instigation to antisemitism - 1 2 Legal decisions - 6 - Total 19 12 30 Surveys from the 1980s and 1990s showed that the Spanish image of the Jews was ambivalent: pejorative stereotypes such as avariciousness, treachery and deicide contrasted with positive evaluations such as their work ethic and their sense of responsibility. In 1998, a survey conducted of 6,000 students in 145 Spanish schools showed a slight increase in racist attitudes compared with 1993 - 14.9 percent would expel the Jews compared with 12.5 percent in 1993. In spring 2002, many EU member states, including Spain, experienced a wave of antisemitic incidents which started with the 'Al-Aqsa-Intifada' in October 2000 and was fueled by the conflict in the Middle East. During the first half of 2002, the rise of antisemitism reached a climax in the period between the end of March and mid-May, running parallel to the escalation of the Middle East Conflict.
According to a September 2008 study published by the Pew Research Center of Washington DC, nearly half of all Spaniards have negative views of Jews, a statistic that marks Spain as one of the most antisemitic countries in Europe. According to Pew, 46% of Spaniards held negative opinions of Jews, more than double the 21% of Spaniards with such views in 2005. Spain was also the only country in Europe where negative views of Jews outweighed positive views; only 37% of Spaniards thought favorably about Jews.By comparison, 36% of Poles had negative views of Jews while 50% had positive views; in Germany, 25% negative versus 64% positive; in France, 20% negative versus 79% positive; and in Britain, 9% negative versus 73% positive.
In September 2009, the ADL published a special report titled "Polluting the Public Square: Anti-Semitic Discourse In Spain." Following the report, Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said, "We are deeply concerned about the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism in Spain, with more public expressions and greater public acceptance of classic stereotypes. Among the major European countries, only in Spain have we seen viciously anti-Semitic cartoons in the mainstream media, and street protests where Israel is accused of genocide and Jews are vilified and compared to Nazis [...] Opinion makers in Spain are crossing the line that separates legitimate criticism of Israeli actions from anti-Semitism, and the results are evident. Our polling shows an alarming rise in anti-Semitic attitudes."
Trends in Anti-Semitic Attitudes in Spain Percent responding “probably true”
According to the "Report on Anti-Semitism in Spain in 2010" which was jointly produced by the Observatory on Anti-Semitism in Spain and a nongovernmental organization called the Movement against Intolerance in 2010, while Spain was mired in the worst economic recession in its modern history, it emerged as one of the most antisemitic countries in the EU.The Observatory on Anti-Semitism is an arm of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain (FCJE) According to a poll commissioned by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 58.4% of Spaniards believe that "the Jews were powerful because they controlled the economy and the mass media. This number reached 62.2% among university students and 70.5% among those who are "interested in politics." More than 60% of Spanish university students said they did not want Jewish classmates. In other polling data, more than one-third (34.6%) of Spanish people had an unfavorable or completely unfavorable opinion of Jewish people. Another interesting finding is that antisemitism was more prevalent in the political left than it is on the political right - 34% of those on the far right said they are hostile to Jews, while 37.7% of those on the center-left were hostile to Jews. Sympathy for Jews among the extreme right (4.9 on a scale of 1–10) is above the average for the population as a whole (4.6). Among those who recognized themselves as having "antipathy for the Jewish people," only 17% says this was due to the "conflict in the Middle East." Nearly 30% of those surveyed said their dislike of Jews had to do with "their religion," "their customs," and "their way of life," while early 20% of Spaniards said they dislike Jews although they do not know why.
During 2010, Casa Sefarad-Israel decided to carry out a detailed sociological study (both qualitative and quantitative), with the following main goals: To determine the degree of antisemitism in Spain To examine its origin To diagnose its intensity