After the Manchester Synagogue Attack, They Danced Through Their Tears
Sephardic Jews still carry the memory and the legacy of the centuries of vibrant Jewish life in Spain. This video honors the astonishing resilience of a community that refused to be destroyed.
The map left out the scattering of Iberian Jews took many to the Netherlands as modern Holland and Belgium were then Habsburg as much as Spain. Since early times the sea route from Portugal across Biscay through the Channel to the North and Baltic Seas was the pre-railways "motorway" of Northern Europe - like the Mediterranean for the South. Hold the atlas "upside down - South side at the "top" to see this penny drop.
The geography explains the big Sephardi community in Hamburg (next big port to the East from Amsterdam). It was easier to escape from Spain to another Spanish territory to slip across a land frontier into Germany and "Go East Young Man!" Ashkenasi Jews named Rappaport are "Rofeh Opporto" in Hebrew letters - Dr Opporto !