Spanish Jews once constituted one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish communities in the world. Spain was the unquestioned leader of world Jewry: scientific and philological study of the Hebrew Bible began, Hebrew was used for the first time for secular poetry, and for the only time between Biblical times and the origins of the modern state of Israel, a Jew commanded a Jewish army. This period ended definitively with the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 and Alhambra Decree of 1492, as a result of which the majority of Jews in Spain converted to Catholicism and those remaining were forced into exile. An estimated 13,000 to 50,000 Jews live in Spain today, concentrated in the provinces of Malaga, Madrid and Barcelona as well as having a historic presence in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. A significant portion of these are Spanish-speaking Jews who returned to Spain after centuries of exile in northern Morocco during and after the Spanish protectorate. Ashkenazi Jews, primarily from Latin America but also of European origin are also present in Spain.
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