When Ferdinand and Isabella "reconquered" Granada, the last Muslim stronghold of al-Andalus in 1492 it was the Jews who got expelled or forced to convert first.
In that case it was strictly pleasure before business I'm afraid. The Spanish have a long history of anti-Semitic actions, though I'm not sure why. Sort of like Russia, every 20 years needed or not. And indeed most of the American Jewish immigrints have one of those two backgrounds, either Sephardic Jews (beginning in 1654, exiled from Brazil, Portugal and Spanish mostly) and the later flood of Ashkenazic Jews from Poland, Russia and Germany.
In Europe, I think that the Jews were always seen - until recently - as 'the other' in general. They were always the group out that never fit into the nationalism of the 17th and 18th and 19th Century Europe. That was never the deal in the US, where being much simpler people, we had a much simpler 'other' and that based 100% on race, religion never factored into it, and interestingly enough, many slaves were Christians at some point (though often not upon arrival). Many American Jews pay some sort of preference for Israel, but that support is a cultural deal, as they don't really view it as the "Promised Land" that being much more LA, NYC, and Chicago in reality.
I think a lot of that comes from the faux nationalism that was an artificial construction in a lot of Europe. A huge part of being French, or Spanish, or Irish was being Catholic, a huge part of being a 'real Englishman, or woman' was in the Church of England. And that European nationalism was all about a circular logic of belonging. To be a part of France you had to be French, to be a real part of England, you had to be English. To be a part of the real America you only had to be here and be in business. A very different kind of construction of belonging for sure.
I know that when outsiders look at the US they see the money, and they focus on the money, and they think we are money happy, and they are right. But what they miss is that the money is only really a symbol, a means of expression, and what America really loves - and I mean REALLY LOVES, and what really makes America, is work, business. Because all work in America becomes its own form of commerce. Sometimes I think the motto of the United States should be "Make money from your hobby." Really.
I've traveled part of the world, and I've lived most of my life in a very cosmopolitan place and I've known people from all over and if I had to sum up the entire American deal it would be this, "everywhere else people work to live, in the US people live to work." And that worked out very well for the Jews in America, they seemed to love to do business too - and since, as was so once so perfectly stated, "The business of America is business" they fit right in. So from the beginning they were never much of an 'other' nature to their presence.
But the Spanish had it in for the Jews, I think largely because it was no secret that the Spanish Jews liked it under Islam better than under rather severe Spanish Catholicism (and its important to see the European Catholic Church as several different churches and not a monolith, so the Spanish Catholic Church was its own very unique and different beast) so to a degree you sort of go after the traitors in your midst first. And considering that the very first thing the Spanish did after kicking out the Moors was to form the Spanish Inquistion, perhaps the Jews had a point.
They would happily destabilise a region if they thought it would benefit them, and the people be damned
Hell, all god's children would do that if they could. I can't think of anyone who's hands are clean of that.
