Legal Commentary

What?s Wrong with This Assertion?

By Eugene Volokh

From a San Jose Mercury News story, datelined Mar. 31, not Apr. 1:

Chocolate was a particularly important trading commodity for Jews in 15th century Spain. When the Jewish population was expelled from that country in 1492, they introduced chocolate to the Netherlands and possibly France. So bittersweet chocolate doesn?t just offer families a chance to discuss the ancient history of Judaism, says Prinz, but its European history as well.

Now I have seen another account that suggests that Jews might have played a role in spreading chocolate from Spain, when Jews continued to leave in the middle of the 1500s; I don?t know how accurate that is, but at least it?s possible (I assume these would have been Jews who had converted, or whose families had converted, but who decided to leave later, perhaps because of continuing desire to practice Judaism, or continuing hostility to the converted). The 1492 date, on the other hand, doesn?t strike me as particularly credible.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on April 02, 2010 (boomark / email).