How does Spain relate to the Jewish religion?

Answer 1

Politically

It doesn't.

Spain has always been very Catholic. It is even the state religion.

If you go back in history, the Iberian peninsula has seen eras of paganism, Christianity, Christianity vs Islam, and even a few periods dominated by Islam when the Moors nearly conquered the entire peninsula.

I am sure that there are a few Jews living in Spain, but the country itself has no ties to the Jewish nation.

Jewish History in Spain

Umayyad Islamic Spain was one of the Jewish Golden Ages. A number of Jewish poets like Ibn Gabirol and Yehuda Ha-Levi composed beautiful poems and piyyut in Spain. Spain also gave rise to important Jewish theologians like Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) and Rabbi Moses ben Nakhman (Naimonides). Some Jews even considered Toledo, Spain to be the "New Jerusalem". (It is important to note that they did not consider Toledo to be holy, just very special.)

After the fall of the Islamic States in 1492, Spain instituted the Inquisition, in which tens of thousands of Jews were killed and the expelled. Many of those Jews fled to Thessaloniki, Greece (in the Ottoman Empire) and Fez, Morocco. This community in exile became known as the Sephardic Jewish Community.