‘On my way out … for real!’ A Conversation with Joseph H.H. Weiler on the Occasion of His Stepping Down as EJIL Editor in Chief

He was born in Girona, Spain.Although everybody thinks of the expulsion in 1492, the actual cataclysmic event was 1391, when in the whole of Spain with the exception of Aragon, there was a huge massacre of the Jews.Joseph Halevi escaped from Girona with his family in 1391, moving to Moravia, to a little town that still exists, Huruvica.So, he became Joseph Halevi de Huruvica and then Joseph Halevi Horowitz.A hundred years later, they moved to Poland, to Lublin, and they lived in Poland for 500 years, until the Germans took care of that.There's an institute in Tel Aviv for the research of that family.So, I know every generation from 1391, father, son, and of course it grows.Vladimir Horowitz, the pianist, is part of that family.I was named in honour of that branch of the family and it means a lot to me.