Sometimes Jews were made welcome, at other times not. But always the Jewish community managed to maintain its own traditions and identity, while contributing to the traditions and identity of those around them. This past was not always easy, as Jewish communities often found themselves in quite hostile environments. Jews were expelled from Britain in 1290, and from Spain in 1492. In Eastern Europe there were terrible pogroms to which Jews became victim in 1648 and later in Czarist Russia in the 1880s. However, despite hardships, Jews continued to thrive in their chosen homelands.