Under state pressure in the late 15th century, an estimated 100,000–200,000 Jews in the Iberian Peninsula converted to Christianity. The numbers who converted and the effects of various migrations in and out of the area have been the subject of considerable debate by historians.
Muslims say "inshallah" meaning "God willing"; Yiddish speaking Jews say "im yirtzéh hashém" meaning "if God will want"; Hebrew speaking Jews say "be’ezrét hashém" meaning with the help of God. Because of the the Semitic influence (through the long Arabic possession of Spain) the Spanish speakers say "ojala", meaning "hopefully". Ojala comes from the Arabic inshallah. In southern Spain the Arabic influence lasted longer, so they also say "si Dios quiere", meaning literally "if God wants" or "God willing".
The Bnei Anousim, whom historians refer to by the derogatory term Marranos and whose forebears were Spanish and Portuguese Jews forced to convert to Catholicism in the 14th and 15th centuries. Scholars estimate their numbers worldwide to be in the millions, and genetic tests have revealed that 10 to 15 percent of Hispanic Americans have Jewish roots. The numbers would be between 56 to 37 milllion people.
People around Pamplona, capital of Navarre, say "go up to Pamplona" even if they don't really go up. People say the same to go to London in England. This is what the Japanese say when they go to Tokyo, although this city is by the coast, so it's lower. The ancient Israelites did say the same when they went to Jerusalem.
Up to 50,000 of Spain's 125,000 to 200,000 Jews were baptized, joining 225,000 descendants of the converts of previous generations. The others would not give up their religion. Some fled to North Africa, Italy, and Navarre (then a kingdom on the border between Spain and France). Many more went to Portugal, though Portugal itself would soon demand conversion, and thousands of Jews there also underwent baptism. In both Spain and Portugal many conversos sincerely embraced the Church and intermarried with so-called Old Christians. A smaller number, however, continued secretly in their old beliefs, under cover of Catholicism. These were the crypto-Jews.
In northern Italy there's a mixture of Lombard Simeonites & Lombard Manassehites. The San Nicandro Jewish converts may come from Spanish Marranos or the Lost Ten Tribes.
The word Marib (the word Malibu only changes only the r for the l, two letters that are interchangeable, therefore I belive is Hebrew too), located in the former Jewish land of Yemen (being the word Yemen itself of Hebrew origin). Salou is also considered to be a Hebrew word. It's the name of the most touristic town in Catalonia, Spain.
The name of the city of Recife comes from the Hebrew word for "Wharf".
We have a group of nine persons in Porto Alegre, Brazil. We are not properly organized. Potentially, I believe that in Brazil there are millions of descendants of Anousim. Our population is about 180 million inhabitants. I believe that at least 10% have Jewish blood and family customs like mine. My family itself is very big, with more than 100 persons only on my mother’s side and a smaller number on my father’s side, both being families of Anousim.
We have a group of nine persons in Porto Alegre, Brazil. We are not properly organized. Potentially, I believe that in Brazil there are millions of descendants of Anousim. Our population is about 180 million inhabitants. I believe that at least 10% have Jewish blood and family customs like mine. My family itself is very big, with more than 100 persons only on my mother’s side and a smaller number on my father’s side, both being families of Anousim.
Cape Verde, the Canary Islands & Madeira were important areas for Jewish Anusim refugees. In fact there's a village in the Canaries & a town in Cape Verde with the name Sinagoga.
According to a study the Portuguese royalty (& thru intermarriage all the European monarchy) have Jewish origin. This confirms the British Israelite believe.BRaZiL & BaRCeLona comes from BaRZeL, iron in HeBrew. Iron was abundant in Barcelona.
SaBadell: if TeL is town, DeL might also be, then SaBaDeLl might mean city if SaBa .
valMaSeDa: Any relation with the MaSaDa of the Jewish rebellion against Rome?
Gállego, in Aragón, Spain is a Celtic (Israelite) name, as it is Portugal & Portugalete & GaLdácano, two towns next to Bilbao, Spain.
At the time of the Inquisition Conversos accounted for 40% of the Spanish colonization of the area now known as New Mexico.
Does the name CaNtaBRia come from CaNaanite IBeRia (Canaanite land of iBRi, Hebrew)?
I wonder if the Spanish word "olé", a sream of enthusiasm, has any relation with the similar Hebrew word "oleh" meaning "upgoer". Oleh is the one that accomplishes his duty going to the Land of Israel. "Olé" is said to the matador that accomplishes his job in the bullfight. The "oleh" goes to Eretz Israel & believes to have gone spiritually to a better & higher place. In the same way when the matador does a good job with the bull his greatest feeling of success (like feeling in a better place) is when the audience says at once: ¡Olé! The Mediterranean tradition of games with bulls like bullfight, running of the bulls...may have come from the Egyptians' worship of their bull-god, or indirectly from the calfworshipping Israelites spread thruout the Phoenician-Israelite colonies. Bull games are big in Spain, Portugal & southern France, all of them found in areas were the Phoenician-Israelites were present or close by. The Roman had circuses were they placed animals (including bulls) to kill prisoners. The circus was round and resembled bullrings. One of the worst pagan Israelite traditions was the burning of living children in the bull-god statue of Moloch. As an example of the value given to the bull by the ancient Greeks we can mention the celebrated myth of the Minotaurus. It's interesting that the matadors cut their pony tail when they quit bullfighting forever. Is this because they symbollically lose their strength to fight with the bull like Samsom did litterally?
Moises Ville, Argentina's Jews
Moises Ville's Jewish gauchos are tough and clever. They have always had to be, in order to flourish on Argentina's harsh plains, thousands of miles from the European communities they fled. Perhaps this is why the formerly-Jewish town of Moises Ville, a 10-hour bus ride north-west from Buenos Aires into the Pampas, is better positioned than most communities in Argentina to survive the country's current economic and political crisis.
"Here, we are used to making the best of bad situations," says Golde Kuperstein de Gerson, Moises Ville's deputy mayor and the chair of the Baron Hirsch Hospital Board. Golde beams like a yiddishe grandmother recalling the ingenuity of the town's founders: "They brought nothing when they came in 1889 and established the Town of Moses, Moises Ville. By 1891, they already had the basis of the community institutions that are the pride and joy of Moises Ville until today." Golde explains that through the 1940s, Moises Ville had 7,000 residents, 95 percent of whom were Jewish. Today, the town is much smaller and less than 15 percent Jewish, about 300 of 2,700 residents. "But the Jewish spirit survives in our institutions," Golde insists.
Most of these institutions are named for Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a German Jewish banker, who in 1891 purchased 600,000 hectares in the Argentine Pampas. Hirsch's Jewish Colonization Association resettled thousands of Eastern European Jewish refugees in Argentine agricultural communities, beginning with Moises Ville. Today the Baron Hirsch synagogue is the last functioning synagogue in Moises Ville.
Goldie's husband of 50 years, Hermann Gerson, is the synagogue's president and one of Moises Ville's remaining Jewish cowboys. The Baron Hirsch foundation rescued Hermann from the Nazis as a young man, establishing him in Moises Ville with a plot of land to work. But Hermann confides that he wanted to be an engineer. "My main concern as a rancher was to help my children to become professionals," he says.
Most other fathers felt the same. Moises Ville's Jewish population has declined sharply as children moved to the big cities for educational and professional opportunities and their parents followed them. Some, like rancher Kurt Rosenthal, disagree with Hermann. "The country is a passion," Kurt says. "If I had to choose again, I would do again what I've done for the last 47 years" -- work as a cowboy. Kurt is proud that his son, a certified accountant, will eventually leave his banking job and take over the ranching business. "The Baron Hirsch Foundation had as its objective demonstrating that Jews could work the land and my son will follow that tradition," Kurt says. "Only if we lose that, have we lost everything in Moises Ville."
Iberian Anusim Coming Back To Their Roots
The history of the Marranos of the Iberian peninsula dates back to 1391, when Ferrant Martinez, archdeacon of Ecija, unleashed a year-long series of pogroms throughout Castile which rapidly spread to Aragon. An estimated 100,000 Jews, faced with a choice between martyrdom and apostasy, chose to be baptized while a similar number were murdered. The suspicion developed that the country's surviving Jews were secretly abetting the conversos in judaizing.
In 1483, as part of a general bureaucratic reorganization of the Kingdom of Castile by Queen Isabella, Torquemada was appointed Inquisitor-General of the Consejo de la Suprema y General Inquisicin. Pope Sixtus IV subsequently appointed him Inquisitor-General in Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia. Established in 1478 by the Pontiff to examine the genuineness of the conversos, the Catholic tribunal became a byword for a Kafka-esque judicial process whose hapless victims could be tortured to produce confessions, robbed of their property and then publicly burned at the stake.
Freed of the commercial and social restrictions under which Jews had lived for centuries, the New Christians or conversos, as they were called, rapidly began climbing the socio-economic ladder. The nobility, contemptuous of the converts, and anxious to preserve its status against commercial competition, seized on limpieza de sangre (blood purity) to exclude the erstwhile Jews. Old Christian families discriminated against those whose lineage was sullied by Jewish or Muslim ancestors.
Inevitably, the descendants of converts continued to intermarry and socialize. This caste prejudice has lasted undiminished in parts of the Iberian peninsula until today. The Chuetas (swine) of Majorca, though sincere Catholics and blankly ignorant of the Judaism of their ancestors, are confined to the same alleyways their forefathers inhabited when it was a juderia (ghetto).
The very word Marranos - a term of opprobrium of uncertain etymology - indicates the disdain under which the converts lived. But it would be a mistake to describe all the Marranos as maintaining fealty to their ancestral faith. Many - if not most - sincerely practised Catholicism, for example Theresa of Avila, the patron saint of Spain, or Diego Lainex, who succeeded St. Ignatius Loyala as head of the Society of Jesus.
Historians now accept that the Inquisition's terror ironically created the very sectarian heresy it was attempting to extirpate. The Holy Office archives tell of men circumcising themselves in prison, reasoning that if they were to suffer capital punishment they should be martyrs for a cause.
Ignorance, assimilation and emigration ultimately doomed the Marrano communities to die out in the larger centres of Spain and Portugal. A Diaspora developed as they rejoined Sephardi Jews in the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, France, Holland, England, Germany and Italy.
As many as 15 million Brazilians - 10 per cent of the country's population - can lay claim to Jewish ancestry, according to Helio Daniel Cordeiro, a Marrano who converted back to Judaism. Other Marranos fled north from Mexico into the wilderness to escape the tentacles of the Inquisition in the Spanish colony. Their descendants continue to live in New Mexico and Arizona.
Sometimes tensions arose as the Marranos tried to reintegrate with their Jewish brethren. The philosopher Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza was excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community in 1656 for heresy when he claimed that the Bible was authored by man.
The remarkable survival of the Marrano community of Belmonte came to the world's attention in 1917. Samuel Schwartz, a Polish-Jewish mining engineer based in Lisbon, was prospecting in the region. One of Belmonte's inhabitants, desirous of obtaining his patronage, warned him pointedly against having anything to do with one of his competitors. "It is enough for me to tell you," he said, "that the man is a judeu - a Jew."
Schwartz had considerable difficulty gaining the community's confidence. Judaism remained banned in Portugal until 1921, and fear of a renewed Inquisition was pervasive. Cut off and inaccessible, the Marranos of Belmonte thought they and a handful of sister communities were the only "Jews" left in the world.
The stranger was unfamiliar with their secret rites and Portuguese-language prayers. In vain did he protest that Hebrew was the universal language of Jewish devotion. They had not heard of the language. At last, one of the community's matriarchs who was treated with particular deference asked him sceptically to recite some prayer in the tongue for which he claimed such sanctity.
Schwartz recited the Shema, the Jewish confession of faith - "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one." (Deut. 6:4) As he pronounced Adonai - the holy euphemism, literally meaning "My Lord," used by observant Jews in lieu of God's ineffable four-letter name that gentiles sometimes write as Yahweh or Jehovah - the woman covered her eyes with her hands, an ancient Jewish custom intended to shut out all outside distractions during the recital of this verse.
This solitary Hebrew word, preserved orally through the long centuries of subterfuge and persecution, at last reconnected this remnant of the Marranos with the outside Jewish world.
Capt. Arturo Carlos de Barros Basto (1887-1961), a hero of Portugal's 1910 revolution and World War I, dedicated his life to reviving the Marrano communities in Belmonte and elsewhere in Tras-os-Montes. Having converted to Judaism in Tangier, and aided by the Portuguese Marrano Committee in London, he built a synagogue in Porto and began publishing a missionary newspaper. But Barros Basto's plans met with little success in the repressive atmosphere of Salazar's fascist regime in Portugal. He died, almost blind, a disappointed man.
For most of the descendants of the Jews of Spain and Portugal, the work of the Inquisition in smothering freedom of conscience was irreversible. A bare recollection of Jewish descent, perhaps coupled with a few meaningless and moribund traditions, was the last vestige of their once-proud Sephardi heritage.
Rabbi Di Martino is well versed in Marrano history; his own family has New Christian roots in southern Italy from the time of the Spanish domination. He is here to set the record straight, to finish the wrestling match with the Inquisition. (After all, in what other language is Monday the second day of the week (Segunda-feira)? Why, Hebrew, of course.) He agrees with Professor Moises Espirito Santo’s thesis that Portuguese derives from Latinized ancient Hebrew (the language of the colonizing Phoenicians thousands of years ago).
Three million Latinos wishing to make aliyah.
Far greater in number that the ones in Ibiza are those in far-away countries like Brazil, Cuba, Canary Islands, Spain, and Puerto Rico, where it is reckoned that there are literally in excess of three million wishing to make aliyah.
Many of these people are in Agriculture, something that could so enhance the labour situation here. The way they have clung to Jewish customs and marrying only amongst themselves should be an example to people living openly as Jews all over the world.
The Passing of Paco de Lucia, Flamenco… and the Expulsion of the Jews
Last month, one of the giants of guitar, Paco de Lucia, passed away tragically. His untimely death was the result of a heart attack at age 66 while playing with his children on a beach in Mexico. Spain went into national mourning, as did millions of music lovers around the world. De Lucia was instrumental in mainstreaming flamenco. He also crossed over into jazz and classical music. If you haven’t heard his legendary concert with John McLaughlin and Al di Meola (San Francisco, 1981), I envy your first time experience.
De Lucia was born in 1947 in southern Spain. According to official histories, southern Spain was first colonized in the 8/9th century BCE by “Phoenicians”. But who were these “Phoenicians”? The fact is that there was never a people that called themselves “Phoenicians”. “Phoenicians” was what the ancient Greeks called the people living along the Israel-Lebanon coast. In other words, the people that Greeks called “Phoenicians” were a basket of two peoples that included ancient Canaanites and Israelites. So when scholars say that southern Spain was first colonized by “Phoenicians”, what they’re really saying is that southern Spain was first colonized by Canaanites and Israelites. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Spain and Portugal are on a peninsula named by these earliest peoples; the “Hebrew Peninsula” or, as it’s more commonly known, the “Iberian Peninsula” from the Hebrew “Ivri”, meaning Hebrew. (Of course many scholars will tell you that “Ivri” in this instance does not refer to the “Ivriim” i.e., the Hebrews, but simply to the Semitic word for “crossing over”).
Getting back to Paco, the point is that he was born in a place that has a very, very ancient connection to Israelites. In fact, to this day, people in Cadiz – the province that Paco was born in – don’t call themselves “Cadizians”, but “Gaditanos” i.e., Gadites. Of course, the “Gadites” were one of the so-called “Lost Tribes of Israel”, and it may very well be that part of the so-called ancient “Pheonicians” who colonized the area of Cadiz were Israelites from the tribe of Gad.
Turning to more modern history, and I use “modern” in a Jewish sense i.e., I’m talking about very ancient events, the “Moors” conquered southern Spain in 711 CE/AD. The Moors were Muslim and they came from the area of Northwest Africa. Usually they are described as “Arabs”, but they were really a combination of Arabs and Berbers, a tribe that you still find in modern Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. And here’s a surprise – before the Muslim-Arab conquest of Tunisia, the Berbers were Jews. In fact, many Moroccan Jews in Israel today can trace their origins to the Judaized Berbers.
In 1491, the power struggle between Muslims and Christians in Spain was decided in favor of the Christians. The Muslims either converted to Catholicism or retreated back to Africa. The Jews were given a choice – convert or leave. Half left, half could not so they converted. Many continued to live secret Jewish lives as “conversos”, or what scholars call: “crypto Jews”. Many stayed in Spain, but were driven to the periphery e.g., mountainous areas, where they lived in outlawed villages with Arabs, gypsies and Christians opposed to the mainstream Catholic Church. It is in these villages that Flamenco was born as the music of marginalized and outlawed peoples. If these renegades were caught, they were tortured and burned at the stake by the “Holy Inquisition” of the Catholic Church. Much like Jazz, Blues and Gospel music (which was in large part inspired by the Hebrew Bible) in the United States – flamenco is the music of the oppressed.
Paco de Lucía performing in Havana last year
It seems that Paco de Lucía was descendant from Conversos on both sides of his family. His father’s name, “Sánchez”, was a common Converso name. His mother, Lucia, was Portuguese. Of those Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492, many fled into nearby Portugal, where they were forcibly converted in 1497. “Gómez” was a common Converso name in Portugal and Paco’s mother’s maiden name was Gómez. To honor her, he took on “de Lucía” as his stage name. As the ultimate master of his craft, Paco was proud of flamenco’s origins and of their Jewish Spanish connection.
Paco knew that, in large part, flamenco was born of the oppression of the Jews. In the face of the rising tide of worldwide anti-Semitism, despite many efforts to get him to boycott the state of Israel, he refused to cooperate with the boycotts choosing instead to give one of his last concerts in the Jewish state (May 27th, 2013 in Ashdod). Long live Paco’s music.
The Spanish-Jewish Connection
The very existence of this conference is testament to the uniqueness of the Spanish-Jewish connection. Of all the Diasporic experiences, none seems to have the lasting power and majesty of the medieval Jewish presence in Spain. More than five hundred years may have passed, but the Jews have never forgotten Spain, and Spain has never forgotten the Jews. That Spanish culture lives on among Sephardim is born out by such well known examples as the continued use of Ladino, but by lesser known examples as well. Dona Jimena Artesania Suprema is a small company which produces traditional Spanish confections. We happened upon it a while back on the road from Cordoba to Granada, stopped off for a little tour and sampling of the delicious confections. While we were there, we met its export manager. He told us that from the time they began attending international food fairs, their biggest account has been Mizrachi Foods of Jerusalem.
The Jews may have retained the taste of Spain, but the reminders of a one-time Jewish presence in Spain abide as well. Some had been long buried and only recently rediscovered like the mikveh or ritual bath beneath an 11th century building in the Catalonian town of Besalu. Others have always been there, out in the open for all to see like a couple of streets in Sagunto, a small town just north of Valencia. One is called the Street of the Old Blood, another is the Street of the New Blood and at the top of it is the Church of the New Blood, and any passerby can tell you what they mean.
As oral/cultural historians and Ashkenazi Jews, we became involved in the Spanish-Jewish connection almost by accident. In the late 1980s, we were doing some travel writing with a Jewish slant where our interest in the subject was awakened by visits to Curacao, Barbados, and Greece -- all of which have very different but compelling Sephardic heritages. And so, beginning in 1993, we began a series of trips to Spain, six in all, searching the dimensions of the contemporary Spanish-Jewish experience. We discovered an ongoing two-fold process: the recovery of a past that never died on the one hand, and a dramatic resurgence of Jewish life and culture on the other.
Wherever we went we found a fascination with possible Jewish roots. Carlos Benarroch, a leader of Barcelona’s Jewish community, told us he is besieged by Spaniards who want him to help them discover if they are descended from Jews. Some of them have converted. “It is nothing short of a phenomenon,” he says.
A variety of factors can be said to have contributed to this phenomenon. There was all the attention given to the 500th anniversary of the Conversion/Expulsion edict in 1992. But beyond that, there are the liberalizing effects of a democratic government in the wake of Franco’s death in 1975. One senses a joie de vivre in the streets of Barcelona and Madrid. In the evenings, people stroll along the boulevards, have their dinners at 10 o’clock, and stay up till all hours. Restaurants and nightclubs are full. Shop windows showcase beautiful goods. The Spaniards are open and friendly and obviously enjoying the fresh air of political freedom. The church has become much less powerful, people have become much more curious about their past, and this curiosity has manifested itself in a growing interest in whether there is a Jewish branch in the family tree.
During our first trip, we struck up a conversation with a young salesman in the gift shop of the Palace Hotel in Madrid who is imbued with the idea that he is descended from Jews. “My name is Antonio Cruz,” he told us, “and the name Cruz (cross) is typical of the conversos. They selected the most Catholic-sounding names.” Then he added: “Cut any Spaniard and you’ll find Jewish blood.” We put this encounter into our first article. The next time we were in Madrid, we stopped off to see him. “You made me famous,” he said. “All these Jewish ladies from America keep coming into the shop and telling me, ‘You know, you do look Jewish.’”
The attitude of the monarchy has done much to raise the collective consciousness about Spain’s Jewish heritage. King Juan Carlos has publicly apologized for the Conversion/Expulsion edict and the Inquisition. He has attended services in Spanish synagogues; Queen Sophia has studied with a rabbi. And Spanish citizenship has been offered to any descendant of Jews exiled in 1492 -- which has contributed to the population of 20,000 affiliated and as many as 30,000 unaffiliated Jews who live in Spain today. The most recent arrivals are from Bosnia and Argentina, but the major influx began more than thirty years ago with Jews from North Africa. There is a sizable Ashkenazi population as well, stemming from the 30 to 40,000 refugees who received sanctuary or visas from Franco’s Spain during the Second World War, a bizarre irony in a story where ironies abound.
The current president of the Spanish-Jewish Federation, the parent body of Spain’s fourteen Jewish communities, is an Ashkenazi, Carlos Schorr. His father had come to Spain after World War I to study medicine because Jewish quotas kept him out of medical school in his native Poland. After he became a doctor, he sent for his Polish sweetheart back home, and they settled and raised their family in Barcelona.
Today Carlos Schorr continues to live in Barcelona with his three children and his wife Luna Benarroch. Luna is a Sephardic woman with two ground-breaking distinctions. She is the first female psychiatrist and the first Jewish psychiatrist in Barcelona. The Benarroches are one of the oldest Spanish Jewish families. Only Luna’s ancestors never left Spain. Their home was Melilla, bordering Morocco, where, strangely enough, Jews have been living since 1497, never having been forced to choose between exile and conversion. They were so prominent in this small, very exotic city -- a combination of Europe and Africa -- that until after World War II when many left Melilla for Israel, Barcelona, Caracas, and the United States, each extended family had its own synagogue.
Carlos Schorr is a civil engineer by profession. But his duties as head of Spain’s Jewish Federation take up the bulk of his time. He is very cognizant of the uniqueness of his position: an Ashkenazi Jew heading a congress that resonates with Sephardic history and culture during this historic period when the government is making public gestures of reconciliation and descendants of exiled Jews are welcomed back.
As head of a Federation that encompasses fourteen communities in places as diverse as Valencia, Torremolinos, Madrid, and Malaga, Schorr’s activities run the gamut of Jewish organizational life. On the one hand, he is meeting with the Justice Minister in Madrid arguing that the Jewish community should receive economic support from the government just as the Catholic Church does. On the other hand, he is involved with disputes within the Jewish community -- why should Spain be different from Israel or America in this regard? -- the most recent being over the establishment of Spain’s first Reform Synagogue in Barcelona, a battle Schorr fought against and lost to Luis Bassat, the founder and president of the advertising agency that handled the Barcelona Olympics.
But as previously mentioned, the renewal of Jewish life in Spain is just half of the story; the other half is the re-discovery and reclamation of a Jewish past ignored or buried for centuries. Let us share some of these stories with you focusing on three areas: the province of Catalonia -- in particular Gerona, Segovia, and Mallorca. The first deals with a successful attempt to reunite the past with the present; the second deals with an earnest attempt to uncover a Jewish past marred by anti-Semitic myths that continue to have currency; the third is a story of an ambivalent yet persistent Jewish identity that ironically is about to end. Each, we think, forms a distinctive chapter in this on-going saga of a remarkable linkage between a people and its adopted land.
Catalonia, the northeast province of Spain, stands apart from the rest of the nation. Catalonians were fierce resisters of Franco who brutally suppressed them to the extent of making the speaking of their native language illegal. Understandably, they are very assertive about their identity. It was interesting how often we were told “I am not Spanish; I am Catalan.” The nickname for Catalonians is Poles -- but Poles is a code-name for Jews and suggests ambition and a strong work ethic, a comparison that seems to please them. Carlos Schorr estimates about half the Catalonians believe they are descended from Jews.
Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, is home to Spain’s second largest Jewish community, the first being Madrid. Most of them live in the Ensanche section, a modern affluent area of broad boulevards lined with sidewalk cafes, spacious parks, two synagogues (counting the new Reform), even a kosher butcher. This is the new Jewish neighborhood. There are two old ones, still intact, within and just outside the walls of the Gothic quarter just a ten minute drive away, but no Jews live there today.
But perhaps the most interesting of the Jewish related stories in Catalonia, if not in all of Spain, lies in Gerona, a small city about an hour’s drive north of Barcelona where a process of collective remembering has brought a long buried past to the surface both physically and metaphorically.
Gerona is bisected by the River Onyar into an old and new section. The new is a modern metropolis of apartment houses, banks, schools, and stores. The old is a hillside of Romanesque towers and Gothic spires, narrow cobblestone lanes that climb into darkened cul de sacs, and stone houses that are huddled one against the other. It was in one of those houses that we met Assumpcio Hosta, a young historian, who directs the Bonastruc ca Porta project named for the medieval scholar Nachmanides. She related the following story to us:
Starting in the sixteenth century, when people inherited houses in the old section, the fashion was to build new apartments over the old ones. Each generation added another layer creating the jumbled look one sees today. Then the new section began developing. People abandoned their old homes, and the area fell into neglect and decline.
But in the 1970s, the life of the city started to change. Suddenly, it became fashionable for rich people to move to the hills surrounding the old town, and from there, some began moving into the old town itself, buying up and remodeling medieval houses. One of these was a restauranteur Jose Tarres, “a sort of poet” in Ms. Hosta’s words. He acquired a group of 11th century buildings near the cathedral with the idea of opening a restaurant. But as he dug down through the accumulated layers of construction, he came upon the remains of some kind of medieval school which he subsequently learned had been the 13th century yeshiva founded by the Talmudist and Kabbalist Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, commonly known as Nachmanides. This was the renowned rabbi who had taken the part of the Jews in the famous Barcelona Dispute of 1263, he learned, the one who is credited with first writing down the oral tradition of the Kabbalah.
Tarres became taken with the idea that a Jewish aljama had once existed in his city, and his property was at its center. He remodeled the structure; into the floor of its patio, he set a great Star of David, and he began talking to anyone who would listen about Gerona’s glorious Jewish past.
At first his ideas were met with disbelief, Ms. Hosta says. “Why are you talking about a Jewish heritage we never heard of before?” people would ask. For while the outside world may have known Gerona was once a great center of Jewish learning and mysticism, the people of Gerona knew nothing about it. “My generation had been educated during Franco’s time,” Ms. Hosta explains. “The history of Catalonia was not taught. . . As far as we knew, the expulsion of the Jews was something that happened elsewhere; in Seville, Granada, Toledo. We had no idea there was ever a Jewish community here.”
Interestingly enough, during the 19th century, a construction company had come across more than 20 Jewish tombstones while laying the tracks for a railroad. But this evidence of a medieval Jewish presence failed to awaken a public consciousness. It was only with Mr. Tarres’ discovery that Gerona began shaking off its collective amnesia.
Further excavation in the old part of the city revealed a labyrinth of byways and cul de sacs that had been sealed off for centuries. Ms. Hosta speculates that when the Jews left their homes in 1492, they blocked their property in the hopes of returning one day. At the same time, the church discouraged Christians from moving into former Jewish homes and people feared if they did, they would be suspected of being secret Jews. Thus the Call, unoccupied, sealed off, and buried under successive layers of construction lay in a Sleeping Beauty kind of spell until a process we call “gentrification” brought it to life once again.
Ms. Hosta explains how initial public skepticism gradually gave way to curiosity. Local historians and archaeologists began researching and writing about the Call, and people became intrigued. Ultimately curiosity turned to commitment. In the mid 1980s, the project Bonastruc ca Porta (Nachmanides in Catalan) was born, spearheaded by the mayor of Gerona. It is a visionary effort to restore the Call and establish a Kabbalah study center and Museum of Catalan Jewish history that involves purchasing property, excavating through layers of construction, and learning from Jewish scholars and 1200 medieval manuscripts which had languished in the city hall for centuries about Gerona’s Sephardic past. Hidden in the binding of one book were 100 Hebrew parchments intact which were translated at Yeshiva University in New York and provided a wealth of information about domestic and sacred life in the Call. Links have been established with the American Sephardic community and the Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv. In 1993, Gerona hosted a Shabbat service, the first in 500 years.
A document listing the names of those Jews who converted in 1492 was discovered, and citizens are studying the origins of their names to see if they have a Jewish past. Familiarity with Jewish customs is growing. A passerby noticed us stop to examine an indentation in a doorway. “That was for the mezzuzah,” he said to us and explained what a mezzuzah is. A librarian showed us a facsimile of a 14th-century Haggadah from Barcelona and described the conflict between the Jews of southern and northern Spain. “Cordoba was more materialistic and pragmatic,” she said. “But Gerona was mystical; we had the Kabbalah.”
This is what we find most interesting about the Bonastruc ca Porta project. It is not an exercise in uncovering a historical aberration that existed for a while and then disappeared. Instead it is an ongoing process viewed from within the context of Catalan history. Shaking off centuries of ignorance and indifference, the citizens of Gerona -- by reclaiming their Jewish history-- are reclaiming their own past.
A few years after we visited Gerona, we were invited by the mayor of Segovia to come to his city which is actively promoting its Jewish heritage. Like Gerona, Segovia had once been a great center of medieval Jewish learning. But unlike Gerona, its Jewish quarter was never buried. Jews may no longer live in Segovia, but the two Jewish neighborhoods remain intact. Documentation about where synagogues and other structures once stood has always been available. And now, with the awakened interest in its Jewish past, the city has begun a process of restoration and reclamation.
Segovia, which has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site, sits on a rocky hill in north central Spain, between two river valleys. From a distance you can see its limestone towers rising from behind a medieval wall overlooking the dramatic vistas of Castilla-Leon.
The most famous landmark of the city is the aqueduct that was built by the Romans in ancient times. The mayor of Segovia told us “There are two bridges in Segovia. One is the aqueduct. Everyone knows about it. But the other is the bridge to Segovia’s Jewish past. Not everyone knows that Segovia had one of the biggest Juderias in all of Spain. This is the bridge we have yet to cross.”
He provided us with a guide, a young graduate student, Maria, who was fluent in English, very informed about her city, and brimming with enthusiasm over its many treasures and attractions. She took us for a walk along a balustrade overlooking a dry river bed. On the other side was the old walled city. We could see some of the seven brick arches that surround the Jewish quarter. On our side, was the old Jewish cemetery with gravestones that go back to the 11th century. A black iron fence ran the length of the walkway, protecting pedestrians from the steep drop. And set into the fence were a succession of abstract candelabras, menorahs that alerted the visitor to the special nature of this place.
In a reverential mood, we accompanied Maria to the other side of the river bed and into the old Jewish quarter. Our first stop was the beautiful Corpus Christi Church, an ethereal Mudejar structure reminiscent of Santa Maria del Blanca in Toledo. Its interior is punctuated with graceful horseshoe arches, its ceiling is carved cedar wood. Even though it was badly damaged by fire in 1899 and never fully restored to its former glory, the Corpus Christi Church is still an impressive structure.
It was once the major synagogue of Segovia, Maria told us. Recently a joint Judeo-Christian service was held here attended by the bishop of Segovia and the leader of Spain’s Jewish community.
Then she called our attention to a huge oil painting on a far wall. “That painting tells the story of this church,” she said. “Some people say it is a myth, but I believe it is true.”
We crossed the church to get a close look. The painting depicted three or four ugly old men with big noses and sinister expressions hovering over a pot of some boiling liquid being heated by a fire. In the upper right-hand corner against a dark background, a glowing disc seemingly floated on its own volition.
Maria related the story behind the painting. “In 1410 a Jew loaned money to a priest,” she said. “The priest could not repay the loan, so instead the Jew took the holy wafer, the Corpus Christi or body of Christ used in the mass. He and a group of rabbis tried to destroy it by throwing it into a pot of boiling oil, but the wafer flew out of his hands and sailed across the city to another church where it fell into the hands of a priest conducting mass. To punish these men, the Queen took the synagogue and transformed it into the Corpus Christi Church which became part of a nunnery.”
We spent the rest of the day with Maria, who proved in other respects an excellent and informed guide -- except for one more piece of startling information. We were observing from a distance a great wall with a convent at its base. “There is a Jewish story to this place too,” she said, and proceeded to tell us there was once a Jewish girl who fell in love with Christ and converted to Christianity. The other Jews condemned her and pushed her off the high wall. Though she fell to her death, her body was totally unblemished. A group of nuns buried her in that place and erected the convent in her memory.
That night we met the mayor for dinner with Maria as our translator. We found him to be a most intelligent and perceptive man, full of respect for the ancient traditions of his city, anxious to let the world know about Segovia’s Jewish heritage. After dinner, as Maria took us back to our hotel, we felt the moment had come to speak our minds. “Maria, we want to tell you something frankly,” we said, “and we hope you will not be offended by what we say.”
And we proceeded to attempt to enlighten her about anti-Semitic myths such as the desecration of the host she had described to us earlier in the day, the needless and unjust suffering they had caused, the fact that none were based on evidence of any sort but were lies dreamed up to inflame the passions of the masses and deprive Jews of their liberty and lives. Moreover we told her that if she had any expectation of fulfilling the mayor’s dream of encouraging Jews to come and live and study in Segovia, telling people these ugly fantasies would be counterproductive.
Maria listened attentively and seemed responsive. We went on to discuss stereotypes and prejudice, but it was only when we mentioned how centuries of anti-Semitism had led to the Holocaust that she became truly animated. She had learned nothing about the Holocaust in school, she told us, but she had seen “Schindler’s List” and was very moved by it. We can only hope that Maria will not forget that the myth of the desecration of the host found its ultimate expression in the gas chambers.
Segovia has embarked on an admirable Sephardic restoration program. Perhaps it will bring a new cosmopolitanism to the city and the lies that have sustained anti-Semitism through so many generations will finally be exposed for what they are.
Our last story takes place in what is arguably one of the most beautiful places in the world, the Balearic island of Mallorca. Before our trip, we read George Sand’s book Winter in Mallorca which describes the time she spent on the island with her lover, Frederic Chopin, and noted the references, all unflattering, to Mallorcan Jews. She compares them to the Jews of France; she comments disparagingly on their dress, remarks on their ostentatiousness, faults them for manipulative bargaining to buy the valuable possessions of the impoverished aristocracy. Still the references were puzzling. Were there Jews in Mallorca in the middle of the 19th century? A second book, Kenneth Moore’s Those of the Street (1976) answered our questions. Sands was referring to descendants of Mallorcan Jews, commonly known as the Xuetas (pig eaters). Still we wanted to get the story first-hand. Here is what happened.
Our first day in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, we were looking in the window of a women’s clothing store and noticed a pair of stone slabs with Hebrew lettering- the Ten Commandments. We went inside and found a woman reading the Daily Bulletin, the newspaper which serves Mallorca’s sizable community of British transplants. “I’m Jewish,” she told us when we asked about the slabs. “It’s a symbol of my faith.”
She went on to relate how she is part of the Mallorcan Jewish community begun in the 1940s by Ashkenazi refugees who found sanctuary on the island. The burgeoning post-war resort economy spurred its growth, and today it is a growing international group with its own synagogue and cemetery.
“But,” she added, “ask any native Mallorcan where the Jewish section of Palma is and they will direct you to the old section of town. Go to the Calle de Plateria (Street of Silver Shops) and see if you can meet a Xueta. Everyone still thinks of them as Jews.”
Soon after, our guide Bernardo arrived. We asked him to show us the Calle de Plateria and told him we’d like to meet some Xuetas.
He seemed non-plussed. “Xuetas? I don’t know what that means. I don’t know any.” But he drove us to the Gothic section and down the Calle de Plateria -- a narrow by-way lined with small jewelry stores.
As we proceeded, Bernardo, warmed up a bit. And after a while, he confessed that he did know a Xueta, a young woman who works for Mallorcan television. He said he would call her and arrange a meeting.
We stopped for lunch. Bernardo had several glasses of wine. Then he turned confidential. “You know, my wife’s sister is married to a Xueta,” he said. “And at the wedding, my father in law said he would rather be at the cemetery than the church.” Immediately afterwards, it seemed to us, Bernardo regretted his words. He fell silent for a while and then said he must take us back to our hotel immediately as he had an appointment he had forgotten about. The meeting with the television personality never came off.
That night, we walked down to the Calle de Plateria. It was a mild night and storekeepers were standing in the doorways of their small jewelry shops. We stopped in front of one and asked the pleasant-looking man before it if this was the Jewish section of town. He demurred. “We are not Jewish,” he said. “The people in this neighborhood are descended from Jews, but we are Catholic. There is our church, St. Eulalia,” he said, pointing to a big church on the corner of the street.
“Yes,” he added, “we have a Jewish history, and I suppose it is very interesting, but it is from very long ago.”
He invited us into his shop and introduced himself, Joan Bonnin, and his son, a young man in his early 20s, also Joan Bonnin.
We began talking about the profusion of jewelry shops on the street, and the son said, “These shops have always been owned by the Jewish families.” And the father nodded in agreement.
Here lies the paradox of Mallorca, its oxymoron: Jews who are not Jews; Catholic Jews. How can it be? These are people who follow no Jewish rituals, observe no Mosaic law, yet are still perceived as Jews -- even by themselves.
Bonnin, in turns out, is one of fifteen surnames that specifically identify the descendants of Mallorca’s Jews who did not convert until late in the seventeenth century. The Inquisition ran out of steam here early in the sixteenth century, and its Jews were able to make their accommodations with the larger culture while secretly continuing to practice their faith, if not openly, at least with the tacit knowledge and consent of the rest of the population.
The fact that Mallorca was an island, isolated and cut off from the Iberian mainland, enabled its Jews to avoid conversion for 200 years after the Expulsion Edict until an Italian-Jewish trader carelessly alluded to their presence. Then the Inquisition finally came to Mallorca with a vengeance, breaking the will of the last holdout, forcing all to abandon their faith.
But the irony was that although the Jews sincerely converted at this point, the Old Christians did not allow them to assimilate into the larger society. And so they remained a sub-culture, cut off from social interaction and inter-marriage with the rest, sustained by generations of intra-marriage and powerful ties of kinship.
“When they call us Jews, it’s not meant as a compliment,” the younger Bonnin says. “But we are proud of our accomplishments. Our children do well in school and go to university. We are successful in business. And we take care of one another.
“They call us Jews, yes. But also People of the Street because so many of us live on this street with the jewelry shops.”
“How about Xuetas?” we ask.
“That too,” he says with some embarrassment. “It means bacon-eaters, and it comes from the time of conversion when our forefathers used to eat bacon in the doorways of their shops to prove they had really converted.”
So that is the secret of Mallorca’s Jews -- people who were forced to convert, but who were ostracized and stigmatized by the larger community, an action which ironically enough, resulted in their holding on to their collective identity. They are not Jews spiritually; they are Catholic. Yet culturally, in terms of their values and cohesiveness, they are Jews.
Allusions to this perceived identity surfaced through the centuries.
These are the Jews George Sands refers to and the ones Ana María Matute speaks of in her novel of the Spanish Civil War years “School of the Sun.” In the 1940s, Nazi sympathizers included the Xuetas in their anti-Semitic proclamations. And to this day, the church St. Eulalia is still derisively called the “Synagogue of the Xuetas.”
But things began to change dramatically for the Xuetas after the Second World War when massive tourism brought a new cosmopolitanism to the islands and shattered the provincialism that had so long sustained the status quo. Visitors from the Spanish peninsula saw no difference between the Xuetas and other Mallorcans. The common expression became that all Mallorcans are Jews. To which the Mallorcans began to reply, “Maybe we are.”
Under these changed circumstances the Xueta phenomenon became Mallorca’s shameful little secret, dirty laundry, best kept within the family. Which explains the guide Bernardo’s behavior.
The situation is rife with irony. As mentioned before, all over Spain, people are curious to discover whether they have Jewish roots. In Mallorca, there is no doubt. The descendants of Jews know exactly who they are. Also, as mentioned before, all over Spain there are new communities made up of emigrants who are descendants of exiled Spanish Jews and who have accepted Spain’s offer of citizenship. In Mallorca, the descendants of Jews have never left; the community is intact. But there is very little movement to re-assert Jewish identity.
Joan Bonnin Senior told us the Xueta community is very interested in Israel. They follow all the news; they were enthusiastic after the 1967 victories. But he will go no further. “As far as our becoming Jewish again, it is from too long ago. The possibility no longer interests us.”
Joan Bonnin Junior, however, is fascinated by his Jewish heritage. “I don’t know much about it except for the stories in the Bible. But I want to learn. I pay attention to the news from Israel. I read about the Holocaust. I have seen ‘Schindler’s List.’”
Then he adds: “My heart is Jewish. My blood is Jewish. But my religion is Catholic.”
A few years ago, this young man married a non-Xueta. Only in this post-war generation has that begun to happen. “I am typical of my generation,” Bonnin junior said. “Many of us are inter-marrying. It doesn’t matter any more. Also, we are moving out of this old neighborhood to the new sections of Mallorca.”
“It is a good thing,” he adds. “I am glad the old divisions are disappearing. But I do want to hold on to what I am and where I came from. I’d like my baby son to know something of my history.”
We had spent a number of hours with this Catholic-Jewish father and son, who - incidentally -- seemed so very Jewish to us. By the time we left their jewelry shop, it was after 9 o’clock. All the stores were closed. All the shutters were down. As we walked the streets of the old Gothic neighborhood, the terrors of the Inquisition suddenly seemed very close at hand. We could imagine a Joan Bonnin of the 17th century standing in the doorway of his shop, not with the warm smile we saw, but one born of humiliation and fear. How many generations did it take, we wondered, for the pain to ease, for the grief to be erased by collective forgetting?
But by the next morning, such heavy-hearted reflections seemed out of place. The sun was shining brightly. From our hotel window, we could see a new cruise ship had docked in the port. Mallorca is a big vacation place and the atmosphere is up-beat and happy. And there is a new and growing Jewish community here with people from all over the world who are enjoying its economic opportunity, ideal climate, and beautiful scenery.
Yet a sadness lingered. We could not help but mourn the passing of the People of the Street who put such a curious spin on the enigmatic question: What is a Jew?
It is clear that their eventful story is about to end. No longer apart, they stand on the cusp of history, about to move out into the larger population -- and oblivion.
Thinking back to Mallorca, to Segovia and Gerona -- and all the other places we have visited in Spain -- we marvel at how each was so different yet had some connection to a Jewish past or present. Which brought to mind a young man we met in Valencia last year who converted to Judaism when he married a Jewish woman from Casablanca and today serves as the secretary/treasurer of the fledgling Jewish community century in his city. He shared with us a bit of fanciful hearsay he had come upon: the Jews who were exiled in 1492, he was told, took the keys to their homes along with them, hoping one day to return, and these keys were passed down from generation to generation. Perhaps, he conjectured, someone has returned to Spain with the actual key to his ancestral home.
Whether an actual key has made the journey through half a millennium or not, it is clear that doors are opening throughout Spain on a past long sealed off and a future for new and growing Jewish communities. Moving into the final years of this century and millennium, it seems the perfect metaphor for the Spanish-Jewish experience.
Allow me to close on a personal note: my late father, a Russian Jew, somehow always had this great love for Spain. He loved the Flamenco dancing, the music, the art; he admired the women -- from afar. But when he and my mother finally went to Israel and planned some European stops along the way, he would not allow himself the pleasure of visiting Spain because, he said, he could not set foot in the land of the Inquisition.
What would he say if he knew of what has happened in the ensuing years: how the Spanish government goes out of its way to welcome Jews, uncover Jewish history, encourage new Jewish communities? What would he think of the current King of Spain asking the Jews forgiveness, the Queen of Spain studying with a rabbi? What would he make of the fact that Harvey and I have visited Spain six times, met so many of its people, gotten so many insights into this varied and wonderful land?
I imagine he would be very pleased that we have been able to see first hand the renaissance of Spanish-Jewry and establish for ourselves a very personal and powerful Spanish-Jewish connection.
Searching for Brazilian Marranos
I was born in Brazil and grew up as part of the large and well established Sao Paulo Ashkenazic community. During my childhood I had often heard intriguing, even fantastic stories of vestigial Jewish practices among people who claim to be descendants of the Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism during the 1490s. But, to my knowledge, no reliable, scientific investigation had ever been made concerning these claims. Was there any way to verify that these claims were authentic? Could the assertions have been concocted to romanticize relatively routine family histories or for any number of other reasons? Were the stories isolated anecdotes, or were they systematic in character and indicative of an important aspect of Jewish history? Most importantly, could any sparks of Jewish souls still be smoldering after all these years?
I enrolled at Hebrew Union College in 1989 to study for Rabbinical ordination. One of the requirements was to write a thesis consisting of original research on a Jewish topic. This was my chance to investigate the legends from a disinterested perspective. This article is in large part drawn from some of the material contained in that thesis. I started studying Jews who were forced to become Christians. I ended up studying Christians who are choosing to return to their Jewish roots.
Origins of the Brazilian Marrano Community
The Marranos are a very well known, very tragic part of Jewish history. Forced conversions of Jews started in Spain in the late 1300s and climaxed with the Inquisition in the 1490s in both Spain and Portugal. Many of the Jews came to genuinely embrace Christianity. Others outwardly became Christians but secretly continued to practice Judaism. These became known under a variety of names, including secret Jews, crypto-Jews, New Christians, conversaos, and Marranos.
Less well known is the subsequent history of many of these Marranos and their descendants. Because the inquisition was strongest in Spain and Portugal it is unsurprising that many who wished to practice Judaism secretly emigrated to the new world. In 1496, just before they were given the choice of conversion of expulsion, an estimated one third of the population of Portugal was Jewish. Although the exact figure is unknown, it is likely that an even higher percentage of emigrants to the New World were of Jewish descent.
Brazil was discovered by the Portuguese in 1500 and became its colony. Portuguese Marranos were among its earliest settlers. In Brazil the crypto-Jews prospered. There were tremendous economic opportunities for hard working immigrants, who entered practically every field in Brazil. Moreover, there was relatively little danger they would be accused of secretly practicing Judaism since the colony was so remote and sparsely settled.
In 1591, however, the first Inquisitor was sent to Brazil to deal with the "problem" of hidden Jewish practices. During the 17th century these visitations became increasingly frequent, especially in the northeastern provinces. The Inquisition tended to concentrate on the major settlements and to ignore the more sparsely populated areas.
The remote area of northeastern Brazil known as Rio Grande do Norte was settled by the Portuguese starting in the 1720s. This is the same time that the most intense Inquisitorial activity was occurring in the Brazilian northeast. This region was noted for its poor soil, dry climate, and hostile Indian population. It seems likely that a major reason it was settled was that it was remote and difficult for the Inquisitorial authorities to reach. It also seems likely that an extremely high percentage of these early settlers were secret Jews.
The Town of Venhaver in Rio Grande do Norte
In 1992 I spent a considerable period of time visiting small towns in parts of the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. I interviewed a large number of people about their traditions, history and way of life. Many were unwilling to talk candidly about their ancestry and customs with a stranger who spoke Portuguese with a Sao Paulo accent. Some that refused to be tape recorded and few would allow me to use my camera or video camera. Many others had no interest in their family traditions. I nevertheless was able to obtain a great deal of fascinating information.
The town of Venhaver was founded in 1750. It is 12 miles from the small city of Sao Miguel and 230 miles from the city of Natal, the state capital. It is extremely poor, has no running water, and possesses only the most basic educational and health services. Only the main road is paved.
The origin of the town's name is uncertain. One explanation, however, is intriguing. Secret Jews sometimes used key words or expressions to identify each other, such as calling each other "members of the nation" or "chaver" (friend in Hebrew). A legend says that "Venhaver" is a corrupt form of "vem chaver" which, since "vem" in Portuguese means "come," translates as "come friend." This would signify that the secret Jews of the area, having found a safe haven, were inviting others to join them.
Of the 3,200 people who live there approximately half are descended from the original settlers. The rest arrived during the last 50 years. The settler descendants are all Caucasian, unlike the newcomers who are a mixture of black and white. The settlers said that they almost always married among themselves. I shall refer to the descendants of the original settlers as the Venhaver community.
The newcomers consider the Venhaver community to be a separate group, and call them "os Judeus" - the Jews - or "os descendants dos Judeus" -the descendants of the Jews. This is consistent with what the descendants call themselves; either "Judeus" or ""Gente da Nacao" - people of the nation." Interestingly, the Venhaver community did not accept that I was a "Jew." For them, being a Jew meant simply to have been descended from their ancestors.
The Venhaver community are all devout Christians. Yet, they today continue distinct traditions that can only be Jewish in origin. When I first arrived at their town they refused to discuss these practices. Only after they got to know me did they invite me into their homes and begin to talk more openly. Even then they said that they had no knowledge of the origin of their distinctive practices. They also had no knowledge of what these practices indicate about the community's history.
I was able to discover a fascinating array of customs and behavior. I will discuss three categories: eating habits; religious practices; funeral rites.
Eating Habits
The Venhaver keep a form of Kashrut. They do not eat meat from pigs, meat from hunted animals, or seafood. They do not eat meat and dairy in the same meal. They do not, however, have separate meat and dairy dishes.
They only eat meat that they have themselves slaughtered. Their slaughtering technique also is distinctively evocative of Kashrut. They slaughter chickens, for example, by cutting their throats with a very sharp knife. They also drain the blood, wash the chickens thoroughly, salt them, and wash them again. They explained their refusal to eat meat containing blood because such meat was "carregado" (charged). No one could explain exactly what charged meant, but it seemed to have some kind of spiritual meaning.
Another noteworthy custom they related to me is that they do not eat bread during the first week of April. This is, of course, evocative of the Jewish practice of not eating leaven during Passover. Yet, they have no association between their practice and the Jewish holiday. Nor is there in any other way in which they celebrate Passover. The only explanation I could get is that the bread becomes "charged" during the first week of April.
Religious Practices
Every Friday night, before sundown, the Venhaver woman light two candles. The candles are lit in their homes, but not where they can be seen publicly. When asked about this practice they say that they are doing it so the "good spirits" will take care of the house.
Although the Venhaver community are practicing Catholics they refuse to kneel in Church. Their houses often contain pictures of Catholic Saints, but crosses are rare. Hanging on a few of the right doorposts at the fronts of their houses are small bags of earth. People touch or kiss this vestigial mezuzah when they enter or leave the house. Many front doors also have a Star of David or Psalm on their back. The motivations for both traditions is to "protect" the house from evil spirits that otherwise might haunt it.
In Church they recite the regular Catholic prayers. They also say private prayers in their homes that were handed down from their ancestors. The issue of prayer seems to be a sensitive one, and they refused to tell me the content of these private prayers even though I begged them repeatedly.
I was told they also have an alternative house of worship besides the local church. The place, which was called "snoga," was said to be a prayer hall and pilgrimage place up in the mountains.
Since the word "snoga" sounds like it came from the Portuguese word "sinagoga," I attempted to persuade them to take me there, but in vain. Its location is remote and secret. The Venhaver people say that they go there only during certain times of the year. They said they go for vigils that can last for an entire day, but refused to disclose the prayers that they used during these times.
They have one other custom that finds no Christian parallel. While a parent is blessing a child, they lay their hands on the child's head or shoulders. This resembles the same Jewish practice to an extraordinary degree.
Funeral Rituals
The Venhaver funeral rituals are another sign of their Jewish origin. The Venhaver people start making funeral arrangements as soon after death as possible. The corpse is washed and wrapped in a white linen shroud but no casket is used. An elderly woman explained that they do this because Jesus Christ was buried in a shroud.
The wrapped body is briefly placed in the middle of the deceased's house's main room, with its feet towards the door. No viewing of the body is permitted. This is the opposite of the local Catholic custom of open viewing of the body in its casket.
I was told that both before and during the burial a number of prayers handed down from their ancestors are offered. They would not reveal the contents of any of these prayers.During the actual burial the deceased's family and friends help to bury the corpse by throwing handfuls of dirt inside the grave.
After the funeral the deceased's immediate family gathers at their home for seven days. During this period they do not work. They light a candle which lasts for this period.
The graves of the Venhaver community are different from those of their neighbors since most do not have crosses. Those that do have crosses are quite distinct. When members of the community visit graves they leave stones behind. Sometimes they leave one stone, but sometimes they leave six in the form of a Star of David. No one was able to explain the origin of this custom.
My visits were in part a success. After all, I was able to verify many of the legends I had heard about and read about. The evidence is overwhelming that these people's ancestors once were practicing Jews.
But there is so much more that I would like to know. I came away with the feeling that it would be extremely difficult for any outsider to completely understand their beliefs and practices. A final anecdote illustrates some of the problems that any outsider faces when they attempt to get the Venhaver community to talk openly.
I had wondered from the beginning why so many members of the community were reluctant to tell me that they were "Judeus," to discuss their ancestors, or the origins of their rituals. Others would talk but would only open up to me to a limited extent. For a long time I attributed this only to a normal distrust of outsiders and a long term habit that had served them well over the centuries.
To my great surprise, however, I was told by my closest friend in the community that many people there were afraid of me. From the media they knew that there had been or were Nazis outside of Brazil. They also knew that Nazis hated Jews and in the past had killed Jews. When an outsider, who spoke Portuguese with a different accent, came and started asking a lot of questions about Jews, and who observed Jewish customs, what were they to think? Many thought that I might be a Nazi looking to persecute them.
I left with a feeling of regret and sadness that the people in the Venhaver community know essentially nothing about their Jewish past. They have clung to remnants of Jewish practices for centuries but apparently do not know why they have done so. They either do not think about why they engage in particular customs or rituals or rationalize them in terms of Christianity or otherwise.
There was a part of me that ached to be able to tell them that their ancestors had, for 500 years, clung to certain practices because they had a desperate desire to be Jewish and to pass this Jewishness on to their children. Part of me wanted to help them to vindicate their ancestors' faith and memory and stubbornness. Part of me wanted to be able to help them become truly and unambiguously Jewish.
The Emerging Jewish Marrano Community of Natal
Natal is the capital city of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. It was established in 1599 and has a population of well over half a million people.
Only a handful of practicing Jews lived there until just after World War I, when a small synagogue was founded. The community grew until just after World War II. It started to decline as the Jews left for Israel or larger centers of Brazilian Jewish life. There are now only five families left that qualify as Jews under traditional definitions of this term.
In the 1970s a group of Marranos started to gather. Every member of the group grew up hearing family stories and observing family practices similar to those discussed above. The tiny group grew by word of mouth as members recruited others with similar backgrounds and interests. Eventually it turned into a Jewish havurah (prayer group) that met for member-conducted services in members' homes.
When I heard about this group I started to correspond with them. But I wanted to see for myself whether the stories they wrote - of their Jewish heritage, of the passing of Jewish traditions from generation to generation (albeit ever more weakly) and, most of all, of their return to Judaism - were real. If so, it would be a phenomena unique in Brazilian history. In 1992 and 1993 I journeyed to Natal, stayed with them, and observed them.
I found a havurah consisting of the five traditionally defined Jewish families and twelve Marrano families. It met for religious services regularly and observed all the major holidays, although without a Rabbi. During the weeks I stayed there I functioned as their Rabbi, and conducted extensive seminars and lectures on a great many facets of Judaism.
During my visits I interviewed every member of the Marrano community. My purpose was to gauge for myself their sincerity and Jewish convictions. I found an incredible thirst for Jewish knowledge that my lectures could not in any way diminish. I found a vibrant, spiritually Jewish community. I do not want to romanticize this havurah - it has had its share of troubles and internal strife. Like almost every Jewish community it has gone through cycles of decline followed by further growth.
I also began to learn some of the underpinnings of the members' desire to return to Judaism. One of the members who has been active since almost the beginning is Mr. Joao Fernandes Medeiros Dias, who now often uses the Hebrew name of Iohanan ben Imanuel Diya. I will briefly describe his life story since it is in many ways illustrative of many of the stories I heard from Marranos in Natal (and elsewhere).
Mr. Medeiros grew up hearing many stories about his ancestors and observing many practices similar to those discussed earlier in this article. For example, he was taught not to kneel in Church, and his family observed many of the dietary habits described earlier.
He developed an intense interest in religious issues and enrolled in a Protestant seminary. He frequently got into arguments with his colleagues, however, over a number of topics. When they told him to observe the Sabbath on Sunday, for example, he would argue that the Bible clearly indicated that Saturday is the true Sabbath.
Medeiros became an ordained minister and in 1970 moved to Rio de Janeiro. Although he was working for the Protestant Churches Council he met many Jews and began to learn about Judaism. The more he learned, the more he could not reconcile his religious beliefs and family traditions with Christianity. He found a Reform Rabbi, Henrique Lemle who performed a "Purification Ceremony" to signify his official return to the Jewish people. That ceremony was not a "conversion" ceremony since its purpose was to ratify his return to the practices of his ancestors. After his return to Judaism he decided to return to the Northeast so that he could help to bring back others who were, like him, of Marrano descent. He joined the community that was forming in Natal and, due to his religious training, was appointed its unofficial spiritual leader.
Mr. Medeiros has lived as a Jew ever since and has raised his children in the Jewish faith. One of his daughters lived in Israel for a time, but her quest to become an Israeli citizen failed since she was unable to unequivocally prove maternal descent from Jews for the last 500 years (a standard that few Jews in the United States could meet). Nor is Mr. Medeiros recognized as Jewish by the Brazilian Orthodox community.
Who Will Welcome Them Back?
In 1990 the Brazilian orthodox establishment sent a Rabbi from Sao Paulo to Natal to check the community's status. This Rabbi went to Natal and asked one of the few Jews in the city whether the Marranos could meet the standard Orthodox test - whether they could trace their maternal line back 500 years to unquestioned Jews. When this Jew said that the Marranos could not do this the Rabbi decided that they were of no interest to him. He even refused to speak to a delegation of Marranos that came to plead their case!
The reasons for the Orthodox refusal to accept - let alone welcome or encourage - the Marranos back to the fold are complex. While Halacha plays a role, Russian and other Jews face no such barriers even though their ancestry often is problematic. Since the Brazilian Jewish community has only 175,000 members, perhaps it is in part a fear of being overwhelmed. Scholars estimate that approximately 10% of the population - 15,000,000 Brazilians - are of Marrano descent, so if even a small percentage return to Judaism they could dominate the local Jewish community.
The Natal phenomena was the first of its kind to arise in Brazil. But in recent years many similar individuals and groups have begun to emerge, especially in northeast Brazil. The details of their traditional family practices and the reasons for the individual desires to (re)embrace Judaism vary. But the overall similarities in their stories and quests are uncanny.
The Marrano groups and individuals recently have begun forming a self-help network. They are sharing information and providing mutual moral support. They are trying to help one other become Jewish in terms of knowledge, practice and spirit.
The only parts of the Brazilian Jewish community that renders any significant assistance are isolated individuals, acting alone, and also the small Reform (called "Liberal") movement. The Reform movement makes an effort to help and welcome the Marranos by sending them some religious books and matzos during Passover. But the Reform community in Brazil is too small for the task, has many other items on its agenda, and is itself not totally in favor of assisting them.
Recently Kulanu has begun helping the Marranos of Brazil. I serve as a Rabbinic advisor to Kulanu and direct its Brazilian programs. Our activity has been limited due to budgetary considerations. We have, however, been able to help the Marrano network publish a book containing information on Judaism that is of most interest to Marranos. This book is now being distributed to interested individuals and groups. We have also sent educational material to Brazilian Marranos.
Perhaps the most important thing that Kulanu is doing for them comes from our attitude. We extend them a warm welcome back into the Jewish people. We let them know that not everyone in the Jewish community regards them with suspicion, cynicism and even hostility. If they want to rejoin us, we let them know that we need them. We truly regard them as our long lost brothers and sisters. We treat them accordingly and they know it.
Kulanu has also started to give public lectures to inform the American Jewish community about the Marrano situation. It is our hope that as we let our audiences know that these people are sincerely returning to their religion after 500 years, perhaps American Jews will stop and think that Judaism must be something really special. If these Brazilians are so eager to reclaim it, perhaps Americans will be less likely to loose it. Ultimately, by helping the Brazilian Marranos, we hope to help ourselves.
The Marranos' Jewish claims are genuine and strong. They are the last, stubborn remnants of one of the most tragic episodes of Jewish history. Now, an amazing event - dare I say miracle - is occurring. They want to finish this horrible chapter in a positive way, in a way that will represent the triumph of the Jewish spirit over the forces that would destroy us.
How can we reject them? How dare we refuse to welcome them? If this chance to partially rewrite a horrible part of our history passes, how will we live with ourselves? We cannot stand idly by. This must be seen as an incredible opportunity for the revewal of the Jewish people.
How ironic if it turns out that they survived the forces of the Inquisition, and also 500 years of being forced to practice their Judaism secretly, only to be finally defeated by Jewish indifference.
Rabbi Aiello is Making a Difference in Italy’s South
Rabbi Barbara Aiello lives in a 400-year-old house in Serrastretta, a small mountain town in Calabria, in the extreme South of Italy. She has converted the bottom floor into a synagogue (Ner Tamid del Sud) and a Jewish culture center in order to pursue her life’s work — to serve returning Bnai Anousim (descendants of victims of the Spanish Inquisition forced to convert to Roman Catholicism) in Calabria and Sicily.
My husband Aron and I visited Aiello during Passover, anxious to meet some of the members of her community returning to Judaism after a 500-year interruption.
Aiello, an Italian-American whose family members were among those Anousim, has been serving as a Liberal rabbi in Italy for five years, first in Milan and then in Calabria. She is Italy’s first and only female rabbi.
Aiello was delighted to be able to buy a portion of her house in Serrastretta, for it has been in her family for most of its 400-year history. Although she was born and raised in the US, she still has a large family in Italy — some 70 relatives.
Serrastretta is near the city of Nicastro, a town with a once-flourishing Jewish community. In the 1920s her father would ride down the mountain from Serrastretta in a horse-drawn wagon filled with artichokes to study Bible and a little Hebrew with a scholar in Timpone, the Jewish quarter of Nicastro. When Aiello took her father back to the Timpone in the 1970s, after a decades-long absence, he kissed the ground and cried.
Aiello likes to bring visitors to Timpone, emphasizing that the place was similar to so many other areas in Southern Italy. She says, “Timpone was a Jewish quarter, meaning that, unlike a ‘ghetto,’ where Jews were locked in from the outside, in Calabria and Sicily Jews lived in ‘quarters,’ which were open and offered free passage.” She pointed out signs pasted to walls in the quarter announcing “Ricorrenza il tredicesimo della scomparsi di Rosario Bandiera” or “La cena doppo sette giorni per Aprile Pasquale Bagnato.” (Thirteenth anniversary of the death of Rosario Bandiera; The meal after seven days for Aprile Pasquale Bagnato.) She cites these surnames – Bandiera, Bagnato, and Aprile – as examples of common Jewish names and says the continuation of practices such as remembering the anniversary of a death or having a meal after the seven-day mourning period are remnants of Jewish traditions of which few Calabrians are aware.
There are two streams (torrenti) running through Timpone. The Jews, who brought the silk and leather trades there in the 12th century, needed the moving water for their work. Aiello noted that Jews were taxed separately, that they were sometimes money-lenders, and that Jews started the institution of banking in Naples.
Church Relations
Aiello’s experience with the Catholic Church in Nicastro has been mixed. When she speaks, she refers to the spirit of dialogue espoused by Pope John Paul II, who referred to the Jews as “big brothers” of the Catholics. She says her purpose is to help Bnai Anousim understand their past, since this leads to a better future — whether or not they choose to return to Judaism. When she first arrived in Nicastro, two years ago, local priests were eager to have their congregants learn more about their Jewish heritage. In recent months, however, this has changed. Some say that the bishop is less than enthusiastic about discussing what has become the well-publicized historical Jewish presence in the area and has passed on this attitude to his parish priests.
Aiello identified a small church in Timpone that modern historians such as Prof. Vincenzo Villella, author of La Judecca di Nicastro, document as once having been the local synagogue. One clue is its rose window, in which the remnant of a Star of David can be seen. She also points to the squat shape of the building, typical of medieval synagogues but atypical of churches. There were also rumors of Jewish artifacts being found there. Interestingly enough, after Aiello suggested that the Jewish community might rent the dilapidated church for occasional synagogue use, the diocese suddenly commenced a grand renovation project, now complete, even though there is no active parish or priest assigned to the church and a symbolic mass is held only once a week.
Near the church is a garden containing a structure Aiello suspects was a mikveh (Jewish ritual bath). The owner of the mikveh garden, whose 90-year-old mother remembers parts of her Jewish past, was once supportive of the rabbi and her Jewish visitors. He even opened the garden to a Shavuot service two years ago. Unfortunately, he has now asked Aiello to make other plans because he has been told that his local business might suffer if he continues to promote the Jewish presence in Timpone. Aiello’s reaction to the situation is philosophical. She recalls that recent European history has included incidents where local communities were asked to return confiscated property to its rightful Jewish owners. “It could be that the locals are fearful,” she says.
Conversions
Aiello also occasionally serves Liberal congregations and havurot in other parts of Italy. Among them is Turin’s Congregation Or Chadash, where she is official rabbi. She is responsible for 54 conversions in her five years in Italy. These are accomplished through the World Union of Progressive Judaism, which holds one Beit Din each year in Italy or elsewhere in Europe. Aiello is proud of her accomplishment in winning for Anousim a “Status Recognition” certificate, which includes the same study requirements as those for converts, but which affirms a Jewish heritage that had been stolen or nearly erased by the Inquisition or other persecutions.
Aiello says that her work is inspired by Gary A. Tobin’s 1999 book, Opening the Gates: How Proactive Conversion Can Revitalize the Jewish Community. From Tobin she learned how to extend the hand of Jewish welcome to newcomers and she counts Tobin among her supporters.
One of her favorite topics is extremism in religion, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. She recently participated in a conference on Physical and Mental Abuse of Women Hidden in Religious Extremism, together with a Catholic nun and a Muslim woman.
Aiello is dedicated to teaching her new Jewish congregants that tikun olam (“repair of the world,” a basic tenet of Progressive Judaism) involves the whole world, and not just Jews. To that end, her congregants work with her to organize La Scuola sul Marcipiede (the Sidewalk School) so that the children of Rom (Gypsy) mothers can learn to read, write, and count while their mothers beg for money on local street corners.
The Seders
On the first seder night, we found ourselves in the Serrastretta shul, Ner Tamid del Sud (Everlasting Light of the South) with 23 other participants, six of whom had arrived unexpectedly. Aiello led, assisted by Salvo Parrucca, one of her Anous converts, who hopes to become a rabbi one day. (Parrucca was in the US and spoke before Kulanu gatherings in Washington and New York last year.)
Aside from the seven guests from the US and Australia, the group was composed of Italians with a Jewish family background who are exploring the religion. (One of the guests was Enrico Tromba, an archeologist who has done excavating of a Roman-era synagogue in Bova Marina.) We used a Liberal haggadah printed in Italian and Hebrew, with some Hebrew transliterations.
In addition, Aiello, a former puppeteer, created a script for the Passover story (Maggid di Pesach), written in such a way that the character can choose to read his/her part in either Italian or English. It was a delightful mishmash, as guests read in English and the locals responded in Italian. Characters were suited to children and adults and included a narrator, Yocheved (Moses’s mother), Baby Moses (who at different times said “Waaa!!!” or “Gooo…gooo”), Moses, Sheep (“Baaa”), the Voice of God, the pharaoh, and Miriam. Sound effects (fingers tapping on the table) were prescribed for the gallop of pharaoh’s horses.
After we were seated, the Passover platter made a grand entrance, and was passed around from guest to guest, held up over each head to demonstrate that we were once slaves in Egypt and carried heavy burdens on our heads. This is an ancient Passover tradition specific to the South of Italy. Centerpieces consisted of large bowls of charoset beautifully decorated with pine nuts. Ingredients included oranges, dates, figs, almonds, and apple.
Another custom new to us was the application of scallions in a whipping fashion on the next person during the singing of the chorus of Dayenu, to recall our days of slavery. This was a real crowd pleaser and ice-breaker.
Aron and I contributed one of our favorite seder rituals — reading the Four Questions in Luganda, the language of the Abayudaya — as a reminder that Jews everywhere celebrate the holiday at the same time.
The seder meal consisted of chicken rice soup (rice is kosher for Pesach in Sephardic cultures), roast lamb with salad, and a fruit cup.
Aiello led a second-night seder for her congregants at the Progressive Or Chadash synagogue in Turin, several hundred miles to the North. Held at the local children’s theater venue, 62 parents, children and Nonni (grandparents) were in attendance.
We rejoined her on the fifth night for a more intimate seder in Selinute, in the South of Sicily, where we found a delightful family of four. The rabbi explained that there is a custom for a fifth-night seder among Anousim in Italy, who knew Inquisition authorities would be watching them on the first and second nights. There is a double meaning, since hamishi means five, and its derivative hamishe means friendly (coming from the five fingers on the hand of friendship). Legend has it that Christian friends helped the Jews plan that event and kept it secret from Inquisition authorities. The tradition of the Hamishi Seder continues to this day, and it proceeded like the first night’s seder, except that it was completely in Italian and Hebrew (Aron and I have been studying Italian for a few years). The two young children couldn’t get enough of Dayenu. The menu consisted of matzah bruschetta with chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil, and olive oil (a delicious custom we will adopt every year), roast lamb with potatoes, and fruit. We have already been corresponding by email with that lovely family.
Rabbi Aiello noted that, sadly, many more guests had made reservations for the Sicilian seder. However, they failed to even notify their host they would not be coming. “This has happened here in Sicily in other years as well,” Aiello says, and continues, “Word has it that some Orthodox rabbis who invite Sicilian Jews to come north for High Holy Day services make it known that participating at Jewish functions with Liberal Jews might have a negative effect. So some of the older ones are afraid to join us.”
Jewish Sightseeing in South Italy
Before we left for Italy, Aiello and our own research had made us aware of several sites of Jewish interest in the Southern provinces of Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily. We visited some of these before the first seder and some after, with only partial success.
Our first such stop was Trani, an exquisite medieval town on the Adriatic coast, where the 13th century Scolanova Synagogue was reconsecrated in 2005. Located on Via Sinagoga, it had been a synagogue prior to the 14th century, when the Jews of Puglia were expelled. It was used as a church until 50 years ago, when it was abandoned. We were shown the modest but beautiful ancient space by Avram Zeliko, who davens there, and whose family has lived and owned property in the synagogue area for centuries. His family came from Palestine during Roman times. The shul is recognized by the Orthodox Italian Rabbinic Council and the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, although many of its members are not observant and some are intermarried. Others were officially converted in Milan.
The town of Oria, once a major Jewish center, has a city gate known as Porta Giudea (Jewish Gate) or Porta dei Ebrei (Gate of the Jews), and one-quarter of the old city is labeled as the Jewish Quarter (Rione Giudea) on street signs. The owner of a restaurant in the quarter helped us find an unlabeled house that was formerly a synagogue, and we excitedly photographed it. There is a large, old-looking metal menorah outside the old city, near the Porta Giudea, but we could find no explanation for it.
We walked around the old area of Lecce and came across a street named after Abramo Baldes. We wanted to know more, but no one knew anything about Jews living in that quarter many years ago.
In the scenic town of Gallipoli we noticed the words “Giudecca” on a map, and set about to look for that Jewish quarter. There was no trace of the old area any more; just modern buildings. However, people were aware of the old Giudecca and pointed out where it used to be. We had better luck in Manduria, which has an intact Jewish quarter along the Vico Ebrei (Jews Alley). A privately owned museum was carved out in one of the tiny buildings with a menorah on a table, indicating that the place was probably a synagogue. We walked through the old city of Taranto looking for a sign of Jews (we had read that there were “significant traces” of a former medieval Giudecca there). We scoured the area looking for a telltale street sign, but many were unlabeled. The people we asked had never heard of Jews being there.
Venosa, where Jews settled in Roman times, was a highlight. Not only did we see ancient, Roman-style Jewish tombstones in the castle’s archeological museum, and fragments of 9th century Jewish (and other) tombstones built into the walls of an incomplete 13th century church, but we also saw the famous Jewish catacombs.
Led by restoration director Savarese, we toured the Jewish part of the catacombs at the La Madalena hill (there is an adjoining Christian complex). The complex we saw contained 108 tombs and featured special non-thermal lighting and a sophisticated computer system to monitor geophysical occurrences that might destabilize the catacombs. The complexes have been closed to the public since 1960 to safeguard the structures. Visitors can obtain prior permission by contacting Soprintendente della Basilicata, c/o Soprintendenza Archaelogica, Via Serrao, 85100 Potenza, Italy (tel. 0971 21 719), and requesting “autorizzazione visitare catacombe ebraiche di Venosa.”
The tombstones were written in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and some were inscribed with images of a menorah, shofar, or lulav and etrog.
Impressive as it was to see the web of (now empty) openings that held tombs in the 4th century, it is even more so to become aware of what those tombstones (available to the public only in pamphlets) tell us. For instance, the tombstone of an adolescent girl named Faustina reveals that her funeral ceremony was attended by the whole city, including Jews, Christians, and Pagans. Markers also tell of the existence of apostuli, emissaries from Palestine collecting taxes from Diaspora Jews. Others describe the important position the departed held — city official, rabbi, physician, member of a council of elders, et al.
We stopped briefly in Castrovillari to search for a synagogue mentioned in one source. A knowledgeable man told us where the Giudecca used to be (it is not labeled), but he said the synagogue no longer exists.
Abruptly moving up to the 20th century, we saw, in Ferramonti di Tarsia, the former concentration camp where foreign and Italian Jews were interred. The Italian guards, who hated the Nazis, saved the 3000 Jews; there were only four deaths there, all of natural causes. When the Nazis came south to organize a deportation, the Italians hoisted the yellow typhus flag and the Nazis fled each time. The camp housed synagogues, two schools, and a hospital, and today it has a Museum of Tolerance. We viewed the camp through a fence since no official was available to open the gate on what was election day for a new prime minister.
In Santa Severina we were unable to find the Jewish quarter until we were advised by one man that it was the former Greek quarter. We photographed a street in the old Greek quarter, just in case. In Bova Marina, where a Roman synagogue was excavated by Enrico Tromba, we viewed the synagogue’s mosaic floor, which has been relocated to the Municipio building. It is in only fair condition, but we could make out a menorah, a shofar, and a so-called “Solomon’s Knot,” a design of interconnecting ovals with which we were not familiar.
Reggio di Calabria was our most urban stop. The city boasted a long, steep, and prominent Via Giudecca, now totally modern, with an escalator being installed down the middle! We had read, in a booklet by Enrico Tromba, about certain Jewish artifacts being located in Reggio’s national museum. We looked carefully for them in the museum, without success. We showed the booklet’s pictures of these artifacts to museum officials, who said they were housed on an upper floor that was closed for the day due to problems with restoration employees. Despite repeated appeals, they were adamant. Finally, when we asked to see the director of the museum, they found a way to admit us to the closed area. We were delighted to see a 4th century C.E. marble inscription in Greek saying “Synagogue of the Jews,” a North African oil lamp with a menorah design, and 5th century bronze coins with a menorah design found near the Bova Marina synagogue.
Sicily was particularly important in Italian Jewish history, for by the end of the 13th century Jews had fled forced conversions in the other parts of Southern Italy. They were safe in Sicily until the Spanish edict of expulsion in 1492, which also applied to Sicily, then under Spanish domination. At that time there were 100,000 Jews in Sicily, and 40 percent of Siracusa was Jewish. The state issued particularly harsh economic sanctions against Jews, resulting in over half the Jews converting.
The beautiful old part of Siracusa is known as Ortigia, and in it lies a Giudecca with five streets specifically named for the Jews living there — Via Giudecca, Vicolo Giudecca I, II, III, and IV. The best Jewish site there is a perfectly intact mikveh dating from the 6th century. It is located in a palazzo that has been skillfully renovated into the Alla Giudecca Residence Hotel, which provides guided tours of the mikveh in English and Italian. To find out when tours are scheduled, call 39 0931 22255. The hotel has a website at www.allagiudecca.it.
In Palermo, the Jewish quarter is delineated by street names in Italian, Hebrew, and Arabic. We also discovered a building on Vicolo Meschita that we were confidant was a synagogue, and a neighboring businessman confirmed this.
Summing Up
It is difficult to imagine the rich Jewish life that existed in South Italy from Roman times to 1300 (1500 in Sicily). Jewish communities flourished throughout Sicily and in Bari, Oria, Capua, Otranto, Taranto, and Venosa. Among them were painters, physicians, actors, poets, tradesmen, and peddlers. During the 9th century, schools of Hebrew poetry emerged, and 100 years later Venosa, Bari, Otranto, and Oria had Talmudic academies. It is sobering to realize that today the number of Jews in South Italy is probably fewer than 100.
In addition to establishing Ner Tamid del Sud, the first new synagogue in the region in over 500 years, Aiello has founded the Italian Jewish Cultural Center of Calabria. She has led Tu B’Shevat and Purim festivals, Shabbaton study weekends, Chanukah workshops, and Hebrew classes.
There are undoubtedly many thousands of Italians with Jewish blood in the South. Time will tell how many of them will discover and take an interest in this heritage. Rabbi Barbara Aiello is certainly doing her part to bring awareness to them.
From the Casa Hillel (Guatemala) website it's unclear whether or not a group is Messianic, Bnai Noach (a quasi Jewish group who follow laws while remaining Christian) or Anousim (Crypto-Jews) discovering their ancestral roots in Judaism.
FAITH, COURAGE AND DISCOVERY: FROM EL SALVADOR TO JERUSALEM
It started in 1982 when Yael and Elisheva Franco’s mother helped open a new high school in El Salvador. She named it “Jerusalem.” The Franco sisters’ mother didn’t know anything about Jewish tradition and the school was “a regular secular school,” Yael Franco explains.
Ten years later, Yael and Elisheva’s mom arrived in Israel with a scholarship from the Israeli Embassy to study education in Haifa. Again, there was no overt relationship to Judaism. “She felt a connection with Israel but she didn’t know why,” Yael continues.
Today, the entire Franco family practices traditional Judaism. Big brother Eliyahu founded the Beit Israel synagogue in the country’s capital of San Salvador and the entire Franco family became its founding members.
Yael and Elisheva have now taken the next step: following their formal conversion to Judaism last year they are now living in Israel. Elisheva has made aliyah formally, while Yael is still waiting for her Israeli identity card, which she expects to receive in the coming weeks.
When we asked Yael what she attributed the stunning changes in her life and the lives of her family, she says simply, “I feel like G-d guided our family, without us even realizing it, to the way we are now. Slowly, slowly we started doing things. First it was the name of the school, then our mother came to Israel. We kept Shabbat even before there was a Jewish connection.”
That’s the way it goes so much of the time with the Bnei Anousim of Spain, Portugal and the Americas, when hidden Jewish heritage springs from the most unexpected places – like an unbidden premonition to name a school “Jerusalem” in the heart of Central America, 7,600 miles from the historic capital of the Jewish people.
The Bnei Anousim are descendants of Jews who were forced into hiding or compelled to convert to Catholicism 500 years ago. Many escaped Europe for the new world on the ships of the great explorers, settling in El Salvador, Colombia and Chile. But the Inquisition followed and these Jews, like their brethren back in the old country, went underground.
Shavei Israel recently met up with four young women from El Salvador who are now in Israel at various stages of the conversion and aliyah process, studying in Jerusalem area midrashot (seminaries) and Hebrew language ulpans. (A fifth woman, Aliza, was not available for an interview.)
Rachel, 27, studied communications in El Salvador and hopes to continue in that field in Israel – maybe even to become a journalist. “I know English and Spanish, which opens up a lot of opportunities,” she says. “Now I’m studying Hebrew.”
Rachel’s maternal side came to El Salvador from Spain; her father emigrated from Turkey. “I don’t know if they were Jews, but it doesn’t really matter,” she says. “From very early on, I wanted to know more about Judaism. I was weird – I was the only one of my Christian friends that didn’t believe in Jesus.”
While at university, Rachel made friends with a couple of Jewish students. “One day, I was walking home, and I just sighed and said, ‘G-d, I want to find you!’ One week later, one of my Jewish friends invited me to come for Shabbat in her community. I didn’t know anything about them or Shabbat. But I went. We sang all the psalms and I cried, ‘G-d, I found you!” From that day, I have never missed Shabbat.”
Sonia, 28, found her way to the San Salvador Jewish community through the city’s sole Jewish bookshop. She too didn’t grow up Jewish. “But I always loved to read and my family used to talk about how the Jews were the chosen people. So I went to the bookstore to learn more. The woman working there connected me to the Jewish community,” she says.
Sonia studied social work at university for a year, “but I had to leave it to work.” Her job was in quality control for a factory. Now in Israel, she would like to return to her social work studies. “I think there’s a lot of potential to help others in need here, especially in Spanish,” she says.
The Franco sisters are ten years older than Rachel and Sonia, and Yael Franco has a 13-year-old son, Yehoshua, who came to Israel with her. “Everything came from heaven at just the right time,” Yael says. “Yehoshua’s father agreed to let him leave El Salvador.”
Yehoshua had a brit mila when he was a baby, but what’s surprising is that his non-Jewish uncle, the future leader of the Beit Israel community Eliyahu and his other male relatives also had circumcisions when they were young –very unusual for El Salvador, Yael explains, but that’s just the way it was for the Franco family. “We never ate pork, which is also very strange for Central America,” Yael says. “And the women always wore skirts. Our parents said it was a moral thing, but they never explained why. I don’t think they knew. It was tradition.”
The Francos were active in their evangelical church – their father was the community’s religious leader when he began having doubts about Christianity. “We started to ask a lot of questions and eventually decided that the church wasn’t the truth,” Elisheva explains. As her father’s talks from the pulpit began to diverge from what his parishioners expected, “they expelled him and our entire family,” Elisheva says.
It was only once they had left the church, however, that they came to Judaism, Elisheva adds. “When my brother founded Beit Israel, our old friends were very angry. They called us heretics and cut off all contact. It was the only time we ever experienced any anti-Semitism.”
Indeed, El Salvador has been remarkably friendly to the Jews. When we spoke with Eliyahu Franco in 2013, he told us it’s not unusual to see a Magen David (Star of David) or a Menorah used as a design element on a sign on a bus or in front of a shop. Moreover, Franco said he wears his kippa (head covering) openly on the street “and people just come up to me and say ‘we love the Jewish people.’” (For more about why Eliyahu thinks El Salvador is so welcoming, read our article here.)
Shabbat at Beit Israel is an incredible experience, Rachel explains. “Everyone comes to the synagogue before Shabbat and sleeps over. We all bring and share food. There isn’t even time for a Shabbat afternoon rest – we have so many activities and classes. It’s that way every Shabbat.”
Why would Rachel want to leave such an inclusive community?
“There’s no other place like Israel,” she replies quickly. “There’s something special here that I belong to. I cannot even think of living in a different place now. I feel like there’s a ‘soul connection’ here.”
Elisheva and Yael both worked at their mother’s.
“Jerusalem” school, which began over time to add classes in Jewish history and tradition. After nine years in the Beit Israel community, they knew it was time to move on. They traveled first to the U.S., where their Orthodox conversions were performed, and then to Israel.
Elisheva says she would like to write a book about her experiences. “I would call it, ‘Life is a Present,’” she says. “Every time we have a test in life, there’s a purpose. Every breath we take, every time we look and see and talk, it’s a gift from G-d. It’s not always obvious.”
Elisheva hopes that once she has learned enough, she can become a Jewish studies teacher for other Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Elisheva, Yael, Sonia and Rachel all arrived in Israel – and in Jerusalem in particular – at a difficult time in the country’s on-going battle against terror. We asked if they feel afraid.
“Are you kidding?” Elisheva says almost breaking out in laughter. “You don’t know what it’s like in El Salvador. Seventy people are killed every week. It’s terrible. I feel much safer in Israel.”
Sonia agrees. “I feel secure here because I am close to G-d.”
“It’s like one big family here and you’re never alone,” Elisheva adds. “Even if we’re sometimes very different, the people are together, united.”
Yael and Elisheva have a message for their community back in El Salvador: “We didn’t forget you. We may be the pioneers, but we will help you to come too.”
Yael stresses that she is “grateful for the attention that Shavei Israel has given us, for sending [Shavei Israel emissaries] Rabbi Daniel Tuito and Rabbi Yitzhak Aboud and for helping us make true the dream to return to Eretz Israel [the land of Israel] and recite in our own land Shema Israel, Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad.”
Shavei Israel has supported Yael, Elisheva, Rachel, Sonia and Aliza from the very start and will continue to be there as they settle into their new lives in Israel. If you’d like to be a part of Shavei Israel’s ongoing assistance to El Salvador and other Bnei Anousim communities in Central and South America, please visit our support page.
“The process we have been through is complicated and not always easy,” Rachel concludes. “But G-d is always with us. He listens to our prayers. My soul is always looking for the truth, to find G-d. I want to transmit emunah –faith – in my life, and that we can fight for what is right. I know G-d has helped me.”
Tribe of GadThe Lost Tribe of Gad is modern Spain and all other affiliated countries.
Key Prophecies
Jacob's pronouncement over Gad: Genesis 49:19 Gad will go out to raid, and will pursue at the heels of his enemies.
The term raider would end up as the Spanish term conquistador and is best know as the Spanish ships that raided Central and South American for what would be known as Spanish Gold.
Gad ended up with a considerable inheritance, including all of Central and South America.
The Treaty of Nijmegen forms the seal date document for Gad, and identifies Gad as Spain.
Curiously, on the exact seal date, a French fleet is sunk by Dutch ships in the Caribbean, which is generally Gad's territory.
Extent of Gad
The seal date for Gad identifies Spain as the core European country for the lost tribe of Gad. Portugal is also listed as part of this tribe because of the close association and language similarity between Spanish and Portuguese. This causes Portugal's former colonies to also be listed as part of Gad.
Italy is also listed here as a part of Gad. This is because of language similarities. In ancient times Italy was probably the prophetic location of Manasseh, and times when the Italian army were moving prophetically (70 AD, for example) are also matched by modern American army movements. (Kuwait invasion.) The Manasseh seal date does not include Italy, and there is essentially no reason to think modern Italy is still Manasseh.
Ethiopia is listed here because Italy was the European power that attempted to subdue the country. It should be noted that Ethiopia is one of the few countries to remain independent in Africa, similar to Thailand in Asia. There may be a better assignment.
Honor our Portuguese Sephardic Ancestors
My father always called me by my first name, Rufina, the name of his mother, the one who had suffered so much humiliation and shame for keeping the Antepura (Yom Kippur). She kept it by disappearing for a whole day and night by going into the fields, so that she could fast, he was extremely proud of her because of her determination to maintain the religion of our ancestors against all odds. Rufina, he told me, meant Ruth, and that she came from a very ‘good’ family, meaning Jewish.
Researches are helping to make sense of the lost past full of shame and humiliation which continues in the present; being rejected by family and friends of the Gentile community when one chooses to return to the religion of one’s ancestors, Judaism. Returnees then have to ‘prove’ their claim to Judaism! The fear, justified or not, rests with what might happen if the ‘family secrets’ were discovered. It continues with the secrecy being a part of the religion transmitted through the ages along with the rituals and traditions that have caused such pain and complexity of identity, making it difficult for many of the descendants to acknowledge their Jewish past.
Today, older and wiser, I am accepted as a Jewess, having taken many years after my conversion to Orthodox Judaism, and yet often, 30 years later, I am still referred to as a ‘convert.’
Living in the oldest country of Western Europe, and after hiding for 500 years they came to believe they were the only Jews left in the world, having lived in the remotest areas, seeking refuge and anonymity in little villages throughout Portugal and the Islands (Madeira and the Azores).
Having known the rejection, shame and humiliation that continues with the descendants of those brave souls that have gone before. I want to make a difference by breaking that cycle, by talking about the ‘secrets’ and causing an awareness among the Portuguese and Jewish communities.
Our Portuguese Jewish ancestors, unlike anywhere else in the world, had no choice. Unlike Spain, where many converted or were forced to leave, the Portuguese Jews were not allowed to leave when Portugal closed the exit doors in 1497, the ones who managed to escape during those 300 turbulent years of the Inquisition, were the wealthy who paid the bribes for permission and documents needed to leave Portugal. They left as Conversos or ‘new-Christians,’ and once safely settled where they were free to practice their religion, did so by reverting back to Judaism. The rest of the Anousim left behind with no means of escape, continued living lives of fear, suffering the gruesome existance of deceit, shame and death.
The very obvious ‘religious’ names found among the Portuguese were used in years gone by to prove their genuineness as ‘super’ Catholics, a testimony to the stressful conditions they endured. Names like: de Jesus (of Jesus), Espirito Santo (Holy Spirit), a Santa Maria (of Saint Mary) amongst many others. It is believed the Penitente sect (a self-flagellating Catholic sect) of being from a similar source: the need to prove their ‘super’ Christianity.
Peace be still
Until the Jewish Diaspora accepts and understands this part of our history, when Portugal tried to become Judenrein, a chilling forecast of what was to come with Nazi Germany; to understand the centuries of suffering of the many Portuguese Jewish martyrs as another chapter of Jewish history, not to be ignored but accepted as part of our tragic past, until this time the shame and humiliation will remain.
Until the Portuguese Gentiles accept our combined and forever intertwined history with pride; this shared history will continue to be a ‘blot’ on the ‘purity’ of their genealogy and shameful for many. The Portuguese are mostly Roman Catholic, but are estimated to be 80% of Jewish admixture. We, the Sephardic Jews, and the Portuguese Catholics, share the same forefathers, the noble house of Israel, King David, King Solomon… how proud our Gentile family of Portugal should be of such history and lineage. Together, let us accept our heritage with pride — for we are one.
Sicilian Anous Travels to America
His story dates back to Inquisition times, when the long arm of Torquemada reached into Sicily and Calabria and systematically destroyed Jewish life there — a monumental accomplishment given that in the 1500s historians say that more than 50 percent of the Calabrian and Sicilian population was Jewish!
Parucca began a search for his Jewish roots several years ago. As a teenager he was drawn to Judaism, and only later did he discover that both his father’s and mother’s ancestors were Jewish. “My mother’s surname is Taibi,“ he says, “which originates in North Africa and which derives from the Hebrew name Tobias.” The surname, “Parrucca,” means “wig” in Italian and also has Jewish roots. Historians have established that when Sicilian and Calabrian Jews wanted to identify themselves secretly to one another, especially when to do so openly would mean punishment for “Judaising,” they often adopted surnames that were names of things (such as a wig, trumpet, or chair) or of flowers, towns, or villages.
The history of the Italian Jews is a complicated mix. For those who have seen Italy through Jewish eyes, that glimpse usually went no further south than Naples. Yet, the Jews of Sicily and Calabria are the oldest Jews in the Diaspora, as evidenced by the excavation of a synagogue at Bova Marina that some say predates a similar antiquity found near Rome. In these days and times, when population surveys indicate that our numbers are diminishing, it is important to remember that the more we reach out to lost and isolated Jewish communities like ours in the south of Italy, the more Jews we will have — today and tomorrow.
Secrets from a Forgotten Past
By the end of the 19th Century, historians believed that Portugal had achieved her goal. The Inquisition, which lasted 300 years in that country had managed to rid Portugal of all her Jews. The government, thinking the forced conversions and persecutions had made 4,000 years of history, culture and religion disappear, felt it necessary to ‘invite Jews’ back into the country to try and reverse the economic decline that had culminated with being judenrein. A few came from Morocco, Tangiers and Gibraltar, being granted recognition in 1892. Permission was granted for a synagogue to be built but was not allowed to face the street. The Shaare Tikva (Gates of Hope) is easily missed behind high walls and gates within a courtyard on the Rua Alexandre Herculano, Lisboa, even today. It is against this background of religious “tolerance” that Captain de Barros Basto established a small synagogue in Oporto. He also started a weekly newspaper, writing under his hebrew name of Abraham ben Rosh while also visiting remote areas, often in full military regalia. He did this to reassure this stiffled segment of the ‘secret’ communities of the government’s acceptance of their true religion. Many of these trips were made with two medical doctors accompanying him to perform circumcisions when required. Circumcision being an integral part of Judaism was outlawed by the Inquisition and many, in fear of their lives had to forgo this ritual. This fear continued up until this period.
The synagogue in Oporto grew from one room into a beautiful building donated by Ellie Kadoorie, himself from a sephardi family (Jews from Spain and Portugal, the Iberian peninsula) with business interests in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The ‘Kadoorie’ synagogue was built on a plot donated by Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris, while in Bragança, another synagogue with its own rabbi was started, called ‘Gates of Redemption.’
The captain, married with a family at this stage, established a yeshiva (religious school) in Oporto, which in the 9 years of existence managed to educate 90 students in Hebrew, French, Portuguese, Jewish religious history and studies. These activities did not go unnoticed by Salazar, believed to be of Jewish heritage himself, and his government who were not impressed with the situation. An estimated 10,000 families across Portugal, previously professing to be Catholic, were now admitting to having lived secret or double lives up to then, and were in fact secret Jews. Trumped up charges were brought against the Captain and within 24 hours he was court-martialed, stripped of his rank and ordered to close the yeshiva. He was devastated but remained a devoutly religious man, often praying alone in the Kadoorie synagogue, until his death in 1961.
The marrano renaissance, still in its infancy, died when once more fear was ignited amongst the Jews of Portugal. The fragile communities remembered that not so long ago, until well into the 19th century, you could be burned alive at the auto-da-fe (Act of Faith) on the mere suspicion of practising Judaism. With the advance of Nazism and with it, antisemitism, they could probably visualise once more looking at a map of Portugal, the three main centres of the Inquisition forming the ‘heart’ of the country: Lisbon, Coimbra, Evora. The heart that destroyed her own children and could easily have done so again.
Yet, the miracle of Portuguese Judaism continues, especially in the community of Belmonte, a town in northeast Portugal. Previously known as crypto (secret) Jews, they have recently, in December 1996, proudly rejoined mainstream Orthodox Judaism. After 500 years of secrecy and fear. Living and hiding in this charming town high in the Sierra da Estrela (Mountain of the Star) they managed with faith and perseverance to maintain their religion. As often stated, they were Jews in all but name and Christians in nothing but form. It's interesting that Crypto-Jews would live in a place named Mountain of the Star. It's a s if God woul have inspired the one that named it for a future area of Jews. Sons of this community had attended the yeshiva of Captain de Barros Basto in the 1930’s.
It is with pride that I remember my grandmother Rufina, and others like her, who in spite of the danger to their lives managed to keep their faith alive. How pleased she would have been had she known her humiliation had not been in vain, that today, many years later her granddaughter observes the Antepura (Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur) openly as a Jewess with Portuguese heritage. Although I too was baptised in the Catholic Church, I, like Captain de Barros Basto converted back to the religion of my forefathers, Orthodox Judaism. Often when listening to the Portuguese fado (folk music), the haunting soulfulness reminds me of a people forgotten, and my saudade (nostalgic longing) for the past continues.
Captain Barros was buried in Amarante, near his grandfather. The State of Israel offered to bury him in an honoured spot alongside other great figures in Jewish history, but he had left instructions, he wanted to be near his loved ones.
A special thanks to my hero, Mario Soares, President of Portugal, who made a public apology to the Jewish community of Portugal on 17th March 1989 for the horror and tragedy of the past. He linked the decline of Portugal directly to the ‘expulsion’ of the country’s Jewish citizens. (The expulsion in Portugal never took place. Instead the citizens were converted and baptised en masse and by force). Although we cannot forget or change the past, there is hope for a future together, for the people who share the noble lineage of King David, once more.
The Anousim of Portugal
As soon as the infamous decree was promulgated, a Jewish delegation went to Portugal to negotiate their eventual admission in the country. King John II and some of his advisers, saw immediately an opportunity to augment the royal treasury and he approved their admission under certain conditions. Affluent families were charged the large sum of 100 cruzados per family, for the right of permanent residence (there were over 600 of them.) The majority of the exiles, however, were taxed eight cruzados per head, for the right to remain in Portugal for no more than eight months, at which time ships would be provided to take them to other destinations. Between 120 and 150.000 Spanish Jews thought they had found a temporary refuge in Portugal. None of them could have foreseen the terrible fate that awaited them.
Hardly had the refugees set foot on Portuguese soil, when they began to be subjected to various pressures from the government and the populace. They were blamed by some for bringing the plague, and by others, for defying the teachings of the Church. King John, himself, eventually changed his mind about the Jewish refugees, when he realized that they might be an asset to his country and that it was therefore imperative to retain them in Portugal.
As the eight-month term drew to a close, in the Spring of 1493, he saw to it that only a small number of ships would be provided for the exodus, so that only few Jews were able to leave. The rest were now accused of having violated the initial agreement and, in accordance with one of its stipulations, they were declared to be slaves and handed over to Christian masters, unless they accept baptism. In that same year, some 700 children were forcibly taken away from their parents and shipped to the African island of São Tomé in an unsuccessful attempt to populate this inhospitable place.
King Manuel was considering marrying Princess Isabella, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Such a marriage would have had considerable political significance for it would have made it possible for one of his descendants to eventually inherit the throne of Spain, one day. But Isabella had stipulated, as a precondition for the marriage, that Portugal should follow the Spanish example by expelling the Jews from the country.
This prospect of a possible unification of the entire Iberian Peninsula under a monarch of the house of Braganza, proved irresistible. On December 5, 1496, Manuel issued a decree ordering all Jews — and not only the Spanish refugees — and all Moors, to leave Portugal by the end of October 1497.
The expulsion, however, was never carried out, because Manuel had second thoughts about it. Realizing that by ridding Portugal of all its Jews, he would lose an important segment of its middle class, with none to carry on their commercial, industrial and fiscal activities, Manuel resorted to a most drastic measure, which had not been tried before, not even in Spain. He would simply compel all the Jews of his country to convert to Christianity. He had tried persuasion and torture, with little success. The Chief Rabbi, Simon Maimi, had died resisting conversion. He would now proceed in the most forceful manner.
Manuel did not waste any time. He decreed that all the synagogues and study-houses should be confiscated and the Jews were commanded to surrender their books. On March 19, 1497, during the Jewish Passover, orders were given that all the Jewish children between the ages of four and fourteen, be forcibly converted and permanently separated from their parents unless they accepted baptism as well.
Great humanist chroniclers as Jerónimo Osório and Damião de Góis, otherwise favorable to Manuel, roundly condemned the forced conversion and wrote heartbreaking accounts of these events.
Only months before the final upheaval, Manuel had consulted astronomer and astrologer Abraham Zacuto about the advisability of sending Vasco da Gama on his voyage to India. Jews were involved in all the facets of the economy of the nation. They were developing printing and map-making. In the academies of Lisbon and elsewhere, Jewish scholarship was flourishing.
“A poignant symbol of this period” writes Yoseph Yerushalmi, “may be seen in a granite stone inscribed in Hebrew that was recently unearthed in Gouveia. The stone was apparently once on the façade of a synagogue:
The glory of this house shall be greater than that of the former, says the Lord of Hosts (Haggai, 2:9) Completed was our holy and glorious house (Is. 64:10) In the year: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return unto Zion with joy (berinah) (Is. 35 and 51).
The forced conversion of 1497, was illegal by any standards, says Yerushalmi, as he quotes the Converso scholar and poet, who eventually returned to Judaism, Samuel Usque, who referred to it as “this violence which is contrary to divine and human laws” “esta violência, contra as leys diuinas e humanas.”
Solomon Ibn Varga, another converso who later returned to Judaism, would write a few years later: “And what will it profit our lord and king to pour holy water on the Jews, calling them Pedro or Pablo while they kept their faith like Akiba and Tarfon? Know, Sire, that Judaism is like an incurable disease.”
In our days, many Jews are quite perplexed when they learn about various communities which claim to be a Jewish descent and that is unfortunate. Kulanu and Amishav are the two organizations that are actively involved in this outreach work. We need more support from the Jewish community. We need to establish a Jewish presence in Portugal — among other countries — and we must endeavor to undo what the Roman Catholic Church did in centuries past.
Some Hispanics learn family trees have Jewish branch
On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed an edict for the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Jews were given a choice: They could either convert to Catholicism, leave or face death.
About 400,000 converted, some choosing to abandon their faith, others continuing to practice it in secrecy, thus inheriting the name "Crypto Jews." More than 250,000 fled to Mexico, South and Central America.
A century later, some of the 600 who joined Spanish conquistador Don Juan de Onate during his 1598 expedition across what is now the Southwest were Crypto Jews who wanted to get away from the influence of the Catholic church.
There are literally hundreds of Hispanics around the world who are Jewish and may not know it.
Quirky family traditions such as lighting candles in secrecy on Friday nights or covering mirrors following the death of a loved one. The practices actually are part of Jewish life.
Among the surnames associated with Crypto Jews are Acevedo, Carrasco, Delgado, Gomez, Medina, Pacheco, Rosales, Silva and Torres.They are regarded as being common names but more often than not, these are names of Jewish origin.
Crypto-Jews celebrate finding their families' faith roots
A growing number of Spanish descendants who have traced their roots to Judaism. Until the Holocaust, many Jews considered the expulsion from Spain and the Inquisition the most traumatic events of the Jewish diaspora.
The crypto-Jews' legacy was all but forgotten until the mid-1980s, when historical accounts suggested the existence of "hidden Jews" primarily in New Mexico based on genealogical research and apparent Judaic customs that continued to thrive in a culture dominated by Catholics.
America's southwest. Hence a restaurant named after them.
Many recognized the rituals, from Friday night candle-lighting to bar mitzvah-like traditions, even when they were cloaked in Christian faith. They began to research their family roots, and ultimately, some have identified themselves as descendants of Sephardic Jews.
Some historians believe that ancestors of today's crypto-Jews belonged to small Church of God (Seventh Day) congregations that clung to Old Testament-style rituals. The Church of God, like traditional Judaism, celebrated the Sabbath on Saturdays and ignored Christmas and Easter in favor of its own versions of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Passover.
The majority of the [crypto-Jewish and converso] cases one encounters are authentic.
The Jews of Mexico
At the moment, there is a resurgence of interest in Judaism in Mexico, especially among descendants of Jews forced to convert to Christianity more than 500 years ago. Dr. Benjamin Laureano is a leader of one of those resurgent communities. His family was and is one of the fiercest and most intransigent among those who resisted the Inquisition in Spain and the Spanish colonies.
Dr. Laureano’s history traces the ancestry of Jews in Spain back to the time of Abraham and covers Jewish-Christian relations from the time of Jesus. However, the central message of his historical essay shows that the Sephardic community successfully resisted centuries-long persecution by the Inquisition and meticulously maintained its heritage underground against terrific odds. His work stands up solidly against allegations that the Mestizo Jewish community has no true Jewish antecedents and instead derives from Protestant conversions in the 19th century.
When the Jewish people first settled the Land of Israel, it didn’t take long for them to join their new neighbors, Phoenicians, Philistines, and Syrians, in the sea trade along the shores of the Mediterranean. Jewish traders followed the established pattern of setting up bases in distant harbors, which grew into expatriate colonies, especially in Spain. Records from the 10th century BCE, the time of King Solomon, already describe several Jewish seafarers’ outposts in Sefarad, which we know today as Spain. It is known that King Solomon himself visited there.
Jewish colonists in Spain had their numbers greatly expanded in 70 CE, when a Roman occupation army extinguished the last Jewish self-government in Israel and destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish people were deported from Israel, and many of them went to Spain.
About 120 CE, Emperor Hadrian of Rome cast out another 50,000 Jewish families and had them transported to Spain. The number of synagogues in Sefarad grew considerably, which brought on more anti-Jewish legislation. For example, between 612 and 620 CE, the Romans ordered 90,000 Jews to be forcibly baptized, and those who rebelled against this edict were tortured and had their goods confiscated. Jewish children were forcibly separated from their parents and educated in convents.
The Twelfth Council, called by the Catholics in 681 CE, attempted to completely root out Jewish practices, with severe punishments for Jewish converts to Catholicism who secretly practiced the Law of Moses. The term “Marranos” for Crypto-Jews dates from that time.
A turnabout occurred in 701 CE, when the Eighteenth Council of Toledo revoked all anti-Jewish legislation, allowing a rebirth of Jewish culture in Spain. Jews once again freely studied the Talmud.
Living conditions for Jews in Spain improved even more when Moorish Arabs vanquished the Christian Visigoths, leading to a broad area of cooperation between Jews and Arabs. Jews became active in key fields, such as medicine, mathematics, philosophy, politics, and commerce.
Toward 900 CE, Christianity again expanded into Spain, even though the Moorish Arabs tried valiantly to maintain their hold. The victorious Church issued new anti-Jewish rules, layering society in a way that put Christians on top, Moors in the middle, and Jews at the bottom. This gave rise to apologetic responses by highly regarded Jews, especially disavowing their alleged responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Don Isaac Abravanel, for example, pointed out that his ancestors had arrived in Seville during the time of the Second Temple, some 457 years before Christ, putting them far away from that scene.
Nonetheless, the Christians continued enforcing their anti-Jewish statutes, which, among other restrictions, prohibited Jews from holding office and from constructing new synagogues. The pressure was so great that some Jews decided to convert to Catholicism to save themselves, and, again, many of them continued practicing their Judaism in secret, resurrecting the term “Marranos”.
Despite hope for relief from the Inquisition in the new Spanish territories conquered by Columbus and his successor in the Americas, the king ordered that in these communities, there are not to dwell any… Jews, Moors, or sinners. This edict was strengthened by the Royal Decree of Emperor Charles V, issued September 15, 1522, and authorized by the pope, ordering that even Jews who had recently converted were banned from the Indies.
The Jews tried to evade the Inquisition by moving away from Mexico City, for example to land that now is in the State of Michoacán. They started agricultural enterprises there, producing the famous Cotija cheese. But even to this distant place the Inquisition extended itself, and its actions against Jews there are very well documented. Nonetheless, more and more Jews who had been hiding in Spain came to Mexico, thinking it might be safer for them there.
Human traffickers made their appearance and secretly took Jews to the New World. An underground bridge was established from Spain to the Canary Islands and from there to the Caribbean Islands and the American continent. Ironically, the Inquisition also aided in the transfer of Jews to the New World by sentencing them to serve in galleys. Some who survived the arduous passage were able to jump ship.
Many Aztec beliefs and customs paralleled those of the Jews, which explains why this indigenous people easily accepted conversion to Judaism. This philo-Semitism provided a circle of protection for Sephardic Jews, and even went so far as conversion of the Indians to Judaism. The natives realized that this was a way to fight back against the hated oppressors, the Catholic colonizers. These had branded Indian serfs in the face with hot irons and forced them to work in mines with so little food that they practically starved.
The authorities were aware of the collusion between Jews and natives. Their records show, for example, that a Juan de Baeza (also known as Juan de Baca) was prosecuted by the Inquisition in 1540 for circumcising Indian friends with his fingernails for lack of proper instruments. A copy of the charge sheet still exists.
Throughout the history of Mexico, persecution of Crypto-Jews continued, but a ray of hope appeared when, after the French Revolution of 1789, French agents started arriving in Mexico, preaching the principles of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Of course, the Inquisition went after them, but Masonic lodges were organized to protect them, and for that reason many Jews joined the Masons.
The Jewish-Masonic alliance influenced major policy. The Masonic leadership issued a proclamation in 1833 establishing freedom of opinion and press; abolishing the prerogatives of the clerics and the military; closing the convents; establishing civil marriage; founding public schooling, abolishing capital punishment; protecting Mexican territoriality; and opening the ranks of the Masons to women.
The political changes favored Mestizo Jews, and they started to escape the oppressive life in the mines. For example, families like the Téllez and the Bolaños settled in Venta Prieta near Pachuca in the State of Hidalgo, forming the core of later resurgence of Judaic interest. Talented leaders arose to help the process. They included Baltazar Laureano Ramírez y Moyar, and Ana Escobedo de Luna. (They are presumed ancestors of Dr. Laureano and his wife, who belonged to a Luna family).
Articles about the mysterious Jews of Mexico then started appearing in popular magazines. They covered the Jewish Mestizo community in Venta Prieta and also described the synagogue on Caruso Street No. 254 in the Vallejo District of Mexico City. Thats how people learned about the circumstances that had circumscribed the life of Jews during the Mexican colonial period and how they struggled to survive, leading to a Jewish resurgence in present-day Mexico.
Regarding the Spanish law of citizenship for Jewish's offspring of expellees in 1492
Under the draft bill, Spain is offering citizenship to any person – whether Jewish or not – whose Sephardic origins can be certified.
Even if the proposed law passes the parliamentary vote, another complication would be figuring out who would be eligible. Although one would no longer be required to live in Spain (a two-year minimum is the current requirement for naturalization) or to renounce one’s previous citizenship, it would not be easy to claim blood ties to people who died half a millennium ago. In this regard, the draft legislation does not provide clear answers. According to articles in Forward Thinking and the New York Times, the law says that one does not actually need to be Jewish to claim Spanish citizenship, yet other sources say that the law as currently formulated would not apply to the descendants of the “conversos”—the Spanish Jews who underwent forced conversions to Catholicism in order to remain in Spain. Although the promise made at the time was that the “conversos” would be treated as other Catholics, in practice they continued to be persecuted and most of them ultimately left Spain. It is estimated that there are millions of descendents of “converses” worldwide. The possibility that descendants of “conversos” might not be eligible for Spanish citizenship raised angry reactions from that community. It is ironic that descendants of the Jews who were forced to convert might be required to convert back to Judaism before they can prove their link to Spain’s pre-expulsion Jewish community.
The Jews of Jamaica -- Then and Now
All the tombstones of the Jewish cemeteries of Falmouth and Montego Bay (but one) face east. The explanation generally given for the practice of Spanish and Portuguese Jews burying their dead facing east is that, when the Messiah would appear in Jerusalem, the dead, without the need for turning around, would rise from their resting places and proceed directly to Jerusalem. This custom of burying the dead facing east is not followed by Ashkenazic Jews but was also followed by Sephardic Jews in their oldest cemeteries in Surinam and New York.
My visit to the Anglican cathedral cemeteries of Montego Bay, Falmouth and Ocho Rios as well as to the two oldest Church cemeteries in New York City - Trinity Church and St. Paul's Church - found that the graves in those cemeteries also faced east. Conflicting reasons are given by Christians for this practice.
Most of Jamaica's Jews left for Britain, the USA and Canada between 1962, when Jamaica became independent, and the 1970s, when political unrest was widespread. This sharply reduced the island's Jewish population, which in 1957 numbered 1600, but by 1978 had only 350 remaining. This sharp reduction in so short a period seems to have lit a desire to survive among those remaining.
Being of mixed race is not new to the Jews of Jamaica. Slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1835. While the Jews of Jamaica were not owners of plantations -- where most Africans labored as slaves -- they did own slaves, and unions between Jews and slaves did occur. After 1835 intermarriage and other unions became so common that Dr. Lewis Ashenheim in 1844 predicted that the Jewish community of Jamaica was headed into extinction. John Bigelow, who traveled to Jamaica in 1850, a bare 15 years after slavery was abolished, had never before seen a black Jew. In his travelogue he wrote of his astonishment at the proportion of Jews who were "of all colors."
Some 250 Jews live on an island of three million, of whom 90% to 95% are of predominantly African origin. The United Congregation of Israelites is openly inclusive. It is openly willing to convert the non-Jewish marriage partner and is aggressively supporting intermarried couples who wish to raise their children as Jewish. The British periodical Jewish Renaissance has reported that although the rate of intermarriage and interracial marriage is high, the families of mixed marriages are choosing to bring up their children as Jews, whereas in the past Jamaican Jews who married out of the faith most often brought up their children as Christians.
Through Kulanu, I was introduced to Jessie Brooks, who was born in London of Jamaican descent. Her great-grandmother was the child of a Jewish father and a black mother. She wrote to me: "This was not uncommon in Jamaica as you can imagine. It was the acceptable norm for men to live with common law wives and even have concubines. Many children fathered by Jews outside marriage were not always brought up as Jews but still had Jewish heritage."
Conversion as a survival technique is becoming common not only in Jamaica but in several tiny Jewish communities of the Caribbean and Central America. Several of these communities have formed an umbrella group called the Union of Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the Caribbean. These communities include Costa Rica, EI Salvador, Bahamas, Jamaica, Aruba and Panama, among others. These communities strive to maintain their Jewish identity as members migrate out or marry non-Jews. The converts are accepted under conditions that may not conform to Orthodox halacha (traditional Jewish law). In their desire to attract the children of mixed marriages, some permit the non-Jewish spouse to participate in the synagogue in religious activities.
When I visited the Anglican cemetery in Ocho Rios, I noticed a tombstone which had a large six-pointed Star of David. It was the resting place of Jack Ruby Lindo, who died on April 2, 1989. "Lindo," I knew from my work in Falmouth, is a common name among Jamaican Jews of Portuguese origin. The bottom of the stone contained the following inscription: "P.S. See you in Zion" One can speculate on what caused Jack Ruby Lindo to be buried in this manner, but a most likely reason is that he or those who buried him had some attachment to Judaism or some feeling of identification with Jewish ancestors.
Philippines: Israel & a Much Older Connection
There may be connection between ancient Israelites and pre-colonial Philippines, because many researchers believed that the gold laden land of Ophir from where Solomon's gold came from as mentioned in the bible, may be located in Mindanao, particularly in the Butuan-Surigao area! In fact there were discoveries of ancient pre-colonial gold ornaments so intricate and excellently done it could easily be one of the ancient world's best! It was shown on TV by Probe Team and is now presently exhibited in Ayala Museum.
The Inquisition used the Philippines as a sort of penal colony. There are Mexican Inquisition records indicating that people were sentenced to Manila for several years.
The islands were a Spanish colony from 1521-1898, and conversos accompanied Spanish adventurers who settled the islands, according to Harvard University history professor Jonathan Goldstein, who wrote a paper on Jewish merchants in Far Eastern ports.
New Christians Jorge and Domingo Rodriguez are the first recorded Jews to have arrived, reaching Manila in the 1590s. In 1593, both were tried and convicted at a Mexico City trial ( auto-da-fe) because the Inquisition was not operating in the Philippines. At least eight other New Christians were also tried and convicted. Others with Jewish roots kept very quiet, settling in rural areas, living a precarious existence and keeping their traditions very secret in a very Catholic colony.
The Suez Canal opened in March 1869, cutting the travel time from Europe to the Philippines from three months to 40 days. In 1870, brothers Adolf, Charles and Rafael Levy arrived from Alsace-Lorraine, fleeing the Franco-Prussian War, and established a Manila jewelry store famous throughout the Philippines, La Estrella del Norte included general merchandise, gems, pharmaceuticals and automobiles. Leopold Kahn, also from Alsace, arrived in 1909 and joined them in business.
Many refugees were welcomed during the Holocaust. Later, Sephardic Bagdadi Jews from India arrived, as well as those from the American-European Ashkenazi community.
Some Sephardic discussion groups, such as Sephardim.org have recently seen messages from Filipinos discussing their Jewish backgrounds and remnants of Hebrew still preserved.
The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle covered the story of a group of individuals who recently converted to Judaism. Involved in this story was Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, a Brazilian native, well know for assisting converts and in outreach efforts in South and Central America. The group included a Filipino family:
It’s been a long road for Romeo Bagunu, his wife, Araceli, and their three children, Yeremeya, 10, Yonatan, 9, and Annaliza, 6. Both Romeo and his wife were born in the Philippines and raised in the United States.
“The whole process has taken many years for us, from study, trying to work out our faith,” said Romeo Bagunu.
He estimates they’ve been studying Judaism on their own for 11 years. Research into their ancestry sparked a curiosity about Judaism. Both Romeo and Araceli found that their heritage was Spanish and that their ancestors had settled in the Philippines after the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition expelled Spain’s Jews and forced those who remained to convert to Christianity.
“During the Inquisition, a lot of the Jews settled in the Philippines. In learning that, we became more interested that our family had a lot of Spanish-Jewish culture they kept,” Bagunu said.
In exploring their faith, “we went from a very charismatic Christian background to a Messianic congregation, then to an Orthodox congregation and finally settled last year with Rabbi Cukierkorn’s New Reform Temple… Moving from the Christian faith to this, we wanted to know where the paths were alike and different,” he said.
Comments:
My family, as far as I know, is has Filipino and Spanish roots. However, I while researching my mother's maiden name (which is supposedly where my Spanish roots come from), I discovered that her maiden name is traditionally Sephardic Jewish. I came across your article while trying to trace my possible Jewish roots.
Is it documented that some converted Spanish Jews or their descendants stayed in the Philippines during the colonial times? Our lolo told us that we descended from a Spanish friar who lived in the Philippines so many years ago. Incidentally, our surname appears in the list of Sephardic Jews (at sephardic.com) at the time of Inquisition in Spain.
The islands served as a penal colony for those conversos caught following Judaic traditions. They were sent there from Mexico City. That has been documented. As it has been indicated in another comment to this post, DNA testing, via FamilyTreeDNA.com, is a tool to find out to whom you are related. If Y-DNA or the detailed mtDNA tests indicate matches with known Sephardic families, you will have clues to follow up on.
Additionally, many in the Catholic Church were from Jewish families. If a hidden Jewish family had a priest as a family member, he could travel among other hidden families without suspicion. Many leaders of the Church were of Jewish ancestry. So your grandmother's story of the family being descended from a Spanish friar - who may have had jewish ancestry - is quite possible.
Inquisition court records are available, and you might be able to find evidence there. I am certain my genes have a sprinkling of non-Malay blood because our family descended from a Spanish friar (about 5 generations ago). My father's generation is almost gone, and goes with them some of their practices, too. They are not aware of these practices as they don't know the reasons for their being.
In my paternal grandfather's time they don't allow men from other clans marry their girls. Marrying a relative was common in their clan. Relative families, as some of us in our generation observe, are mostly those listed as sephardic surnames.
Some of their practices include: sweeping the floor towards the center of the room; Biblical names, mostly from Old Testament, are common especially the generation before us; letting another son marry the fiancee of a dead son. When the sister of my grandfather's father was widowed she remarried. She let her sons of second marriage took her maiden name, while the daughter(s) had their father's family name.
As far as I have known (self study of Phil. history), there are more than handful of Sephardims exiled or had chosen to abode in the Philippines during the inquisition period. Cypto Jews initially settled in walled city of Maynila. Most of them are merchants and traders. With vast opportunities of market in the land and because of fear in inquisition as well, these Jews scattered all over the fortified settlements of Spaniards in Luzon, and even as far as Cebu, Bohol, and Ilo-ilo. Sephardi Jews travel as family, and as much as possible, they don't want anyone to know that they are Jews. In that case, it is difficult to find or trace documented migration of these Sephardims from Spain. Most of them changed their names or dropped their Jewish-ly last names upon interring the country, or had already acquired surnames that leaves no clues of their Jewishness. Some of their surnames are name of saints or "churches" where they have been "christened" as Roman Catholics. All they want people to know is that they are either "Spaniards" or "Portuguese".
Little we do know that some of our Filipino traditions are rooted in Sephardi Jews' tradition. Oro, Plata, Mata (Gold, Silver, Omen)is one of the principles or beliefs of Jewish Kabbalist in 15th-17th century Spain. Eating quezo de bola and "Gelts" or giving gift coins to childrens during Christmas are traditions observed by Jews during their celebration of "Hanukkah" (Feast of lights, Kislev 25 - Tevet 3) that eventually falls every December. Traditional 7 days of mourning over the dead and "Lakdang" or crossing over of children of the deceased's over its coffin during internment, and "Balis" or "Usug" is another. Beliefs in "Zohar" or Jewish mysticism is popular in Spain and Portugal during 14th-17th century among the Sephardi Jews explains of so many "Pamahiin" beliefs of Filipinos are rooted in their mystic beliefs.
And yes, it is true that most Cryto-Jews embraced Catholism and had hidden their Jewishness. I used to remember the old folks stories in my province (Quezon) includes statements like, "Dont tell anyone that you are a jew" or if a child is stubborn or uncannily witty , they will say "Isa ka ngang Hudyo!".
Particularly in my family, upon careful study and records of genealogy (recorded and documented by ancestors and relatives, "Elloso Centenarian"), our great grand parents are Sephardi Jew married to a Filipina-Chinese meztiza. The family is noted as "Sarado-Catholico" in religion. The traditions is also passed down to generations that in every "Elloso" family, one of the children will become a priest, or a nun. If we study deeply the origin of filipino people we can trace back that origin to the HOUSE OF ISRAEL. There is physical evidence of jewish culture that we found in our culture.
According to some historian our Ancestor believe in Supreme God called Bathala in Tagalog Very familiar to hebrew name of god "ELOHA" to Visayan people they called this "ABBA" very familiar to aramaic language that they addres to The FATHER ...Jesus Himselp called his father ABBA.(mat.6:9)even Apostle Paul He called god "ABBA"(gal.4:6)
One of Oldest custom of our ancestor is the custom of circumsation..Before spanish colinized this Island Our ancestor practise this as part of thier custom the male must circumsize and we know circumsation is a part of jewish custom to the children Abraham.(Gen.17:914)
Historians say 9 th Century before the arrival of Spanish colonization, the Middle East people arrive in Malayan penisula. I posted about a year ago about my possible Jewish roots through my mother's family (Cardona). My mom was from Borongan, Eastern Samar.
The names that I know of in my mother's family are Cardona, Tañada (which came from her mother, who came from Palo, Leyte), Abinas, and Abelgas. I know less about my father's side, which is Parado. My surname is Israel (Rosendo Emano Israel) and my father's birthplace is in Aboyog, Leyte very close to Samar. I am wondering if I have also a Jewish ancestry base on my surname and my great love for Eretz Yisrael. Are all Filipinos that bear the surname Israel have a Jewish ancestry? I hope somebody from here will answer my question because I'm very curious. Thank you. Shalom.
My great grandfather Raphael Habibi, a Sephardic Jew from Smyrna, Turkey, went to the Philippines in the early 1900s seeking opportunity. He opened a store there and his wife and son later followed him. Raphael and his wife Esther had more children, all born in the Philippines. Raphael became a prosperous businessman. More family members joined him from Smyrna. Among them, members of the Campeas family. Most of the family left the Philippines prior to WWII. My family was able to immigrate to the US because the Philippines were a US territory then. Those that stayed in Manila suffered mightily under the Japanese occupation.
My family tree is from PAREDES in Northern Samar and according to the Wikipedia Research there are four groups (crypto Jews-Spanish) migrated all over the world and the Wikipedia describe that the fourth group went to the Philippines and specifically Northern Samar and this Paredes clan has been suspected as secret Spaniards hiding in the place.-Can you support this claim based on your research of origins if this is true?
My great grand parents came from Spain in the 18th century. I remember my grandfather also talking in spanish. I found their surname ZARAGOZA in the Sephardic list, so us my father's surname PINEDA. When family are planning to go and settle in Spain, my son Joshua replied "why not in Israel". I don't know if this has something to do with your roots or origin, so just brushed it aside.
The modern historians and demographers identify the ancient port of Palapag along the present day Candawid Bay in between Isla de Batang and Laoang Islands in Northern Samar. This is most likely the ground zero of the biblical Ophir which the natives call Araw City and the government calls Samar. Samar came from the ancient biblical place in the Holy Land called Samaria, the homeland of the Samaritans, Jewish people by blood but are not practicing a strict Jewish rituals. Isla de Batang is the first land mass you will see after a long travel in the Pacific Ocean going to Manila. It is a part of the Galleon Trade route and the home of the ancient shipbuilding industry which later become the Galleon Trade ship repair station. The significance of the island was recognized by the American government who decided to modernized an ancient lighthouse found in the island. It is no wonder that when the Sephardi Jews from Spain were imprisoned and were thrown in the Spanish colonies, some of them who knew about the place decided to choose Northern Samar in the Philippines. They later become known as the crypto Jews or hidden Jews. One of the Jewish families who settled in the present day Laoang Town is the Ejercito family. Although their ancestral home is still there up to the present, most of their descendants later moved to Manila, Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna.Other Jewish families in the Laoang, Catubig, Pambujan and Palapag area are the Saba, Mendoza, Infante, Hechanova, Cerbito, Mercader, Rivas, Deaneneas, Sarmiento, Lucero, Arandia, Veloso, Quiles, Daza, Vicencio, Siervo, Pinca, Acedera, Luto, Adora, Romualdez, Cardenas, Moncada, Lopez, Lagrimas, Gullab, Rosales, Loverita, etc.
I've been curious about my ancestors (mom's Ester side) since last year. I did a genealogical research in the Internet, and I'm surprised to discover that Bello (my grandpa Jose's full name is Jose Bello Pilanga) is not a Christian last name but Jewish according to Roman Catholic Church and Jews websites. Probably, some of the Bello clan (which are Sephardi/Spanish Jews) migrated here in the Philippines from Spain during the diaspora/dispersion around 16th century A.D. Grandma Cristina told me last year that my great grandmother Matea Bello (mother of my grandpa Jose Bello Pilanga) was a Spanish from Cebu City and settled down in Zamboanga City.
I have been intrigued by the story of Marranos or Crypto Jews in the Philippines especially because of a little secret story about my maternal ancestor. My maternal grandparents when they were still alive used to tell me that their great grandfather was a Spanish man who jumped off a ship in the shore of Capiz during "Tiempo Quintos" and changed his last name from "Valdes" to "Dating" and settled incognito in Antique where he married a native woman. It's also a strange coincidences that a lot of unexplained practices were followed by my great grandparents have roots in Jewish faith. My grandparents never eat pork and fishes without scales though they were Sarado Catolico. I remember that when we were growing up we were forbidden from taking a bath on Fridays especially during evenings. We also cover our mirrors when someone dies, My grandparents would light altar candles every night. All the boys in my family are circumcised. I also remember that my grandfather have delicate facial features with aquiline noses resembling those from Northern Mexico and Nicaragua. Although these features were somehow lost in succeeding generations, I would still see them sporadically among my nephews and nieces.
I took a dna test and what came out is I'm part Jewish, Algerian and Chinese. The only Jewish tradition that's left in my family that we still practice is "gelt". Its the giving of coins to kids during hannukah, but my family does it on Christmas since they are Christians already. I believe there's a lot of crypto jews in the Philippines just like my family.
I also want to find out if I have Jewish ancestry. I really got more curious after reading your post. I don't understand why my mama gives me coins too. She says I should keep it. My maternal grandfather's brother (my grandpa died when I was young) told me that my grandfather stayed somewhere in Samar (I think in Northern Samar) before WWII because we have relatives there. My grandfather if I remember it right worked on a piece of land owned by an uncle or a relative. I also want to know so I will search more soon.
Jews & Crypto-Jews in Ibero-America
There are three distinct historical components to colonial roots of crypto-Judaism, largely restricted to Spanish-held territories in Mexico, each with distinct geographical and temporal aspects: early colonial roots, the frontier province of Nuevo León, and the later northern frontier provinces. The crypto-Jewish traditions have complex histories and are typically embedded in an amalgam of syncretic Roman Catholic and Judaic traditions.
Kahal is a hebrew word. Was Ramón y Cajal (the celebrated Spanish scientist) the offspring of Crypto-Jews?
According to a December 2008 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, 19.8 percent of modern Spaniards (and Portuguese) have DNA reflecting Sephardic Jewish ancestry (compared to 10.6 percent having DNA reflecting Moorish ancestors. The Sephardic result is in contradiction or not replicated in all the body of genetic studies done in Iberia and has been relativized by the authors themselves and questioned by Stephen Oppenheimer who estimate that much earlier migrations, 5,000 to 10,000 years ago from the Eastern Mediterranean might also have accounted for the Sephardic estimates. "They are really assuming that they are looking at this migration of Jewish immigrants, but the same lineages could have been introduced in the Neolithic". The same authors in also a recent study (October 2008) attributed most of those same lineages in Iberia and the Balearic Islands as of Phoenician origin.The rest of genetic studies done in Spain estimate the Moorish contribution ranging from 2.5/3.4% to 7.7%.
Recent genetic research, however, has shown that many Latinos of the American Southwest may be descended from Anusim (Sephardic Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism). Michael Hammer, a research professor at the University of Arizona and an expert on Jewish genetics, said that fewer than 1% of non-Semites, but more than four times the entire Jewish population of the world, possessed the male-specific "Cohanim marker" (which in itself is not necessarily carried by all Jews, but is prevalent among Jews claiming descent from hereditary priests), and 30 of 78 Latinos tested in New Mexico (38.5%) were found to be carriers. DNA testing of Hispanic populations also revealed between 10% and 15% of men living in New Mexico, south Texas and northern Mexico have a Y chromosome that traces back to the Middle East. There is no certainty that these lineages are Middle Eastern, as they could also be of earlier Phoenician and later North African influence. Tunisians also rank very high with the Y- chromosome marker that is related to Cohanim. There could be a North African connection for this as well. There is no specific Jewish DNA marker and with so much Moorish and Phoenician settlement in Spain one cannot tell the religion of the bearers ancestors.
In Recife, Natal and Fortaleza are clusters of Marranos who remained in Brazil when other Jews fled the Portuguese Inquisition to find sanctuary in Nieuw Amsterdam, Barbados and Curacao.
Cape Verdean-Jewish Seder
Plans are underway for the third annual CapeVerdean-Jewish Passover Seder, held at St. Patrick’s Church in Boston. The event brings together Jews and Cape Verdeans to explore areas of commonality, including journeys from slavery to freedom. Although there were waves of Jewish immigration to Cape Verde (an island off the coast of West Africa) in the 15th-16th and 19th centuries, there are no practicing Jews there at present. However, it is believed that 30% of Cape Verdeans have Jewish ancestry.
Some communities in Latin America
When the Jews of Spain and Portugal fled the Inquisition, many emigrated to distant places like the newly developing lands of Latin America. Even in their new surroundings the Jews were not immune to persecution; many publicly converted to Catholicism while continuing their Jewish practices underground. Almost five hundred years after the Inquisition, some South Americans have begun to examine their non-traditional Catholic practices and realize that they have been practicing the underground Judaism of their ancestors. Jews like those in Venhaver and Natal in the Rio Grande do Norte area of Brazil, the Antiquenas of Colombia and Jews from the Naucalpan and Vallejo districts of Mexico City have begun to revisit their progenitors’ practices. They live on the margins of already-thriving Jewish communities in Latin American cities like Sao Paulo, Brazil, Lima Peru and Santiago, Chile, the members of which are descendants of Spanish, Persian and Iraqi traders who immigrated to Latin America in the 18th and 19th centuries or European Jews also fled there to avoid the Nazis during World War II. In addition to these more mainstream Jewish communities, there are also a large number of "non-traditional" Jews in Latin America such as the "Iglesia Israelitas" in Southern Chile, a remote Indian tribe with many Jewish practices, and certain communities of mestizos (Mexicans of mixed Indian and European ancestry) who claim ancient Jewish roots, such as the "Iglesia de Dios" and "Casa de Dios." Some of the more colorful Jewish communities in Latin America include:
Peru:
In 1966, an Incan Catholic from the Peruvian city of Trujillo named Villanueva began to learn more about Judaism and, when the Catholic Church excommunicated him for his increasing hostility toward Catholicism, he emigrated to Spain to avoid further prejudice. While in Spain Villanueva studied Judaism and returned to Peru to convert his community of Indians to his new-found faith. More than five hundred of his fellow community members became devoted Jews. As the poor Trujillo Jews became more observant they found that they were not able to acquire sufficient ritual objects such as prayer books (siddurim) or prayer shawls (tallisim). In the absence of necessary ritual objects the Incan Jewish community began to focus more on studying mystical questions such as reincarnation (gilgul) and concept of a Messiah. The European-descended Jews of Lima did not accept the Incas’ Judaism and did not allow them to use the synagogue or ritual bath (mikva); when Inca Jewish women needed to use the ritual bath they used the ocean or a nearby waterfall.
Waterfall Moving
In order to find a more receptive environment for their Judaism three hundred members of the community have emigrated to Israel, but some have remained, assuring that their way of life would not disappear from Peru. Their ranks are growing, and the Incan Jewish community of Trujillo has again had to face poverty, prejudice and the question of how they are going to maintain their Judaism.
In order to find a more receptive environment for their Judaism three hundred members of the community have emigrated to Israel, but some have remained, assuring that their way of life would not disappear from Peru. Their ranks are growing, and the Incan Jewish community of Trujillo has again had to face poverty, prejudice and the question of how they are going to maintain their Judaism.
Brazil:
In the arid Northern region of Brazil, Rio Grande do Norte, Catholics in villages like Venhaver and Natal have long been recognized for their "unusual" religious practices. Settled in the early 1700s when Portuguese Inquisitional activity was at its strongest in the Brazilian northeast, Rio Grande do Norte is remote enough that Jews fleeing persecution were able to avoid much of it by hiding there. Even so, most of the Northern Brazilian Jews became Catholic, though they wove their Jewish practices into their Catholicism. Even today, members of the Venhaver community eat according to the Jewish dietary laws, hang small bags of dirt on their door post (traditional Jews hang a mezuzah on their door post, a small container with particular passage of the Torah enclosed), light candles on Friday nights, refuse to kneel in Church when they pray and hold alternative services at a secret place called the "snoga," which some suggest is derived from the Portuguese word "sinagoga," dozens of Marrano-descended families in the larger city of Natal have undergone "purification" ceremonies to cleanse them of Catholic beliefs and allow them to resume their ancestors’ Judaism.
Cuba:
Since the Soviet Union stopped funding Fidel Castro’s Communist Cuba in the late 1980s, Castro has slowly loosened the economic and social control of his people and allowed those interested in religion to resume their practices. Approximately 2,000 Jews remain in Cuba, most of whom are of Spanish descent. Most are poor, generally unable to afford prayer books and other Jewish articles, and elderly, as the Communist government has prohibited Jewish practices for nearly thirty years. Jews in Havana and Santiago have recently reopened their synagogues and have held public celebrations and Jewish study sessions in order to interest younger Cubans in the religion, openly affirming their Judaism for the first time in decades
Flamenco - Its Origin and evolution
Many of the details of the development of flamenco are lost in Spanish history.
There are several reasons for this lack of historical evidence:
1. Flamenco sprang from the lower levels of Andalucian society, and thus lacked the prestige of other art forms among the middle and higher classes. Flamenco music also slipped in and out of fashion several times during its existence.
2. The turbulent times of the people involved in flamenco culture. The Moors, the Gitanos and the Jews were all persecuted, and the Moors (moriscos) and Jews were expelled by the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. Many of the songs in flamenco still reflect the spirit of desperation, struggle, hope, and pride of the people during this time of persecution.
3. The Gitanos have been fundamental in maintaining this art form, but they have an oral culture. Their songs were passed on to new generations by repeated performances within their social community. The non-gypsy Andalucian poorer classes, in general, were also illiterate.
4. There was a lack of interest from historians and musicologists. "Flamencologists" have usually been flamenco connoisseurs of diverse professions (a high number of them, like Félix Grande, Caballero Bonald or Ricardo Molina, have been poets), with no specific academic training in the fields of history or musicology. They have tended to rely on a limited number of sources (mainly the writings of 19th century folklorist Demófilo, notes by foreign travellers like George Borrow, a few accounts by writers and the oral tradition), and they have often ignored other data. Nationalistic or ethnic bias has also been frequent in flamencology.
This started to change in the late 1970's and 1980s, when a growing number of musicologists and historians began to carry out more rigorous research.
There are questions not only about the origins of the music and dances of flamenco, but also about the origins of the very word flamenco. Whatever the origins of the word, in the early 19th century it began to be used to describe a way of life centered around this music and usually involving Gypsies. In his 1842 book Zincali, George Borrow writes that the word flamenco is synonymous with "Gypsy".
Blas Infante, in his book Orígenes de lo flamenco y secreto del cante jondo, controversially argued that the word flamenco comes from Hispano-Arabic word fellahmengu, which would mean "expelled peasant". Yet there is a problem with this theory, in that the word is first attested three centuries after the end of the Moorish reign. Infante links the term to the ethnic Andalucians of Muslim faith, the Moriscos, who would have mixed with the Gypsy newcomers in order to avoid religious persecution. Other hypotheses concerning the term's etymology include connections with Flanders (flamenco also means Flemish in Spanish), believed by Spanish people to be the place of origin of the Gypsies.
Background
For a complete picture of the possible influences that gave rise to flamenco, attention must be paid to the cultural and musical background of the Iberian Peninsula since Ancient times. Long before the Moorish invasion in 711, Visigothic Spain had adopted its own liturgical musical forms, the Visigothic or Mozarabic rite, strongly influenced by Byzantium. The Mozarabic rite survived the Gregorian reform and the Moorish invasion, and remained alive at least until the 10th or 11th century. Some theories, started by Spanish classical musician Manuel de Falla, link the melismatic forms and the presence of Greek Dorian mode (in modern times called “Phrygian mode”) in flamenco to the long existence of this separate Catholic rite. Unfortunately, owing to the type of musical notation in which these Mozarabic chants were written, it is not possible to determine what this music really sounded like, so the theory remains unproven.
Moor is not the same as Moslem. Moor comes from the Latin Mauroi, meaning an inhabitant of North Africa. The Carthaginians, for instance, came from North Africa. Moorish influence in the peninsula goes back thousands of years, but it was the Islamic invasion, by largely Berber armies in 711, that determined the main musical influences from North Africa. They called the Iberian Peninsula Al-Andalus, from which the name of Andalusia derives. The Moorish and Arab conquerors brought their musical forms to the Peninsula, and at the same time, probably gathered some native influence in their music. The Emirate, and later Caliphate of Córdoba became a center of influence in both the Muslim and Christian worlds and it attracted musicians from all Islamic countries. One of those musicians was Zyriab, who imported forms of Persian music, revolutionized the shape and playing techniques of the Lute (which centuries later evolved into the vihuela and the guitar), adding a fifth string to it, and set the foundations for the Andalusian nuba, the style of music in suite form still performed in North African countries.
The presence of the Moors was also decisive in shaping the cultural diversity of Spain. Owing to the extraordinary length of the Reconquesta started in the North as early as 722 and completed in 1492 with the conquest of Granada, the degree of Moorish influence on culture, customs and even language varies enormously between the North and the South. Music cannot have been alien to that process. While music in the North of the Peninsula has a clear Celtic influence which dates to pre-Roman times, southern music is certainly reminiscent of Eastern influences. To what extent this Eastern flavor is owed to the Moors, the Jews, the Mozarabic rite (with its Byzantine influence), or the Gypsies has not been clearly determined.
During the Reconquest, another important cultural influence was present in Al-Andalus: The Jews. Enjoying a relative religious and ethnic tolerance in comparison to Christian countries, they formed an important ethnic group, with their own traditions, rites, and music, and probably reinforced the middle-Eastern element in the culture and music forms of Al-Andalus. Certain flamenco palos like the Peteneras have been attributed a direct Jewish origin.
Andalusia after the Reconquest: social environment and implications on music.
The 15th century marked a small revolution in the culture and society of Southern Spain. We must highlight the following landmarks, all with future implications on the development of flamenco: first, the arrival of nomad Gypsies in the Iberian Peninsula in 1425. Later on, the conquest of Granada, the discovery of America and the expulsion of the Jews, all of them in 1492.
In the 13th century, the Christian Crown of Castile had already conquered most of Andalusia. Although Castilian kings favored a policy of repopulation of the newly conquered lands with Christians, part of the Muslim population remained in the areas as a religious and ethnic minority, called mudéjares.
Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula, fell in 1492 when the armies of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and queen Isabella of Castile invaded this city after about 800 years of Moslem rule. The Treaty of Granada guaranteed religious tolerance, and this paved the way for the Moors to surrender peacefully. Months after, the Spanish Inquisition used its influence to convince Ferdinand and Isabella, who were political allies of the Church of Rome, to break the treaty and force the Jews to either convert to Christianity or leave Spain. The Alhambra decree of March 31, 1492 ordered the expulsion of all non-converted Jews from Spain and its territories and possessions by July 31, 1492, on charges that they were trying to convert the Christian population to Judaism. Some chose to adopt the Catholic religion (Conversos), but they often kept their Judaic beliefs privately. For this reason, they were closely watched by the Spanish Inquisition, and accusations of being false converts often lead them to suffer torture and death.
In 1499, about 50,000 Moriscos were coerced into taking part in mass baptism. During the uprising that followed, people who refused the choices of baptism or deportation to Africa were systematically eliminated. What followed was a mass exodus of Moslems, Sephardi Jews and Gitanos from Granada and the villages, into the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountain region (and its hills) and the rural country. Many Moslems, now known as Moriscos, officially converted to Christianity, but kept practicing their religion in private and also preserved their language, dress and customs. The Moriscos rose up on several occasions during the 16th century, and were finally expelled from Spain, their rightful homeland, at the beginning of the 17th century.
The conquest of Andalusia implied a strong penetration of Castilian culture in Andalusia, which surely influenced the music and folklore. The expulsion of the Sephardi Jews and Moriscos could have led to a weakening of middle-Eastern influence on Andalusian culture. However, during the 15th century groups of Roma people (gypsies), known as Gitanos in Spain, entered the Iberian Peninsula. At the beginning, they were well tolerated. The Spanish nobles enjoyed their dances and music, and they were regularly employed to entertain guests at private parties. The Gypsies, therefore, were in touch (at least geographically) with the Morisco population until the expulsion of the latter in the 16th century. According to some theories, suggested by authors like George Borrow and Blas Infante and supported by other flamenco historians like Mairena and Molina, many Moriscos even joined the Gypsy nomad tribes and eventually became indistinguishable from them. This has not been proved scientifically. It is generally accepted, however, that the Zambra of the Gypsies of Granada, still performed nowadays, is derived from the original Moorish Zambra.
The clash between Gypsies and the Spanish would be manifest by the end of the century. For centuries, the Spanish monarchy tried to force the Gypsies to abandon their language, customs and music. During the Reconquista, tolerance towards Gypsies ended and they were put into ghettos. This isolation helped them retain the purity of their music and dance. In 1782, the Leniency Edict of Charles III restored some freedoms to the Spanish gypsies. Their music and dance was reintroduced and adopted by the general population of Spain. This resulted in a period of great exploration and evolution within the art form. Nomadic Gypsies became social outcasts and were in many cases the victims of persecution. This is reflected in many lyrics of palos (catagories of songs) like seguiriyas, in which references to hunger, prison and discrimination abound.
The influence of the New World
Recent research has revealed a major influence of Sub-Saharan African music on flamenco's prehistory. This developed from the music and dance of African slaves held by the Spanish in the New World. There are 16th and 17th century manuscripts of classical compositions that are possibly based on African folk forms, such as negrillas, zarambeques, and chaconas. We also find mention of the fandango indiano (Indiano meaning from the Americas, but not necessarily Native American). Some critics support the view that the names of flamenco palos, like the tangos or even the fandango, are derived from Bantoid languages, and most theories state that the rhythm of the tangos was imported from Cuba.
It is likely that in that stay in the New World, the fandango picked up dance steps deemed too inappropriate for European tastes. Thus, the dance for fandango, for chacon, and for zarabanda, were all banned in Europe at one time or another. References to Gypsy dancers can be found in the lyrics of some of these forms, e.g., the chacon. Indeed, Gypsy dancers are often mentioned in Spanish literary and musical works from the 1500s on. However, the zarabandas and jácaras are the oldest written musical forms in Spain to use the 12-beat meter as a combination of terciary and binary rhythms. The basic rhythm of the zarabanda and the jácara is 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. The soleá and the Seguiriya, are variations on this: they just start the metre on a different beat.
Thru endogamy Acadian, Cajun and French Canadian families are descendants of Anusim
It is now known that some surnames of French Acadian, French Canadian and Cajun origin last names are of Jewish origin. According to history, the Sephardic Jews were forced to leave Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition. Many made their way to France, especially the southern part of France, known as Bayonne and Bordeaux. During the early 1600's some of the Anusim (Jews forced to convert to Catholicism) who fled to France, ended up immigrating to New France, now known as Canada, seeking a life without persecution. The objective of this project is to prove this theory. In doing so, they would like to link themselves through the Canadian Anusim surnames, places of origin and DNA to other Anusim and Jewish families, thereby re-establishing family ties that were lost in the Jewish diaspora.
So how can researchers determine whether there were Jewish people of France that made their way to New France? Approaching this difficult task has been a raison d’être for Deborah Jensen, head of the Canadian Anusim DNA project at Family Tree DNA. Jensen hopes to combine genealogical and historical research along with Y-DNA and mtDNA results of French Canadians to demonstrate the presence of Jewish ancestry in New France, one day giving them their rightful recognition among the first settlers.
The research has yielded some surprises, including a possible Ashkenazi heritage among some of the first settlers. Take my family for example. My first ancestor, Jean Ducas, came to New France from the deep southwest of France, so far south, his listed origin was only a few miles from the Spanish border. The surname Ducas is quite rare, but mainly considered of Ashkenazi origin, a name carried by some Jewish families originating from the Rhine region of France. The DNA testing confirmed a middle eastern heritage for my paternal line, haplogroup J2 which is the most common haplogroup assigned to Jewish people overall, 23% among Ashkenazi and 28% among Sephardim. But further research into the surname showed it was most likely linked with these families of Alsace. Many of the Jewish families of Alsace were merchants and had been living and trading all along the routes of St. Jacques Compostelle (The way of St. James). The name Ducas appears in records in Nimes, Toulouse, Auch, Pau, Tarbes, St. Jean de Luz and Tudela, those in Nimes and Toulouse found in the 1808 census of Jews. These families were also identified by Juan Carrasco Pérez, Professor at the Public University of Navarra as likely of French origin, even though many were living in Navarra, Spain.
The DNA testing also showed a series of DNA results indicating middle eastern origins among other families from more northern areas of France, like the historical province of Perche. Many of the surnames bare a striking resemblance to common Ashkenazi surnames of today. There is also the case of the Gautron dit La Rochelle family test which came out as a 100% match to the “Levite Modal Haplotype” in haplogroup R1a. Seeing as the LMH shows its origins in Eastern Europe, why was this ancestor carrying the same DNA markers in La Rochelle, France? R1a is relatively rare in Western France. Many of the J2 results show a close or exact match to other well-known DNA markers like the “Cohen Modal Haplotype.”
There are also some common Sephardic surnames found in French Canada like Rodrigues, Dassylva, Miranda, Cardinal among many others. DNA test results for one Rodrigues participant also indicated a Middle Eastern origin, haplogroup E3b. Overall, French Canadians show about 14% Y DNA in haplogroups J, E3b and G, DNA groups associated with the Mediterranean and Middle East. These numbers can be seen as quite average for a country like France which is also a Mediterranean country, but given that many of the settlers of New France came from northern France, they could be considered significantly higher than average.
In 1808, France issued the “Decree of Bayonne” which forced Jews to take and keep a single surname. This decree lead to many census lists of Jews from all over France and gave Deborah Jensen and her team an excellent window into which names were taken and which bore a resemblance to names found in French Canadian society. The task in the months ahead will be to find participants with surnames found on these lists to submit for a DNA test. Should the results show an affinity with Middle Eastern groups, then the hard work of proving a Jewish background can begin.
The settlement of Sephardim in France along with their seemingly quiet dispersal coincides time-wise to the settlement of New France. Furthermore many of the settlers of New France came from cities like Rouen, La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Bayonne, cities with known Sephardic settlement and subsequent dispersal. The project has its hurdles. Names were often changed to assimilate with French society and records on the movement of Sephardim in France are sparse. Many people don’t see the settlement of Quebec as having a significant founding Jewish population; maybe it is not a very popular theory in some circles. Deborah hopes to eventually show conclusively, combining this historical and genealogical data with DNA, that many of French Canada’s first settlers shared a Jewish ancestry, one that was suppressed in a region essentially run by the Catholic Church.
Were Crypto Jews in Early New France Settlements?
The story of Esther Brandeau, known to many as the first person of Jewish origin to set foot in New France, exemplifies the situation that many possible Jewish emigrants faced when they arrived in this northern land, today known as Quebec. Esther Brandeau was the daughter of David Brandeau, of Bayonne, France. Esther, disguised as a boy, Jacques La Fargue, arrived in Quebec on the ship “The St. Michel” in 1738. Esther remained true to her Jewish faith and was eventually returned to France in 1739. But she did remain for about one year and numerous attempts to convert and welcome her into French-Canadian Society were made.
The question that remains is, were there others? How many others did come and eventually convert to Catholicism? The presence of Sephardic families throughout Latin America is well documented and recorded. Next to no official documentation on the presence of Jews in New France exists. New research from a variety of angles is hoping to dispel the myth that Jews did not come; exploring the possibility that they came in substantial numbers to this new land, far away from the persecution that existed for them in Europe.
The existence of Jews in France dates back to Roman times. After the Roman conquest of Jerusalem, thousands of Jewish captives arrived at Bordeaux, Arles and Lyons. Through the middle ages, their fate was often tied to the ruler at the time and many Jews were forced to move from region to region based on the politics of the day. Unlike Spain, this was not a golden age for Jews living in France. Nevertheless, they existed and thrived until 1305 when Phillip IV the Fair expelled 100,000 Jews from France. They were allowed to return in 1315 under Louis X. Large numbers of “Marranos” came to southwestern France in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. They settled many cities; Bayonne, Peyrehorade, Bidache, Bordeaux and La Rochelle in the southwest. They also settled in Rouen. Their numbers were large but eventually dwindled. Where did they go? Many used France as a way stop to other more established Jewish centers like Amsterdam. But many others also assimilated into French society; and some believe, made their way to New France.
The DNA testing also showed a series of DNA results indicating middle eastern origins among other families from more northern areas of France, like the historical province of Perche. Many of the surnames bare a striking resemblance to common Ashkenazi surnames of today. There is also the case of the Gautron dit La Rochelle family test which came out as a 100% match to the “Levite Modal Haplotype” in haplogroup R1a. Seeing as the LMH shows its origins in Eastern Europe, why was this ancestor carrying the same DNA markers in La Rochelle, France? R1a is relatively rare in Western France. Many of the J2 results show a close or exact match to other well-known DNA markers like the “Cohen Modal Haplotype.”
There are also some common Sephardic surnames found in French Canada like Rodrigues, Dassylva, Miranda, Cardinal among many others. DNA test results for one Rodrigues participant also indicated a Middle Eastern origin, haplogroup E3b. Overall, French Canadians show about 14% Y DNA in haplogroups J, E3b and G, DNA groups associated with the Mediterranean and Middle East. These numbers can be seen as quite average for a country like France which is also a Mediterranean country, but given that many of the settlers of New France came from northern France, they could be considered significantly higher than average.
In 1808, France issued the “Decree of Bayonne” which forced Jews to take and keep a single surname. This decree lead to many census lists of Jews from all over France and gave Deborah Jensen and her team an excellent window into which names were taken and which bore a resemblance to names found in French Canadian society. The task in the months ahead will be to find participants with surnames found on these lists to submit for a DNA test. Should the results show an affinity with Middle Eastern groups, then the hard work of proving a Jewish background can begin.
The settlement of Sephardim in France along with their seemingly quiet dispersal coincides time-wise to the settlement of New France. Furthermore many of the settlers of New France came from cities like Rouen, La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Bayonne, cities with known Sephardic settlement and subsequent dispersal. The project has its hurdles. Names were often changed to assimilate with French society and records on the movement of Sephardim in France are sparse. Many people don’t see the settlement of Quebec as having a significant founding Jewish population; maybe it is not a very popular theory in some circles. Deborah hopes to eventually show conclusively, combining this historical and genealogical data with DNA, that many of French Canada’s first settlers shared a Jewish ancestry, one that was suppressed in a region essentially run by the Catholic Church.
Did Jean Ducas descend from the Morisco or Sephardic Populations expelled from Spain?
Although it is difficult to attach a recent ancestry based soley on a DNA result, it does seem quite likely that Jean Ducas may have descended from Sephardic or Morisco populations expelled from Spain as a result of the Spanish inquisition. The map on the left, shows one wave of emmigration from Aragon in 1610. This was an emmigration largely of converted muslims into France and to the Ottoman Empire. Henry the IV of Bearn granted entry of 22,000 Mudejar's (Morisco's) from Aragon, charging 10 reales per person. What is important to note is the routes they took to enter France. 12,000 Entered through the Somport Pass.
Sephardic Migration into France
Saint Pierre d'Oloron lies at the head of this pass. Another 10,000 entered France via Roncesvalles-Saint Jean Pied du Port. Although many of these emigrants moved on and settled north of the Dordogne, many also settled in Bearn and the Pays Basque. There were many thousands more entering via the ports at Saint Jean de Luz and Bayonne, and much more illegal land migration over the Pyrenees. Oloron did have Jewish and Morisco communities at the time of our ancestor's birth as well as strong commercial links to the Moors and Sephardic populations of Aragon, specifically in the textile trade. We also see the surname Ducha and Ducas present in the village of Cascante and Tudela, Navarra as well as in Oloron. Records for the surname Ducas have been found in Oloron, Saint Jean de Luz, Tudela and Cazeres on the road between Tarbes and Toulouse. The son of a Marguerite Ducas, Jean Bourdin, from Le Mas d'Azil, near Toulouse is registered leaving France in 1686 to reside in the Levant. He left the port of Marseille for Tripoli, Syria (now Lebanon). This record is registered with the Chamber of Commerce in Marseille.
Today, Haplogroup J2 is present in 7.8% of Bearnaise men. What is clear is that the semi independent regions along the border of France and Spain did receive a boost in populations as a result of all sorts of religious persecutions. It is also quite possible our ancestor's moved into Bearn from the Languedoc (southern France) as a result of Huguenot persecution in the 16th century or Jewish Persecution in the 14th century. During the 16th century France was in the middle of the Wars of Religion, largely between protestants and catholics. Bearn was one region of refuge for protestants who had been displaced by these wars. In either case, it appears our ancestor could have been a recent arrival into Bearn, coming from the Languedoc or from Spain. This would explain why the surname Ducas and its phonetical equivalent, Ducha, were quite rare in the region and are now, all but gone.
During the Spanish inquisition period, large numbers of Sephardic and Morisco communities settled in Southern France. They settled in Saint Jean de Luz, Bayonne, Biarritz, Bidache, Labastide Clairance, Tarbes, Toulouse, Marseille, Bordeaux and La Rochelle. They lived as new christians, but many returned to their faith openly in France or moving on to the Netherlands and points east. Do the seemingly elevated levels of DNA haplogroups J2 and E3b in south western France represent the descendents of this Sephardic Migration? In part, quite likely, but Haplogroup J2 and E3b began to arrive in France before the idea of "France" was even dreamed of. Likely even before the Phoenicians, there was some settlement of Middle Eastern peoples in the Mediterranean areas of France. The Greek and Phoenician presence also brought J2 into France and of course the Roman period also would have been a major contributor of Haplogroup J2 into what is today, France. So although, rare, Haplogroup J2 can be found in local populations throughout France and Spain.
Recent testing on 2 lines of the Dugas dit Labreche family noted higher mutation rates than rates generally used in calculating a Time to Most a Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA). The accepted rates, 0.002 to 0.0024 are only about half of the rates observed when comparing 2 lineages in the Dugas Labreche family. 2 Participants, both descended from Jean Ducas, married in 1708, with a total of 17 transmission events (births) down both lines combined, observed mutations of one step on 5 different markers. The markers, DYS 607, DYS 576, CDYa, DYS 438 and DYS 534 show individually varying mutation rates of their own, with DYS 438 being a very slow moving marker. All told, the overall 67 marker mutation rate observed in our comparison was 0.0044. Many test participants have also noted higher mutation rates similar to those observed in our line and it is generally considered that these rates vary from lineage to lineage and also possibly, from time period to time period.
Cajuns are Sephardic
Sadly to say, the Louisiana Cajun Culture, which is extremely Catholic in majority and some bias toward having anything but a Catholic ancestry may be frowned upon. The Fact is the vast majority of the Cajuns are of Sephardic Jewish (literally Hebrew) ancestry in part, and do not know it. I wonder if it is purposefully hidden from them.
The above site shows the physical DNA evidence, in just one instance, of the that Cajun-Sephardic Hebrew FACT. Cajuns naturally love God and the Bible. There's a reason.
Abraham Dugas is a ancestor to most of ALL descendents of the Cajuns(Acadians) of Acadie', present day Nova Scotia, LeBlanc, Landry, Boudreaux, Melancon , just to name a few. Cajuns lived there in Acadie for centuries, marrying each other and as any Acadian genealogist can tell you, most all Cajuns are closely or distantly related to some degree.
Old Abraham Dugas or Ducas was from the great persecuted Sephardic Jews of Spain, who fled the Anti-Jews Catholic Regime in the 1200's to the 1500's. Abraham fled to France, others to the Canary Islands, others to Italy like Christopher Columbus' parents.
In these last days, the tribes of old Jacob shall be counted and recorded from our DNA evidences and they shall be counted as the "Stars of the Sky and the Sands of the Seas."
Although the Cajuns are mainly in Lousiana (432,549), but in Texas (56,000) there's an important community.
Are you part Jew, cher? Even if you just have one Hebraic ancestor, that makes you a "seed of Abraham", so celebrate Passover with Jesus as your Passover Lamb. It's a Hebrew requirement.
Who are Crypto-Jews (also known as "marranos")?
At the time of the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jews were offered conversion or expulsion. Many chose to leave Spain (quite a few found safety in the Muslim Ottoman Empire), but others stayed behind. "Marranos" actually started appearing with the first riots in the Juderias of Spain. Many were forced to convert to save their lives. These were naturally not faithful Catholics. The laws in 14th and 15th century Spain became increasingly oppressive towards practicing Jews, while providing an easy escape by conversion. Large numbers of middle class Jews outwardly took on Christianity to avoid the laws, while secretly practicing Judaism. [The term Marrano appears to be derived from the color of the robes of a Roman Catholic Bishop; Jews who converted were placed under the direct tutelage of that bishop. One source indicates that the term "marrano" means pig literally in Spanish, and notes that the converted Jews were called that because one of the ideals of the Spanish society in the times of the Catholic Kings was purity of blood--hence, if a person couldn't prove to be totally "clean" of blood (i.e., that they were a descendant of Christian Spaniards), they were called a marrano.] Most of the remaining Marranic practice in Spain and Portugal today is from those religious Jews who escaped from Spain to Portugal in 1492, only to be trapped there later when the expulsion was instituted there as well. The most active Marranism in the Iberian peninsula is in the mountainous border areas between Spain and Portugal, in towns such as Belmonte'. Jewish outreach in these areas is achieving success in bringing them forward and restoring full Judaic practice, but many still fear burning or other persecution if they go public. Some faithful Catholic converts were won by the efforts of famous apostates like Pablo de Santa Maria who went around disputing the rabbis and ordinary Jews, winning some converts. In the most famous disputation, with Nachmanides, he was soundly defeated, but the Franciscans published false reports of the disputation to win more converts. Nachmanides, who had been protected from heresy laws during the disputations, was forced to publish his refutations in public. He was forced into exile rather than be burned as a heretic. In any case, the faithfulness of these converts is doubtful, since the Order of Expulsion was primarily due to the recidivism of Conversos once they had to live next door to practicing Jews again. It was felt that expelling all open Jews was the only way to keep the Conversos Christian. Among those who stayed behind were Jews who pretended to convert to Roman Catholicism, but who secretly maintained a practice of Judaism. The term "Marrano" to a pig or, figuratively, a slovenly, dirty person, and has acquired the sense of a reference to crypto-Jews. The etymology is from the Arabic MUHARRAM, which means forbidden, unclean, the opposite of HALAL (as in halal meat, the Muslim counterpart of kashruth meat). Those who speak Arabic use the expression "HARRAM" when disapproving something, as when scolding a misbehaving child. So the word does not really mean "pig," but because that meat is forbidden to Muslims, that expression became a synonym and the Spanish word MARRANO/A (the feminine form is an especially horrible insult for a woman) does indeed mean "pig" and is used along with the Latin "puerco/a" and "cerdo/a" and the onomatopoeic "cochino/a." Only 'marrano/a" is used to also refer pejoratively to crypto-Jews. Why? Perhaps the term refers to the swine which they'd publicly eat to demonstrate their outward conversion. It isn't clear if the "Old Christians" or the practicing Jews called them "marrano". In Majorca the community was converted in the 1430's and are called Chuetas, from "pork lard" since they regularly keep pork lard boiling in cauldrons on their porches. They themselves still call themselves Israelitas in private, and ask forgiveness from el Grande Dio for worshipping in front of statues of a man. They typically sacrified (in a figurative, not literal, sense) their first born sons to the Catholic priesthood as a means of getting protection from Church persecution, so, ironically, many of the priests across the Baleiric Islands are from Marrano families. Crypto-Jew is the correct term, as it also refers to Jews forced to adopt other religions and political philosophies while maintaining Jewish practices. Crypto-Judaism pre-dates the Inquisition, as Jews were forced by the Al-Mohavid invasions of Spain to become Muslims, creating Crypto-Jews who gradually fled to Christian districts for protection from the Muslims (see Roth's History of the Jews). In modern times outwardly Muslim Crypto-Jews are known to be in Meshed, Iran, and in Turkey. A number of Crypto-Jewish communities survive today, especially in former Spanish-influenced regions, such as the southwestern U.S.A. They still maintain extensive secrecy after centuries. Other communities were lost to assimilation, but maintained residual Jewish practices such as lighting candles Friday night. Cohen's The Marranos and Prinz's The Secret Jews claim that the following are examples of such communities, although such claims have not been verified and are disputed by some: The Antioqueños of Colombia. Much of Northern Mexico's middle and upper classes (Nuevo Leon is the "New Lion of Judah"). Note: Some note that Nuevo Leon mean was named after the old Leon in Spain. However, whatever the origin of the name, many of the families of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, have managed to keep in their memory, after more than 400 years, their Sephardic origin. The Naucalpan and Vallejo districts of Mexico City. (Technically, Naucalpan is not in the Distrito Federal, but in the greater metropolitan area). The Chuetas of Majorca. A look at Chueta last names shows many surnames which have become quite famous in the Hispanic world. They include Mir, Miro, and Marti. Of course Joan Miro was Mallorcan. Any marranism in Fidel Castro's family would be through his mother, as his father's family was Gallego, and very few Jews ever lived in Galicia (of course plenty lived in the Austrian Galicia, I'm refering to northwestern Spain ). Interesting about the mountains on the Spanish-Portuguese border being a hotbed of marranism, particularly those on the Extremadura-Andalucia border. This area is directly inland from some of the areas which contained the earliest Jewish communities on the Iberian peninsula - for example Huelva and Gibraltar. Malaga and Almunecar - which also had early communities - are also in Andalucia. According to Timothy Mitchell's book Flamenco: Deep Song and other sources, the inquisition in western Andalucia was slightly more lenient than elsewhere because of the need for labour related for the new world trade and mining. The connections are quite interesting. Famous Hispanics who have acknowledged Marrano ancestry include Rita Moreno and Fidel Castro. Jews have played an important role in the history of Monterrey, Mexico. Frida Kahlo's father, Guillermo Kahlo, a somewhat reknowned photographer in his own right, was a Hungarian Jew. |
DNA Clears the Fog Over Latino Links to Judaism in New Mexico
Ancient Jews meeting“We are finding between 10% and 15% of men living in New Mexic he Middle East.”
Two Books On Identity & Oral Tradition
Hillel Halkin, Across the Sabbath River (Houghton Miflin, 2002) N. Brent Kennedy, The Melungeons, Resurrection of a Proud People I came across some information about the Melungeons on the Kulanu website which piqued my interest. Kennedy's book is a good introduction to this fascinating group. According to Kennedy, the M elungeons have an oral tradition thatthey are the descendents of pre-English, Spanish settlers in the south east who were settled in a series of forts by a Portuguese officer named Jao Pardo. (Pardo is a Sephardic Jewish name). Among these "Portuguese" were also Jewish and Moslem (Berber) conversos. These were later joined by a group of Turkish sailors dropped off by Sir Francis Drake, and perhaps the survivors of the lost colony of Roanoke.
These groups eventually intermarried with the local Indians and a new people was formed. As more Anglo-Scotch settlers moved into their lands, the Melungeons were driven out and pushed into the mountains where their isolation made their lives more difficult but also protected their unique culture.
Although I was aware of the sorry state of race relations in the US, I was not aware of the deep-seated, petty and cruel de jure segregation that was applied to so many Southeastern groups which did not fit neatly into a racial category. For example, the Melungeons were forced to choose a classification of either Indian or Black without having the option of defining themselves. They called themselves "Portuguese" which is a term that many Jewish conversos used after the Inquistion and Expulsion. They were shunned, not permitted to attend schools, driven from their farmlands and subjected to what the author calls "bureaucratic genocide." ( Incidentally, this was also done to the Kurds who lived in the former Soviet Union. There was no ethnic category for Kurds in the Soviet bureaucracy, so therefore the estimated two million Kurds in the FSU did not "exist." Kennedy gives a short history of his own family and his gradual appreciation of his heritage. Although there is a definite Jewish element among the Melungeons (including the ancestors of Elvis Presley's mother), Kennedy only deals with this peripherally. I tend to look at things from a Jewish angle and give things a slightly different interpretation than Kennedy. For example, he states that metal working was a Berber craft; however, it was also a Jewish craft; many of the Sephardim, as well as modern-day Yemenite Jews, are famous for their metal work.
He also mentions the Melungeons' aversion to giving census information. He explains this as a way to avoid a cruel bureaucracy. Indeed, many Eastern European Jews also did not participate in census taking to protect their boys from forced conscription. However, the Jews' aversion to census or "counting" goes back to biblical times when, after the Exodus, against God's command, the Jews carried out a census and they were punished for it by a plague that took many lives. This aversion is very deep seated and many religious Jews will not even celebrate birthdays or anniversaries because it requires "counting."
For many years the oral history and traditions of the Melungeons was dismissed. It was not until recently that DNA testing confirmed what their physical appearance and oral traditions asserted. This is something we should keep in mind when we come across groups that claim Jewish ancestry. Oral traditions must be respected. (Why would anyone want to make this up?) Although no written records were kept as to who was a member of the Kohen caste, recent research on the Kohanic gene shows the oral tradition was fairly accurate. This was also borne out by Tudor Parfitt and his work with the Lemba.
The same respect should be paid to the oral traditions of the Bnei Menashe. Hillel Halkin, at the beginning of his book Across the Sabbath River, is very skeptical about the Bnei Menashe claims of Jewish descent. However, certain vestigial customs, literary traditions and linguistic elements in their language convinced him that there was indeed some link between them and ancient Israel. The book reads like a combination of a travelogue and mystery. I don't want to give away Halkin's conclusion and reasoning process. Read the book and enjoy! Despite skepticism that several reviewers have voiced about Halkin's linguistic credentials, I believe that his reasoning is sound and that he gives due consideration to linguistic patterns and drift. Both books make a case for respecting a people's oral tradition and history and show how linguistic analysis can be used to reveal clues to a group's history and character. Both books are worth reading for their sensitive and humane description of peoples trying to find their authentic identities.
The Melungeon Jews
Some people began to believe in British Israelism. Some of the branches of British Israelism denied the Jews' existence still in Israel. But we know the Jews were scattered, and wherever they went, you know they, for the most part, kept their traditions. The Marrano Jews were those in Spain and Portugal who converted to Catholic to not be killed by the Catholic church and some of those Marrano Jews became sailors who landed in the Americas.
One of the more interesting groups of people are the Melungeon of Tennessee and Virginia. They were and are a group of people that were distinctly not Native American, yet lived in the area of the Cherokee. After research of these people, and they themselves saying they are "Portugee", yet not speaking Portuguese or retaining and traditions of them, several anthropologists and genealogists came to the conclusion that these Melungeon have many of them that are of Jewish descent.
My grandmother was a Melungeon, but I never grew up around her family. She died when I was 2 years-old. I had heard all my life that we were "Black Dutch" but no one in the family could explain why there were no Dutch names or even who the ancestor was that was Dutch. When I was older, I learned that "Black Dutch" was merely a code word for Melungeon.
I discovered the ancestors through genealogy and found that side of the family. Their last name was Rose, they were from Virginia, in the mountains. I found my ancestor, a Joel Rose Jr., whose father was Joel Rose, his sister was Hannah, a brother Solomon, and a brother named...King David...lol. I laughed when I read the census on ancestry.com, I mean who names their child King David?
But this all just goes to show that wherever the Jews were scattered to around the world, they attempted in some ways to preserve the knowledge of themselves. They moved into areas where there were indigenous people and they had to learn how to live together. Those indigenous peoples would not always accept assimilation of the Jews, and life was dangerous back then.
I am sure there are Native Americans who may indeed be descendants of Jewish people, and we have to remember that really, all groups of people moved all the time. Most of them left their mark for us to find today.
All we can do is say "yes, they were here" It's like Hansel and Gretl leaving bread crumbs to find their way back home. Finding all these things in archeology is finding bread crumbs.
“The Secret Jews of San Luis Valley.” It discusses Dr. Ruth. Oratz's role in connecting Hispanic women suffering from a certain type of malignant breast cancer common in Ashkenazi Jews with the women's unknown Jewish heritage. Tying this information with rumors of some hidden Jews in New Mexico’s San Luis Valley, Hispanics in the area are “coming to grips” with their history.
Inquisition Descendants Face Challenges on Journey of Return to Judaism
Before I visited Spain some years ago, a friend said, “Look closely at the faces of the people there and you will see Semitic features. Everyone in Spain has some Jewish blood.” I thought the statement was a bit unrealistic. But this summer, while on vacation in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, I met a Spanish artist who expressed remorse and shame over the Spanish Inquisition in her country’s past, and told me that many Spaniards indeed have Jewish blood, a fact that has also been confirmed by DNA studies. “You can see it in their faces,” she confirmed.
Historians such as David Gitlitz, a retired professor at the University of Rhode Island and author of Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, have estimated that 20 to 25 percent of the original settlers who built the New World colonies were Anousim from Spain and Portugal. According to this view, many of those settlers were fleeing the Inquisition. In truth, it was they who arrived on America’s shores first. But it is now the Ashkenazi tradition that is dominant.
Portuguese language coming from Hebrew & Latin?
Rabbi DiMartino is big on building community, but not big on big business. He is a certified shohet but is not going to get involved in commercial activities: rather he will provide his services to the community. Besides, he says, it’s a lot easier to keep kosher than most people think. He eats lots of fresh fish, vegetables, and rennet-free dairy. He asks about vegan restaurants in Porto (there are several).
He is well versed in Marrano history; his own family has New Christian roots in southern Italy from the time of the Spanish domination. He is here to set the record straight, to finish the wrestling match with the Inquisition. (After all, in what other language is Monday the second day of the week (Segunda-feira)? Why, Hebrew, of course.) He agrees with Professor Moises Espirito Santo’s thesis that Portuguese derives from Latinized ancient Hebrew (the language of the colonizing Phoenicians thousands of years ago).
A New Center for the Study of Jewry in Calabria and Sicily
It has been estimated that prior to the Inquisition, at least 40 percent of the combined population of Calabria and Sicily was Jewish. In fact, in dozens of small towns and village throughout Calabria and Sicily, interesting remnants of Jewish life remain to this day. Historians have discovered indication sod a thriving Jewish presence in the “quartiere” in major Italian cities and the “via giudecca” in smaller towns and communities.
With the advent of the Inquisition in Italy, when the long arm of Torquemada reached into Sicily and Calabria, many of these Jewish families were forced to flee, convert, or practice in secret (crypto-Jews).
Yet, despite persecution, many families retained a remnant of their Jewish past. Today, as thousands of Italian Americans, as well as others of Italian ancestry or connection from all around the world, embark upon genealogical research to learn about their roots, knowledge of Italian-Jewish heritage can be essential in this process. An overwhelming number of Italians who have emigrated are from the South of Italy and among them a great number from Calabria and Sicily.
We have established a Center for the Study of Jewry in Calabria and Sicily as a non-profit entity dedicated to advance research and study of the Jewish heritage of Calabria and Sicily. Our web site is in gestation. We will offer links to assist our guests, from whom we will welcome comment and information.
Our first meeting was held on July 18, 2005. Dr.Giuseppe Mascaro discussed his years of research on the Hebrew presence in Catanzaro and distributed copies of a scholarly treatise published in Calabria Letteraria in 2003, in which he discusses the establishment by Moses of the Hebrew lunar calendar, its subsequent adoption by the Romans, and changes made thereafter. There was a lively and enthusiastic exchange of information and suggestions for the future of this Center. The meeting was followed by a tour of the Nicastro ghetto, where a Hebrew community was active from the 12th to 15th centuries and the remains of a mikveh still exist. (This ghetto is the subject of a book recently written and published by one of our members, Prof. Vincenzo Villella.)
The Center is not connected with any synagogue or particular Jewish Community. Likewise we do not endorse commercial or business ventures. Our focus is research and study of Southern Italian Jewry, and the free exchange of same, for anyone interested in our history and past, as well as related current events.
The Improbable Jew
Folk traditions say that Jews arrived in Iberia as traders and settlers, in King Solomon’s ships. That tradition also maintains that Jews came to Iberia following the Babylonian Captivity. Jewish historian Josephus quotes Greek geographer Strabos, to prove following the destruction of the Second Temple, Jewish migration extended to every corner of the known world. But there exists proof of Jewish presence in Spain, in the 3rd Century BCE and in Portugal, the 6th. Century, CE. Judaism was a religio licita, a legal religion, throughout the Roman Empire, but once the Visigoths supplanted the Romans as rulers of Iberia and converted to Christianity, things took an ugly turn.
In 615 Visigothic King Sisebut ordered that Jews who refused to convert be given a hundred lashes. Should they continue to resist, all their property would be confiscated and they would be banished. Sisebut also instituted the death penalty for Jews who reverted to Judaism, thus creating the need for Jews to hide their true religious identity.
In the 8th. Century, the Islamic invasion of Spain ended Visigothic rule and inaugurated an era of deliverance. For approximately seven centuries, Jews were able to worship openly. However, as Christian monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella supplanted Islamic rulers, in 1492, conversion obsession took hold in Spain.
Non-Christians were no longer protected minorities. Faced countless sanctions, many Jews and Moslems outwardly embraced Christianity while continuing to follow Judaism and Islam in secret.
Sephardi Roots in Costa Rica
The overwhelming majority of the Costa Ricans have names of the original Sephardim. According to the notable historian Samuel Stone, in his book The Dynasty of the Conquistadors, it is very likely that the majority of the colonizing population were conversos. Even more intriguing is that 80 percent of the population is white complexioned. Also, he comments about the possibility that the colonizing conversos chose Costa Rica in order to establish for themselves insulation with respect to the rest of South America and thus flee from the Implacable Inquisition.
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Flag of Costa Rica during 1823-1824.
Samuel Stone comments that in the 18th century the bishop of Nicaragua excommunicated all the inhabitants of Costa Rica, noting that they distanced themselves from the villages in which there was a church. The large majority of the family names here are of Sephardicorigin. The proof is in the telephone directory. Also, the first flag of Costa Rica had the star with six points.
The overwhelming majority of the Costa Ricans have names of the original Sephardim. According to the notable historian Samuel Stone, in his book The Dynasty of the Conquistadors, it is very likely that the majority of the colonizing population were conversos. Even more intriguing is that 80 percent of the population is white complexioned. Also, he comments about the possibility that the colonizing conversos chose Costa Rica in order to establish for themselves insulation with respect to the rest of South America and thus flee from the Implacable Inquisition.
Flag of Costa Rica during 1823-1824.Samuel Stone comments that in the 18th century the bishop of Nicaragua excommunicated all the inhabitants of Costa Rica, noting that they distanced themselves from the villages in which there was a church. The large majority of the family names here are of Sephardicorigin. The proof is in the telephone directory. Also, the first flag of Costa Rica had the star with six points.
Brazilian Anousim
Most Brazilian Anousim -- Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism and managed to flee Portugal during and after the Inquisition -- established themselves in the Northeast of Brazil, where they secretly practiced Judaism. In spite of not being accepted by normative Judaism, their descendants are growing and determined, and one group has even built its own synagogue.
We have a group of nine persons in Porto Alegre, Brazil. We are not properly organized. Potentially, I believe that in Brazil there are millions of descendants of Anousim. Our population is about 180 million inhabitants. I believe that at least 10% have Jewish blood and family customs like mine. My family itself is very big, with more than 100 persons only on my mother’s side and a smaller number on my father’s side, both being families of Anousim.
Mallorca’s New Rabbi
Since English is not my mother tongue (I am born in Sweden), I am only sending you a little information about our small community in Mallorca. I am the first full-time rabbi here for almost 600 years --since the 1420´s!!! The community is Askenazi, mixed British-South American with a few members from other countries as well. The community has only about 60 members, but we are searching! The weekly activities consist of services every Friday at 7 p.m. in the Orthodox synagogue, Talmud Torah on Sundays, English library on Thursdays, as well as sale of Kosher meat products on Thursdays. We have established Restaurant “Ki Tov” with Kosher catering, which can serve tourists by deliveing lunches to hotels, preparing picnics, and suppling Shabbat dinners. A very exciting part of my job is to make bonds with the substantial group of Anousim (here they are called Chuetas). On the small island there are living an estimated 20.000 Chuetas. But if you ask me, I think it is almost impossible to find ANY person of Mallorcan origin that does not have Jewish ancestry.
“The Y-chromosomal Heritage of the Azores Islands Population,” in the 2005 Annals of Human Genetics by P. R. Pacheco, et al., gives the results of a scientific study demonstrating that the Azorean population has a relatively high contribution of Jewish heritage – 13.4% of the haplogroup J, the lineage characteristic of Jewish population.
“The Marranos, then,” as defined by a pamphleteer, “are not those who sincerely adopted the Catholic faith, acting as ‘beautiful Christians,’ but only those who, in spite of having been baptized, kept their ties with their Law and their rabbis, marrando (butting, goring) the New Law.” Another pamphleteer, the author of Sentinel Against the Jews, wrote: “That is because among Marranos or Marroes (young swine), when one of them complains, all of them respond to the wails of one of their own. This is why they have been given the name and title of Marrano.
The most remote and acceptable derivation of the word suggests a Hebrew or Aramaic root, Mumar, convert or apostate. The root word mumar, coupled with the Castillian suffix ano, resulted in the word mumrrano, which abbreviated, be comes marrano. This would be the case of a Hebrew word adapting to Iberian languages marit-ayim, appearance. That is, being a Christian in appearance only. Mar-anus, forcibly baptized man. Mumar-anus, forcibly converted. A contraction of these two Hebrew words through the elimination of the first results from Moharan at : you are excommunicated.
How the Portuguese Secret Jews (Marranos) Saved England
Last year England celebrated the 350th anniversary of the re-admission of Jews after their expulsion in 1290. In 1656, Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam, born Manuel Dias Soeiro in Lisbon, the son of a New Christian nail vendor, convinced Oliver Cromwell it would be just and profitable to allow Jews to return to England. Although Cromwell’s formal request to Parliament failed and Manasseh died a broken man, Jews did indeed acquire the right to live, work and worship in England. The arrest and seizure of the property of Antonio Rodrigues Robles was reversed on the grounds that he was not a Spanish Catholic but a Portuguese Jew (England was then at war with Spain). Accordingly, by legal precedent, Portuguese Jews were safe to live in England, albeit they were not accorded equal status until the 19th century.
Portugal and England have the longest enduring alliance in the world, starting in 1386 with the marriage of John I of Portugal to a cousin of Richard III, Philipa, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The marriage cemented the alliance against a common enemy, Castile. While England’s rescue of Portugal from the Napoleonic invasions is generally well known, England’s salvation by crafty Portuguese secret Jews has been kept a secret.
Until recently it was believed that there were no Jews in England between 1290 and 1656 but as revealed by the distinguished historian, Cecil Roth, in the History of the Jews in England, Portuguese secret Jews masquerading sometimes as Catholics, other times as Protestants (Marranos) settled in England during the reigns of King Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
In 1492, the Sephardic Jews (i.e. Iberian as contrasted with Ashkenazi from Germany/Poland) were expelled from newly created Spain. Portugal, already a unified nation for more than 300 years did not follow suit although King Manuel, under duress by his future Spanish mother- in-law, in December 1496 ordered the Sephardim of Portugal to leave within ten months. However, the Machiavellian king had no intention of losing his most creative and learned subjects. Using devious means such as removing children under 14 years of age from their parents to be raised by Christian families, the king forced approximately one fifth of the population to become Christians. Those who refused were simply dragged by their hair to baptismal founts in Lisbon while they waited for promised ships that never arrived. A handful, such as Abraham Zacuto, the King’s astronomer who developed the nautical tables relied on by Vasco da Gama to find a sea route to India, managed to get out.
The king assumed that the forced ones, Marranos, or in Hebrew Anousim, would be assimilated within a generation. He even promised not to inquire into their private religious practices for twenty years, which he later extended. However, the Marranos, outwardly Catholic, remained Jews in their hearts, secretly observing essential Judaism to the twentieth century, despite nearly 300 years of persecution by the Inquisition.
The Spanish expulsion of 1492 caused great suffering and dislocation, including a huge rise in the number of Jews immigrating to Portugal as described by Samuel Usque in Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel, published in Portuguese at Ferrara in 1553, a foundational work of Portuguese literature. In April of 1506, fanatical Dominican monks led an unruly mob through the streets of Lisbon for three days of devastation, plundering and killing two to four thousand New Christians (Jewish converts). In response, the king publicly hung the Dominican friars and the ring leaders and removed travel restrictions imposed on New Christians in 1497. Soon a steady stream of the wealthy and educated Marranos started leaving Portugal, settling in Antwerp, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Bordeaux, Rouen, Livorno, Naples, Venice, Ferrara, Ragusa, Salonica, Constantinople, Bristol, London, and Dublin, before moving onto the New World in the 17th century.
In 1512, the House of Mendes, which had the monopoly of the pepper trade from recently encountered India, enabled it to open a branch office in Antwerp. The heir to the Mendes stupendous fortune, widowed Dona Gracia Mendes, or Beatrice de La Luna Nassi (the Senyora), the most adored woman in the Marrano world (see The Woman who defied Kings, by Andree Brooks) passed through Bristol in 1537 during her flight from Lisbon to assist her brother-in-law Diogo Mendes in Antwerp. Mendes had an agent in England and financed not only Henry the VIII, but also, John III of Portugal, Francis I of France, Charles V, (un)Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Maximilian (Charles’ grandfather), Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and Ercole II, Duke of Ferrara. In 1532, Henry VIII intervened personally on Diogo’s behalf when Charles V arrested him in Antwerp on charges of Judaizing.
Diogo Mendes’ agent in the ports of Southampton and Plymouth was instrumental in forming a small but vibrant community in Bristol, which held regular secret religious services in the house of one Alves Lopes. One of its members, Dionisio Rodrigues had a distinguished court clientele and had been a former physician to the royal court in Portugal. He was burned in effigy by the inquisition in Lisbon.
In 1540, Gaspar Lopes, a cousin of Diogo Mendes, was arrested in Milan and compromised the fledging Bristol community. In 1542 the Privy Council ordered the arrest of certain Merchant Strangers and their property. Despite the intervention of the queen regent of the Netherlands, many left although some of the Marranos in London remained, including Martin and Francisco Lopes, uncles of Michel Montaigne on his mother’s side. During the reign of Edward VI the Bristol community revived and included the surgeon Antonio Brandão of Santarem, a nephew of the illustrious medical analyst and author, Amatus Lusitanus (João de Rodrigo de Castelo Branco). Beatrice Fernandes, wife of Dr. Henriques Nunes, led secret religious services in her house. However, with the reaction against the Reformation under Mary, the ostensible Catholics once again scattered.
The commercial expansion under Queen Elizabeth and the overthrow of Mary’s Catholicism ushered in a new era. The Marranos were back with a hundred or more members in London. Jorge Ãnes (anglicized as Ames) and family had been in London since 1521. One of his sons commanded an English garrison in Ireland where he became mayor. Another son, Dunstan was a purveyor to the Queen. Their sister Sarah married Rodrigo Lopes who was the Queen’s doctor. He was the first house physician appointed at St. Bartholomew’s hospital. Unfortunately, he was caught in political intrigue between Spain and Dom Antonio, the claimant to the Portuguese throne (son of Violante Gomes, a New Christian), and was unjustly hung for treason at Tyburn on June 7th, 1594. During the four month trial anti-Semitism reached its apogee, with published rumours that the Jews wanted to buy St. Paul’s cathedral to convert it into a synagogue! Cecil Roth attributes Marlowe’s Jew of Malta and Shakespeare’s Shylock to the fate of Lopes.
The Marranos of London, including, the shipping magnate and arms supplier to Parliament, Antonio Fernando Carvajal a native of Fundão, Francisco Lopes D’Azevedo, the Spinoza family agent, and the Lopes brothers, were outwardly Protestants, but collected money for a secret synagogue in Antwerp. They held Jewish religious services in secret near the Tower of London. With an extensive network of family ties, Marranos established trade routes between the New and Old worlds, especially in sugar, timber, coffee and tobacco as well as precious stones and spices from the orient. London replaced Lisbon as the diamond centre of the world. (See The Coffee Trader and Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss and The First Global Village, How Portugal Changed the World by Martin Page).
By 1585, Protestant England was at war with Catholic Spain, which had annexed Portugal in 1580. The Spanish king claimed his cousin’s crown when the unmarried Portuguese monarch was killed at the ill-fated battle of Alcacer-Quibir in Morocco. The combined crown lasted until 1640. Phillip the II of Spain, a devout Catholic who had been spurned by Elizabeth the 1st, was intent on doing the Pope’s bidding, re-instating Catholicism in England. Preparations for a massive invasion started.
Hector Nunes was born of New Christian parents in Evora, around 1520, after the forced baptism of 1497 but before the onset of the Inquisition in Portugal. He attended Coimbra University, as a Catholic of course, and graduated in medicine in 1543. By then the Inquisition had started its monstrous work, especially in Evora. He immediately fled to England to join his family. At first engaged in trade, he was eventually certified by the Royal College of Physicians and even elected Censor of the College in 1562. He became a highly sought after physician, treating the likes of Lord and Lady Burlghey and Sir John Penott, Lord Deputy of Ireland.
He was soon providing Burghley and queen Elizabeth’s Ministers, notably the principal secretary Walsingham, intelligence information on Spanish military and naval movements. Nunes' large scale trading was a perfect cover for his espionage activities. The wily Nunes even corresponded directly with Phillip the Catholic. He had an extensive network of informants including his own brother-in-law in Madrid who was later arrested. Roth notes that Nunes was so important to the government that the Privy Council even protected him from creditors. He was appointed as a special commissioner in insurance cases. He was treated unlike any other Portuguese merchant of the period.
On May 30th, 1588, the ‘Invincible’ Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon to invade England with approximately 140 ships, 25, 000 men and 180 priests. They were intent on taking England in the name of Catholicism and root out Protestantism. They had the Pope’s blessing.
Unbeknownst to the commander of the Spanish fleet, one of Nunes’ ships from Lisbon contained more than salt and figs. It is said that Nunes was in the middle of supper when he received the despatch with the news of the Armada’s departure. He arose from his half eaten dinner, and headed straight to Walsingthams house with the news. England was ready for the Spanish fleet. Less than 70 Spanish ships limped back home.
Not only was England saved, but also the defeat of the ‘Invincible’ Spanish Catholic Armada had significant military, political, and religious importance for years to come. The power of the Pope and the Catholic Church were curbed and the way opened for Manasseh’s ultimately successful plea to Cromwell entitled:
To his Highnesse the Lord protector of the Common-wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Humble Addresses of Menasseh ben Israel, a Divine, and Doctor of Physick, in behalfe of the Jewish nation.
Judaic Research Continues in Balearic Islands and Sao Tome
As an individual researcher in the 1970s, then very part-time, I started to examine the Jewish history of the smaller Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Formentera, near southern Spain. I was fortunate enough in this exceptionally insular society to be introduced to a number of persons who were willing to admit that these two small islands not only had a Jewish history, but that a community had continued there until modern times. When the Jews of the controlling island of Majorca had only two choices in the 15th century -- flee or convert -- a community of Jews continued there, protected by the islanders.
In the course of the next 20 years, I discovered two secret synagogues in use until the Spanish Civil War in 1936, a Megilla Esther from the 14th century (at present being restored by the Spanish Government), and numerous families who (when I finally gained their confidence) told me many things about the traditions and customs of the families of this community.
I lived with my family in London, but by 1985 our children were already married and living in Israel, and we knew we would eventually make aliyah. However, we decided to spend some time living on these islands to learn more about their Jewish history. Our stay lengthened from one year to three, during which we held open house on Shabbat, opened a cheder for children that expanded to accommodate their parents and grandparents, and held an annual seder, packing in as many as our tiny flat would hold.
Later our research extended to Majorca and Minorca, where I discovered two synagogues and a cemetery, as well as other Jewish artifacts and documents.
Upon arrival in Israel, on a minimal budget, my husband and I decided to collate all the Marrano/Anusim material we held, as well as our unique book collection, so as to be a data base for those interested in the subject. I started to have invitations to lecture in the U.K. and America and to publish my findings. In 1988 I was given the honor, on account of my discoveries, to be made an Honorary Research Fellow of the prestigious University of Glasgow, Scotland, an honor that has been renewed each year since. I have also lectured at Oxford and Cambridge, as well as several American universities.
From these visits I have had the opportunity to investigate other secret Jewish communities and their history in places like Mexico, New Mexico, the Caribbean, and Sao Tome Y Principe, consulted by other researchers as well as individuals searching out their Jewish roots.
The Jewish history of Sao Tome Y Principe, two small islands off the west coast of Africa, close to Guinea, includes a tragic era. In 1493, one year after the Jews were expelled from Spain, a large percentage of them had taken refuge in Portugal, where the edicts of banishment did not begin until 1496. King Manuel of Portugal, seeking funds to finance his program of considerable colonial expansion, exacted huge head taxes on the Jews, with very little time to pay, and fines if not paid by a certain date.
The king wanted to colonize the islands of Sao Tome Y Principe (to "whiten the race," as he put it), but the Portuguese did not relish settling in the fever- and crocodile-infested islands. When it was seen that there was very little likelihood that the majority of the Jews would pay the demanded tax, the king deported their young children, aged 2 to 10, to Sao Tome Y Principe. In the port of Lisbon, no fewer than 2000 children were torn from their parents and herded onto boats as slaves (Samuel Usque reports this in his book, Tribulations of Israel ). Within a year, only 600 of the children remained alive. Usque recorded that when the parents of the children had seen that the deportation was inevitable, they impressed on the children to keep to the Laws of Moses; some even married them off amongst each other.
The entreaties of the parents apparently had not gone in vain, as reports reached the Office of The Inquisition in Lisbon that in Sao Tome there were incidents of obvious Jewish observance. The local church was greatly incensed. The bishop appointed in 1616, Pedro da Cunha Lobo, became obsessed with the problem. According to an historical source, on vimhat Torah 1621, he was awakened by a procession, rushed out to confront them, and was so heartily abused by the demonstrators that in disgust he gave up and took the next ship back to Portugal.
There was a small influx of Jewish cocoa and sugar traders to the islands in the 19th and 20th centuries, two of whom are buried in the Sao Tome cemetery.
Today, these islands of approximately 100,000 inhabitants are independent of Portugal. Two years ago Israel's first ambassador, Dr. Mose Liba, was warmly received. He found that the descendants of the child slaves were still a very distinctive section of the population (by their whiter skins) proud of their historic past and desirous of contact with Jews outside. Some Jewish customs seem to have continued, although by now mixed with the heavy Creole society values and culture.
In order to commemorate the children who were torn from their parents in the 15th century, an International Conference was held to coincide with the islands' twentieth Independence Day, on July 12, 1995. Participants attended from Israel, the US, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain. It is hoped that sponsorship will come forward for further research and studies in the area. Inquisition archives that have been closed for hundreds of years, including 571 pages dealing just with Jews in Sao Tome, have now been opened to researchers and are eagerly being awaited at the Institute for Marrano (Anusim) Studies in Gan Yavneh, Israel. It is hoped interested persons will come forward to enable this valuable opportunity to be used.
Crypto-Jews
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek kryptos - κρυπτός, 'hidden'). The term crypto-Jew is also used to describe descendants who maintain some Jewish traditions of their ancestors, often secretly, while publicly adhering to other faiths, most commonly Catholicism. The phenomenon is especially associated with early modern Spain, following the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.
Europe
Officially, Jews who converted in Spain in the 14th and 15th centuries were known as Cristianos Nuevos (New Christians), but were commonly called conversos. Spain and Portugal passed legislation restricting their rights in the mother countries and colonies. Despite the dangers of the Inquisition, many conversos continued to secretly and discreetly practice Jewish rituals.
In the Balearic Islands, numerous conversos, also called Chuetas, publicly professed Roman Catholicism but privately adhered to Judaism after the Alhambra decree of 1492 and during the Spanish Inquisition. They are among the most widely-known crypto-Jews.
Crypto-Judaism dates back to earlier periods when Jews were forced or pressured to convert by the rulers of places they lived in.
Some of the Jewish followers of Sabbatai Zevi (Sabbateans) formally converted to Islam, and later followers of Jacob Frank ("Frankists") formally converted to Christianity, but maintained aspects of their versions of Messianic Judaism.
Crypto-Jews persisted in Russia and Eastern European countries influenced by the Soviet Union after the rise of Communism with the Russian Revolution of 1917. Rather than being forced to convert, all religion was regarded as undesirable, although some faiths were allowed to continue under strict supervision by the regime. Since the end of Communism, many people in former Soviet states, including descendants of Jews, have publicly taken up the faith of their families again.
The "Belmonte Jews" of Portugal, dating from the 12th century, maintained strong secret traditions for centuries. A whole community survived in secrecy by maintaining a tradition of intermarriage and hiding all external signs of their faith. They and their practices were discovered only in the 20th century. Their rich Sephardic tradition of Crypto-Judaism is unique. Only recently did they contact other Jews. Some now profess Orthodox Judaism, although many still retain their centuries-old traditions.
Xuetes
The Xueta are a minority on the Balearic island of Majorca (Mallorca) who are descended almost entirely from crypto-Jews, forced to convert in 1391. The term "xueta" literally translates to "pig" in Catalan, similar to the old Spanish (Castilian) term and marrano, both of the same meaning.
Today, they comprise a population of 20,000–25,000 on an island of 750,000; they have professed Roman Catholicism for centuries but have only recently seen a lessening in tensions with ethnic Majorcans. According to some Orthodox rabbis, the majority of Xuetes are probably Jewish under Jewish law (by descent from Jewish mothers) due to the low rate of intermarriage with outside groups. Only recently have intermarriages between the two groups been more prevalent or noticeable.
During World War II, Nazi Germany was known to have pressured Majorcan religious authorities into surrendering the Xuetes, targeted because of their Jewish ancestry. Reportedly the religious authorities refused the Nazi request.
Several Xuetes are reported to have "reconverted" to Judaism. Some have become rabbis.
Neofiti
The Neofiti were a group of crypto-Jews living in the Kingdom of Sicily which not only included the island of Sicily but nearly all of Southern Italy from the 13th to the 16th centuries.
Asia
There are, or have been, several communities of Crypto-Jews in Muslim lands. The ancestors of the Daggatuns probably kept up their Jewish practises a long time after their nominal adoption of Islam. A large community of Crypto-Jews lived in Mashhad, near Khorassan, where they were known as "Jedid al-Islam", who were mass-converted to Islam around 1839. Most of this community left for Israel in 1946, but some have converted into Muslims and live in Iran today. In the central Iranian village of Sebe, local Muslims practice many Jewish customs, such as women lighting a candle on Friday night (the eve of the Jewish Sabbath). Before sundown on Friday, they prepare a small fire which they leave on throughout Saturday, so as not to ignite the fire on Sabbath.
North America
There are three distinct historical components to colonial roots of crypto-Judaism, largely restricted to Spanish-held territories in Mexico, each with distinct geographical and temporal aspects: early colonial roots, the frontier province of Nuevo León, and the later northern frontier provinces. The crypto-Jewish traditions have complex histories and are typically embedded in an amalgam of syncretic Roman Catholic and Judaic traditions. In many ways resurgent Judaic practices mirrored indigenous peoples' maintaining their traditions practiced loosely under Roman Catholic veil. In addition, Catholicism was syncretic, absorbing other traditions and creating a new creole religion.
Early colonial period — 16th century
However, Portugal in 1497 issued a similar decree that effectively converted all remaining Jewish children, making them wards of the state unless the parents also converted. Therefore, many of the early crypto-Jewish migrants to Mexico in the early colonial days were technically first to second generation Portuguese with Spanish roots before that. The number of such Portuguese migrants was significant enough that the label of "Portuguese" became synonymous with "Jewish" throughout the Spanish colonies. Immigration to Mexico offered lucrative trade possibilities in a well-populated colony with nascent Spanish culture counterbalanced by a large non-Christian population. Migrants thought the culture would be more tolerant since the lands were overwhelmingly populated by non-Christian indigenous peoples.
Colonial officials believed that many crypto-Jews were going to Mexico during the 16th century and complained in written documents to Spain that Spanish society in Mexico would become significantly Jewish. Officials found and condemned clandestine synagogues in Mexico City. At this point, colonial administrators instituted the Law of the Pure Blood, which prohibited migration to Mexico for New Christians (Cristiano Nuevo), i.e. anyone who could not prove to be Old Christians for at least the last three generations. During this time, the administration initiated the Mexican Inquisition to ensure the Catholic orthodoxy of all migrants into Mexico. The Mexico Inquisition was also deployed in the traditional manner to ensure orthodoxy of converted indigenous peoples. The first victims of burnings or autos de fe (autos da fe in Portuguese) of the Mexican Inquisition were indigenous converts convicted of heresy or crypto-Jews convicted of relapsing into their ancestral faith.
Except for the province of Nuevo León, initiation of the Blood Purity Laws reduced the migration of conversos.
Nuevo León — 1590s to early 17th century
The history of the colonization of Mexico can be described as a northward expansion over increasingly hostile geography well-populated by angered tribes and loose confederations of indigenous peoples being conquered. Spain financed the expansion by exploiting mineral wealth, using indigenous peoples as labor in mines, and establishing ranchos for raising livestock. One troublesome region was a large expanse covering the North-Eastern quadrant of New Spain (Nueva España). Chichimec, Apache and other tribes were resistant to Christianization and "settling". They were perceived to render the frontier (frontera) a lawless and unsettled region.
Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva was a Portuguese New Christian royal accountant who received a royal charter to settle Nuevo León, a large expanse of land in the hostile frontier. Significantly, in the charter Carvajal y de la Cueva received an exemption from the usual requirement that he prove that all new settlers were "old Christians" rather than recently converted Jews or Muslims. This exemption allowed people, especially Crypto-Jews, to come to Nuevo León who were legally barred from entering New Spain elsewhere.[12] Many of the 100 soldiers and 60 laborers Carabajal was authorized to bring to New Spain were Crypto-Jews.
With Carvajal as governor, Monterrey was established as the center, currently in the state of Nuevo León. Within a few years, some people reported to Mexico City that Jewish rites were being performed in the Northern Province and efforts to convert heathen indigenous peoples were lax. The principal economic activity of Carvajal and his associates seems to have been capturing Indians and selling them into slavery. Carvajal's Lieutenant Governor, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, led a large expedition to New Mexico in 1591 in an effort to establish a colony. Castaño was arrested for this unauthorized expedition and sentenced to exile in the Philippines. The sentence was later reversed but he had already been killed in a slave revolt
The governor, his immediate family members, and others of his entourage were called to appear before the Inquisition in Mexico City. They were arrested and jailed. The governor subsequently died in jail, while his family members were rehabilitated. One of these was Anna Carvajal, a niece of the Governor. She and others were later again taken captive and sentenced to burning at the stake for relapsing.
The governor's nephews changed their name to Lumbroso. One of these was Joseph Lumbroso, also known as Luis de Carvajal el Mozo, who is said to have circumcised himself in the desert to conform to Jewish law. His memoirs, letters and inquisition record survive. Two other nephews also changed their names to Lumbroso and migrated to Italy, where they became famous rabbis.
When Governor Carvajal was in office, the city of Monterrey became a destination for other crypto-Jews feeling the pressure of the Mexican Inquisition in the south of the territory. Thus, the story of Nuevo León and the founding of Monterrey are significant as it attracted crypto-Jewish migrants from all parts of New Spain. They created one of the earliest Jewish-related communities in earlier Mexico. (The Jewish communities in modern Mexico which practice their Judaism openly were not established until the considerable immigration from eastern Europe, Turkey and Syria in the late 19th century and 20th century.)
Former Mexican territories in the modern-day southwestern U.S. 17th century–18th century
Due to the activities of the Mexican Inquisition in Nuevo León, many crypto-Jewish descendants migrated to other frontier colonies further west to the trade routes passing through the towns of Sierra Madre Occidental and Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Cananea (Canaan) and further north on the trade route to Paso del Norte (Juarez/El Paso) and Santa Fe (both cities in the then colonial Province of New Mexico), Bisbee Arizona and somewhat less in Alta California.
In the former Spanish-held northern New Spain (modern-day Southwestern United States), some Hispanic Roman Catholics have stated a belief that they are descended from crypto-Jews and have started practicing Judaism. They often cite as evidence memories of older relatives practicing Jewish traditions. The crypto-Jews of New Mexico have been documented by several research scholars including Stanley M. Hordes, Janet Liebman Jacobs, Schulamith Halevy, and Seth D. Kunin. Only one researcher, folklorist Judith Neulander, has been skeptical of the authenticity of the Jewish ancestry of Hispanos of the Southwest, she argues that these remembered traditions could be those of Ashkenazi, not Sephardi, Jews and may possibly be constructed memories due to suggestion by proponents. She also argues that the Jewish traditions practiced by older relatives were introduced by groups of Evangelical Protestant Christians who purposely acquired and employed Jewish traditions as part of their religious practices. Neulander's theory has been directly addressed in Kunin's book "Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among the Crypto-Jews". More recently, Evangelical Protestant Christians have opened missionary groups aimed at cultivating evangelical doctrine in Southwestern American communities where crypto-Judaism had survived.
Current times
According to a recent study (December 2008) published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, 19.8 percent of modern Spaniards (and Portuguese) have DNA reflecting Sephardic Jewish ancestry (compared to 10.6 percent having DNA reflecting Moorish ancestors. The Sephardic result is in contradiction or not replicated in all the body of genetic studies done in Iberia and has been relativized by the authors themselves and questioned by Stephen Oppenheimer who estimate that much earlier migrations, 5,000 to 10,000 years ago from the Eastern Mediterranean might also have accounted for the Sephardic estimates. "They are really assuming that they are looking at this migration of Jewish immigrants, but the same lineages could have been introduced in the Neolithic". The same authors in also a recent study (October 2008) attributed most of those same lineages in Iberia and the Balearic Islands as of Phoenician origin.The rest of genetic studies done in Spain estimate the Moorish contribution ranging from 2.5/3.4% to 7.7%.
Recent genetic research, however, has shown that many Latinos of the American Southwest may be descended from Anusim (Sephardic Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism). Michael Hammer, a research professor at the University of Arizona and an expert on Jewish genetics, said that fewer than 1% of non-Semites, but more than four times the entire Jewish population of the world, possessed the male-specific "Cohanim marker" (which in itself is not necessarily carried by all Jews, but is prevalent among Jews claiming descent from hereditary priests), and 30 of 78 Latinos tested in New Mexico (38.5%) were found to be carriers. DNA testing of Hispanic populations also revealed between 10% and 15% of men living in New Mexico, south Texas and northern Mexico have a Y chromosome that traces back to the Middle East.[20] There is no certainty that these lineages are Middle Eastern, as they could also be of earlier Phoenician and later North African influence. Tunisians also rank very high with the Y- chromosome marker that is related to Cohanim. There could be a North African connection for this as well. There is no specific Jewish DNA marker and with so much Moorish and Phoenician settlement in Spain one cannot tell the religion of the bearers ancestors.
In northern Mexico, Monterrey, the capital city of the state of Nuevo León, that shares a border with Texas, is said to contain descendants of Crypto-Jews. The church in Agualeguas, Nuevo León, Mexico indeed has Star of David windows beneath the Christian cross atop the domed roof. The state of Jalisco has several cities with large numbers of Anusim, mainly Guadalajara, Ciudad Guzmán, and Puerto Vallarta, although a steady influx of Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe during the late 19th century and early to mid-20th century into Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Veracruz is also widely known.
In the Old Town area of Albuquerque New Mexico, the San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church, built in 1793 to replace the original 1706 mission church, contains a Star of David on the left and right sides of the altar; evidence of the influence of Crypto-Jews in New Mexico. Many Jewish symbols can be found on cemetery headstones in Northern New Mexico, along side Catholic crosses.
Today, there are about 40,000 Mexican Jews, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Researchers and historians say that number would rise considerably if Anusim (or Crypto-Jews) were included in those estimates.
Central, South America and Caribbean
As in the American Southwest, in the department of Antioquia, Colombia, as well as in the greater Paisa region, many families also hold traditions and oral accounts of Jewish descent. In this population, Y chromosome genetic analysis has shown an origin of founders predominantly from "southern Spain but also suggest that a fraction came from northern Iberia and that some possibly had a Sephardic origin". The Medellín tradition of the marranada, where a pig is slaughtered, butchered and consumed on the streets of every neighborhood each Christmas has been interpreted as an annual affirmation of the rejection of Jewish law.
A safe haven destination for Sephardic Conversos during the Spanish Colony was Santa Cruz de la Sierra. In 1557 many Crypto-Jews joined Ñuflo de Chávez and were among the pioneers who founded the city. During the 16th century several Crypto-Jews that faced persecution from the Inquisition and local authorities in nearby Potosí, La Paz and La Plata also moved to Santa Cruz for it was the most isolated urban settlement and because the Inquisition did not bother the Conversos there for this frontier town was meant to be a buffer to the Portuguese and Guaraní raids that threatened the mines of Peru. Several of them settled in the city of Santa Cruz and its adjacent towns of Vallegrande, Postrervalle, Portachuelo, Terevinto, Pucarà, Bolivia, Cotoca and others.
Several of the oldest Catholic families in Santa Cruz are in fact of Jewish origin; some traces of Judaic practices are still alive among them and have also influence the rest of the community. As recent as the 1920s, several families preserved seven-branched candle sticks and served dishes cooked with reminiscing kosher practices. It is still customary among certain old families to light candles on Friday at sunset and to mourn the deaths of dear relatives on the floor. After almost five centuries, some of the descendants of these families still acknowledge their Jewish origin, but practice Catholicism (in certain cases with some Jewish syncretism).
Some Crypto-Jews established in the outskirts of San José, Costa Rica since the 16th century. They passed as Catholics in public and practiced their Jewish rituals in privacy. In the town of Itzkazú (modern day Escazú) some Crypto-Jewish families could not achieve total secrecy of their condition and locals started to associate their rituals and unintelligible prayers in Hebrew as witchcraft. Since then, Escazú has been known in Costarrican folklore as the ¨city of the witches.
In addition to these communities, Roman Catholic-professing communities who are descendants of Crypto-Jews are said to exist in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico[29] and in various other Spanish-speaking countries of South America, such as Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Ecuador. From these communities comes the proverb, "Catholic by faith, Jewish by blood".
All the above localities were former territories of either the Spanish or Portuguese Empires, where the Inquisition eventually followed and continued investigating Crypto-Jews who had settled there. The Inquisition endured longer in the colonies than it had in Spain itself.
Famous Crypto-Jews
Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi was a 16th century international banker who created an escape network that saved thousands of Crypto-Jews from the Inquisition. She was also a patron of (Jewish) writers, and a diplomat on behalf of her people, who also attempted to start a modern state of Israel.
Luis de Carvajal was the governor of the state of Nuevo León, a northern Mexico province in which the restriction against immigration from conversos was relaxed in order to encourage migration to the peril-fraught frontier. He was responsible for bringing a significant group of crypto-Jewish conversos living in Portugal since the Expulsion of 1492.
Luis de Carvajal el Mozo, was the nephew of Jose Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, the only crypto-Jew of the Spanish colonial era whose memoirs have been preserved.
Antonio Fernandez Carvajal was a Portuguese merchant in London; "like other Marranos in London, Carvajal prayed at the Catholic chapel of the Spanish ambassador, while simultaneously playing a leading role in the secret Jewish community, which met at the clandestine synagogue at Creechurch Lane."
Some scholars of Judaic studies believe that Miguel de Cervantes may have been a crypto-Jew or of crypto-Jewish descent.Rodrigo Lopez, a converso who fled from Portugal to England and became physician to Queen Elizabeth I.
What Are "Captive Jews"?
"Captive Jews" are descendants of Jews who changed their religion due to choice or external pressure. Traditionally the fate of "Captive Jews" is wound up with the Return of the Lost Ten Tribes.
A Short History of the Jews of Malta
Arrival of the first Jews
The history of the small Jewish Community of Malta goes back to the arrival of the Semitic Phoenician settlers over three thousand five hundred years ago. It is believed that they were accompanied by Israelite mariners from the seafaring tribes of Zevulon and Asher (This fact probably makes the Maltese people as an Israelite people, not to count that according to British Israelites many Knights [English, French, Normands, Spanish, Venecians...] & then the French & British empires that possessed Malta reinforced the Israelite blood).
At the time in the city of Tyre lived Princess Jezebel, who in 906BCE married the Jewish Sultan Omri’s Ohab. After this marriage relations between the Israelites and the Phoenicians grew so warm and cordial that they began to sail the seas and occupy various lands together. Some of them stayed in our islands.
The First Evidence
We have evidence that at the time the Phoenicians were occupying Malta, the first Israelites landed on Gozo and there they left behind the first signs of their presence. You can find this near the inner apse of the southern temple of Ggantija in Xaghra, one cannot fail to notice that on the ground under your feet is scratched the first Israelites evidence on Gozo.
This Israelites evidence is an inscription in the Phoenician alphabet, discovered and made known in 1912 by Ms N. Erichson and Ms. R. Cleveland. This inscription is in two lines and has ten words: seven in the first line and three in the second. Translated this inscription reads,
"To the love of our Father Jahwe".
On the other hand the discovery of carved menorahs (candlesticks with seven branches) and Hellenistic inscriptions in a number of Jewish catacombs at Rabat and Tabja attests to a community living here in Grecian and Roman times.
Famous Visitors
The most renowned Jewish visitor to our islands was none other than St. Paul, a Jew from Tarsus, who lived in Malta for some three months. Making Malta famous with the Christian world and bringing the new religion to the inhabitants.
One of the most remarkable figures in Medieval Jewish history, Avraham Ben Shmuel Abulafia, lived for many years in Malta, to be exact on the small rocky isle of Comino. Born in Saragossa, Spain, in 1240, Abulafia, visionary and prophetic cabbalist, proclaimed himself the Messiah and predicted the messianic era would begin in the year 5050 (1290). Abdulafia dreamed of dissolving the differences between Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
On the day between Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), 5040 (1280) he set out to Suriano to convince Pope Nicholas III to heed his ideas and ease the suffering of the Jews. His efforts ended with the Pope sentencing him to death by fire.
With the pyre prepared, the pope suddenly died of a heart attack and Abulafia was subsequently freed. He settled in Malta, where he wrote many cabalistic, philosophical, and grammatical works, including Sefer Ha'ot (Book of the Sign), many mystical essays on prophetic cabbalism and his greatest book Imre Sefer (Goodly Works). He died some time after 1291.
Mdina seems to have harboured an important Jewish community until the expulsion edict of 1492. During the Muslim occupation (870 - 1090) under the rule of the Abbasside and Aghlabide caliphates, members of the Jewish Community are known to have served as civil servants and one was even elected to the highest rank of Vizier.
When the Normans seized the archipelago, in 1090, there was a mixed population in our islands, consisting of Muslims, Christians and Jews. From 1091, the Jewish community of Malta ‘s history, now integrated with nearby Sicily, can be clearly traced. For example in 1240 according to the Abbot Gilbert’s report to the Emperor Frederick II, there were in the Maltese islands.
47 Christian Families and 25 Jewish Families, whilst in Gozo there were 200 Christian Families and 8 Jewish Families
Which makes a total of approximately 250 Jewish persons. Although the majority of the population up to 1249 was still Muslim. In 1282 the Maltese islands became a Spanish possession.
That the Jewish Community prospered there is no doubt, their number increased and this is evidenced by the nominations of the new bishop of Malta at the time.
In 1370 Francesco Papalla (the new bishop) from Messina was elevated to the dignity of "Custos Rotellea", so that he would follow more closely the orders and commands of Frederick II, that of "Contra Judeos ut in Differentia Vestium Et Gestorum Discernatur". This order was well laid down by Bishop Papalla, as he was able to order Jews (as Frederick desired) to wear a "Red Badge" on their clothes, and all Jewish men had to remain unshaven to distinguish them from Catholics.
In 1390 a number of Gozitan Catholics and Jews were taken as slaves after Tunisian corsairs launched a sudden attack on the island of Gozo. Among the captives were six poor Jewish persons. There were a certain Machullaf or Micallef, Sadum or Sajdum, Coftura, Jakobb, David and Sabbeus.
These six Jews, because of poverty, had to remain in captivity as slaves for at least 13 years. The fact that they were not extradited during those 13 years in slavery, does not mean that there were no initiative to free them.
In fact three years after being captured as slaves, the Jewish Community of Trapani was able to collect a sum of money for their freedom. Yet in spite of this, for reasons unknown, the six unfortunate Jewish slaves were not freed. Another appeal to free them was attempted later on by Moses Mason who pleaded with King Martin I for their freedom. The King offered 300 Doubloon if their freedom would be met. Whether these six poor Jews were released or not remains a mystery.
In the year 1393, the Bishop of Malta, Bishop Giovanni De Pino from Catalan was nominated as "Bishop Rotellae" for the Maltese islands. King Martin’s attitude towards the Jews was sympathetic, in fact in 1400 he pardoned all Jews on these islands and ordered the Bishop and his inquisitor not to meddle in the Jews’ affairs in Malta and Gozo. Consequently the Jews of our islands began to make a lot of progress.
In fact, in 1403, they were able to lend the Viceroy the sum of 30 ounces of gold to equip militarily a new galley. In 1435, we have indication about a certain rich Jew called Mose` Arnocrani living in Gozo near the church of St. Paul.
In the same year (1435) the Universita demanded the abolition of a tax which was due to be imposed on the Jews. This was well appreciated by the Jewish Community in Malta and Gozo, since the Universita released them from the tax burden, and as time passed the relations between the Jewish Community and the Maltese grew cordial and a certain Gozitan Jew named Xilorun was chosen as an ambassador of the Maltese Deputies to the court of Sicily.
However, relations between Jews and Maltese had not always been so happy: since the islands were dependencies of the Aragonese crown, Jews had been officially expelled from them in 1492, and their property confiscated:
It appears from a notarial deed of 2 June 1496, that the monastery of St. Scolastica had just been founded...The monastery was then occupying what had once been the synagogue of the Jews that had been expelled from the island only four years earlier. The monastery of St. Scolastica eventually moved to Birgu.
Jewish Place Names
During the early part of the middle ages, the Jewish population of Mdina constituted roughly a third of the inhabitants of that city. Where they were regarded as citizens, occupying a comfortable position, having fields and properties in the countryside. To a lesser extent this also holds true for the smaller community of Jewish inhabitants of Birgu, the port. In both Mdina and Birgu one can still find reference to the Jews’ stay in our islands. At Mdina one finds the place where the "Jewish Silk Market" was and there is a Jews’ Gate and Jews sally port in both towns. At Birgu one can also find "Jewry Street", whilst at Zejtun there is "Jewry’s square". Whilst at Valletta there is to this day a place known as "Jews Sally port" very near to where the Jewish Slave prison was to be found. We also still have "Jewish Caves" at BinGemma and "Jewish Caves" at Xatt il-Qwabar as the wharves of Marsa were previously known by.
In neighbouring Gozo, they lived mostly in the suburbs of the Citadella, the small capital of this island primarily rural and poorer that its larger sister island of Malta. But in none of the islands did they live confined in Ghettos or enclosed neighbourhoods. but their houses were situated next to those of Christians. This all changed later on.
The presence of the Jewish Community on the island of Gozo is also indicated by the number of nicknames or names which still exist. For instance, "Ghajn Lhudi" (Jew’s Cave) near Wied Sansun Samson’s Valley), "Wied Sansun" (Samson’s Valley) itself, "Ghar Lhudin" (Jewish Fountain), and "Misrah Lhudi" Jew’s Square.
About Ghajn Lhudin we know that it existed at Xaghra, but there is no evidence exactly where it might have been.
Further names such as "Wied il-Gharab" in the areas around Xlendi, - That up to 1555 was still known as "Wied il-Lhudi" (Jew’s Valley) and the hill know as "Ta’ Gordan" are a good testimony of the Jewish Community’s presence in Gozo.
Ancient Alphabets
Old Jewish notarial manuscripts written in the colloquial Maltese of those days but using the Hebrew alphabet from the XV century preserved in the Cathedral library of Mdina confirm the above.
When compared to other Catholic lands, for long periods during the Middle Ages the Jews of Malta, who had settled here from Sicily, Sardinia, North Africa and Spain, lived a fairly independent and prosperous life.
Although some Jews held prestigious posts, such as Avraham Safardi, the islands' Chief Physician, (a profession monopolised by the Jews of Malta at that time) and Xilorum, a diplomatic envoy to the court of Sicily others were agricultural land owners and import-export agents, whilst the majority were shopkeepers and itinerant merchants.
There were times when the community at large was subjected to restrictions. Yet a degree of tolerance and privilege also prevailed. Jews in prison for civil debts were allowed home for the Sabbath and Holy Days. On Friday nights Jews were exempted from carrying mandatory torches, a precaution required of all citizens to protect the island against surprise attack after dark. Whilst Jewish communal elections were conducted with no outside interference by the local authorities.
1492 - Expulsion
This situation changed in the second part of XV (15th) Century, when the religious authorities, of Spanish origin, worried about the joint ownership of certain houses inhabited by the Jews next door to the churches, appealed to the Spanish throne to do something about the Jews. This reaction developed with the rise on the throne of Spain of Ferdinand d' Aragon (1479).
The Inquisition struck the Jews and the Moslems who still lived the archipelago.
The decree of expulsion was signed in Palermo on June 18 1492. It gave three months to the Jews of Sicily and Malta to leave the country (or else to convert to Christianity and forfeit 45% of their possessions). In Spain, they were considered with suspicion, as well as the Moslems in the midst of which they lived and also spoke their language.
In Palermo, the local government sent a protest to the Spanish sovereigns making the point that if one expelled the Jews of the kingdom, where they were many and commercially active, in particular in Malta and Gozo, the economy would be adversely effected and the islands would be depopulated.
Conversos
A rather significant number of Sicilian Jews accepted the edict proposed by the Spanish royalty and converted. The Maltese historian Profs. Godfrey Wettinger thinks that, on their side, it would be astonishing that no Maltese Jew succumbed to this temptation. In fact, in the years which followed the application of the decree of expulsion, Malta counted several tens of conversos whose names were found in the files.
The surnames of our archipelago carry the trace of this heritage; thus, Attard, Ellul, Salamone, Mamo (name of first independent president of Malta) and Meli would be names of Jewish origin. It appears that Azzopardi, a very widespread name in Malta, would mean Séphardi (One who originated in Spain (Sefarad).
Intelligent people
As already said the Jews were known as an intelligent people. Since early Temple times it was a Jewish tradition that all Jewish males must begin learning Hebrew from the age of 3 so as to be able to read from the Torah Scrolls during synagogue services - hence giving them an edge on their contemporaries.
Among the intelligent Jewish families living in Gozo was the popular Safaradi family, a well respected family on the island not only for goodness but also for its intelligence. In fact in 1446, the family Safaradi boasted two doctors, one was Bracone Safaradi and the other was the already mentioned Rabbi Abraham Safaradi. The latter was a famous doctor paid from Mdina (the ancient Capital) in Malta.
Bracone was also famous as a doctor, and later on he was nominated a Deputato of the "Dienchele Joshua Banartini" for Malta and Gozo to execute the "Mosaic Law". Evidence of this nomination of Bracone is the following (edited) letter:-
But proof exists that this Safaradi family continued to take care of all the Jewish Spiritual interests in Gozo. In 1485, apart from being a Rabbi (Teacher), Abraham Safaradi was also nominated by the Viceroy as the most preferred Jewish person in the islands in Medicine and for the interpretation of Mosaic Law. Apart from being a doctor, Abram Safaradi served also as a well known public notary up to the expulsion of the Jews from the Maltese islands in 1492.
The Coming of the Knights
To defend the archipelago threatened by the Ottoman Turks, Charles V of Spain offered Malta to the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem (1530). Remembering the relatively liberal policy followed by the Knights towards the Jews of Rhodes, many of the (Jewish) Sicilians "conversos" as the forcibly converted Jews were known - who kept the Jewish religion at home but outwardly appeared acted as Catholics - decided to settle in Malta.
After their installation in Malta, the Knights who had a fleet of galleys, launched out, like the Turks, in the taking of hostages and their release against ransom. The Jewish merchants, who were about the only ones to ensure their risk and dangers the exchanges between two banks of the Mediterranean, were particularly aimed.
During the reign of the Knights of St. John, the only Jews (with a few exceptions) who lived in our islands were slaves. A prison to hold these Jewish slaves had been built with this intention in Valletta. The Knights waged continual maritime warfare, hardly distinguishable from piracy, against the Moslem powers. Seaports were raided and their inhabitants carried off.
Shipping was preyed on indiscriminately, captured vessels being brought to Malta, and crew and passengers sold into captivity. Throughout the rule of the Knights, which lasted until they capitulated to the French in 1798, the islands were thus a last European refuge of slave traffic and slave labour.
The victims were any persons, of whatever standing, race, age or sex, who happened to be sailing on the captured ships. Jews made up a large proportion of the Levantine merchant class and were hence peculiarly subject to capture. Because of their nomadic way of life, disproportionately large numbers were to be found in any vessel sailing the Eastern ports.
They also formed a considerable element in the population of the Moslem ports subject to raids. So, soon after the establishment of the Knights in Malta, the name of Malta begins to be found with increasing frequency in Jewish literature, and always with an evil association.
The islands became in Jewish eyes a symbol for all that was cruel and hateful in the Christian world. Whatever the truth of the contemporary rumour that the Jews financed the great Turkish siege of Malta in 1565, certainly they watched with anxious eyes and their disappointment at its failure must have been great. "The monks of Malta are still today a snare and trap for the Jews", sadly records a Jewish chronicler at the end of his account of the siege. A messianic prophecy current early in the seventeenth century further expressed the bitterness of the Jewish feeling, recounting how the Redemption would begin with the fall of the four kingdoms of "ungodliness", first amongst which was Malta.
A typical capture, and one of the earliest mentioned in Jewish literature, is related in the "Vale of Tears" (like the one suffered by the Cherokees) by Joseph ha-Cohen: `In the year 5312 (1552), the vessels of the monks of Rhodes, of the order of Malta, cruising to find booty, encountered a ship coming from Salonica, wheron where seventy Jews. They captured it and returned to their island. These unhappy persons had to send to all quarters to collect money for the ransom exacted by these miserable monks. Only after payment were they able to continue their voyage.’ In 1567, large numbers of Jews, escaping to the Levant from the persecution of Pius V, fell victims to the Knights. "Many of the victims sank like lead to the depths of the sea before the fury of the attack. Many others were imprisoned in the Maltese dungeons at this time of desolation," writes the chronicler. It was not only those who went down to the sea in ships over whom the shadow hung. Of the Marranos (Crypto-Jews) of Ancona who fell victims to the fanaticism of Paul IV, thirty-eight who eluded the stake were sent in chains to the galleys of Malta, though they managed to escape on the way.
Arrived in Malta, the captives were only at the beginning of their troubles. A very graphic account of conditions is given by the English traveller, Philip Skippon, who visited the spot in about 1663:
`The slaves’ prison is a fair square building, cloistered round where most of the slaves in Malta are obliged to lodge every night, and to be there about Ave Mary time. They have here several sorts of trades, as barbers, taylors &c. There are about 2,000 that belong to the order, most of which were now abroad in the galleys; and there are about three hundred who are servants to private persons. This place being an island, and difficult to escape out of, they wear only an iron ring or foot-lock. Those that are servants, lodge in their masters’ houses, when the galleys are at home; but now, lie a-nights in this prison. Jews, Moors and Turks are made slaves here, and are publickly sold in the market. `A stout fellow may be bought (if he is an inferior person) for 120 or 160 scudi of Malta. The Jews are distinguished from the rest by a little piece of yellow cloth on their hats or caps, &c. We saw a rich Jew who was taken about a year before, who was sold in the market that morning we visited the prison for 400 scudi; and supposing himself free, by reason of a passport he had from Venice, he struck the merchant that bought him; where-upon he was presently sent hither, his beard and head were shaven off, a great chain clapped on his legs, and bastinadoed with 50 blows.'
Ransom
The mechanism of release was not always simple. The Jew was rarely as rich as he was reputed to be, but his reputation for wealth was greatest precisely were he was least known. The usual price standard of a slave was tended, therefore to disappear whenever a Jew was concerned.
He was worth not his value but whatever could be extorted from his brethren ransom degenerated into blackmail. Fifteen centuries earlier, the rabbis of the Talmud had realised that this was a case in which it was necessary to turn for once a deaf ear to suffering, lest a premium be put on the enslavement of Jews. They ordained, accordingly, that no captive be ransomed for more than his economic value. This was a rule to obey which was hard for Jews, " compassionate sons of compassionate sires," and generally the price paid for a Jew was higher by far than that of a Moslem. On occasion, the Jews were mercilessly exploited.
The owner of one, Judah Surnago, a man of seventy-five whose value in the open market was negligible, was unable to obtain the sum which he demanded in ransom. Thereupon he shut him up naked in a cellar for two months, giving him nothing to eat but black bread and water. The old man came out blind and unable to stand.
While waiting for their repurchase they were allowed to work downtown to make ends meet. They could sell in the streets, but before evening they had to return to the prison. This absence of community made up did not prevent the English writer Christopher Marrow from publishing, into 1590, the Jew of Malta, a topic close to the Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, evoking a Jewish rich person of Malta. According to Profs. G Wettinger the Jews then present at Malta, prisoners for the majority, who as we said could devote themselves occasionally to trade, could not arrive to the point to constitute a fortune.
Jewish Heroism
In her history of the Order of St. John, Claire-Eliane Engel comments that during the Great Siege, 'les juifs de Malte avaient ete d'une loyaute au-dessus de tout eloge' [the Jews of Malta had behaved with a loyalty above all praise].
In the last days of St. Elmo, the Grand Master allowed one final volunteer force to attempt to force their way to the relief of the doomed fort. Anyone who went on such a mission faced certain death, but nevertheless two Jews of the island chose to join the relief expedition, although in the event the boats carrying the would-be volunteers were unable to get past the Turkish cannon and were forced to turn back to Birgu. We must also not forget Joseph Cohen, a Jewish slave who was also a tavern keeper in Valletta. Who overheard Muslim slaves conspiring against the knights in his tavern. The mutiny was to start with the murder of the Grand Master. With great peril of his being found out by the conspirators, he gained an audience with the Grand Master and told him what he had overheard. For his loyalty he was set free from bondage and a house (Monte di Pieta) in Merchants street, Valletta awarded to him in recognition.
Rebirth of the community
1798 was a blessing for the Jewish nation living in Malta! On the road to Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte seized the archipelago and applied the laws of the French Republic, i.e. equality and the abolition of slavery.
Finally the Jews became free men in our islands. No longer did they have to wear the shameful distinguishing round red circle on their clothes nor if they so desired could they no longer shave their beards.
The community of the Jews of Malta could reconstitute itself again as freemen. Nothing changed in this respect when two years later the English drove out the French. Indeed Valletta became an important stopover on the road to the Middle and Far East. Several Jews from Gibraltar immigrated to Malta and established business concerns. They were soon followed by Jews coming from North Africa and other Mediterranean cities. The inventory of the surviving old cemetery of Kalkara, created in 1784 by a donation from the Jewish community of Leghorn (Livorno - Italy)in the suburbs of Vittoriosa for the Jewish slaves who died in the islands, is revealing. Two studies on the three surviving Jewish Cemeteries of the community of Malta conducted by Derek Davis, and Lawrence Attard Bezzina, show that many of the residents died in the archipelago were originated from Gibraltar, London, Ragusa (Dubrovnik), Tunis, Tripoli, Ragusa (Italy), Lisbon and Turkey.
In 1998, the number of local "Maltese" Jewish families who identify themselves as Sepharadim (coming originally from Spain), as against the Ashkenazim (coming from Eastern Europe) do not exceed thirty families, reduced sometimes to one or to two individuals, generally old. Most are Polypots speaking several languages Others - the Ashkenazim are people installed here for a few years, the time of a contract with a multinational. Some are refugees, Lebanese Jews, Factory Owners, tradesmen, British pensioners. And what not . We meet twice every month for the celebration of the Shabbat - there are usually between fourteen to twenty men . We celebrate the Jewish festivals. And we also organise a communal seder (celebration of Passover) in a local restaurant every year, attended by all the Jews who have no family or relatives living in Malta.
The community boasts of three Jewish cemeteries in Malta. The oldest, that of Kalkara, goes back to the XVIII century. Then next door to the " Turkish cemetery " with a very ornamental entrance, the small current Jewish cemetery, in the suburbs of Marsa, which dates from the middle of the last century. The third is the neglected cemetery at Tal-Braxja overgrown by grass, is found desecrated by unscrupulous builders and MSU employees who damp empty Pepsi bottles and other garbage on top of this sacred ground.
Most of the inscriptions are in Italian - for the oldest - perhaps there was nobody to write in Hebrew. On the other hand, the most recent ones are in Hebrew. Some, which date from the First World War, are in French: dedicated to the soldiers fallen at the time of the war of the Dardanelles. In these holy grounds lie side by side Jews who escaped from concentration camps, from Budapest or from Tunis, Oran or a German village, it is in this Jewish ground, away from the promised land, that they met their destiny.
Today most visitors to this sun-drenched island-republic inevitably find their way to the imposing, fortress-like Co-Cathedral of St. John in the heart of the baroque-style capital of Valletta. Under the gilded buttresses and orange vaulted ceiling, visitors gaze in awe at the high altar overlaid with lapis lazuli, marble and bronze; they marvel at the opulence of the religious art treasures - frescoes, tapestries, masterwork paintings by Caravaggio and Preti. In this grandiose church, erected by the Knights of St. John in the sixteenth century, scarcely a foot of space remains unadorned by a painting, wood carving or sculpture.
Few visitors to Malta, however, ever found their way to another house of worship, a few minutes away from the world - famous church of the Order of St. John or as they are better known the Knights of Malta.
Inside an unobtrusive apartment house on narrow St. Ursula street, Valletta, in an unmarked ground floor flat, simply furnished with several rows of straight-backed chairs, was a synagogue. A minyan (Jews pray in a congregation of at least 10 Adult males over 13 years of age) drawn from Malta's hundred or so Jews gathered here every firsat and third Shabbat of each month for morning service and on holidays.
Saturday morning at the synagogue on St. Ursula street - the atmosphere was always welcoming and intimate. When any worshipper arrives he / she is greeted warmly by the congregants already inside.
While a lay reader (the community has no serving rabbi) chanted familiar prayers at the makeshift bima in the centre of the patterned tile floor, the shammas (beadle) bustled about, offering siddurim (prayer books), and arranging aliyot (when a Jewish male is called up to read from the Torah Scroll) . Joe Reginiano and Lawrence Attard Bezzina (Ariel Ben Attar) took it in turns to open and close the blue and gold velvet curtain at the Holy Ark. George Tayar, the genial Sefardi community president, whose rabbinic ancestors settled in Malta some 200 hundred years ago from Libya, now sadly gone always invited me to sit alongside him.
In late morning, after we had chorused the closing lines of Adon Olam, to the Scottish rolling of Dennis Miller, a table magically appeared laden with wine, delicious home-made pastries and savoury snacks, prepared by a trio of hospitable ladies. In between bites of fruity strudel and sips of Italian or Israeli kosher wine everyone recounted recent gossips.
George Tayar could be seen proudly pointing out to some Jewish tourists that the "born again" congregation was not only now blessed with several enthusiastic and knowledgeable lay readers, but boasted among its members several converts to Judaism and a devout family of nine, the Ohayons. The father - Avraham has recently been elected as the president of the Community replacing the much loved George Tayar. He would start recounting how the community had been without a synagogue for several years after the old premises at Spurs street in Valletta, were torn down to construct a new roadway. During that interim, Holy Day services were held in the then Israeli embassy at Ta' Xbiex. The Maltese Government through some coercion by the Attard-Bezzina family who had good political contacts with the Labour Government (One was speaker to the House of Representatives, Acting President of the Republic and later Plenipotentiary Ambassador to several European countries) had been helpful in ultimately locating a new site. the congregation sold one of its venerable Torah to the Jewish Museum in New York, to acquire funds for furnishing the new synagogue (at St. Ursula street). After several years of faithfull joyous service, which ushered in a few Bar mitzvahs and the only Bat Mitzvah (to my memory) and two Brit Milahs in its short existence as the Jewish House of worship, this small apartment has sadly been evacuated. No not by a pogrom - Heaven forbid but due to the state of disrepair of the adjacent building and sadly enough the Maltese Jewish community found itself again without its beloved synagogue and community centre. Representations with the government at the highest level have been made and promises by Government ministers made that the synagogue will be re-built.
The country's President Dr. U. Mifsud Bonnici has graciously put pressure on the government and offered his help but nothing came about. Until the Jews of Malta finally decided to do something concrete themselves. After a long meeting it was decided to collect money to buy an apartment, which after a few years materialised in the new synagogue now situated at Ta' Xbiex.
It has then been for thousands of years..... Israelite & Jewish life in the Maltese islands still goes on albeit at a smaller pace.
Every Year on the Jewish feast of Tu BeShvat, tree planting ceremonies are conducted. The first time this was conducted in one of Malta's newest towns. That of Fgura where on the initiative of Lawrence Attard Bezzina, the president and founder of the Malta-Israel Cultural & Friendship Society, sixty three palm and olive trees and several oleanders were planted in the newly refurbished Reggie Miller town square cum garden. In honour of this, Fgura's Local Council named the garden "The Jewish Community Grove" (Mixtla Komunita Lhudija) and a suitable marble plaque has been erected. The importance of these occasions is that the small Jewish community has been officially recognizjed as an ethnic minority in our country. Another important event took place when, Lawrence arranged for the Prime Minister of Malta to make an official visit to the new synagogue and community centre. In May 2006. the Hon. Dr Lawrence Gonzi and Mrs Gonzi visited the synagogue. They were very warmly welcomed and applauded by all the members of the Jewish community and several visiting Jewish & Israeli tourists.
Sephardic contribution among the founders of a population in northwest Colombia
Toponymy
The reason behind the chosen name for the Department is not historically clear. The most accepted explanation is that the name for the, then Greek-Syrian (now Turkish), Hellenistic city of Antioch on the Orontes (Greek: Antiochia, Αντιόχεια, Arabic: Antākiyyah, today Antakya) was used, as the region known as the Coffee Zone in Colombia, in which many towns and cities are named after cities in the middle east, has a very strong Judeo-Arabic influence, both demographically and culturally; Additionally the city in mention played a significant role in the development of early Christian communities thus religiously important for Roman Catholic Spaniard conquerors. Others state that it is named after some of the other many Hellenistic ancient cities in the middle east named Antiochia which were founded as well by some of the Antiochus Kings during the Seleucid Empire (312–63 BC).
Location of the Paisa Region in Colombia: In yellow the Antioquean Urabá, belonging to the cultural context of the Colombian Caribbean Region; in green the Paisa departments and in blue some Paisa areas of Tolima and Valle del Cauca.
Geography
Although what is known as "Paisa Region" is a cultural entity and it is not defined by administrative divisions, it is possible to locate some areas as the natural space of the Paisa people.
Antioquia Department: The biggest department (63,612 km²) with a population of 6,299,886. However, some areas of the department are not considered culturally Paisa like the Antioquean Urabá and the north of Antioquia, more integrated to the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The Paisas are located especially in the mountainous part of the province, at the center and south, in what is called the "Montaña Antioqueña" (Antioquean Mountain). The capital is Medellín, the second urban and industrial center of Colombia. Other big cities are located in the Metropolitan Area of Medellín, Rionegro, La Ceja, Santa Fe de Antioquia, Puerto Berrío, Yarumal and others. The southwest of the Department (Sureste Antioqueño) is a part of the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis.
Caldas Department: It was established in 1905 and has an area of 7,888 km² with a population of 908,841. The capital is Manizales, founded by Antioquean colonizers in 1849.
Risaralda Department: It was established in 1966 from the territory of Caldas. It has an area of 4,140 km² and a population of 863,663. The capital is Pereira (founded in 1863).
Quindío Department: It was established in 1966 also from Caldas with Armenia as capital. It is one of the smallest departments of Colombia (1,845 km²) with a population of 518,691 persons.
Tolima Department: Some towns of the west of Tolima are of Paisa origin: Roncesvalles (founded by Antioqueans in 1905); Líbano (f. 1849); Casabianca (f. 1886); Murillo (f. 1871); Armero (f. 1895); Villahermosa (f. 1887).
Valle del Cauca Department: The towns and cities of the north of the Valle del Cauca Department are also of Paisa origin: Sevilla (founded by Antioqueans in 1903); Alcalá (f. 1819); Argelia (f. 1904, known also as "Medellincito, Little Medellín); Bolívar (f. 1884); Caicedonia (f. 1910) Cartago (f. 1540), El Águila (f. 1905); La Unión (f. 1890); Versalles (f. 1894), Trujillo (f.1922).
These are some Paisa toponyms from the Mediterranean, Middle East & surrounding area that might indicate the Jewish & Israelite origin of the Paisas: Pereira (Sephardi last name), Armenia, Cartago, Cauca, Caucasia, Montenegro, Salento (southern Italian, therefore Sephardic likely), Argelia, Antioquía.
Historical and genetic evidences suggest that the recently founded population of Antioquia (Colombia) is potentially useful for the genetic mapping of complex traits. This population was established in the 16th–17th centuries through the admixture of Amerinds, Europeans, and Africans and grew in relative isolation until the late 19th century. To examine the origin of the founders of Antioquia, we typed 11 markers on the nonrecombining portion of the Y chromosome and four markers on mtDNA in a sample of individuals with confirmed Antioquian ancestry. The polymorphisms on the Y chromosome (five biallelic markers and six microsatellites) allow an approximation to the origin of founder men, and those on mtDNA identify the four major founder Native American lineages. These data indicate that ∼94% of the Y chromosomes are European, 5% are African, and 1% are Amerind. Y-chromosome data are consistent with an origin of founders predominantly in southern Spain but also suggest that a fraction came from northern Iberia and that some possibly had a Sephardic origin. In stark contrast with the Y-chromosome, ∼90% of the mtDNA gene pool of Antioquia is Amerind, with the frequency of the four Amerind founder lineages being closest to Native Americans currently living in the area. These results indicate a highly asymmetric pattern of mating in early Antioquia, involving mostly immigrant men and local native women. The discordance of our data with blood-group estimates of admixture suggests that the number of founder men was larger than that of women.
Historical records indicate that immigrants from the Iberian peninsula founded the first non-Amerind settlements in northwest South America (in present-day Colombia) in the early 16th century. Soon after that, the Atlantic slave trade introduced African individuals, who originated mostly from western Africa.
The arrival of immigrants led to the establishment of a rapidly growing admixed criollo population and a concomitant decline in the Amerind population. The Andes divides into three major mountain ranges (“cordilleras”) in southern Colombia, which cover most of the western side of the country. The ruggedness of the terrain has been a formidable obstacle to communications for centuries, and the demographic growth of various populations in the region occurred in relative isolation until the late 19th century. During that time, a distinct regional identity (termed paisa) developed around the fertile highland valleys of Aburrá and Rionegro, in the province of Antioquia, where some of the most successful settlements had been established in the mid-17th century. From these two valleys, the Antioquian population expanded southward, following the central cordillera. This expansion was given considerable impetus in the 19th century with the introduction of the coffee crop (Juan Valdez, the logo used by the Colombian Coffee Federation, is an iconic paisa). Blood-group data indicate that the genetic background of the population of Antioquia is ∼70% white, 15% Amerindian, and 15% African.
In order to evaluate the origin of male and female founders of Antioquia, we examined mtDNA and Y-chromosome markers in a sample of descendants of the Aburrá and Rionegro expansion. Our results reveal the imprint of an early admixture involving mostly native women and immigrant men. Interestingly, the female contribution still reflects the genetic makeup of South Amerinds inhabiting the region. As expected, the founder male contribution seems to be predominantly from southern Spain, although a northern Spanish (possibly Basque) component is detectable. Finally, Y-chromosome data suggest that some of the Antioquian founders could have a Sephardic ancestry.
Samples were taken from 80 individuals in Medellín from among students and staff of the Universidad de Antioquia Medical School and San Vicente de Paul University Hospital (fig. 1). To select individuals of Antioquian ancestry, we applied a genealogical interview that recorded the names, dates, and places of birth of ancestors up to the great-grandparents. None of the selected indi++viduals shared any of the ancestors recorded in the interview. Each individual provided informed consent for this research (this project was approved by the Bioethics committee of Universidad de Antioquia). Whole blood was collected, and genomic DNA was extracted using the Nucleon DNA extraction kit, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
Y-Chromosome Biallelic Polymorphisms
Four of the markers examined allow the identification of five haplogroups, some of which have marked differences in frequency among the putative parental populations of Antioquia: Europeans, western Africans, and southern Amerinds (table 1). In this comparison, haplogroup B is restricted to South America and haplogroup E to western Africa (although both extend into other geographic areas that are unlikely to have contributed to Antioquia). Among the 80 Y chromosomes examined in Antioquia, three carry the G allele at locus DYS271 and are most likely African in origin. One individual carries the T allele at locus DYS199, thus identifying this chromosome as Amerind. Overall, the haplogroup frequencies in Antioquia are closest to those seen in Europe (table 1). Genetic distances, based on haplogroup frequencies, among these four groups are shown in table 2. The smallest distance is seen between Antioquia and Europe, and the value obtained (.008) is not significantly different from zero. Also, Antioquia is seen to be slightly closer to western Africa (.41) than to South America (.45), as suggested by the higher frequency in Antioquia of haplogroup E relative to haplogroup B (table 1). Admixture estimation, based on the haplogroup frequencies of table 1, indicates that the Antioquian Y chromosomes are ∼94% European, 5% African, and 1% Amerind, in agreement with the genetic distance analysis.
Polymorphism at the fifth biallelic marker examined (SRY-2627) seems to have originated in the Iberian peninsula, with the derived T allele being relatively common in northern Spanish populations, particularly in Basque and Catalan, where it reaches frequencies of 11% and 22%, respectively. The T allele was detected at a frequency of 5% in Antioquia, in agreement with an Iberian origin for the European migrants to the province and suggesting that some of these founders came from northern Spain.
Y-Chromosome Microsatellites
Y-Chromosome Microsatellites
To refine the assessment of the origin of Antioquian founders, we compared microsatellite allele frequencies at Y-linked loci in Antioquia with those available for the Iberian peninsula and for northern Africa (since a considerable part of Spain was under Arab rule between the 8th and 15th centuries). From the initial Antioquian sample, 55 individuals were randomly selected for the microsatellite analyses. The genetic distance estimates obtained between these populations on the basis of Y-microsatellite data are shown in table 3. A clear separation is seen between Spanish and northern African populations, with most genetic distances between populations within those two regions being not significantly different from zero. Antioquia is seen to be much closer to the Spanish than to northern African populations. Interestingly, there is a gradient in genetic distance between Spanish, Antioquian, and northern African populations (table 3), with the greatest distance being between the Basque and the Saharawis and the smallest distance across regions between Antioquians and Arabs . Because southern Spain is known to have contributed the largest proportion of migrants to the American colonies, this gradient could reflect the more intense occupation of southern Spain by the Arabs.
In agreement with the genetic distances shown in table 3, most of the common haplotypes detected in Antioquia (1, 2, 6, and 7) are also found in Spain but are rare in northern Africa. Three of these haplotypes (1, 2, and 7) differ by one mutational step, with an additional two haplotypes being one mutational step away from them (haplotypes 26 and 32). Apart from the occurrence of one haplotype 2 in haplogroup C, this set of closely related haplotypes occurs in haplogroup A and represents 38% of the chromosomes seen in Antioquia. The two most common Antioquian haplotypes are also the most frequent among the Basque. The most frequent haplotypes present in the Catalan and in northern African populations, which reach frequencies >20% in those populations (data not shown), were not detected in Antioquia. The average gene diversity for the Y microsatellites is higher in Antioquia than in the Spanish and northern African populations. The Basque show a relatively lower diversity, which is also reflected in the fact that the Antioquian sample includes ∼53% of the haplotypes seen in the Basque, the highest proportion among the populations examined (table 3).
A number of the Antioquian Y-microsatellite haplotypes carry large alleles at locus DYS388 (alleles with >14 repeats). These alleles are absent or have low frequencies in European and African populations but reach high frequencies in Middle Eastern populations. Large alleles were detected in the Basque and Catalan populations, at frequencies of 3.9% and 3.7%, respectively, and, in Antioquia, at a frequency of 16.2%. Among the Arabs, Berbers, Saharawis, and Tachelhits, such alleles were found at frequencies of 8.9%, 0%, 10%, and 11%, respectively. This suggests some Semitic ancestry for Antioquia and is consistent with the genetic distance analysis of table 3. Interestingly, haplotype 4, which carries a DYS388 allele with 16 repeats, corresponds to the Cohen modal haplotype (CMH) of Thomas et al. (1998). This haplotype has frequencies >10% among Jewish populations but seems to be rare in Arab populations and has been proposed as an indicator of Jewish ancestry. Two other haplotypes (12 and 29) are one mutational step away from the CMH. Haplotypes 3 and 5 also match haplotypes detected among Jewish populations; they correspond to haplotypes 2 and 27 in Thomas et al. (2000). In that survey, Antioquian haplotype 3 was observed only among Sephardic Jews. These matches occur in haplogroup C and, on aggregate, imply that ∼14% of the Antioquian haplotypes could have a Jewish ancestry.
The mtDNA haplotype frequencies in Antioquia and in five Colombian Native American populations
These populations have a wide geographic distribution within Colombia (fig. 1). The Embera live in Antioquia, the Zenu and Wayuu live to the north of the province (with part of the Zenu territory overlapping with Antioquia), and the Ingano and the Ticuna are located in southern Colombia (the Ticuna live in a remote Amazonian location). Approximately 90% of the Antioquian samples carry variants characteristic of the major Amerind mtDNA founder lineages, with a predominance of haplogroups A (45%) and B (37%). These same haplogroups predominate in the Embera, which have a more extreme frequency of haplogroup A (73%). The other populations have high frequencies of haplogroups B and C, the first one predominating among the Zenu and Ingano and the second one among the Wayuu and the Ticuna. The Ticuna also show a relatively high frequency of haplogroup D. Approximately 10% of the haplotypes detected in Antioquia, and, at most, 5% of those seen in the Amerinds examined lack diagnostic changes of the major Amerind founder lineages. These could represent reversions at diagnostic sites or additional founder Amerind lineages or they could correspond to non-Amerind haplotypes. Preliminary sequence data indicate that these haplotypes in Antioquia are nearly equally distributed among European and African lineages. On the basis of haplogroup frequencies, Antioquia shows an mtDNA diversity in the lower range of that seen in the Amerind populations, except the Embera, which show a lower diversity. A low genetic diversity of the Embera relative to the other four Amerind populations is consistently seen with autosomal and Y-chromosome markers, suggesting a recent demographic constriction of the Embera settlement sampled.
Genetic distances between Antioquia and the five Amerind populations tested
The distance between Antioquia and the Embera is not significantly different from zero, as is also the case for the distances between Wayuu, Zenu, and Ingano. The Embera have the largest interpopulation distances, a finding consistent with stronger drift in this population, as is suggested by its lower genetic diversity. The mean distance between Antioquia and the three Amerind populations of western Colombia (other than the Embera) is similar to that seen between these and the Amazonian Ticuna.
Our results indicate a marked difference in the population origin of the female and male founders of Antioquia. Although the great majority of female founders were Amerind, >90% of the male founders were European in origin. An important contribution of Amerinds to the mtDNA gene pool of Latin Americans has been documented for Mexican and Brazilian populations, but no equivalent study has yet been performed with Y-chromosome markers. The high frequency of Amerind mtDNA founder haplotypes found in Antioquia indicates that the number of nonnative women who immigrated into the region was quite small. Although no estimate is available for Colombia, this result agrees with Spanish records showing that, during the colonial period (late 15th to the early 19th centuries), particularly during its initial stages, a relatively small number of women embarked for the New World. Of the 15,000 names recorded in the “Catálogo de Pasajeros a Indias,” a list of passengers embarking for the New World between 1509 and 1559, only 10% were women (Sanchez-Albornoz 1977). Furthermore, after achieving independence in the early 19th century, Colombia has not received the important currents of immigration that have moved into many other Latin American countries (Sanchez-Albornoz 1977; Bushnell 1993). For example, in the Brazilian study by Alves-Silva et al. (2000), ∼40% of the mtDNA lineages were found to be European, with the highest frequency (66%) being observed in regions of important recent immigration, such as the southern Brazilian states.
The high frequency of Amerind mtDNA lineages in Antioquia conflicts with blood-group data indicating that ∼70% of the genetic background of this population is white (Sandoval et al. 1993). This discordance suggests that the number of male founders was larger than that of women. This could result from the incorporation of male founders into the Antioquian gene pool over a longer time period than that of women. This is consistent with the very rapid decline of the native population after the first years of contact. It has been estimated that the overall decimation of the native population of the American continents during the first century of contact was ∼90% (from an initial population anywhere between 10 and 100 million [Sanchez-Albornoz 1977]). In the case of Antioquia, chronicles of the first forays of conquistadors into the Aburrá valley (in the mid-16th century) mention the existence of ∼3,000 natives (Alvarez 1996). About a century later, the census drawn at the founding of Medellín reports 29 native families among a total of 221 living in the area (Alvarez 1996). In addition, colonial administration and society imposed many pressures, favoring the establishment of families with mestizo rather than with native women (Tirado Mejía 1989), further reducing the likelihood of incorporating additional female Amerind founders into the expanding Antioquian population.
Interestingly, the genetic distance between Antioquia and the neighboring Embera population is not statistically significant. Furthermore, the distance between Antioquia and three other native populations from western Colombia is similar to that seen between them and the isolated Ticuna population. This suggests that the Amerind female founders of Antioquia belonged to a population or populations closely related to the Embera. Thus, there seems to be a genetic continuity (at the mtDNA level) of pre- and post-Columbian populations living in this area. The existence of such genetic continuity suggests that the migration rate of mestizo women within Colombia, since the founding of Antioquia, has been relatively small and not sufficient to erase the pre-Columbian Amerind population structure. This is consistent with the reported historical isolation of the province (Parsons 1968; Alvarez 1996). A more thorough sampling of local native populations and of other admixed Colombian populations is required, to evaluate the extent of pre- and post-Columbian genetic continuity of the populations living in this part of South America and to assess the extent of female migration between them during the last centuries.
Juan Valdez, typical Paisa man
Data from Y-chromosome polymorphisms are consistent with the notion that a large proportion of the male founders of Antioquia originated in southern Spain, but they also suggest a northern Spanish and possibly a Sephardic contribution. The frequency of allele T at marker SRY-2627 has been assessed in several Iberian and European populations.This allele is absent or has low frequencies in the populations surveyed, except for the Basque and Catalan, and its presence at a frequency of 5% in Antioquia suggests a northern Spanish origin for some Antioquian founders. The absence in Antioquia of the most common Catalan microsatellite haplotype and the relatively high frequency in Antioquia of the two most common Basque haplotypes suggests a direct contribution from the latter population. The relatively high frequency of large alleles at locus DYS388 and the genetic distances shown in table 3 are consistent with a Semitic contribution to the gene pool of Antioquia. This is in agreement with an origin of a considerable fraction of the Antioquian founders in southern Spain, since this area was under Arab rule for ∼8 centuries. Furthermore, recent autosomal microsatellite data from Andalucía confirm that there has been some genetic exchange between northern Africa and southern Spain. Haplotype analysis suggests that the Semitic contribution to Antioquia might include a Sephardic component, since ∼14% of the Antioquian Y-chromosome haplotypes are shared with Jewish populations, including the CMH and other closely related haplotypes. Greater confidence in the possibility that these haplotypes reflect a Jewish ancestry in Antioquia requires a more extensive evaluation of their frequency in Mediterranean populations, particularly in northern Africa and southern Spain. Other genetic evidence indicative of a Sephardic ancestry for some of the initial Iberian migrants to the New World has recently been reported on the basis of the observation, in non-Jewish Latin American pedigrees, of disease-causing mutations mostly restricted to Jewish populations.
Our attempt to refine the assessment of the origin of Antioquian male founders is complicated by the limited number of populations that have been examined in Iberia and northern Africa and by the possible distortion of allele/haplotype frequencies because of drift. In addition, microsatellites are prone to recurrent mutation—consequently, the haplotype analysis in particular should be regarded with caution. Notwithstanding such limitations, it is noticeable that our findings agree with historical accounts about the origin of Antioquian founders. A substantial migration from southern Spain to the New World is well documented (Boyd-Bowman 1976), and a relatively important Basque and Sephardic contribution to Antioquia has been proposed by several historians. A relatively common Basque origin for Antioquian founders is supported by an estimated 20% frequency of Basque surnames in the province. Proposals about a Sephardic contribution rely on less-suggestive evidence.
The Jewish ancestry has been documented for only a few Antioquian founders, and this hypothesis has been the subject of intense debate among historians. Persecuted by the Crown, Spanish Jews were expulsed or forced into conversion in the 15th century. The colonial administration officially prohibited the travel of converts to America, and the Spanish Inquisition established itself in Cartagena (in present-day Colombia) to oversee issues of faith, although it was reputedly less severe than it was in Spain. Consequently, even if converts circumvented these circumstances and established themselves in the New World, it is not surprising that very little documentary evidence exists. If the Sephardic origin of the haplotypes detected in Antioquia is confirmed, it will be interesting to evaluate whether this is a common phenomenon in Latin American populations or, as some historians claim, whether it might be more pronounced in Colombia and particularly in Antioquia.
In conclusion, our data are consistent with historical accounts about the origin of Antioquia and its relative isolation. However, the extent of sex bias among native and European founders is surprising. It remains to be explored whether this founding admixture resulted in levels of LD that could currently facilitate complex trait mapping in Antioquia. Although mtDNA data are consistent with some degree of isolation of this population, the level of founder diversity seems substantial and does not support a strong bottleneck at the founding of Antioquia. However, our sample covers a wide geographic area within the Aburrá/Rionegro expansion, and it is possible that internal subisolates exist within the province.
JAMES AS THE EVANGELIST TO ISRAEL IN SPAIN
A Fisherman
OF the twelve Apostles, Jarnes the Elder has always been associated with Spain. He is the national hero and the patron saint of Spain. Unlike his brother John, who immediately followed Jesus after the Master was baptised in the river Jordan, James was 'called' later when sitting in a boat with their father Zebedee mending their nets for the next catch. Walking along the shore of the Sea of Gaillee the Master had called Peter and Andrew, who already were throwing out their nets to fish. He beckoned Jarnes and John also. At the Lord's call they all stopped their work, except Zebedee, and went with Him. As James gained a certain amount of training he became a man of deep dedication and authority.
A Disciple
Of the three men who came to make up the inner ring of the disciples, Peter, Jarnes, and John, the least is known about James. We read in Scripture about his activities. He was present at the Transfiguration of Christ, and witnessed the appearing of Moses and Elijah when Christ was glorified before them These three were definitely singled out from the rest. He was again singled out when he was asked by the Master, together with Peter and John, when on the eve of His betrayal He asked them to stay awake, to 'watch and pray with Him.'
Much is said in the Scripture about John and Peter, but we find very little said about James. We know that he lived with his father and mother at Capernaum and was quite active in the fishing trade there. He was present at the healing of Peter's mother-in-law at Capernaum and was present with Jesus in His teaching and healing ministry there. Though he is not mentioned as often, we know that James was very active as a member of the inner circle among the disciples. James and John were called 'the sons of thunder' from the time that they were first called to be followers of Jesus. There was good reason for that appellation!
A Man of God
The name James in Gaelic, is closely related to Hebrew and means 'Man of God'. In English the 'J' is always interchangeable with the letter 'l'. The first three letters of James' name is, therefore, I AM. This was the name of God as given to Moses by the Angel of God in order to prove to the Israelites that he had been sent to them by God. James in Gaelic and in Spanish is pronounced 'Hamish'. 'Ish' is the universal name for 'man'. Therefore, the meaning of the name of 'James' is 'Man of God'.
St James was certainly a man of God. Immediately after he had been filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost at Jerusalem he went on his assignment to Spain: to bring the Gospel to those segments of Israel who had settled there on their way to the British Isles, especially Ireland. To England our Lord had already assigned His great-uncle and disciple, Joseph of Arimathea, to build the first church above ground at Glastonbury, in preparation for the arrival of the children of Israel already on their way to the 'appointed place' in the Isles. James, He commissioned to Spain.
A Missionary
Much is said in Scripture (especially after Pentecost) about John and Peter, but little is said about James. In reading the earlier chapters of the Acts of the Apostles we find a strange absence of the name of James the Greater from among the company of his fellow Apostles, John and Peter. In fact, we read nothing of him until the very brief report of his martyrdom when 'Herod the king ... killed James the brother of John with the sword' (Acts 12:1, 2). This martyrdom of James took place in the year 44 A.D. We ask the question, 'Where was Jarnes, and with what was he occupied during those fourteen long years of unrecorded activity?' We can answer this question by turning to history books.
Even though the Bible is silent on these fourteen years in the life of Jarnes, 'the historian has little difficulty in fixing the period of the introduction of the Christian faith into Spain. Its uninterrupted voice has named St. James the Elder as the first herald of the Gospel to the idolatrous people of that country. That the apostle traversed the peninsula, from Lusitania to the heart of Aragon; that while he was at Zaragossa he was honoured by a visit from the Virgin, and by her express command he erected on the spot a church in her honour; that after his martyrdom at Jerusalem (in 44 A.D.) his body was brought by his disciples from Syria to Iria Flavia (now El Padron), in Galicia, and thence transferred to Compostella ... With equal assurance of faith it is believed' that St. Paul, in person, continued the work of his martyred fellow-disciples, and sowed the seeds of the new doctrine in Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, and, above all, in Andalucia' (Historian's History of the World, Vol. X, pp 11).
It is evident that Jarnes took very seriously the words of Jesus, when, in sending forth His Apostles, He 'commanded them saying, Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Matt. 10:5, 6). We remember the words of Eusebius that the 'inhabited world' was 'divided into zones of influence among the Apostles: Thomas in the region of Parthia and India in the east, John in Asia Minor, Peter in Babylon, Pontus and Rorne, Andrew in Scythia.' But nothing is said about James! We do not know why Eusebius left James out of his list, but history has proven that James went straight west to Spain!
As to the account of the Virgin Mary being in Zaragossa to instruct Jarnes, as given above, we know that Mary remained in Jerusalem all the time that James was away In Spain. She is reported to have stayed in the house of John Mark on Mount Zion, and was there in Jerusalem to greet him on his return to the city. She could not have been in two places at the same tirne! We find it easier to believe that Jesus, Who had already ascended to heaven, returned to earth to greet James as he entered the Province of Zaragossa and instructed him in his mission to the 'lost sheep of Israel' in Spain. Fifty years later He appeared to John on the Isle of Patrnos in His glorious risen body and gave him instructions on writing the Book of the Revelation. Jarnes and John were brothers, both were cousins* of the Lord, and it is reasonable to believe that the Master would give His attention to them in their work to an equal degree. Both were assigned difficult tasks. Ephesus was the centre of pagan worship and Pergamos was the city 'where Satan's throne is,' not an easy assignment for John. For James, Spain was an equally difficult assignment.
A Martyr
But Spain was where a large segment of ancient Israel lived. From the earliest times Spain was a route used by two of the tribes of Israel moving westward and northward from Egypt to the 'isles' of Ireland and Britain, their future home. The half-tribe of Zara(h)-Judah left Egypt early in a dispute with the Pharez branch of Judah over the inheritance of the throne as bequeathed to them by their forefather, Jacob. 'The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes.' The question was, 'Which of the twin sons of Judah by Tamar should have the rights of the throne?'
The descendants of Zarah-Judah decided to leave Egypt (circa 1600 B.C.) and go to some new land to live. Led by Zarah's great grandson, Calcol, his seed then fled westward by boat to a land known today as Spain. They entered a river on its eastern coast called today the Ebro River, stopping inland at a place now called the city of ZARA-gossa! Most of these people continued on up the river to Galicia, now the north-eastern Province of Spain. Some stayed in Galicia, but the majority sailed by boat north-west from Galicia to Northern Ireland. They adopted as the emblem of their new country the Rampant Lion, to distinguish themselves from the Pharez branch, who adopted the Couchant Lion for their national emblem. It is from the latter branch that Jesus was descended.
It was to the descendants of Zarah-Judah that James went on mission, established there almost 1600 years before Jesus was born! They were of the 'lost sheep of Israel' for whom Jesus had a special concern. These segments of Israel, scattered across northern Spain, received the Gospel of the Kingdom personally from James the Elder, James the missionary to Spain. The instructions which James gave to these people are eloquently summed up in his Epistle. In it he extols faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but he also goads them on to action, reminding them that 'faith without works is dead.' Like Paul, who met the Christ personally on the road to Damascus, he was enthused with a zeal for the coming of the Kingdom. For, like Paul, James believed that he would live to see the Kingdom brought in. But at the end of fourteen years of intense evangelising he turned eagerly back toward Jerusalem to report his immense success. He was returning to keep the Passover Festival with his friends in Jerusalem in 44 A.D. and instead was seized and martyred there.
The historian has little difficulty in fixing the period of the introduction of the Christian faith in Spain, nor of identifying the person who brought it in. With an uninterrupted voice, James the Elder has been named as the first herald of the Gospel in that huge peninsula called Iberia, land of Iber (Eber). He began his work in Zaragossa, where many of the descendants of Zarah- Judah had settled on their way to Ulster in Ireland. It is very appropriate that St. James should be patron saint of Spain, even though he worked but fourteen years to spread the Gospel there. His work was so effective there that it roused the ire of the hierarchy of Rome, so that when he returned home to Jerusalem his life was snuffed out. His martyrdom and that of Jude are the only two which are recorded in Scripture, but each of the Apostles were executed except for John, who died a natural death, his body being buried near the church at Ephesus.
Because of the immense work that James did in Spain and that of John in Asia Minor, it is safe to say that both of these Apostles of Jesus will receive high positions in the Kingdom of God when it is fully established on earth. Jesus promised that each of His Apostles would be regents in His coming Kingdom. We can be sure that these two brothers will stand high in the ranks of leadership.
*(There is evidence that James was a first cousin to Jesus Christ, and had been acquainted with Him since boyhood; James' and John's mother was a sister to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It was this blood relationship which probably gave her courage to request of Jesus the right of James and John to sit on His right side and His left in the Kingdom, as recorded in Mark 10:42-45.
She was also among the women who came to the tomb early Easter morning, bringing 'sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him' (Mark 16:1). The three women were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jarnes, and Salorne. As Jesus' aunt she meant to make sure of His proper anointing.)
She was also among the women who came to the tomb early Easter morning, bringing 'sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him' (Mark 16:1). The three women were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jarnes, and Salorne. As Jesus' aunt she meant to make sure of His proper anointing.)
Iberian & Italian Reubenites
Some Anglo-Israelite scholars from the Church of God have claimed an Israelite Reubenite origin to the Iberians (Spain, Andorra & Portugal) together with the more known Reubenite origin of the French.
If courtship & romanticism are related to France, no less we can say about Iberians (& I would add Italians like Casanova). The French taste for wine, bread & good food is not very different from that of Iberia (Italy with pizza, pasta & ice cream gelatto). Regarding cooking the Basque & Catalan cooks are as good as the French. Culinary tradition is big in these areas (Basque Country, Navarre, Catalonia, Galicia...) & the rest of Spain as a whole.
You can take a look at people in Spain at certain hours with a French bread everywhere, that we simply call bread because of the frequency we buy it. If the French use berrets the Spanish do too, especially Basque, Navarrese & Catalans (they call them barretinas & they are similar to Santa's hat) but all over Spain.
If France is touristic, Spain is not far less (Italy too). They are in the top list of the most of the most touristic countries in the world. Madrid & Barcelona are important in world fashion (Milan too) & Spanish textiles are, for example the worldwide known Zara. Zara is a biblical name, the son of Judah, represented with a red hand.
The paella is a worldwide Spanish dish. It's believed that Judah (Marranos unaware of their Jewish past) is well represented in Portugal (about 3 million Crypto-Jews or unaware of their past, just like the Israelites are unaware) & southern Italy (many Judeans captured by the Romans put them there, plus the crypto-Jews coming from Iberia), but also in Spain. In Spain it's believed that there are about 10 million, so a fourth.
If France & Reuben are characterized for their instability, Spain has had a lot of political instability, especially in the last two centuries. We had many alternating regimes & civil wars: conservatives, liberals, republics, monarchies... The history of Portugal is similar & paralel. We recovered democracy almost the same year.
Spain with Portugal attached became the world power of the 1600s, encompassing most of the Americas, including 2/3 of the current USA. Loussiana (before the purchase by America) was Spanish for a while because of the French Spanish alliance. Americans should study, together with the history of the 13 colonies, the expansion of Spain in the southwest (part of Nueva España, New Spain) & Florida, as well as the expansion of the the French in the Midwest & Maine. Montana, San Diego, San Francisco, El Paso, Colorado, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Florida, Nevada, Toledo, Las Vegas... all are Spanish names. Even Saint Agustin, Florida in reality is San Agustín & is the oldest European city. Some in the southwest are also amongst the oldest & far older than Jamestown. Provo, Maine, New Orleans, Des Moines, Juneau, Detroit... are French. Spain also had the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, West Sahara, a third of Morocco, Guam & several other islands in the Caribbean & Pacific. With the short union with Portugal, Spain had most African coasts, parts of India, Timor...
Spain & Portugal where great world powers, Spain being the greatest in the 1600s. Spain mostly in the Americas & Portugal mostly in Africa (in the coasts mostly & then in interior: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome e Príncipe, Cape Verde) & Brazil. They performed a great evangelization work among their native subjects.
The Iberian power was so great that through the Tordesillas Treaty the world was divided in two spheres of power for the first time, just as the USA & the USSR would do in the 20th century. Their monopoly lasted little, because soon came other western Europeans: British, Dutch, French... They were the first trans oceanic empires. The Spanish empire was the first empire which was said to be the one where the sun never set. As London was later the world capital, Madrid was once.
Spain like Reuben was gonna be greater than the Ephraimite British, but the so called "Spanish Armada", or in Spanish "Armada Invenccible" (Invencible Navy) was defeated by the weather (Divine intervention) & the British became eventually the most important world power.
Nowadays English is the most studied world language, being Spanish only second & first foreign language in the USA.
Iberia, the land of the "ha Ibri" or Hebrews is almost surrounded by sea except for the Pyrenean mountains that separates it from France & the rest of Europe.
Most Americans don't have a clue of the great role played by both France & Spain in the conquest, foundation off cities & most important, the great help to the USA to achieve independence from Britain. Yes, Spain did help the US become independent together with France.
The British won the famous battle of Trafalgar (named after a Spanish town close by) against a Spanish-French coalition. Spain lost Gibraltar to the British in this wars.
My wife is British & I'm Spanish, but unlike other Spaniards, I don't have have any resentment for Gibraltar because it's old history, the "Llanitos" don't want to be Spanish & lastly because if I claim I lose all authority to to maintain the two Spanish cities of Ceuta & Melilla, bordering northern Morocco.
Portugal has been the longest & most loyal ally of Britain & I think that's because there's another tribe vey present in Portugal: Judah. The inquisition wasn't as harsh as in neighboring Spain & many Jews that left Spain moved to Portugal.
It's estimated that 1/3 of the Portuguese have crypto-Jewish roots, so much that in the Americas Portuguese was a synonym of Jewish because the percentage of Portuguese Hidden Jews was extremely high.
In Brazil between 12 to 15 million people have Hidden Jewish origin. Even the celebrated Brazilian bandeirantes that extended the Brazilian territory through taking it from the Guarani Indians & the Spanish colonies, were of Jewish origin.
I guess the millions of Brazilians of german origin had Manassehite origin or Gadite. The other big national minorities in Brazil were the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, the mentioned crypto-Jews or Marranos & some French, Lebanese & Japanese.
There's 20,000 crypto-Jews that never lost completely their identity in Mallorca, inspite of their practice of Catholicism. Cristopher Colombus is the most famous Marrano. The king of Spain is said to be descendent of kings David & Solomon of Israel.
Celebrated crypto-Sephardis: Miguel de Cervantes, Cristóbal Colón (Chritopher Colombus) & Miguel Servet
In fact there are two statues of them at "El Monasterio del Escorial", near Madrid. One of the Spanish kings erected this monastery to bury the kings & queens of Spain. He set the statues of these Israelite kings saying they were their ancestors. All European monarchies are related anyway.
Between 17 & 20 million Hispanics have crypto-Jewish roots in the Americas & DNA confirms it.
The celebrated flamenco Spanish music is considered by some as having Arab origin, but others claim a Sephardic origin.
The famous Benjamin de Tudela & Judah Leví, both Navarrese like me, Maimonides & Abravanel were Spanish (Sephardi). Spain , Sepharad for the Jews, was considered as a second Holy Land for the Jews.
Celebrated Spanish Jews: Benjamin de Tudela, Judah Leví, Maimonides & Abravanel
The Protestants in Spain are not as celebrated as the ones of other western European countries. Catholic Spain was in the hands of Rome , but a few Spanish reformers played their historic roles.Casiodoro de Reina, a "heretic priest" (heretic according to Rome only) translated the Bible to Spanish. Cipriano de Valera, another "heretic priest", corrected some of his mistakes.
Spanish Protestants: Cipriano de Valera & Casiodoro de Reina
They were from south of Spain . Nowadays the non-catholic version of their translated of the Bible is used by hundreds of millions of Protestant & Restorationist Spanish speakers, is called Biblia Reina-Valera after these courageous men.
It’s like the KJV for the English speaking non-Catholics. The catholic Bible is so altered that is like reading another book.
Miguel Servet, a Protestant of Jewish origin from Aragón (northern Spain ), discovered the circulatory system. He was burnt at the stake in Geneve , Switzerland , for differences with Calvin.
The Spaniard coat of arms has two columns representing the famous Columns of Hercules that in each side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The columns are Gibraltar (United Kingdom) & Ceuta (Spain). They were the door to the Americas for the Phoenician Israelites. Some people relate them (Jachin & Boaz) with the meaning of the columns at entrance of the Temple of Solomon. Free Masons go further interpreting the passage through them as going to receive more knowledge.
The areas with remarkable Marrano (crypto-Jewish or Anusim) population are: New México & Texas (USA), Natal, Sertao & Venhaver (northeastern Brazil), Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Braganza & Belmonte (Porugal), Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Paisa region (Colombia), Nuevo León, especially Monterrey, Venta Prieta, Veracruz & Jalapa (México), Sicily (Italy), Caribean islands, Cape Verde Sao Tome e Principe, Surinam...
These are some Spanish toponyms with Israelite origin: Cartagena, Barcelona (Barzel), Andalucía (Vandals), Escalona (Ashkelon), Galicia (Land of Galut, diaspora in Hebrew), Ebro & Iberia (Land of Ibri or Hebrews), Cádiz (Gad), Málaga (Malaka), Medina Sidonia (Sidon), euSKo (iSaaC), Canarias (Canaan), Asturias (Asteroth, pagan goddess), portuGal (port of diaspora)...
It's believed that the trading & frugal condition of Catalans has Israelite origin too.
The Visigoths & the Vandals, Ancient Lost Israelite tribes
The Visigoths and the Vandals, ancient Lost Israelite tribes were the only peoples who defeated the invincible fortressed city of Rome; not once but twice.
Yet, these Visigothic Israelites, later known as the Cathars, Huguenots and Waldensians also grew up under the spiritual control and oppression of the Roman Catholic Christian Inquisition against them and the Sephardic Jews in Spain during the Medieval Dark Ages. It was this same global religious system that corrupted the identity of a Jewish prince of David, called Yahshua HaNotzri (Jesus the Nazarene), yet now in the 1840s to the 1860s, the Lost Israelite adherents were beginning to perceive a new awakening and a new reality.
The apostate Roman Christian Church had taken this Orthodox Jewish prince of David, who lived his life as a Haredi Ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi who kept the Torah above and beyond the letter of the Torah Halakhic Law had now been corrupted him into a Christian messiah that was anti-Torah, and anti-rabbinic Jewish. A Prince of David that was seen as the “messiah of his age” had now been morphed from his Jewish identity by divorcing his identity from his Jewish orthodox philosophical foundation. He was then transformed by the First Church of Rome into a Christian god recreated on a Roman-Greco religious philosophical base.
WHERE IS THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN NOW?
Spain may be the Tribe of Benjamin
The whole tribe of Benjamin stayed with the tribe of Judah long ago when they split from the "Ten Lost Tribes." It is highly possible that most of the tribe of Benjamin wound up in Spain during Titus's exile of the "Jews." We suspect this because of the word "Tarshish" which is a Benjaminite name in the Bible. Not only is that name connected with the tribe of Benjamin, but it is the ancient name of a city in southern Spain. And there is other evidence as well.
1st Chronicles 7:6-10 tells of a descendant of Benjamin named Tarshish.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary says that the ancient city of Tarshish is located in Southern Spain. Bible scholars clearly confirm the location of Tarshish in the Bible as modern day Spain.
So, it is not just speculation...it is confirmed.
And the Bible is clear that T(H)ARSHISH WAS THE GREAT-GRANDSON OF BENJAMIN.
The history of the Benjaminites over time, has become "confused" and mixed up with the history of the Jews. Benjaminites have for thousands of years erroneously been called "Jews," because of their long association and loyalty to the tribe of Judah. Yet Benjamin is more related to Ephraim and Manasseh. Benjamin was Joseph's full blooded brother. Jacobs favorite wife only had 2 sons, Benjamin and Joseph. So, Hispanics are descended through Rachel just like Joseph and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. The Bible often connects Benjamin with Ephraim and Manasseh. And to this day, as nations, they are associated. This whole western hemisphere is made up of Ephraim in Canada, Manasseh in the United States and Benjamin in all the Hispanic countries to the South.
Psalm 80:2 says, "Appear in front of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Wake up your power, and come to save us."
Regrettably, though, Benjamin has had a hard relationship with the Ephraim and Manasseh at times. There is a the reason why some Hispanic people have such long names. They carry both the maternal and paternal names. And there is a reason for it.
In fact at one time, the tribe of Benjamin was nearly wiped out by the House of Israel. Bible history contains a sad record of a desolating civil war in which they were nearly annihilated by the other tribes.
In the Bible, in the book of Judges, chapters 20 and 21 tell how after the heat of the battle, where in anger, the tribes of Israel realized that they had nearly wiped out the tribe of Benjamin, they regretted what they had done. So, they took about 400 young women by force from the city of Jabesh-gilead in Manasseh to give to the survivors, but it "sufficed them not." It was not enough to go around. To make things worse, they had all sworn an oath that none of their daughters would be given to a Benjaminite.
But, they found a way around this. They had their daughters gather together at one of the yearly Feasts, and they instructed the remaining survivors of Benjamin to "steal" a wife. This explains why the tribe of Benjamin had the greatest variation. We went to Spain and this was most evident. You have never seen such variation. It is because, there are many Benjaminites in Spain and they had mothers from all the other tribes! Now we see why Spanish names are so long....they retain both of their maternal and paternal family names---which makes sense as it honors both sides of their heritage.
There were bad feelings between Benjamin and the rest of Israel long after this. Because, when the 12 tribes split up, Benjamin preferred to stay with Judah. Which is reasonable. And who could blame them. They blended into the tribe of Judah until no one knew anymore whether he was a Jew or a Benjaminite.
As we already discussed, 1st Chronicles 7:6-10 tells of a descendant of Benjamin named Tarshish. We also remember that Fausset's Bible Dictionary says that the ancient city of Tarshish is located in Southern Spain. So, lets see what else we can discover about connections to Spain.
Many Spanish are proud of their "Jewish" heritage. One Spaniard wrote....
"About 700 BC, in early Spain, before it was Spain, the Bible refers to a place called Tarshish, in the south of the peninsula where the Phoenician King, Hiram of Tyre, sent people to harvest minerals and metals that could be worked at that time. The place became known later as Tarsis, and was highly in demand for it's metal. Those early Phoenicians bore names that had their origins in Israelite descent., so it appears that the people that King Hiram sent there, were Jewish. In the biblical Book of Obadiah 1:20, Tarshish was said to be in the land of "Aspamiah" (Espania, Spain)
But not many are aware that the "ships of Tarshish" which we know were located in Southern Spain, brought back a vast wealth of gold to King Solomon. We believe that the ships of Tarshish" of the Bible later became the legendary "Spanish fleet." Who doesn't know from history about the Spanish Armada. Spanish seamanship has been around since olden times. The Spanish were the first ones to reap the gold of the New World. Just as the navy of Tharshish had anciently brought gold in Bible times to King Solomon.
So, it was no coincidence that the fleet of Spain (Tharshish) sought Gold in the New World with a fever never seen before or since. It is well known that Spanish conquistadors wiped out whole Indian cultures in their rapacious and ravening lust for Gold. The tradition of "gold fever" went back as far as the time of Solomon, who had more Gold at his disposal than any other king before him, due to the "Navy of Tharshish" which was at his disposal.
1 Kings 10:21-22 say, "And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks."
Note that Solomon had his own navy WITH the navy of King Hiram. There were 2 separate navies. Solomon's navy was made up of Israelites. They brought all that gold to Solomon, not to Hiram! I repeat that Biblical scholars have long associated the ships of Tharshish or Tarshish with the nation of Spain. How do we know that? We put the pieces together. Again, Tarshish is our best clue. The International Standard Encyclopedia says: "Tarshish "an eponym of a Benjaminite family" (Strong's 8659, Tarshish or Tharshish)
In plain English, that means that the area called Tarshish is derived from a Benjaminite family name. What do we know of the tribe of Benjamin? We know that Jacob prophesied what would happen to all of the tribes in the end time. This is what he said about Benjamin.
Jacob did not combine Benjamin's prophecy with Judah's. So from this we know that Benjamin had their own destiny, separate from the Jews. The Jews are spread all over the world, but Benjamin wound up mainly in Spain.
Jacob wrote of Benjamin,
Genesis 49:1 says, "And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days." "....Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf, in the morning he shall devour the prey and at night he shall divide the spoil. Genesis 49:27
Ravin comes from a Hebrew word that means to "tear into pieces." Historically, Spain certainly tore the new world up. They conquered the new world. And for that we are thankful. It is true that the Spanish fleet ransacked several Indian cultures, destroying them in a lust for Gold unequalled in history. In their defense though, they destroyed extremely barbaric cultures that practiced human sacrifice...and many horrific customs.... As we have already discussed, Tarshish of the Bible is in Southern Spain. These Spanish conquistadors did "ravin as a wolf" as prophesied. Is Spain the tribe of Benjamin? It certainly looks like it.
You might think, well, I am not pure Spanish so I am not a Benjaminite, but that is not true. Joseph married an Egyptian woman and had 2 sons named Ephraim and Manasseh. When Jacob laid hands on those 2 boys to give them the birthright, he said, "let my name be on them." Yes, they were half Egyptian...but they were full Israelites! Before we close, we want to look at one more thing. It was something that Jacob prophesied about Benjamin in the end time.
What did Jacob mean when he prophesied that Benjamin would "divide the spoil?" It means that things are going to be very good for Benjamin in the end time. Remember the story of Joseph? When he was finally reunited with his brothers, he gave his full blooded brother Benjamin very special treatment...Benjamin received a double portion!
The tribe of Benjamin will be getting preferential treatment when the time comes to re-unite all the tribes of Israel back into one large nation of Israel. You don't think this will happen? It is prophesied in Ezekiel 37:19:22. "Say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou write shall be in your hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD, behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land, and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all."
Spanish & Portuguese Speaking Jews
For centuries, one of the strongest and most powerful Jewish communities could be found on the Iberian Peninsula, in the geographic area known among Jews by its Hebrew name Sepharad. Beginning in 1492, Jews were dispersed from Sepharad, forced out by the Inquisition that demanded—on the threat of death—conversion or migration. Many of the Jewish immigrants settled in North Africa, Turkey and Greece. But others, ventured as far as the New World, only to encounter the long reach of the Inquisition as part of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism. Living under the dangerous gaze of the Inquisition, in Europe or abroad, many Jews abandoned their religious heritage while others were observant in secret, underground.
Spanish and Portuguese speaking Jews are a tremendously important historic and contemporary element of Jewish life. The dual legacies of the Inquisition and Spanish/Portuguese colonialism provide the backdrop for the reality of many of today’s Jews. They were once part of the largest, most vibrant and culturally significant Jewish communities. Currently, Spanish speaking Jews, and by extension the much smaller community of Portuguese speaking Jews, are not a unified cultural, geographic or religious whole, but multiple individuals and groups whose unique stories intersect and diverge.
At Be’chol Lashon we work with a variety of different groups, embracing the distinctive needs and concerns of each community as well as the points of intersection and connection. With the help of Rabbi Juan Mejia, Be’chol Lashon provides significant Spanish language resources to those seeking to explore, embrace or connect to Judaism. Be’chol Lashon works with Jewish leaders throughout Central and South America to understand the needs and concerns of Jewish individuals and communities. In North America, we work with Jewish leaders, organizations and institutions to help them better understand the needs of Spanish speaking Jews and Latinos interested in engaging in Jewish life. And as with every community, we provide educational resources to help anyone interested in learning about the rich history or contemporary culture of the diversity of Spanish speaking Jews.
1. Sephardim
2. Recent Jewish Immigrants to Latin America
3. Anusim
4. Jewish life in Contemporary Spain and Portugal
5. On Jewish Journeys in Latin America
6. Jews and Jewish Journeys in North America
7. Emerging Communities
1. Sephardim
Jews who trace their origins back to the Iberian Peninsula are known as Sephardim, which is Hebrew for those who come from Spain. Sephardic Jews traditionally spoke Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish dialect. However, many modern Sephardim do not even speak Spanish and do not necessarily identify with contemporary Spanish speaking Jews, who may or may not be of Sephardi heritage.
The term Sephardic today is often used to encompass Jews who do not have historical ties to the Iberian Peninsula. For example, many Mizrahi Jews now follow the liturgical traditions of the Sephardi and are sometimes colloquially referred to as Sephardic Jews. Many Mizrahi may consider it culturally inaccurate to label them as Sephardic, while other Mizrahi themselves have come to accept this generalized classification.
For more information about Sephardi Jews continue reading here
2. Ashkenazi or recent Sephardi or Mizrachi immigrants to Central and South America
In almost its entirety, the organized Jewish communities of Central and South America are 19th and twentieth century immigrants. These relatively new immigrants came to the New World to escape extreme poverty or anti-Semitism, with some coming only after surviving the horrors of the Holocaust. The overwhelming majority of the organized Jewish community in South and Central America traces their roots back to Central and Eastern Europe with only a small minority coming from North Africa or the Middle East. While those who live in Spanish speaking countries speak the local language, Latin American Ashkenazim who speak Spanish do not identify as Sepharadim. The Ashkenazi traditions of Europe tend to dominate institutional and cultural life in the region.
Though the sizes of these communities vary from country to country, from tiny to among the worlds largest, together they represent a significant portion of contemporary Jewish life worldwide. The Jewish communities of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are numerically strong and have significant communal infrastructure including schools, social and sports clubs, kosher food, and summer camps. Yet, Jewish life outside the largest cities is often less well developed. Smaller communities like those found in Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica or Uruguay are often quite tightly knit.
Whatever the size of the community, Anti-Semitism is a challenge for Jews in South America. Anti-Israel sentiments in some countries as well as more historic forms of Anti-Judaism can be a significant concern. In the 1990s two terrorist attacks on the Jewish community in Buenos Aires left over 100 dead. Yet Panama is the only country outside of Israel to ever have two Jewish heads of state.
There are wide range of religious affiliations in South and Central America. Orthodoxy dominates but there are liberal, Conservative and Reform, synagogues in many places.
3. Anusim
The word anus is Hebrew for one who is forced and anusim is the term for those who were forced by the Inquisition in 15th century Spain or Portugal to publically convert and profess Catholicism. Historically other terms, such as marrano (a derogatory term from the Spanish for pigs) or conversos (which downplays the lack of agency experienced by those force to convert) were used in place of anusim. Even today people who trace their origins back to the Iberian Peninsula’s historic Jewish community but who have not lived openly as Jews for generations are known as anusim or b’nei anusim (children of anusim) Anusim and B’nei Anusim can be found all over the world, but are found in larger concentrations in the Southwest of the United States, Central and South America, Spain and Portugal.
Individual levels of current of engagement, interest in, or identification with Judaism vary widely. While Be’chol Lashon recognizes the critical importance of the historic connection of B’nei Anusim to Judaism and is glad to facilitate understanding and learning about Judaism for B’nei Anusim we uphold the belief that no matter the historic connection conversion is necessary for living fully as part of the modern Jewish people.
4. Jewish life in Contemporary Spain and Portugal
In addition to a modern immigrant Jewish community, recent years have witnessed a revival of interest in Jewish life more generally in Spain and Portugal. In big cities like Barcelona there are established Jewish communities and schools but throughout the country there are a growing number of groups coming together with lesser and greater formality and structure to explore and embrace Jewish life. Some of the individuals in these emerging communities are “returning” to Judaism after 500 years while others are drawn to Jewish life with no prior connection. The Spanish government has been very supportive of these efforts to revive Jewish life and connection and is also willing to grant citizenship to Jews who are coming to Spain as part of a return to historic roots.
One particular effort being made by the Spanish government to support the revival of Jewish life by restoring historical sites can be found in Lorca where in 2003, during the initial round of excavations to build a national hotel ("parador nacional") on the grounds of the 15th-century Castle of Lorca in the southeastern Spanish province of Murcia, workers discovered a stone wall and several fragments of glass that would turn out to be the remains of an early medieval synagogue and Jewish quarter previously unknown to archeologists and historians.
The synagogue is the only one of its kind in Spain: while all other synagogues of its era were converted to mosques or churches, this synagogue has never been used by another faith. Since its discovery, archeologists have excavated the synagogue in its entirety, as well as a treasury of artifacts and a complex Jewish quarter of streets, plazas, and eleven houses, two of which contain mikvehs or Jewish ritual baths.
5. Spanish speakers who are on a Jewish journey in Central/South America
Increasingly, there are small numbers of Spanish speakers in Latin America that are on a Jewish journey. Historically, Catholicism dominated religious life in Central and South America. The religious fluidity that has long been normative in the United States was not a significant issue. Several changes in the last decades have changed that dynamic and opened up possibilities for people in the region to examine and consider Judaism as a path for themselves or their families. The rise of Evangelical Christianity in Latin America has challenged the religious monopoly of the Catholic Church. Once the monolithic dominance was brought into question, other religions too became possible venues for religious expression and experience, Judaism among them.
Another factor in the growth in interest in Judaism is the internet. In a region where books about Judaism are not always easy to come by, internet has opened up access to those interested in learning first hand about Judaism. Additionally, media attention to the State of Israel. Though press about the Jewish State does not necessarily portray Judaism in a positive light, the ongoing attention to the Middle East has heightened awareness of Judaism as a contemporary and not simply biblical reality.
Though the number of people with genetic or historical connections with Jews is quite large throughout South and Central America, the number of people on Jewish journeys is not large. Nor are all those who explore Judaism necessarily going to take the steps necessary to officially become Jews.
6. Spanish speaking Jews or individuals on Jewish journeys in North America
Though exact numbers are hard to come by, Jewish migration from South and Central America has increased over the last 20 years. These Jews represent the fully diversity of Jewish life in Central and South America. Their particular cultural experiences of Judaism have the potential to enrich the already diverse tapestry of North American Jewish life and should be welcomed and celebrated as the gift that they are.
Additionally, as the overall number of Latinos, who are overwhelmingly not Jewish, grows in the United States, there is need to consider their encounters with the Jewish community, as individuals or as members of Jewish families. Some of this encounter occurs as intermarriage across ethnic and religious lines becomes increasingly acceptable affecting both immediate and extended families and by extension their communities.
7. Emerging Jewish Communities
In contrast to the majority of Jewish communities globally which either have deep historic roots or are the results of migration, there are a number of communities world wide where the majority of the membership (60% -100% in the first generation) are newcomers to Judaism or returning after generations of disconnection. Though these communities face their own distinct challenges with regards to tradition, religious infrastructure, and leadership, with support these communities can and do thrive. Such communities exist in Africa, Europe, Central and South America.
Be’chol Lashon works with leaders in many emerging communities to provide them support and connection. We believe that in order to be strong and successful, these communities need knowledgeable leaders who are able to invest in education and to promote indigenous expressions of Judaism. In the best-case scenario, the local community will sponsor a member to receive the Jewish training needed for leadership. In the absence of professionally trained leadership, communities need to connect with reputable non-local rabbinic and organizational leadership to ensure education and training in the language of the community.
Be’chol Lashon believes that becoming Jewish is a significant commitment that should not and cannot be entered into lightly. It demands ongoing study, practice and communal involvement as well as the support of a rabbi. Be’chol Lashon takes a strong stance against those who would profit or exploit those who have a genuine interest in learning about or exploring Judaism.
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