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I have been interested in the history of the Jews in Portugal since my childhood and particularly in the crypto-Jews of Portugal since the 1950s;" |
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But then this statement would raise another question: "What KIND of Portuguese Jew am I? Who is really A PORTUGUESE JEW?" |
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I was born in Portugal. |
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I have always been a proud Jew and a patriotic Portuguese without prejudice of being also a committed Zionist and a patriotic Israeli. My parents where Ashkenazis, immigrants from East Europe. I am a Portuguese of first generation. |
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What would Lopes Cardozo of New York, or Vaz Dias of Haifa--or so many others in the Old and New World who descend from the ancient, vigorous Jewish population of Portugal that came to such an abrupt end with the forced conversion of 1497--say to this? |
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They would probably say that a "tedesco" - the name they apply to Ashkenazi Jews - is not entitled to the honourous title of Portuguese Jew. And they would probably be right. |
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. And for that matter, Rufina from South Africa, and Helio Cordeiro from Sao Paulo, they see themselves the remnants of the crypto-Jews, that defied the Inquisitions and maintained their Jewish traditions in the secret of their homes for more than 500 years. Aren't they more Portuguese Jews than me? |
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And my friends in the villages of the Northeast of Portugal, Francisco Gaspar in Rebordelo, Moises Abrantes in Fundao, Alipio Diogo Henriques in Belmonte, Olivia Rodrigues from Vilarinho dos Galegos, to mention just a few who are pointed by their neighbors as "judeus". |
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And the other Lopes Cardoso's, and Almeida Santos, and Graca Moura, and the Navarro's and the Espirito Santo's, well-known names of the Portuguese society, to whom the taunt of "judeu" is applied from time to time as a stigma by their detractors. Aren't they Portuguese Jews? |
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Who else? According to some estimations, based in reliable sources, the Jewish population of Portugal in 1497, amounted to about 200,000 persons, in a total of 1,000,000 Portuguese. One of each 5 Portuguese was a Jew. The number of those who escaped the forced conversion was about 5,000. |
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No wonder then the reaction of my ancient schoolmates, whom I met for dinner, on my first visit to Portugal after making aliah. When I told them that I was on a research trip to the "marrano belt" in the North, almost every one of them invited me to start in his home... |
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Without reaching any conclusion on the degree of "Portugueseness" of my Jewish identity, the fact that I was born in such a small community of mainstream Jews - what we used to call "golah betoh golah," a "Diaspora inside the Diaspora"- contributed largely for the challenge I found in learning more about the hidden reality of the Portuguese Judaism, something that we didn't learn in our normal school curriculum. |
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On the way the Divine Providence found to introduce me to the first crypto-Jews, click here for«My First Encounter» |
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Bibliography:
(click on title for more details)
The Portuguese Jews of Jamaica
By Mordechai Arbell
"A large part of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 sought refuge in other Mediterranean lands..."
Prayers For The Festivals: According to the Custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews
by Herbert C. Dobrinsky
Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews Of Seventeenth-century Amsterdam by Daniel M. Swetschinski
500 Years in the Jewish Caribbean: The Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the West Indies
by Harry A. Ezratty
Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the Caribbean and the Guianas: A Bibliography
by Mordechai Arbell, Dennis Channing Landis, Ann Phelps Barry, and John Carter Brown Library
Minhath Shelomo : a commentary on the Book of prayer of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews
by Solomon Gaon
by Israel Solomons
Portuguese Jews in Jacobean London
by Edgar Roy Samuel
by Mordehay Arbell
by Louis Loewe
by Serjeant Simon
by Moses Gaster
by Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation (London, England)
by Louis Loewe
The last Crypto-Jews of Portugal
by David Augusto Canelo
by Isaac Leeser
by Joseph Pereira-Mendoza
by Reginald Henry
The ancient melodies of the liturgy of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews
by Emanuel Abraham Aguilar
by David Meldola
by G. H Whitehill
Studies on the History of Portuguese Jews from Their Expulsion in 1497 Through Their Dispersion
by Israel J. Katz and M. Serels
Ben-Rosh: Biografia do Capitão Barros Basto, o apóstolo dos marranos
by Elvira Azevedo Mea and Inácio Steinhardt
de Elvira Cunha Azevedo Mea e Inácio Steinhardt
A Fé da Lembrança - Labirintos Marranos
de Vários
Cristãos-Novos Judeus e Os Novos Argonautas
de António Borges Coelho
Clérigos, Mercadores, «Judeus» e Fidalgos
de Jean Jacques Servan Schreiber
Os Judeus Sefarditas entre Portugal, Espanha e Marrocos
de Vários
Judeus e Cristãos-Novos de Cochim
de Vários