THE JEWISH RECIFE-MANHATAN CONNECTION
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Bio
of Professor A de Mello |
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The history of American Jews started in a roundabout way. The Sephardic Jews from Portugal ,whose exodus towards Holland, Turkey and the Portuguese colonies in the Atlantic are well known, had also settled in Recife, Brazil.
One interesting facet is that the first Jews to emigrate to North America, were people who in 1654 had to leave Recife, whither they had settled for over 20 years, during the Dutch occupation, under the leadership of the count Johan Maurits of Nassau,.
This initial group of 23 Jews opened the way for the arrival of other Sephardic Jews. Later on, during the 19th century, the Jewish community welcomed million of Askhenazis who fled from eastern Europe and Germany. Today, with more than 3 million Jews, New York is the world capital of Judaism. But the tradition of the pioneers of Recife is still maintained in the synagogue of Shearith Israel Congregation, which they founded.
The present synagogue, facing Central Park, in the corner of 70th Street West, is the fifth built by the congregation. The previous ones were demolished. But there still exists the first Jewish cemetery, now the oldest of the city. It can be found in Chatham Square, in an old suburb which became Chinatown. The gravestones of 107 tombs were almost worn out by time. But some names do not leave any doubt about the origin: Mendes, Gomez, Seixas, Pinto, Fonseca, Burgos, Lopes, Rivera, Cardozo.
The rabbi Abraham Lopes Cardozo maintains alive the culture of the Iberian forebears. He collects songs in ladino, which he is used to sing: "Avram avinu, padre querido, padre bendicho, luz de Israel" he pronounces clearly without understanding all the words. His great-grandfather was the last rabbi in the family to preach in Portuguese. Regarding the presence of the Jews in Recife at the time of the Dutch invasion there are few memories. The rabbi says that the sojourn there lasted only a little more than 20 years.But about the arrival of the pioneers to New York, there are concrete references. Beside the main synagogue, adorned with Tiffany vitraux, there exists a "small synagogue", a replica of the original. Rabbi Cardozo prays there twice a day. In his prayers, the names of ancestors continue to be remembered: Gershom Mendes Seixas, founder of the New York Stock Exchange; Benjamin Cardozo, judge of the Supreme Court, linked with Franklin Roosevelt.
None of them were alive when the flight from Recife took place. After the expulsion of the Dutch, by the Portuguese, the Jews were given three months to leave or to convert to Christianity. Fearing the fire of the Inquisition, almost all sold what they had, and left Recife in 1654 in 16 vessels, most of them wanting to sail to Amsterdam. One of the vessels, "Valk", was lost in a tempest. Tradition says that this ship was sacked and burnt by Spanish pirates in the Caribbean. Then a French pirate, Jacques de la Motte, rescued the passengers and took them to New Amsterdam ( former name of New York) where there was a small settlement of the Dutch Indies Company in the island of Manhattan. They were four couples, two widows, and 13 children.
When they landed, the fugitives did not have the 2500 gold coins claimed by the Frenchman, and this debt was pardoned by a Dutch Tribunal. They also escaped expulsion, thanks to the pressure of the Company of the Indies on the governor Peter Stuyvesant. Ten years later, when the British conquered Manhattan and renamed it as New York, there were already small Sephardic communities in New England. But quite contrary to what happens in Israel, where the Sephardic Jews are second class citizens, in the United States for centuries they constituted the "Jewish nobility", a web of rich merchants, which contributed greatly to the prosperity of the country.
With the arrival of immigrations
of German Jews and from Eastern Europe, in the 19th century, they
became a minority. Today, in the Shearith Israel synagogue, there are more Askhenazis
than Sephardics, the latter recently arrived from North Africa and the Middle
East. But the cult still follows the luso-spanish orthodoxy, which is different
from the reformed cult preferred by the American Askhenazis. The stage where
the rabbi speaks, is situated in the middle of the hall, facing the arc where
the Tora is kept. And the benches still have the original "ladino"
name: "bancas" . These are small details, just as the surnames
Mendes and Cardozo, to remind that an important portion of the history of the
American Jews, passed through Brazil.
Professor Alfredo F. de Mello
ademello@adinet.com.uy
Calle Parva Domus 2388 /701
11301 Montevideo
Uruguay.
E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum
