PORTUGUESE CRYPTO JEWS
by Yitzchak Kerem
For Zion's sake I shall not remain
quiet, for Jerusalem's sake I shall not remain silent.
Isaiah 62:1
Portugal and Madeira
On August 19 1994, Haim Shapiro described in the "Jerusalem Post", an ancient
and secret Yom Kippur ritual still practised by Marrano families in northern Portugal.
Women gather together and braid oil wicks while reciting 73 blessings, possibly
corresponding to the number of names of G-d. This practise is quoted in the Shulhan Aruch.
In addition to Belmonte and Oporto celebrations were held in Guarda for 600 crypto-Jewish
families who live in the Portuguese towns of Fundao, Pinhei, Meda, Traconso, Idanha,
Panamacor and Vilarinho dos Galigos, as well as in the Spanish provence of Galicia.
Even though the crypto-Jews of Belmonte have come out of hiding, other communities such as
Tomar, still maintain secret Jewish lives and rituals; both personally and communally.
Ayre Hazary has published a lengthy survey of the crypto-Jewish community of the
Portuguese island of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Oceon off the northwest coast of
Africa, where his maternal great-grandparents came from. He conveyed reports of secluded
candlelighting by at least three crypto-Jewish families there. They circumcise their
new-born sons on the eighth day, observe the Sabbath, buy kasher meat from the Jewish
community in Lisbon, and fast on Yom Kippur and the Fast of Esther. Though they wear gold
crosses round their necks, they are practicing Jews.The names of Hazary's maternal
grandmother and great-grandmother were Gomes and Correira, names found in documents in
Madeira today. Tito Benady, af historian from Gibraltar Jewry, noted that when some 200
Jews from Gibraltar were evacuated as non=combatants to Funchal, Madeira, at the start of
WW2, they found a Jewish cemetery that belonged to the Abudarham family. The same family
after whom the synagogue in Gibraltar was named.
The famous Menasseh ben Israel was born in Madeira. Cecil Roth wrote that his original
crypto-Jewish name was Manuel Dias Soeiro.The family moved to La Rochelle and ultimately
settled in Amsterdam. There Menasseh became the famous leader and rabbi of the Sephardic
community and its representative to local non-Jewish intellectuals. He married a daughter
of the branch of the Abravanel family trapped in Portugal and who had undergone forced
conversion. Menasseh ben Israel is mainly renowned for persuading Cromwell to readmit the
Jews into England in 1655.
The practice of medicine as well as the secret practice of Judaism remained in family.Dr
Luis Gomes de Madeiros reached Amsterdam, reverted to Judaism and reclaimed the ancient
Jewish name for himself and his children.One of Menasseh ben Israel's brother-in-laws
however, remained unconverted and became the a known poet in Madeira.Frieda Wolf wrote in
'Avontaynu' ----- "still in our century, children enlisted in school on this
extremely Catholic island had to show their certificate of baptism to be accepted, this
being the consequence of the many New Christians and Judaizers who had lived there".
Anita Novinsky, an historian from Brazil, who has extensively researched the connection
between Madeira and the Inquisition, also wrote; "Madeira, the Azores and the islands
of the Atlantic were in great part settled by converted Jews."
Sao Tome and Principe
The Jewish history of Sao Tome and Principe, two small islands off the west coast of
African Guinea, is one of tragedy, but also of Jewish continuity. In 1493, one year after
many Jews were expelled from Spain and three years before the 'expulsion' from Portugal,
King Manuel of Portugal, in seeking funds to finance his program of colonial expansion,
imposed huge poll taxes upon the Jews.They were ordered to pay within a short period, and
were threatened with fines if they failed to do so.
King Manuel wanted to colonize the islands of Sao Tome and Principe in order "to
whiten the race" as he put it.The Portuguese did not want to settle in the fever and
crocodile infested islands. When it was clear that the majority of the Jews could not pay
the tax demanded, the king deported Jewish children aged 2 to 10 years of age to Sao Tome
and Principe. In the port of Lisbon, no fewer than 2,000 children were torn from their
parents and herded onto boats as slaves. This was reported by Rabbi Samuel Usque in his
book "Tribulations of Israel". Within a year only 600 children remained alive.
Usque recorded that when parents of children saw that the deportation was inevitable, they
impressed on the children to keep the laws of Moses; some even married them off to each
other.
Gloria Mound notes that the entreaties of th parents were apparently not in vain, as
reports reached the Office of the Inquisition in Lisbon that in Sao Tome there were
incidents of open Jewish observance.The local church was greatly incensed. The bishop
Pedro da Cuhna Lobo, appointed in 1616, became obsessed with the problem. According to an
historical source, on Simchat Torah 1621, he was awakened by a procession, rushed out to
confront it, but was booed by the demonstrators. In disgust he gave up and took the next
ship back to Portugal.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a small influx of Jewish cocoa and sugar traders
to the islands; two of them are buried in the Sao Tome cemetery. The islands obtained
independence from Portugal on July 12th, 1975. In 1993 Israel's first Ambassador, Dr Moshe
Liba, was warmly received there. He found that "the descendants of the child slaves
were still a very distinctive section of the population ( because of their lighter skin),
proud of their historic past and desirous of contact with Jews outside." Some Jewish
customs had been maintained, although they are now greatly mixed with components of Creole
societal values and cultural customs.
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 island's twentieth Independence
Day, on July 12th 1995. Participants attended from Israel, the US, France, Holland,
Portugal and Spain. Hopefully, that joint sponsorship will further studies in this area.
In Casa Shalom Institute for Marrano and Anousim Studies in Gan Yavneh, Israel, there are
571 pages of archival material that deal solely with the Jews of Sao Tome.
Notes;
1) Gloria Mound, "Continuing Jewish Customs and Folklore in Ibiza and
Formentera".Proceedings of
the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies, Division D, Vol 11; Art,
Folklore and Music
(Jerusalem; World Union of Jewish Studies, 1994) 143 - 150.
2) Haim Shapiro, "Lies my Ancestors Told Me", The Jerusalem Post, August
19,1994, 10 - 12.
3) Gloria Mound, "Judaic Research Continues in Balearic Islands and Sao Tome."
Published by "Yichus" vol 3 issue no 3 & 4
reprinted by permission
and "Sharsheret Hadorot" Vol.12, no.1.
E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum