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Some sources point out to the fact that some 90,000 Jews entered Portugal
after their expulsion from Spain by the Catholic Sovereigns in 1492. There
they joined numerous other Jewish communities. Entry was made through several
predetermined points, among them Bragança. A vast encampment to shelter these
refugees was formed near this city. A good part of them ended up settling in the
provinces of Trás-os-Montes and Beira.
On November 30, 1496, a contract was signed for the marriage of
Portuguese king Manuel I and Isabel, the daughter of the Catholic Sovereigns. A few
days later, on December 5, as a consequence of stipulations contained in this
contract, a law was passed ordering the Jews (and Moors) residing in Portugal to
convert to Christianity or leave the country before the end of October 1497.
Very few decided to voluntarily embrace Catholicism. Thus Manuel proposed
forced conversion to his Council of State. History has vastly told of the cruelty
of this measure.
After a period of tolerance towards the conversos' convictions, the Holy
Office was instituted in Portugal and inquisitorial processes followed one
another, spreading panic among marranos. Those who had means to do so left the
country. Among the others many sought refuge in small communities along the
border area of Trás-os-Montes and Beira, where other Jews already lived, many of
them descendants of the Spanish Jews who had entered Portugal. The newcomers
were obviously trying to settle in areas not very accessible to the Holy Office
tribunals in Lisbon, Coimbra and Évora. There many lived as apparent
Catholics, but still clinging secretly to their faith. Judging from data extrapolated
from inquisitorial processes, towards the end of the sixteenth century at least
126 of these Cryptojewish communities were already to be found. The action of
the Inquisition would soon drastically reduce this number.
Deprived of rabbis, holy books and formal religious instruction,
Crypto-Jews had necessarily to shape their own form of Judaism. Elements of
superstition and magic were added to doctrine and ritual, the latter already modified by
the secrecy to which marranos were forced. Catholic practice was followed
only as a camouflage strategy. The true cult was practised inside the home, with
doors and windows tightly closed.
References to these Crypto-Jews had already been made since the middle of
the nineteenth century. It was, however, only in the 1920s that a Polish Jew,
Samuel Schwarz, prospecting for minerals in the area where they lived,
managed to call public attention to these communities. He was able to penetrate
their milieu and gather some of their prayer books and oral traditions. In 1925 he
published a study entitled The New Christians in Portugal in the Twentieth
Century. Once the Jewish community in Lisbon was alerted about the existence of
these "heretic" groups , the idea was launched that a school should be created
to educate their children within the traditional norms of Mosaic law in the
hope that orthodoxy might thus be eventually re-established. An appeal for
funds for this purpose, directed to Jewish communities abroad, led to the arrival
in Portugal, in January 1926, of Lucien Wolf, a historian and diplomat, who
was sent to study the situation and report it back. Wolf spent four weeks in the
country visiting Cryptojewish groups in Belmonte and other towns and carrying
out conversations in Lisbon with the leaders of the Jewish community and
public figures, among them the President of the Republic. In this same year he
presented a report to the Alliance Israèlite Universelle and the Anglo-Jewish
Association . Wolf concluded that among these communities no indication could be
found that they knew anything about Jewish doctrine, ethics or history with
the exception of the Bible and a few incidents relating to the Inquisition.
Although their funeral rites were fairly close to those practised within
traditional Judaism, their prayers did not correspond to Hebrew liturgy and were all
said in Portuguese. Given the high degree of illiteracy, doctrine was based
upon oral tradition, transmitted by women. A strong awareness of their Judaism
nevertheless persisted.
In his report Wolf showed a noticeable scepticism towards the possibility
of arresting doctrinal deterioration and bringing Crypto-Jews back to
orthodoxy. Among all the individuals he contacted only three or four showed any
degree of interest in reverting to official Judaism. As for the others, their
apathy towards this project was notorious . They revealed a special aversion to the
need for adult circumcision or any changes which would affect their social
life.
Wolf considered, on the other hand, that an aggressive campaign would not
succeed due to the opposition of the Church. In any case, convinced that it
would be absolutely useless to attempt to convert adults, he did not even
support as feasible the proposed idea of educating children who would eventually
act as missionaries within their respective communities. His main suggestion,
not very enthusiatically formulated in any instance, was that a Jewish mission
would be created in Oporto, where Captain Barros Basto had organized a
congregation of seventeen Jewish families, emigrees from Eastern Europe. Wolf also
proposed a series of lectures in Belmonte and Covilhã during which, with the
utmost tact, the public would be informed about Jewish culture, without even
suggesting any attempt at proselytism. He also suggested that prayer books and
histories of the Jewish people would be made available in the Portuguese
language. Some of these materials might be obtained from Brazil. His report ended with
an appeal for more attention given to Portuguese Crypto-Jews, much closer to
European Sephardic tradition than other diverging groups such as the Ethiopian
falashas or the "black Jews" of Cochin. His basic message was nevertheless
clear: nothing could be done to bring the marranos back to official Judaism.
Probably as a last attempt, in July 1926 Wolf informed the Jewish community of
Oporto that a committee had been formed to assist Portuguese New Christians to
return to official Judaism.
As it would be expected, in general terms this attempt at reconversion
was an absolute failure. Completely isolated from other Jewish groups, these
marranos considered their religious practice as the only true one and distrusted
any outside interference . On the other hand, it is feasible to admit that the
negative tone of Wolf's report may have discouraged those who might have
otherwise contributed with funds to the reconversion project.
Captain Barros Basto went on untiringly with his efforts, but made only
minimal progress among the marranos. He did not agree with the position of
the Jewish community in Lisbon that it would be impossible to convert the adults
and believed that with adequate resources he would be able in a period of two
or three years to attract some hundred Crypto-Jews to official Judaism. He
stated that four of them were already receiving religious instruction. He
created a synagogue in Oporto and managed to attract some Crypto-Jews to a yeshiva
he also founded. In the long run, however, results were practically null. It
ought also to be considered that starting in the 1960s emigration from
Trás-os-Montes and Beira to France and Germany decimated Crypto-Jewish communities,
depriving them of their younger and more active elements.
After the Portuguese revolution of April 25, 1974, which restored
democracy to Portugal, Crypto-Jews, especially those from Belmonte, have shown a more
open attitude. In that town about 90 individuals, half of the remaining
marranos, accepted official Judaism and a synagogue was opened. In the meamwhile
Barros Basto has died, his dream unfullfilled.
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