ביא"ע

To All Interested,

We recently learned that our sister congregation K. K. Mikveh Israel (Philadelphia, USA, est. 1740) hosted an In Memoriam presentation that prominently featured the book of non-Jewish Portuguese scholar António José Saraiva’s titled Inquisição e Cristãos-Novos (1969), translated in English with the title The Marrano Factory (2001). In that regard, let us begin repeating the wise words Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon:

“Do not think a statement true because you find it in a book, for the fabricator is as little controlled with his pen as with his tongue. For the unschooled and uneducated are sure of the truth of a statement by the mere fact that it is written.” (Maimonides, ch. 14)

 

 

According to the book’s anglophone translators, Saraiva’s final thesis analysis is that “Nearly all of the [Portuguese] New Christian Inquisitorial victims (some 40,000 so labeled between 1540 and 1765) were devout or run-of-the-mill Catholics whose Jewish ancestry, often partial, if not fictional, was their sole crime.” (Saraiva, p. IX, our brackets, and bold letters).

In other words, that these unfortunate forcibly converted Jews and their descendants tried by the evil and despicable Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions were either partial Jews or complete non-Jews, and it was Saraiva’s conclusion that the Inquisition’s persecution was merely a class struggle against rich Old Christians, which fabricated fake judaizers so to confiscate their money and possessions!!

The eminent French Sephardic and Inquisition Archivist historian Israel Salvator Révah described this book as “horribly polemical and tendentious style and elaborated into absurd and demagogical theses.” (Saraiva, p. 236, our bold letters)

Our Rabbis, of blessed memory, severely punished Jews who discriminated against these Sepharadim called anusim (i.e. Jews forced to abandon the Torah under pain of death), who had fled the lands of persecution at their great peril and cost, to return to the open practice of our Torah. In the words of Rabbi Salomo eben Hasson:

A Jew called Simon: “Christ, son of Christ! All Portuguese are Christians!” The scholar whose opinion was asked declared regarding the accusers. There were three sins: (1) He called him a “non-Jew.” (2) He damaged Ruben's reputation who was of the Kohanim. (3) He offended all anusim who do penitence. The offence of calling all Portuguese “Christians” is the most serious one. There are (Jewish) scholars and pious men among them… Each of the accusers is asked to apologize, to be chastised, to fast and to submit to punishment under the order of banishment (herem). (Beth Shelomo No. 14, our parenthesis and bold letters)

Besides using the very anti-Converso/antisemitic Iberian Catholic curse-word “Marrano” (pig/swine) to name the In Memoriam, which already is a vile injury to our ancestors who founded our holy congregations in Western Europe and the Americas, gave alms for all Jewish orphans, widows, captives and refugees; founded Yeshibot through the Holy Land and the Diaspora – most famous of all for Rabbi Yosef Caro –, authored, printed and distributed books of Torah and Jewish wisdom throughout the then known world Jewry and even at great danger into Christian lands for the use of Converso-Jews: to add insult to injury said presentation happened in the very home of the celebrated Livornese-American Rabbi Sabato Morais (1823-1897) who served congregation K.K. Mikveh Israel, U.S. American Jewry and non-Jews nationwide from 1850 until his death, whose own family had returned to Judaism just three generations prior (Kiron, p. 18).

Furthermore, this repugnant trope of “often partial, if not fictional” (Jewish ancestry) common in certain academics with little to no knowledge of Jewish Law in matters of cross-generational repentant/returning Jews, has poisoned the hearts and minds of some very distinguished members of our congregations (which includes one rabbi), themselves daring to call their own ancestors “pure Catholic (non-Jews)!,” and has created very painful divisions and strife among our own.

Because not only do we have the witness of history on the continuous survival of Jewish religious-legalistic (halakhic) practice from the 356+ years of the Inquisitions’ tens of thousands of documents, but also recent Torah-observant academic scholars have confirmed the survival of Rabbinic practices (some which are not even kept by today’s Torah-observant Jews) in their modern descendants (Halevy, 2009). Additionally, thanks to the kind gesture of Spain and Portugal to rectify their forebearer’s past injustices, by providing Sepharadim (openly and not-openly Jewish) their countries’ citizenship, thousands upon thousands of their descendants have traced their Jewish ancestors, during the Inquisition and before the forced conversions: Thus ringing true the proud Portuguese Jewish motto: dos quatro costados ([Jew] on all four sides) (Also see Milgrom below).

Most concerning of all is that books with similar baseless thesis contribute to the misunderstanding, indifference or even complete hate of their modern descendants who try to reconnect with the Jewish People, some of whom have moved to Israel, such as what happened to Karen Yemima Mosquera z”l (1992-2014) who died at the hands of terrorists, only to be shunned unanimously at her funeral by all Israeli politicians and its state-sanctioned-rabbinical authorities! (Hamodia, 2014)

When a good number of religious Orthodox rabbis commit all sorts of anti-Torah crimes against Jews and non-Jews alike (Shoshan, 2023; Halbfinger, 2009) – and hardly anyone raises their voice, particularly in the religious communities, with what face can any of us truly sit in judgement of our coerced ancestors and their modern descendants, who not only kept practicing the Divine precepts in dire and dangerous circumstances, but also sought to continuously return as openly Torah-observant practicing Jews for the past 600+ years since the mass forced-conversions in 1391? Can any of these insensitive uninformed authors and their gleeful promoters hold a candle to them? We beg these questions.

Therefore, we took the effort to reach out to today’s scholars of Sephardic Jewish and Converso studies in Portugal to ask their expert opinion of Saraiva’s book, all of whom stated they reject Saraiva’s thesis, and one which has not been cited in a long time in the Portuguese academia. Also, we reached out to an Israeli politician who is trying to help the modern day Conversos, and we asked his opinion regarding this disturbing episode.  Below we present their words.

As per our ancient traditions, although we respect the independence of each congregation to run their affairs the best way they see fit, we cannot remain silent that to parade Saraiva-like theses as “fact” is nothing short of the most slanderous Antisemitic libel, comparable if not worse than Holocaust deniers: because it attempts at the complete erasure of our ancestor’s Jewish identity, status and their sacrifices to keep the Torah alive in their hearts and actions; and we wish no such presentations will get replicated in our historic communities ever again.

 

Yours Truly,

Concerned Sepharadim and sympathizers of Sephardic tradition and history everywhere

PS. Please feel free to widely distribute this letter and the following link in your email list and social media to add your support. Thank you.

https://www.change.org/StopAntisemiticLibelsAgainstSepharadim

You may download a PDF copy of this letter here:

https://www.academia.edu/s/8a86c27463?source=link

Portuguese Academics’ and an Israeli politician’s Opinions on Saraiva’s thesis
Academic #1

(Saraiva’s) idea about the Inquisition having been a Jewish factory is based on his assumption that even those who were not Jews became, just by being accused and after the inquiries, condemned. Now there were already Jews before the Inquisition and they continued to exist after it ended (Crypto-Jewish prayers show this). [Our translation]

Academic #2

In fact, if it is António José Saraiva's thesis, that the Jews were manufactured in the Inquisition, then I absolutely disagree and justified this challenge in my doctoral thesis. [Our translation and bold letters]

Academic #3

Although I have never asked my Portuguese colleagues about their opinions in relation to Saravia's thesis, I understand by inference that they do not agree with him. About 10 years ago, the Portuguese academy has shown great interest in the history and ethnography of the anusim and their descendants. Indeed, it seems that each year a new book is published. Today there are anthropologists, geneticists and historians who are dedicated to the topic of Portuguese anusim. I have presented my posture on Portuguese television for at least 3 times, and I have been invited to present at several conferences about anusim in Portugal. I haven't seen or heard anyone support Saravia's stance.

I think that his work fits within postmodernism, where Foucault and Derrida contributed to the deconstruction of every true veneration. Well, now in the era of meta modernism, when the Portuguese people and their descendants around the world have experienced a revival, it would be a mockery or even a "blasphemy" to promote Saravia's thesis. [Our bold letters]

Academic #4

I disagree with Saraiva thesis. On the one hand his argument that the Church made money from the Inquisition may be true, but on the other hand, many of those who were tried by the Inquisition returned to the former practice of the Jewish tradition in the diaspora. Unfortunately, many of those Jews were so poor that they did not have money to escape and suffered what they had to suffer.

I knew (the anglophone translator of Saraiva’s book) personally, he was my close friend. We were working on a project together that never materialized due to lack of funding. (Presenting this book in an historic Spanish & Portuguese Jewish congregation) is a huge problem because it is a lack of respect, a lack of compassion for the descendants of those who were tried by the Inquisition who are still alive today and feel this pain. It is a lack of recognizing the suffering and the travail of those peoples and their descendants. [Our translation, parenthesis and bold letters]

Academic #5

In respect to the mentioned work, there are people who understand that it as a Marxist interpretation of the (Converso) problem; and it runs counter to his antagonist Israel Salvator Révah, who besides having a greater knowledge of Judaic subjects, he was an even greater archival researcher than Saraiva. [Our translation, parenthesis and bold letters]

Israeli politician of Spanish & Portuguese Jewish provenance

I haven’t read that particular book, but (I) am aware of the general argument through the books of Netanyahu. I am not sure why our communities of all people should be giving this a platform considering our origins are a direct rebuttal. Unfortunately, I am witnessing more and more how our history and suffering are not given the same consideration of others. It upsets me how blithely people use the term Inquisition for all manner of things and appropriate the term Marrano… from my few visits to (a major Spanish & Portuguese congregation) it seems there are very few Sefaradim left. The Ashkenazi members may enjoy the atmosphere and tunes but will not have the same emotional attachment to this vital part of our history. [Our parentheses and bold letters]

 
Letter’s Bibliography

– Moses Maimonides. Epistle to Yemen. American Academy for Jewish Research, New York, 1952. Our paraphrasis.

– Arthur Kiron. Golden Ages, Promise Lands. Columbia University, 1999.

– José Antonio Saraiva. The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536 – 1765. Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill, 2001.

– Hamodia Staff. “Second Fatality in Terror Attack Was Giyores Descended from Marranos.” Hamodia.com. October 28 2014. Web. February 22 2015.

– Schulamit Chava Halevy. Descendants of the Anusim (Crypto-Jews) in Contemporary Mexico. Doctoral thesis. Hebrew University, 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.

– Genie Milgrom. Geniemilgrom.com. Retrieved March 6, 2023, from https://geniemilgrom.com/ Most period genealogical records from Conversos show a high level of endogamy, that is, marriage within the Jewish Converso clan.

– Moshe Shoshan. “‘Our hands have shed this blood’: We must tell the full story of Rabbi Druckman.” blogs.timesofisrael.com. January 4, 2023. Web. 6 Mar. 2023.

– David M. Halbfinger. “44 Charged by U.S. in New Jersey Corruption Sweep.” nytimes.com. 23 Jul. 2009. Web. 6 Mar. 2023.

 

Recommended Books and Articles on Sephardic and Converso Studies

– Jorge José Alves Ferreira. Os judeus no noroeste transmontano, 300 anos a resistir à Inquisição. Jorge José Alves Ferreira, s.l., 2018.

– Paulo Mendes Pinto. “Recovering Jewish Identity in Contemporary Portugal.” Contemporary Jewry, 40, 20210310, 579 (2021).

– José Alberto Rodrigues da Silva Tavim. “A descoberta dos Marranos de Portugal… no Brasil”. Lusotopie, 201920220204, 148 (2019).

– José Alberto Rodrigues da Silva Tavim. As diásporas dos judeus e cristãos-novos de origem ibérica entre o Mar Mediterrâneo e o Oceano Atlântico : edtudos. Centro de Historia, da Universidade de Historia de Lisboa, Lisboa (2020).

– Cátia Antunes. “Prosecuting the Persecutor: Contracts, Sugar, Jews, and Inquisitors, 1580–1640”. Mediaevalia, 1, 2011, 221.

– José Faur. In the Shadow of History: Jews and Conversos at the Dawn of Modernity. State University of New York Press, 1992.

– David Gitlitz. Secrecy and Deceit. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1996

– Abraham D. Lavendar & Dolores Sloan (editors). The secret Jews of Spain, Portugal, & Italy: Past and Present Effects of the Inquisition. Florida International University, Miami, FL, 2009.

– Seymour B. Liebman. Requiem por los olvidados: Los judíos españoles en América, 1493–1825. Ktav, New York, 1982.

– Norman Toby Simms. “Being Crypto-Jewish in Colonial Brazil (1500–1822): Brushing History against the Grain.” Journal of Religious History 31 (2007) 421–50.

– Alberro Solange. “Inquicisión y sociedad en México 1571-1700.” In Silvia Hamui Sutton, El sentido oculto de las palabras en los testimonios inquisitoriales de las Rivera: judaizantes de la Nueva España. México: UNAM, 2010.

– Dora Zsom. Conversos in the Responsa of Sephardic Halakhic Authorities in the 15th Century. Piscataway, NJ, USA: Gorgias, 2014.