THREAD:

Who are Hispano-Portuguese Jews?

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Like there are sub-divisions of Jewishness as an ethnicity (Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, Beta Israel, etc.), Sephardim, a broad group of Jews, are also divided into several groups.

Some of the most common groups of Sephardim are: Western, Eastern, North African, and Bnei Anusim. 2/

Each of these groups have different customs, cuisine and languages depending on the diasporic locations after the expulsions from spain.

Western Sephardim, also known as Hispano-Portuguese Jews/Spanish and Portuguese Jews are who I will be talking about in this thread. 3/

Some Hispano-Portuguese Jews are a community of ex-conversos who reverted to Judaism after later migrating to other countries.

Old World Western Sephardim migrated to the Netherlands, France, Italy, England, or Germany, where they then reverted to Judaism. 4/

Completed in 1675, the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam housed one of the richest Jewish communities in the world.

(Pictures by yours truly.) 5/

Some Old World Western Sephardim immigrated to the Caribbean from Spain, Portugal or the Netherlands. For Islands such as Puerto Rico, this migration can be traced back to the 1500s, while for Curaçao, Jews (including my own family) arrived in the mid 1600s. 6/

Mikvé Israel-Emanuel Synagogue in Curaçao, which is the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas. It was completed in 1674. 5/

You’ll notice sand on the floor on the pictures below. This is a tradition meant to remind the congregants of the 40 years spent in the desert, and their Portuguese ancestors who used sand to muffle their covert prayers, specifically the ‘amida.’ 6/

For a little bit of personal history, my family arrived in Panama from Curaçao and Jamaica in the late 1800s. The oldest congregation of Panama is Kol Shearith Israel, a Reform synagogue founded my Hispano-Portuguese immigrants. 7/

Picture from a few weeks ago of the Hispano-Portuguese cemetery in Chorrillo, Panama. 8/

New World Western Sephardim were another branch of conversos that immigrated with the Spaniards and Portuguese to the Americas, where they were able to revert to Judaism. 9/

Western Sephardim were the first established Jews in the Americas. Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, which was established in 1654, is the oldest in the United States and is still running! 10/

The oldest synagogue building in the United States also belonged to Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Congregation Jeshuat Israel, built on 1763 in Newport Rhode Island is still kickin’ it today. 11/

In contrast to Eastern Sephardim, Western Sephardim did bot typically speak Ladino/Judeo-Spanish, which is a dialect of Old Spanish, but spoke Modern Spanish or Portuguese instead apart from the languages of their respective countries. 12/

Western Sephardim have their own distinct liturgy and melodies. Here is a version of Baruch Haba sung by the Spanish and Portuguese choir of London. (I prefer the one from Curaçao’s melody but I cannot find it online.) 13/

Notable Hispano-Portuguese Sephardim:

▷ Emma Lazarus

▷ Baruch Spinoza

▷ Camille Pissarro

▷ Me!

14/

There is so much diversity within the Jewish community, even within Sephardim, and I wanted to highlight one important and special group which is often forgotten in today’s narratives and activism. At some point, I will do a thread on Eastern Sephardim so stay tuned!

Fin./