September 16th questions

Julia Kohn

What did Jewish identity consist of for former Portuguese conversos who emigrated to the "Port towns," especially Amsterdam?

Why do scholars consider the former converso communities of Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London to be the "first modern Jews"?

(I combined the questions into one paragraph)

With the Portuguese inquisition about, conversos had a hard time hiding being Jewish in Portugal; however, moving to Amsterdam gave them the ability to hide from the inquisition and practice their religion freely. In these port towns, Jews mainly owned Dutch sugar plantations, which played a huge roll in the Dutch Atlantic trade and were also successful in Amsterdam stock. These Jews could be distinguished by their involvement in international commerce and their “social integration into the surrounding society”. This was the first time in history that these Jews were considered ‘modern’ in every sense of the word. This mainly had to do with how the community departed from traditional models and the traditional life that had never been challenged up until this point. Essentially what they did was reinvent Jewish traditions. This had to do with the fact that ex- conversos were unaware of most traditions because of their upbringing. Thus they were forced to learn Judaism from scratch. To be a former Portuguese conversos meant that you were trying to maintain a level of Portuguese culture and self-understanding of your Jewishness. This consisted of your Jewish identification and religion on one side as well as the literature, culture and langue of Portugal on the other. To be a Portuguese conversos living in Amsterdam meant rediscovering your ancestry and bringing new life into what it means to be a Jew.