September 16th Blog Questions

Amanda Aussems 

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

When the 16^th century came to a close, many Portuguese conversos made their way to Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Livorno. Here, ex-conversos found that they were able to openly return to Judaism and establish their own Jewish communities. By the end of the 17^th century Amsterdam and Livorno had populations of more than 3,000 Jews, considerably making them the largest communities of Portuguese Jews. Because the Netherlands had religious tolerance for the conversos who wished to return to their Jewish roots, it appealed to many conversos. These conversos were then able to regain their Jewish identity. However, the identity in which these conversos established focused more on the cultural part of Judaism rather than specific religious and rabbinic practices. These “port Jews” were noted for their “engagement in international commerce, their social integration into the surrounding society, and their non-ideological secularism” (JAH 219).

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

Scholars consider the former converso communities of Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London to be the "first modern Jews" for a few reasons. First, the Sephardim in Amsterdam made up the first Jewish community to rekindle its Jewish heritage. This is due to the fact that the conversos who came to Amsterdam during the 17^th century did not face the expulsion from Spain first hand. They had, however, been born into families whose ancestors did. This attribution takes into account that Sephardi Jews in Amsterdam were returning to Judaism after many generations of families practicing Catholicism.  They established a Jewish community and culture that drifted from customary ways of life and practice; they had a division between the religious and daily sections of their lives, meaning that their Spanish and Portuguese culture contributed to their identity along with their Jewishness.