New Christian Brazil Sugarcane Industry Brazil New Christian Sugarcane

Portuguese & Dutch New Christians re-settle in Brazil and develop the sugar industry in the Northeastern cities: Recife (Dutch West India Headquarters), Salvador, João Pessoa, Natal, São Luis and Fortaleza

Email: geors65@gmail.com

In 1496, the population of Portugal was 1,000,000, of which 200,000 were comprised of Portuguese Jews. In the first few years after Spanish Jews arrived in Portugal en mass, King Manuel allowed some ofhis Jewish citizens to leave the country. A number ships were made available at different ports - roughly 50,000 left. They re-settled in Turkey, Italy, Greece, Morocco, and a few other countries. This is referred to as the 'Diaspora' of the Sephardic Jews. Since the Portuguese colonization of Brazil beginning in 1506, waves of Portuguese Old Christians began populating the country. But what conventional history doesn't tell us is that a significant number of 'New Christians' also settled in Brazil and in other former Portuguese colonies such as Cape Verde, São Tome & Principe, Angola and some Portuguese enclaves in India such as Cochin and Goa regularly over the next 300 years. By far and large, Brazil was the country of choice for the majority of the Portuguese New Christians.

By the mid 1600s, Brazilian and Dutch Jews spearheaded and controlled the sugarcane industry in the North-East of Brazil in cities such as: Recife (Dutch West India headquarters), Salvador, João Pessoa, Natal, São Luis and Fortaleza, as they had the money and the know-how. At that time many Portuguese Jews from Holland also decided to re-locate to Brazil. In fact, Northeastern Brazil was in Dutch control for 24 years beginning in 1630. In particular, the relations between the Dutch and South America were established by Portuguese-Dutch-Jews; they contributed to the founding of the Dutch West Indies Company in 1621. In 1642, six-hundred Jews left Amsterdam accompanied by two distinguished scholars—Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and Moses Raphael de Aguilar. The early economy of Brazil flourished, and the Brazilian Jews lived in relative peace. While the inquisition was in full throttle in Portugal, it was not initially in force in Brazil. However, the new found freedom and good fortune did not last for the Portuguese-Dutch Jews in Brazil, as it wasn't long before the inquisition found its way there as well. Consequently, Brazilian Jews were eventually forced underground.

There was some intermarriage between Brazilian New Christians and non-Jews, but generally they married among their own and it served a practical purpose. As occured in Portugal, throughout the generations, some Jewish Brazilian families hung on to some Sephardic rituals and traditions, while many others simply blended into the Catholic mainstream, and in time forgot all about their Jewish origin. Other Brazilian Jews fled to the nearby Guyana's and the island nations of Curaçao, Suriname, Barbados, Jamaica, and ultimately many ended up as far north as New York, which was in Dutch control at the time. Along the way the Portuguese speaking New Christians from Brazil and Holland left behind synagogues and other reminders of their brief, but very important sojourns in those places. The majestic Portuguese and Spanish Synagogue of New York stands testament to their presence in this city to this day. You can still find many Sephardic Jews in New York with surnames such as: Rodrigues, Cardozo. Lobato, Henriques, Souza, Teixeira, Costa, Mendes, Pereira, Pimentel, Benevides, Brandão, Pinto, etc.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEPHARDI-DESCENDED COMMUNITIES IS ILLUSTRATED IN THE FOLLOWING DIAGRAM:

Pre-Expulsion Sephardi Jewish Population of Iberia

Spanish Alhambra Decreeof 1492, Portuguese Decree of 1497

Iberian Exile in the late 15th century

Conversion to Catholicism up to the late 15th century

North African Sephardim

Eastern Sephardim

Sephardic Anusim

Those Jews fleeing from Iberia as Jews in the late 15th century at the issuance of Spain and Portugal's decrees of expulsion. Initially settled in North Africa.

Those Jews fleeing from Iberia as Jews in the late 15th century at the issuance of Spain and Portugal's decrees of expulsion. Initially settled in the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.

Those Jews in Spain and Portugal who, in an effort to delay or avoid their expulsion (and in most cases in Portugal, in an effort by Manuel I of Portugal to prevent the Jews from choosing the option of exile), are forced or coerced to convert to Catholicism up until the late 15th century, at the expiration of the deadline for their expulsion, conversion, or execution as set out in the decrees. Became Conversos/New Christians in Iberia. As Christians, were under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church and subject to the Inquisition.

Migration of Conversos from the 16th to 18th centuries

Clandestine migration of conversos to Ibero-America and their settlement during colonization from the 16th to 18th centuries

Reversion to Judaism from the 16th to 18th centuries

Extension of the Inquisition to Ibero-America in the 16th century

Western Sephardim

Sephardic Bnei Anusim

The first few generations of descendants of Sephardic Anusim who migrated as Conversos out of Iberia (to regions beyond the Iberian cultural sphere) between the 16th to 18th centuries where they then reverted to Judaism. Initially settled in the Netherlands, London, Italy, etc.

The later generation descendants of Sephardic Anusim who remained, as Conversos, in Iberia or moved to the Iberian colonial possessions across various Latin American countries during the Spanish & Portuguese (i.e.,Brazil) colonization of the Americas. Subject to the Inquisition until its abolition in the 19th century

Abolition of the Inquisition in the 19th century

Reversion to Judaism in the 20th to 21st centuries

Neo-Western Sephardim

The nascent and growing population of returnees to Judaism among the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population whose recent return began in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in Iberia and Ibero-America.