PORTUGUESE CRYPTO JEWS
"Portugal and Madeira
On August 19 1994, Haim Shapiro described in the 'Jerusalem Post', an ancient and secret Yom Kippur ritual still practised by Marrano families in northern Portugal. Women gather together and braid oil wicks while reciting 73 blessings, possibly corresponding to the number of names of G-d. This practise is quoted in the Shulhan Aruch. In addition to Belmonte and Oporto celebrations were held in Guarda for 600 crypto-Jewish families who live in the Portuguese towns of Fundao, Pinhei, Meda, Traconso, Idanha, Panamacor and Vilarinho dos Galigos, as well as in the Spanish provence of Galicia.
Even though the crypto-Jews of Belmonte have come out of hiding, other communities such as Tomar, still maintain secret Jewish lives and rituals; both personally and communally.
Ayre Hazary has published a lengthy survey of the crypto-Jewish community of the Portuguese island of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Oceon off the northwest coast of Africa, where his maternal great-grandparents came from. He conveyed reports of secluded candlelighting by at least three crypto-Jewish families there. They circumcise their new-born sons on the eighth day, observe the Sabbath, buy kasher meat from the Jewish community in Lisbon, and fast on Yom Kippur and the Fast of Esther. Though they wear gold crosses round their necks, they are practicing Jews.The names of Hazary's maternal grandmother and great-grandmother were Gomes and Correira, names found in documents in Madeira today. Tito Benady, af historian from Gibraltar Jewry, noted that when some 200 Jews from Gibraltar were evacuated as non=combatants to Funchal, Madeira, at the start of WW2, they found a Jewish cemetery that belonged to the Abudarham family. The same family after whom the synagogue in Gibraltar was named."
On August 19 1994, Haim Shapiro described in the 'Jerusalem Post', an ancient and secret Yom Kippur ritual still practised by Marrano families in northern Portugal. Women gather together and braid oil wicks while reciting 73 blessings, possibly corresponding to the number of names of G-d. This practise is quoted in the Shulhan Aruch. In addition to Belmonte and Oporto celebrations were held in Guarda for 600 crypto-Jewish families who live in the Portuguese towns of Fundao, Pinhei, Meda, Traconso, Idanha, Panamacor and Vilarinho dos Galigos, as well as in the Spanish provence of Galicia.
Even though the crypto-Jews of Belmonte have come out of hiding, other communities such as Tomar, still maintain secret Jewish lives and rituals; both personally and communally.
Ayre Hazary has published a lengthy survey of the crypto-Jewish community of the Portuguese island of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Oceon off the northwest coast of Africa, where his maternal great-grandparents came from. He conveyed reports of secluded candlelighting by at least three crypto-Jewish families there. They circumcise their new-born sons on the eighth day, observe the Sabbath, buy kasher meat from the Jewish community in Lisbon, and fast on Yom Kippur and the Fast of Esther. Though they wear gold crosses round their necks, they are practicing Jews.The names of Hazary's maternal grandmother and great-grandmother were Gomes and Correira, names found in documents in Madeira today. Tito Benady, af historian from Gibraltar Jewry, noted that when some 200 Jews from Gibraltar were evacuated as non=combatants to Funchal, Madeira, at the start of WW2, they found a Jewish cemetery that belonged to the Abudarham family. The same family after whom the synagogue in Gibraltar was named."
posted by Helen Campbell @ 11:11 PM
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