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193-846: The history of the Jews in the Netherlands largely dates to the late 16th century and 17th century, when Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain began to settle in Amsterdam and a few other Dutch cities, because the Netherlands was an unusual center of religious tolerance . Since Portuguese Jews had not lived under rabbinic authority for decades, the first generation of those embracing their ancestral religion had to be formally instructed in Jewish belief and practice. This contrasts with Ashkenazi Jews from central Europe, who, although persecuted, lived in organized communities. Seventeenth-century Amsterdam

386-474: A Frankish gau or pagus which included the Roman towns of Famars and Bavay . In the 9th century, if not earlier, it was also described as a county , which implies that it had a single count governing it. As with many counties of the region, there was apparently a 10th-century fragmentation of territories among different counts, which is difficult to reconstruct. In 1071 a single large territorial county

579-675: A Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula ( Spain and Portugal ). The term, which is derived from the Hebrew Sepharad ( lit.   ' Spain ' ), can also refer to the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa , who were also heavily influenced by Sephardic law and customs . Many Iberian Jewish exiled families also later sought refuge in those Jewish communities, resulting in ethnic and cultural integration with those communities over

772-730: A 14-part, 29-volume history of the Netherlands during World War II. In 1965, Jaques Presser published his magister opus Ondergang ( Demise – the Persecution and Eradication of Dutch Jewry ). The work was reprinted six times during its first year, reaching the extraordinary print run of 150,000 – still today a record in the history of publishing in the Netherlands. Sephardic Jews Sephardic Jews ( Hebrew : יְהוּדֵי סְפָרַד ‎ , romanized :  Yehudei Sfarad , transl.  'Jews of Spain ' ; Ladino : Djudios Sefaradis ), also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim , and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews , are

965-579: A Biblical location. The location of the Biblical Sepharad points to the Iberian peninsula, then the westernmost outpost of Phoenician maritime trade. Jewish presence in Iberia is believed to have started during the reign of King Solomon , whose excise imposed taxes on Iberian exiles. Although the first date of arrival of Jews in Iberia is the subject of ongoing archaeological research, there

1158-433: A French army was at the frontier and the treasury was empty, De Pinto collected a large sum and presented it to the state. Van Hogendorp, the secretary of state, wrote to him: "You have saved the state." In 1750 De Pinto arranged for the conversion of the national debt from a 4 to a 3% basis. Under the government of William V , the country was troubled by internal dissensions. But the Jews remained loyal to him. As he entered

1351-491: A Frisian ruler named Radbod, at some point in late 9th or early 10th century. The late 14th century Annales Hannoniae , which give legendary origins of the Counts of Hainaut, describes this Reginar I as a count of Mons – a title held by his descendants. [1] The first recorded count who was associated as a count with any part of Hainaut in a contemporary record was Count Sigehard . Leon Vanderkindere proposed that this Sigehard

1544-490: A Jewish community, a rabbi needed to be brought to Amsterdam. No such rabbi existed among the Portuguese conversos . Those wishing to live as Jews under rabbinic authority needed to learn Jewish religious and cultural practices. The first rabbi was Moses Uri Halevi of Emden, part of the small Ashkenazi settlement there. He established Jewish practices in the absence of a dedicated worship space. He brought with him from Emden

1737-572: A Sephardic Jew was exceptionally permitted to establish a sugar refinery using chemical methods. There are a number of notable Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam in the 17th century, including Saul Levi Morteira , a rabbi and anti-Christian polemicist. His rival was the much more well-known Amsterdam rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel . He was known for corresponding widely with Christian leaders and helped to promote Jewish resettlement in England . The most famous

1930-411: A Torah scroll, essential for Jewish worship. Creating a sacred space for Jewish worship was initially a problem, since Amsterdam authorities did not envision Jews to be included in the notion of religious toleration. Jacob Tirado (a.k.a.) James Lopes da Costa, who obtained permission from the authorities to practice Judaism within his household, but not publicly. Tirado was a significant contributor to

2123-559: A blood offering during Passover . Local Jewish communities were often murdered in part or entirely or exiled in hysterical pogroms. In May 1370, six Jews were burned at the stake in Brussels because they were accused of theft and of desecrating the Holy Sacrament. In addition, documentation can be found of instances in which Jews were abused and insulted, e.g., in the cities of Zutphen, Deventer and Utrecht, for allegedly desecrating

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2316-575: A defense of Cambrai in 979, and appear in other records. They are believed to be the same as Count Godfrey "the captive" , and Arnulf of Valenciennes . In 998 the Reginar IV regained control over the County of Mons , in Hainaut, from Godfrey according to Alberic of Trois-Fontaines . Historian Michel de Waha believes this late report can not be trusted, and that we can only say they took control in

2509-468: A disproportionate impact on the Netherlands compared to other Western European countries, has had an impact on how the period's history is written. After Jewish emancipation in the Netherlands, Jews increasingly integrated and assimilated into Dutch society and became more secular, as did Dutch society as a whole. Jews did not form a separate segment ("pillar") of Dutch society but became part of others. Although many no longer were observant religiously or had

2702-552: A few in London. Amsterdam was not necessarily the obvious destination in the late sixteenth century for Jewish merchants. As the Spanish Netherlands became a hub of international commerce, Portuguese Jews moved to Antwerp and later Amsterdam to pursue commercial opportunities. As the northern provinces became a Protestant stronghold, Dutch rebels fought for their independence from Spain and with religious toleration as

2895-659: A few years. The Jewish community in Portugal was perhaps then some 15% of that country's population. They were declared Christians by Royal decree unless they left, but the King hindered their departure, needing their artisanship and working population for Portugal's overseas enterprises and territories. Later Sephardic Jews settled in many trade areas controlled by the Empire of Philip II and others. With various countries in Europe also

3088-548: A major Jewish population centre until World War II. Amsterdam was known as Jerusalem of the West by its Jewish residents. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the community grew as Jews from the mediene (the "country" Jews), migrated to larger cities to seek better jobs and living conditions. By 1900, Amsterdam had 51,000 Jews, with 12,500 paupers; The Hague 5,754 Jews, with 846; Rotterdam 10,000, with 1,750; Groningen 2,400, with 613; Arnhem 1,224 with 349. The total population of

3281-614: A misunderstanding of the initials ס"ט "Samekh Tet" traditionally used with some proper names (which stand for sofo tov , "may his end be good" or "sin v'tin", "mire and mud" has in recent times been used in some quarters to distinguish Sephardim proper, "who trace their lineage back to the Iberian/Spanish population", from Sephardim in the broader religious sense. This distinction has also been made in reference to 21st-century genetic findings in research on 'Pure Sephardim', in contrast to other communities of Jews today who are part of

3474-620: A notary public in Spain. In the case of Portugal, the nationality law was modified in 2022 with very stringent requirements for new Sephardic applicants, effectively ending the possibility of successful applications without evidence of a personal travel history to Portugal —which is tantamount to prior permanent residence— or ownership of inherited property or concerns on Portuguese soil. The name Sephardi means "Spanish" or "Hispanic", derived from Sepharad ( Hebrew : סְפָרַד , Modern :   Sfarád , Tiberian :   Səp̄āráḏ ),

3667-515: A principle, effectively achieving autonomy, which was finally recognized by Spain in 1648 after the Eighty Years' War . In the late 16th century, some Sephardic Jews from the Iberian peninsula ( Sepharad is the Hebrew name for Iberia) started to settle in the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam , gaining a foothold, but with an unclear status. A few Ashkenazi Jews had migrated from Germany to

3860-580: A scattering of others in professions, with teachers (22), physicians (10), and surgeons (10) topping the list. There were skilled diamond cutters and polishers (20) and men connected to the tropical product tobacco, with 13 retail tobacconists, and 13 tobacco workers. Physicians included Samuel Abravanel , David Nieto , Elijah Montalto , and the Bueno family. Joseph Bueno was consulted in the illness of Prince Maurice in April 1623. Jews were admitted as students to

4053-552: A series of four TV documentaries on the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands made by the Jewish historian Lou de Jong , broadcast on Dutch national public TV (NTS, then the sole TV channel). The first four installments aired in 1960, were considered a turning point and left many Dutch, who until then had hardly had any notion of the gruesome depth of the Holocaust, aghast. The series continued through 1964. Dr De Jong subsequently published

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4246-474: A significant connection to Jewish culture, the non-Jewish Dutch population considered them to be separate. Jews clustered in a small number of economic sectors, including the diamond sector, where Jews traditionally worked, and textiles, where some small-scale Jewish entrepreneurs became industrialists. Both industries became important for general Dutch economy in the era. From 1806 to 1810 the Kingdom of Holland

4439-500: A stifling effect, the disintegration of the caliphate expanded the opportunities to Jewish and other professionals. The services of Jewish scientists, doctors, traders, poets, and scholars were generally valued by Christian and Muslim rulers of regional centers, especially as order was restored in recently conquered towns. Rabbi Samuel ha-Nagid (ibn Naghrela) was the Vizier of Granada . He was succeeded by his son Joseph ibn Naghrela who

4632-556: A strong Jewish presence there. The Portuguese Jewish men migrating to Amsterdam, many of whom were already merchants, had an extremely high literacy rate compared to Dutch men in the general Amsterdam population. Portuguese Jewish merchants had already settled in Antwerp in the southern Netherlands , an entrepôt for trade in Iberian commodities, such as sugar, silver bullion, spices, and tobacco. They also settled in France; Hamburg , and

4825-616: A synagogue, a mikveh and a yeshiva as well. However, during the time he was a rabbi in Pernambuco, the Portuguese re-occupied the place again in 1654, after a struggle of nine years. Aboab da Fonseca managed to return to Amsterdam after the occupation of the Portuguese. Members of his community immigrated to North America and were among the founders of New York City , but some Jews took refuge in Seridó . The Sephardic kehilla in Zamość in

5018-645: A trade or profession protected by Dutch guilds in which citizenship was required. Jewish men were forbidden from having "carnal conversations" with Christian women of any kind, including as marital partners or sex workers. Prohibitions of sexual contact between Jewish men and Christian women prompted the statute. There were many cases of Christian women bringing lawsuits against Portuguese Jewish men for childbirth expanses and/or child support. Unlike other places in Europe, Amsterdam had no prohibition against Jews employing Christian servants, remarked upon by German visitors to Amsterdam. The intimacy of domestic interiors provided

5211-461: A tradition passed down by Rabbi Berekiah and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai , quoting second-century tanna Rabbi Meir , states: "Do not fear, O Israel, for I help you from remote lands, and your seed from the land of their captivity, from Gaul , from Spain, and from their neighbors." Medieval legends often traced the arrival of Jews in Spain to the First Temple period , with some associating

5404-480: A way to infer status. The percentage of illiterate women 1598-1699 was lowest among those few (3 out of 41) from Antwerp or 7.3%, with Hamburg second lowest at 18.2% (10 out of 55). Amsterdam-born women were the largest number with 227 out of 725 or 31.8%, which compared favorably with Dutch Amsterdam women, at 68%. A source for discerning literacy is the marriage register, where literacy could be assessed. The decline in literacy of Amsterdam-born Jewish women may be due to

5597-560: Is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish that was spoken by the eastern Sephardic Jews who settled in the Eastern Mediterranean after their expulsion from Spain in 1492; Haketia (also known as " Tetuani Ladino " in Algeria), an Arabic -influenced variety of Judaeo-Spanish, was spoken by North African Sephardic Jews who settled in the region after the 1492 Spanish expulsion. In 2015, more than five centuries after

5790-594: Is buried. Her estates were incorporated into the Burgundian Netherlands . Philip was already Duke of Burgundy , Count of Flanders, Artois , Namur and Franche-Comte , and would later become Duke of Brabant , Limbourg , and Luxembourg . His family, the House of Valois-Burgundy , a branch of the French royal family, created a powerful state between France and Germany and Hainaut was part of it. Charles

5983-715: Is considerable as Samuel Abravanel (or "Abrabanel"—financial councilor to the viceroy of Naples ) or Moses Curiel (or "Jeromino Nunes da Costa"-serving as Agent to the Crown of Portugal in the United Provinces ). Among other names mentioned are those of Belmonte, Nasi , Francisco Pacheco , Blas, Pedro de Herrera , Palache , Pimentel , Azevedo , Sagaste, Salvador , Sasportas , Costa , Curiel , Cansino , Schönenberg , Sapoznik (Zapatero), Toledo , Miranda, Toledano , Pereira , and Teixeira . The Sephardim distinguished themselves as physicians and statesmen, and won

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6176-511: Is defined by a liturgical tradition's choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers and melodies used in the singing of prayers. Sephardim traditionally pray using Minhag Sefarad. The term Nusach Sefard or Nusach Sfarad does not refer to the liturgy generally recited by Sephardim proper or even Sephardi in a broader sense, but rather to an alternative Eastern European liturgy used by many Hasidim , who are Ashkenazi . Additionally, Ethiopian Jews , whose branch of practiced Judaism

6369-948: Is evidence of established Jewish communities as early as the 1st century CE . Modern transliteration of Hebrew romanizes the consonant פ ( pe without a dagesh dot placed in its center) as the digraph ph , in order to represent fe or the single phoneme /f/ , the English sound that is voiceless labiodental fricative. In other languages and scripts, "Sephardi" may be translated as plural Hebrew : סְפָרַדִּים , Modern :   Sfaraddim , Tiberian :   Səp̄āraddîm ; Spanish : Sefardíes ; Portuguese : Sefarditas ; Catalan : Sefardites ; Aragonese : Safardís ; Basque : Sefardiak ; French : Séfarades ; Galician : Sefardís ; Italian : Sefarditi ; Greek : Σεφαρδίτες , Sephardites ; Serbo-Croatian : Сефарди, Sefardi ; Judaeo-Spanish : Sefaradies/Sefaradim ; and Arabic : سفارديون , Safārdiyyūn . In

6562-576: Is known as Haymanot , have been included under the oversight of Israel's already broad Sephardic Chief Rabbinate . The earliest significant Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula is typically traced back to the Roman period , during the first centuries CE. Evidence includes an amphora discovered in Ibiza , stamped with two Hebrew letters in relief, indicating possible trade between Judaea and

6755-507: Is most often used in this wider sense. It encompasses most non-Ashkenazi Jews who are not ethnically Sephardi, but are in most instances of West Asian or North African origin. They are classified as Sephardi because they commonly use a Sephardic style of liturgy; this constitutes a majority of Mizrahi Jews in the 21st century. The term Sephardi in the broad sense, describes the nusach ( Hebrew language , "liturgical tradition") used by Sephardi Jews in their Siddur (prayer book). A nusach

6948-500: Is philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza (Baruch Spinoza), born and raised a Portuguese Jew in Amsterdam, was excommunicated from the Jewish community in 1656. He openly rejected rabbinic authority. He expressed unorthodox ideas concerning (the nature of) God; questioned the divine origin of Scripture; and rejected Mosaic law . He published a major portion of his ideas anonymously in Latin in 1670, but following his 1677 death, his entire corpus

7141-441: Is probably the count of 953 mentioned above, with his seat in or near Valenciennes. According to Hlawitchka, Richizo is probably Richwin, a brother of Count Richer who died in 972. The Regnarid brothers apparently did not succeed in gaining Hainaut, or even Mons for some decades. The Gesta of the bishops of Cambrai records that two counts named Godefrid and Arnulf succeeded Richizo and Amelric, and these two counts were involved in

7334-628: Is used in modern Hebrew to refer to Spain. This has caused a long misunderstanding, since traditionally the entire Iberian Diaspora has been included in a single group. But the historiographical research reveals that that word, seen as homogeneous, was actually divided into distinct groups: the Sephardim, coming from the countries of the Castilian crown , Castilian language speakers, and the Katalanim  [ ca ] / Katalaní, originally from

7527-664: Is usually called amongst Spanish and Portuguese Jews, is the Amsterdam Esnoga —usually considered the "mother synagogue", and the historical center of the Amsterdam minhag . A sizable Sephardic community had settled in Morocco and other Northern African countries, which were colonized by France in the 19th century. Jews in Algeria were given French citizenship in 1870 by the décret Crémieux (previously Jews and Muslims could apply for French citizenship, but had to renounce

7720-509: The Halakha ) There were a number of prominent Jews in the era. One who had an impact on the Dutch political system was Aletta Jacobs , who was prominent in the fight for women's suffrage. The introduction in 1919 of equal suffrage for men and women was the culmination of a long process. The fact that women had to fight for the right to vote has indirectly to do with Aletta Jacobs . Originally,

7913-647: The Balearics in the first century. Additionally, the Epistle to the Romans records Paul 's intent to visit Spain, hinting at a Jewish community in the region during the mid-first century CE. Josephus writes that Herod Antipas was deposed and exiled to Spain, possibly to Lugdunum Convenarum , in 39 CE. Rabbinic literature from the Amoraic era references Spain as a distant land with a Jewish presence. For example,

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8106-702: The Burgundian Netherlands , was inherited by the Habsburg dynasty in the 1470s. In 1659 and 1678 southern Hainaut was acquired by France. The northern part continued as part of the Habsburg Netherlands . Like much of that state, the northern part of Hainaut was absorbed into the First French Republic in 1797 after the end of the Ancien Régime ; it later became part of newly-formed Belgium in 1830. The river Haine, for which

8299-477: The Crown of Aragon , Judeo-Catalan speakers. The modern Israeli Hebrew definition of Sephardi is a much broader , religious based, definition that generally excludes ethnic considerations. In its most basic form, this broad religious definition of a Sephardi refers to any Jew, of any ethnic background, who follows the customs and traditions of Sepharad. For religious purposes, and in modern Israel, "Sephardim"

8492-526: The Dutch in Brazil appealed for more craftsmen of all kinds, and many Jews heeded the call. In 1642 about 600 Jews left Amsterdam for Brazil, accompanied by two distinguished scholars, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and Moses Raphael de Aguilar . After the Portuguese regained the territory that Netherlands had taken in the sugar growing region around Recife in 1654, they sought refuge in other Dutch colonies, including

8685-727: The Holocaust in the Netherlands , including the Dutch National Holocaust Museum , inaugurated by the Dutch king in 2024. It was likely that the earliest Jews arrived in the "Low Countries" (present-day Belgium and the Netherlands) during the Roman conquest early in the common era. Little is known about these early settlers, other than they were not very numerous. For some time, the Jewish presence consisted of, at most, small isolated communities and scattered families. Reliable documentary evidence dates only from

8878-579: The Holy Roman Empire as her dowry. The revived County of Hainaut, therefore, emerged from the refeudalisation of three immediate counties: The unification of the County of Hainaut as an Imperial fief was accomplished after Arnulf's defeat in 1071, when Richilde and her son Baldwin II tried to sell their fiefs to Emperor Henry IV . Henry IV ordered the Prince-Bishop of Liège to purchase

9071-567: The Kingdom of Germany . Hainaut and its neighbourhood remained an important frontier area, or "march" , during the High Middle Ages . Though a part of the Holy Roman Empire , ruled from present-day Germany, it was culturally and linguistically French and ecclesiastically part of the Catholic Archdiocese of Reims . Like its neighbours such as the counties of Brabant and Flanders , it frequently became entangled in

9264-544: The Mahamad , including bigamy. The Mahamad punished Jewish couples who married without their parents' permission, along with the witnesses to the ceremony, as a flouting of authority. Married Jewish women abandoned by their husbands sometimes became pregnant in adulterous relationships with Jewish men. In the eighteenth century, the Mahamad acted when apprised of the circumstances. The leadership went out of their way to identify

9457-612: The Middle Ages , its Counts also gained control of part of the original pagus of Brabant to its north and the pagus of Oosterbant to the east, but they did not form part of the old pagus of Hainaut. In modern terms, the original core of Hainaut consisted of the central part of the Belgian province of Hainaut , and the eastern part of the French département of Nord (the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Helpe and Valenciennes ). Hainaut appears in 8th-century records as

9650-527: The Protestant Reformation , which was expanding. In 1571, the Duke of Alba notified the authorities of Arnhem that all Jews living there should be seized and held until their fates were determined. At Dutch request, Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor established religious peace in most of the provinces. The Dutch Golden Age of the seventeenth century was also the golden age of Portuguese Jews in

9843-595: The Silk Road . Historically, the vernacular languages of the Sephardic Jews and their descendants have been variants of either Spanish, Portuguese , or Catalan , though they have also adopted and adapted other languages. The historical forms of Spanish that differing Sephardic communities spoke communally were related to the date of their departure from Iberia and their status at that time as either New Christians or Jews. Judaeo-Spanish , also called Ladino ,

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10036-471: The Strait of Gibraltar from North Africa and launched a successful military campaign in the Iberian Peninsula. This conquest resulted in the establishment of Muslim rule over much of the region, which they referred to as " Al-Andalus ". The territory would remain under varying degrees of Muslim control for several centuries. The Jewish community, having faced persecution under Visigothic rule, largely welcomed

10229-647: The Visigothic Kingdom , following a period of significant instability caused by Barbarian invasions that led to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire . Initially, the Christian Visigoths practiced Arianism and, while they generally did not engage in the persecution of Jews, they did not extend particular favor to them either. It was not until the reign of Alaric II (484–507) that a Visigothic king concerned himself with

10422-470: The " Oath More Judaico " in the courts of justice, and administered the same formula to both Christians and Jews. To accustom the latter to military services he formed two battalions of 803 men and 60 officers, all Jews, who had been until then excluded from military service, even from the town guard. The union of Ashkenazim and Sephardim intended by Louis Napoleon did not come about. He had desired to establish schools for Jewish children, who were excluded from

10615-476: The 10th century. The region is associated by many historians such as Leon Vanderkindere with the so-called Reginarid dynasty who were a powerful and rebellious Lotharingian family, known for their frequent use of the name Reginar. This is because later in the 10th century a branch of this family succeeded to take the county by force, after returning from exile. However, while the later family clearly claimed to have once had important rights throughout Lotharingia,

10808-480: The 1100s; for several centuries, the record reflects that the Jews were persecuted within the region and expelled on a regular basis. Early sources from the 11th and 12th centuries mention official debates or disputations between Christians and Jews, in which attempts were made to convince the Jews of the truth of Christianity and to try to convert them. They were documented in the other provinces at an earlier date, especially after their expulsion from France in 1321 and

11001-404: The 14th century also mention Jewish residents in the cities of Antwerp and Mechelen and in the northern region of Geldern. Between 1347 and 1351, Europe was hit by the plague or Black Death . This resulted in a new theme in medieval anti-Semitic rhetoric. The Jews were held responsible for the epidemic and for the way it was rapidly spreading, because presumably they were the ones who had poisoned

11194-417: The 1648 Khmelnytsky uprising in what was then eastern Poland. These poor immigrants were less welcomed. Their arrival in considerable number threatened the economic status of Amsterdam in particular, and with few exceptions they were turned away. They generally settled in rural areas, where the men typically made a living as peddlers and hawkers . Many smaller Jewish communities were established throughout

11387-584: The 16th and 17th centuries was one of its kind in all of Poland at that time. It was an autonomous institution, and until the mid-17th century it was not under the authority of the highest organ of the Jewish self-government in the Republic of Poland - the Council of Four Lands . County of Hainaut The County of Hainaut ( French : Comté de Hainaut ; Dutch : Graafschap Henegouwen ; Latin : comitatus hanoniensis ), sometimes spelled Hainault ,

11580-577: The 17th century on account of their number, wealth, education, and influence, they established poetical academies after Spanish models; two of these were the Academia de Los Sitibundos and the Academia de Los Floridos . In the same city they also organized the first Jewish educational institution, with graduate classes in which, in addition to Talmudic studies, the instruction was given in the Hebrew language . The most important synagogue, or Esnoga , as it

11773-588: The Amsterdam Portuguese emigrants with their first rabbi, Moses Uri Halevi (a.k.a. Philps Joosten), until that community was established enough to begin training Portuguese men for the rabbinate. The two communities were ethnically distinct within Judaism, with separate religious organizations. The Dutch provinces provided mostly favorable conditions for observant Jews to establish a community, and to practice their religion privately. But to establish

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11966-479: The Batavian Republic, and which he may desire to enjoy." Moses Moresco was appointed member of the municipality at Amsterdam; Moses Asser member of the court of justice there. The old conservatives, at whose head stood the chief rabbi Jacob Moses Löwenstamm, were not desirous of emancipation rights. Indeed, these rights were for the greater part of doubtful advantage; their culture was not so far advanced that they could frequent ordinary society; besides, this emancipation

12159-456: The Bold of Burgundy, the son of Philip, was however killed at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, and the male line of the Burgundian dukes became extinct. In the same year, Charles' daughter Mary of Burgundy married Archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg , the son of Emperor Frederick III , and Hainaut passed to the Habsburg dynasty , who were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and kings of Spain. King Louis XI of France had hoped to take advantage of

12352-518: The Christian Reconquista . In 1492, the Alhambra Decree by the Catholic Monarchs expelled Jews from Spain, and in 1496, King Manuel I of Portugal issued a similar edict for Jews and Muslims. These actions led to migrations, mass conversions, and executions. By the late 15th century, Sephardic Jews had been largely expelled and dispersed across North Africa , Western Asia , Southern and Southeastern Europe , settling in established Jewish communities or pioneering new ones along trade routes like

12545-408: The Dutch and South America. They contributed to the establishment of the Dutch West Indies Company in 1621, and some were members of the directorate. The ambitious schemes of the Dutch for the conquest of Brazil were carried into effect through Francisco Ribeiro, a Portuguese captain, who is said to have had Jewish relations in the Netherlands . Some years afterward, when the Dutch in Brazil appealed to

12738-400: The Dutch for the conquest of Brazil were carried into effect by Francisco Ribeiro, a Portuguese captain, who is said to have had Jewish relations in Holland. The Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam strongly supported the Dutch Republic in its struggle with Portugal for the possession of Brazil, which started in Recife with the arrival of Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen in 1637. Some years later,

12931-416: The Dutch populace and that those supporting them would "bear the consequences." In 1939, there were some 140,000 Dutch Jews living in the Netherlands, among them some 24,000 to 25,000 German-Jewish refugees who had fled from Germany in the 1930s. (Other sources claim that some 34,000 Jewish refugees entered the Netherlands between 1933 and 1940, mostly from Germany and Austria). The German-Jewish refugees were

13124-457: The Dutch provinces. Over time, many German Jews gained prosperity through retail trading and they became specialists in diamond-cutting and sales. They had a monopoly in the latter trade until about 1870. When William IV was proclaimed stadholder (1747), the Jews found another protector. He had close relations with the head of the DePinto family, at whose villa, Tulpenburg, near Ouderkerk , he and his wife paid more than one visit. In 1748, when

13317-421: The French revolution it formed the basis of the newly named French département of Nord . Today the area is still referred to as French Hainaut . The northern part of Hainaut, around Mons, remained part of the Spanish Netherlands, which became the Austrian Netherlands after the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht – moving possession from one branch of the Habsburgs to another. In 1797, during the French Revolution ,

13510-525: The Golden Age. Among the Sephardim were many who were the descendants, or heads, of wealthy families and who, as Marranos , had occupied prominent positions in the countries they had left. Some had been stated officials, others had held positions of dignity within the Church; many had been the heads of large banking-houses and mercantile establishments, and some were physicians or scholars who had officiated as teachers in high schools. Their Spanish or Portuguese

13703-455: The Great , so he was deposed from all offices, exiled and banned in 958. The Vita of Gerard of Brogne also names him as a count of Hainaut. Ulrich Nonn considers it likely that he held Mons because it aligns with other evidence. A Count named Amelric who was "from" the pagus of Hainaut (Latin: ex pago Hainou ) is named in or after 953 in the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai . This is generally taken to mean that Hainaut already included

13896-526: The Host. Rioters massacred the majority of the Jews in the region and expelled those who survived. In 1349, the Duke of Guelders was authorized by the Emperor Louis IV of the Holy Roman Empire to receive Jews in his duchy, where they provided services, paid a tax, and were protected by the law. In Arnhem, where a Jewish physician is mentioned, the magistrate defended him against the hostilities of

14089-549: The Jews as dhimmis , life under Muslim rule was one of great opportunity and Jews flourished as they did not under the Christian Visigoths. Many Jews came to Iberia, seen as a land of tolerance and opportunity, from the Christian and Muslim worlds. Following initial Arab victories, and especially with the establishment of Umayyad rule by Abd al-Rahman I in 755, the native Jewish community was joined by Jews from

14282-621: The Jews from the Muslim south were not entirely secure in their northward migrations. Old prejudices were compounded by newer ones. Suspicions of complicity with the Muslims were alive and well as Jews immigrated, speaking Arabic. However, many of the newly arrived Jews of the north prospered during the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The majority of Latin documentation regarding Jews during this period refers to their landed property, fields, and vineyards. In many ways life had come full circle for

14475-507: The Jews under Byzantine rule, attesting to the fair treatment of the Christians of al-Andalus , and perhaps indicating that such was contingent on the treatment of Jews abroad. One notable contribution to Christian intellectualism is Ibn Gabirol 's neo-Platonic Fons Vitae ("The Source of Life;" "Mekor Hayyim"). Thought by many to have been written by a Christian, this work was admired by Christians and studied in monasteries throughout

14668-674: The Jews, as evidenced by the publication of the Breviary of Alaric in 506, which incorporated Roman legal precedents into Visigothic law. The situation for Jews in Spain shifted dramatically after the conversion of the Visigothic monarchs to Catholicism under King Reccared in 587. As the Visigoths sought to unify the realm under their new religion, their policies towards Jews evolved from initial marginalization to increasingly aggressive measures aimed at their complete eradication from

14861-688: The Lower Elbe region. In a letter dated 25 November 1622, King Christian IV of Denmark invited Jews of Amsterdam to settle in Glückstadt , where, among other privileges, they were assured the free exercise of their religion. The trade developed between the Dutch and Spanish Caribbean and South America was established by such Iberian Jews. They also contributed to establishing the Dutch West Indies Company in 1621, and some of them sat on its directorate. The ambitious schemes of

15054-580: The Mediterranean, including Venice, the Levant and Morocco. The Sultan of Morocco had an ambassador at The Hague named Samuel Pallache , through whose mediation, in 1620, a commercial understanding was reached with the Barbary States . The Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam also established trade relationships with other countries in Europe. In the early 1620s numerous Jews migrated from Holland to

15247-538: The Middle Ages, though the work of Solomon Munk in the 19th century proved that the author of Fons Vitae was the Jewish ibn Gabirol. In addition to contributions of original work, the Sephardim were active as translators. Mainly in Toledo , texts were translated between Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin. In translating the great works of Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek into Latin, Iberian Jews were instrumental in bringing

15440-451: The Netherlands was particularly brutal, with approximately 75 percent of the Jewish population deported to concentration and extermination camps , most famously Anne Frank , whose German Jewish family fled to Amsterdam. The Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, housed in a former synagogue, has a major collection relating to Jewish history in the Netherlands. Starting in the late twentieth century, there are official public spaces marking

15633-455: The Netherlands for craftsmen of all kinds, many Jews went to Brazil. About 600 Jews left Amsterdam in 1642, accompanied by two distinguished scholars— Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and Moses Raphael de Aguilar . Jews supported the Dutch in the struggle between the Netherlands and Portugal for possession of Brazil. In 1642, Aboab da Fonseca was appointed rabbi at Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue in the Dutch colony of Pernambuco ( Recife ), Brazil. Most of

15826-407: The Netherlands in 1900 was 5,104,137, about 2% of whom were Jews. Dutch Jews were a relatively small part of the population and showed a strong tendency towards internal migration. They never coalesced into a real "pillar". One of the reasons was the attraction of the socialist and liberal " pillars " before the Holocaust, rather than becoming part of a Jewish pillar. Especially the rise of socialism

16019-610: The Netherlands is "a matter of speculation", but is rooted in Spanish and Portuguese religious history. In Spain under the Catholic Monarchs Jews who refused conversion to Christianity were expelled in 1492 under the Alhambra Decree , with many leaving for the more tolerant Kingdom of Portugal . However, Portuguese Edicts of 1496 and 1497 of King Manuel forced Jews to convert but also blocked their leaving

16212-585: The Netherlands, Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau and Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion), The Brabant Jewish family businesses from Oss, including margarine producer  Samuel van den Bergh  was one of the founders of  Unilever . Saal van Zwanenberg was the producer of the Zwan meat products, but perhaps even better known as the founder of the pharmaceutical company Organon, and thus as

16405-644: The Netherlands, a major hub in world trade. The Netherlands was once part of the Spanish Empire , as part of the Burgundian inheritance of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor . In 1581, the Northern Dutch provinces declared independence from Catholic Spain, touching off an extended conflict with the Spain . A principal motive was to practice Protestant Christianity, then forbidden under Spanish rule . Religious tolerance , "freedom of conscience",

16598-473: The Netherlands. From the early migration of Portuguese immigrants, establishment of the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam, prosperity and commercial networks connecting Amsterdam to the larger Atlantic world , and precipitous decline of the community after the series of Anglo-Dutch wars in the late seventeenth century, Amsterdam was called the " Dutch Jerusalem" . Two events brought Jews to

16791-579: The Netherlands. The 1579 Union of Utrecht of the Northern provinces of the Netherlands guaranteed freedom of conscience in article 13 formalizing their political arrangement. In 1581, the deputies of the United Provinces declared independence from Spain by issuing the Act of Abjuration , which deposed King Philip as their sovereign. Philip was a fierce defender of Catholic orthodoxy and was now also

16984-589: The Ommelands in the 1570s and in the mid to late 17th century Ashkenazi Jews from central Europe begin to migrate in greater numbers. Although persecuted in central Europe, Ashkenazi Jews had lived as Jews before migrating to the Netherlands. The first group of Jews of any numbers in Groningen was in Appingedam in 1563, where they came into conflict with Dutch guilds for sales of meat and cloth. Emden provided

17177-756: The Ottoman Empire were mostly resettled in and around Thessalonica and to some extent in Constantinople and İzmir . This was followed by a great massacre of Jews in the city of Lisbon in 1506 and the establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1536. This caused the flight of the Portuguese Jewish community, which continued until the extinction of the Courts of Inquisition in 1821; by then there were very few Jews in Portugal. In Amsterdam , where Jews were especially prominent in

17370-540: The Oudekerk cemetery, he was circumcised posthumously. Garces was burial place was located outside of the formal boundaries of the cemetery, in "a fringe reserved for uncircumcised marginal types not fully belonging to the community." Tombstones in numerous Jewish burial grounds provide useful information on individual Jewish men and women as well as the Jewish communities as a whole until 1796, when Jews were granted citizenship and no longer segregated. Religious toleration

17563-645: The Portuguese Jews. Many Ashkenazim were drawn to the religiously tolerant and independent Dutch provinces, generally after the mid-17th century. One example could be the Haham Tzvi . Unlike the more central Iberian Jews, most of these were displaced residents of Jewish ghettos escaping persecution. In addition, they were displaced by the violence of the Thirty Year War (1618–1648) in other parts of northern Europe, and local expulsions, as well as

17756-656: The Roman province of Belgica II , it came under the administration of Childeric I , who had been the military ruler of the Frankish army who previously fought under Romans in Gaul , north of the Loire . The Merovingian dynasty , and later the Carolingians, kept many of the Roman districts, and established counts to administer pagi . As explained by Nonn, there are very few, if any, clear records of counts of all Hainaut in

17949-523: The Scheldt as far as the Selle river, where the most significant Roman city of the area was Famars (Roman Fanum Martis , literally 'shrine of Mars'), which had been a religious and administrative centre. In the early Middle Ages, records sometimes refer to places within the pagus of Hainaut as being within the pagus Fanomartenis , indicating that either Hainaut had an alternative name, or that Fanum Martis

18142-528: The Sephardi Jews established commercial relations. In a letter dated 25 November 1622, King Christian IV of Denmark invites Jews of Amsterdam to settle in Glückstadt , where, among other privileges, the free exercise of their religion would be assured to them. Álvaro Caminha , in Cape Verde islands, who received the land as a grant from the crown, established a colony with Jews forced to stay on

18335-616: The Sephardic families also made them extremely well educated for the times , even well into the European Enlightenment . For a long time, the Sephardim took an active part in Spanish literature ; they wrote in prose and in rhyme, and were the authors of theological, philosophical, belletristic (aesthetic rather than content-based writing), pedagogic (teaching), and mathematical works. The rabbis, who, in common with all

18528-472: The Sephardim of al-Andalus . As conditions became more oppressive during the 12th and 13th centuries, Jews again looked to an outside culture for relief. Christian leaders of reconquered cities granted them extensive autonomy, and Jewish scholarship recovered somewhat and developed as communities grew in size and importance. However, the Reconquista Jews never reached the same heights as had those of

18721-513: The Sephardim, emphasized a pure and euphonious pronunciation of Hebrew, delivered their sermons in Spanish or in Portuguese. Several of these sermons have appeared in print. Their thirst for knowledge, together with the fact that they associated freely with the outer world, led the Sephardim to establish new educational systems. Wherever they settled, they founded schools that used Spanish as the medium of instruction. Theatre in Constantinople

18914-425: The admiration of all other people. For in this most flourishing state and splendid city, men of every nation and religion live together in the greatest of harmony ... His religion is considered of no importance: for it has no effect before the judges in gaining or losing a cause, and there is no sect so despised that its followers, provided that they harm no one, pay every man his due, and live uprightly, are deprived of

19107-494: The anti- Rabbanite polemics of Karaites . The cultural and intellectual achievements of the Arabs, and much of the scientific and philosophical speculation of Ancient Greek culture , which had been best preserved by Arab scholars, was made available to the educated Jew. The meticulous regard the Arabs had for grammar and style also had the effect of stimulating an interest in philological matters in general among Jews. Arabic became

19300-565: The biblical Tarshish with Tartessus and suggesting Jewish traders were active in Spain during the Phoenician and Carthaginian eras. One such legend from the 16th century claimed that a funeral inscription in Murviedro belonged to Adoniram , a commander of King Solomon , who had supposedly died in Spain while collecting tribute. Another legend spoke of a letter allegedly sent by the Jews of Toledo to Judaea in 30 CE, asking to prevent

19493-510: The breakdown of authority under the Umayyads, the services of Jews were employed by the victorious Christian leaders. Sephardic knowledge of the language and culture of the enemy, their skills as diplomats and professionals, as well as their desire for relief from intolerable conditions — the very same reasons that they had proved useful to the Arabs in the early stages of the Muslim invasion — made their services very valuable. However,

19686-538: The broad classification of Sephardi. Ethnic Sephardic Jews have had a presence in North Africa and various parts of the Mediterranean and Western Asia due to their expulsion from Spain. There have also been Sephardic communities in South America and India. Originally the Jews spoke of Sefarad referring to Al-Andalus and not the entire peninsula, nor as it is understood today, in which the term Sefarad

19879-447: The children of such relationships as illegitimate in the communal birth registry. There were no prohibitions on Jews participating in economic activity and Portuguese Jewish merchants were prominent in Amsterdam. The city prospered because of religious toleration , which Spinoza , Amsterdam's most famous Jewish-born denizen, praised; The city of Amsterdam reaps the fruit of this freedom [of conscience] in its own great prosperity and in

20072-725: The completion of the Christian Reconquista , with the penetration and influence of the Almoravides , and then the Almohads , from North Africa. These more intolerant sects abhorred the liberality of the Islamic culture of al-Andalus , including the position of authority some dhimmis held over Muslims. When the Almohads gave the Jews a choice of either death or conversion to Islam, many Jews emigrated. Some, such as

20265-469: The country. In many conquered towns the garrison was left in the hands of the Jews before the Muslims proceeded further north. Both Muslim and Christian sources claim that Jews provided valuable aid to the Muslim conquerors. Once captured, the defense of Cordoba was left in the hands of Jews, and Granada , Malaga , Seville , and Toledo were left to a mixed army of Jews and Moors. Although in some towns Jews may have been helpful to Muslim success, because of

20458-403: The crucifixion of Jesus. These legends aimed to establish that Jews had settled in Spain well before the Roman period and to absolve them of any responsibility for the death of Jesus, a charge often leveled at them in later centuries. Rabbi and scholar Abraham ibn Daud wrote in 1161: "A tradition exists with the [Jewish] community of Granada that they are from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, of

20651-616: The current  Burgerlijk Wetboek (Civil Code of the Netherlands)). The Holocaust in the Netherlands took place with "remarkable speed" following the Nazi German occupation of neutral Netherlands. In less than two years, some 75% of the Dutch-Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust. The Nazis moved quickly to separate Dutch Jews and Jewish refugees from the Dutch population, in a series of small measures leading up to

20844-702: The death of his cousin, Charles and sent an army to invade the Netherlands. However, the French were defeated at the Battle of Guinegate in 1479, and Hainaut was consolidated in the Habsburg Netherlands by the Treaty of Arras in 1482. Hainaut became part of the Burgundian Circle in the Holy Roman empire in 1512. It was ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1555 to 1714. In 1579 Hainaut

21037-405: The descendants of Judah and Benjamin , rather than from the villages, the towns in the outlying districts [of Israel]." Elsewhere, he writes about his maternal grandfather's family and how they came to Spain after Jerusalem's destruction in 70 CE: "When Titus prevailed over Jerusalem , his officer who was appointed over Hispania appeased him, requesting that he send to him captives made-up of

21230-485: The early medieval records mentioning Hainaut, starting in the 9th century, describe it as a pagus , a land or country, rather than a county. 8th- and 9th-century attestations, as listed by Ulrich Nonn, however, never name any specific counts who ruled it: Many such early medieval pagi in Europe have histories going back to the Roman Empire . As the Roman empire lost centralized control of this region, which lay in

21423-628: The end of the Dutch Republic , the French-influenced Batavian Republic , emancipated the Jews in 1796, making them full citizens. Under the monarchy established by Napoleon Bonaparte , King Louis Napoleon removed all disciplinary powers of the Jewish communal leaders parnasim over their communities, making them functionaries of the state. During Nazi occupation in World War II, the Holocaust in

21616-720: The establishment of the Portuguese Jewish community. Three Portuguese congregations were created in the early seventeenth century, which merged and in the late seventeenth century and built the large Portuguese synagogue, the Esnoga , still in use today. Also necessary for a functioning Jewish community was having a Jewish burial ground. In Amsterdam, they were initially denied rights to one in 1606 and 1608 with no explanation, and they buried their dead in Groet. but eventually secured land in Ouderkerk for Portuguese Jewish burials. The cemetery

21809-512: The exact nature of most of these is unclear, and their possession of a county in Hainaut before Reginar III can not be proven. The only medieval record which claims that Reginar I had direct lordship over Hainaut was the much later Dudo of Saint-Quentin , who is considered to be unreliable for this period. He names Reginar as "Duke" (Latin dux ) of both Hesbaye and Hainaut, and discusses his march against Rollo in Walcheren , together with

22002-482: The expulsion, both Spain and Portugal enacted laws allowing Sephardic Jews who could prove their ancestral origins in those countries to apply for citizenship. The Spanish law that offered citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews expired in 2019, although subsequent extensions were granted by the Spanish government —due to the COVID-19 pandemic — in order to file pending documents and sign delayed declarations before

22195-495: The family of Maimonides , fled south and east to the more tolerant Muslim lands, while others went northward to settle in the growing Christian kingdoms. Meanwhile, the Reconquista continued in the north throughout the 12th century. As various Arab lands fell to the Christians, conditions for some Jews in the emerging Christian kingdoms became increasingly favorable. As had happened during the reconstruction of towns following

22388-400: The favor of rulers and princes, in both the Christian and the Islamic world. That the Sephardim were selected for prominent positions in every country where they settled was only in part due to the fact that Spanish had become a world-language through the expansion of Spain into the world-spanning Spanish Empire—the cosmopolitan cultural background after long associations with Islamic scholars of

22581-750: The fiefs and then return them as a unified county to the countess Richilde and, through the chain of feudal authority, to the Dukes of Lower Lorraine . Although Baldwin II did not inherit the County of Flanders, he and his descendants, Baldwin III , Baldwin IV , and Baldwin V , were in the male line of the Counts of Flanders, and the two lines joined again. Baldwin V married the heiress of Flanders, Margaret in 1169, becoming "Baldwin VIII" of Flanders, and during his lifetime Flanders, Hainaut and Namur were united under one lord. In

22774-468: The fields of science and philosophy, which formed much of the basis of Renaissance learning, into the rest of Europe. In the early 11th century, centralized authority based at Cordoba broke down following the Berber invasion and the ousting of the Umayyads. In its stead arose the independent taifa principalities under the rule of local Muwallad , Arab, Berber, or Slavonic leaders. Rather than having

22967-511: The first independent Caliph of Cordoba , and in particular with the career of his Jewish councilor, Hasdai ibn Shaprut (882–942). Within this context of cultural patronage , studies in Hebrew, literature, and linguistics flourished. Hasdai benefitted world Jewry not only indirectly by creating a favorable environment for scholarly pursuits within Iberia, but also by using his influence to intervene on behalf of foreign Jews: in his letter to Byzantine Princess Helena , he requested protection for

23160-632: The first to be targeted with the Nazis' regulations, since they were not Dutch citizens and more vulnerable than the Dutch Jews, and they were brought under the direct control of the police. The Jewish-Dutch population after the Second World War is marked by certain significant changes: disappointment, emigration, a low birth rate, and a high intermarriage rate. After the Second World War and the Holocaust, returning Jews and Jews who had survived

23353-559: The founder of  AkzoNobel . The company of Hartog Hartog was acquired by Unilever , the  Unox meat products are a continuation of the meat activities of this family business, Simon Philip Goudsmit (founder  De Bijenkorf ), Leo Meyer and Arthur Isaac (founders  HEMA (store) ),  Leo Fuld  (Jewish singer of Rotterdam ), Herman Woudstra (founder Hollandia Matzes formerly: "Paaschbroodfabriek" in Enschede),  Eduard Meijers (lawyer and founder of

23546-571: The general population from the early 19th century up to World War II. Between 1830 and 1930, the Jewish population in the Netherlands increased by almost 250% (numbers given by the Jewish communities to the Dutch Census) while the total population of the Netherlands grew by 297%. (*) Derived from those persons who stated "Judaism" as their religion in the Dutch Census (**) Persons with at least one Jewish grandparent. In another Nazi census

23739-489: The heated correspondences sent between Bodo Eleazar , a former Christian deacon who had converted to Judaism in 838, and the Bishop of Córdoba Paulus Albarus , who had converted from Judaism to Christianity. Each man, using such epithets as "wretched compiler", tried to convince the other to return to his former faith, to no avail. The Golden Age is most closely identified with the reign of Abd al-Rahman III (882–942),

23932-619: The island of Curaçao in the Caribbean and New Amsterdam (Manhattan) in North America. In the 17th century, the Sephardi community was wealthier and more established institutionally than Ashkenazi Jews. Portuguese Jews looked down on the poorer, less educated Ashkenazi migrants from northern and central Europe. A large influx of Jewish refugees from Lithuania during the 1650s strained the Jewish system of poor relief established by

24125-597: The island of São Tomé . Príncipe island was settled in 1500 under a similar arrangement. Attracting settlers proved difficult, however, the Jewish settlement was a success and their descendants settled many parts of Brazil. In 1579 Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva a Portuguese-born Converso , Spanish-Crown officer, was awarded a large swath of territory in New Spain, known as Nuevo Reino de León . He founded settlements with other conversos that would later become Monterrey . In particular, Jews established relations between

24318-428: The jurisdictions of more than one count. Apart from the one associated with Mons, Amulric perhaps held a county based in Valenciennes. The second or third count of Hainaut to be named in a contemporary record was however called Godefrid, starting in 958, the year of Reginar III's exile. He is generally considered to be Godfrey I, Duke of Lower Lorraine who died in 964 in Italy. After the death of Godfrey in Italy, he

24511-509: The kingdom. Under successive Visigothic kings and under ecclesiastical authority, many orders of expulsion, forced conversion, isolation, enslavement, execution, and other punitive measures were made. By 612–621, the situation for Jews became intolerable and many left Spain for nearby northern Africa. In 711, thousands of Jews from North Africa accompanied the Muslims who invaded Spain, subsuming Catholic Spain and turning much of it into an Arab state, Al-Andalus. In 711 CE, Muslim forces crossed

24704-503: The kingdom. In Spain, converted Jews called conversos or New Christians came under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition , which was vigilant against their continuing to practice Judaism in secret, as crypto-Jews , or the pejorative term Marrano (see also anusim ). In Portugal there was no already established Portuguese Inquisition . Jews forced to convert did not immediately face penalties for privately practicing Judaism while publicly being Catholics, so that there continued to be

24897-559: The law only set a wage limit for voting. Because she was the first female doctor, she met this wage limit and wanted to exercise her right to vote. It was only after her attempt that it was explicitly legislated for women to vote in 1919. Other prominent Dutch Jews of this era were: Jozef Israëls  (painter),  Tobias Asser  (winner  Nobel Peace Prize  in 1911),  Gerard Philips (founder NV Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken  Philips ), Lodewijk Ernst Visser (lawyer and president of the High Council of

25090-578: The legislature on the day of his majority, 8 March 1766, in synagogues services of thanks-giving were held. William V visited both the German and the Portuguese synagogues on 3 June 1768. He also attended the marriages of offspring of various prominent Jewish families. The year 1795 brought the results of the French Revolution to the Netherlands, including Jewish emancipation , making them full citizens. The National Convention, on 2 September 1796, proclaimed this resolution: "No Jew shall be excluded from rights or advantages which are associated with citizenship in

25283-508: The main language of Sephardic science, philosophy, and everyday business, as had been the case with Babylonian geonim . This thorough adoption of the Arabic language also greatly facilitated the assimilation of Jews into Moorish culture, and Jewish activity in a variety of professions, including medicine, commerce, finance, and agriculture increased. By the ninth century, some members of the Sephardic community felt confident enough to take part in proselytizing amongst Christians. This included

25476-411: The measures were prohibitions on intermarriage between Jews and Christians, communal dining, and the participation of Jews in blessing fields. Despite these efforts, aimed to diminish Jewish influence on Christian communities, evidence indicates that everyday social relations between Jews and Christians continued to be prevalent in various locales. By the mid-5th century, Spain came under the control of

25669-528: The monarch of Portugal, invigorating the Portuguese Inquisition. Portuguese Jews sought a religious haven, which the northern Netherlands appeared to be, as well as a location with commercial opportunities. In the late sixteenth century, the Dutch Republic was not necessarily the obvious destination, since there was no established Jewish community for Portuguese New Christians ( conversos ) to move if they wished to re-judaize after outwardly living as Christians. The early history of Sephardi community formation in

25862-432: The more Romanized regions of the south and east, such as Toledo , Mérida , Seville , and Tarragona . Additionally, these inscriptions suggest a Jewish presence in other locations, including Elche , Tortosa , Adra , and the Balearic Islands. Around 300 CE, the Synod of Elvira , an ecclesiastical council convened in southern Spain, and enacted several decrees to restrict interactions between Christians and Jews. Among

26055-432: The narrower ethnic definition, a Sephardi Jew is one descended from the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century, immediately prior to the issuance of the Alhambra Decree of 1492 by order of the Catholic Monarchs in Spain, and the decree of 1496 in Portugal by order of King Manuel I . In Hebrew, the term "Sephardim Tehorim" ( ספרדים טהורים ‎, literally "Pure Sephardim"), derived from

26248-441: The new Muslim rulers who offered greater religious tolerance. Under Islamic rule, Jews, like Christians, were designated as dhimmis —protected but second-class monotheists—permitted to practice their religion with relative autonomy in exchange for paying a special tax . To the Jews, Moors was perceived as, and indeed were, a liberating force. Wherever they went, the Muslims were greeted by Jews eager to aid them in administering

26441-603: The next generation, Namur was given to a different son than Flanders and Hainaut, which remained together under Baldwin VI/IX , who became the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople . Baldwin's brother, Philip I of Namur was regent in Hainaut but also had to fight Luxembourg for control of Namur. Baldwin himself was killed in Bulgaria, leaving two heiresses, Joan who ruled but died childless in 1244, and Margaret who ruled from 1244 and married twice. The lines of her two husbands divided Flanders and Hainaut between them: From 1299, Hainaut's count Jean II, d'Avesnes ,

26634-443: The nobles of Jerusalem, and so he sent a few of them to him, and there were amongst them those who made curtains and who were knowledgeable in the work of silk, and [one] whose name was Baruch, and they remained in Mérida ." Archaeological evidence of a Jewish presence in Spain prior to the third century CE is limited. However, from the third to sixth centuries, inscriptions confirm the existence of Jewish communities, particularly in

26827-428: The northern part of the county was ceded to France by Emperor Francis II , who was also count of Hainaut. It became the French département of Jemappe . After the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the northern part, once again called Hainaut, went to the new Kingdom of the Netherlands , and then in 1830 to the Kingdom of Belgium which was created from the southern part of that kingdom. It forms

27020-410: The number of Jews in Portugal grew with those running from Spain. This changed with the marriage of D. Manuel I of Portugal with the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs of the newly born Spain. In 1497 the Decree ordering the expulsion or forced conversion of all the Jews was passed, and the Sephardim either fled or went into secrecy under the guise of "Cristãos Novos", i.e. New Christians (this Decree

27213-476: The often difficult hidden living ('diving') met with total lack of understanding of their fate and had to endure lasting loss of property. Especially mental health care was lacking and only started to develop from 1960 onwards in the Sinai centrum in Amersfoort. From 1973 professor Bastiaans tried to treat Holocaust victims with LSD in the Centrum '45 in Oegstgeest, attached to the Leyden University. This brought little success, if any. Understanding started to grow by

27406-442: The oldest name of the pagus on the Meuse river north of Maastricht. The related word " gau ", used in the modern Dutch and German names of Hainaut, Hennegouwen and Hennegau , was also used but never became popular in medieval documents concerning this particular area. The first surviving records indicating that Hainaut was a county are the records of the Carolingian dynasty being divided into parts in 831, 843 and 870. Most of

27599-456: The oldest region of development in the civitas of the Belgic Nervii . They had their early capital in Bavay in Hainaut (Roman Bagacum ), which became a major Roman crossroads. The etymology of Hainaut is thought to be Germanic . The first part is the river name (the modern Haine, probably based on Germanic) and the second component was originally based upon Germanic *awja , which appears in several old Frankish gau names, such as Masau ,

27792-442: The opportunity for such sexual contact. There was no prohibition against Jewish women marrying Christian men. Amsterdam had no existing residential quarter for Jews, since it was a new immigrant group to the city. The city itself was full of immigrants from other areas, so the Jews did not particularly stand out initially. In Amsterdam Jews tended to settle together in a particular area but were not restricted to it. The Dutch practice

27985-457: The original pagus (country or territory) is named, flows from east to west. It originates in the once forested area between Binche and modern Charleroi , near the Sambre. It empties into the Scheldt . From the earliest records, Hainaut also extended south of the Haine to the upper Sambre , the Helpe Majeure , Helpe Mineure and the Avesnois region in the Arrondissement of Avesnes-sur-Helpe . Hainaut's pagus also extended southwest along

28178-477: The people of Amsterdam and contributed materially to the prosperity of the country; they were strong supporters of the House of Orange and were protected by the Stadholder . During the Twelve Years' Truce , the commerce of the Dutch Republic increased considerably, and a period of strong development ensued. This was particularly true for Amsterdam, where the Marranos had established their main port and base of operations. They maintained foreign trade relationships in

28371-411: The period 985–1015, and probably after 1007. Reginar IV died 1013, and was succeeded by his son Reginar V. Reginar IV's brother Lambert, who made himself Count of Louvain, died in battle in Hainaut in 1015. The County of Valenciennes disappears from records after the death of Arnulf of Valenciennes in about 1011, with this part of Hainaut possibly being taken over by the County of Flanders. Reginar V ,

28564-547: The persecutions in Hainaut and the Rhine provinces. The first Jews in the province of Gelderland were reported in 1325. Jews have been settled in Nijmegen , the oldest settlement, in Doesburg , Zutphen and in Arnhem since 1404. As of the 13th century, there are sources that indicate that Jews were living in Brabant and Limburg, mainly in cities such as Brussels, Leuven, Tienen and the Jewish street of Maastricht (Dutch spelling: Jodenstraat (Maastricht) ) from 1295 is another old proof of their existence. Sources from

28757-445: The persecutions of Charles V and Philip II of Spain , the Netherlands became involved in a series of desperate and heroic struggles against this growing political and Catholic religious hegemony. In 1522, Charles V issued a proclamation in Gelderland and Utrecht against Christians who were suspected of being lax in the faith , as well as against Jews who had not been baptized. He repeated such edicts in 1545 and 1549, trying to suppress

28950-438: The politics of France. The counts of Hainaut were often rulers of other counties, including Flanders and Holland . Examples of such personal unions include the following: In 1432, Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland joined Flanders, Artois , Namur , Brabant, Limbourg , and later Luxembourg , within the large agglomeration of territories in the Low Countries belonging to the French House of Valois-Burgundy . This new state,

29143-406: The populace. When Jews settled in the diocese of Utrecht is unknown, but rabbinical records regarding Jewish dietary laws speculated that the Jewish community there dated to Roman times. In 1444, Jews were expelled from the city of Utrecht . Until 1789, Jews were prohibited from staying in the city overnight. They were tolerated in the village of Maarssen , two hours distant, though their condition

29336-442: The population, with Jews' cards marked with a large J. The Nazi occupiers used the existing Dutch civil authorities to implement their edicts. Resistance could be met with violence by Dutch police. When there was general public outrage and a strike protesting measures restricting Jews in February 1941, Dutch police made arrests at the time. Immediately afterwards, the Nazi authorities warned the Dutch populace that Jews were not part of

29529-401: The powerful vizier was plotting to kill the weak-minded and drunk King Badis ibn Habus . According to the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, "More than 1,500 Jewish families, numbering 4,000 persons, fell in one day, a number contested by some historians who deem it to be an example of "the usual hyperbole in numerical estimates, with which history abounds." The decline of the Golden Age began before

29722-400: The protection of the magisterial authority. As they became established, they collectively brought new trading expertise and commercial connections to the city. They also brought navigation knowledge and techniques from Portugal, which enabled the Netherlands to start competing in overseas trade with the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. "Jews of the Portuguese Nation" worked in common cause with

29915-433: The public schools; even the Maatschappij tot Nut van 't Algemeen , founded in 1784, did not willingly receive them or admit Jews as members. Among the distinguished Jews of this period were Meier Littwald Lehemon, Mozes Salomon Asser , Capadose , and the physicians David Heilbron , Davids (who introduced vaccination ), Stein van Laun ( tellurium ), and many others. Shortly after William VI arrived at Scheveningen , and

30108-426: The rest of Europe, as well as from Arab lands, from Morocco to Babylon . Jewish communities were enriched culturally, intellectually, and religiously by the commingling of these diverse Jewish traditions. Arabic culture, of course, also made a lasting impact on Sephardic cultural development. General re-evaluation of scripture was prompted by Muslim anti-Jewish polemics and the spread of rationalism , as well as

30301-426: The small numbers they were of limited impact. The Golden Age of Sephardic Jewry flourished during this period, particularly in cities like Cordoba, Granada and Toledo. Jewish scholars, poets, philosophers and scientists thrived, contributing to the broader intellectual life of Al-Andalus. Jews in Muslim Spain played significant roles in trade, finance, diplomacy, and medicine. In spite of the restrictions placed upon

30494-608: The so-called Hook and Cod wars which were partly driven by factions in Holland. After the death of Duke William II of Bavaria-Straubing in 1417, Hainaut was inherited by his daughter Jacqueline , who had a powerful opponent in her cousin, Philip the Good. Already in 1428, effective control of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland was acquired by Philip the Good . In 1432 Jacqueline had to cede the inheritance rights of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland to Duke Philip. The last independent countess died early on 8 October 1436 (presumably of tuberculosis ) in Teylingen Castle , near The Hague , where she

30687-454: The son of Jean I, was also Count of Holland and Zeeland , through his mother. He was also an unsuccessful claimant to become Count of Flanders. After his grandson William died in 1347, these same lordships went to his sister, and were held by members of the Wittelsbach dynasty who also possessed the Dukedom of Bavaria-Straubing . This branch of the Wittelsbach family held Hainaut until 1436. The Wittelsbachs struggled against each other in

30880-436: The son of Reginar IV, married the granddaughter of his father's old rival, Godefrid the "captive". The bishop, Gerard of Florennes, accepted this diplomatic marriage despite the couple being within the degrees of relationship where this would normally not be allowed. When the last Reginarid Count of Hainaut, Herman, the son of Reginar V, died without issue in 1051, his widow Richilde married Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders , who

31073-437: The span of many centuries. The majority of Sephardim live in Israel . The earliest documented Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula is often traced to the Roman period , during the first centuries CE. After enduring hardship under the Visigoths , Jewish communities thrived for centuries under Muslim rule in Al-Andalus following the Umayyad conquest , which ushered in a golden age . However, their fortunes declined with

31266-425: The total number of people with at least one Jewish grandparent in the Netherlands was put at 160,886: 135,984 people with 4 or 3 Jewish grandparents (counted as "full Jews"); 18,912 Jews with 2 Jewish grandparents ("half Jews"), of whom 3,538 were part of a Jewish congregation; 5,990 with 1 Jewish grandparent ("quarter Jews") (***) Membership numbers of Dutch Jewish congregations (only those who are Jewish according to

31459-456: The transportation of Jews to extermination campus. Following the pattern the Nazis established in Germany, Jews were stripped of rights as citizens and could not pursue many professions. The chief justice of the Dutch Supreme Court was forced to resign, because he was a Jew. His fellow justices did nothing to protest his dismissal. Jews were forced to register as Jews, with their names and home addresses listed. The regime issued new identity cards to

31652-407: The treasury. In 1798 Jonas Daniel Meijer interceded with the French minister of foreign affairs on behalf of the Jews of Germany ; and on 22 August 1802, the Dutch ambassador, Schimmelpenninck , delivered a note on the same subject to the French minister. This period of history between Dutch Republic, the florescence of Jewry in the Netherlands, and outbreak World War II, with the Holocaust having

31845-453: The undervaluation of women's literacy in the Amsterdam Jewish community. In the religious sphere, women did not count for a minyan ; Jewish women did not have an unmitigated right to pray in the synagogue. Women and unmarried men were not permitted to be elected to the governing body of the synagogue, the Mahamad . Widows and orphaned girls were supported by Jewish charities. Irregular relationships between Jewish men and women were punished by

32038-513: The university, where they studied medicine as the only branch of science that was of practical use to them. They were not allowed to practice law, because lawyers were required to take a Christian oath, thereby excluding them. Jews were also excluded from the trade guilds, as in a 1632 resolution passed by the city of Amsterdam (the Dutch cities were largely autonomous). However, they were allowed to practice certain trades: printing, bookselling, and selling meat, poultry, groceries, and medicines. In 1655

32231-464: The urban labor market. Jewish men found work in the diamond and tobacco industries, and retail trade; Jewish women worked in sweatshops . Boundaries between Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles) started to blur due to an increase in mixed marriages and residential spreading; decline in religious observance of the Sabbath and keeping kosher; and an increase in Jews' civic involvement and political participation. The Netherlands, and Amsterdam in particular, remained

32424-459: The use of traditional religious courts and laws, which many did not want to do). When France withdrew from Algeria in 1962, the local Jewish communities largely relocated to France. There are some tensions between some of those communities and the earlier French Jewish population (who were mostly Ashkenazi Jews ), and with Arabic-Muslim communities. The largest part of Spanish Jews expelled in 1492 fled to Portugal, where they eluded persecution for

32617-459: The water of springs used by the Christians. Various medieval chronicles mention this, e.g., those of Radalphus de Rivo (c. 1403) of Tongeren, who wrote that Jews were murdered in the Brabant region and in the city of Zwolle because they were accused of spreading the Black Death. This accusation was added to other traditional blood libels against the Jews. They were accused of piercing the Host used for communion and killing Christian children to use as

32810-413: The white inhabitants of the town were Sephardic Jews from Portugal who had been banned by the Portuguese Inquisition to this town at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1624, the colony had been occupied by the Dutch. By becoming the rabbi of the community, Aboab da Fonseca was the first appointed rabbi of the Americas. The name of his congregation was Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue and the community had

33003-537: Was a lingua franca that enabled Sephardim from different countries to engage in commerce and diplomacy. With their social equals they associated freely, without regard to religion and more likely with regard to equivalent or comparative education, for they were generally well read, which became a tradition and expectation. They were received at the courts of sultans, kings, and princes, and often were employed as ambassadors, envoys, or agents. The number of Sephardim who have rendered important services to different countries

33196-401: Was a member of the Union of Arras which submitted to the rule of Habsburg Spain , while the northern Union of Utrecht rebelled and formed the Dutch Republic in 1581. The 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees and the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen cut Hainaut in two. The southern area, around the towns of Valenciennes , Le Quesnoy and Avesnes , was ceded to France under King Louis XIV . During

33389-405: Was a new segment in the pillarized Dutch society that attracted and was created by intermarrying Jews, and Jews and Christians who had abandoned their religious affiliation. Religious-ethnic background was of less importance within the socialist and liberal segments, though individuals could maintain some rituals or practices. The number of Jews in the Netherlands grew at a slightly slower rate than

33582-411: Was a territorial lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire that straddled the present-day border of Belgium and France . Its most important towns included Mons ( Dutch : Bergen ), now in Belgium, and Valenciennes , now in France. The core of the county, named after the river Haine , stretched southeast to include the Avesnois region and southwest to the Selle (Scheldt tributary) . In

33775-410: Was a vassal of the French crown. On the death of his father in 1067, Baldwin VI became the ruler of both Hainaut and Flanders. He was succeeded by his son Arnulf III , who was killed at the Battle of Cassel in 1071 in an inheritance dispute with his uncle, Robert I the Frisian . The victorious Robert acquired Flanders, but his sister-in-law Richilde retained the adjacent Lower Lorraine territories in

33968-493: Was an essential principle of the newly independent state. Portuguese Jews, "Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation", strongly identified ethnically as Portuguese and viewed Ashkenazi Jews with ambivalence in the early modern period. The fortunes and size of the Portuguese Jewish community declined after Dutch trade was undermined by wars with the English in the late 17th century. Simultaneously the Ashkenazi population rapidly grew and has remained dominant in numbers ever since. Following

34161-446: Was base to a sub- pagus . According to the 10th-century monk Folcuin , Hainaut was simply a new name for the old Roman name, which had been connected to pre-Christian superstition . The geographical definition of Hainaut as found in the oldest medieval records, was relatively stable, as shown by Faider-Feytman, Deru, and other historians of the region. According to archaeological evidence, geographical Hainaut, including Avesnes, formed

34354-512: Was crowned king on 11 December, Chief Rabbi Lehmans of The Hague organized a special thanksgiving service, asking for protection for the allied armies on 5 January 1814. Many Jews fought at Waterloo , where Napoleon was defeated with thirty-five Jewish officers dying there. William VI promulgated a law abolishing the French régime. Jews could prosper in the independent Netherlands, but not equally. In urban areas, non-Jewish employers to hire Jewish employees. Jews tended to occupy particular sectors of

34547-476: Was five miles south of central Amsterdam. The burial of the maternal grandfather of Baruch Spinoza , Henrique Garces (alias Baruch Senior) provides some insight into questions of eligibility to be buried in this cemetery. When he moved from Antwerp to Amsterdam, he requested permission to be buried in the cemetery; however, he did not participate in worship at either of the then existing congregations. He remained uncircumcised his entire life, but before his burial in

34740-406: Was given its more-or-less final form that lasted for the rest of the Middle Ages . For much of its existence the County of Hainaut was a frontier territory, bordering upon the Kingdom of France . From 843 the County formed part of the "middle kingdom" of Lotharingia . After about 925 Lotharingia was definitively attached by King Henry the Fowler to his eastern Frankish realm that would become

34933-446: Was given the county while Reginar I was out of favour. In fact no such connections can be proven. He was more clearly described as a count in the pagus Liugas , east of Liège . From 925, Lotharingia, including Hainaut, was continuously part of the eastern kingdom, "Germany". In 939, the Reginars led a rebellion against Germany which was defeated. Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine , the son of Reginar I who had been leader of this rebellion,

35126-467: Was in Judæo-Spanish since it was forbidden to Muslims. In Portugal, the Sephardim were given important roles in the sociopolitical sphere and enjoyed a certain amount of protection from the Crown (e.g. Yahia Ben Yahia , first "Rabino Maior" of Portugal and supervisor of the public revenue of the first King of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques ). Even with the increasing pressure from the Catholic Church, this state of affairs remained more or less constant and

35319-422: Was killed. Reginar II (died before 943), the younger son of Reginar I, was named as a Count of Hainaut in the late 11th-century life story ( Vita ) of Gerard of Brogne (died 959), but this work is considered unreliable, and we can not be certain of this position. His son Count Reginar III Longneck , may also have been a count in Hainaut. What is more certain is that he unsuccessfully rebelled against Duke Bruno

35512-412: Was not fortuitous. But, the community of Maarssen was one of the most important Jewish settlements in the Netherlands. Jews were admitted to Zeeland by Albert, Duke of Bavaria. In 1477, by the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to the Archduke Maximilian , son of Emperor Frederick III , the Netherlands were united to Austria and its possessions passed to the crown of Spain. In the sixteenth century, owing to

35705-428: Was not written into law in the United Provinces with much specificity. A 1616 statute of the Amsterdam burgomasters was the first and only such formal statement, remaining in force until the emancipation of the Jews in 1795-96. Jews were forbidden from openly criticizing Christianity; could not attempt to convert Christians to Judaism or to circumcise one. Jews could buy but not inherit citizenship. Jews could not engage in

35898-423: Was offered to them by a party which had expelled their beloved Prince of Orange , to whose house they remained so faithful that the chief rabbi at The Hague, Saruco, was called the "Orange dominie"; the men of the old régime were even called "Orange cattle". Nevertheless, the Revolution appreciably ameliorated the condition of the Jews; in 1799 their congregations received, as with Christian congregations, grants from

36091-486: Was published and widely circulated. Jewish women, as with most non-Jewish women at the time, generally did not participate in the workforce outside of the domestic interior. There is some data on women immigrants. In the early years of community formation, there was a scarcity of brides, so men sought eligible women in other Jewish communities. Antwerp was a source for brides, and they appear to have been of higher status than Jewish women born elsewhere, using literacy rates as

36284-416: Was referred to as the "Dutch Jerusalem" for its importance as a center of Jewish life. In the mid 17th century, Ashkenazi Jews from central and eastern Europe migrated. Both groups migrated for reasons of religious liberty, to escape persecution, now able to live openly as Jews in separate organized, autonomous Jewish communities under rabbinic authority. They were also drawn by the economic opportunities in

36477-449: Was replaced in Hainaut by a Count Richer , who was perhaps the same Count Richer who held a county in the pagus of Liège. In 972 he died. In 973 two noble brothers, Werner and Reynold, were killed near Mons fighting the two sons of Reginar III, Reginar IV and Lambert , who had returned to claim their father's property. Also in 973, Counts named Amelric and Richizo appeared in a royal grant in favour of Crispin Abbey in Hainaut. Amelric

36670-405: Was ruled by the brother of Napoleon, Louis Bonaparte , whose intention it was to so amend the condition of the Jews that their newly acquired rights would become of real value to them; the shortness of his reign, however, prevented him from carrying out his plans. For example, after having changed the market-day in some cities (Utrecht and Rotterdam ) from Saturday to Monday, he abolished the use of

36863-416: Was slain by an incited mob along with most of the Jewish community. The remnant fled to Lucena . The first major and most violent persecution in Islamic Spain was the 1066 Granada massacre , which occurred on 30 December, when a Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in Granada , crucified Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacred most of the Jewish population of the city after rumors spread that

37056-426: Was symbolically revoked in 1996 by the Portuguese Parliament ). Those who fled to Genoa were only allowed to land provided they received baptism. Those who were fortunate enough to reach the Ottoman Empire had a better fate: the Sultan Bayezid II sarcastically sent his thanks to Ferdinand for sending him some of his best subjects, thus "impoverishing his own lands while enriching his (Bayezid's)". Jews arriving in

37249-448: Was to require Jews to secure a domiciliation permit and pay an annual fee for residence. Some wealthy Portuguese Jews in seventeenth-century Amsterdam had houses amongst the very wealthy Dutch merchants. Portuguese Jewish men had a narrow range of economic pursuits in the period 1655-99, the largest being merchants at 72%, with 498 of the nearly 693 men whose occupation was listed in records. Adjacent to merchants were 31 brokers. There were

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