Phylogeography is the study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the past to present geographic distributions of genealogical lineages. This is accomplished by considering the geographic distribution of individuals in light of genetics , particularly population genetics .
145-410: Marranos is a term for Spanish and Portuguese Jews who converted to Christianity, either voluntarily or by Spanish or Portuguese royal coercion , during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but who continued to practice Judaism in secrecy or were suspected of it. They are also called crypto-Jews , the term increasingly preferred in scholarly works over Marranos . The term specifically refers to
290-536: A Mitochondrial Eve that lived in Africa 150,000 years ago provided early support for the Out-of-Africa model. While this study had its shortcomings, it received significant attention both within scientific circles and a wider audience. A more thorough phylogeographic analysis that used ten different genes instead of a single mitochondrial marker indicates that at least two major expansions out of Africa after
435-466: A Min and a Meshumad, while for the Anusim it is not. One source of the term derives from an Arabic word for "forbidden, illicit", مُحَرّمٌ Muḥarram . The Arabic word in this context means "swine" or "pork", and either expresses the same repulsion towards the converts that the converts previously had for these ritually unclean meat. However, as applied to Crypto-Jews, the term Marrano derives from
580-586: A commercial center; when that did not happen, he expelled the New Christians from Pesaro and other districts in 1558 (ib. xvi. 61 et seq.). Many conversos also went to Dubrovnik , formerly a considerable Croatian seaport on the Adriatic Sea . In May 1544, a ship landed there filled with Portuguese refugees. During the 16th and 17th centuries, some conversos migrated to the Americas , often
725-478: A crypto-Jew. The conversos of Seville and other cities of Castile, and especially of Aragon, bitterly opposed the Spanish Inquisition established in 1478. They rendered considerable service to the king, and held high legal, financial, and military positions. The government issued an edict directing traditional Jews to live within a ghetto and be separated from conversos . Despite the law, however,
870-513: A dedication procession, a girl accidentally threw dirty water from the window of the house of one of the wealthiest conversos (the customary way to dispose of it.) The water splashed on an image of the Virgin being carried in procession in honor of a new society (from which conversos had been excluded by Bishop D. Pedro.) A local blacksmith started arousing a rabble against the Jews, who he blamed for
1015-535: A few years, however, the privilege was revoked, and the Inquisition resumed its activity. Spanish and Portuguese Jews Spanish and Portuguese Jews , also called Western Sephardim , Iberian Jews , or Peninsular Jews , are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following
1160-649: A home-made Judaism with practices peculiar to themselves, while those in group 2 had a purely intellectual conception of Judaism based on their reading of ancient Jewish sources preserved by the Church such as the Vulgate Old Testament , the Apocrypha , Philo and Josephus . Both groups therefore needed extensive re-education in Judaism after reaching their places of refuge outside the peninsula. This
1305-437: A large-scale phenomenon mainly dates from that time. Conversos, whatever their real religious views, often (but not always) tended to marry and associate among themselves. As they achieved prominent positions in trade and in the royal administration, they attracted considerable resentment from the " Old Christians ". The ostensible reason given for issuance of the 1492 Alhambra Decree for the conversion, expulsion or execution of
1450-530: A link with Spain, the distinguishing feature of the Western subgroup was the added link with Portugal. Thus, as a subset of the Sephardim, "Portuguese" and "Spanish and Portuguese" could be used interchangeably. Finally, almost all organised communities in this group traditionally employed Portuguese rather than Spanish as their official or working language. In Italy , the term "Spanish Jews" ( Ebrei Spagnoli )
1595-524: A mob attacked conversos in Toledo. The chief magistrate ( alcalde mayor ) of the city was Alvar Gomez de Cibdad Real, who had been private secretary to King Henry IV of Castile . He was a protector of the conversos. Together with prominent conversos Fernando and Alvaro de la Torre, Alvar wished to take revenge for an insult by the counts de Fuensalida, leaders of the Old Christians. His intention
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#17327648679061740-475: A phylogeographic approach will likely play a key role in understanding the vectors and spread of avian influenza ( HPAI H5N1 ), demonstrating the relevance of phylogeography to the general public. Phylogeographic analysis of ancient and modern languages has been used to test whether Indo-European languages originated in Anatolia or in the steppes of Central Asia. Language evolution was modeled in terms of
1885-563: A powerful incentive for the descendants of B'nei Anusim to re-discover their Sephardic ancestry, and it spurred a wave of genealogical inquiry and even genetic research. The law remained in force until 2019, therefore applications for Spanish citizenship on the basis of Sephardic ancestry are no longer accepted by the Spanish authorities. Spanish and Portuguese Jews were originally descended from New Christian conversos (i.e. Jews converted to Roman Catholic Christianity) whose descendants later left
2030-509: A rapid increase in the trials of crypto-Jews, among them a number of important financiers. In 1691, during a number of autos-da-fé in Majorca , 37 chuetas , or conversos of Majorca, were burned. During the eighteenth century the number of conversos accused by the Inquisition decreased significantly. Manuel Santiago Vivar , tried in Córdoba in 1818, was the last person tried for being
2175-482: A relatively high proportion of the families in question had Portugal as their immediate point of departure from the Iberian peninsula, even when their remoter family background was Spanish rather than Portuguese, since Portugal was the first place of refuge and transit point for many Spanish Jews immediately following their expulsion from Spain. As the term "Sephardim" (when used in its ethnic sense) necessarily connotes
2320-761: A result of the religious anti-Jewish persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391. As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution in prior years, it is estimated that of Spain's total Jewish origin population at the time, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism, and initially remained in Spain. Between 40,000 and 80,000 did not convert to Catholicism, and by their steadfast commitment to remain Jewish were thus expelled. Of those who were expelled as unconverted Jews, an indeterminate number nonetheless converted to Catholicism once outside Spain and eventually returned to Spain in
2465-565: A reversal in climate change allows for rapid migration out of refugial areas, these species spread rapidly into newly available habitat. A number of empirical studies find genetic signatures of both animal and plant species that support this scenario of refugia and postglacial expansion. This has occurred both in the tropics (where the main effect of glaciation is increasing aridity , i.e. the expansion of savanna and retraction of tropical rainforest ) as well as temperate regions that were directly influenced by glaciers. Phylogeography can help in
2610-545: A special study of the subject in the Revue des Études Juives (xiv. 162–183), about 3,000 Jews came to Provence after the Alhambra Decree expelled Jews from Spain in 1492. From 1484, one town after another had called for expulsion, but the calls were rejected by Charles VIII . However, Louis XII , in one of his first acts as king in 1498, issued a general expulsion order of the Jews of Provence. Though not enforced at
2755-598: A synagogue existed in Saint-Esprit as early as 1660. Phylogeography This term was introduced to describe geographically structured genetic signals within and among species . An explicit focus on a species' biogeography /biogeographical past sets phylogeography apart from classical population genetics and phylogenetics . Past events that can be inferred include population expansion, population bottlenecks , vicariance , dispersal, and migration . Recently developed approaches integrating coalescent theory or
2900-472: A vicariance event affected multiple taxa during the Pleistocene or Pliocene . Phylogeography also gives an important historical perspective on community composition. History is relevant to regional and local diversity in two ways. One, the size and makeup of the regional species pool results from the balance of speciation and extinction . Two, at a local level community composition is influenced by
3045-463: A wealthy converso and tax-farmer. They also attacked the residences of wealthy New Christians in the quarter of la Magdelena. Under Juan de la Cibdad, the conversos opposed the mob, but were repulsed. They were executed with their leader. As a result, several prominent converso men were deposed from office, in obedience to a new statute. Nearly 20 years later in July 1467, another riot occurred where
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#17327648679063190-424: Is also contained in the book about one of their leaders Dona Gracia Nasi called, "The Woman Who Defied Kings", by the historian and journalist Andree Aelion Brooks. Spanish and Portuguese conversos also settled at Florence and contributed to make Livorno a leading seaport. They received privileges at Venice , where they were protected from the persecutions of the Inquisition. In Milan they materially advanced
3335-575: Is derived from Sepharad , a Biblical location. The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania , that is, the Iberian Peninsula . Sepharad still means "Spain" in modern Hebrew . The relationship between Sephardi-descended communities is illustrated in the following diagram : "Sephardim" properly refers to all Jews whose families have extended histories in Spain and Portugal , in contrast to Ashkenazi Jews and all other Jewish ethnic divisions . However, Mizrahi Jews , who have extended histories in
3480-414: Is distributed and is found (illustrated in the inset maps below, including Amazon basin, Andes, Guiana-Venezuela, Central America-Chocó). The combination of techniques used in this study exemplifies more generally how phylogeographic studies proceed and test for patterns of common influence. Paleogeographic data establishes geological time records for historical events that explain the branching patterns in
3625-405: Is estimated that 200,000 Jews saved their lives by converting to Christianity in the wake of these persecutions. Other Jews left the country altogether and around 100,000 openly practicing Jews remained. In 1449, feelings rose against conversos , breaking out in a riot at Toledo . Instigated by two canons, Juan Alfonso and Pedro Lopez Galvez, the mob plundered and burned the houses of Alonso Cota,
3770-498: Is frequently used, but it includes descendants of Jews expelled as Jews from the Kingdom of Naples , as well as "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" proper (i.e. Jews descended from former conversos and their descendants). In Venice , Spanish and Portuguese Jews were often described as "Ponentine" (Western), to distinguish them from "Levantine" (Eastern) Sephardim from Eastern Mediterranean areas. Occasionally Italian Jews distinguish between
3915-430: Is integrated into phylogeographic analyses. Phylogeography takes a population genetics and phylogenetic perspective on biogeography . In the mid-1970s, population genetic analyses turned to mitochondrial markers. The advent of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the process where millions of copies of a DNA segment can be replicated, was crucial in the development of phylogeography. Thanks to this breakthrough,
4060-429: Is reconstructed using phylogenetic trees derived from molecular data. The molecular trees are mapped in relation to paleogeographic history of the region for a complete phylogeographic study. The tree shown in the center of the figure has its branch lengths calibrated to a molecular clock , with the geological time bar shown at the bottom. The same phylogenetic tree is duplicated four more times to show where each lineage
4205-644: Is referred to as the Out-of-Africa with replacement model, which contends that the last expansion out of Africa around 100,000 years ago resulted in the modern humans displacing all previous Homo spp. populations in Eurasia that were the result of an earlier wave of emigration out of Africa. The multiregional scenario claims that individuals from the recent expansion out of Africa intermingled genetically with those human populations of more ancient African emigrations. A phylogeographic study that uncovered
4350-518: Is shown in panels A-D) the authors of this study proposed a null-hypothesis that assumes no spatial structure and two alternative hypothesis involving dispersal and other biogeographic constraints (hypothesis are shown in panels E-G, listed as SMO, SM1, and SM2). The phylogeographers visited the ranges of each frog species to obtain tissue samples for genetic analysis; researchers can also obtain tissue samples from museum collections. The evolutionary history and relations among different poison frog species
4495-507: Is that all three are descended from conversos. "Western Sephardim" are descendants of former conversos of earlier centuries; "Sephardic Bnei Anusim" are the still nominally Christian descendants of conversos; and "Neo-Western Sephardim" are the increasing in number modern-day former conversos currently returning to Judaism from among the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population. The distinguishing factor between "Western Sephardim" and
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4640-627: Is the term the Spanish Jews prefer. Under state pressure in the late 14th and early 15th century, over half of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula converted to Christianity, thus avoiding the Decree of Expulsion which affected Spain's remaining openly Jewish population in 1492. The numbers who converted and the effects of various migrations in and out of the area have been the subject of historical debate. A phylogeographic study in 2008 of 1,150 volunteer Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups appeared to support
4785-460: Is unclear, since there have been several proposed etymologies in addition to swine. The Hebrew word for מְשֻׁמָּד Meshumad , literally standing for "self-destroyed" or a heretic to Judaism, for a Jew who deliberately rebels against the observance of Jewish law. The main difference between a Min , a Meshumad , and the Anusim is that the act of abandonment of Judaism is voluntary for
4930-706: The Belmonte Jews in Portugal, and the Xuetes of Spain. In the case of the Xuetes, the entire community of converso descendants was extended a blanket recognition as Jews by Rabbinical authorities in Israel due to their particular historical circumstances on the island which effectively resulted in a strict social isolation of the Xuetes imposed upon them by their non-Jewish-descended neighbors up until modern times. In
5075-566: The Cortes to require conversos to wear special badges, and to order Jewish descendants to live in ghettos ( judiarias ) in cities and villages as their ancestors had before the conversions. In 1641, João IV of Portugal ennobled the Curiel family , a Marrano family who served as Agents to the Crown of Spain and Portugal. They held diplomatic positions across Europe until the late 18th century. In
5220-518: The Ebro river. " Later the resistance to the inquisitors was so strong that its aldermen ordered commissioners and attorneys to ask the Catholic Monarchs to limit the power of the Inquisition in 1510. The most intense period of persecution of conversos lasted until 1530. From 1531 to 1560, however, the percentage of conversos among the Inquisition trials dropped to 3% of the total. There
5365-584: The Greater Middle East and North Africa, are often called "Sephardim" more broadly in colloquial and religious parlance due to similar styles of liturgy and a certain amount of intermarriage between them and Sephardim proper. The main factor distinguishing "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" (Western Sephardim) from other "Sephardim proper" is that "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" refers specifically to those Jews who descend from persons whose history as practising members of Jewish communities with origins in
5510-840: The Iberian peninsula was interrupted by a period of having been New Christians (also known as conversos , the Spanish term for "converts" to Catholicism; or cristãos-novos , "new Christians" in the Portuguese equivalent) or anusim (Hebrew for those "forced" to convert from Judaism to another faith). During their period as New Christians, many conversos continued to practise their Jewish faith in secrecy as best they could. Those New Christian conversos of Jewish origin who maintained crypto-Jewish practices in secret were termed marranos (Spanish "swine") by Old Christian Spaniards and Portuguese. Conversely, those New Christian conversos who have remained as conversos since that time, both those in
5655-567: The Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon , including from all its territories and possessions, by 31 July of that year. The primary purpose of the expulsion was to eliminate the influence of unconverted Jews on Spain's by then large Jewish-origin New Christian converso population, to ensure that the prior did not encourage the latter to relapse and revert to Judaism. Over half of Spain's Jewish origin population had converted to Catholicism as
5800-526: The Near East such as Syrians and Phoenicians may also account for these results. Some Portuguese conversos or cristãos-novos continued to practice as crypto-Jews. In the early 20th century, historian Samuel Schwartz wrote about crypto-Jewish communities discovered in northeastern Portugal (namely, Belmonte , Bragança , Miranda , and Chaves ). He claimed that members had managed to survive more than four centuries without being fully assimilated into
5945-533: The New Christians . D. Alonso called upon the mob to retire. Its leader insulted the count, who immediately felled him with his lance. Aroused, the people considered him a martyr. Incited by Alonso de Aguilar's enemy, they again attacked the conversos . The rioting lasted three days. Those who escaped sought refuge in the castle, where their protectors also took shelter. The government decreed that Jews and conversos should remain in their neighborhood or leave
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6090-764: The Portuguese and Spanish Inquisitions , the early community continued to be augmented by further New Christian emigration pouring out of the Iberian Peninsula in a continuous flow between the 1600s to 1700s. Jewish-origin New Christians were officially considered Christians due to their forced or coerced conversions; as such they were subject to the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church's Inquisitorial system, and were subject to harsh heresy and apostasy laws if they continued to practice their ancestral Jewish faith. Those New Christians who eventually fled both
6235-489: The city council of Porto. As mentioned, these communities of modern-day returnees to Judaism are among the first in the emergence of the nascent Neo-Western Sephardim. Neo-Western Sephardim are the modern returnees to Judaism throughout Iberia and Ibero-America emerging from among the population of Sephardic Bnei Anusim, and are distinct from Western Sephardim (those termed "Spanish and Portuguese Jews"). Even more recent examples of such Neo-Western Sephardim communities include
6380-582: The "Portuguese Jews" of Pisa and Livorno and the "Spanish Jews" of Venice, Modena and elsewhere. The scholar Joseph Dan distinguishes "medieval Sephardim" (15th and 16th-century Spanish exiles in the Ottoman Empire who arrived as Jews) from "Renaissance Sephardim" (Spanish and Portuguese former converso communities who arrived as New Christians), in reference to the respective times of each grouping's formative contacts with Spanish language and culture. The term Sephardi means "Spanish" or "Hispanic", and
6525-522: The "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" to distance themselves from Spain in the times of political tension and war between Spain and the Netherlands in the 17th century. Similar considerations may have played a role for ethnic Sephardic Jews in the French regions of Bayonne and Bordeaux , given their proximity to the Spanish border. Another reason for the terminology of "Portuguese" Jews may have been that
6670-688: The "apostle of the Marranos". In 1921, realizing that there were less than twenty Ashkenazi Jews living in Porto, and that recent returnees to Judaism like himself were not organized and had to travel to Lisbon for religious purposes whenever necessary, Barros Basto began to think about building a synagogue and took initiative in 1923 to officially register the Jewish Community of Porto and the Israelite Theological Center in
6815-475: The 1000 genomes project, genomic-scale SNP databases sampling thousands of individuals globally and samples taken from two non-Homo sapiens hominins (Neanderthals and Denisovans), the picture of human evolutionary has become more resolved and complex involving possible Neanderthal and Denisovan admixture, admixture with archaic African hominins, and Eurasian expansion into the Australasian region that predates
6960-606: The 16th and early 17th centuries, conversos were also seeking refuge beyond the Pyrenees , settling in France at Saint-Jean-de-Luz , Tarbes , Bayonne , Bordeaux , Marseille , and Montpellier . They lived apparently as Christians; were married by Catholic priests; had their children baptized, and publicly pretended to be Catholics. In secret, however, they circumcised their children, kept Shabbat and feast-days as best they could and prayed together. Henry III of France confirmed
7105-459: The 1970s, the Marranos of Belmonte officially rejoined Judaism and reestablished ties with the Jews of Israel. The Museu Judaico de Belmonte was opened in 2005 in Belmonte, it is the first Jewish museum in Portugal. According to historian Cecil Roth , Spanish political intrigues had earlier promoted the anti-Jewish policies which culminated in 1391, when Regent Queen Leonora of Castile gave
7250-477: The Americas have Spanish and Portuguese Jewish roots though they no longer follow the distinctive customs of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Although the 1492 and 1497 expulsions of unconverted Jews from Spain and Portugal were separate events from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions (which were established over a decade earlier in 1478), they were ultimately linked, as the Inquisition eventually also led to
7395-479: The Archdeacon of Écija , Ferrand Martinez , considerable power in her realm. Martinez gave speeches that led to violence against the Jews, and this influence culminated in the sack of the Jewish quarter of Seville on June 4, 1391. Throughout Spain during this year, the cities of Ecija, Carmona , Córdoba , Toledo , Barcelona and many others saw their Jewish quarters destroyed and inhabitants massacred. It
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#17327648679067540-699: The Castilian territories of the Vice-royalties of New Spain , Peru , and the Río de la Plata in Argentina. Legal emigration to the New World was strictly controlled and required proof of three generations of Christian ascendance. Nevertheless, many conversos managed to evade these restrictions and managed to obtain "encomiendas" papers of legal identity in the New World. According to Isidore Loeb , in
7685-617: The Iberian Peninsula and those who moved to the Iberian colonial possessions during the Spanish colonization of the Americas , became the related Sephardic Bnei Anusim . Sephardic Bnei Anusim are the contemporary and largely nominally Christian descendants of assimilated 15th century Sephardic Anusim, and are today a fully assimilated sub-group within the Iberian-descended Christian populations of Spain, Portugal, Hispanic America and Brazil. For historical reasons and circumstances, Sephardic Bnei Anusim have not returned to
7830-530: The Iberian Peninsula, went under the guise of Catholics to Hamburg and Altona about 1580, where they established a community and held commercial relations with their former homes. Some migrated as far as Scotland . Christian IV of Denmark invited some New Christian families to settle at Glückstadt about 1626, granting certain privileges to them and to conversos who came to Emden about 1649. The vast majority of Spain's conversos , however, remained in Spain and Portugal and were suspected of "Marranism" by
7975-521: The Iberian cultural sphere and jurisdiction of the Inquisition were able to officially return to Judaism and open Jewish practice once they were in their new tolerant environments of refuge. As former conversos or their descendants, Western Sephardim developed a distinctive ritual based on the remnants of the Judaism of pre-expulsion Spain, which some had practiced in secrecy during their time as New Christians, and influenced by Judaism as practiced by
8120-674: The Iberian cultural sphere. Although Jewish communities were re-established in Spain and Portugal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely with the help of communities of Spanish and Portuguese Jews such as that in London, these present-day Jews in Portugal and Jews in Spain are distinct from "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" as, for the most part, the modern Jewish communities resident in Spain and Portugal also include other Jewish ethnic divisions recently immigrated to Spain and Portugal, such as Ashkenazi Jews of Northern Europe. In modern Iberia, practicing Jews of Sephardic origins, such as
8265-565: The Iberian peninsula and reverted to Judaism. Although legend has it that conversos existed as early as the Visigothic period, and that there was a continuous phenomenon of crypto-Judaism from that time lasting throughout Spanish history, this scenario is unlikely, as in the Muslim period of Iberia there was no advantage in passing as a Christian instead of publicly acknowledging one was a Jew. The main wave of conversions, often forced, followed
8410-452: The Inquisition in the 19th century, and this time frame necessitated their migration out of the Iberian cultural sphere. Conversely, the converso descendants who are today becoming the nascent Neo-Western Sephardim have been reverting to Judaism between the late 20th and early 21st centuries, they have been doing so at a time after the abolition of the Inquisition in the 19th century, and this time frame has not necessitated their migration out of
8555-526: The Inquisition which continued to actively persecute heresy. Some of these chose to leave Spain, in bands or as individual refugees. Many migrated to Italy, attracted by the climate, which resembled that of the Iberian Peninsula, and by the kindred language. When they settled at Ferrara , Duke Ercole I d'Este granted them privileges. His son Alfonso confirmed the privileges to twenty-one Spanish conversos : physicians, merchants, and others (ib. xv. 113 et seq.). A thoroughly researched history of these migrations
8700-568: The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) sent reporter Ron Ben-Yishai to conduct interviews with families about their religious practice. After being asked to prove he knew Hebrew before they would talk, he found people still reluctant to speak openly. Nevertheless, he did eventually gain a remarkable insight into their version of Jewish customs, prayers and songs. The film was commended at the 1976 Jerusalem Jewish Film and TV Festival. Another documentary, The Last Marranos ,
8845-463: The Jewish community of Oporto , however, are also not Western Sephardim, but are Neo-Western Sephardim, as they were re-established in the 20th century and early 21st centuries with a campaign of outreach to the crypto-Jews of Sephardic Bnei Anusim origins. The Oporto community's return to Judaism was led by the returnee to Judaism Captain Artur Carlos de Barros Basto (1887–1961), known also as
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#17327648679068990-430: The Jewish faith over the last five centuries, In modern times, some have begun emerging publicly in increasing numbers, especially in the last two decades. For "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" (Western Sephardim), their historical period as conversos has shaped their identity, culture, and practices. In this respect, they are clearly distinguishable from those Sephardim who descend from the Jews who left Iberia as Jews before
9135-700: The Jewish religion; they and their descendants are known as Eastern Sephardim . During the centuries following the Spanish and Portuguese decrees, some of the Jewish-origin New Christian conversos started emigrating from Portugal and Spain, settling until the 1700s throughout areas of Western Europe and non-Iberian realms of the colonial Americas (mostly Dutch realms, including Curaçao in the Dutch West Indies, Recife in Dutch areas of colonial Brazil which eventually were regained by
9280-552: The Jewish-origin Christians to also emigrate out of Spain and Portugal in the immediate generations following the expulsion of their unconverted Jewish brethren. The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion) was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ( Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon ) ordering the expulsion of all unconverted practicing Jews from
9425-512: The Jews remained in communication with their New Christian brethren. "They sought ways and means to win them from Catholicism and bring them back to Judaism. They instructed the Marranos in the tenets and ceremonies of the Jewish religion; held meetings in which they taught them what they must believe and observe according to the Mosaic law; and enabled them to circumcise themselves and their children. They furnished them with prayer-books; explained
9570-518: The Jews were again issued with a similar decree just a few years later in 1497, giving them the choice of exile or conversion. Unlike in Spain, however, in actual practice Portugal mostly prevented them from leaving, thus they necessarily stayed as ostensible converts to Christianity whether they wished to or not, after the Portuguese King reasoned that by their failure to leave they accepted Christianity by default. For this reason, crypto-Judaism
9715-514: The Jews. They constituted the grounds for their expulsion and banishment in 1492, so they could not subvert conversos . Jews who did not want to leave Spain had to accept baptism as a sign of conversion. The historian Henry Kamen's Inquisition and Society in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries questions whether there were such strong links between conversos and Jewish communities. Whilst historians such as Yitzhak Baer state, "the conversos and Jews were one people", Kamen claims, "Yet if
9860-527: The Livorno synagogue – considered to be the most important building in town – was destroyed in the Second World War: a modern building was erected on the same site in 1958–1962. Many merchants maintained a presence in both Italy and countries in the Ottoman Empire, and even those who settled permanently in the Ottoman Empire retained their Tuscan or other Italian nationality, so as to have
10005-474: The Massacre of 1391 in Spain. Legal definitions of that era theoretically acknowledged that a forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but the Church confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force: a person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism. Crypto-Judaism as
10150-752: The Old Christian population. The last remaining crypto-Jewish community in Belmonte officially returned to Judaism in the 1970s and opened a synagogue in 1996. In 2003, the American Sephardi Federation founded the Belmonte Project to raise funds to acquire Judaic educational material and services for the Belmonte community, who then numbered 160–180. Two documentary films have been made in north-eastern Portugal where present-day descendants of marranos were interviewed about their lives. In 1974 for The Marranos of Portugal ,
10295-707: The Ottoman Empire, where a complete culture change would be required. On the other hand, in Italy they ran the risk of prosecution for Judaizing, given that in law they were baptized Christians; for this reason they generally avoided the Papal States. The Popes did allow some Spanish-Jewish settlement at Ancona , as this was the main port for the Turkey trade, in which their links with the Ottoman Sephardim were useful. Other states found it advantageous to allow
10440-530: The Portuguese Nation." The term "Western Sephardim" is frequently used in modern research literature to refer to "Spanish and Portuguese Jews," but sometimes also to "Spanish- Moroccan Jews ". The use of the terms "Portuguese Jews" and "Jews of the Portuguese Nation" in areas such as the Netherlands , Hamburg, Scandinavia , and at one time in London, seems to have arisen primarily as a way for
10585-574: The Portuguese, and New Amsterdam which later became New York) forming communities and formally reverting to Judaism. It is the collective of these communities and their descendants who are known as Western Sephardim , and are the subject of this article. As the early members of the Western Sephardim consisted of persons who themselves (or whose immediate forebears) personally experienced an interim period as New Christians, which resulted in unceasing trials and persecutions of crypto-Judaism by
10730-752: The Sephardic Jewish communities under Ottoman rule provided spiritual leadership to the dispersed Sephardim through their contributions to the Responsa literature . These Sephardic communities offered refuge to all Jews, including the Sephardi Jewish-origin New Christian conversos fleeing the Inquisition across Europe, as well as their Eastern European Ashkenazi coreligionists fleeing pogroms. The common feature shared by Western Sephardim ("Spanish and Portuguese Jews") to Sephardic Bnei Anusim and Neo-Western Sephardim
10875-698: The Spanish & Portuguese verb "marrar" and "amarrar" meaning "to fail", "to plan to go wrong", "to break away", "to defraud", "to target", "to tie up", "to refrain", "to deviate", "to clinch", "to moor", illuminating that those targeted and forced by the Spanish Crown had no choice but to adopt Christianity, either leave the Kingdom of Spain all while the Crown seized their property and money and gave them no support to leave, be murdered either for not showing complete loyalty to Christianity or for leaving Spain and coming back showing that these Jews were traitors to
11020-449: The Spanish Crown. It also has Arabic origin meaning "to deviate" or "to err", in the sense that they deviated from their newly adopted faith by secretly continuing to practice Judaism. A third origin has been cited from Galician-Portuguese , where marrar means "to force" and marrano means "forced one", indicating the compulsory nature of the religious conversions. José Meir Estrugo Hazán writes in his book Los Sefardíes that "marrano"
11165-521: The Spanish Inquisition of November 1, 1478, with the same extremities of rigor as the Spanish prototype. The conversos suffered immensely both from mob violence and interrogation and testing by the Inquisition. Attacks and murders were recorded at Trancoso , Lamego , Miranda, Viseu , Guarda , and Braga . At Covilhã , there were rumors that the people planned to massacre all the New Christians on one day. In 1562, prelates petitioned
11310-511: The Spanish Inquisition. Although the wealthier among them could easily bypass discriminatory Limpieza de sangre laws, they constituted a significant portion of the over three thousand people executed for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition. In his luminous book the "Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765", Professor Antonio Jose Saraiva [1] of the University of Lisbon , writes that "After August 1531, when
11455-534: The Spanish and Portuguese community worldwide, as it was among the earliest to be established, and the first prayer book was published there. Later communities, such as in Amsterdam, followed its lead on ritual questions. With the decline in the importance of Venice in the 18th century, the leading role passed to Livorno (for Italy and the Mediterranean) and Amsterdam (for western countries). Unfortunately,
11600-480: The authors found that hidden within what was thought to be a single, widely distributed species, an ancient and previously undetected species was also present. Conservation decisions can now be made to ensure that both lineages received protection. Results like this are not an uncommon outcome from phylogeographic studies. An analysis of salamanders of the genus Eurycea , also in the Appalachians, found that
11745-545: The benefit of the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire . Thus, in Tunisia there was a community of Juifs Portugais , or L'Grana (Livornese), separate from, and regarding itself as superior to, the native Tunisian Jews ( Tuansa ). Smaller communities of the same kind existed in other countries, such as Syria, where they were known as Señores Francos . They were generally not numerous enough to establish their own synagogues, instead meeting for prayer in each other's houses. In
11890-579: The biogeographic distribution of organisms in this area, including the isolation and reconnection of South America , the uplift of the Andes, an extensive Amazonian floodbasin system during the Miocene, the formation of Orinoco and Amazon drainages , and dry−wet climate cycles throughout the Pliocene to Pleistocene epochs. Using this contextual paleogeographic information (paleogeographic time series
12035-581: The charge of crypto-Judaism, whereas the term converso was used for the wider population of Jewish converts to Catholicism , whether or not they secretly still practised Jewish rites. Converts from either Judaism or Islam were referred to by the broader term of " New Christians ". The term marrano came into later use in 1492 with the Castilian Alhambra Decree , which prohibited the practice of Judaism in Spain and required all remaining Jews to convert or leave. The Spanish Inquisition
12180-470: The city. In 1473, attacks on conversos arose in numerous other cities: Montoro , Bujalance , Adamuz , La Rambla , Santaella , and elsewhere. Mobs attacked conversos in Andújar , Úbeda , Baeza , and Almodóvar del Campo also. In Valladolid , groups looted the belongings of the New Christians. At Segovia , there was a massacre (May 16, 1474). D. Juan Pacheco, a converso , led the attacks. Without
12325-641: The communities (including Sephardic Jews of the Ottoman Empire and Ashkenazi Jews ) which assisted them in their readoption of normative Judaism; as well as by the Spanish-Moroccan and the Italian Jewish rites practiced by rabbis and hazzanim recruited from those communities to instruct them in ritual practice. A part of their distinctiveness as a Jewish group, furthermore, stems from the fact that they saw themselves as forced to "redefine their Jewish identity and mark its boundaries [...] with
12470-427: The conversos to settle and mix with the existing Jewish communities, and to turn a blind eye to their religious status. In the next generation, the children of conversos could be brought up as fully Jewish with no legal problem, as they had never been baptized. The main places of settlement were as follows: On the whole, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews remained separate from the native Italian rite Jews , though there
12615-537: The conversos were hated by the Christians, the Jews liked them no better." He documented that "Jews testified falsely against them [the conversos] when the Inquisition was finally founded." This issue is being debated by historians. Although the vast majority of Spain's 250,000 conversos had abandoned Judaism and been assimilated into Spain's dominant Catholic culture, many of those continuing to secretly practice their former religion felt threatened and persecuted by
12760-574: The current taxonomy of the group greatly underestimated species level diversity. The authors of this study also found that patterns of phylogeographic diversity were more associated with historical (rather than modern) drainage connections, indicating that major shifts in the drainage patterns of the region played an important role in the generation of diversity of these salamanders. A thorough understanding of phylogeographic structure will thus allow informed choices in prioritizing areas for conservation. The field of comparative phylogeography seeks to explain
12905-672: The departure of New Christians to any part of the Christian world, declaring that they “be considered, favored and treated like the Old Christians and not distinct and separated from them in any matter.” Nevertheless, in apparent contradiction to that law, in a letter dated Almeirim, February 18, 1519, King Manuel promoted legislation henceforth prohibiting the naming of New Christians to the position of judge, town councilor or municipal registrar in Goa, stipulating, however, that those already appointed were not to be dismissed. This shows that even during
13050-483: The end of the 18th century. They were generally accepted by the host Jewish communities as anusim (forced converts), whose conversion, being involuntary, did not compromise their Jewish status. Conversos of the first generation after the expulsion still had some knowledge of Judaism based on memory of contact with a living Jewish community. In later generations, people had to avoid known Jewish practices that might attract undesired attention: conversos in group 3 evolved
13195-454: The establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal was in the offing and especially after June 14, 1532 when New Christian emigration from Portugal became a capital offense, anti-New Christian sentiment surged on all sides. The New Christians were panic-stricken and emigrants, legal or clandestine, headed for Flanders, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, the Portuguese possessions in India, North Africa. After
13340-761: The expiration date for the Alhambra Decree , resulting in the 1492 expulsion from Spain and 1497 expulsion from Portugal of all Jews who had not been baptised into the Catholic faith. These expelled Jews settled mainly around the Mediterranean Basin of Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, namely, Salonika , the Balkans and Turkey , and they became the Eastern Sephardim and North African Sephardim respectively. For centuries,
13485-484: The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and from the Kingdom of Naples in 1533, these areas were an obvious destination for conversos wishing to leave Spain and Portugal. The similarity of the Italian language to Spanish was another attraction. Given their Christian cultural background and high level of European-style education, the new emigrants were less likely to follow the example of the 1492 expellees by settling in
13630-533: The fast-days; read with them the history of their people and their Law; announced to them the coming of the Passover; procured unleavened bread for them for that festival, as well as kosher meat throughout the year; encouraged them to live in conformity with the law of Moses, and persuaded them that there was no law and no truth except the Jewish religion." These were the charges brought by the government of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile against
13775-504: The first bishop of Goa, Gaspar Jorge de Leão Pereira wrote his anti-Semitic work " contra os Judeos" (tracts against Jews) , and called for the establishment of the Inquisition in Goa (which was established in 1560). There was no significant wave of emigration of conversos from Spain, the majority of Sephardic communities, such as that of Salonika having been formed as a result of the Alhambra Decree in 1492. However, there
13920-489: The first nine years of Portuguese rule, Goa had a considerable influx of recently baptized Spanish and Portuguese Jews." Some New Christians sought to re-join Jewish populations in India (particularly through the Jewish community in Cochin ), while others went on to be extremely influential in the spice trade, and the gems trade between Portugal, and India. This activity aroused the ire of the Catholic clergy. During this period,
14065-400: The fleeing out of Iberia of many descendants of Jewish converts to Catholicism in subsequent generations. Despite the fact that the original Edicts of Expulsion did not apply to Jewish-origin New Christian conversos —as these were now legally Christians— the discriminatory practices that the Inquisition nevertheless placed upon them, which were often lethal , put immense pressure on many of
14210-559: The forced expulsion of unconverted Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497 . They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal. The main present-day communities of Spanish and Portuguese Jews exist in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, and several other Jewish communities in
14355-493: The free exercise of their religion. Rome was full of conversos . Pope Paul III received them at Ancona for commercial reasons. He granted complete liberty "to all persons from Portugal and Algarve , even if belonging to the class of New Christians." By 1553 three thousand Portuguese Jews and conversos were living at Ancona. Two years later, Pope Paul IV issued orders to have all the conversos in Papal states be thrown into
14500-502: The genealogical history of alleles and distributional information can more accurately address the relative roles of these different historical forces in shaping current patterns. The term phylogeography was first used by John Avise in his 1987 work Intraspecific Phylogeography: The Mitochondrial DNA Bridge Between Population Genetics and Systematics . Historical biogeography is a synthetic discipline that addresses how historical, geological, climatic and ecological conditions influenced
14645-775: The harshness of the Inquisition. The Mendes of Lisbon and Flanders also tried to help. None were successful in preventing the Inquisition Papal Bull Meditatio Cordis of July 16, 1547, Inquisition in Portugal. This Bull Meditatio Cordis still did not have the "Power of Confiscation". Portuguese Marranos continued, with many bribes of the Popes in Rome, and with prolonged negotiation against this "Power of Confiscation" succeeded to delay it 32 years, but finally conceded this "deadly weapon" in 1579. The Portuguese Inquisition now had been endowed, 101 years after
14790-405: The idea that the number of conversions has been significantly underestimated, as 20% of the tested Iberian population had haplogroups consistent with Sephardi ancestry. This percentage was suggested as representing the proportion of Sephardi in the population at the time of mass conversions in the 14th and 15th centuries. However, the authors concede that other historical population movements from
14935-454: The information contained in mitochondrial DNA sequences was much more accessible. Advances in both laboratory methods (e.g. capillary DNA sequencing technology) that allowed easier sequencing of DNA and computational methods that make better use of the data (e.g. employing coalescent theory ) have helped improve phylogeographic inference. By 2000, Avise generated a seminal review of the topic in book form, in which he defined phylogeography as
15080-471: The initial range extension of Homo erectus played an important role shaping the modern human gene pool and that recurrent genetic exchange is pervasive. These findings strongly demonstrated Africa's central role in the evolution of modern humans, but also indicated that the multiregional model had some validity. These studies have largely been supplanted by population genomic studies that use orders of magnitude more data. In light of these recent data from
15225-434: The insult, which immediately joined in a fierce shout for revenge. The mob went after conversos , denouncing them as heretics , killing them, and burning their houses. To stop the excesses, the highly respected D. Alonso Fernandez de Aguilar, whose wife was a member of the converso family of Pacheco, together with his brother D. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba ("El Gran Capitán"), and a troop of soldiers, hastened to protect
15370-512: The intellectual tools they had acquired in their Christian socialization" during their time as New Christian conversos. The main 'Western Sephardic Jewish' communities developed in Western Europe, Italy, and the non-Iberian regions of the Americas. In addition to the term "Western Sephardim", this sub-group of Sephardic Jews is sometimes also referred to also as "Spanish and Portuguese Jews," "Spanish Jews," "Portuguese Jews," or "Jews of
15515-487: The interaction between local extinction of species’ populations and recolonization. A comparative phylogenetic approach in the Australian Wet Tropics indicates that regional patterns of species distribution and diversity are largely determined by local extinctions and subsequent recolonizations corresponding to climatic cycles. Phylogeography integrates biogeography and genetics to study in greater detail
15660-545: The interests of the city with their industry and commerce. At Bologna , Pisa , Naples , and numerous other Italian cities, they freely exercised the Jewish religion again. They were soon so numerous that Fernando de Goes Loureiro, an abbot from Oporto , filled an entire book with the names of conversos who had drawn large sums from Portugal and had openly avowed Judaism in Italy. In Piedmont , Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy welcomed conversos from Coímbra and granted them commercial and industrial privileges, as well as
15805-419: The intervention of the alcalde, Andres de Cabrera, all New Christians might have died. At Carmona , it was reported that not one converso was left alive. Tens of thousands of Jews were baptised in the three months before the deadline for expulsion, some 40,000 if one accepts the totals given by Kamen: most of these undoubtedly to avoid expulsion, rather than as a sincere change of faith. These conversos were
15950-584: The king began to believe that a Portuguese Inquisition might help control such outbreaks. The Portuguese conversos worked to forestall such actions, and spent immense sums to win over the Curia and most influential cardinals. Spanish and Portuguese conversos made financial sacrifices. Alfonso Gutierrez, Garcia Alvarez "el Rico" (the rich), and the Zapatas, conversos from Toledo, offered 80,000 gold crowns to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V , if he would mitigate
16095-635: The last five to ten years, "organized groups of [Sephardic] Benei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia , Costa Rica , Chile, Ecuador , Mexico, Puerto Rico , Venezuela , and in Sefarad [the Iberian Peninsula] itself". Some members of these communities have formally reverted to Judaism. In 2015, the Spanish government enacted a law conceding Spanish nationality to the descendants of Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin . The law created
16240-467: The lineal history of a species in context of the geoclimatic history of the planet. An example study of poison frogs living in the South American neotropics (illustrated to the left) is used to demonstrate how phylogeographers combine genetics and paleogeography to piece together the ecological history of organisms in their environments. Several major geoclimatic events have greatly influenced
16385-532: The mechanisms responsible for the phylogenetic relationships and distribution of different species. For example, comparisons across multiple taxa can clarify the histories of biogeographical regions. For example, phylogeographic analyses of terrestrial vertebrates on the Baja California peninsula and marine fish on both the Pacific and gulf sides of the peninsula display genetic signatures that suggest
16530-599: The middle of the century, England, France, the Spanish Americas and Brazil were the favorite destinations, not necessarily in that order." The New Christians breathed more freely when Philip III of Spain came to the throne. By the law of April 4, 1601, he granted them the privilege of unrestricted sale of their real estate as well as free departure from the country for themselves, their families, and their property. Many, availing themselves of this permission, followed their coreligionists to North Africa and Turkey. After
16675-483: The miracle as due to natural causes was dragged from the church and killed by an infuriated woman. A Dominican roused the populace still more. Friar João Mocho and the Aragonese friar Bernardo, crucifix in hand, were said to have gone through the streets of the city, crying "Heresy!" and calling upon the people to destroy the conversos . Attracted by the outcry, sailors from Holland , Zeeland and others from ships in
16820-466: The molecular trees. This study rejected the null model and found that the origin for all extant Amazonian poison frog species primarily stem from fourteen lineages that dispersed into their respective areas after the Miocene floodbasin receded. Regionally based phylogeographic studies of this type are repeated for different species as a means of independent testing. Phylogeographers find broadly concordant and repeated patterns among species in most regions of
16965-409: The nascent "Neo-Western Sephardim" is the time frame of the reversions to Judaism, the location of the reversions, and the precarious religious and legal circumstances surrounding their reversions, including impediments and persecutions. Thus, the converso descendants who became the Western Sephardim had reverted to Judaism between the 16th and 18th centuries, they did so at a time before the abolition of
17110-402: The neophytes." These converts and their descendants soon became the objects of social discrimination and slanders. In the "Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765", Professor Antonio Jose Saraiva of the University of Lisbon , writes "King Manuel theoretically abolished discrimination between Old and New Christians by the law of March 1, 1507 which permitted
17255-460: The past and current distribution of species. As part of historical biogeography, researchers had been evaluating the geographical and evolutionary relationships of organisms years before. Two developments during the 1960s and 1970s were particularly important in laying the groundwork for modern phylogeography; the first was the spread of cladistic thought, and the second was the development of plate tectonics theory . The resulting school of thought
17400-409: The planet that is due to a common influence of paleoclimatic history. Phylogeography has also proven to be useful in understanding the origin and dispersal patterns of our own species, Homo sapiens . Based primarily on observations of skeletal remains of ancient human remains and estimations of their age, anthropologists proposed two competing hypotheses about human origins. The first hypothesis
17545-554: The port of Lisbon, joined the Dominicans and formed a mob with local men to pursue the conversos . The mob dragged converso victims from their houses and killed some. Old Christians who were in any way associated with New Christians were also attacked. The mob attacked the tax-farmer João Rodrigo Mascarenhas, a New Christian; although a wealthy and distinguished man, his work also made him resented by many. They demolished his house. Within 48 hours, many "conversos" were killed; by
17690-472: The principal concern of the Inquisition; being suspected of continuing to practice Judaism put them at risk of denunciation and trial. During 1492, about 12,000 conversos entered Navarre from Aragon's repression, where they were allowed to remain. Tudela in Navarre turned into a converso haven. The Tudelans had already proclaimed in 1486 that " if any inquisitor enters their city, he will be thrown into
17835-644: The prioritization of areas of high value for conservation. Phylogeographic analyses have also played an important role in defining evolutionary significant units (ESU), a unit of conservation below the species level that is often defined on unique geographic distribution and mitochondrial genetic patterns. A recent study on imperiled cave crayfish in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America demonstrates how phylogenetic analyses along with geographic distribution can aid in recognizing conservation priorities. Using phylogeographical approaches,
17980-423: The prisons of the Inquisition which he had instituted. Sixty of them, who acknowledged the Catholic faith as penitents, were transported to the island of Malta ; twenty-four, who adhered to Judaism, were publicly burned (May 1556). Those who escaped the Inquisition were received at Pesaro by Guidobaldo II della Rovere , Duke of Urbino. Guidobaldo had hoped to have the Jews and conversos of Turkey select Pesaro as
18125-429: The privileges granted them by Henry II of France , and protected them against accusations. Under Louis XIII of France , the conversos of Bayonne were assigned to the suburb of Saint-Esprit . At Saint-Esprit, as well as at Peyrehorade, Bidache, Orthez , Biarritz , and Saint-Jean-de-Luz , they gradually avowed Judaism openly. In 1640 several hundred conversos, considered to be Jews, were living at Saint-Jean-de-Luz; and
18270-530: The regulations for the Passover , which festival they celebrated far into the night." Officials seized several but released them after a few days. On the same day on which the conversos were freed, the Dominicans displayed a crucifix and a reliquary in glass from which a peculiar light issued in a side-chapel of their church, where several New Christians were present. A New Christian who tried to explain
18415-408: The secrecy surrounding their situation, the question is not easy to answer: probably the conversos themselves were divided, and could be ranged at different points between the possible positions. The suggested profiles are as follows: For these reasons, there was a continuous flow of people leaving Spain and Portugal (mostly Portugal) for places where they could practise Judaism openly, from 1492 until
18560-443: The standard out of African expansion. Viruses are informative in understanding the dynamics of evolutionary change due to their rapid mutation rate and fast generation time. Phylogeography is a useful tool in understanding the origins and distributions of different viral strains. A phylogeographic approach has been taken for many diseases that threaten human health, including dengue fever , rabies , influenza and HIV . Similarly,
18705-444: The study of the "principles and processes governing the geographic distributions of genealogical lineages... within and among closely related species." Early phylogeographic work has recently been criticized for its narrative nature and lack of statistical rigor (i.e. it did not statistically test alternative hypotheses). The only real method was Alan Templeton 's Nested Clade Analysis, which made use of an inference key to determine
18850-474: The third day all who could leave escaped, often with the help of other Portuguese. The killing spree lasted from 19 to 21 April, in what came to be known as the Lisbon massacre . King Manuel severely punished those who took part in the killings. The ringleaders and the Dominicans who encouraged the riot were also executed. Local people convicted of murder or pillage suffered corporal punishment and their property
18995-399: The time, the order was renewed in 1500 and again in 1501. On this occasion, it was definitively implemented. The Jews of Provence were given the option of conversion to Christianity and a number chose that option. However, after a short while – if only to compensate partially for the loss of revenues caused by the departure of the Jews – the king imposed a special tax, referred to as "the tax of
19140-430: The unconverted Jews from Spain was that the unconverted Jews had supported the New Christian conversos in the crypto-Jewish practices of the latter, thus delaying or preventing their assimilation into the Christian community. After the issuance of Spain's Alhambra Decree in 1492, a large proportion of the unconverted Jews chose exile rather than conversion, many of them crossing the border to Portugal. In Portugal, however,
19285-475: The validity of a given process in explaining the concordance between geographic distance and genetic relatedness. Recent approaches have taken a stronger statistical approach to phylogeography than was done initially. Example Climate change, such as the glaciation cycles of the past 2.4 million years, has periodically restricted some species into disjunct refugia. These restricted ranges may result in population bottlenecks that reduce genetic variation. Once
19430-587: The years following the expulsion due to the hardships many experienced in their resettlement. Many of Spain's Jews who left Spain as Jews also initially moved to Portugal, where they were subsequently forcibly converted to the Catholic Church in 1497. Most of the Jews who left Spain as Jews accepted the hospitality of Sultan Bayezid II and, after the Alhambra Decree, moved to the Ottoman Empire , where they founded communities openly practising
19575-535: Was a rebound of persecutions when a group of crypto-Jews was discovered in Quintanar de la Orden in 1588; and there was a rise in denunciations of conversos in the last decade of the sixteenth century. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, some conversos who had fled to Portugal began to return to Spain, fleeing the persecution of the Portuguese Inquisition , founded in 1536. This led to
19720-460: Was a steady trickle of crypto-Jewish marranos who wished to practice their faith freely to more liberal environments. One of their leaders who helped them get there was the Lisbon-born international banker, Gracia Mendes Nasi . They also migrated to Flanders , where they were attracted by its flourishing cities, such as Antwerp and Brussels . Conversos from Flanders, and others direct from
19865-480: Was achieved with the help of There are still Jewish communities in the North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla . These places, though treated in most respects as integral parts of Spain, escaped the Inquisition and the expulsion, so these communities regard themselves as the remnant of pre-expulsion Spanish Jewry. As Sephardic Jewish communities were established in central and northern Italy, following
20010-555: Was confiscated. The king granted religious freedom for 20 years to all conversos in an attempt at compensation. Lisbon lost Foral (municipal) privileges. The foreigners who had taken part generally escaped punishment, leaving with their ships. New Christians were attacked in Gouveia , Alentejo , Olivença , Santarém , and other places. In the Azores and the island of Madeira , mobs massacred former Jews. Because of these excesses,
20155-416: Was considerable mutual religious and intellectual influence between the groups. In a given city, there was often an "Italian synagogue" and a "Spanish synagogue", and occasionally a "German synagogue" as well. Many of these synagogues have since merged, but the diversity of rites survived in modern Italy. The Spanish Synagogue ( Scola Spagnola ) of Venice was originally regarded as the "mother synagogue" for
20300-494: Was established prior to the decree, surveilled New Christians to detect whether their conversion to Christianity was sincere. The vast majority of Jews in Spain had converted to Catholicism, perhaps under pressure from the Massacre of 1391 , and conversos numbered hundreds of thousands. They were monitored by the Spanish Inquisition and subject to suspicions by Old Christians of the secret practice of Judaism, whether or not that
20445-423: Was far more prevalent in Portugal than in Spain, even though many of these families were originally of Spanish rather than Portuguese descent. Over time, however, most crypto-Jews both of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry had left Portugal by the 18th century. Scholars are still divided on the typical religious loyalties of the conversos, in particular on whether they are appropriately described as "crypto-Jews". Given
20590-768: Was made by the New York Jewish Media Fund in 1997. After the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain (1492) and the Forced Conversion by Portugal's King Manuel I in Portugal (1497), conversos continued to be suspect in socially strained times. In Lisbon in 1506, a months-long plague caused people to look for scapegoats. Some became suspicious that conversos might be practicing Judaism and therefore be at fault. On April 17, 1506, several conversos were discovered who had in their possession "some lambs and poultry prepared according to Jewish custom; also unleavened bread and bitter herbs according to
20735-434: Was the case. In modern use, marrano can be considered offensive and pejorative, although some scholars continue to use the term interchangeably with converso or crypto-Jew. In modern Spanish, marrano means "pig", or, more often, "dirty person". Because of these possible meanings for the term Marrano might also be offensive to some descendants of Spanish Jews. The origin of the term Marrano as applied to crypto-Jews
20880-428: Was to seize control of the city, but fierce conflict erupted. Opponents set fire to houses of New Christians near the cathedral. The conflagration spread so rapidly that 1,600 houses were consumed. Both Old Christians and conversos perished. The brothers De la Torre were captured and hanged. Tensions arose in Córdoba between Old Christians and conversos , where they formed two hostile parties. On March 14, 1473, during
21025-426: Was vicariance biogeography, which explained the origin of new lineages through geological events like the drifting apart of continents or the formation of rivers. When a continuous population (or species) is divided by a new river or a new mountain range (i.e., a vicariance event), two populations (or species) are created. Paleogeography , geology and paleoecology are all important fields that supply information that
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