Sephardic Spanish Nationality

The FCDE - the organisation of Spanish Jews - has published a statement on Sephardim receiving Spanish citizenship. Effectively they are saying that everything is provisional and that they are waiting instructions from the Spanish government on how to judge whether someone is eligible for a passport.

The Spanish Government seems to be confused. They believe:

• There are 3.5 million Sephardim. I would guess there is a fraction of that number assuming we classify 'Sephardim' as Jews of Iberian origin who belongs to a Sephardic synagogue of that origin. If we are being more lax, then I have seen estimates that there are 17 million Brazilians of Sephardic origin.
• There are Sephardic surnames. Not true. There are Spanish and Portuguese surnames used by Sephardim.
• That Sephardim come from Spain. Yes, people did, but a Sephardic identity only developed after 1492. Prior to that, Jews will have identified with their city or region.
• That Sephardic history in Spain ended in 1492. There is a whole tourist industry now re-vamping the old Jewish Quarters of cities. The 16th to 18th Centuries - the main Inquisition period - is erased from their consciousness.
• That 21st Century morality must be applied to people living in the 15th Century.
• Sephardim speak or spoke Ladino. Not true. Ladino was a language that evolved amongst the Eastern (Ottoman) Sephardim. Portuguese was the lingua franca of the Western Sephardim, although many also spoke Spanish.
• That it is possible to prove genealogy. I am probably unusual in having genealogy back to Spain, but this is to ancestors who escaped in 1700. 
• That Sephardim are a cohesive group originating in Spain. Not true. Other Jewish communities were absorbed by the Eastern Sephardim.
• There is a difference between Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Probably most Jews in Portugal in 1493 had recently arrived from Spain, but a substantial number were Portuguese natives.
• That the history is clean cut. It isn't. Perhaps a proportion of the ancestors of the Western Sephardim DIDN'T leave Spain in 1492. They kept their assets, and slipped out later.
• Sephardim have been yearning for Spain. Not true. It's a foreign country. Many of our ancestors were actively involved in fighting the Spanish Empire and undermining its economy.
• Sephardim can be identified. Well, no. Is someone - like me - with a Spanish surname, born into a Sephardic congregation but also with Ashkenazi ancestors, considered Sephardi by their terms? There is a famous Sephardic family called Eskenazi ('Ashkenazi'). Do we count them? What about descendants of Sephardim who later settled in eastern Europe, for example a branch of the Mendoza family who changed their name to Mendelevitch?
• In a simple 'Exodus'. Yet the descendants of many 1492 exiles later returned to Spain.
• Somehow the modern Spanish - probably most of whom now have some Sephardic ancestry - should apologise to us, many of whom probably have some non-Jewish ancestry
• One group of people who weren't alive or involved in the event should apologise to another group of people who weren't alive at the time, or involved (or, in some cases, aware that these events had happened).

I have seen it suggested that there is Sephardic DNA. This is not true. For example, I have impeccable Sephardic lineage, family members burnt alive etc, but my DNA is probably indistinguishable from most Spaniards or west Europeans.

Part of me wonders if even Spanish philo-Semitism springs out of the ferocious anti-Semitic tradition of the Spanish Catholic Church. Maybe Prime Minister Rajoy and his friends believe we are all rich and own America! Some (admittedly stupid) Spaniards on Twitter are suggesting Sephardic visas are an indication of Israeli hegemony. Why Israel would want Jews to live elsewhere is not discussed. Lets see if the initiative stokes anti-Semitism in Spain.

Spain has about 25% unemployment and is facing the richest region declaring independence. Surely they have more serious priorities than nostalgic fantasies. Presumably the outcome of all this nonsense will be several thousand Israelis and Turkish Jews getting passports so they can settle in Britain or Germany, if they choose.

And, of course, what about descendants of Muslims expelled from Spain? 

A report on the life of Uriel Acosta

A report on the life of Uriel Acosta:

"ACOSTA (Ariel) a Portugueza gentleman, in the sixteenth century: he was bred up in the romish religion, but afterwards embraced the Jewish, and was circumcised at Amsterdam. He soon perceived that the morals and rites of the Jews were not comfortable to the laws of Moses; upon which occasion it was impossible for him to be silent: upon this, he was excommunicated. He writ a book of his own vindication, wherein he shews, that the rites and traditions of the Pharisees clash directly with the writings of Moses. He had scarce begun this work, when he embraced the principles of the Sadducees. Acosta did not stop there; he imagined he had found solid reason to convince himself, that the law of Moses was merely of human invention. He returned again to the Jewish church, and retracted all he had written. Some time after, he was impeach’d by a nephew, of not observing the Jewish laws, either with respect to eating or other points; and for this was terribly persecuted. After failing in an attempt to kill his chief enemy, he shot himself."

Miller, Historical, genealogical, and classical dictionary. 1743

I think it is interesting that a Protestant, Bible-reading, commentator puts emphasis on circumcision as a meaningful equivalent of baptism, whereas the Inquisition would focus on some vague cultural practice, such as what day someone is alleged to clean their house.

Also, an encyclopaedia such as Miller's COULD NOT have been published in Spain. The Inquisition would have immediately arrested the publisher - who is simply sharing information and opinions - for heretical propositions. 

We can speculate about the differences between the mentalities of a Catholic and Protestant gentleman of the period. The former is supposed to conform to dogma and, even if he wanted, would have a problem finding books containing any alternative views. The latter is presented with the information and able to form his own opinions. 

Of course, France is always the exception to the rule, being a Catholic country but encouraging Enlightenment values (which, of course, ended in an anti-clerical Revolution). It seems obvious (to me!!) that the Enlightenment countries would pull ahead commercially and scientifically, while the Inquisition countries would fall behind.

Description of Inquisition torture, 1660s

Below is a description of the torture experienced by the eminent doctor and philosopher Isaac Orobio de Castro, also known as Balthasar Orobio de Castro. He later escaped to France where he became a professor at the University of Toulouse and medical consultant to Louis XIV. He eventually settled in Amsterdam where he openly embraced Judaism.

"The Method of Torturing, and the Degree of Tortures now used in the Spanish Inquisition, will be well understood from the History of Isaac Orobio, a Jew, and Doctor of Physick, who was accused to the Inquisition as a Jew, by a certain Moor his Servant, who had by his Order before this been whipped for Thieving; and four Years after this was again accused be a certain Enemy of his for another Fact, whoch would have proved him a Jew. But Orobio obstinately denied that he was one. I will here give the Account of his Torture, as I had it from his own Mouth. After three whole Years which he has been in Jail, and several Examinations, and the Discovery of the Crimes to him of which he was accused, in order to his Confession, and his constant Denial of them, he was at length carried out of his Jail, and thro’ several Turnings brought to the Place of Torture.  This was towards the Evening. It was a large under-ground Room, arched, and the Walls covered with black Hangings. The Candlesticks were fastened to the Wall, and the whole Room enlightened with Candles placed in them. At one End of it there was an inclosed Place like a Closet, where the Inquisitor and Notary sat at a Table; so that the Place seemed to him as the very Mansion of Death, every Thing appearing so terrible and awful. Here the Inquisitor again admonished him to confess the Truth, before his Torments began. When he answered he had told the Truth, the Inquisitor gravely protested, that since he was so obstinate as to suffer the Torture, the holy Office would be innocent, if he should shed his Blood, or even expire in his Torments. When he had said this, they put a Linnen Garment over his Body, and drew it so very close on each Side, as almost squeezed him to Death. When he  was almost dying, they slackned at once the Sides of the Garment; and after he began to breathe again, the sudden Alteration put him to the most grievous Anguish and Pain. When he had overcome this Torture the same Admonition was repeated, that he would confess the Truth, in order to prevent farther Torment . And as he persisted in his Denial, they tied his Thumbs so very tite with small Cords, as made the Extremities of them greatly swell, and caused the Blood to spurt out from under his Nails. After this he was placed with his Back against the Wall, and fixed upon a little Bench. Into the Wall were fastened little Iron Pullies, thro’ which there were Ropes drawn, and tied round his Body in several Places, and especially his Arms and Legs. The Executioner drawing these Ropes with great Violence, fastened his Body with them to the Wall; so that his Hands and Feet, and especially his Fingers and Toes being bound so straitly with them, put him to the most exquisite Pain, and seem to him just as though he had been dissolving in Flames. In the midst of these Torments the Torturer, of a sudden, drew the Bench from under him, so that the miserable Wretch hung by the Cords without the any Thing to support him, and but the Weight of his Body drew the Knots yet much closer. After this a new kind of Torture succeeded.  There was an Instrument like a small Ladder, made up of two upright Pieces of Wood, and five cross ones sharpned before. This the Torturer placed over against him, and by a certain proper Motion struck it with great Violence against both his Shins; so that he received upon each of them at once five violent Strokes, which put him to such intolerable Anguish that he fainted away. After he came to himself, they inflicted on him the last Torture. The Torturer tied Ropes about Orobio’s Wrists, and then put those Ropes about his own Back, which was covered with Leather, to prevent his hurting himself. Then falling backwards, and putting his Feet up against the Wall, he drew them with all his Might, till they cut thro’ Orobio’s Flesh, even to the very Bones, and this Torture was repeated thrice, the Ropes being tied about his Arms about the Distance of two Fingers Breadth from the former Wound, and drawn with the same Violence. But it happen’d that as the Ropes were drawing the second Time, they slid into the first Wound; which caused so great an Effusion of Blood, that he seemed to be dying. Upon this the Physician and Surgeon, who are always ready, were sent for out of a neighbouring Apartment, to ask their Advice, whether the Torture could be continued without danger of Death, lest the Ecclesiastical Judges should be guilty of an Irregularity, if the Criminal should die in his Torments. They, who were far from being Enemies to Orobio, answered, that he had Strength enough to endure the rest of the Torture, and hereby preserved him from having the Tortures he had already endured repeated on him, because his Sentence was, that he should suffer them all at one Time, one after another. So that if at any time they are forced to leave off thro’ fear of Death, all the Tortures, even those already suffered, must be successively inflicted, to satisfy the Sentence. Upon this the Torture was repeated the third Time, and then it ended. After this he was bound up in his own Clothes, and carried back to his Prison and was scarce healed of his Wounds in seventy Days. And inasmuch as he made no Confession under his Torture, but he was condemned, not as one convicted, but suspected of Judaism, to wear for two whole Years the infamous Habit called Sambenito, and after that Term to perpetual Banishment from the Kingdom of Seville."

Samuel Chandler. The History of Persecution. 1736. Page 242-246

An English 17th Century definition of the Inquisition

A 17th Century English definition of the Inquisition:

The Spanish INQUISITION, a Tribunal or great Council, first erected by Ferdinand, the Catholick King of Spain, and the Pope, to cause all Moors and Jews living there to be baptized: but now the Power of it is exercised with all Barbarity and Cruelty against Christians, under the Notion of Hereticks, and all that are not staunch Roman Catholicks.

Nathan Bailey, An universal etymological English dictionary, 1675

The Inquisition - An Overview

To dismiss the Inquisition as a bunch of reactionary religious nuts is too simplistic. The Inquisition was a church body with the task of suppressing heresy, meaning beliefs other than those sanctioned by the Catholic Church. It is worth noting that the early Church tolerated diversity of opinion and used persuasion to bring people back to orthodox beliefs.

The first significant outing of the Inquisition was the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, a sect in what is now southern France who advocated a purer form of Christianity. The Pope outsourced control of the local Inquisition to the King of France. The Kingdom of France was then one territory amongst several in what we now call France. By the end of the crusade, when the Cathars had been crushed, France had absorbed huge amounts of new territory in the Languedoc, often replacing local aristocrats with Frenchmen.

Catholic monarchs earned their legitimacy through Papal recognition so had an interest in suppressing theological opposition to the Papacy. The Medieval Catholic church was morally and financially corrupt and saw frequent outbursts of opposition from people wanting to purify the institution. Some of these, such as the Hussites, were serious challenges. The Papacy more or less kept the lid on dissent until many northern German princes supported the Reformation of Martin Luther.

In Italy, the Popes used the Roman Inquisition as a weapon in their fight for political supremacy against the [Holy Roman] Emperor.

In 1453 the Turkish army captured Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, creating the possibility of an Islamic conquest of Christendom. In the far west of Europe, the Christian kingdoms of the northern Iberian peninsula had slowly conquered their southern Islamic rivals, forcing many Muslims and Jews to convert. The two main Christian kingdoms, Castile and Aragon, joined together in a dynastic marriage. The monarchs had limited power over the autonomous cities and regions, and aristocrats with their own private armies.

I think maybe Spain was different from much of Europe in that it had three significant religious groups – Christian, Muslim and Jewish – and that national identity was fused with religious identity. The mob demanded discrimination against converted Jews and their descendants – the idea of purity of blood – which had no place in Catholic doctrine, but was accepted. The Inquisition only had authority over those who had converted to Catholicism (although later it implicitly recognised Protestant baptism as legitimate, so it could prosecute foreign-born Protestants).

The Inquisition in Spain was outsourced by the Papacy to the Monarchy, and was about the only national institution. I do not know the degree to which the Inquisition followed the Monarchy’s political agenda, but clearly a Spanish national identity emerged. Despite a number of eye-wateringly large bribes to the Vatican, the Inquisition was also established in Portugal. 

Within the Catholic Church the Inquisition came under the control of the Dominicans (an order of monks) who used it to bash their Franciscan rivals. The Inquisition controlled doctrine, so was immensely powerful in internal Church politics. Inquisitors – appointed by the Monarchy in Spain and Portugal - had some power over local bishops, often appointed by local aristocrats.

The Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition were self-funding out of property confiscated from their prisoners. Outside Iberia the Inquisition was clearly seen as unjust (for example, the secret denunciations and people not being tried in open court) and its officials experienced a number of popular revolts. I have the impression that the “Old Christian” majority in Spain and Portugal felt the Inquisition was on their side.

To be descended from heretics was itself a cause for suspicion of heresy, so New Christians (descendants of converted Jews) were an obvious and easy target. New Christians tended to be in commerce or the professions, the importance of which was not understood in a mercantilist economy. Targeting them was probably popular with ordinary people, who could feel superior to the ‘other’, while appearing to support Church doctrine and making a little money for the Monarchy. I sense there was also a political element, especially when Portugal broke away from Spain. The Portuguese identity of the victims was stressed.

Were the prisoners of the Inquisition authentic heretics in Catholic eyes? I suspect some were and many weren’t. Actually, I don’t think the “Jews” were a homogenous group. Maybe we can differentiate between the mega-wealthy who left Iberia around the turn of 16^th Century, those who were what me might describe as “middle class” and as tradesmen. I note that many New Christians remained in Spanish and Portuguese territory – or returned to it – when it was possible for them to live elsewhere. It may be that they had no choice, or that the Inquisition was seen as a risk of the job. I wonder if – as with the drug industry today – it was the less important people who got caught. Of course, once someone had been despoiled of their property and remained in Spain, they might be targeted again.

I note that when they had the opportunity, very many New Christians chose to assimilate into the general Catholic population.

The Inquisition was an organisation of individuals. I suspect some were sadistic and had mental health issues. Some probably genuinely believed they were helping their prisoners achieve salvation, a goal so important that the means justified the ends.

I plan to expand these thoughts on my Sephardic Genealogy website.

Jewish Exodus from Spain and Portugal, 1720-40

Mirabeau appears to say that 20,000 Sephardim left Iberia for England between 1720 and 1740. This figure seems very high.

It is a somewhat extraordinary circumstance, that the Spanish and Portuguese Israelites consider their German and Dutch brethren as vile remains of the tribe of Benjamin. With regard to themselves, they affirm that they are descended from the tribes which Nebuchadnezzar had transplanted to the banks of the Euphrates. The Arabian Caliphs, becoming masters of Asia, extended their conquest, by degrees, to Spain, where several Jewish families came to establish houses of commerce; and where they multiplied to such a degree, that, if we may believe them, all the families, both in Spain and Portugal, most distinguished for noble birth or opulence, are of Jewish extraction. The Spanish and Portuguese Christians warmly defend themselves from this imputation. They prefer, contrary to all probability, representing themselves as descended from Visigoth or Arian soldiers. Strange enough, for the Jewish race, being the most ancient, is consequently the noblest, in the world.

These Jewish families, after the establishment of the Inquisition, found means to compromise matters with that body. For money, and external conformity to the Christian religion, the inquisitors winked at them: they gave vent to their rage only against such fanatics as were obstinately determined to get themselves burnt. Tired of such a state of constraint, disgusted with the contempt which accompanied it, and allured by the tolerating spirit of the English, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews crossed the seas in great numbers, with immense wealth. From 1720 to 1740, the number exceeded twenty thousand.

Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti Mirabeau. Mirabeau's letters during his residence in England: with anecdotes ..., Volume 2. 1832

Roman Inquisition, 1843

This is an edict from the Roman Inquisition dated 1843. This is the same year the British were launching metal hulled ships and Verdi was writing opera. All other Inquisition had been abolished, even in Spain.

The Roman Inquisition was active in the Papal States, that part of Italy directly ruled by the Pope. The Pope at that time was the reactionary Gregory XVI (right) who even opposed gas lighting and railways. The edict was an international public relations disaster for the Catholic Church. Its mean-mindedness will have made life harder for Jews in Ancona and Sinigaglia, and no doubt some of them emigrated.

We, Fra Vicenzo Salina, of the Order of Predicatori, Master in Theology, General Inquisitor in Ancona, Sinigaglia, Jesi, Osinio, Cingoli, Macerata, Tolentino, Loreto, Recanati, and other towns and districts, &c.

It being deemed necessary to revive the full observance of the disciplinary laws relative to the Israelites residing within our jurisdiction, and having hitherto without effect employed prayers and exhortations to obtain obedience to those laws in the Ghetti (Jewries) of Ancona and Sinigaglia, authorized by the despatch of the Sacred and Supreme Inquisition of Rome, dated June 10, 1843, expressly enjoining and commanding the observance of the decrees and pontifical constitutions, especially in respect to Christian nurses and domestic servants, or to the sale of property either in towns or country districts, purchased and possessed previously to 1827, as well as subsequently to that period, we decree as follows:—

1. From the interval of two months after the date of this day, all gipsy and Christian domestics, male and female, whether employed by day or by night, must be dismissed from service, in the said two Ghetti; and all Jews residing within our jurisdiction are expressly prohibited from employing any Christian nurse, or availing themselves of the service of any Christian in any domestic occupation whatever, under pain of being immediately punished according to the Pontifical decrees and constitutions.

2. That all Jews who may possess property, either in town or country, permanent or moveable, or rents or interest, or any right involving shares in funded property, or leased landed property, must within the term of three months from this day dispose of it by a positive and real, and not by any pretended and factitious, contract. Should this not be done within the time specified, the Holy Office is to sell the same by public auction, on proof of the annual harvest being got in.

3. That no Hebrew nurses, and still less any Hebrew family, shall inhabit the city, or reside in, or remove their property into, any town or district where there is no Ghetto (place of residence for Jews); and that such as may actually be there in contumacy to the laws must return to their respective Ghetto within the peremptory period of six months, otherwise they will be proceeded against according to the tenour of the law.

4. That, especially in any city where there is a Ghetto, no Hebrew must presume to associate at table with Christians, either in public houses or ordinaries, out of the Ghetto.

5. That, in a city which has a Ghetto, no Hebrew shall sleep out of the Israelite quarter, nor make free to enter into familiar conversation in a Christian house.

6. That no Hebrew shall take the liberty, under any pretext whatever, to induce male Christians, and still less female Christians, to sleep within the boundaries of the Ghetto.

7. That no Hebrew shall hire Christians, even only by the day, to work in their houses in the Ghetto.

8. That no Hebrew, either male or female, shall frequent the houses of Christians, or maintain friendly relations with Christian men or women.

9. That the laws shall remain in force respecting the decorum to be observed by the Hebrews who may absent themselves from their Ghetto, to travel in other parts of the state.

10. That all Hebrews are expressly prohibited from trafficking in sacred ornaments, or books of any kind, and from purchasing, reading, or keeping possession of prohibited hooks of any sort, under the penalty of 100 scudi and seven years' imprisonment; and they who may have such articles in their possession must surrender them to the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition; and in case of failing to do so, they will be subject to the above-mentioned penalty.

11. That the Hebrews, in conveying their dead to the place of burial, shall not observe any pomp or ceremony, and must especially abstain from singing psalms, or carrying torches or lighted tapers through the streets without the boundaries of the Ghetto, under pain of forfeiting the torches and tapers, and suffering other punishments, to which the nearest relative of the deceased will be condemned.

They who violate the above articles will incur some or all of the penalties prescribed in the edicts of the Holy Inquisition. And in order that no one may be ignorant of the dispositions above decreed, they shall be formally communicated to the deputies and representatives of the Israelite community of this Ghetto of Ancona, with the injunction that the same shall be published in the synagogue, the present edict being affixed thereto; and these dispositions are to be enforced in the same manner as if they were made known to all and every one, and notice must he given forthwith to the Hebrews residing out of Ancona, but belonging to this Ghetto.

Given at Ancona, in the Chancellery of the Holy Inquisition, on the 24th of June, 1843.

FRA VICENZO SALINA, General Inquisitor.
Don VITALIANO BURATTINI (for the Chancellor).