Dr Judith R. Cohen spoke to the Sephardic World group on
Zoom and Facebook on 23rd August 2020. In “Music in the Lives of Crypto-Jews in Portugal”
she focused on the best-known Portuguese crypto-Jewish community, that of
Belmonte in the district of Castelo Branco.
As an ethnomusicologist, she has visited the area for decades and recorded the
last years of the semi-isolated community before the Internet entered all our lives. There are a number of villages and towns
with such communities but the tradition survived most strongly in Belmonte. In
the age of the Internet, mass tourism and transport, much has changed. Some of
the crypto-Jews have now embraced normative Judaism and have moved elsewhere,
including to Israel. Others are exhausted by the commercial exploitation and
Disneyfication of their community.
Judith touched on the history,
including the activities of Samuel Schwarz and Artur Carlos de Barros Basto. She
said that everyone in the villages knew who was “Jewish”. When the Inquisition
arrived, the question was not about whether someone was known to be “Jewish”
but whether they would be denounced by their non-Jewish neighbours. Her main focus
on the women and music. The music of the crypto-Jews differs from that of their
non-Jewish neighbours but and includes traditions that seem very old. Of
course, they have absorbed a lot of influences over the years.
Sadly the secular music of
the Western Sephardim – the Spanish & Portuguese Jews – has been lost, and
there are no commonalities between the secular music of the crypto-Jews and the
liturgical music of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews.
If you are applying for Portuguese citizenship due to
Sephardic ancestry and need a genealogist to research and prepare the genealogical
application documents for you, then please contact me at david*sephardicgenealogy.com
Replace the * with a @! I am a researcher totally focused on the Sephardim.
“Surname Reports” are not accepted for Portuguese nationality
applications. If you are applying for a Portuguese passport you need to provide
evidential documents. The family tree does not need to go all the way back to
Portugal, but needs to show your roots in a Sephardic synagogue. Portuguese
anti-discrimination laws means that you do not have to personally be Jewish to
apply for nationality.
I am only experienced in researching families with
ancestries in diaspora Jewish communities and can’t help those of crypto-Jewish
backgrounds (I suggest you contact your local genealogical society).
I do not work with lawyers, except those approved by the
Government of Portugal or foreign embassies in Portugal. Many citizenship applicants
do not use a solicitor. It is a matter of personal preference.
