ex-conversos -- Jews whose families initially remained in Spain and Portugal as ostensible New Christians, that is, as Anusim or "forced [converts]".
Sephardic Bnei Anusim -- contemporary and largely nominal Christian descendants of assimilated 15th century Sephardic conversors.
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| Map by Balthasar Florisz van Berckenrode (1625) with the present location of the Moses and Aaron Church in white, but also the spot where Spinoza (1632-1677) grew up. |
Spinoza's magnum opus, the Ethics, was published posthumously in the year of his death. The work opposed Descartes' philosophy of mind–body dualism and earned Spinoza recognition as one of Western philosophy's most important thinkers. In it, "Spinoza wrote the last indisputable Latin masterpiece, and one in which the refined conceptions of medieval philosophy are finally turned against themselves and destroyed entirely"
Hegel said, "The fact is that Spinoza is made a testing-point in modern philosophy, so that it may really be said: You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all."[ His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted Gilles Deleuze to name him "the 'prince' of philosophers."
1135 -- Maimonides born in Moorish Cordoba. Dies in Cairo in 1204.
1236 -- Spanish reconquest of Cordoba.
1492 -- The Alhambra Decree. Forced conversion of Jews in Spain.
Henry Kamen and Joseph Perez estimate that of the total Jewish origin population of Spain at the time of the issuance of the Alhambra Decree, those who chose to remain in Spain represented the majority, up to 300,000 of a total Jewish origin population of 350,000.
Departure of the Eastern Sephardim from Spain, settling in the Near East and the Balkans of Ottoman Empire
Eastern Sephardim comprise the descendants of the expellees from Spain who left as Jews in 1492 or prior. This sub-group of Sephardim settled mostly in various parts of the Ottoman Empire, which included areas in the Near East (West Asia's Middle East such as Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt), and the Balkans in Southeastern Europe.
They settled particularly in European cities ruled by the Ottoman Empire, including Salonica in what is today Greece; Constantinople, which today is known as Istanbul on the European portion of modern Turkey; and Sarajevo, in what is today Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sephardic Jews also lived in Bulgaria, where they absorbed into their community the Romaniote Jews they found already living there. They had a presence as well in Walachia in what is today southern Romania, where there is still a functioning Sephardic Synagogue. Their traditional language is referred to as Judezmo ("Jewish [language]"). It is Judaeo-Spanish, sometimes also known as Ladino, which consisted of the medieval Spanish and Portuguese they spoke in Iberia, with admixtures of Hebrew, and the languages around them, especially Turkish. This Judeo-Spanish language was often written in Rashi script.
Departure of the North African Sephardim from Spain
The Haketia language (also known as "Tetouani" in Algeria), an Arabic-influenced Judaeo-Spanish variety also derived from Old Spanish, with numerous Hebrew and Aramaic terms, was spoken by North African Sephardim, who left after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. The main feature of this dialect is the strong influence of the Jebli Arabic dialect of northern Morocco.
Conversion of the Western Sephardim to Christianity. Many of whom later reconvert to Judaism...
Western Sephardim (also known more ambiguously as "Spanish and Portuguese Jews", "Spanish Jews", "Portuguese Jews" and "Jews of the Portuguese Nation") are the community of Jewish ex-conversos whose families initially remained in Spain and Portugal as ostensible New Christians, that is, as Anusim or "forced [converts]". Western Sephardim are further sub-divided into an Old World branch and a New World branch.
...except in the Spanish New World.
Due to the presence of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition in the New World Am erican territories, initially converso immigration was barred throughout much of Ibero-America. Because of this, very few converso immigrants in Iberian American colonies ever reverted to Judaism.
...and with the number of never-reconverted Jews being quite high in proportion
The Sephardic Bnei Anusim consists of the contemporary and largely nominal Christian descendants of assimilated 15th century Sephardic anusim. These descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews forced or coerced to convert to Catholicism remained as conversos in Iberia or moved to the Iberian colonial possessions across various Latin American countries during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
The Jewish Agency for Israel estimates the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population to number in the millions. Their population size is several times larger than the three Jewish-integrated Sephardi descendant sub-groups combined, consisting of Eastern Sephardim, North African Sephardim, and the ex-converso Western Sephardim (both New World and Old World branches).
Overall, it is now estimated that up to 20% of modern-day Spaniards and 10% of colonial Latin America's Iberian settlers may have been of Sephardic origin, although the regional distribution of their settlement was uneven throughout the colonies. Thus, Iberian settlers of New Christian Sephardi-origin ranged anywhere from none in most areas, to as high as 1 in every 3 (approx. 30%) Iberian settlers in other areas. With Latin America's current population standing at close to 590 million people, the bulk of which consists of persons of full or partial Iberian ancestry (both New World Hispanics and Brazilians, whether they're criollos, mestizos or mulattos), it is estimated that up to 50 million of these possess Sephardic Jewish ancestry to some degree.1497 -- Expulsion of Jews from Portugal. Some in Spain and Portugal remain as marranos, secretly practicing Judaism.
1536 -- Institution of the Portuguese Inquisition.
The major target of the Portuguese Inquisition were those who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism, the Conversos, also known as New Christians, Conversos or Marranos, who were suspected of secretly practicing Judaism. Many of these were originally Spanish Jews who had left Spain for Portugal, when Spain forced Jews to convert to Christianity or leave. The number of victims is estimated as around 40,000.As in Spain, the Inquisition was subject to the authority of the King. It was headed by a Grand Inquisitor, or General Inquisitor, named by the Pope but selected by the king, always from within the royal family. The Grand Inquisitor would later nominate other inquisitors
1581 -- The Dutch Revolt. The Protestant regions of the Netherlands declare formal independence from Spain, leading to eighty years of brutal on-and-off warfare.
1593 -- Arrival of Marrano Jews in Amsterdam (secretly-practicing Jews from Portugal)
These Jews of Converso descent were important merchants, and persons of great ability. Their expertise, it can be stated, contributed materially to the prosperity of the Netherlands. They became strenuous supporters of the contender House of Orange, and were in return protected by the Stadholder. At this time, commerce in Holland was increasing; a period of development had arrived, particularly for Amsterdam, to which Jews had carried their goods and from which they maintained their relations with foreign lands. Quite new for the Netherlands, they also held connections with the Levant, Morocco and the Caribbean Antilles. [WP]1602 -- Formation of the Dutch East India Company
1603 -- Formal tolerance of the practice of Judaism in Amsterdam.
1609 -- Hudson arrives in New York Harbor.
1619 -- Dutch East India Company occupies Jakarta.
1621 -- Formation of the Dutch West India Company.
1624 -- Establishment of New Amsterdam by the Dutch West India Company,
1626 -- Arrival of the first captive Africans to New Amsterdam.
1632 -- Birth of Spinoza in Amsterdam.
Baruch (de) Spinoza, born Baruch Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent Benedictus de Spinoza, anglicized to Benedict de Spinoza; a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin.[
Spinoza's ancestors were of Sephardic Jewish descent and were a part of the community of Portuguese Jews that had settled in the city of Amsterdam in the wake of the Portuguese Inquisition (1536), which had resulted in forced conversions and expulsions from the Iberian Peninsula.
1648 -- Arrival of the first Ashkenazi Jews in Amsterdam, fleeing from a war in Poland.
by 1674, some 5,000 Ashkenazi Jews were living in Amsterdam, while 2,500 Sephardic Jews called Amsterdam their home. Many of the new Ashkenazi immigrants were poor, contrary to their relatively wealthy Sephardic co-religionists. They were only allowed in Amsterdam because of the financial aid promised to them and other guarantees given to the Amsterdam city council by the Sephardic community, despite the religious and cultural differences between them.1654 -- Establishment of the Oldest Jewish congregation in the present-day United States, in Dutch New Amsterdam.
1655 -- First slave auction in New Amsterdam
1671 -- First Ashkenazi synagogue in Amsterdam.
Only in 1671 did the large Ashkenazi community inaugurate their own synagogue, the Great Synagogue,which stood opposite to the Sephardic Esnoga Synagogue. Soon after, several other synagogues were built, among them the Obbene Shul (1685-1686), the Dritt Shul (1700) and the Neie Shul (1752, also known as the New Synagogue). For a long time, the Ashkenazi community was strongly focused on Central and Eastern Europe, the region where most of the Dutch Ashkenazi originated from. Rabbis, cantors and teachers hailed from Poland and Germany.
1677 -- published -- Spinoza, Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order (Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrata), usually known as the Ethics,
is a philosophical treatise written in Latin by Benedictus de Spinoza. It was written between 1661 and 1675 and was first published posthumously in 1677.
The book is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to apply the method of Euclid in philosophy. Spinoza puts forward a small number of definitions and axioms from which he attempts to derive hundreds of propositions and corollaries, such as "When the Mind imagines its own lack of power, it is saddened by it", "A free man thinks of nothing less than of death", and "The human Mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the Body, but something of it remains which is eternal.
1. God IS the natural universe.
God is Nature and Nature is God (Deus sive Natura).
The first part of the book addresses the relationship between God and the universe. Spinoza was engaging with a Tradition that held: God exists outside of the universe; God created the universe for a reason; and God could have created a different universe according to his will. Spinoza denies each point. According to Spinoza, God is the natural world.
2a. Descartes was wrong about mind and body. Free will does not exist
The second part focuses on the human mind and body. Spinoza attacks several Cartesian positions
Spinoza argues that the mind and the body are a single thing that is being thought of in two different ways.
...there is no difference between contemplating an idea and thinking that it is true, and there is no freedom of the will at all
2b. Sensory knowledge cannot be trusted. Only higher knowledge of the mind can be trusted. The mind is capable of direct intuitive experience of God.
Sensory perception, which Spinoza calls "knowledge of the first kind", is entirely inaccurate, since it reflects how our own bodies work more than how things really are. We can also have a kind of accurate knowledge called "knowledge of the second kind", or "reason".
We can also have "knowledge of the third kind", or "intuitive knowledge". This is a sort of knowledge that, somehow, relates particular things to the nature of God.
3. "Conatus" (striving) rules our emotions
In the third part of the Ethics, Spinoza argues that all things, including human beings, strive to persevere in their being. This is usually taken to mean that things try to last for as long as they can. Spinoza explains how this striving ("conatus") underlies our emotions (love, hate, joy, sadness and so on).
4. Our strivings make a perfect human society impossible.
The fourth part analyzes human passions, which Spinoza sees as aspects of the mind that direct us outwards to seek what gives pleasure and shun what gives pain. The "bondage" he refers to is domination by these passions or "affects" as he calls them. Spinoza considers how the affects, ungoverned, can torment people and make it impossible for mankind to live in harmony with one another.
5. Humans are capable of seeing things in a light beyond passion.(under the aspect of eternity)
The fifth part argues that reason can govern the affects in the pursuit of virtue, which for Spinoza is self-preservation: only with the aid of reason can humans distinguish the passions that truly aid virtue from those that are ultimately harmful. By reason, we can see things as they truly are, sub specie aeternitatis, "under the aspect of eternity," and because Spinoza treats God and nature as indistinguishable, by knowing things as they are we improve our knowledge of God. Seeing that all things are determined by nature to be as they are, we can achieve the rational tranquility that best promotes our happiness, and liberate ourselves from being driven by our passions.
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