Cryptic, these crypto Jews

Source:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=Portugal&itemNo=646978

Cryptic, these crypto Jews

By Ruth Almog
Last Update: 18/11/2005 08:34

"Hanotzrim Hakhadashim Beportugal Be'meah Ha'esrim" ("New Christians
in Portugal in the 20th Century") by Samuel Schwarz, translated from
Portuguese and annotated by Claude B. Stuczynski, Dinur Center for
Research in Jewish History & Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History,
287 pages.

It has taken 80 years for a Hebrew translation to come out of Samuel
Schwarz's book on the Cristaos Novos ?(New Christians?), published in
Portugal in 1925, although it deals with one of the most traumatic and
unforgettable chapters in Jewish history.

It is a story whose general lines are familiar to the Israeli public:
the discovery in Portugal of the descendants of the anusim, the crypto
Jews of Iberia, who have secretly practiced Jewish customs, kept
Jewish holidays and continued to recite special prayers until today.
They live in various villages and towns in Portugal, mainly in the
northeast of the country, in Beiras and Tras-os-Montes, but can also
be found in Porto and Coimbra in western Portugal.
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This book, with a detailed, in-depth introduction by Dr. Claude B.
Stuczynski, an expert in Portuguese Jewry, is a fascinating read, but
it also strikes an emotional chord. Appended to the text is a
collection of prayers translated into Hebrew ?(a collaborative effort
of the poet Shulamit Halevy and editor Ruth Toeg?), in addition to an
extensive bibliography.

Samuel Schwarz, born in Poland in 1880, received religious instruction
at a traditional "heder" as a child, but went on to study road and
bridge engineering in Paris. At the age of 24, with a degree in mining
engineering, he worked for oil refineries in Baku, Azerbaijan, and in
coal mines in Poland, England and Spain. At 34, he married the
daughter of a Zionist banker, Shmuel Barabash of Odessa. In the wake
of World War I, they fled Russia, finally settling in Lisbon,
Portugal. Working at a tin mine in east Portugal, Schwarz discovered
the New Christians, as the converted Jews of Portugal and its colonies
?(Brazil, Goa and Capo Verde?) were called.

When the kings of Castilla decided to "cleanse" their country of Jews,
members of the Jewish community were given the choice of converting to
Christianity or expulsion. The majority left, but a few converted.
Some of the Jews crossed the border into Portugal. Others went to
Morocco, France and Italy. Many chose to settle in the Ottoman Empire.
Scarcely five years had passed before the scenario repeated itself in
Portugal, when the king sought the hand of a member of the Castillian
royal family. But in this case, the Jews were not allowed to leave.
The entire Jewish population was forcibly baptized. A handful managed
to escape.

Burned at the stake
If it is true that close to 20 percent of the population of Portugal
was Jewish at the end of the 15th century, as the scholars claim, one
gets an idea of how many of today's Portuguese citizens have Jewish
roots. Over the years, they assimilated in Christian society, except
for small pockets of Jews who continued to practice their religion in
secret. Of those who clung to Judaism, many were tried by the
Inquisition in the 16th and 17th centuries. Such trials were even held
in Brazil. The accused were burned at the stake or imprisoned in
monasteries for the rest of their lives.

Notwithstanding all the persecution, one still finds small groups who
have preserved Jewish customs and recite Jewish prayers, albeit in
Portuguese. Three holidays are observed: Yom Kippur, Passover and the
Fast of Esther. In addition, they keep the Sabbath and pray three
times a day. They have special burial customs and do not eat pork on
the Sabbath or holidays. They marry only within the community.

As Claude Stuczynski observes, quite logically, the New Christian
phenomenon was probably more of a response to prejudice than a
"positive, self-motivated embrace of Jewish identity." The New
Christians were bitterly scorned and hated in Portugal. A pogrom in
Lisbon in the 16th century left more than 2,000 of them dead.
Stuczynski writes that until the early 20th century there were
churches in the northern provinces where New Christians were forced to
sit behind partitions.

"The Awakening," a wonderful novel by Spanish author Ana Maria Matute
published in Hebrew translation many years ago, challenges
Stuczynski's conclusion. In her account of growing up in Majorca in
the 20th century, Matute writes about the despised "chuetas" −
descendants of the local crypto Jews − who were actually devout
Catholics but were still treated with disdain and shunted to the
margins of society.

Samuel Schwarz writes about the New Christians of Belmonte and how
hard it was to gain their trust. He discovered that the women were the
ones who safeguarded these traditions and knew the prayers by heart.
At communal gatherings, they served as cantors and ran the services.
"These poor women did not know Hebrew and were not even aware it
existed," he says, "so they continued to be suspicious of me. This
went on until one evening, as we tried yet again to convince the New
Christians that we were members of the Jewish people, an old woman
asked us to recite at least one prayer in 'the Jewish language you say
is spoken by the Jews.'"

Schwarz chose the Shma prayer ?("Hear O Israel?). Each time he uttered
the word "adonay" ?("the Lord"?) the women covered their eyes with
their hands. "When we finished," he writes, "the old woman turned to
those around her and announced in a tone of great authority: 'The man
is a Jew. He said adonay!'"

Living in the dark
Schwarz, it bears pointing out, was not the first person to "discover"
the New Christians, but his encounter in Belmonte inspired him to
research the phenomenon, and the publication of his book triggered a
wave of writing on the subject, some of it anti-Semitic in tone.
Schwarz breaks new ground with his findings about the wide dispersion
of New Christian communities and the collection of prayers he appends
to the book.

One of these prayers is hauntingly similar to the "Yigdal Elhohim Hai"
?("Exalted is the Living God"?) hymn recited in the morning service −
a lyrical rendition of Maimonides' "Thirteen Principles of Faith." It
is called the "Ani Ma'amin" ?("I Believe"?) prayer and appears in the
original Portuguese, followed by a Hebrew translation, as are all the
prayers in the book. The Portuguese text is not an exact translation
of the Hebrew hymn, which is believed to have been written in Italy in
the 14th century by Emmanuel Haromi, but it is very close.

One cannot help but wonder how this hymn survived. The mind boggles to
think that Maimonides' "Thirteen Principles of Faith," composed in the
12th century and chanted toward the end of the morning service on
weekdays, became part of a Portuguese prayer recited by crypto Jews
who did not even know the Hebrew language existed and refused to talk
to Schwarz because they believed that secrecy was integral to their
religion. Incredibly, Maimonides' "Thirteen Principles," or the hymn
based on it, has survived in Portuguese for 500 years − and they never
even heard of Maimonides. Which shows how cultural values can live in
dark and unknown corners for hundreds of years until one day they
burst forth into the light, virtually unchanged, despite a change of
language.