Crypto-Jewish Traditions

The list below is a small compilation of crypto-Jewish customs that originated in XV Century Spain and Portugal. These customs are still practiced by many families throughout South America, New Mexico, Spain, and Portugal. When analyzing the list, remember that each family might have their own adaptions of the traditions.



General Traditions



□ Did someone in the family (father, grandfather, or other relatives) ever said anything about the family having Jewish roots?

□ Was there any ancient Jewish community in the city where your family came from?

□ Did anyone in the family speak an unknown language that sounded like a “different” Spanish? Ladino?

□ Any relatives avoided the catholic churches?

□ Anyone in the family participated in secret meetings, or in meetings where only the men or fathers where allowed to attend? Any secret prayer group?

□ Were biblical names common in the family?



Meals



□ Was the practice of fasting common?

□ Was it prohibited to eat meat with blood, sometimes the nerves were removed with a special knife?

□ Were eggs with blood patches thrown away?

□ Was pork meat not eaten, and if so, did they say it was not healthy, or that it is heavy?

□ Milk and meat were not cooked together?

□ Only food prepared by the mother or by the maternal grnadmother was considered “good”?

□ A boy would fast for 24 hrs when he completed 7 years of age?

□ They kissed the piece of bread that fell on the floor?

□ It was prohibited to eat the meat of animal of warm blood that was not bleed?

□ Fish without scales where not considered good? Mollusks and sea food were considered not good?

□ When they served some drink (wine, beer, rum, cognac…) some of the drink was thrown on the ground “for the saint”?

□ In some homes (sometimes of the older people) the dinner table had drawers?



Customs



□ Used to light candles on Friday night?

□ Was there closet (oratorio), or wooden box where candles were lit and the doors were closed?

□ Celebrated eastern, would fast during “semana santa”?

□ Cleaned the house on Fridays during the daytime?

□ It was prohibited to do much on Friday night, even wash the hair?

□ On Saturdays candles were lit in front of the altar and would burn until the end of the day?

□ There were meetings on Friday night?

□ There were special clothes for Saturday, sometimes they were simply new or clean clothes?

□ Celebrations that were different from the catholic ones, such as

Dia Puro, or a spring festivity.

□Sometimes eight □candles □were lit for christimas?

□ When something important or sad happened they would rip their clothes?

□ Would they sweep the floor away from the door as superstition?

□ Would they sweep from the corners to the middle of the room then pick up the garbage?

□ Would they bless the children by placing their hands on the child’s head?

□ Did they believe that it was not good to point to the stars? Some believe mole would grow on their fingers?



Funerals



□ Did they cover all mirrors in the home when someone passed away?

□ Did they put rocks near the tombs when they visited?

□ Did they change the water in the home of the deceased?

□ Did they cut the nails and hair of the deceased and sometimes wrapped them on a paper or cloth?

□ The body was buried as soon as possible?

□ The house was washed after the funeral?

□ During one week the room of the deceased was kept with the lights on?

□ There were candles in the rooms of the house of the deceased, and almost no one came in or out of the house?

□ The men let their beards grow for a while?

□ Did they keep the seat of the deceased at the table, served him full meals, and gave the meals to a homeless or poor person?

□ Did not eat red meat for one week after a death in the family?

□ Did they fast in some periods after the passing away?

□ Did they invite a homeless into the house to eat and served him the food that the deceased liked the most?

□ The women of the family had to cover their faces with a veil?

□ They went into the room of the deceased for eight days and said: “May G-d give you a good night. You were like us, we will be like you.”

□ Passed a golden coin, or bread on the deceased’s mouth and then gave it to a homeless?

□ Gave charity in every corner until the procession reached the cemetery?

□ Gave nice clothes and food to at least one homeless every Saturday during one year?

□ Had many lit candles on the days before

Dia Puro for the deceased?

□In some places there was a man known as the “abafador”, who used to help the people who were gravelly sick, before the doctor came into the house. They abafador would close the door, and stop the sick person from breathing, saying very calmly: “ come one my son (daughter), our G-d is waiting for you!” after the work was done, the abafador would go to the relatives and say: “he went like a little bird…”



Birth



□ Did they put a rooster’s head on top of the door where the birth was going to take place?

□ After giving birth, the mother could not undress herself or change her clothes for 30 days. She had to rest in bed, and she had to stay from contact with other people for 30 days. Also, during menstrual periods she would be more isolated?

□ During those 30 days the woman would only eat chicken, in the morning, afternoon, and night, in order to get her strength back?

□ Did they throw a silver coin in the baby’s first bath?

□ Was there a special prayer said on the 8th day after the baby boy was born, where his name was mentioned?

□ Was there a circumcision or a baptism on the 8th after the baby was born?

□ Did they light a candle or a lamp in the room where the birth would take place because the baby could not stay in the dark until he was either circumcised or baptized?



Wedding



□ The family had no problem marrying close relatives? Cousins?

□ The family would marry into another “good” family?

□ The bride, groom, father and mother-in-law had to fast on the day of the wedding?

□ In the ceremony the hands of the couple was tied by a white cloth?

□ After the ceremony a meal was served with wine, herbs, honey, salt, and unleavened brad?

□ Bride and groom ate and drank from the same plate and cup?



source: translated from Portuguese

based partially from the material found at

Memorial Brasil-Sefarad

http://www.geocities.com/brasilsefarad/





B'nei Anusim Personalities




Antonio Jose da Silva The Jew

"Antonio José da Silva, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1705. He belonged to a family of "New Christians" (Jews forced to convert), suspected of remaining secretly loyal to Judaism. Silva practiced law in Portugal and wrote a number of vigorous, satiric plays. Brought before the Inquisition in 1737, he and his family were convicted of practicing Jewish rites, strangled, and burned at the stake in 1739."

source: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2007



Branca Dias

"Branca Dias is an outstanding Jewish figure in Pernambuco's (State located at Northeatern Brazil) history , who spent 15 months in an Inquisition prison in her native Portugal and was denounced again after her death."

"Most of Recife’s (city in Northeastern Brazil) neighborhoods and many surrounding suburbs take their names from the sugar mills that once dotted the landscape. The oldest standing plantation house is at Camaragibe", (...) which "was owned by Diogo Fernandes and Branca Dias, who had a clandestine synagogue in their home that was used on major Jewish holidays."

source:The Jewish Traveler: Recife by Alan M. Tigay



Luis de Carvajal

Luis de Carvajal died at the stake in the Inquisition on Dec. 8, 1596, after being tortured and denouncing his entire family.

De Carvajal was a member of a distinguished family of Mexican crypto-Jews, he was first tried in Mexico City in 1590 and was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in an asylum, but eventually released.

Back on trial in 1596, de Carvajal was shown a manuscript beginning with the words: “In the name of the Lord of Hosts” (a translation of the Hebrew invocation, “b’hem Adonai Zevaot”), which he acknowledged as his autobiography. He and his brother Baltasar had also composed hymns and dirges for Jewish fasts.

Shortly before his death in the auto-da-fe, he wrote his monotheistic principles, partly modeled after Maimonides’ “Thirteen Principles of Faith.”

source: “Scorched Parchments and Tortured Memories: The ‘Jewishness’ of the Anussim, by Moshe Lazar



Donna Gracia Mendes

Philanthropist and Jewish Leader of Marrano extract. She married a banker and merchant, Francisco Mendes, also a Marrano, and was widowed with a daughter at age 26. Moving to Antwep to join the banking business with her brother-in-law Diogo Mendes, they established an underground organization to help fleeing Marranos. In Ferrara, she declared her Judaism and took on the name Nasi. She later relocated to Constantinople where she used her wealth for various philanthropies including establishing yeshivot, synagogues, and feeding the poor. When in 1555 the Italian city of Ancona burned 25 Marranos, she tried to organize a boycott of the port but was opposed by rabbinical authorities and some merchants. She passed on her influence to her son-in-law and nephew, Don Joseph Nasi. source:www.jewishhistory.org.il



Jose da Costa Villarreal

Was Proveditore General to the armies of the King of Portugal. In 1726, a charge of Judaizing was brought against him, and it came to his ears that his arrest was about to be ordered. As it happened a great fire broke out. Profiting by the confusion, he embarked for England on one of his ships which happened to be in harbor, together with as much property as he could collect and seventeen members of his family, including his aged parents. The total value of the fortune which they thus brought with them was said to exceed L 300,000. Immediately on their arrival in London, the family openly declared their adhesion to Judaism. The males underwent circumcision, Led by the old father, then in his seventy-fourth year. All assumed Hebrew names to replace those which they had been given at baptism; and those who had wives saw to it that their marriages were re-solemnized in synagogue. As a thank-offering for their escape, large sums were given to charity; and a school for Jewish girls, which still exists under the name Vilarreal School, was endowed.

source: http://members.aol.com/daniel5822/Jewish.html

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