The Portuguese Jews Of Hamburg

The political and economic rise of this small but influential community of New Christian bankers and merchants is analysed against the backdrop of its institutional dynamics, in an overall perspective never before conceived. The political, religious, economic, legal, charitable and disciplinary history of the community is thus explored through the analysis of the richly detailed protocol books, written between 1652 and 1682. This is the intimate and fascinating journey of their everyday lives, hopes and challenges, as brought to us by their leaders.

What impact did the cultural origins and religious backgrounds of the merchants in the early modern period have on their business activities? How did these people manage to integrate themselves into the foreign societies within which they lived and worked? In this book Jorun Poettering examines the circumstances of the merchants who traded between Hamburg and Portugal in the seventeenth century. Her study offers new insights into the history of migration and intercultural encounter as world became more interconnected.

Portuguese Jews, New Christians and ‘New Jews’ provides state-of-the-art and new insights on Portuguese Sephardic History as a tribute to Roberto Bachmann.

Jews in the Early Modern World presents a comparative and global history of the Jews for the early modern period, 1400-1700. It traces the remarkable demographic changes experienced by Jews around the globe and assesses the impact of those changes on Jewish communal and social structures, religious and cultural practices, and relations with non-Jews.

In the seventeenth century, Amsterdam took in several thousand New Christians from the Iberian peninsula, descendants of Jews who had been forcibly baptized some two hundred years earlier. Shortly after their initial settlement, the members of this mostly Portuguese refugee community chose to manifest themselves as Jews again. No real obstacles were put in their way. The tolerance extended to them by the Amsterdam authorities was as exemplary as their new-found commitment to Jewish orthodoxy (barring a few famous instances) was strong. These circumstances engendered the new dynamic of a traditional Jewish society creatively engaged with the non-Jewish, secular world in relative harmony. Amsterdam's Portuguese Jewry was in this sense the first modern Jewish community. Through a fresh and rigorous approach to the documents, Daniel Swetschinki's lively and original portrait of this justly famous community presents some unexpected conclusions. As well as characterizing the major dimensions of the New Christian migrations and identifying trends within an array of economic activities, it explores the appeal that Judaism as a religion and as a communal structure exercised. Throughout, the analysis focuses on the common rather than the exceptional and seeks the centre from which the interrelationship of all the constituent parts may be grasped. Swetschinski's emphasis is on the social dimension of Portuguese Jewish economic and religious life, formal and informal. He thereby uncovers the internal dynamics of this remarkable Jewish community that moulded a renegade New Christian population into a model Jewish society, 'model' in the sense that it had the support of proponents of modernity and traditionalism alike and also won the respect of the Christian population. His research adds a broad and authentic vision to the panoply of images of early modern Jewish history and enables him to offer new insights into the troublesome question of the transition from medieval to modern Judaism.

The reputed wealth and benevolence of the Portuguese Jews of early modern Amsterdam attracted many impoverished people to the city, both ex-Conversos from the Iberian peninsula and Jews from many other countries. In describing the consequences of that migration in terms of demography, admission policy, charitable institutions—public and private—philanthropy and daily life, and the dynamics of the relationship between the rich and the poor, Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld adds a nuanced new dimension to the understanding of Jewish life in the early modern period.

History of the Jews is the first comprehensive history of the Jewish people, written by Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz. This universal history offers an insight in Jewish history, covering the period from the early days to modern times. The work is divided in six volumes: Vol. I: From the Earliest Period to the Death of Simon the Maccabee (135 B. C. E.) Vol. II: From the Reign of Hyrcanus (135 B. C. E.) to the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud (500 C. E.) Vol. III: From the Revolt against the Zendik (511 C. E.) to the Capture of St. Jean d'Acre by the Mahometans (1291 C. E.) Vol. IV: From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C. E.) to the Permanent Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C. E.) Vol. V: From the Chmielnicki Persecution of the Jews in Poland (1648 C. E.) to the Period of Emancipation in Central Europe (c. 1870 C. E.) Vol. VI: Chronological Table of Jewish History.

Reproduction of the original: History of the Jews by Heinrich Graetz