Language:
English
Year of publication:
1994
Titel der Quelle:
Past and Present
Angaben zur Quelle:
143 (1994) 48-76
Keywords:
Pinto, Isaac de,
;
Crypto-Jews
;
Jews
;
Crypto-Jews
;
Crypto-Jews
Abstract:
Analyzes the condition of the Conversos in Spain and Portugal before and after the wave of violence of 1391 and the expulsion of 1492, showing how after the expulsion anti-Converso prejudice became more ethnic-racial than religious, and the stigma of Jewish origin became related to honor and social prestige. The status of Converso became inherited and was sanctionable through "limpieza de sangre" statutes. Under the threat of the Inquisition, Spanish and especially Portuguese Conversos developed special behavior patterns resulting from their dealing with conflict, stigma, and survival, based on Converso solidarity. Describes the forging of a Sephardic Converso identity, overwhelmingly Portuguese, within the newly settled communities in northwestern Europe (Amsterdam, Bordeaux, etc.). Although re-Judaized, these members of the "Portuguese nation" retained aristocratic pretensions and Iberian habits, as well as a strong feeling of separate ethnic belonging, thus keeping their distance from fellow Ashkenazi, Polish, and Italian Jews.
Note:
Especially in Amsterdam, Portugal and Spain.
URL:
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