Class 3: The Making of the Western Sephardim

The 1492 Expulsion from Spain

In 1492, the Jews of Spain were given a grueling choice: convert to Catholicism and remain in the place they had called home for centuries or hold on to their Judaism and enter into exile (for background, see Class 1). Thousands of Jews left Spain and found refuge in North Africa, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire, where they established many Sephardic communities in the aftermath of the expulsion. However, the largest single group of Jews who left Spain in 1492 crossed over to neighboring Portugal. In Portugal, they joined a small existing Jewish community and quickly became an integral part of Portugal’s rapidly expanding overseas trade empire. Their refuge in Portugal was short-lived, however. 

Forced Conversions in Portugal and the Converso Experience

In 1497, King Manuel I of Portugal (1469–1521) forcibly converted the entire Jewish community of Portugal. No option of exile was offered. Within a matter of weeks, more than 100,000 Jews became Catholics. For generations, while living outwardly as Catholics, these Portuguese converts—known as conversos or New Christians—kept, to varying degrees, the memory of their Judaism alive. While many became devout Christians, some remained secretly committed to Jewish belief and practice. They were the target of the Inquisition and suffered imprisonment, loss of property, torture, and, in the most extreme cases, death at the stake for their heresy.

Reemergence of Judaism in Amsterdam

Almost a century after their forced conversion, small groups of Portuguese New Christians began to settle in Amsterdam. Thanks to the port city’s relatively tolerant attitude to religious minorities, they were eventually able to practice Judaism openly. By the 1630s, small communities of formerly Catholic Portuguese conversos existed throughout the Dutch Republic. These “New Jews,” as the great historian of the Jews of Amsterdam Yosef Kaplan called them, were primarily involved in international trade and were an integral part of Holland’s expanding overseas mercantile network. In 1656, Oliver Cromwell readmitted Jews to England and its colonies. 

When Portuguese Jews arrived in Amsterdam, there were no other Jews living in Holland. They reached out to the Ashkenazic rabbi Moses Uri ha-Levi of Emden (in what is today Germany), who was their first official teacher and spiritual leader. In the wake of the Khmel’nyts’kyi massacres of 1648, waves of Polish Jewish refugees sought refuge in Amsterdam and soon made up a large portion of the Jewish community even as the Sephardim maintained separate institutions.   

The Western Sephardim

By the second half of the seventeenth century, a network of Sephardic communities existed throughout the Dutch and English Atlantic. Historians refer to these communities as the Western Sephardim, to differentiate them from the Sephardim who settled in the Mediterranean basin. 

These highly mobile, cosmopolitan Jews created a Judaism that reflected their complex identity. They were at once the proud descendants of the Jews of Spain and also people who, before joining the Jewish community, had lived as Catholics for generations. Waves of New Christians arrived in Amsterdam, London, and the New World looking to return to Judaism. This required a massive project of reeducation that called for writing new prayer books, Bibles, books explaining Jewish belief and practice—all in Spanish and Portuguese. The community established a yeshiva that taught boys of all ages and trained future rabbis and created an elaborate structure of charitable institutions.

The Esnoga: Identity and Pride in Amsterdam

The synagogue became a central part of their religious identity. In 1675, the Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam inaugurated their grand synagogue, referred to in Portuguese as the Esnoga. The design was inspired by Jacob Judah León’s work on the Temple of Solomon: the sloping buttresses on the outside wall, the four pillars, the courtyard with its galleries and much more, all echoed the design of the ancient Temple. They were intentionally creating a Mikdash me’at (“small sanctuary”) that would not only be a place for prayer and study but would also serve as the public face of this proud community, reflecting its values and commitments. This synagogue was not hidden from view. It was built in a newly developed part of town and was a well-known destination for curious Christians to observe Jewish life. Designed by the famed non-Jewish Dutch architect Elias Bouman, the Esnoga is at once a paradigmatic work of the Dutch “Golden Age” and a powerful symbol of Jewish pride and hope.