The Odyssey of the Portuguese Jews
By Manuel Luciano da Silva, MD
It was a remarkable success. The cultural conference,
entitled The Odyssey of the Portuguese Jews, was held on Sunday, February
21, 1999, in the main amphitheater of the new building of the Faculty
of Economics at Roger Williams University (Bristol, Rhode Island). Even
before the scheduled time the room was filled to capacity including
the lateral corridors. The subject matter had awakened such avid interest
in the cultural history of New England that a large audience was drawn
from numerous localities in Rhode Island as well as from neighboring
states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and even New York.
Various groups had to be turned away because there was no more room
in the amphitheater!
The conference was convened by Mr. Steven Gorban, director of the group
called Saudades-Sephardic Project, whose objective is to converge all
the good intentions of Portuguese Sephardic Jews, uniting in a brotherly
manner and in communion with all the Portuguese scattered throughout
the world. Mr. Gorban emphasized that: Five hundred years ago, due to
the Inquisition, the Portuguese Sephardic Jews had been separated from
all other Portuguese. The time has come for us to initiate a new period
called "The Next 500 Years" and employ all our energies to
stimulate the friendship and the spirit of mutual respect among all
Portuguese Sephardic Jews, Catholics and Moors. After a short introduction
by Mr. Gorban, I began my lecture with color slides. I started by presenting,
systematically, geographic information in order to provide a better
understanding of the relationship between Judea or Palestine and the
land that much later gave birth to Portugal.
A map of the Atlantic Ocean was displayed depicting the gradual separation
of the continents 125 millions ago when Portugal was part of New England!
Today, the American continent continues to drift away from Europe, about
one inch per year, this being the very cause for the constant threat
of a huge earthquake in California! The theory of the gradual separation
of the continents was first developed by the German meteorologist, Alfred
Wegener, who wrote, in 1915, The Origins of the Oceans. At that time
his ideas were much criticized by the community of geologists, but today
his theory is totally accepted!
With the separation of the continents the Mediterranean Sea (meaning
sea in the middle of the earth) was created. Much later several nations
were established around its shores. After the last glacial period, 10,000
years ago, the human race began to scatter throughout Europe. The peoples
from Mesopotamia and Middle East began using the Mediterranean Sea to
fish, transport and colonize.
The honors must go to the people of Phoenicia, today's Lebanon. Because
they possessed an abundance of special cedars growing on their mountains,
they cut down these trees to build their prototype boats, permitting
them to navigate easily throughout the entire Mediterranean.
Perhaps because they felt the need to communicate, the Phoenicians invented
the CONSONANTS which we use today in our alphabet. Their neighbors,
the Greeks, invented the VOWELS and PUNCTUATION. The mathematician,
Pythagoras (famous for his hypotenuse), developed the five lines of
musical notation as well as punctuation: period, komma or comma, the
colon and semicolon. We should note that COLON in Greek is the same
as ZARCO in Jewish.
The Egyptians remained on the margins of the Nile, basing their civilization
on agronomy and agriculture. They preferred to navigate only in the
Nile.
As did the Phoenicians, there followed the Greeks, Romans and later
the Arabs. They began sailing the Mediterranean frequently and even
dared to pass the Gibraltar Strait. They established themselves along
the European shores of the Atlantic including the maritime coast of
the future Portugal.
NAMES OF PORTUGAL
Five thousand years ago the Greeks named the peninsula which comprises
Spain and Portugal today, the Iberian Peninsula. IBEROS means MOST OCCIDENTAL
or SUNSET. Soon after came the Jews, considered "The People of
the Diaspora." They established themselves more than two thousand
years ago on the Iberian Peninsula and they began to be called Sephardic,
which also means MOST OCCIDENTAL or SUNSET.
Finally the Moors arrived and after conquering the peninsula named our
territory ALGARVE, which also means MOST OCCIDENTAL or SUNSET.
The Romans called our native land LUSITANIA, which means LAND OF LIGHT.
That is appropriate because even today, of all European countries, Portugal
enjoys one of highest average hours of sunshine per year! The practice
of naming the most western part of the Mediterranean OCCIDENTAL, such
as Iberos, Sephardic, and Algarve, can be verified today by the place
names that exist on the most northwestern corner of Spain: Finis Terra.
The same idea is illustrated on the most western part of England which
is called Land's End.
With such a variety of names, the Portuguese people preferred to create
a proper name: Portus + cale, which gave origin to PORTUGAL. (Portus
referred to the city of Porto (or Oporto) on the northern margin of
the river Douro, + Cale, which was located opposite Porto, on southern
margin of the same river, and is today the city of Gaia.)
PORTUGUESE JEWS
Following this lengthy but necessary geographic introduction, I began
showing slides of Portugal. First, we saw the Castle of St. Michael
in Guimarães, where the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques,
was born. I stressed that the first advisor to this king was Egas Moniz,
a Portuguese Sephardic Jew. Next I showed a color photograph of Professor
Egas Moniz, born in Avanca, in the north of Portugal. He was a direct
descendent of the first Egas Moniz. Eight hundred years later, in 1949,
Professor Egas Moniz won the first Nobel Prize in Medicine for Portugal
for developing the techniques of lobotomy, lobectomy and angiography.
Then in my presentation I made a jump to the city of Coimbra for three
reasons. First, to show the audience the buildings of the first Portuguese
University, founded in 1290, by King Dinis. Secondly, to inform the
audience that I was going to speak about the many Portuguese Sephardic
Jews who became physicians after graduating from the "noble and
famous University of Coimbra." Thirdly, for my personal enjoyment,
because I graduated from the same Medical School in 1957. After this
introduction I named several Portuguese Sephardic Jews who were personal
physicians to the kings of Portugal.
Abraão Zacuto was physician to the great King John II. He was
also an astronomer and mathematician who wrote Almanac Perpetuum and
compiled the Tables of Navigation which were later used by the great
Vasco da Gama and another Portuguese Sephardic Jew named Cristovão
Colon during his voyage to the Caribbean in 1492. During his stay in
Tomar (Jewish name meaning mountain) Zacuto built the Arco or Zarco
Synagogue which is now open to the public and of which I showed several
color slides.
Another Jew, a member of the crew in the fleet captained by Cristóvão
Colon, was Master Luis de Torres, who besides being a polyglot, was
also a Portuguese Sephardic Jew.
Isaac Abravanel was private physician to the Count of Braganza. The
Count was condemned to death because he was involved in a plot to assassinate
King John II. This Portuguese Sephardic physician fled Portugal, went
to Turkey and there became the physician to Sultan Mahmud II, the Great.
Jose Vezinho (from Viseu) was also physician to the Portuguese king.
He was a mathematician and astronomer who worked on the building plan
for the School of Navigation. This Portuguese Sephardic Jew was a member
of the Commission that reviewed Cristovão Colombo's proposal
to reach India by sailing westward.
Until the Inquisition (1497) ALL Portuguese kings were medically treated
by Portuguese Sephardic Jews! In general, the Portuguese kings treated
the Portuguese Sephardic Jews with kindness because they admired their
professional capacity not only in medicine and surgery but also in mathematics,
finance, banking, and even as artisans.
INQUISITION
With the marriage of King Manuel I to the daughter of the Catholic Spanish
Kings in 1496, the Inquisition, which had begun in Spain in 1492, was
introduced to Portugal in 1497.
With this tragic move Portuguese Jews began to leave Portugal. Even
the famous Abraão Zacuto was forced to leave Portugal! The Inquisition
Law ordered that all the Jews be compelled to convert to Catholicism
or risk being burned at the stake (Auto-de-Fé). For this reason
many Portuguese Sephardic Jews hid in the mountains of Beira Alta and
Beira Baixa (the highest mountains in Portugal) and became crypto-Jews.
Those who converted to Catholicism were called "Marranos"
(in reference to pigs) or "Conversos", meaning "New Christians."
The slide that I showed depicting an Auto-de-Fé on the Praça
do Comércio today's center of Lisbon was, undoubtedly, the darkest
page in Portuguese history!
The most famous physician of the 16th century was the Portuguese Sephardic
Jew, Garcia de Orta, who became a brilliant professor and author of
medicine in the Goa Medical School. Even after his burial, the Inquisitors
exhumed his bones, burned them, and threw the ashes into the sea!
EXPULSION OF THE JEWS
With the expulsion of Portuguese Sephardic physicians, as well as other
Jewish erudites, Portugal suffered such a terrible loss of intellectual
treasure that even to this date it has not recovered from such a "deseperatum,"
or despair. Portugal lost a good deal with the Inquisition but many
other nations gained from the intelligence and professional qualities
of the Portuguese Sephardic Jews.
Following the Inquisition we begin to see famous Portuguese Sephardic
physicians residing throughout Europe, working not only as professors
in various medical schools but also as private physicians to government
officials including kings and queens. Thus, we see Portuguese names
in various distinguished positions such as Costa, Da Costa, Bueno, Cardoso,
De Castro, Da Silva, Fonseca and Nunez. João Rodrigues Castelo
Branco, also known as Amatus Lusitanus, besides being a good physician
was also botanist in Antwerp and even attained the position of professor
of medicine in Ferrara. He was even called to treat Pope Julius II.
Daniel Fonseca fled to France to become the private physician to the
Prince of Budapest. Judah Abravanel lived in Naples, Genoa and Venice,
becoming a renowned physician.
Filoteu Montalto left Portugal for Florence where he became the private
physician to Duke Frederick. Afterward he was called to treat Queen
Catherine de Medici, in Paris, France. For her migraine headaches this
Portuguese physician prescribed "tobacco powder" because at
that time the tobacco plant was considered "miraculous leaves."
Jacob Mantinho went to Italy and became professor of medicine in Rome
and private physician to Pope Paulo III. Rodrigues da Fonseca was professor
of medicine in Pisa and Padua. Fabrisio de Aguapendente became professor
of anatomy in Bologna. And João Rodrigues (born in Castelo Branco)
using the pseudonym Amatus Lusitanus, in Ferrara, Italy, published his
discovery of the valves in the deep veins of the legs and thighs. Rodrigues
de Castro went to Hamburg, Germany, and later was called to treat Queen
Christine of Sweden.
A large group of Portuguese Sephardic Jews went to Amsterdam, where
they built the largest synagogue in the world outside of Israel. It
is in this city that we find many Portuguese Sephardic Jews such as
Fernando Mendes who later moved to London to became the private physician
to Queen Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II, who suffered from
gout. This Portuguese Sephardic Jew prescribed, for the first time in
England, colchicine, a drug which is still prescribed today, all over
the world, for the treatment of gout!
Portuguese Sephardic Jews went to North Africa, Turkey, Holland, Italy,
France, Germany and England. It was the Portuguese Sephardic Jews who
taught the British how to fry fish (fish and chips) because they took
with them to England Portuguese olive oil! It was Queen Catherine of
Braganza who taught the British how to drink the "five o'clock
tea." This same queen introduced the use of the fork to the Royal
House of England and also tangerines! The largest borough of New York
City was called "Queen's"2 in her honor. I unabashedly stated
in my lecture that the First Queen of Bristol, Rhode Island, was 100%
Portuguese because the first street map of Bristol (1680) shows a street
with name "King" (in honor of King Charles II) and another
street with the name "Queen" (in honor of Queen Catherine
of Braganza). Even today this same street is named Catherine Street!3
The Portuguese Sephardic Jews also emigrated to the Azores, Madeira,
Cape Verde, Guinea and Brazil. They immersed themselves in the sugar
industry and various professions, including medicine. From Holland they
went to Recife in the north of Brazil after Holland had stolen that
territory >from Portugal. From there they moved to Curaçao
and to New Amsterdam which later became New York City after it was taken
over by the British.
But the Portuguese Sephardic Jews were always looking for a place where
they could enjoy freedom of religion. Many decided to go to Newport
because the founder of the State of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, guaranteed
complete religious freedom. It was in Newport that the Portuguese Sephardic
Jews built the Touro Synagogue, which is the oldest synagogue in the
Untied States of America . This synagogue remains today in excellent
condition and is a smaller model of the one in Amsterdam, Holland. Please
note that the name of the synagogue is TOURO in Portuguese, not TORO
in Spanish. The president of the Building Committee and one of the founders
of the Touro Synagogue was Aaran Lopez, born in Lisbon, Portugal. He
became the first elected president of the Touro Synagogue!
It was in this venerable synagogue ten years ago that Dr. Mário
Soares, President of the Portuguese Republic, asked forgiveness from
the Portuguese Sephardic Jews for the atrocities that their ancestors
suffered at the hands of the terrible Inquisition in Portugal. Then
I presented slides of the Jewish Cemetery in Newport where we could
see the names of Abraham Touro, Aaron Touro, Aaron Lopez, Moses Levy,
Moses Seixas, Jacob Rodrigues Rivera and Meyer Benjamin, all Portuguese
Sephardic Jews!
The Portuguese Sephardic Jews of Newport eventually became businessmen.
As importers and exporters they used perfect Portuguese in their business
correspondence, as can be verified by the letters that are preserved
today by the Historical Society of Newport!
Many Portuguese Sephardic Jews became renowned in America. Bernard Mannes
Baruch was advisor to EIGHT American Presidents. Moses Seixas was the
founder of the Bank of Rhode Island. Dr. Samuel Nunez became the private
physician to King John V in Portugal.4 Moses Michael Hays founded the
Bank of Boston.
One thing is certain: the Portuguese Sephardic Jews always honored their
name and Portuguese traditions wherever they went! This alone is enough
to merit our admiration!5 We should add to the list of famous Portuguese
Sephardic Jews, Pedro Nunes, great mathematician and inventor of the
Nonius, as well as Baruch Spinoza, eminent philosopher of the 17th century.
We should include also the poet, Gil Vicente, Fernão Mendes Pintos,
the traveler and explorer of China and author of Peregrinação.
We may include even the greatest Portuguese poet, Luis Vaz de Camões,
author of Os Lusíadas because his parents migrated from Spain
to Portugal. Were they Jewish? I think so.
MONTICELLO
I continued to show panoramic color slides of Portugal so that my presentation
of so many names would not be tiresome and also to create a certain
expectation.
From the city of Newport I jumped to Monticello, in the state of Virginia.
We then visited, with the help of color slides, the famous house built
by President Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence.
I showed the many magnificent aspects of today's Monticello, contrasting
it with the devastation and disrepair of this famous house a few years
after President Thomas Jefferson died, when Monticello was sold at public
auction! It was a Portuguese Jewish family by the name of LEVY who bought
and preserved Monticello for EIGHTY EIGHT YEARS, preventing its total
destruction!
The discovery that the Levy family was a Portuguese family was made
by the historian, Humberto Carreiro of Bristol, Rhode Island. Several
years ago he traveled to Virginia to visit his daughter. In his visit
to Monticello he observed the Portuguese name MACHADO engraved on a
plaque commemorating Rebecca MACHADO Levy. She was the mother of Rachel
Phillips Levy and grandmother of Uriah Phillips Levy who bequeathed
in his will Monticello, as a gift to the American people. Genealogical
research confirmed that the Levy family was indeed a Portuguese Sephardic
Jewish family! It is interesting to note that until recently in Faro,
in the southern part of Portugal, there were Levy families living there.
Even today there are Levy families living in Guimarães, the first
capital of Portugal.
STATUE OF LIBERTY
To emphasize the odyssey of the Portuguese Sephardic Jews in America
I showed a slide of the Statue of Liberty in the Bay of New York and
asked this question: "Is this statue that of a Portuguese Sephardic
Jew?" Of course the entire audience had a good laugh. But in a
few seconds everything returned to normal. Then I revealed that on the
base of this famous statue, the largest in the world, there exists a
bronze plaque (1903) which contains a poem of 14 verses written by Emma
Lazarus, a Portuguese Sephardic Jewish poet, niece of the famous Supreme
Court Justice, Benjamin Cardozo, also a Portuguese Sephardic Jew!
CRISTOVÃO COLON
To bring my lecture to a conclusion I declared that the famous navigator,
often confused with Christopher Columbus, or Colombo, was indeed a Portuguese
Sephardic Jew with the name Cristovão Colon or Salvador Fernandes
Zarco, born in Cuba, Alentejo, Portugal. Using slides, we then made
a trip to the Vatican Library in Rome to examine the two Papal Bulls
of Alexander VI, issued on May 3rd and 4th, 1493. There we can see very
clearly the name of the navigator: COLON. We should note that Colombo
means "pigeon," but this navigator was no pigeon.
Further, we analyzed the Navigator's Sigla. I reminded the audience
that Colon is the same as Zarco in Jewish, explaining the basis for
the name Salvador Fernandes Zarco. To confirm the name Salvador Fernandes
Zarco we then analyzed the monogram, which was deciphered by my wife,
Silvia. I concluded with the analysis of the last 12 letters that the
famous navigator wrote to his son, Diogo Colon. We observed in ALL the
letters: (1) the Sigla, (2) the monogram, (3) the blessing in Hebrew.
My next to last slide was dedicated to Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the
Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux, France, who saved the lives of thousands
of refugees, including more than ten thousand Jews, by granting them
visas to pass through Portugal during WW II. My last slide showed the
photo of today's President of Portugal, Dr. Jorge Sampaio, who was elected
freely and democratically by the Portuguese people. He is a direct descendent
of Portuguese Sephardic Jews (belonging to the Bemsaude family). It
took 500 years for the Portuguese to elect a President of Jewish extraction!
This is the finest example that, now and forever more, we should cease
our preoccupation with differences and envy among Jews, Catholic and
Moors. There are investigators who estimate that 60% of the Portuguese
population carries Jewish blood. This should not be surprising because
the Jews were in Portugal two thousand years before Christ was born!
This is the reason why Portuguese names derived from vegetables, trees,
rivers and mountains have their origin in Portuguese Sephardic Jews.
Consult your family name to verify if it is of Jewish origin!
Following my lecture, Professor Robert Waxler of the University of Massachusetts
in Dartmouth described the actual restoration of the Synagogue in Ponta
Delgada, São Miguel, Azores. Then Mr. George Pacheco of Fall
River explained how he carried out the research on his family genealogy.
Closing the program, Mrs. Ada Jill Schneider of Somerset, Massachusetts,
read a poem of her authorship, inspired by the water currents of the
Atlantic and dedicated to the odyssey of the Portuguese Sephardic Jews
of the Azores. Within two weeks we had already received four requests
to repeat the same cultural program.
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My sincere thanks to Dr. Nelson Dias Martins and Senhor Alfredo De Mello,
Historian from Montevideu, Uruguay, for their editorship of this article.
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The New Colossus
Poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed on a tablet at the pedestal of the Statue
of Liberty in 1903
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset, gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-side6 welcome; her mild eyes command.
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed7 to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"