Posts by Aron Sterk
224 posts
There is a Portuguese Jewish connection to this coronation. Queen Camilla's grandsons the twins Gus and Louis Lopes who will be two of the four pages of the Queen and who will hold her canopy during the anointing are, through their father Harry, direct descendants of Abraham Franco and Esther Pereira Lopes (sister of Manasseh Masseh Lopes) who married in London c. 1787.
This assessment of the (non-)continuity of ‘crypto-Judaisms’ is an important read, even if it will be uncomfortable for some ...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=diibI-uqkBY&feature=youtu.be
The Hagadá in the S&P tradition with a Portuguese translation
This is an interesting publication from 1742 - ‘A Master Key to the Rich Ladies Treasury’. This is a list of the country׳s wealthy widows and spinsters with their addresses and an assessment of their financial worth for the benefit of fortune hunters! Evidently Jewish heiresses were fair game as well as there are some Da Costa, de Castro and Lindo ladies mentioned. Interesting to work out just whi...
The yearly lottery for the Santa Companhia de Dotar Orphãs e Donzellas (founded 1615) - grants a wedding bonus to the two lucky names drawn from the silver lottery dishes ...
Utterly ridiculous and hilarious crypto-Jewish claim of the month. “Could a sheepherder have been carving images passed down in his family, reflecting some [paleo-Hebrew!] Jewish heritage from centuries past? Is some historic Jewish heritage being reflected in an aspen grove?” Er ... NO!
There are some ludicrous claims made on Facebook but this one beats them all. 40% of Catholic Southern Italy - nearly half the population! - just a few miles south of the Pope himself was Jewish and no one noticed?
Not sure what to say about this blog from the London Jewish Museum ...
It is good to see that Portugal’s indigenous Jewish community can now issue certificates of Jewish descent. In my opinion the process in Spain and Portugal has until now been in the hands of people who are, on the whole, not themselves personally involved in the history and legacy of the forced conversion and who who have had other agenda in issuing certificates than simple and clear proof of desc...
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/emanuel-mendes-da-costa-1717-1791/gAKCb0daZKtiIA?hl=en
Unfortunately the history of the Jews of Portugal is becoming each day more of a fiction for tourists. The tour guide here explains how oil was put in holes in the stake at Trancoso so that the fire of the execution burnt better. Absolute nonsense there was no auto-da-fé in Trancoso and no one was ever burnt at a pelourinho!
There is wishful thinking and even pious fraud but this “ 1590 oldest Mikva in Brazil in the house of Branca Dias” is outright deception. I presume that those are authentic 16th century industrial bricks and concrete? This is emblematic of the caution that needs to be shown towards claims of hidden Jewish pasts. For one reason or another their are those who shamelessly want to exploit people’s ho...
I finally caught up with the WDYTYA episode with the guy from TOWIE (which I thought was a mistake for Towy in Wales!). Good to see friends David Jacobs, David Mendoza, and Maurice Bitton from BM. It was interesting that they didn’t explore the Portuguese dimension. The document David Mendoza showed was Portuguese and I could read that Miguel Mendoza was taken in Rio de Janeiro and died at the sta...
This may interest members - (interesting that they both talk about Judesmo rather than Ladino).
David Mendoza discovers a relative in Essex ...
I know there are a surprising number of converts in the Amsterdam ketubot, but are we aware of any in London - and if so what dates? Michael Ton David
This should be interesting if anyone should be in Chapel Hill NC
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=UJOpfabj88I
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=CUjGwtCekuY
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14737/spain-jews-citizenship
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=bJHjd_-vwZs#fauxfullscreen
The ongoing mythification of Ladino. This ‘antique’ Ladino song was written in 1935 - the same year as Christmas hit ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’.Incidentally I have just noticed the original posting was not shared only the clip. It was shared by Reconectar Português ansd Reconectar Español as a 'canção antiga/canción antigua'.