Posts by Cecilia Keuffer Sterk
14 posts
A message from Aron Sterk, “ I apologise for my absence but I am not well and will be absent for quite few months yet but looks like I will have to leave my profile up to get control of the Liturgia group and so the information there remains available for people. But effectively not on Facebook.” Shabat Shalom.
Cesar Machado e Carmen Nogueira who happen to be Pedro Arruda cousins received today the Certificate by the Lisbon Community attesting they are descendants of the conversos from Portugal who went to Brazil. Cesar undertook the job of investigating his family past which took eight years. They plan to move to Portugal in two years and to do an orthodox conversion to Judaism. Mazal tov!
I did not know that my old friend and member of our community , seu Isaac Bendayan had spent his childhood in Iquitos , Peru. He told me about living as a Jew in a very remoted place in Amazon. His family came from Morroco, went to Manaus and on to Iquitos following the rubber boom. He told me the Peruvians did not like Jews and one day a group grabbed him, hanged him upside down in a tree and sta...
I am so proud of my community in Belém, which have endured in the heart of Brazilian Amazon for more than 200 years. The great majority came from Morrocco, mizrahi and Sephardim families, now we are all as one.
Aron Sterk the one and only giving his paper on Menasseh Ben Israel in Lisbon during the conference about Jews and New Christians in the Portuguese Spoken World. We also visited Tomar , its castle and also the sinagogue, one of the oldest in Europe, taken cared by a real Benei Anous , Dona Teresa Vasco born in Belmonte. In the castle , we found Queen Maria who asked us forgiveness for what her fam...
I always heard that some people related to my uncle's family made money in slavery when they were in London. Watching the program Britains Forgotten Slave Owners, I learned that is possible now to see all the slave owners and how the money from slavery was used in UK and is entwined in everything from Museums, hospitals and all technology British people enjoy today. My uncles family Pinto is depic...
Wishing to all group members a wonderful year. Here, in our Amazonian neck of woods, we celebrate Rosh Hashanah with dafeena. In this pic , descendents of the community founders, families Nahon, Serruya, Abenathar, Unger, Ohana and Benezra.
Driving by a slum here in Belém, Brazil, I saw this small furniture factory and remembered that I saw this name in one of the boards from Amsterdam. So, I was bored and stopped by. There I met Mr. (Seu ) Ximenes, a caboclo (mestizo, This here means African, indigenous and some Portuguese blood) not that friendly. - Seu Ximenes, if I tell you that you are possibly descendent of Jews, what would yo...
Yesterday was Hilula of Rabbi Shimon and here in my neck of woods we celebrate it with candles, prayers, food and the tradicional charity bazar-auction. Our seuda was instituted by a very devout member Moisés Bentes and his family is still honored every year.
I just had a very inspiring talking with Anita Novisnky, the mother of all Marrano/ Conversos studies in Brazil and she will try to be at the European Association for Jewish Studies, in Lisbon in December, which Aron Sterk will also give a paper. Incredible woman, still teaches at USP and know all her PHD students by name despite of the hundreds passed by her cathedra.
Yesterday, the Sephardic Morrocan Jews from Amazon celebrated mimouna, our after Pesach party. Our comunity here are formed of families coming from cities like Fez, Tanger and Tetuan. After 200 hundred years here, many customs and traditions are well preserved. We are in diáspora, but Amazon became Home.
To whom it may interest: a Brazilian bussiness man researched 20 year the Brazilian northeast heritage and also found his jewish 20th grandmother . Seems he is already in the 4th volume of 10 and covers from the arrival of new christians in Brazil until the 19th century, focusing in the "elite" families. He uses a lot the elite word. When asked if all nordestinos ( in Brazil nordestinos are subest...
My fiance told me that the " law to the return of the Sephardim" text was finally approved but I have to say. When the project was formulated and circulated on the web, lots of people who called themselves anusim went to our sinagogue asking if after they got the citizenship they could be welcomed as Jews. Because in their minds , have a paper proving connections with Portugal thru the expulsions ...
Leon is Morrocan descent (born in Brazil) and is studying violin in UK.