Mette Schmidt

Do any of you wise people know about wedding ceremonies in the sephardic communities of Hamburg and Amsterdam in the 18th century? Did the ceremony take place in the synagogue or at home? Among ordinary people, not the rich ones.

World any of you happen to know whether it was the custom to celebrate bat mitzvah (for girls) among the sephardic jews of Amsterdam in the 18th century, and what this involved?

Two questions about the Belinfante familiy: According to dutchJewry.org, Zadig Cohen Belinfante married Ester Cohen Persiano 1696 in the Ashkenazi synagogue, while his brother Joseph married his wife, Paloma de Minjana, in 1701 in the Portuguese synagogue. I wonder whether the reason Zadig was not married in the Esnoga was because his wife was not considered a Portuguese Jew, as her father was fro...

Does someone here know whether Dutch gothic handwriting is the same as German gothic handwriting (17th - 18th century) ?

According to this book (in Danish) https://www.ronlev.dk/bibliotek/1613.pdfMichel Levi Delbanco, 1695—1771, was one of the elders of the Portuguese synagogue in Hamburg. Is there a way to verify this?

I know this is more of a history question than a genealogy question, but - the children in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam in the early 18th century must have had children’s book in Portuguese, as they were learning to read and write this language. Does anyone here know about such books? I am trying to imagine what it would be like to be a child growing up there.

Thank you for admitting me to the group! My ancestors were Salomon de Meza, born 1727, and Regina Cohen Belinfante, born 1714. They were born in Amsterdam. He is the son of Abraham de Meza, and she the daughter of Zadik Cohen Belinfante. They moved to Copenhagen around 1753. Before coming to Copenhagen, he (or they) spent a few years in Hamburg and London. Their eldest son was assumedly born in Lo...