William Jeuda De Oliveira

I never knew the origin of the Pinto family of Agadir, here it is claimed that their ancestors went from Ancona to Damascus before coming to Morocco. The paper isn't very... scientific... Is this history documented? There were several members of the Pinto family in Ancona in the 16th c., one of them was among the 24 murdered by the Church in 1556.

Jewish history in Nakskov is also part of Western Sephardic history. The Henriques family who kept Portuguese traditions alive in Copenhagen until the end of the 19th century was from there. (before that from Altona)I am not entirely sure what rite was used in the Nakskov synagogue, but in Copenhagen in the 18th century the term "Nakskauer" was synonymous with the Henriques family and the Portugue...

I have long been wondering about the story behind these Mallorcan Jews in Nice. Now I was reading the "Xueta" article on Wikipedia, and I noticed that in the 1670's a new wave of persecution hit the (converted) Jews of Mallorca, and also that the refugee Jews from Oran who later ended up in Nice had a stop in Palma during that time. So I think that probably the Jews from Oran had had contact with ...

I wrote something about Italian Jews in Sephardic communities.

The Soares de la Penha (in Israel bastardised to "Zoarets") family of Tripoli traces back to a Moses Soares from The Netherlands, sea captain who arrived in Tripoli in 1795. The story goes that he was shipwrecked off the coast, captured by pirates, and redeemed by Hakham Aharon Vaturi, whose daughter he ended up marrying. I was wondering if anyone had found a person in one of the dutch records tha...

Emmanuel doesn't say it, but the 19th century Aix-en-Provence synagogue was of Portuguese rite. (Even though the majority of members were of Provençal origin.)

Does anyone know where I can find a high(er) resolution version of this?

Informative article about the history of the "Portuguese" synagogue in Antwerp. There are some errors, especially the part where they try to explain why it is called "Portuguese". (The real reason is that that was simply how one said "Sephardic" in most of Europe. The "real" Portuguese of Antwerp had their own congregation named Abodath Hakodesj, but that one didn't survive the holocaust.)

I am trying to find out more about the background of the Annobono family of Reggio Emilia. They were one of the leading families of the local Portuguese community in the 17th century, which -although not very well known- was a relatively important one at that time.The patriarch of the family was Salomone Annobono, who came to Reggio in 1652. According to his testimony, his father was David son of ...

18th century Portuguese synagogue in Hackney. On the estate of the Franco family.

I have wondered in the past if there is a connection between the Provençal (and later Piedmontese) Cassin family and that of Aleppo. Now it seems that according to some it's the same family:"Sarina traced the Kassin family starting in 1384. It was founded in Charleville, France and they were in the winemaking and jewelry making industries. France expelled the Jews at the end of the 12th centur...

Venetian style bolos

A discussion involving the name Peres reminded me of this example of a non-Sephardic Peres family. I also first thought that Rabbi Jacob Joseph Peres of Memphis was a decendant of a dutch Sephardic family. But he wasn't... His father adopted the name in Haarlem in 1811. I have other examples of adoptions of Sephardic sounding names by Ashkenazim in Rotterdam.

Cordoeiro/Cordovero family, and in particular the famous kabalist R. Moshe C.In his lifetime, his name was written קורדואירו, Cordoeiro. At some point, it became Cordovero, and on his gravesite (modern inscription) it is spelled קורדווירו.Cordoeiro means rope maker, so it seems to be an occupational surname. But after it became Cordovero, many sources claim it points to an origin of his family in ...

Such a shame they gave the synagogue that church layout. Still beautiful.

Let's see if this group is still up for some history:I still haven't found precise details about when and how the Avignon/Comtat Venaissin communities adopted the Portuguese rite.The new communities founded by Comtadin/Avignonaisse Jews in the 18th and 19th century seem to all have followed the Portuguese rite. This is explicit for Aix-en-Provence and Toulouse (where there were also some actual Po...

I was wondering if there was an connection between the Italian Del Bene (Hebrew מהטוב) family and the Portuguese Meatob. For Meatob all roads led back to Hamburg/Glückstadt, where I found this:Does anyone have more details, can confirm or deny this?

Qiddush glass belonging to the Moreno family of Livorno and Tunis.

I've been mapping the early Portuguese, and the later Franco/Livornese communities of the southern and eastern Mediterranean. Feedback and corrections are very welcome.

Fascinating family, don't know if related to the Vaaz families often discussed here

What are the best alternatives to Facebook to do a similar thing as this group does? I've been considering leaving FB for a while, now getting more serious. But I don't want to lose the opportunity of discussing the subject of this group with people all over the world.

10 years!

Anyone know of an article, book, chapter of a book, etc. that deals specifically with the history of the Jews in İskenderun (Alexandretta)?

A Dutch Jewish newspaper from 1886 speaks of a recent migration of Jews from Jamaica to Bahia. And says that these were followed by Jews from New Orleans, Lisbon, Marseille and Bordeaux. Does anyone know anything about this?

When I made a short post on our page about the Bordeaux synagogue, I tried to find out if it ever had a Hebrew name, like so many of our synagogues/congregations do. I didn't find anything. But in 1765, there was at least one synagogue in Bordeaux with a Hebrew name. Based on the fact that an apparently important sermon was held there, that was seen as worthy to be printed, I suppose this was one ...