How did the Portuguese Jews Survive the Inquisition? 

My 5th Great Grandparents Raphael da Costa and Esther da Costa were Converso Jews who migrated from Portugal to London, England in 1746. I very much hope to migrate back to Portugal if my Portuguese Citizenship (on the grounds that I am of Jewish Sephardi Portuguese origin) is accepted 🙏

Thank you; Professor. Shalom, from Lisbon.

Recently I found out that my 12th grandfather was the owner of the ancient fazenda colubandê, in Brazil. He and his family were persecuted by the Portuguese Inquisition. What the Inquisition did to many Iberian and South American families was a complete forced assimilation.

Many years ago I had the priviledge of joining former Israeli President Isaac Navón to visit the Library of the University of Coimbra in order to see several ancient jewish sacred texts along with books on astronomy, mathematics produced in the XV-XVI centuries by portuguese Jewish scholars. It was fascinating!

My wife and I spent a wonderful week in Porto and the surrounding region a few years ago. We visited Coimbra and learned about its Hebrew manuscripts and met a number of people who told us things about the history of Jews there. We would LOVE to return someday…

Dr Abramson, I don’t know how you manage to make monologues seem so fascinating. I listen to you religiously, and you always sound so upbeat and genial.

the Machado line survived, the families from Granada and Morocco survived though not entirely intact.

It is so nice to hear people who understands us and know where we are. Portugal is a Jewish land Israel of the Europ. Portugueses Jews need help to return to theyr faith

Grew up Christian and few years back found my Jewish ancestry. My dads side askhenazi- grandparents and extended family. My moms side, my crypto Jewish ancestry start showing in my genealogical tree in the 6th generation and backwards. One of the branches came from Porto and I know her name and descendants all the way down to my mom (among other lines). The very same city that I’m planning and preparing to move to. Fell in love with my ancestry, honoring the traditions and faith and learning about the community. Life has its turns.

Wow! I just came accross this video today and I have been planning a visit to Portugal for some time now. It might be a short notice for me regarding this cruise but will definately consider it for next year, unless there is another one this summer. If so, please inform.

Im brazilian and just found out i have 15% ashkenasi dna. I bet i gave some cristao novos in my ancestry. My great grandfather were from braga portugal close to belmonto

What I find amazing is that one of my relatives was hiding out somewhere in Spain and kept their Jewish faith. I want to investigate it further.

What it caused is that families and friends ratted each other out. I saw some lists online that state the names of the people who reported and the names of the people arrested.

Very interesting. Thank you.

Can you talk about Manṣūr al-Yahūdī & Andalusian Jewish music? Again. Thank you for your lectures....Very informative....

Lisborn (Lisboa) is a VERY old community. Some of them moved back and forth over the border.

Fascinating! I only found out 10 years ago some of my ancestors were Portuguese Jews. On my grandfather's side one left and headed to Portuguese Malacca. On my grandmother's side one left and headed to Macau.

Love this story ❤!!

I'm Portuguese and I still feel ashamed of what the Portuguese did to the Jews (persecution, at least one big pogrom in the 16th century, torture, execution in "autos de fé" and expulsion). I have no doubt that as a nation we lost a lot with the expulsion of Jews. Some of the brightest minds and more inventing people were Jews. The first book ever printed in Portugal was the Thalmud (in Trás-os-Montes close to the bank of Douro river). Some of the best doctors between the 16th and the 18th century centuries were also Jews (like Abraham Zacuto and António Ribeiro Sanches). Even the philosopher Bento Espinoza has roots in the Portuguese Jews (he had to runaway to the Netherlands). The Jews were safer in the North also because the "rebel" spirit of Porto (Oporto) never accepted Inquisition there. When the Inquisition tried to stage the first public execution in an "auto de fé" the people came to the streets protesting and demanding that the Inquisition should go away. After that, no other execution took place in Porto and the Inquisition was forced to go away. Five centuries later, Aristides de Sousa Mendes helped thousands of Jews to escape from deportation to the Nazi concentration camps. That leaves me proud, but it isn't enough to erase or compensate the evil we did to the Jews in the previous centuries. Thank you for doing this episode about the Portuguese Jews!

My ancestors in Newfoundland last name Picco from Channel Islands I believe Sephardic originally named Figgio I believe but cannot prove

Did they, the Jews of Portugal, take part in the great journeys of discovery? Portugal at the time, in the 1490s and the early decades of the 16th century, was at the frontiers of exploration. Do we see Jewish communities at the time migrating to the Americas and to India?

One of our national dishes is a chicken sausage that I love.

How about the Portugese that were expelled to West Africa?

Because Hashem wanted so.

The inquisition was a form lf control slcial, said the historians. A form to repress all kind of dissidences. And whats more, the unique institution that share Aragon and Castilia. (In fact is one of the reasons because catalan people dont like Spain: the so called spanish inquisition).

Why was the Reconquista not mentioned, seemed very convenient as that was what enabled the Christians to carry out Inquisition in the 15th Century.

Sam Schwartz didn't look Jewish. It sounds like a line from a Jackie Mason routine.

The Inquisition sounds a lot like the nazi final solution.

Crypto juice😂 You should fix the subtitles

Jesus Christ is Lord.