Jews and the Americas

Promise and Peril in Dutch Brazil

Unlike Spain, Portugal permitted marriage between New Christians and Old Christians, which occurred on such a scale that a large portion of the Portuguese population gradually came to hold some element of Jewish ancestry, raising the possibility of more widespread Crypto-Judaism. Portugal also permitted New Christians to engage in the commerce of the New World. Portugal’s vast colonial empire, acquired under independent governance, grew vulnerable when Portugal became a dependency of Spain. Parts of it were lost to the rising maritime ambitions of England and the Netherlands. In the Dutch Brazil of the mid-seventeenth century (roughly 1633-1645), Jews were able to practice their religion openly in a society that was primarily focused on commerce and economic returns. Here, Jewish operators acquired a specialization in sugar production that they would carry with them to other Dutch (and English) colonies when the Portuguese regained control of Dutch Brazil.


		45. Willem Piso. Historia naturalis Brasiliae. Leyden: Francis Hack, Amsterdam : Lud. Elzevir, 1648. The second part of Willem Piso’s magnificent study of Brazilian natural history was compiled by Georg Marggraf and focuses on the indigenous population. It includes passages written by Jacob Rab, a Jewish-German ethnologist in Dutch service in Brazil. Rab’s specialty was the interpretation of indigenous languages. The book is open to part of Rab’s study of the customs of the Tapuya, a non-assimilated tribe allied with the Dutch.

		46. Abraham Cohen de Herrera. [Puerta del cielo. Hebrew]. [Sefer Sha’ar ha-shamayim]. [Amsterdam: Emanuel Benveniste, 1655]. The Gate of Heaven is the first Hebrew work to mention Brazil. Isaac Aboab de Fonseca, the first practicing rabbi in the New World, was responsible for this translation into Hebrew of Cohen de Herrera’s original Spanish text. The book itself is an important treatise on the Cabala, a mystical system of scriptural interpretation originating in the Middle Ages, perhaps earlier. Using the term “iron furnace” (place of affliction in I Kings 8: 51; Jeremiah 11: 4) in the preface to his translation, Cohen de Herrera alludes to Recife’s tropical climate as well as the suffering Jews endured there. Acquired with the assistance of the Bloomingdale Fund.

		47. Selomoh de Oliveyra. [Sefer Sharshot gavlut]. [Amsterdam : David di Kastro Tartas, 1665]. A supplement to Ayelet Ahabim, a poetical paraphrase of Genesis 22, this work is a collection of poems and rules for poetry. It contains a eulogy, in verse, for Isaac de Castro Tartas, a martyr of the Portuguese Inquisition who lived for several years in Brazil. This is considered to be the best work of the author, whose name is also rendered as Solomon ben David de Oliveyra. The book is open to a display of typographic circles. Purchased with the assistance of Mary and Charles Tanenbaum.

		48. [Mishnah]. [Amsterdam: David de Castro Tartas, 1685-87]. The Castro Tartas family arrived in Amsterdam in 1640 as Marranos and joined the Jewish community there. David de Castro Tartas became a publisher and issued at least sixty-six Hebrew and Yiddish titles from 1662-1695, mainly small prayer books or ephemeral pieces. David’s brother Isaac moved on to Brazil to join the Dutch settlement, where his knowledge of Portuguese would have been useful. In 1644 he traveled from Dutch Recife to Bahia, where he was exposed as a Judaizer, sent to Lisbon, tried by the Inquisition, and burned at the stake on 15 December 1647. He was then only twenty-two years old and had refused to renounce Judaism. In the printer's preface to Order Zeraim, David wrote about why he published the work. He explained that learning the Mishnah was more important than the Talmud as a whole, and in the merit of learning it, Jews would be saved from their enemies by divine intercession. Knowing this essential textbook of Jewish life and thought would furthermore hasten the arrival of the Messiah. At the end of the preface he concluded, "these are the words of David de Castro Tartas, the brother of the holy martyr Isaac de Castro Tartas, who sanctified the name of God in public and was burned alive to sanctify God's name.” This is one of only five publications in which David chose to memorialize his brother. This copy of the book has extensive Hebrew manuscript annotations on all available endpapers, probably representing a personal index of topics. Purchased with the assistance of the Littauer Fund.

		49.Isaac Aboab da Fonseca. Parafrasis comentado sobre el Pentateuco por el illustrissimo Sr Ishac Aboab H. del KK. Amsterdam : Jacob de Cordova, 5441. [i.e.,1681]. Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was the first rabbi of Dutch Brazil, from 1641 to 1654, and the first rabbi in any part of America. This fundamental work, chiefly in Spanish, is a translation with interpretation and commentary on the Pentateuch by da Fonseca. It became a standard prayer book for Portuguese Jews in Europe and for those who had moved elsewhere from Brazil. The portrait of the rabbi is one of the best illustrations available to be drawn from Jewish cultural life in the New World. Acquired with the assistance of Charles J. Tanenbaum and the Bloomingdale and Harper Funds.

		50. Hayyim Shabbetai. [Sefer Torat Hayim]. Salonika : [Nidpas `al yede ha-madpisim ha-shutafim Avraham b.k.m. ha-r. David Nahman veha-r. Yom Tov b.k.r. Mosheh Konfilias, 1713-1722]. “The Book of Law and Life” or “The Book of Law of Hayyim” is a prayer and ritual book by a rabbi of Salonika. The work contains the earliest American contribution to the responsa literature, addressing the question of how Jews in the rain forests of the New World (Brazil) should pray for rain. The problem arose because of the reversal of seasons south of the equator. This work was reprinted in Jerusalem in 1970. Acquired with the assistance of the Bloomingdale Fund.

Exhibition prepared by Dennis Landis, Curator of European Books.