Jews in the diaspora with Sepharad in the mirror: ruptures, relations, and forms of identity: a theme examined through three cases

Abstract

Recent historiography has led to a reevaluation of the diachronic paradigm that undergirds the classic story of Iberian Jews and conversos. In line with that reevaluation, this article investigates what motivated diasporic Sephardim, especially ones with cultural and other ties to Portugal, to conserve elements of an identity that pointed to their Iberian past, such as the Portuguese and Castilian languages, as well as what one might call “Ibero-conscious” forms of self-identification. What benefits, beyond expressing a nostalgic and otherwise emotive sensibility, could accrue from the retention of these forms? How did they and similar forms facilitate the building internal, group cohesion on the basis of shared connections to a common past? How did the forms articulate the relations of New Christians to the Iberian countries and to the Iberian Empires? To reflect on these and related questions, which focus on the continuity of ties between diasporic Jews and the Iberian Peninsula, we analyze here various temporally and geographically distinct cases: The case of the converso financier and politican Joseph Nasi (formerly João Micas); the case of the Sephardi convert and anti-Jewish polemicist, João Baptista D’Este (formerly Abraham Bendanan Serfatim); and the case of Portuguese Jews in Salé, Morocco, whose wide-ranging relations with the Portuguese Jews Community of Amsterdam and with Christian Dutchmen made for complex phenomena of identity-construction.