Rabbi’s Visit in 1980s Helped Open Belmonte
A January 4 article reports: “Until the 1990s, the Belmonte conversos kept their history to themselves” (“After 500 Years in Hiding, Jews Bring Prosperity to Iberian Town”).
In 1985, however, Rabbi Joshua Stampfer of Portland, Ore., visited Belmonte and made numerous contacts within the Judeo community. Robert Reed, having spent much time in Belmonte gathering research data as an anthropology doctoral candidate at the University of Indiana, accompanied Stampfer as translator. David Augusto Canelo, a school teacher and local historian mentioned in the article, was also instrumental in helping Stampfer gain an understanding of the community. I also joined in the journey to Belmonte.
“The Last Crypto-Jews of Portugal: The Story and History of Belmonte’s Judeo Community” by David Canelo had already been published in Portuguese before its first English edition, edited by Stampfer, was published in 1985 and revised in 1990.
In 1987, Stampfer returned to Belmonte with his wife Goldie and conducted the first public and open Shabbat ceremonies Belmonte had seen in 500 years. About 60 members of Belmonte’s crypto-Judaic community gathered in city hall to celebrate the Sabbath and the community’s free, open and uninhibited entry into the 20th century. Belmonte’s mayor was even invited to publicly proclaim the historic significance of the event.
While it is certainly true that the community gathered economic and religious steam in the 1990s, thanks should be given to the dedication and work a decade earlier of Stampfer. Had he not brought the crypto-Jews of Belmonte together in public and in the spirit of freedom, it is unlikely that tourists would be flocking to Beit Eliyahu and the museum today.
It should also be mentioned that it was nearly a century ago, in 1917, that Samuel Schwartz, a Polish Jewish mining engineer, discovered Belmonte’s Judaic community. The community, in turn, discovered that there was a vast Jewish world beyond the secret confines they had grown so used to. It took another 70 years for the community to pray together with the guidance and inspiration of Stampfer.
Franklin Engel
Portland, Ore.
We are pleased to learn that the conversos in Belmonte are now more open to reconciling their secret religious practices with the modern Jewish world, but we disagree with the statement that Belmonte “seems to offer more than Lisbon and Toledo, both of which are full of Jewish history but empty of actual Jews.”
In May 2005, a group of approximately 30 crypto-Jews living in Lisbon turned to Masorti Olami-World Council of Conservative Synagogues for help in returning to their heritage, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to connect with the Orthodox Jewish community. Rabbi Joe Wernik, the executive vice president of Masorti Olami at the time, and Rabbi Chaim Weiner, director of the European Masorti Beit Din, visited the group to evaluate their needs and to provide a curriculum for study and practice.
The group officially registered as a religious organization, “Communidade Judaica Masorti Beit Yisrael,” the first non-Orthodox community in Portugal. Since September 2005, Rabbi Jules and Navah Harlow from New York have been visiting Beit Yisrael four times a year, teaching Torah and Jewish tradition, instructing the members in liturgy and mitzvot, and preparing members who are ready for conversion under the auspices of the European Masorti Beit Din.
Masorti Olami will continue our efforts to help Communidade Judaica Masorti Beit Yisrael become a self-sustaining Masorti community, develop strong leadership and expand its membership by reaching out to other conversos and non-Orthodox Jews in Lisbon.
Alan Silberman
President
Rabbi Tzvi Graetz
Executive Director
Masorti Olami-World Council of Conservative Synagogues
Chicago, Ill.
Presidential Courage
The elimination of Saddam Hussein — who was responsible for the torture, repression and murder of thousands, who sought and used weapons of mass destruction, who shot Scud missiles into Israel and who paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers — is, in the words of the Forward, a “calamity” brought on solely by an American president “hell-bent on war” (“Voting Our Hopes, Voting Our Fears,” January 4).
Let’s hope our next president has the courage and moral clarity to risk a similar “calamity” before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gets his wish.
Andrew Hanan
Cherry Hill, N.J.
When a Brit Was Cheap
I recall that when my father was a mohel and a shochet during the 1930s in Washington, prices for a brit were quite a bit less expensive than the $700-750 prices quoted in a December 28 article (“Mohels Give Non-Jewish Babies a Slice of Tradition”).
Back then, my father charged middle-class Jewish fathers $10 and more affluent dads $25. And my father definitely did not give non-Jewish babies a slice of tradition.
Larry Rosen
Rockville, Md.
"After 500 years in hiding, Jews Bring Prosperity to Iberian Town" is a nice feel-good piece of tourist journalism, but it hardly does justice to the Jews of Belmonte nor to their plight. They are among the poorest Jews of Europe. The so-called Jewish Museum is owned by the municipality, not the Jewish Community. Other emerging Jewish communities of Portugal reject the marranos of Belmonte as not Jewish enough. They can't afford a rabbi or a teacher. One American Jew -- on his own initiative -- returns to Belmonte once or twice a year to provide some connection to the 'outside world' of Jews. He, Yaakov Gladstone of New York, raised money from his personal friends and on his own to provide haggadahs last Passover. But as far as some official contacts with the world-wide Jewish community --- nothing.
Re:Belmonte-After 500 Years… Jews Bring prosperity… (Jan. 2, 2008) Dear Editor, To say that the Jews of Belmonte have brought prosperity to the town through tourism is a bit simplistic. While it may be difficult to write an insightful analysis in a short journalistic article, the writer omits difficult questions such as the precarious situation of the Jewish community and exactly who benefits from the phenomenon of Jewish tourism. Moreover, to ascribe the difficulty in securing a rabbi to the dichotomy between long standing Marrano practices and modern Jewish practices is to ignore social reality and 500 years of history. While the writer refers to the clean streets, a new Jewish museum (owned by the municipality) and new found employment for Christian women embroidering “shalom” on “lavender sachets”, there is scant mention of the benefits to the Jewish community, apart from the odd euro collected by Abilio Henriques from tourists entering the synagogue, which by the way, does not leak, nor is wanting for proper flooring or mahogany bench seats thanks to the generosity of Dr. Harold Michal-Smith a New Yorker and close friend of the greatest friend of the Marrano Jews of Belmonte, Yaacov Gladstone. Yes, it is true that some elements of the close-minded Jewish world, including Portugal, do not consider the descendents of Jews forcibly baptized in 1497 to be “kosher” Jews. As stated by poet Alexandre Teixeira Mendes in a recent book entitled, Barros Basto, A Miragem Marrano, (Ladina, Porto, 2007), published with a donation by Dr. Michael-Smith and Yaacov Gladstone of the Friends of Marranos, “ Marranos are not only exiles amongst the nations, but also exiles amongst the Jewish nation”. Accordingly it was not surprising during a recent visit there with Yaacov Gladstone to hear a young teenager who dropped out of high school complain that fellow students still mockingly ask about the length of their father’s Jewish tail! And speaking of Belmonte’s Jewish young people, of whom the article is silent, what does the future hold for them? There is no Jewish education either throughout the year or in the summer for the youth (or the adults), save for the books and occasional workshops provided by Yaacov Gladstone, a longstanding teacher and youth worker with minority Jews such as the Jewish children of Morocco in the 1950s and Blacks of New York in the 1980s. Since the 1990’s, Yaacov has dedicated his life to raising money for the Jews of Belmonte; money for the synagogue, money for books, wall calendars, tallits, tefellin for bar mitzvahs, haggadots in Portuguese, Hanukah candles, and money to pay for the services of a teacher for the children, all at great personal sacrifice and expense. He has made numerous trips to Belmonte where his effusive love acts as a much-needed balm on a poorly misunderstood dysfunctional community. No, the Jews of Belmonte are not benefiting from Jewish tourism. Rather, the continual poking and stream of picture taking tourists and documentary film makers has only reinforced the “stunned eyes in the headlights” syndrome, of one of the last tribes of the remnants of Israel which survived 500 years of the Inquisition and its aftermath. Belmonte does not even need money, rather it needs the love and understanding of “Klar Israel”. It needs educators, especially women, a wise and knowledgeable rabbi, a Jewish community centre, a library, leadership training, business development assistance, and it needs hope for the future, or else there will not be one!
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