History of Portuguese Jews: Modern Period – From Exile to their Safe Return with Tiago Neiva

Join us as we trace the narrative timeline of Portugal’s Jewish history over the last 500 years with a local Portuguese expert – from the Expulsion and Forced Conversion in the late 15th century, until their safe return in the 19th and 20th centuries. During this conversation, we will begin by discussing the tragic and heroic path of Crypto Judaism in Portugal, from the 16th century until the 19th century. We’ll focus the narrative on the New Christian's (converted Jews) adaptation to their country's new political, social, and religious ordinances. We'll also review the terror of the Portuguese Inquistion.

From there we'll discuss the Portuguese Jewish Diaspora, citizens who survived forced baptism and subsequent massacres and manage to flee the country. They often moved into northern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean shores, and also to the Americas. This particular community will be known as the Portuguese Nation – the most supportive, flexible, and well-distributed merchant network in the globe at that time. The Nation will also have enormous cultural, artistic, scientific, literary, and religious relevance in every place it colonized.

In our conversation's third chapter, we’ll conclude with learning about the persecutions of Jews in Portugal in the 19th century. We'll contextualize the contrast between many different Jewish realities – the recently discovered crypto Jewish unorthodox communities (such the one in Belmonte), and the rich and powerful official Jewish community returning from Gibraltar and Morocco, and finally, the circumstances of the Fascist dictatorship, WW II and contemporary presence.

Led by an expert on Architecture and Art History, Tiago Miranda Neiva, this interactive seminar will explore the History of the Portuguese Jewish Community in the Modern and Contemporary Period. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with a better understanding of a rich, sensitive, and often forgotten legacy – a critical component of daily life in Portugal as well as global Jewish cultural and historical heritage.

For more on this topic we invite you to explore: History of Portuguese Jews: Medieval Period – From Sefarad to the Exile with Tiago Neiva