Showing posts with label Iberia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iberia. Show all posts
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What's in a Name? Part 2

In the previous post, I introduced the issue of naming conventions.  In this post I discuss how information about Spanish Naming Conventions can help you better understand the names of colonial American Jews and interpret their gravestones.

First a couple of general terms:

  • First name = "given name" = nombe
  • Last name (in the United States) = "surname"  = apellido

 

Spanish Naming Conventions

Over Spain's history, depending on which culture controlled it, Spain switched between using surnames (apellidos) and patronymics (that is, names based on the given name of one's father or paternal ancestors). By the thirteenth century, however, surnames again dominated and had become hereditary. Surnames were sometime derived from patronymics (versions of the father’s name); yet, once they became surnames they stopped changing with every generation (they became "fossilized"). Other surnames were related to where the family was from (for example the Lucena family from Lucena, Spain), or occupations (Mercado – merchant), or plants or animals (Olivera – olive; Ovejas – sheep). When families were forced to convert to Christianity, many adopted the surnames of their Catholic godfathers, for example Henriquez, Gomez, or Rodriguez. Conversos who were related to or allied with Spanish nobility often adopted the names of those families and even their coats of arms (Malka 73-75). As a result, many of the heraldic symbols found on gravestones in the Atlantic World are shared by non-Jewish Iberian families with the same last name.

Beautiful stone Gravestone of Abraham Senior Teixeira (alias: Diego Teixeira de Mattos) (1701) in Beth Haim, Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, Netherlands with a Heraldic Symbol on it (Jewish Atlantic World Database)
Occasionally family names were fossilized with older spellings (for example, Gomes spelled with an “s” at the end, rather than a “z”). Sometimes I have spoken with people think if their family spells their last name with a final “s” rather than “z” it is conclusive proof of Jewish ancestry. However, since spelling was rarely rigid in any of the colonies during this era, many families (and even individuals) would fluctuate between a variety of spellings of the name. Some names that were transliterated into Hebrew characters show a fluctuation between “p” and “f” even when using Roman letters, as the symbol for “p” and “f” are the same in the Hebrew alphabet (פ). Likewise during this era “y” and “i” were sometimes used interchangeably in surnames. Sometimes Spanish and Portuguese names changed spelling when people moved to a country that pronounced letters differently. For example, the “H” in Spanish is silent; hence, the name “Hoheb” was sometimes spelled “Oeb” in countries in which an “h” was pronounced.

Unlike the English who traditionally only inherited surnames from their fathers, people from the Spain and her former colonies often use two surnames: the first is the father's surname (apellido paterno) and the second is the mother's (apellido materno). Thus Isaac, the son of Leah Hernandes and Moses Nunes would be Isaac Nunes Hernandes. People were traditionally addressed by their father's surname or by the combined surnames.  Hence Isaac would be Mr. Nunes or Mr. Nunes Hernandes, but never Mr. Hernandes). Or to use a more realistic example (since both parents would also have apellidos paternos and maternos), Isaac the son of Leah Henandes Castillo and Moses Nunes Levy would usually inherit the apellido paterno from each parent and hence would be Isaac Nunes Hernandes. Prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, however, individuals sometimes inherited an apellido materno, particularly in an attempt to secure an inheritance (wikipedia). Indeed, in some families children could chose their surnames from among all of their parents or grandparents. Thus, siblings might have different last names. Inheritance of apellidos was complicated by the fact that sometimes parents’ surnames were passed along as a composite in order to reinforce familial connections (Malka 74). This can make locating people in Inquisition records quite tricky.

Since sometimes one’s given name consisted of several names (Malka 74), the conjunction “y” (and) was sometimes used to separate surnames, particularly if one of the surnames might be mistaken for a first name. In contrast, the preposition “de” (or da in Portuguese) meaning “of” was sometimes used to disambiguate surnames and to indicate that the second name was toponymic (a place name). Hence the conquistador Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba name signified that he was of the Fernández clan from Córdoba (in Spain). Likewise del (a contraction of de and el meaning, "of the") was used for places: del Monte, for example, means “of the mountain.”

By the eighteenth century, however, Spaniards were also using “de” to indicate nobility (and ironically for families of conversos who used the “de,” to suggest that they had no Jewish or Moorish blood) (wikipedia). Since the of “de” was at times an affectation, one finds that the same family in the Jewish Atlantic World will sometimes precede their name with a “de” and at other times won’t. Thus, Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was the son of David Aboab and Isabel da Fonseca (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com). Notice that his apellido paterno precedes his apellido materno (even though he is Portuguese--more on this in the next post). The “da” before Fonseca is toponymic: Fonseca is a place in Portugal. Da Fonseca was also the name, however, of a noble family, and the name was probably adopted by Jews upon conversion (http://www.defonseka.com/pe0008.htm). Some members of the Fonseca family in the Atlantic World chose to drop the “de” while others maintained it.

In Iberia and the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, a woman retained her surnames when she married. Different versions of this custom were maintained by Sephardic Jews in the colonies: for example in Curaçao, women often used their apellido paterno as a middle name and took their husband's name as a last name. In Newport, children only inherited their father's last name(s) and women took their husband's last name(s) upon marriage.

Here is a concrete example: Hannah Rodrigues Pimentel (1720-1820) was born on the island of Minorca and moved to Curaçao before she was married. She was the daughter of Samuel Rodrigues Pimentel and Sarah Lopez. If she had stayed in Minorca, her name would most likely have been Hannah Rodrigues Lopez. She married Abraham Sasportas in 1735 and kept her name according to both Spanish and Dutch convention. Their daughter was named Simha Sasportas, though if the daughter had been born in Spain, she would have been named Simha Sasportas Rodrigues. Simha died young and hence never married. After her Hannah's first husband died, she married Jacob Rodriguez Rivera in Curaçao in 1741. Her children from the second marriage took the last name Rodriguez Rivera until they married, at which point her daughters took their husband's last names. (For example, her daughter Sarah who married Aaron Lopez became "Sarah Lopez.")  When Hannah was buried, her gravestone was marked "Hannah Rodriguez Rivera." That is, after immigrating to the English colonies, Hannah and her children adapted to local custom and used English naming conventions.



In the Next Post in this series, I will discuss how Portuguese and Spanish Naming Conventions Differ. 

References and Resources

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What's in a Name? Part I

Introduction

Jews in the American colonies were often known by several names that they used depending on the circumstances: a Hebrew name for religious records, a Spanish or Portuguese pseudonym under which they traded with Iberian companies or Spanish and Portuguese colonies and under which they might have been baptized while living as conversos on the Iberian Peninsula, and a Dutch or British version of their name that they used for everyday life in the colonies. Some Jews such as Aaron Lopez gave up their converso name (Duarte) upon leaving Iberia and adopted a Hebrew name for everyday life (Aaron) rather than using an English version of his Iberian name (which would have been Edward). Since gravestones in the Atlantic World often contained multiple inscriptions in different languages (e.g. Hebrew, English, and Spanish), sometimes two or more of these names were united on a tombstone.

Other times, a gravestone favored one identity over another, for example a gravestone might reject a converso name and identity for a Judaicized self.  Thus, on the gravestone of Isaac Nunes we find his name listed as Yshac Nunes Belmonte, with and the Spanish pseudonym of Don Manuel is cast aside. 
Gravestone of (Baron) Isaac Nunes (alias: Don Manuel de Belmonte) (1705) in Beth Haim, Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, Netherlands (Jewish Atlantic World Database)
Gravestones can also provide useful information about genealogical relationships as the father, mother, wife, or husband are often identified in one or more of the inscriptions. Since Dutch and Spanish naming conventions include women’s maiden names or names inherited from one’s mother, gravestones can often supply the link between the different parts of one’s family.

In order to decode Jewish gravestones from the Jewish Atlantic World and understand the familial relationships they convey, it is helpful to know something about naming conventions popular during the era. While British colonial naming conventions were similar to those found in traditional American families today (first name plus a possible middle name, followed by a surname inherited from one’s father), Dutch and Spanish naming conventions differed and were adopted by those who were from or had lived in either the Iberian Peninsula, the Netherlands, or the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch colonies. Traditions for first (“given”) names came out of Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditions, but also were impacted by which cultures Jews lived among. The next sequence of posts on naming conventions is intended to help people understand the significance of what names are used in the Atlantic World.

Reminder: you can browse the Gravestones in the Jewish Atlantic World Database by first name.  This is a useful way to find out what names were popular among both Jews and Gentiles in the colonies.  Coming soon, browsing by Family Name as well.

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Families of Note: Jesurun Family

There are several Jewish families who can be found in the colonial records of many of the port towns of the Atlantic World.  One of these is the Jesurun Family (also Yesurun, Jessurun, and Jeshurun). Jesurun (יְשֻׁרוּן ) is a variation of  poetic variation of the people of Israel, that means "upright one" from the Hebrew word Yashar.  It can be found in the Torah in the book of Isaiah (44.2) and D'varim (Deuteronomy) 32.15, 33.5, and 33.26 (Bible Encyclopedia).

This Iberian family played a foundational role in the Sephardic communities of Amsterdam and Hamburg.  Early members of the family to settle in Amsterdam included Reuel (Rohel) Jesurun (alias Paul de Pina), Daniel Jesurun who was president of an early yeshiva, and David Jesurun, a poet, some of whose works were published by Daniel Levi ("Miguel") de Barrios in Triumpho del Govierno Popular.  Other early family members included Isaac ben Abraham Ḥayyim Jesurun, the Hakham of the Portuguese congregation in Hamburg (gravestone) (Jewish Encyclopedia).

One of the more illustrious members of this important family who lived in the colonies was Hakham Raphael Jesurun, the second resident of the Rabbi's house at 26-28 Kuiperstraat, in Curaçao.  Hakham Jesurun was born in Hamburg to the Hamburg Hakham Moses Jesurun, and had been a star pupil in Amsterdam's yeshivot.  His wife was Rachel Sasportas, the granddaughter of Hakham Jacob Sasportas of Amsterdam. The gravestone of Hakham Jesurun (1748) was engraved with a depiction of an angel approaching the distinctive portal of the Snoa: two Doric columns with a verse from Psalms 118:20 above the lintel: “This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter into it" (Arbell 140; Emmanuel 296-7).

 Detail from Gravestone of Haham Jesurun, Gravestone 7h1, Beit Haim Blenheim, Curaçao (Jewish Atlantic World Database)
 Biblical Verse on Western Facade of Mikvé Israel Synagogue, Willemstad, Curaçao (Jewish Atlantic World Database)

Here is a partial list of some of the ports in which the family lives in the 17th-19th centuries, along with gravestones of selected family members (they also lived in St. Thomas and Panama, though I don't have any photos from there):
Detail of Gravestone of Esther Hannah Jessurun, Hamburg, daughter-in-law of Mose Hayyim Jessurun and sister-in-law of Hakham Raphael Jesurun.

Here are some houses associated with the Family:
House bought in 1880 by Elias Jesurun Henriquez, Scharlooweg 37, Scharloo Jewish Atlantic World Database
Resources:
Photos:
 Are you related to this illustrious family?  If so please post comments with any links that you have that others might find helpful!

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Jewish Heritage Travel: The Gomez House

One of the great gems of Jewish American architecture stands just north of New York City near the Hudson River in Marlboro. Built in 1714, the Gomez Mill House was originally the trading post and home of Luis Moses Gomez. The house is the oldest Jewish dwelling in the United States and is a fine example of Dutch colonial architecture. Like many other early Jewish homes throughout the American colonies, the Gomez Mill House contained both living space and work space, a tradition that can be seen in other early iconic Jewish buildings like the Penha house in Curacao.

The Gomez House likewise reflects the opportunities available to Jewish settlers in the colonies. Although a refugee of the Spanish Inquisition, Luis Gomez was able to purchase the land for the house because he had obtained denizen papers from Queen Anne of England. In addition to the Mill House, Gomez owned a home and prosperous store in Manhattan. Gomez's denizen rights also allowed him to purchase the land that would serve as the first cemetery for Shearith Israel, for which he served as the parnass.

Today the Mill House has been lovingly restored by the Gomez Foundation for Mill House. Included in the house are examples of early American furniture and early Jewish ritual artifacts, including a Dutch hanukkiyah. Also on display are the denizen papers that allowed Luis Gomez to make his fortune. The grounds are lovely, so you may want to pack a lunch. Directions from Manhattan are posted on the house's website.

Educators and those interested in the history of American domestic architecture may find the section on Dutch Colonial Architecture in Rachel Carley's Visual Dictionary of American Domestic Architecture (pages 33-39) helpful to compare to the floorplan and design elements found at the Mill House. Those interested in studying the furniture may find Early American Furniture: A Practical Guide for Collectors by John Obbard will enrich their understanding of the early American aesthetic.

The Mill

The Mill House, First Story Dates to Era of Gomez Ownership

Fireplace in the Front Room of Gomez House, Dates to Era of Gomez Ownership. Fireplaces were a key element of Early American architecture and provided not only a source of heat, but also a place to cook. In some early houses, fireplaces were large enough to sit inside.
Denization Papers Given to Luis Moses Gomez by Queen Anne

All Photos by Laura Leibman, 2007.

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Book Review: Houses of Life

I have a new favorite book: Joachim Jacobs' Houses of Life: Jewish Cemeteries of Europe. This book is a must have for anyone interested in either Jewish History, Genealogy, or Gravestone Art. Several things make this book fantastic: one, it provides a history of European Jewish cemeteries from the early Roman period through today. Two, it is beautifully illustrated: in addition to featuring some of the most important artwork created about these cemeteries (including the cover illustration by Chagal and the Prague Cycle), it is richly illuminated by the photographs of Hans Dietrich Beyer. I also appreciated the range of cemeteries they uncovered: although I own a book by Minna Rosen on the Haskoy Cemetery in Istanbul, I liked being able to see the photographs of that cemetery next to ones from the same era from elsewhere in Europe and hearing how it differed stylistically from other Sephardic cemeteries. The city maps with the cemeteries highlighted are awesome, as are the archival photographs.

Although some of the ground covered in this book has also been explored by Hannelore Kunzl in Judische Grabkunst von der Antike bis heute, Jacobs' book will have the strong advantage for most American readers of being in English. Given the large number of color photographs and images and the large number of communities and cemeteries it covers, this book is extremely well priced at $65 USD. Several communities in the Jewish Atlantic World are covered in the work including London, Sepharad (Iberia), Amsterdam, and modern Portugal.

My favorite piece of trivia from the book is that several European Jewish cemeteries had a stable or fenced-in pen for the bechorim (first-born kosher animals that couldn't be eaten except by Cohenim). What a great solution to a vexing problem!

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Holidays: Purim

The book of Esther was particularly popular amongst conversos on the Iberian Peninsula. Many conversos kept the fast of Esther even when they kept few other Jewish holidays or traditions. New Christian women tended to identify with Queen Esther: like the Queen, many conversas had to submit to a gentile husband, either literally or figuratively (Catholic Spain).
Once conversos left the Iberian Peninsula and were free to practice Judaism openly, Purim remained an important holiday. The Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam contains many fine examples of richly illustrated Megillot, one of which is featured in the video below. The reading is from the Portuguese Esnoga.


Gravestones from the Jewish Atlantic World also feature scenes from the story of Esther. It was not uncommon for stones to feature Biblical scenes, particularly ones related to the name of the deceased. The detail of the stone at the top of the page is from the gravestone of Mordechay Hisquiau Namias de Crasto (1716) Beit Haim Blenheim, Curaçao. For the full stone and the inscription, see below. A similar scene appears in Beth Haim at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel on the stone of Moses de Mordechai Senior (1730) (left).

Classroom Resource:Gravestone of Mordechay Hisquiau Namias de Crasto (1716) Beit Haim Blenheim, Curaçao. This is one of the finest examples of gravestone art from the Jewish Atlantic World. Ask students what they think the different images mean and why they belong together on one stone. Why do you think the carver (or the family who requested the stone) chose this particular scene from the book of Esther?

Questions for Readers:
Do these stones surprise you, and if so how?

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Classroom Resources: Iberian Peninsula Crossword Puzzle

Looking for a way to reinforce students' understanding of key vocabulary words? Try a crossword puzzle! (Or you may just want to try it yourself to test your own knowledge!)

Download the puzzle here or make your own at The Teachers Corner.net.



Answer Key:

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Iberian Peninsula and the Birth of the Jewish Atlantic World




“When the Almighty speaks in such tremendous language, he must not speak in vain”
--Dr. Beilby Porteous, 1777

On the first of November 1755, an earthquake rocked and then destroyed the elegant port city of Lisbon, Portugal. At the time Lisbon was the fourth largest urban center in Europe, and the seismic wave sent physical and psychic reverberations throughout the continent: indeed, the quake is often referred to as the first “modern” disaster, as it rattled both religious and scientific understandings of the world (Braun and Radner 1; Dynes 34). As contemporary historians noted, on “that fatal morning the sky was serene, and there was perfect calm” before the fateful noise was heard. After ten minutes of three separate tremors, the city was in ruins. Whole buildings, including the customhouse, perished beneath the accompanying tidal waves. After the waters receded and the raging fires died out, the bodies were counted: at least 30,000 people were dead. Foreign traders alone lost about 48,000,000 Spanish dollars worth of goods (An Account 6-8; Kendrick 24, 32-34).

Both in Portugal and abroad, the disaster engendered a crisis of faith: in addition to forty parish churches and a magnificent cathedral, the city was home to twenty-five monasteries, eighteen nunneries, and one hundred and thirty laics. It was also home to recent waves of the inquisition: indeed one of the infamous sites destroyed by the earthquake was the Terreiro do Paço—the place where numerous descendents of Jewish converts had been executed during Lisbon’s autos-da-fé. Throughout Europe, clerics such as the Bishop of Chester warned regarding earthquakes that, “When the Almighty speaks in such tremendous language, he must not speak in vain.” The problem, however, was knowing exactly what God was saying. In Protestant countries the answer was obvious, as Lisbon was well known for three sins: wealth, the inquisition, and the “superstitious and idolatrous cult of graven images.” Yet for Catholics, there was more contention about the exact nature of Lisbon’s offense; indeed, several clerics were either executed or burned in effigy for improperly interpreting the disaster. For Lisbon’s “New Christians,” the horror of their ruined lives was amplified by the terrible knowledge that previous Iberian earthquakes had been interpreted as a sign of God’s wrath for Portugal’s “leniency” towards Jewish converts. When an earthquake came, the inquisition was never far away (Dynes 42-44; Kendrick 1, 24, 29, 33, 34; Saraiva 110, 230; Birmingham 75-76).

Thus while the air may have appeared calm on November first, the cultural and theological crisis caused by Lisbon’s seismic boom was actually the apex of several decades of disturbance both in Lisbon and throughout Portugal. One of the “pre-shocks” to this event was the wave of autos-da-fé (acts of faith) that surged across the Iberian Peninsula during periods of economic, social, and theological unrest. The early eighteenth century was one such era: between 1701 and 1739, there were ten autos in Lisbon, and three in nearby Coimbra involving Jewish prisoners (Mocatta 104). Autos varied depending on place and time, but by the eighteenth-century in Lisbon, they were multi-day public denouncements of heretics that included feasts, processions, and executions. As one Inquisitor noted, the goal of the auto was to persuade the masses that “one of the causes of the evils and travails which this country has been experiencing for so many years is the glut of Jews that live among us” (Saraiva 109). It was rare that a public auto was comprised of fewer than 50 penanced and executed prisoners, and frequently more than 200 prisoners were involved in the spectacle. Autos-da-fé were extremely popular with crowds, and numerous sermons and illustrations about autos were distributed throughout Lisbon to help bolster support for the events (Saraiva 113). As historian António José Saraiva notes, Judaism was often a pretext, rather than a motivation for hostility embedded in these displays: “Jews were the ‘other’ upon whom grievances, dissatisfactions and frustrations might be deflected” (Saraiva 19).

Indeed despite its popularity as a spectacle, the auto was ineffective in preventing Jewish practice. According to some conversos such as António Nunes Roberiro Sanches (1699-1783), the inquisition actually reinforced and sometimes created Jewish identity and practice in Portugal (Saraiva 124-25). Those imprisoned by the inquisition were largely New Christians, also known as conversos or marranos: that is, they were the descendents of Sephardic Jews forced to convert to Catholicism at the end of the fifteenth century. While over the centuries some conversos and their descendents had practiced a form of crypto-Judaism in private, others left their Judaism behind as they embraced Catholicism and married into Old Christian families. Even if some of the New Christians tortured by the Inquisition had been secret “Judaizers,” many others were not: indeed, Saraiva has argued that the experience of the Inquisition actually instigated as much Judaizing as it suppressed (Saraiva ix). Many New Christians left Portugal during the eighteenth century to escape both the Inquisition and the destruction caused by Lisbon’s earthquake. They settled in places like Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London, but they also sought to remake their fortunes in the port towns throughout the colonies, particularly in Curaçao, Surinam, Barbados, Jamaica, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island. These cities became the port towns of the "Jewish Atlantic World."

Sources:
An account of the earthquake which destroyed the city of Lisbon, on the first of November, 1755. London: W. Glendinning, 1800.

Braun, Theodore E.D. and John B. Radner, eds. The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755: Representations and Reactions. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2005.

Birmingham, David. A Concise History of Portugal, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 2003.

Dynes, Russell R. “The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755: the First Modern Disaster” The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755: Representations and Reactions. Eds. Theodore E.D. Braun and John B. Radner. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2005. 34-49.

Kendrick, Thomas Downing. The Lisbon Earthquake. London: Methuen, 1956.

"Lisbon Earthquake" (1850) LIFE

Mocatta, Frederic David. The Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition. Supplementary Chronological Tables by David Bortin. New York: Cooper Square, 1973.

Porteous, Beilby. “A Letter to the Inhabitants of Manchester, Macclesfield, and adjacent parts, on occasion of the late earthquake in those places.” Foregate-street: J. Poole. 1777.

Saraiva, António José, H. P. Salomon, and I. S. D. Sassoon, The Marrano Factory: the Portuguese Inquisition and its New Christians 1536-1765. Leiden: Brill, 2001.




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2009 ·Travels Through Jewish History by TNB

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