American Jewish Archives

Volume XLIV Spring/Summer, 1992 Number I American Jewish Archives A Journal Devoted to the Presmation and Study of the American Jewish Experience Jacob Rader Marcus, Ph.D., Editor Abraham J. Peck, Ph.M., Managing Editor Ruth L. Kreimer, Editorial Associate Tammy Topper, Editorial Assistant Published by The American Jewish Archives on the Cincinnati Campus of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Dr. Alfred Gottschalk, President American JewishArchives is indexed in The Index to Jewish Periodicals, Current Contents, The American Historical Review, United States Political Science Documents, and The ]oumal of American History Informntionfor Contributors: American JewishArchivesfollows generally the University of Chicago Press "Manual of Style" (12th revised edition) and "Words into Type" (3 rd edition),but issues its own style sheet which may be obtained by writing to: The Managing Editor, American JewishArchives 3101 Clipon Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45220 Patron 1992: The Neumann Memorial Publication Fund Published by The American 1ewik.h Archives on the Cincinnati campus of the Hebrew Union College-wish Institute of Religion ISSN 002-905X O 1992 by the Ametican Jewish Archives CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction: Sephardim in the Americas Part I Families and Futures: The Early Sephardic Phenomenon The Sephardic Phenomenon: A Reappraisal Martin A. Cohen Stones of Memory: Revelations From a Cemetery in Cura~ao 81 Rochelle Weinstein Portuguese Sephardim in the Americas Malcolm H. Stern The Fidanques: Symbols of the Continuity of the Sephardic Tradition in America 179 Emma Fidanque Levy Part II The Sephardic Experience in Latin America "Those of the Hebrew Nation ..." The Sephardic Experience in Colonial Latin America Allan Metz Sephardim in Latin America after Independence Victor C. Mirelman Part III Hidden Roots: Sephardic Culture in North America The Sephardim in North America in the Twentieth Century Joseph M. Papo Language of the Sephardim In Anglo-America Denah Lida American Jewish Archives The Sacred and Secular Musical Traditions of the Sephardic Jews in the United States Israel J. Katz Judeo-Spanish Traditional Poetry in the United States Samuel G. Armistead Tradition and History: Sephardic Contributions to American Literature Diane Matza The Secret Jews of the Southwest Frances Herniindez Notes on the Contributors Index This volume would not have been possible without the generous support of the Maurice Amado Foundation. The Foundation is devoted to increasing the awareness and appreciation of the Sephardic heritage, especially in the areas of education and culture. Introduction: Sephardim in the Americas The year 1992 and the observance of the Columbus quincentenary marks a special moment in the history of the American Jewish experience. For a brief time, the historical spotlight will be able to shine on a group of American Jews whose ancestors left Spain at about the same time that Columbus undertook his journey of discovery. And while mainstream America will celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, this same group of American Jews, the Sephardim, will shed tears for the nearly 200,000 Spanish Jews who were expelled in 1492 from a country in which they had lived for many centuries. Indeed, research in American Jewish history has shown that the first significant Jewish immigrants to this country and to this hemi- sphere were Jews from the West Indies and Europe who traced their ancestry to the Jewish communities in Spain and Portugal. The Sephardim, as they identified themselves according to their prayer ritual, dominated the religious, social and economic life of American Jewry during the colonial and early federal periods. By the 1830s~however, they were overwhelmed in numbers by a substantial immigration of Jews from German-speaking Central Europe. These German Jews soon developed much of the institutional framework that would serve as the foundation for a future American Jewish community. The earlier Sephardic community soon became part of American Jewish myth. They were viewed as the "Grandees" of American Jew- ish society, an aristocratic, acculturated group that has now all but vanished as a factor in the American Jewry of the twentieth century. In the years between 1881 and 1924, over two million Jews from Eastern Europe reached these shores and became the dominant force in American Jewish life. But, in those same years, a second, much less known group of Jewish immigrants left the shores of Europe and Asia to come to the United States. They numbered somewhere between thirty and fifty thousand and despite numerous languages and origins also identified themselves as Sephardim. They came to American Jewish Archives this country for many of the same reasons that impelled the East European Jews to leave Poland and Russia. Instead of Warsaw and Grodno or Zhitomir and Pinsk, they identified themselves as Monastirli, Castorli, Rhodesli, Yanioti or Saloniki. They spoke Judeo-Spanish or Greek (and later Arabic). Their religious practices, their songs and poetry were all their own. To the Yiddish-speaking East European Jews they were foreign- ers,"Italyaneif (Italians) even after they read perfect Hebrew from a prayerbook or wrapped their tefillin around their arms. And to the already established Sephardim they could only be distant relatives, relegated to the status of Oriental or Levantine Jews but not deserv- ing of a true Sephardic status. How little we know about these twentieth-century immigrants from Turkey, Greece and the Balkan states. And while a certain mystique defines the earlier Sephardic community, a mystique that led Ashkenazim to join and even take over Sephardic congregations and to claim Sephardic origins, no such aura of aristocratic bearing sur- rounds this later wave of Sephardic immigrants. Imagine the pain when the immigrants from Rhodes, Turkey or Bulgaria walked the streets of the lower East Side of New York - where many of the immigrants settled - when they came upon small Ashkenazic congregations who called themselves Anshei Sefarad (Men of Spain) and whose members would not even accord them recognition as fellow Jews. We understand the hurt and the sense of frustration that accompanies the belief by many American Sephardim that they have been written out of the Jewish history of the hemi- sphere that they call home. That is why the editors of American Jewish Archives have asked Pro- fessor Martin A. Cohen to edit this special volume. In these pages, the reader will find scholarly essays by some of the most outstanding interpreters of the Sephardic experience in the Americas. Beginning with Martin Cohen's brilliant analysis of what he calls "The Sephardic Phenomenon," these dozen essays examine the historical and cultural history of the Sephardic presence in the western hemi- sphere, but especially in North America. The appearance of this special issue of American Jewish Archives could not have been possible without the generous support of the Maurice Amado Foundation of Los Angeles. We are also grateful to Dr. Tamar Frank, the program consultant of the Maurice Amado Foundation, for her help and encouragement. The planning for this volume began in the latter part of 1989. Its publication marks the end of a wonderful relationship between the editors of American Jewish Archives, the guest editor of this volume and its distinguished group of contributors.While most issues of style and substance were quickly settled, one issue has not been resolved. The reader will find different spellings of the same personal name or Ladino word in several of the essays. We tried to create a standard- ized set of spelling rules, but were unable to persuade certain authors of their validity and authority. Yet we did not insist on uniformity. After all, this is the Year of the Sephardim; let them enjoy it to its fullest extent. JRM AJP Part I Families and Futures: The Early Sephardic Phenomenon The Sephardic Phenomenon: A Reappraisal Martin A. Cohen Preface The story of the Sephardic Jews in the Americas is part of a saga that began in the Iberian Peninsula under the Roman Empire, if not earlier, and eventually intertwined with the experience of all Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America. The Sephardic Jews were instrumental in the transmission of ancient culture, the creation of medieval Iberian civilization, and the development of modern Europe, and from it the modern world. The role of the Sephardic Jews in the New World is understandable only through their prior history, and this history is best understood by following the unfolding of the Sephardic phenomenon from earliest times. Introduction The year 1992 marks the quincentenary of the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. The edict was issued in the city of Granada on March 31, 1492 by King Fernando of Aragon and Queen Isabel of Castile, the Catholic Monarchs, as they were dubbed by Pope Sixtus IV. It ordered all Jews to leave the territories belonging to the royal couple within four months, precisely by the end of July. According to tradition and perhaps historical reality, the deadline was eventually extended from July 31 until August 2. In the Jewish religious calendar this date corresponded to the ninth day of the month of Ab, the anniversary of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans in the year 70 C.E. In reality, the Jews were not expelled from any political entity known as Spain. The Catalans in particular liked to call Ferdinand the king of Spain, but the name Hispania remained a geographical desig- nation, and the Portuguese at no time took kindly to its political adoption at the expense of their exclusion. The name Spain for non- 2 American Jewish Archives Portuguese Iberia is hardly appropriate before 1512, when King Fer- nando added cys-Pyrenean Navarre to the dyarchy of Castile and Aragon. The edict of Ferdinand and Isabella consequently referred only to Castile, Aragon and their possessions.

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