Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation
- Subtitle: Conversos and Community in Early Modern Amsterdam
- Author: Miriam Bodian
- Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1999 – 219 pp.
- LOC Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/96048373
- Availability: in print – see publisher's website
Review
This book is a provocative attempt at reconstructing the identity politics of Western Sephardim, who understood themselves as comprising a special "Portuguese Nation." Using seventeenth century Amsterdam as a case study, Bodian investigates how the operation of this important Sephardic center reveals Portuguese Jewish patterns of thought about themselves, their Ashkenazic coreligionists, and their brothers still living as conversos under Catholic suzerainty.
At once a communal history and an attempt to describe Sephardic consciousness, Bodian's contribution is valuable in two overlapping ways. Readers looking for an engaging account of how Sephardim came to settle in Amsterdam and forge an international hub of Jewish life ex nihilo will find it here, including a critical examination of common myths about early Dutch reactions to the newcomers. Simultaneously, those seeking to understand Western Sephardic worldviews and cultural assumptions will be treated to a sustained, concrete discussion of these themes at a level of detail that is unsurpassed in many other works on the subject.
At once a communal history and an attempt to describe Sephardic consciousness, Bodian's contribution is valuable in two overlapping ways. Readers looking for an engaging account of how Sephardim came to settle in Amsterdam and forge an international hub of Jewish life ex nihilo will find it here, including a critical examination of common myths about early Dutch reactions to the newcomers. Simultaneously, those seeking to understand Western Sephardic worldviews and cultural assumptions will be treated to a sustained, concrete discussion of these themes at a level of detail that is unsurpassed in many other works on the subject.
Contents
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Introduction
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1
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Early Years in Amsterdam
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25
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Working out a Modus Vivendi
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53
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Iberian Memory and its Perpetuation
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76
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The Rejudaizing of "the Nation"
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96
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Maintaining "the Nation" in Exile
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132
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Conclusion
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152
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Personalia and abbreviations
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163
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Notes
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169
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Bibliography
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203
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Index
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213
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