Neofiti
The neofiti ( en, Neophytes) were a group of Italian ''anusim'', also known as crypto-Jews, living in Southern Italy. History The ''neofiti'' were descendants of Jews who were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism in 1493. They continued to secretly practice certain elements of Judaism, as did many of their descendants. In the 1490s the Spanish Inquisition ruthlessly hunted the ''neofiti'' and many were tortured and executed, especially in Sicily. Today, some descendants of ''neofiti'' in Calabria and Apulia have converted back to Judaism and revived their former Jewish congregations. See also * Dönmeh * Allahdad * Chala * Converso * Marrano * Targum Neofiti * History of the Jews in Apulia * History of the Jews in Calabria * History of the Jews in Sicily The history of the Jews in Sicily potentially begins as far back as two millennia, with a substantial Jewish presence on the southern Italian island before their expulsion in the fifteenth century. Ancient h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Targum Neofiti
Targum Neofiti (or Targum Neophyti) is the largest of the Western Targumim on the Torah, or Palestinian Targumim. The extant copy consists of 450 folios covering all books of the Torah, with only a few damaged verses. More than a mere Aramaic translation of the Hebrew text, Neofiti offers lengthy expansions on the biblical text at several places. It is often more expansive than Targum Onkelos, but less so than Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. History In 1587, Andrea de Monte gave the Targum Neofiti to his friend Ugo Boncompagni, who, like him, was a convert from Judaism. De Monte had censored it by deleting most references to idolatry while he owned the manuscript. In 1602 Boncampagni gave what was at that time labeled "Item 1" along with a fragmentary targum to the College of the Neophytes, the document's namesake, who preserved it until 1886, when the Vatican bought it along with other manuscripts when the Collegium closed. At that time Targum Neofiti was titled incorrectly as a manus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
History Of The Jews In Apulia
The history of the Jews in Apulia (called in Italian ''Puglia'') can be traced back over two thousand years. Apulia (from the Greek ''Ἀπουλία'', in it, Puglia, ) in Hebrew:פוליה) is a region in the "heel of the boot" of the peninsula of Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea. The Jews have had a presence in Apulia for at least 2000 years. The Jews of Apulia had a rich Rabbinic tradition and also had a sizeable Jewish population in the central Mediterranean prior to their expulsion. Ancient history Apulia was once part of the ancient Roman province of Bruttium, then became part of the Italian region of Calabria until its distinction today as a separate area. In the 1st century, Roman records tell of the Jewish communities of Bari, Oria, Otranto, and Taranto. Other legends tell of Jewish captives deported from Judea by the Roman Emperor Titus after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70. Official documents from the Western Roman emperor Honorius in the year 398, confirm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Crypto-Judaism
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek ''kryptos'' – , 'hidden'). The term is especially applied historically to Spanish Jews who outwardly professed Catholicism, also known as Conversos, Marranos, or the Anusim. The phenomenon is especially associated with Renaissance Spain, following the Massacre of 1391 and the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.Levine Melammed, Renee. "Women in Medieval Jewish Societies," in ''Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship''. Ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn. New York: New York University Press, 2009. 105–106. Europe Officially, Jews who converted in Spain during the 14th and 15th centuries were known as ''Cristianos Nuevos'' (New Christians), but were commonly called ''conversos'' (converts o Christianity. Spain and Portugal passed legislation restricting their rights in the mother countries of Spain and Portugal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Crypto-Jews
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek ''kryptos'' – , 'hidden'). The term is especially applied historically to Spanish Jews who outwardly professed Catholicism, also known as Conversos, Marranos, or the Anusim. The phenomenon is especially associated with Renaissance Spain, following the Massacre of 1391 and the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.Levine Melammed, Renee. "Women in Medieval Jewish Societies," in ''Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship''. Ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn. New York: New York University Press, 2009. 105–106. Europe Officially, Jews who converted in Spain during the 14th and 15th centuries were known as ''Cristianos Nuevos'' (New Christians), but were commonly called '' conversos'' (converts o Christianity. Spain and Portugal passed legislation restricting their rights in the mother countries of Spain and Portuga ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
History Of The Jews In Calabria
The history of the Jews in Calabria reaches back over two millennia. Calabria ( he, קלבריה) is at the very south of the Italian peninsula, to which it is connected by the Monte Pollino massif, while on the east, south and west it is surrounded by the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas. Jews have had a presence in Calabria for at least 1600 years and possibly as much as 2300 years. Calabrian Jews have had notable influence on many areas of Jewish life and culture. The Jews of Calabria are virtually identical to the neighbouring Jews of Sicily but are considered separate. However, the Jews of Calabria and the Jews of Apulia are historically the same community, only today are considered separate. Occasionally, there is confusion with the southern Jewish community in Calabria and the northern Jewish community in Reggio Emilia. Both communities have always been entirely separate. Early history The history of the Jews in Calabria is presumed to date back several centuries before the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Marrano
Marranos were Spanish and Portuguese Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who converted or were Forced conversion#Spanish Inquisition, forced to convert to Christianity during the Middle Ages, but continued to Crypto-Judaism, practice Judaism in secrecy. The term specifically refers to the charge of crypto-Judaism, whereas the term ''converso'' was used for the wider population of Jewish converts to Catholic Church, Catholicism, whether or not they secretly still practised Jewish rites. Converts from either Judaism or Islam were referred to by the broader term of "New Christians." The term ''marrano'' came into later use in 1492 with the Castilian Alhambra Decree, which prohibited the practice of Judaism in Spain and required all remaining Jews to convert or leave, under the premise that, "If they are not good Christians, their descendants will be." By then, the vast majority of Jews in Spain had converted to Catholicism, perhaps under pressure from the Massacre of 1391, and ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Anusim
Anusim ( he, אֲנוּסִים, ; singular male, anús, he, אָנוּס ; singular female, anusáh, , meaning "coerced") is a legal category of Jews in ''halakha'' (Jewish law) who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically while forcibly converted to another religion. The term "anusim" is most properly translated as the "coerced nes or the "forced nes. Etymology The term ''anusim'' derives from the Talmudic phrase ''averah b’ones'' (), meaning "a forced transgression." The Hebrew ''ones'' (pronounced "oh'nes") derives from the triconsonantal root (Aleph-Nun-Samekh), and originally referred to any case where a person has been forced into any act against his or her will. In Modern Hebrew, the word ''ones'' is mainly used to mean rape, thus "anusim" (or female "anusot") nowadays means rape victims, the older meaning used only in the historical context. The term ''anús'' is used in contradistinction to ''meshumad'' (), (literally "self-destroyed") which me ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Converso
A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert", () was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of his or her descendants. To safeguard the Old Christian population and make sure that the ''converso'' "New Christians" were true to their new faith, the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established in Spain in 1478. The Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the remaining openly practising Jews by the Alhambra decree of 1492, following the Christian ''Reconquista'' (reconquest) of Spain. However, even a significant proportion of these remaining practising Jews chose to join the already large ''converso'' community rather than face exile. ''Conversos'' who did not fully or genuinely embrace Catholicism, but continued to practise Judaism in secrecy, were referred to as ''judaizantes'' ("Judaizers") and pejoratively as ''marranos'' ("swine"). New Christian converts of Muslim origin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Chala (Jews)
:''See disambiguation page Challa for more meanings of the word.'' Chala ( uz, чала ) is an Uzbek term meaning "neither this nor that," referring to Bukharan Jews who were converted to Islam beginning in the late eighteenth century. In response, these Chala Jews outwardly practiced Islam, but secretly retained their Jewish traditions. These crypto-Jews married among themselves and lived in their own neighborhoods that bordered on existing Jewish neighborhoods. The Chala Jews carry a very similar story to the Dönmeh and to the Marranos of Spain. Chala Jews were unable to return to their true Jewish faith due to the fatal consequences associated with leaving the Islamic faith. The Islamic rulership during this period imposed a death penalty against those renouncing their Islamic faith. Therefore, it was not until the emergence of Imperial Russia, and Soviet rule that Chala Jews were able to revert to their original faith. By the 19th century, there were Chala communities th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Allahdad
The Allahdad ( fa, الله داد, ) was an 1839 pogrom perpetrated by Muslims against the Mashhadi Jewish community in the city of Mashhad, Qajar Iran. It was characterized by the mass-killing and forced conversion of the Jews in the area to Islam. Following this event, many of the Mashhadi Jews began to actively practice crypto-Judaism while superficially adhering to Islamic beliefs. The Allahdad incident was a prominent event in the ambivalent history of Jewish–Muslim relations due to the fact that an entire community of Jews were forced to convert, and it was one of the first times European Jewry intervened on behalf of Iranian Jews. The event was first described in Joseph Wolff's 1845 travelogue "Narrative of a mission to Bokhara", in which he wrote: On Monday, the 11th of March, I arrived at Askerea, two miles distant from Meshed. I had sent on before the King's mehmoondar, and the gholam of the British embassy. The first who came to meet me was Mullah Mehdee (Meshi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Dönmeh
The Dönme ( he, דוֹנְמֶה, Dōnme, ota, دونمه, tr, Dönme) were a group of Sabbatean crypto-Jews in the Ottoman Empire who converted outwardly to Islam, but retained their Jewish faith and Kabbalistic beliefs in secret. The movement was centered mainly in Thessaloniki. It originated during and soon after the era of Sabbatai Zevi, a 17th-century Sephardic Jewish Rabbi and Kabbalist who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah and eventually feigned conversion to Islam under threat of death from the Sultan Mehmed IV. After Zevi's forced conversion to Islam, a number of Sabbatean Jews purportedly converted to Islam and became the Dönme. Some Sabbateans lived on into 21st-century Turkey as descendants of the Dönme. Today it is unclear how many people stil call themselves Dönme although some still live in Teşvikiye in Istanbul. Most are buried in the Bülbüldere Cemetery (AKA Selanikliler Mezarlığı or the Cemetery of the Salonicans) in Üsküdar where, unusually, thei ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Sicilian Language
Sicilian ( scn, sicilianu, link=no, ; it, siciliano) is a Romance language that is spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands. A variant, ''Calabro-Sicilian'', is spoken in southern Calabria, where it is called Southern Calabro notably in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. Dialects of central and southern Calabria, the southern parts of Apulia (Salentino dialect) and southern Salerno in Campania ( Cilentano dialect), on the Italian peninsula, are viewed by some linguists as forming with Sicilian dialects a broader Extreme Southern Italian language group (in Italian ). '' Ethnologue'' (see below for more detail) describes Sicilian as being "distinct enough from Standard Italian to be considered a separate language", and it is recognized as a minority language by UNESCO. It has been referred to as a language by the Sicilian Region. It has the oldest literary tradition of the Italo-Romance languages. A version of the ''UNESCO Courier'' is also availab ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |