B O O K S

Secret Judaism
and the
Spanish Inquisition

Michael Alpert
(Five Leaves Publication, 2008)s

From the end of the fifteenth century until the eighteenth century Spanish Jews carried on Jewish practices in the shadow of the Inquisition. Those caught were forced to recant or be burnt at the stake in public “autos de fe”. This book describes the private lives of these secret Jews, drawing on their confessions and trial documents. This paperback edition covers the survival of Jewish practices into modern times in Portugal and Spain, where families descended from “conversos” (Christian converts) still carry out long-hidden Jewish traditions.

The Massacre of the Jews, Lisbon 1506

(O Massacre Dos Judeus, 1596)

Susana Bastos Mateus, Paulo Mendes Pinto, 2007,  

Alêtheia Editores, Lisboa.

This is the first non-fiction book

in Portuguese, about the

1506 massacre in Lisbon of

4,000 Marranos

(see also ‘The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon’ below)

Inquisition and Independence,
A Riot in Fundão-1580
 

Inquisição e Independência, Um Motim No Fundao-1580
 

Maria Antonieta Garcia, Alma Azul, Coimbra, 2006, 227pp

About a 16th century riot in Fundão (near Belmonte),
the only known public act of resistance against the
Inquisition in Portugal.

Cathedral of the Sea

Ildefonso Falcones
(Transworld, 2006)

14th century Barcelona. The building of a church. ‘Aristocracy’, Jews, usuary. pogrom
 

The Last Kabbalist
of Lisbon

Richard Zimler
(Arcadia Books, 1988)

Claimed to be based on a manuscript discovered in Istanbul it is the record of the hunt for a murderer among secret Jews living in Lisbon during the massacre of 1506  

Guardian of the Dawn

Richard Zimler
(Constable and Robinson, 2005)

Persecution by the Inquisition in early 17th century Portuguese Goa.

Hunting Midnight

Richard Zimler
(Constable and Robinson, 2004)

Oporto, 1800. Napoleon is marching across Europe.  The Jews of Portugal, still 'hidden' and baptised, are suffering the threat of a renewed Inquisition

Jews, God and History  

Max Dimont
(Mentor, 1994)

Especially Chapter 18 'Crusades, Renaissance and Reformation'

Kidnapping of
Edgardo Mortara

David Kerzer
(Picador, 1997)

The last Jewish boy to be arrested by the Inquisition in the 19th century

The Coffee Trader

David Liss
(Abacus, 2003)

Amsterdam, 1659.  The Sephardi community and finance

The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain    

Haim Beinart and
Jeffrey M. Green

(The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization 2005)

Classic History

The Last Jew

Noah Gordon
(Little Brown, 2000)

Spain 1492,  a 13 year old sees his father and brother die and flees from the Inquisition.  Eventually becomes a healer and physician in Granada
 

The Queen's Fool  

Phillippa Gregory
(Harper Collins, 2003)

Brilliant story of a Jewish girl and her family who come to England to escape the Inquisition, becomes the 'fool' (comedienne) to Mary Tudor, friend to Elizabeth 1 and is in Calais when it is captured by the French.  
 

The Source

James Michener

(Random House) 1965)

The story of Palestine over the past few thousand years. Especially relevant is the chapter titled 'The Saintly Men of Safed'

The Woman Who Defied Kings:

The Life and Times of Dona Gracia Nasi

Andree Aelion Brooks

(Paragon House Publishers; 2003)

Biography of Dona Gracia Nasi.  An outstanding Renaissance Jewish international banker she operated an 'underground railroad' that saved hundreds from the Inquisition and spearheaded one of the earliest attempts to form an independent Jewish state for Jews in Israel.
 

The Cantonists: The Jewish Children's Army of the Tsar’

Larry Domnitch    

Click here for a summary

The Marrano Legacy

Trudi Alexis

A Contemporary Crypto-Jewish Priest Reveals His Double Life

Click here for a Google Introduction

F I L M S

Secret Files of the Inquisition

www.inquisitionproductio ns.com

Filmed in High Definition, this production spans medieval France in Episode

Episode 1,
15th century Spain

Episode 2,
Renaissance Italy

Episode 3
mid-nineteenth century

Episode 4
Europe.

The 4 x 60 mini-series reveals how the most powerful church on earth created the Inquisition to attack its enemies and preserve the unquestioned authority of the Pope. Historians, experts and Church authorities advise on the handling of this controversial subject matter

The Last Marranos

Distributed by:

National Center for Jewish Film

Sharon Pucker Rivo

Brandeis University, Lown Building #102 MS053

Directed by Frederic Brenner, Stan Neumann

France 1990

16mm color

65 minutes

Portuguese, w/Eng. subtitles

THE LAST MARRANOS is an incredible documentary about a community of Marranos in Portugal who still practice their Judaism in the closet, 500 years later. They attend church on Sunday, but clandestinely light candles on Friday, bake matzah on Passover, and say prayers to "Adonai," the Hebrew word for Lord. Their Christian neighbours murmur about them; the old Marranos still speak of their fear of Christians. Yet a new generation appears determined to "come-out" as Jews and establish a synagogue for the first time in five centuries. This film is an eye-opener!