USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > Newport > The story of the Jews of Newport; two and a half centuries of Judaism, 1658-1908 > Part 4
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
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rage of the recently Christianized populace. The Jew was tortured or burned alive; or driven from the country without mercy, refused the chance to live as a man and die as a man. Such things happened sporadically as early as the seventh century; but they became more common as time went on.
The only channel of escape which at first seemed safe though later it proved futile, was the acceptance of compulsory baptism. Some attempted to seek refuge in provinces where persecution was at the time unknown, only to fall prey to fanaticism at a later date. Before long, a very large number of the population of the Iberian peninsula consisted of Crypto-Jews, who had been forced into baptism by persecution. They were designated as Neo-Christians, or Marranos,5 which denotes in Spanish "pig".
Some of the Marranos intermarried with families of the higher and lower nobility to such an extent that after a few generations very few families in Spain were with- out Jewish blood. They took part in all forms of political and social life. Economically they acquired wealth and at times were entrusted with the financial policies of the country. In the royal Court and Chancery, the Marranos occupied exalted positions in many capacities. They became high dignitaries in the Catholic Church, to the extent that at one time the rumor arose that a Marrano had reached the position of Pope.
There existed at all times a marked distinction between the general populace who were Christians and the Neo- Christians, or Marranos, who adopted Christianity
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because of persecution. Many of the Marranos cherished their love for the Jewish faith in which they had been reared. As much as possible they secretly observed the traditions of their fathers in spite of the high positions they held. Some attended synagogue under the most dangerous circumstances. Others assembled in under- ground hiding places to carry out the tenets of Jewish religion, though openly they lived in beautiful homes religiously decorated according to the custom of the day, giving no cause for suspicion. They did not however voluntarily take their children to church for baptism. When obliged to do so, on returning home they washed away the baptismal oil. So far as possible they ate no meat forbidden by the Mosaic code; they observed the Jewish festival days and fast days as much as possible; and to escape suspicion in order to partake of Matzos on Passover some ate unleavened bread the entire year on the pretense that leavened bread was unhealthy for them. On Rosh Hashanah they went into secluded country places, among the mountains and valleys, to blow the Shofar, and keep the sound from reaching the city.
It is recorded that "In the city of Seville an Inquisitor said to the regent : 'My lord, if you wish to know how the Marranos keep the Sabbath, let us ascend the tower!' When they had reached the top, the former said to the latter: 'Lift up your eyes and look. That house is the home of a Marrano; there is one which belongs to another ; and there are many more. You will not see smoke rising from any of them, in spite of the severe cold; for they have no fire because it is the Sabbath' ".6
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The Marranos were always looked at with suspicion as to their strict adherence to the Church and its doctrines, and as to their sincerity in professing Christianity. This suspicion, though without reason in many cases, was justified in some ; and the Marrano was not to blame, for he had not chosen baptism, he was forced into it. Yet, though, in principle, compulsory baptism was discount- enanced, Church and Crown were determined that those Jews who had received baptism, no matter under what circumstances, were to stay Christians. "Backsliding entailed correction", according to the views of the higher clergy. The result was the Spanish Inquisition or the Sanctum Officium, the 'Holy Office'.
The Inquisition was introduced into the kingdom of Castile, Aragon, and Navarre by Ferdinand V and Isabella the Catholic. Its targets were the Marrano and the Jew. The victims were the thousands of Jewish families who had accepted baptism during the cruel persecution of 1391 in order to save their lives, but who secretly in face of all dangers preserved their love for Judaism, Jewish law, and Jewish custom.
The tribunals of the Holy Office were not erected in each province immediately; but not much time elapsed before they covered the peninsula. By 1480, all the provinces under the sovereignty of Ferdinand and Isabella were in the clutches of those tribunals, the object of fear and terror for almost three hundred years. On February 6, 1481, the first auto-da-fe was held at Seville, when six men and women were led in a solemn procession to be burned at the stake, amidst the Halle-
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lujahs of the priest and the preaching of the pious Dominican. This was but the first of the many fires that, lit later, claimed the lives of thousands of Jews, yielding up their souls, with the martyr's exclamation, "Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One".
But it was not only the souls of the victims that the Holy Office of the Inquisition desired to save with its unholy terrors. Too often another aim was to fill the royal coffers with the confiscated wealth of the victims. Not God but Gold was the object, for the first step of the Inquisitors was to confiscate the entire wealth of any one accused of Judaizing. Pope Sixtus IV, who urged that the Marranos be treated more humanely, hinted in a letter to Queen Isabella that the motive for the severity against the Marranos might have been "greed for earthly possessions, rather than zeal for the faith and true fear of God"." He was not wrong.
In the rage of revenge for the supposed crime that the Marranos were accused of committing by Judaizing, the Inquisitors paid little attention to testimony in defence of the suspects. A fair trial was out of the question. Misrepresentation, deceit, lying, all were justified to trap the victim and lead him to slaughter, or to the living hell of the dark and filthy dungeons.
The Spanish Inquisition used every means to trap the unhappy victims, and lure them to a false security before the Holy Office. The Inquisitors promised absolution to all Marranos guilty of observing Jewish customs, if they would appear before the tribunal and recant. Many fell victims to this snare, for no absolution
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was granted them, unless under the seal of secrecy and under oath extracted by torture in the Inquisition chambers, they betrayed the name of others whom they knew to be Judaizers and who on their testimony would become prey for the flames.
When this was not successful, for the brave held out and the weaker, not trusting the torturer's promises, refused to inform against their brethren, other means were used. The Inquisition ordered that the slightest act showing Jewish origin was a reason for arrest. Amongst the specific acts enumerated were to observe Saturday by wearing a clean shirt or by spreading a clean tablecloth on the table, or by eating food cooked over night in the oven, or by abstaining from work and putting on a new suit. To fast on the Day of Atonement or to eat unleavened bread on Passover, or to circumcise a boy or give a child an Old Testament name, were taken as certain signs of adherence to Judaism. Much less however, was needed to cause one to be suspected and arrested.
When arrested, the victim was submitted to inhuman cruelties in order to make him confess. After his confession in the torture chamber, he might be condemn- ed to death; but the less fortunate were condemned to life imprisonment, which was a lingering torture. In both cases the property went to the Holy Office and the royal treasury.
The prisons of the Inquisition with their torture chambers that can still be seen in some cities in Spain, had small, dark, damp and dirty underground little
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rooms with stone walls and iron bars. The prisoners' food was dry bread and water. Those condemned to die, if impenitent were chained to the stake and burned alive; if penitent, they were strangled first and then put on the pyre. Flight was equivalent to "guilt" and the accused was burned in effigy and his property confisca- ted. Even the dead might not rest in peace. Many a Marrano suspected of Judaizing, but who died before the Holy Office could hold him in its clutches, was exhumed and his bones put on the pyre.
All this happened when the New World was first discovered, when Raphael was painting his masterpieces of art, when Copernicus and Galileo were revolutionizing the world of science, when the world was entering into an era of progress in knowledge, art and literature. The world progressed. Yet in one part of the world, on the Iberian peninsula, part of the population lived in constant fear and dread, amid inhuman suffering and unbearable torture. Such was the fate of the Jew and Marrano of Spain and Portugal.
The "many families of wealth and distinction", that "came to this country from Spain and Portugal and settled in Newport" in the middle of the eighteenth century were Marrano families, who had been subjected to the Inquisition.
The place of origin of the Lopez family was Portugal. Here the Lopez's occupied an honored position in social and cultural life. Early in the seventeenth century, members of this family owned a printing establishment in Lisbon, justly considered a mark of
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cultural distinction and achievement in those days when printing and books were rare. Duarte Lopez, a renowned physician, was condemned by the Inquisition in Lisbon in 1723, as an adherent to Judaism. Another member of the family of the same name and same profession, who later changed his name to Moses, escaped his native land, settled in Amsterdam, where he openly reverted to the religion of his fathers, and faithfully professed Judaism in the most minute traditional manner. The same good fortune befell Ezekiel Lopez, a renowned astronomer in the latter part of the seventeenth century.
Those were the most fortunate who were able to escape from the fiery crucible of hate, and revert to the belief of their fathers, leading a peaceful life unmolested. Indeed many a Marrano forsook fortune and family and sought refuge in strange lands in order to be able to live in accordance with the dictates of his conscience.
Many of the Lopez family attained distinction in whatever haven of refuge they found. Elihu Lopez became the Rabbi of Barbados, West Indies, in the seventeenth century.9 Isaac Lopez was Rabbi in Amsterdam in the next century.10 Another Lopez, Isaac Henriquez, achieved the position of Rabbi in London at the same time.11 Abraham, Moses, David and Aaron Lopez became distinguished as the most skillful and successful Jewish merchants in pre-Revolutionary days in Newport.
The story of Aaron Lopez holds our imagination.
Aaron Lopez was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in the early part of the eighteenth century. His father was
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Dom Diego Jose Lopez, a "man much respected and esteemed in Portugal". Aaron was baptized according the Catholic rite and christened Edward. If we are to judge by the beautiful handwriting and the well written letters in Portuguese and English which Aaron wrote in his later days as a businessman in Newport, he must have received a good training and education when a youth. While still young, he married Anna, his close relative, according to the rites of the Church. She bore him a daughter, who was christened Catherine.
Upon the earliest opportunity, Edward, Anna and their daughter Catherine, made their way to North America. Here, having openly professed Judaism, Edward and Anna were remarried, with the traditional Jewish ceremony. His name was changed to Aaron, and hers to Abigail. Their daughter's name they changed to Sarah. They settled in Newport, where Aaron at first started a factory for Scotch snuff and later became one of the wealthiest merchants and shippers.12
The story of Abraham Lopez is not less interesting.
Abraham Lopez was an older half brother of Aaron. He was the son of Diego Jose and his first wife. His Christian name was Michael. In Portugal Michael married Joanna according to the Catholic rites. She bore him three sons, who were christened, Edward, Joseph and John respectively.
As soon as opportunity was presented the whole family, emigrated to America. In conformity with the prevailing custom, Michaeland Joanna remarried accord- ing to the Jewish law. They changed their names to
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Abraham and Abigail respectively. The names of their three sons, Edward, Joseph and John, were changed to Moses, Samuel and Jacob.13 Their conversion involved no little sacrifice. Under the rule of the Inquisition in Portugal circumcision was equivalent to suicide. Any act suspicious of Jewish origin, or showing adherence to Judaism on the part of any Marrano, especially on the part of the Lopez's, who were very closely watched, be- cause of the many martyrs that this family had offered upon the pyres of the auto-da-fe, would have immediately caused their arrest and condemnation before the tribunal for Judaizing.
Thus neither Michael nor his sons had been circum- cised in their native land, and this rite had to be performed while they were here in the land of freedom. They lived at the time in Tiverton, R. I. Michael or Abraham was fifty-six years old, Edward or Moses his son was twenty-eight, Joseph or Samuel was twenty- four, and his youngest son John or, as he was here called, Jacob, only seventeen. On Tuesday, October 27, 1767, all four, the father and the three sons, subjected them- selves to the rite of circumcision.14
They subsequently moved to Newport, and together with the others of the family were the most orthodox adherents to Judaism and Jewish traditions.
Both Aaron and Abraham Lopez had been preceded in this country by their brother Jose, the oldest son of Dom Diego. Jose when he became of age in Portugal was suspected by the Inquisition. Knowing what awaited him, and being in danger of imprisonment Jose managed
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to escape to England, whence he came to New York. Here in compliance with the religious custom, Jose changed his name to Moses. He married Rebecca Rivera and removed to Newport.15
David Lopez, a brother, of Aaron, was also a Marrano born in Portugal. He was called there Gabriel, and arrived in America together with his brother. It is this David Lopez to whom Stiles refers: "Attended the funeral of Mr. David Lopez, who died yesterday morning at 61, and was this day at noon, buried in the Jews Burying Ground. He came from Portugal a few years ago, and with his two sons was circumcised, having been obliged to live secreted in Portugal".16
Thus the Marrano family of Lopez came to these shores, from the Inquisition to freedom, and settled in Newport, where they faithfully and ardently observed the tenets of the Jewish law, and prospered together with the community in mercantile pursuits.
However, so deep was the impression of the necessity of secrecy in the observance of the Jewish religion that out of habit, some of the Jewish women who came here from the Inquisition to freedom, as they walked the streets of Newport would tell their rosaries while they repeated their Hebrew prayers.17 This habit had been acquired in Spain and Portugal, "for the purpose of lending the appearance of Catholic form should they be surprised at their devotion".18
Not all the members of the Lopez family emigrated to America. Some remained in Portugal. Some were killed in the Lisbon earthquake in the year 1755.
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The place of origin of the Rivera family was Spain. They, like the Lopez family were Marranos, and subject to the same fate in Europe. It may be that this as well as the bonds of marriage united them while still abroad.
The Riveras flourished in Seville, Spain, for many centuries. At a very early date, some members of the family attempted to find a haven of refuge in Mexico, but in vain. As the clutches of the Inquisition reached over the ocean, we find that there too, in Mexico, they faced the same fate as their brethren in Spain The fires of the Holy Office burned in the New World as well, and amongst the victims, between 1642 and 1645 were Dona Blanca de Rivera, who was accused of Judaizing, and Diego Lopez Rivera, a native of Portugal.19
The first of this family to arrive in North America was Abraham Rodrigues Rivera, who came to New York in the early part of the eighteenth century.20 He was born in Spain and married there, and had lived there in full accordance with the Catholic rites. Upon arrival in the New World, he too underwent all the religious rites required by Jewish tradition, changing his name to Abraham, his sons' names to Isaac and Jacob respective- ly, and his daughter's name to Rebecca. They were all born in Spain, and all had had Catholic names before.
Abraham Rodrigues Rivera occupied a prominent position in his new home. In 1726 he was enrolled as a freeman in New York City.21 He was president of the Congregation Shearith Israel in 1729,22 and was one of the contributors to the building of the first Mill Street Synagogue of the Congregation Shearith Israel in New
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York in 1730.23 In 1740 he became naturalized in accordance with the Naturalization Act passed by the British Government. Subsequently he removed to Newport, where he occupied an important position in the Jewish community.
Jacob Rodriques Rivera, the son of Abraham, at first emigrated from New York to Curacao, where he married and lived for a short while, returning later to New York. Here he was naturalized in 1746, but two years later he moved with his entire family to Newport where he introduced the manufacture of spermaceti candles, one of the most important sources of Newport's prosperity in the days that followed. Jacob identified himself prominently with the Jewish community of Newport. Next to Aaron Lopez he occupied the highest position in the commercial, social, and religious life of the growing and prospering Jewish community of Newport before the American Revolution.
More famous than all others was the Touro family.
The birthplace of the Touro family was Spain. The Touros constituted an old Spanish-Jewish family, who in their native land bore the name "Toro".24 The Inquisition uprooted the Touros from the peninsula and dispersed them into many corners of the globe. Holland, Surinam, Curacao, Jamaica, all saw members of the Touro family at different times after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the year of the discovery of America.
In the course of their itineraries, the Touros produced a number of eminent men. Amongst the Jewish families
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that the Dutch Government persuaded to settle in Curacao in the middle of the seventeenth century for the "promotion of the commerce and welfare of the Island" were members of the Touro families.25 Towards the end of the century in 1683 there flourished in Amsterdam a great Hebrew scholar and Bible exegete, Juda Touro.26 In the beginning of the eighteenth century in 1732 there flourished in the same city Manuel Touro, a generous philanthropist, who expended his money freely on all charitable purposes.27
Some of the Touros found their way from Amsterdam to Surinam in the early part of the eighteenth century ; others to Jamaica, British West Indies.28
Members of the Touro family, whose destiny records do not reveal, came to Newport in the last decade of the seventeenth century among the contingent of Jewish immigrants from Curacao.29 The first member of this family which was destined to become a part of the "noblesse" of Spanish-Portuguese Jewry in America, and of whom records are not silent, was the Reverend Isaac de Abraham Touro.
The Reverend Isaac Touro came to Newport around 1759 from Amsterdam, through the West Indies. He was only twenty years old at the time. Having been educated for the Jewish ministry in the academies in Holland which at that time were famous, attracting students from many other countries. Isaac did not choose a mercantile career, but devoted his time to the service of God. Upon his arrival at Newport, the Reverend Isaac Touro at a compar-
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atively young age became the minister of the Congregation Yeshuat Israel.29 The famous Abraham and Judah Touro who immortalized the Touro name were his sons.
Of not less fame than the Touros was the Mendez Seixas family.
The native land of the Seixas family was Portugal. The first to escape the clutches of the Inquisition was Isaac Mendez Seixas who came from Lisbon to New York, through Barbados, in the year 1730. He was but twenty-two years old then and unmarried. In New York, Isaac Mendez Seixas followed a successful busi- less career. In 1741 he married a daughter of Moses Levy and shortly thereafter removed to Newport.31 The offspring of Isaac Mendez Seixas attained fame in America during and after the Revolution. In many a Jewish congregation in the colonies, a member of the Seixas family occupied a high office. Moses Mendez Seixas of Newport, Rabbi Gershom Mendez Seixas of New York and Philadelphia, Benjamin Mendez Seixas of Newport and New York, one of the founders of the New York Stock Exchange, were his sons. Rabbi Isaac B. Seixas was his grandson. In pre-Revolutionary days, as well as in Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary days, the Seixas family is identified with Newport.
Because of the bond of marriage between the Seixas family and the Machado family later, the Machados deserve our attention.
It may well be that the Machados and the Seixas's were already related by marriage in their native lands.
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Both families came from Lisbon, and both surnames were prefixed Mendez.
The Machados did not live in Newport. It is their escape from the Inquisition in Portugal that invites our description here. For a long time the Machados professed Christianity, though pursuing their Jewish religious devotions privately. When one of the family was discovered secretly following the tenets of Judaism, he was arraigned before the tribunal and given the choice of publicly recanting in the Cathedral of Lisbon, or suffering the fate of the others who were burned at the stake. For a while his courage failed him and he chose the first alternative. But, when he stood in the Cathedral on Christmas morning, "the character of determination peculiar to his people returned to him with such over- whelming force that he concluded to die rather than thus openly sacrifice his principles".32 He expired in the flames, his lips proclaiming the "Hear O Israel" of all martyrs for the sanctification of the God of Israel.
The lives of all the Machados were in danger after that. The spies of the Inquisition were watching; and so one pleasant summer day when Dr. Samuel Nunez, an eminent physician in Lisbon, himself a Marrano suspected by the Inquisition, entertained the principal families of the city in his "elegant mansion on the banks of the Tagus", they planned escape. Among the guests was a captain of an English brigantine anchored in the river. While the guests were rejoicing in festivity, the captain by pre-arrangement invited the family of Dr. Nunez with some of the company, including David
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Mendez Machado, to view the brigantine. When they were all on board, the captain set sail, and a favorable wind brought them to England. Dr. Nunez paid a thousand moidores for this stratagem. Everything was left behind, even the dinner cooked for the occasion, and all was subsequently confiscated by the Inquisition for the State. When the chimes rang at the next procession to the auto-da-fe, the refugees whose escape was equivalent to guilt, were burned on the pyre in effigy.
From England they repaired to Savannah, Georgia, on the same ship that carried General Oglethorpe there. They arrived at their destination in 1733. Not one was able to speak the English language. A year later, David Mendez Machado became the minister of the Spanish- Portuguese Congregation Shearith Israel in New York. It was David Mendez Machado, in his position as minister, who qualified many for the office of Shochet and Bodek. His grandchild married one of the Mendez Seixas family of Newport; another married one of the Levys.
Moses Levy came here from London, England, where he had engaged in foreign trade with Africa and pros- pered financially. New opportunities attracted him to the New World. He landed in New York in 1705, and immediately became associated with the Congregation Shearith Israel there. It was due largely to his efforts that the Congregation Shearith Israel built the Syna- gogue on Mill Street in 1730. For several years he was the president of the Congregation.33
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