1

February 14, 1630—a fleet of Dutch ships appeared over Pernambuco’s eastern horizon.

Brazil is occupied and controlled by the joint Portuguese-Spanish Crown. The people of Brazil,

like other Catholics around the world, are celebrating and honoring the patron saint of the day,

Saint Valentine. Unlike the Brazilian-Portuguese, the Dutch aboard the ships are not celebrating.

In fact, they refuse to celebrate or pay homage to any Catholic Saint—they are Protestants.

IntroductionEurope in the 16th century was a time of severe conflict between differing religious sects,

mainly between Catholics and Protestants. By the 17th century the conflicts had been carried on

trading ships across the Atlantic to the European colonies. When the Dutch landed and occupied

the major cities of Pernambuco in modern-day Brazil, many Catholics must have feared a return

to more brutal strife that was all too common in Europe at the time.

The leader of the Dutch forces ordered the troops to raise the bandeira de sangue (blood

flag) to inform the various ships in the fleet to prepare for combat.1 The successful invasion,

which lasted only a few days, did far more than replace flags and tax collectors; it brought a

change to the politics, order and freedoms of the realm.2 The Dutch, unlike the Portuguese, who

occupied Pernambuco and the surrounding area before February 1630, were known to be tolerant

of religious minorities.3 For the hundreds of Jews residing in Pernambuco the changes that came

carried aboard the Dutch ships were dramatic. The religious rights experienced during the brief,

1 Richshoffer, Ambrósio, Diário de um Soldado, (Recife: Governo do Estado de Pernambuco,1977), 51.2 See História da Guerra de Pernambuco by Diogo Lopes de Santiago for more information on the invasion and ensuing battles between the Portuguese and Dutch. Santiago’s record is a first-hand account of the events. The editor of the 1984 publication noted that Santiago was like an “attentive reporter who, conscious of the historical moment that he was living in, would note down and comment on everything . . . leaving for future generations a portrait with a good approximation of the real achievements that have marked those days.”Also, see Diário de um Soldado which is the first hand account of Ambrósio Richshoffer, who was a Dutch soldier in the invasion and occupation of Pernambuco.

2

24 year Dutch occupation were not just an extension of existing rights found in the Netherlands,

but an expansion of these rights.4 The colony, more than the fatherland, was home to more rights

to the Jews and other religious minorities.

Historiography

Few know the Netherlands occupied the northeastern tip of Brazil for a brief period of

time. Little has been written on the Dutch occupation of Brazil, and even fewer know of the Jews

and religious freedoms experienced in Pernambuco. Some cite Dutch Brazil in passing when

talking about the importance of sugar or how the Netherlands became an economic power. 5

Others talk of the military significance of the struggle between the Portuguese and the Dutch.6

Almost nothing is written on religious freedoms of the Jews. Arnold Wiznitzer, an expert in the

field of Early Modern Jewish history who has written several articles and books about the Jews

in Dutch Brazil. He has also provided us with English translations of several documents that

were previously only in Dutch or Portuguese. Many of these are found in The Records of the

Earliest Jewish Community in the New World, a collection of primary source documents that

Wiznitzer translated to English. The author has drawn many insights from these documents.7

Although Wiznitzer did much of his writing in the 1950s, he is still regarded as the expert in the

3 While Portugal was a part of Spain for the purpose of this paper we will speak of the Portuguese, because the region was dominated by ethnic Portuguese4The Netherlands is often times called Holland, but in reality Holland is a part of the Netherlands. Some source documents refer to the Dutch home land as Holland, but for this paper it will be referred to as the Netherlands. 5 See the review, Rethinking the Economic History of the Dutch Republic: The Rise and Decline of Economic Modernity Before the Advent of Industrialized Growth by Arthur van Riel which reviewed Nederland 1500-1815. De Eerste Ronde van Moderne Economische Groei. by Jan de Vries; Ad van der Woude The Journal of Economic History 56, no. 1 (March 1996): 223-229. 6 Gomez, Luis J. Ramos, “El Brasil holandes, en la pugna entre Felipe IV y las provincias unidas,” Revista de Historia de América 80 (July - December 1975): 43-86.7 Arnold Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil (Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press, 1960.

3

field and is cited by more recent historians. Wiznitzer debunked many myths that were accepted

for as long as three centuries, the most famous of which was the number of Jews in Colonial

Brazil. Evaldo Cabral de Mello is a more current Dutch Brazil scholar. Cabral de Mello offers

little information on Judaism in Brazil. His works include Olinda Restaurada (1975), his first

work, Nassau: Governador do Brasil Holandês (2006), and O Brasil Holandês (2010) all three

of which I cite. Despite his works being dated, Mello relies heavily on Wiznitzer. Even in

Mello’s biography of the governor of Dutch Brazil, who arguably had the greatest impact on

Pernambuco Jews, barely touches on the Jewish population.8 José Antonio Gonsalves de Mello

compiled and edited several documents on the Sugar economy in his work Fontes para a

História do Brasil Holandês, which I have drawn several primary sources. Little of the Dutch

Brazil scholarship touches on the religious freedoms of the Jews. None compare the rights

experienced in Brazil with the rights offered in the Netherlands, nor do they attempt to explain

why additional rights were given to Brazilian Jews. This work will do just that.

PurposeWe will briefly look at the history of the Iberian nations and the Netherlands including

their territorial expansion and religious freedoms offered to the Jews. We will look at the greatest

tool to the Dutch’s success in maintaining a religious plurality unmatched in all of Europe. We

will look at the legal documents regarding religious freedom of both the Netherlands its colony

in Brazil. We will see how the Jews in the Dutch colony became bolder as time went on until

1636 when Johan Maurtis Nassau, newly appointed governor, arrived. Through Nassau we will

see why additional concessions were made to the Jews making the colony more of a haven for

Jews than the fatherland.

8 Evaldo, Cabral de Mello, Perfils Brasileiros: Nassau, (São Paulo:Companhia de Letras, 2006).

4

BackgroundIn 1492, the same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue his Spanish benefactors brutally

expelled all the Jews from their kingdom.9 Portugal, unlike its Iberian neighbor, did not expel the

Jews in the late 15th century. Instead, King Manoel I of Portugal, recognizing their commercial

and scientific value, sought to keep the Jews in his society—through conversion to Christianity.

On December 5, 1496, the king issued The Portuguese Expulsion Edict. 10 Although the edict title

conjures images of physical removal, this was not its aim. Arnold Wiznitzer, explained that

Portugal “sought through trickery and brute force to drive to baptism all of the approximately

190,000 Jews then residing in Portugal, nearly 20 percent of the country’s entire population.”11

These forced converts were pejoratively called cristãos novos (New Christians) by the cristãos

velhos (Old Christians).12 Even though they were baptized Christians, the cristãos novos were

considered inferior and were denied access to public offices. Their blood was considered impure,

and they were assumed to have a different mentality and were never given equal treatment. Other

strong discriminatory statutes and laws were enacted against them. After the unification of Spain

and Portugal in 1580, the Inquisition’s severity and scope intensified and enlarged.13 The

Inquisition never formally arrived in Brazil, but around “1580 the bishop of Bahia, a region just

south of Pernambuco, was given inquisitorial powers by the Holy Office in Lisbon.”14 Over time,

some European Jews sought refuge in other lands, including the Netherlands.

9 Roth, Norman. 1992. "The Jews of Spain and the expulsion of 1492." Historian 55, no. 1: 17. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed April 11, 2011).10 Ibid. 11 Arnold Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil (Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press, 1960), 1.12 Ibid., 1-2. 13 Ibid., 12. 14 Ibid.

5

In Northern Europe, the situation was not as bleak for the Jews. In 1579, the Union of

Utrecht united the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands.15 In 1581, these newly united

provinces seceded from Spain, or more accurately, from the Hapsburg family dynasty.

For political reasons, the Calvinists or Reformed Church emerged from the Revolt against Spain as the official church of the Republic, with unique powers and privileges. Religious dissenters, however, enjoyed a de facto tolerance that made Dutch society religiously the most diverse and pluralistic in seventeenth-century Europe16

Seven years later, in 1588, they officially declared their status as a republic. 17

The Union of UtrechtThe Union of Utrecht consists of twenty-six flowery and repetitive articles. The two main

objectives of the treaty were “mutual defense against a foreign oppressor and religious

toleration.”18 The seven provinces that united themselves had different interests and strong

separatist instincts; the Union was more of a military union than a political one.19 Article 13 of

the Union gave all Netherlanders freedom of conscience—and only that. This guaranteed that

people could believe as they wished, but not necessarily practice their religion openly. It also

protected them from the ruling class who, according to the Union of Utrecht, had no authority to

judge or examine religious convictions.20 Lastly, “no one could be required to attend Calvinist

services; the Dutch Reformed Church would not assume the role of ‘established’ church, with

15 Haley, K. H. D., The Dutch in the Seventeenth Century, (London: Thames and Hudson LTD, 1972), 9.16 Kaplan, Benjamin J., Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe, (Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), 174.17 Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, 43.18Lucy M. Salmon, “The Union of Utrecht,” American Historical Association (1894): 139, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066974794 (accessed March 8, 2011). 19 Haley, The Dutch in the Seventeenth Century, 12.20 Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 178.

6

membership in it required by law.”21 Legally, that is the extent that was given to the religious

minorities, but in practice much more was given.

Hidden ChurchesThe Netherlands was, by European standards of the time, a very tolerant nation.

Officially, the Dutch Republic was a Calvinist state, but it maintained tolerant policies through a

series of arrangements.22 The most significant of these was known as a schuilkerk.23 Roughly

translated, schuilkerk means a secret or clandestine church.24 These secret houses of worship

were not limited to one particular sect, but were common among all religious minorities. The

building had no defining characteristics; no steeples, no bells, no crosses or stars of David. In

fact, it looked like all the other buildings around it. Ironically, these secret buildings were not all

that secret, “neighbors and even strangers knew about their existence, and magistrates often had

a significant, if informal, say in the appointment of their pastors.”25

Despite this fiction of secrecy, the schuilkerk served as a “crucial mechanism for the

accommodation of religious dissent.”26 “By containing religious dissent within spaces

demarcated as private, schuilkerk . . . preserved the monopoly of a community’s official church

in the public sphere.”27 By maintaining an appearance of religious unity—in the public sphere—

the threat of dissention and ultimately the threat to the very integrity of the community were

nullified.

21 Ibid. It is to be noted that the Calvinistic Church and the Reformed Church are one in the same. 22 For more information on other types of arrangements made in Europe at the time see Kaplan’s Divided by Faith, specifically Part II of the book. 23 Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 174.24 Ibid.25 Ibid., 174-175.26 Ibid., 176.27 Ibid., 176-177.

7

The chief obstacle to pluralism was the central role that religion played in defining the

identity of a community. “The distinction between private and public worship supplied the key to

religious toleration in the Dutch Republic.”28 By removing non-conforming religious rituals from

the public stage, they, symbolically, less were considered less offensive. It is important to note

that the distinction between public and private was cultural, not legal. No mention of schuilkerk

is made in the Union of Utrecht.29 The concessions made first in the Dutch Republic and then

later in her colonies were not always legally based.

The West India Company and BrazilAfter independence, the Netherlands continued its economic growth, and in turn its

imperial expansion into the world market. After two failed attempts by other Dutchmen, Olivier

van der Noort sailed around the world in 1601.30 By the first half of the 1600s, the Netherlands

was the world’s foremost commercial power.31 This, in part, can be credited to the founding of

the West India Company (WIC) on June 3, 1621. The newly formed company was given a trade

monopoly in West Africa and the Americas by the Dutch Republic for a period of 24 years with

the purpose of attacking the Spanish-Portuguese position in the Caribbean and Brazil.32 The state

provided troops while the company raised the capital for future ventures. A board of nineteen

directors, known as the Heeren XIX or Lords Nineteen, was in charge of making the executive

decisions of the company. The Company was authorized by the government to appoint governors

and officials in any of the conquered lands. The Company’s influence over Dutch policy is

demonstrated by their decision to invade Brazil. The Company, in a very real sense was an

autonomous government within the Dutch Republic. Despite Philip II’s attempts to restrict the

28 Ibid., 177.29 Ibid., 177-178.30 Haley, The Dutch, 24. 31 Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, 44.32 Haley, The Dutch , 34.

8

transportation of Brazilian sugar, it appears that a great deal of Brazilian sugar arrived in Europe

in Dutch vessels.33 The WIC had estimated that the invasion would cost approximately 2.5

million florins, but because of the sugar and a tree known as pau-brasil they would be able to

make 8 million florins a year.34 John Charles Chasteen observed, “Throughout the 1600s, sugar

was ‘king’ in Brazil,” the Dutch recognized this and developed “the ambition to conquer Brazil

for themselves.”35

Sugar aside, Northeastern Brazil still had much to offer the WIC. Militarily Portuguese

America was the weak link in the Spanish empire and its defense was not a priority.36 Brazil’s

geographic location made it an “excellent base of operations against the Spanish navigation in

the Caribbean, [and] against the Portuguese navigation with the Orient.”37 Also because of the

poor cartography skills of the time, the Peruvian silver mines appeared very close to the

Brazilian coast staking claim in Brazil all that more appealing.38

Records indicate that the sugar industry has existed in Colonial Brazil since 1516.39 That

year, King Manoel I of Portugal decreed that all persons immigrating to Brazil be given, at the

expense of the Crown, all the required equipment as well as an expert to aid with the introduction

of the sugar industry in Brazil.40 With government support in 1550, Brazil had five sugar mills

33 Haley, The Dutch, 23. 34 Mello, Evaldo Cabral de, O Brasil Holandês, (São Paulo: Editora Schwarcz LTDA., 2010), 29.Note: pau-brasil is known as Brazilwood in English and was deemed valuable because it yields a red dye. The tree also lent its name to the country in which it is found: Brasil or Brazil.35 Chasteen, John Charles, Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, 2nd ed., (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2006), 62.Haley, The Dutch, 23. 36 Mello, O Brasil Holandês, 29.37 Ibid. 38 Ibid. 39 Wiznitzer, Arnold, “Sugar in Colonial Brazil,” Jewish Social Studies 18, no. 3 (July 1956): 191.40 Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, 9.

9

(engenhos) and by 1600, a total of 120.41 We know that at least one of the original five mills

belonged to Jews.42 Wiznitzer observed:

It is a fact, then, that Jews were not only technicians and administrators of engenhos, but also proprietors in Brazil during the latter half of the sixteenth century. If we take into consideration that not all New Christian proprietors were denounced before the Visitador of the Inquisition, and consequently were not mentioned in the records of the visitation, we can form the conclusion that by 1600 a considerable percentage of the 120 engenhos in Brazil were owned by Jews.43

Although there is no evidence to prove that Jews played a dominant role as Senhores de engenho

(Mill owners) in Dutch Brazil, it is certain that they played an important part as financiers,

brokers and exporters of sugar.44 The Jews also acted “as suppliers of Negro slaves on credit,

accepting payment of capital and interest in sugar,” but there is no documentation to argue

otherwise, as many historians have done before. 45

Colonial CharterBy October 13, 1629 the Heeren XIX had, for some time, been covetously eyeing the

Portuguese colony—Brasil.46 On this date, months before that fateful Valentine’s Day in 1630,

the Heeren XIX decided to invade Pernambuco and met to discuss the charter of their soon-to-

be-new imperial holding. Sixty-nine rules were decided upon and later approved by the States-

General at The Hague. Article Ten said:

The liberty of the Spaniards, Portuguese and Natives, whether they be Roman Catholics or Jews, will be respected. No one will be permitted to molest them or subject them to inquiries in matters of conscience or in their private homes; and no one should dare to

41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid., 192-193. It is to be noted that Anita Libman Lebeson’s statement that “toward the end of the sixteenth century, some two hundred sugar mills were owned by Jews of Brazil” is incorrect. Cf. her Pilgrim People (New York 1950), p. 3944 Ibid., 196.45 Ibid., 196. 46 Varnhagen, Fransico Adolfo de, Histórias Geral do Brasil antes de Sua Separação e Independência de Portugal, (São Paulo: 1948), 1:241.

10

disquiet or disturb them or cause them any hardship—under the penalty of arbitrary punishments or, depending upon circumstances, or exemplary of severe reproof. 47

It should be noted that no additional rights were promised beyond the ones in the Union of

Utrecht; however, as was the case in the Netherlands, additional non-legal rights were acquired

in Brazil.

Jews in Dutch BrazilAfter the invasion, several hundred Jewish families migrated to Dutch Brazil because of

the guarantee to religious freedoms given by the Heeren XIX. Many of these Jews had

previously lived in Brazil and were familiar with the area, the people, the language, and the

economy, and were qualified to serve as economic experts.48 Adriaen van der Dussen told the

Heeren XIX in an official report, “The Jews that emigrated and that deal with agriculture or

bought [sugar] mills are few; the rest are given to commerce and the majority of them live in

Recife and knew how to dominate all of the movement of the business dealings”49 The majority

of them were cristãos novos who were of Spanish and Portuguese descent.50 With the arrival of

the Dutch many cristãos novos revealed themselves as Jews, but many others did not have the

courage to do so. Many still feared that the Dutch would not remain permanent masters in Brazil

and maintained the secret of their true faith. 51 Others, in a very open manner, demonstrated their

faith through public circumcision.52

Bruno Feitler observed, “The creation of Dutch Brazil led to an unprecedented set of

circumstances: a Catholic territory inhabited by New Christians, where Judaism was permitted,

47 Arnold Wiznitzer, The Records of the Earliest Jewish Community in the New World, (New York: American Jewish Historical Society:1954), 2.48 Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, 59.49 Ibid., 181.50 Wiznitzer, Records, 2.51 Ibid.52 Manoel Calado, O Valeroso Lucideno e Triumpho da Liberdade (Recife, 1942), 1:116-131.

11

and which was subject to Calvinist rule.”53 Friar Manoel Calado, a Portuguese Catholic preacher

who was living in Brazil at the time stated:

The Jews who had come from Holland had many relatives in Pernambuco who had lived in conformity with the law of Christ until the conquest of the land. However, after the Dutch had conquered the country, they lifted the mask which had disguised them and circumcised themselves and declared themselves publicly as Jews . . . and it was common practice among the Jews (as I have heard it said many times) that there was no man of the nation, in Pernambuco who was not a Jew, and if they did not declare themselves as Jews it was because of the fear that the world might turn and Brazil would return to Portugal, and if it were not for that, all of them would have already publically declared themselves as Jews.54

With the Dutch in power, the Jews, both immigrants and former cristãos novos, felt more secure

and began observing their religion more publicly.

The Jews began meeting together in private homes, a place protected by the charter, but

as time passed on they became bolder and more public with their religion. In 1636, Kahal Zur

Israel, which translated means Rock of Israel, was the first synagogue in Recife and the

Americas to be founded.55 Kahal Zur Israel was not like the other places of worship which were

often times found in private homes—it was a bona-fide synagogue. It was not like the schuilkerk

in the Netherlands, rather the word sinagoga or synagogue was written on the outside of the

edifice making it easily identifiable. Later, a second synagogue was built in Recife. From 1636

onward, a cristão novo could attend a synagogue without fear of persecution. It was a place

53 Kagan, Divided by Faith, 125.54 Ibid., 116-117.55 Popson, Colleen P. 2002. "First New World Synagogue Rediscovered." Archaeology 55, no. 2: 12. Religion and Philosophy Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed February 15, 2011).“Although the presence of the synagogue was known from maps and records, its exact location was not confirmed until archaeologists, led by Marcos Albuquerque of the Federal University of Pernambuco, excavated at the suspected site in 2000. Digging below eight consecutive floors in a building on Bom Jesus Street--formerly Rua dos Judeus, or Street of the Jews--the excavation team found a mikvah, a Jewish ritual purification bath. A group of rabbis confirmed that the feature was indeed a mikvah and that the site of the synagogue had been discovered.”

12

where Jews, both old and new, could receive a Jewish education or reeducation, and openly

celebrate Shabbat and other Jewish festivities.56

Governor Johan Maurtis Nassau and the JewsIn 1636 Johan Maurits Nassau was appointed governor of the Dutch Colony in Brazil by

the Heeren XIX.57 He arrived in country in the following January and was faced with seemingly

insurmountable tasks. His first concern was maintaining order and discipline in the colony.58 It

should be recognized that the Dutch were not content in just occupying Recife and the

surrounding area. Recife was merely a means to an ends. With the rich sugar industry in their

possession, the Dutch could finance future expansion to the whole Brazilian coast and then all of

South America.59 They desired to supplant the Iberian powers as continental rulers, just as the

East India Company had done in the Far East.60 Nassau’s objectives were only complicated by

the local population which consisted of Indians, Negro slaves, Catholic Portuguese, Jews of

Portuguese and other descent, Portuguese cristão novos, and Dutch Calvinists.61 His first year in

office proved to be a success; he maintained order and even expanded the territory of the colony.

As governor, Nassau was required to give an annual report of the welfare of the colony. The

Heeren XIX and The Hague were very interested in his report.62 One section of this report was

dedicated to the state of the Jews within the colony. Nassau observed that Jews coming from

56Kagan, Richard L., Philip D. Morgan ed., Atlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500-180, (Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press), 125. 57 Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, 63.He was known as João Maurício de Nassau to the Brazilians. 58 Ibid., 64. 59 Gomez, Luis J. Ramos, “El Brasil holandes, en la pugna entre Felipe IV y las provincias unidas,” Revista de Historia de América 80 (July - December 1975): 45.60 Ibid.61Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, 64. 62 Mello, Jose Antonio Gonsalves de Mello, Fontes para a História do Brasil Holandês, (Recife: Parque Histórico Nacional dos Guararapes, 1981), 100.

13

Holland “carry themselves with a certain audacity”63 This audacity bothered Christians, both

Catholics and Reformed. Some Jews slandered the Christian religion; such an offense required a

“severe warning” and a threat of great punishment.64

Despite these restrictions, Nassau’s government still viewed the Jews as loyal, whereas

the Portuguese could, and would if given the opportunity, change their loyalty at a moment’s

notice for religious reasons.65 In one of his annual reports, Nassau noted that the Jews believed,

as did he to an extent, that they should have more rights than the “papists” because the Dutch

were more certain that the Jews were more loyal to them than the Catholics. At the next

opportunity, the Catholics would support the Catholic nation of Portugal.66 He once said, “The

Portuguese papists have shown that they are entirely unfaithful and at the first change would

abandon us.”67 The 24 years that the Netherlands occupied Pernambuco was filled with war, with

only a precarious peace from 1637 to 1641.68 It appeared that at any time the Dutch would

reengage in total warfare with the Portuguese. It is important to realize that this near constant

war was a war over controlling the production of sugar, not a war over religion or religious

freedoms.69

Nassau was fearful that the Portuguese were forming a “fifth column” within the new Dutch

colony. In fact, Father Antonio Vieira said something in 1640 that fueled Nassau’s fears. Vieira

was Portuguese by birth, but had been raised as a Brazilian and possessed a great deal of

influence as a Catholic priest. His pronouncement entitled The Sermon for the Good Success of

63 Ibid.64 Ibid.65 Ibid. 66 Ibid., 100-101.67 Ibid., 101.

68 Mello, Evaldo Cabral de, Olinda Restaurada: Guerra e Açucar no Nordeste, 1630-1654, (São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo), 13.69 Ibid., 12.

14

the Portuguese Arms against the Dutch Arms was given in A Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Ajuda

(The Church of Our Lady of Help) and evoked a divine mission in the worshippers.70 He

compared the conflict between the Dutch and the Portuguese to the “man to man” battle between

God and Jacob. He argued that just like Jacob’s battle with God, the Portuguese were in a battle

possessed with holy violence.71

After repeated failed attempts to conquer Bahia to the south of Pernambuco, Nassau sought a

truce with the Portuguese.72 None was achieved, and the war continued. From 1640 on Nassau

and the Dutch forces were kept at bay.

The Portuguese, or the cristãos velhos, were upset by amount of liberties given to the

Jews, as they were a stark contrast to the rights enjoyed before the Dutch occupation73. However,

Nassau had bigger concerns than keeping different religious sects happy. There was a constant

threat of Portuguese attack, and one of his principal objectives was to expand Dutch territory and

ensure economic stability.74 The governor, in typical Nassau-like fashion, deemed such an outcry

70 Niskier, Arnaldo, Padre Antonio Vieira e os Judeus, (Rio de Janeiro: Imago, 2004), 35.71 Genesis 32:24-32 contains the account of Jacob’s battle with God. The King James Version of the English Bible relates the storty as such: “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.”

72Rosário, Adalgisa Maria Vieira do, O Brasil Filipino no Período Holandês, (São Paulo: Instituto Nacional do Livro, 1980), 117-119. By this time Portugal had separated itself from Spain.73 Mello, Fontes, 101.74Gomez, El Brasil holandes, 47-48.

15

a “scandal.”75 Coelho da Rocha, a legal historian of the day, explained that before the Dutch

occupation of Pernambuco whipping and mutilation were common punishments for Jews who

discussed religion, read scriptures that were not a part of the Christian cannon, kept the Sabbath,

or refused to eat pork.76 To maintain the peace and keep the “scandal” at bay, Nassau

“recommended” that the Jews must avoid a “scandal.”77 It seems that a simple recommendation

was all the Jews would receive.

Historically, the Nassau family fought for religious toleration.78 Two reputable historians,

whose lives differ by three centuries, have argued that it was Nassau’s benevolence that allowed

religious freedoms to be enjoyed by the Jews and Catholics. Mario Neme, however, did not

believe these claims and in 1971 published his book Formulas Politicas no Brasil Holandês

(Political Formulas in Dutch Brazil), which argued that such a view was simplistic and ignored

the laws already in place. He also showed that while Nassau was powerful, he was not powerful

enough to singlehandedly give the Jews religious freedoms.79 It appears that the truth is

somewhere in the middle. The Heeren XIX and the Dutch government gave the Jews and other

religious minorities their initial rights, namely the rights to free conscience, as evident in the

Union of Utrecht and the charter of Dutch Brazil, but it was Nassau who expanded those rights

by ignoring the Jews when they over stepped their rights.

In 1637 the Classis, the governing body of the Reformed Church in Dutch Brazil, began

complaining about the two synagogues where Jews congregated publicly. In their eyes, such

75 Mello, Fontes, 196.76 Niskier, Padre Antonio Vieira, 39.77 Mello, Fontes, 196.78 Evaldo, Cabral de Mello, Perfils Brasileiros: Nassau, (São Paulo:Companhia de Letras, 2006), 88.60 Neme, Mário, Fórmulas Políticas no Brasil Holandês, (São Paulo: Editôra da Universidade de São Paulo, 1971), 162-163.79

16

actions would “disturb the propagation of the truth, scandalize the faithful Calvinist Dutch and

Catholic Portuguese, and cause the latter to believe that the Dutch were half-Jewish, since the

Jewish enemies of the truth were permitted to enjoy such liberties under their rule.”80 One year

later in 1638, the Classis demanded their closure and the government, with no intention of

following through, promised their closure.81 It was reported that “The two Jewish conventicles in

Recife were closed and the government decreed that from then on the religious services of the

Jews could only happen in private homes behind closed doors,”82 but just two years later the

Jews were once again publicly denounced for ignoring this governmental decree and for being so

brash as to build a synagogue in Recife.83 The October 1641 minutes of the Classis meeting

reveal the aforementioned synagogue (esnoga) was complete. 84

The predikants, or ministers, in 1638 fought hard for the removal of religious freedom

given to the Catholics in Dutch Brazil. They pointed out that friars and monks were “allowed to

live in their cloisters, draw their incomes and revenues unhindered, and officiate at the marriages

of Netherlanders.”85 The petitions were made stating that no such practices were allowed to the

Roman Catholics in the Dutch Republic.86 Despite these appeals, Nassau remained inactive.

Promises were made, but they were rarely kept. He promised to see that all unauthorized Roman

Catholic activities were curbed, but in reality he deliberately avoided doing that.87 As he had

done previously, he continued to give aid to Calado and Capuchins, two Catholic priests residing

within the colony.

80 Wiznitzer, Records, 54.81 Neme, Fórmulas, 162.82 Ibid.83 Wiznitzer, Records, 54.84 Ibid.85Rosário, Adalgisa Maria Vieira do, O Brasil Filipino No Período Holandês, 108-109. 86 Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil: 1624-1654, (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1957), 122.87 Ibid.

17

Dutch Calvinists claimed that only in Pernambuco did the Jewish people experience

“unlimited freedom,” while in every other country in the world, including the Dutch Republic,

they had restrictions of one form or another.88 Despite these protests, Nassau continued to allow

the Jews and Catholics more religious freedoms than the Calvinist clergy thought was

appropriate, although when individual Jews publicly criticized Christians they were severely

punished.89

ConclusionNassau managed a precarious modus vivendi because the Jews and Catholics desired to

expand the rights they had, while simultaneously the Calvinists fought to restrict those same

rights. Nassau’s greatest worry was not in giving or taking away religious freedoms, but instead

in maintaining the stability and security of Dutch Brazil. That was his duty and he was dead set

on doing that at any cost.90 The different parties’ complaints fell upon deaf ears. He quieted them

with empty promises that were never kept. “The true remedy must be forgetfulness, that which I

have had much of, for the good of this State,” Nassau once said, and forgetting he did.91

The Jews in Dutch Brazil experienced greater religious freedoms than their Jewish

brothers in the Netherlands. Although there was no significant difference in the two legal codes,

the Brazilian Jews received more rights because it was more advantageous to the colonial

government, specifically Governor Nassau, to permit the Jews and other religious minorities

more rights. By appeasing the minority and giving a false sense of security to the majority

Nassau maintained order in the colony.

88 Rosário, O Brasil Filipino, 109.89 Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil,123.90 Evaldo Cabral de Mello, Perfils Brasileiro, 91.91 Ibid.

18

Governor Nassau was relieved from his duties in 1644 and the colony remained until

1654. With a lack of assistance of troops, warships, and munitions from the Netherlands, Dutch

Brazil was unable to maintain itself.92 The end of Dutch power in Brazil occurred because the

Dutch were engaged in a war with the English, and with problems at home they could not assist

their colonies.93 On January 26, 1654 the Portuguese military forced a capitulation agreement

which was signed at Taborda, near Recife.94 Upon arrival in Amsterdam, Sigismund Schoppe,

the Dutch military commander at the time, was arrested for “neglecting the defense and

administration of the colony.” After a long trial he was acquitted.

One of the articles of the capitulation agreement allowed all residents of Recife and

Mauricia who did not desire to remain in Brazil to leave within three months of the signing of the

agreement.95 “Any born or converted Jews who remained would be subject to the torturous laws

of the Inquisition.” 96 One-hundred fifty Jewish families fled in 16 ships provided by the

Portuguese.97 One particular ship, the Valck, left Pernambuco, but on its voyage northward it

encountered a storm and found refuge in Jamaica.98 However, they only encountered refuge from

the storm there; upon landing they were arrested by the Spanish.99 Only 23 Jews were allowed to

leave the island.100 They were sent to the western tip of Cuba and abandoned there. Jacques de la

Motthe, the captain of the Sainte. Catherine picked them up and took these stranded Jews to the

Northeastern coast of what is now the United States of America to another Dutch colony, New

92 Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial , 126.93 Ibid. 94Wiznitzer, Sugar in Colonial Brazil, 196.95Wiztnizer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, 140.96 Barbara D. Krashner, “A New World Exodus: The 23 unwanted Pilgrims,” History Magazine, (August/September 2009): 30. 97 Ibid.98 Ibid., 31. 99 Ibid.100 Ibid.

19

Amsterdam.101 Two other Jews, Jacob Barsimon and Solomon Pieterson, had actually preceded

their arrival to New Amsterdam, but the two only stayed there briefly with no intention of setting

up a Jewish community.102 The 23 Jews that landed in New Amsterdam became the “nucleus of

what would become the first Jewish community in the New World.”103 Just as they did in Dutch

Brazil, the Jews had to take measures to guarantee their religious freedom; this time they asked

the Jews in the Netherlands to appeal to the WIC to permit them to stay.104 The governor, Peter

Stuyvesant, was opposed to the idea and sent his own communiqué to his leaders. The arguments

presented by the Jews won over the Heeren XIX and in April 1655 they sent to Stuyvesant a

letter stating, “these people may travel and trade . . . and live and remain there.”105

To the Jews that remained in Pernambuco, the Inquisition remained until 1773, 200 years

after its inception.106 Rabbi Abraham Cardozo, longtime cantor of a historic Manhattan

synagogue and a major force in recovering and preserving the liturgical music of Spanish and

Portuguese Jews, once stated “Recife, to the American Jews, was just a passage that lasted a little

more than 20 years.”107 The Jews found in Dutch Brazil a paradise, albeit short-lived—a paradise

where they could have synagogues and worship in public, rights that even Jews in the tolerant

Dutch Republic could not boast. Dutch Brazil was truly an expansion, not just an extension of

religious rights experienced in the Netherlands.

101 Ibid. 102 Diner, Hasia R. Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000, (Berkley, California: University of California Press, 2004), 13.103 Ibid. 104 Ibid., 13-14.105 Ibid. For more information on the 23 Jews and the history of Jews in the United States see Diner’s complete work.106 Wiznitzer, Sugar in Colonial Brazil, 198.107“Abraham Cardozo, Sephardic Cantor, Dies at 91,” New York Times, 23 February 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/arts/music/23cardozo.html

20

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Calado, Manoel. O Valeroso Lucideno e Triumpho da Liberdade. Vol. 1. Recife: Cooperativa Editora de Cultura Intelectual de Pernambuco, 1942

Mello, Jose Antonio Gonsalves de. Fontes para a História do Brasil Holandês. Recife:

Parque Histórico Nacional dos Guararapes, 1981.

Niskier, Arnaldo. Padre Antônio Vieira e os Judeos. Rio de Janeiro: Imago, 2004.

Richshoffer, Ambrósio. Diário de um Soldado. Recife: Governo do Estado de Pernambuco,1977.

Wiznitzer, Arnold, trans. The Records of the Earliest Jewish Community in the New World. New

York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1954.

Secondary Sources

Abraham Cardozo, Sephardic Cantor, Dies at 91.” New York Times. 23 February 2006.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/arts/music/23cardozo.html

Boxer, C.R. The Dutch in Brazil: 1624-1654. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1957.

Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, 2nd ed.

New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2006.

Diner, Hasia R. Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000. Berkley, California: University of

California Press, 2004.

Gomez, Luis J. Ramos. “El Brasil holandes, en la pugna entre Felipe IV y las provincias unidas.” Revista de Historia de América 80 (July - December 1975): 43-86.

21

Haley, K. H. D. The Dutch in the Seventeenth Century. London: Thames and Hudson LTD, 1972.

Kagan, Richard L. and Philip D. Morgan, ed. Atlantic Diasporas, Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-

Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500-1800. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins

University Press.

Krashner, Barbara D. “A New World Exodus: The 23 unwanted Pilgrims”. History Magazine,

(August/September 2009).

Mello, Evaldo Cabral de. O Brasil Holandês. São Paulo: Editora Schwarcz LTDA., 2010.

Mello, Evaldo Cabral de. Olinda Restaurada: Guerra e Açucar no Nordeste, 1630-1654. São

Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo.

Mello, Evaldo Cabral de. Perfis Brasileiros: Nassau. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2006.

Neme, Mário. Fórmulas Políticas no Brasil Holandês. São Paulo: Editôra da Universidade de

São Paulo, 1971.

Popson, Colleen P. 2002. "First New World Synagogue Rediscovered." Archaeology 55, no. 2:

12. Religion and Philosophy Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed February 15, 2011).

Roth, Norman. "The Jews of Spain and the expulsion of 1492." Historian 55, no. 1 (Fall92

1992): 17. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed April 11, 2011).

Rosário, Adalgisa Maria Vieira do. O Brasil Filipino no Período Holandês. São Paulo: Instituto

Nacional do Livro, 1980.

Salmon, Lucy M. “The Union of Utrecht.” American Historical Association (1894): 139.

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066974794 (accessed March 8, 2011).

Wiznitzer, Arnold. Jews in Colonial Brazil. Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University

Press, 1960.

Wiznitzer, Arnold. “Sugar in Colonial Brazil.” Jewish Social Studies. 18, no. 3 (July, 1956),

1:189-198.

22