R E V I E WS 219

Bruno Feitler. Inquisition, juifs et noveaux-chrétiens au Brésil: Le Nordeste

XVII e et XVIII e siècles.
Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2003. 440 pp. index. illus. tbls. map. bibl. €30. ISBN
90–5867–263–8.

This book investigates the identity of the first official Jewish community in
America, founded in the northeast of Brazil, occupied by the Dutch (1630–54). So
it was an amazing paradox: in a Catholic context, a Calvinist government allowed
the foundation of a Jewish community. Through inquisitorial documents, Feitler,
PhD in History at the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales, examined the
identity of the Jewish group in Pernambuco and Paraiba respecting the Braudelian
longue durée. Even though it deals with the Inquisition, Feitler did not study the
Roman archive yet. In 1998 the opening of the Archive of the Holy Office helped
scholars to complete their research and so an increasing number of studies on the
Inquisition and on the Index of forbidden books was published. Recently, he

This content downloaded from 132.239.001.231 on December 31, 2016 05:27:49 AM

All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).
220 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A RTERLY

published an essay with the outcome of his research there, in the Proceedings of the
Congress, held in December 2001, on The Inquisition and the Jews (2003).
In Brazil the Inquisition was under the control of the central court in Lisbon
despite in 1621 Philip III demanded a Brazilian Inquisition to restore religion in
front of the many cases of Crypto-Judaism. With the pastoral visits the Church
tried to eliminate the Jewish religion in Brazil.
The book is interesting and persuasive, maybe too interested in details and
amounts on the institutions and procedures. It is an astonishing archivistic re-
search, but sometimes a deeper analysis of historical and political context would
have helped to comprehend the history of those communities. For instance, the
turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War and the rising Dutch trade of sugar, as Jonathan
Israel highlighted, could have better explained the choice of Jews in Brazil. More-
over, the interest of Jewish communities compelled to flee from Portugal under the
Spanish throne and to seek a safer place in Holland and in Brazil seems important
to the consideration of the question of identity. To this issue, Feitler reserves a key
role: he supposed a kind of Jewish proselytism in order to wake up the new
Christians in the light of Jewish faith despite hostile destinies. In 1636 some Jews
living in Amsterdam asked to found a colony in northwest Brazil, already con-
quered by the Dutch Company of the Indies. Two communities were founded,
and a synagogue was built. The Dutch government ordered to attend private
ceremonies and forbade the building of other synagogues. Feitler found inquisi-
torial documents and trials on this new conversion from Christianity to Judaism
and on those he founded his hypothesis on Jewish proselytism. But even if it is
fascinating and it is only mentioned, the evidence of Jewish proselytism is weak-
ened by the same sources he chose to prove it: in fact inquisitorial sources
depended on the questions that ardent inquisitors asked for gaining support to
their thesis on Jewish cruelty for legitimating their work.
But when in 1654 the Dutch lost their Brazilian colonies, a new phenomenon
of reconversion took place: abjuration and reconciliation, in a climate of arousing
suspicions, changed the picture rapidly and radically. This phenomenon was un-
dermining faith. Feitler explores the very different reasons of those conversions:
only a minority followed an inner need. The principle those communities upheld
was that of pacific convivence so the main part respect their Crypto-Judaism that
was also preserved by strict endogamic relations. They yearned for a quiet main-
tenance of their standard of living. As Feitler pointed out, the existence of a Jewish
Portuguese nation should have implied the acceptance of a different religion, while
this was denied. Despite the return of Portuguese domination and of the In-
quisition, only in 1725 with the new bishop did the climate change with denun-
ciations and trials against the new Christians. Those trials showed how the new
Christians were well integrated in the society, but Feitler investigated education
and endogamy, and then religion in order to find out they still lived in Crypto-
Judaism. His outcome shows that the new Christians of northeastern Brazil lived
peacefully and that inquisitors and Dutch Jews only threatened their life.

This content downloaded from 132.239.001.231 on December 31, 2016 05:27:49 AM

All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).
 R E V I E WS 221

Feitler’s book is noteworthy and is brilliant evidence of how Braudelian

history is still prolific. An appendix with denunciations, genealogies, and features
completes the book.
MICHAELA VALENTE
Università La Sapienza, Roma

This content downloaded from 132.239.001.231 on December 31, 2016 05:27:49 AM

All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).