Shalom and welcome back to Israel with Aline, we are in Jerusalem, and today's subject is the Anussim, the arrival of Jews and their descendants in Brazil, did you know that has very many Jewish descendants in Brazil? Watch with us until the end to know the way that many Brazilians are rediscovering their roots, and before I start I want to welcome all new subscribers here on the channel, and thank you for all the nice comments you have sent. But then if you are ready, let's get started!
To understand who the Bnei Anussim, also known as Marranos, Crypto-Jews or New Christians, are and how they arrived in Brazil, we have to start two thousand years ago here in the land of Israel, when the Romans destroy the province of Judea and expel most of the Jews from their land. And they spread around the world and join the Jewish communities that already existed in other regions. And in the Iberian Peninsula, today Spain and Portugal, one of the most important Jewish communities in the world was created, they are called Sepharadite Jews, since the region is called Sepharad in the Bible, they even had their own language, which is called ladino, that is a mixture of ancient Spanish with Hebrew influences, it was a very prosperous and advanced community, leaders in the sciences of the time, such as; cartography, mathematics and medicine.
But everything changed in the year 1492 when the Catholic kings Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon will make he Alhambra Decree, where they will force the Jews to convert to Catholicism or be expelled from Spain. Between 60 and 160,000 Jews will flee to Turkey, Greece, Holland, Italy, North Africa, and also to the Americas, and around 200,000 will be forced to convert, and a few years later, in 1497 a similar decree is made in Portugal but even crueler, because the Jews who decided to flee, they could not take their children with them. So most of the Jews in Spain and Portugal will convert, but many, many really kept hidden Jewish practices, and we call them Marranos or Anussim, which in Hebrew literally means forced or coerced.
Since they were forced to convert, but being Anussim, was very dangerous because of the Inquisition, which condemned to death any convert who followed Jewish practices, and so when Portugal begins to explore the new world, many Jews see this as an opportunity to escape from the anti-Jewish Europe. And so many of the conquerors of Brazil were Anussim, for example Fernando de Noronha and Fernão Dias. And the Anussim establish themselves mainly in the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and a good part of the states in the Brazilian Northeast.
But even after their arrival in Brazil, they had to keep their identity secret, since there were Inquisition agents in Brazil, and for this reason the secret Jewish practices are called crypto-Jews, among them on Friday to take a very strong bath, to change the tablecloth, the towels of the house, and the bedclothes since Friday night starts Shabbat, and on the Sabbath itself they also wore new clothes, or better clothes. Another thing too, many of them avoided eating pork and seafood, saying that it gave them indigestion or that it was not good for them, and also the burial practices, many were maintained, that is, they buried as in Judaism, that is, without a coffin, simply with a shroud, and then at the sepulcher they took it and put stones on top of it, and when leaving the cemetery, they washed their hands. And many also followed practicing circumcision, which we call Brit Mila in Hebrew.
But the tradition that I find the most interesting of all is the way that the house was swept, from the ends of the room to the center, and not from the center outwards as most people did. Why is that? Because in Jewish houses there is something called the Mezuzah, which is a small object that is placed in the doorway and inside it are scrolls with Bible verses, and many Jews when they pass by it, often touch it.
Although the Anussim don't put the Mezuzah on the door, because this is a very clear indication of Judaism. For example, here in this house that we are passing by, we can see the Mezuzah and we know that it is a Jewish house. The Anussim did not have the Mezuzah, but they swept it without passing dirt through the front door, so that the dirt would not get where the Mezuzah should be.
And they also had consanguineous marriages, that is, they married within the family or with other Bnei Anussim, and nowadays we know that a good part of Brazil was colonized by Anussim, and we have very, very many Bnei Anussim, that is, the descendants of the Anussim, and a question that I received a lot in the last video here on the channel, which was the video about the tribes of Israel, is: how to know if I am of Jewish descent or of Bnei Anussim? And that's what we are going to talk about now, so let's go! One of the indications of the descendants of the Anussim are their surnames, an example are animal surnames such as Leão or also the surname Pinto, in addition to Cordeiro, Galvão, Falcão, Ovelha, Lobo.
And also many surnames are from plants like Parreira, or as we can see here too Oliveira, in addition to Carvalho, Figueira, Pinheiro, Ramos, Lima, and also surnames of great faith for hide the roots, with Santa Fé, Santos, São Tiago and Cruz and many others. But the surname is not a guarantee but an indication, we have to add to this other characteristics, for example the origin: from which region and city your family came from, and also the most important are the crypto-Jewish traditions within the family, besides the traditions that we talked about before, there are also others, for example: lighting candles on Friday, or lighting eight candles on Christmas. Why eight candles?
Because at the end of the year, at this time in December, there is the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, when eight or nine candles are lit. And for those who want to rediscover their roots, to search for family history and also traditions, it is a key point. But there is one more new way thanks to technological advances, which are the genetic tests, that they can tell you where your family comes from.
And here on the screen you are seeing a result of a genetic test, in this case my father's test, and you can see the origin of my paternal side, which is 99. 1 percent Ashkenazi Jew, and I'll tell you who the Ashkenazi are in another video. People, today's video is a short summary of this very important and little talked about subject in Brazil.
If you want a second part for it, comment here on your questions, and in the description of the video, I will leave the list of Anussim surnames, and also some sources of information. And since you are down there, subscribe to the channel, leave a like, and a kiss to everyone here from Jerusalem and see you next time!
