History of the Jews in Portugal

The history of the Jews in Portugal reaches back over two thousand years and is directly related to Sephardi history, a Jewish ethnic division that represents communities that originated in the Iberian Peninsula .
Before Portugal
Jewish populations have existed in the area long before the country was established, back to the Roman era , even though an attested Jewish presence in Portuguese territory can only be documented since 482 CE. With the fall of the Roman Empire, Jews were persecuted by the Visigoths and other European Christian kingdoms which controlled the area after that period.
In 711, the Moorish invasion of the Iberian Peninsula was seen by many in the Jewish population as a liberation, and marked as the beginning of what many have seen as the Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula , even if the Jews, as well as the Christians , under Muslim rule were considered Dhimmi, and had to pay a special tax.
Rapidly in the 8th century, the Christian kingdoms of the north mountainous areas of the Iberian Peninsula started a long military campaign against the Muslim invaders, the Reconquista. The Jews, since many knew the Arabic language, were used by the Christians as both spies and diplomats on this campaign that took centuries. This granted them some respect, although there was always prejudice.
Medieval Era
King Afonso I of Portugal entrusted Yahia Ben Yahi III with the post of supervisor of tax collection and nominated him the first Chief-Rabbi of Portugal . Jewish communities had been established prior to these years, an example of Jewish expansion can be seen in the town of Leiria founded by King Alfonso I in 1135. The importance of the Jewish population to the development of the urban economy can be inferred from charters Alfonso granted in 1170 to the non-Christian merchants living in Lisbon, Almada, Palmela and Alcacer. These charters guaranteed the Jewish minorities in the towns freedom of worship and the use of traditional law-codes. King Sancho I continued to honor these charters by protecting the Jewish community from rioting crusaders in 1189 by forcibly removing them from Lisbon. The importance of the Jewish community in the economy of Portugal can be inferred from the punishment against those who robbed merchant men, robbing either Muslim, Christian, and Jew was of equal severity. King Sancho I of Portugal continued his father's policy, making Jose Ibn-Yahya, the grandson of Yahia Ben Rabbi, High Steward of the Realm. The clergy, however, invoking the restrictions of the Fourth Council of the Lateran, brought considerable pressure to bear against the Jews during the reign of King Dinis I of Portugal, but the monarch maintained a conciliatory position.

[@pedrorodrigues7285]

The Jewish came to Portugal by the fenicians western rute trade to Atlantic.

[@AdrianDesmond-sh4qp]

I see how the black Israelites became outcast by the Christian Pope and the Inquisition started, actually fulfilling scripture in the book of Isaiah 11:11,12.

[@shainazion4073]

Would have liked to watch, can not stand the computer generated voice!! There are voice actors that do a better job and need the work. They pronounce the words and have emotions.

[@scarletweb2106]

Aww i feel sorry for the Portuguese Jews 😢

[@josefadario6593]

One of my Great,great grandmother's, an apothecary in Coimbra was arrested by the Inquisition, and disappeared, died ? or was deported to Brazil..About the undeniable Incredible Contribution of the Jewish Community in Portugal, the Portuguese Golden Era is a proof thereon.. ❤ When Portugal turned around, to persecute these Valueless Contributors in Geography, Astronomy, Science, the sudden decline of Portugal was obvious 😢

[@zesantos9562]

Bring back the Portuguese Jews, make Portugal great again!!!

[@antonioramos8804]

Yes, take them out of Palestine.

[@bigthurl5613]

I don’t see one picture of Black Jews…..Even though several were mentioned.

[@picture-perfect]

If you're looking for a photograph, the camera may not have been invented at the time or perhaps in it's infancy. I was taught in an English school that the camera was invented in the 1800s by a European (French) but I've since discovered that an Arab may have had the idea of a pin hole camera back in the 1500s. Genuine photographs of that period and location are still unlikely but there are paintings showing a clearly multicultural Lisbon around that period but difficult to say who were Jews and who were Christians. My guess is that there were black Jews and some may have been deported by the Portuguese to the uninhabited island of Sao Tome to work the sugar plantations, who knows?.

[@Charlesmclark2]

Because the black hebrew Israelite movement is FAKE....called real history. My family is from Portugal there is not a lot black people there maybe Islamic

[@scarletweb2106]

I think I look up Black Jews in Wikipedia

[@tagbarzeev8283]

​@@picture-perfect Take a look at the images from various illuminated Haggdadah like the Golden Haggdadah,Rylands Haggdadah m,Sarajevo Haggdadah,Porto Haggdadah,Amsterdam Haggdadah,Lisbon Hebrew Bible and the Cervera Bible.

[@elyjane8316]

Any pictures made at that time would not have been done by Jews as it is/was forbidden I the Torah,; the same as it is in Islam today.

[@Rotebuehl1]

Most of what is said in this clip is inaccurate

[@antonioramos8804]

The more you give them, the more the want

[@m.a.p.g.]

This was very interesting, thank you.

[@fkglobalize8875]

Please don't trust a word of this(history HD) at list on Portuguese history. What they're trying 2 do is 2 promote the jews but with very little truth and a bunch of lies.If u people want 2 know some truthful Portuguese history get factual with Portuguese historians. I also hv seen terrible films on "History Channel" about "Portuguese maritime discovery" 😢🇵🇹

[@stevengreenwade4802]

The Portuguese Jews are black I’ve seen the pictures!

[@Rotebuehl1]

@@stevengreenwade4802 Blah!

[@stevengreenwade4802]

@@Rotebuehl1 i know you hate to hear it but I've seen all the information I need to see! So I guess the pictures that Russia haves of a black Jesus is blah too huh?

[@tagbarzeev8283]

​@@stevengreenwade4802No. Thec Jews of the Iberian peninsula are not black. Just Afrocentric nonsense

[@tagbarzeev8283]

​@@stevengreenwade4802So the Jews of Greece who went to their death in concentration camps during WW2 were black. How abour the Sephardic Jews who had numbers tattooed on their skin. Were they black? You are one pitiful person

[@stephenmoerlein8470]

Thanks for posting this interesting historical content.

[@miriamjones8804]

I saw one fam it is sad and never mention us

[@Adrian-cj3pz]

I'm confused, theirs 12 tribes n the history of Judah was once black to brown people now their white. Eugenics!

[@Paul-r3v]

Dont you know Jews are chameleons? There are jews who had 3 national countries as motherland and there is a Jews that had 4 different full names. Acoording eaach country he lived he presented a local name.

[@geraldojesusoliveira1659]

Mas se você notou,a uma passagem que ele mostra os negros acorrentados?Eles sempre deixam os rastros.

[@CurveBall-n9j]

This fake bs The vast majority of Jews in Spain had converted to Catholicism, perhaps under pressure from the Massacre of 1391, and conversos numbered hundreds of thousands. They were monitored by the Spanish Inquisition. Spain Afro Jew massacre originated in Castile 1391, later Seville, Valencia, Barcelona, Aragon as pictured. The massacre of Portuguese Jews began in the Church of São Domingos on Sunday, 19 April 1506. These fools weren’t killing German Jews 😂 it was black Hebrews in Iberia not fake converts. On March 31, 1492 the Edict of Expulsion was signed, resulting in 300,000 Marranos Black Jews to the coast of Benin/Guinea in West Africa. Sao Tome, Principe, Cabo Verde were some of the places that they were first sent. Beginning in 1478, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, no less than 13,000 Marranos (Black Jews) were executed by the Inquisition.✅

[@gabrielleangelica1977]

Semitic people are from West Asia.

[@CurveBall-n9j]

@@gabrielleangelica1977 And? ? As was Ham who they are mixed with. Phoenicians of Canaan, Philistia of Mizraim also Genesis 10:15 of Ham. Cush of Genesis 10 begot Nimrod whom ruled Ur Mesopotamia etc. another black Hamite with his peoples as the foundation for Dravidians, Elamites, Arabs, some Asians, plus the other Cushites peoples of Africa that did not migrate up into Mesopotamia but south and west into Africa. Keturah. Keturah bore Abraham six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Genesis and First Chronicles also list seven of her grandsons (Sheba, Dedan, Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah) Also his daughter Zipphora is described as a Ethiopian or Kushite at Numbers 12:1. which are Hamites like Nimrod. Nimrod’s Kingdom Begins in Southern Mesopotamia Verse 10 describes Nimrod establishing his kingdom in southern Mesopotamia: ‎נִמְרֹד הוּא הֵחֵל לִהְיוֹת גִּבֹּר בָּאָרֶץ. Gen 10:8 And Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty man on earth. ‎בראשית י:י וַתְּהִי רֵאשִׁית מַמְלַכְתּוֹ בָּבֶל וְאֶרֶךְ וְאַכַּד וְכַלְנֵה בְּאֶרֶץ שִׁנְעָר. Gen 10:10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon and Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinʿar. The land of Shinʿar is mentioned seven other times in the Bible. In Genesis, the tower of Babel was built in “a valley in the land of Shinʿar” (Gen 11:2), and Shinʿar is the home of King Amraphel in Genesis 14:1, 9. Also (1 Chronicles 4:39,40,41). And they went to the entrance of Gedor, even unto the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks. Simeonites went to the eastern entrance of the valley of Gedor in quest of pasture, and dispossessed the previous inhabitants, being men "of Ham" This is where Judah is. Psalms 7:1 Says Cush the Benjamite Zephaniah 1:1 Son of Cushi Zephaniah is the son of Cushi, and **great-great grandson of King Hezekiah**, ninth in the literary order of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Amos 9:7 Zephaniah 3:10 Psalms 68:31 ) "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God"; that is, in prayer. They always were connected to and went to Africa not far Asia or Arabia as brethren. The Bible says it over and over. Even Jesus hid in Africa 12 years

[@Horta-m6i]

The people of Israel lives

[@Jewish_Israeli_Zionist]

In short: we came there and several centuries after we were expelled, burnt and converted to christianity by force.

[@sjaakzwart6001]

Was there ever a country the Jews DIDN'T get kicked out?