The history of the Jews in Cape Verde deals with the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and Jewish communities in Cape Verde.

Origins

Historians agree that the Jewish population of Cape Verde has its roots in the upheavals of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition ( Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. ...

s with the persecutions of

Spanish and Portuguese Jews Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the ...

who were often forced to either submit to

apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

or had to flee from their homelands, or both. A second influx of Jews arrived in Cape Verde in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

and

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. During the early colonial era,

Portuguese Cape Verde Cape Verde was a colony of the Portuguese Empire from the initial settlement of the Cape Verde Islands in 1462 until the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. History 15th century The islands of Cape Verde was discovered in 1444 by Dom Prin ...

had a population of so-called ''

lançados The ''lançados'' (literally, ''the thrown out ones'' Pardue 2015: p. 42 or ''the cast out ones'') were settlers and adventurers of Portuguese origin in Senegambia, Cabo Verde, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and other areas on the coast of West Africa. Man ...

'' (meaning "thrown-out ones") consisting of exiled

Crypto-Jews Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek ''kryptos'' – , 'hidden'). The term is especially applied historically to Sp ...

and

New Christians New Christian ( es, Cristiano Nuevo; pt, Cristão-Novo; ca, Cristià Nou; lad, Christiano Muevo) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction in the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire. The term was used from the 15th century ...

Occupations

Jews were allowed to engage in trade craftsmanship as long as they did not compete with the Portuguese trading monopolies.

Present

An American-based organization “Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project” has been set up to restore the Jewish cemeteries and create an archive about Jewish ancestry of Cape Verde, and according to its president Carol Castiel its "goal is to honor the memory and explore the contributions of the many Sephardic Jewish families who immigrated to Cape Verde from

and

in the mid-19th century." This project was the subject of articles in ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ...

'': ''Honoring Cape Verde’s Jewish History'' (2009); the ''

Washington Jewish Week ''Washington Jewish Week'' (''WJW'') is an independent community weekly newspaper whose logo reads, "Serving the nation's capital and the greater Washington Jewish community since 1930."

'': ''Preserving a Jewish niche Group seeks to honor the ghosts of Cape Verde''(2009); and reported in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: ''Cape Verdean municipalities advance Jewish preservation'' (2010) about agreements to maintain Jewish cemeteries on Ribeira Grande (Santo Antao), Praia and Boa Vista, as well as meetings with notables for this cause such as at the Cape Verdean American Business Association in 2010.

References

{{Africa in topic, History of the Jews in

Origins

Occupations

Present

See also

References