April 2013: After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, many Jews sought refuge in Naples, Puglia, Sicily and Calabria. They included Don Isaac Abarbanel, the great Torah scholar and Biblical commentator who also served as Finance Minister to Spanish King Ferdinand, along with his family. However when the Spanish monarchs captured the region in 1510, a series of further persecutions began, which included forced conversions and expulsions.

The Inquisition was active in the area for centuries in which Marranos and conversos were tortured until 1700 and possibly later. But the Bnei Anousim of the area clung to their Jewish identity handing it down from one generation to the next. It is their descendants who are beginning to return to their roots of their Jewish past. In southern Italy, much like Spain and South America, descendants search for their Jewish ancestral history.

The Jewish presence in Sicily dates back some two thousand years. Some historians state the first Jews in Sicily were brought there as slaves by the victorious Roman legions during the Second Temple period. The community steadily grew in the ensuing centuries despite various periods of persecution, and produced an array of great scholars and rabbis. There were 52 Jewish communities spread out across Sicily, numbering at least 37,000 people.

Many left by December 31, 1492, but large numbers of forcibly-converted Jews were compelled to remain behind, where they suffered under the heavy hand of the Inquisition. The first auto-da-fe in Sicily took place in Palermo in June 1511, when the Inquisitors executed nine Sicilian Bnei Anousim for secretly practicing Judaism. Towards the end of the 14th century, Sicily’s Jews were confined to ghettos and faced increasingly harsh decrees as well as massacres and forced conversions to Catholicism. At the time, Sicily was under the control of the Spanish crown and in 1492, the anti-Semitic measures reached their peak with the Edict of Expulsion, which ordered the remaining Jews to leave.

Rabbi Pinchas Punturello, has been appointed to serve as the new emissary for the Shavei Israel organization in southern Italy and Sicily. In his new position, Rabbi Punturello will serve as the area’s chief rabbi, and will work to strengthen the local Jewish community in regions such as Puglia, Campania, Sicily, and Calabria, while also reaching out to the Bnei Anousim (whom historians refer to by the derogatory term Marranos) throughout the area, many of whom are looking to reconnect with the Jewish people.

Rabbi Punterello will work to expand Shavei Israel’s activities throughout Italy, which will include: convening seminars and symposiums for the Bnei Anousim, organizing prayer services and regular classes on Jewish subjects, publishing newsletters and other Italian-language material on Jewish topics and distributing them among various communities in southern Italy; as well as providing assistance with the aliyah, conversion and absorption processes for those members of the community who choose to immigrate to Israel. He will also head the “Sud Italia” project organized by Shavei Israel and UCEI, Union of Italian Jewish Communities, aims to recover traditional, spiritual and religious rights of all groups, families and individuals, in Puglia, Sicily, Calabria and Campania who are rediscovering their origins and need help.

Shavei Israel, which reaches out to communities of “hidden Jews” and helps them to reconnect with the Jewish People and State of Israel, is undertaking this project in conjunction with the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, the official umbrella organization of Italian Jewry. It marks the first time that a rabbi has been appointed to work specifically with the Bnei Anousim of southern Italy and Sicily. In recent years, a growing number of Bnei Anousim in southern Italy have begun rediscovering their Jewish roots and expressing a desire to draw closer to Israel and the Jewish people. It is incumbent upon us to reach out to them and help them to do so.

The Jewish community in Spain in the early Middle Ages was one of the oldest and most successful Diaspora Jewish communities. Despite this, from 1391 onwards a series of terrible disturbances and great tribulations befell the local Jewish community. One of the direct results was an unprecedented wave of forced conversions. These events continued on through 1492, when they reached their peak, and the remaining Jews were formally expelled from Spain. Bnei Anousim, whose Jewish forefathers were forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition period more than 500 years ago had been compelled to convert to Catholicism. Known by the Hebrew term Bnai Anousim many remained behind, where they continued to preserve their Jewish identity and to practice Jewish tradition covertly.

As a result, this unique phenomenon is still evident even today, even though the Inquisition invested enormous efforts over the centuries to eradicate it. .Shavei Israel currently has emissaries working with Bnei Anousim in Palma de Majorca, Spain; Porto, Portugal; and Recife, Brazil. In Jerusalem, Shavei Israel operates the Spanish and Portuguese-language Machon Miriam Institute for Return, where hundreds of Bnei Anousim have studied Judaism and prepared for return by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. According to Shavei Israel chairman Michael Freund, there are tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands of Bnei Anousim in Spain and Portugal who are conscious of their identity and their special relationship with Israel and the Jewish People.

Uruguay has a long and established Jewish community, and its development parallels the development of the country. Uruguay did not have a significant Inquisition and there are some traces of Conversos who lived in the 16th century. Few documents relating to Jewish history during the Colonial period are extant. In 1726, the governor of Montevideo called upon the first settlers to be “persons of worth, of good habits, repute and family, so that they be not inferior nor of Moorish or Jewish race.” The first record of Jewish settlement is in the 1770s. With the end of the Inquisition in 1813, the political and social system of Uruguay evolved to a greater level of openness and tolerance. This openness provided the basis for continued Jewish residence beginning in the nineteenth-century. In 1929 the Ashkenazi Jewish community set up an educational network. Jewish schools have been functioning in various parts of the country since the 1920s. Documentation of today’s Jewish community dates back only to 1880. In 1905, there were various records of the Jews’ arrival. The first recorded minyan was not until 1912. In 1909, 150 Jews lived in Montevideo, the city with the largest Jewish population. Despite the history of settlement, the community did not open its first synagogue until 1917.

For many Jews, Uruguay was a temporary stop on the way to Argentina or Brazil and the majority of immigration occurred between the 1920s and early 1930s. A large number of these immigrants were secular leftists who disassociated themselves from the Jewish community. In 1929, the Ashkenazi Jewish community set up an educational network. Jewish schools have been functioning in various parts of the country since the 1920s. In the 1930s, there were significant Fascist and liberal anti-immigration elements that opposed all foreign immigration, weighing heavily on Jewish immigration. Jews were singled out and many people opposed Jewish inclusion in Uruguayan society. Jews were singled out and many people opposed Jewish inclusion in Uruguayan society. This harsh treatment abated around the time of World War II due to the administration of the antifascist General Alfredo Baldomir. Despite harsh immigration quotas, immediately prior to and during World War II, Jews also used Uruguay as a way station to other countries. After the establishment of the State of Israel and the forced exodus of Jews out of Arab lands, there was a considerable wave of immigration to Uruguay, more than 18,000 Jews. Among other places, these Jews came from Algeria, Egypt and Rhodes.

During the time of early settlement, the Jews engaged primarily in commerce, light industry and crafts, and salaried jobs. German immigration in the 1930s contributed to an economic increase through World War II. From the 1930s until about 1950, there were several failed attempts at creating Jewish agricultural settlement in Uruguay. Post-WWII, Jews increased their representation in the professional world, particularly as the community became second and third generation and assimilation increased. Beginning in the 1920s, the Jewish community became predominately middle class and their economic development basically mirrored that of the general middle class. This economic development was helped by the creation of Jewish loan and assistance funds, which gradually evolved into Jewish banks.

In the 1960s, there were sporadic anti-Semitic outbursts among nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations, many originating in Argentina. In 1961, during the Eichmann trial, Neo-Nazi groups provoked serious anti-Semitic disturbances. Anti-Semitism in Uruguay tends to mirror negative general trends; for example, when the economy is in crisis, anti-Semitism tends to increase. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, very few anti-Semitic incidents were recorded; however, one exception occurred in 1998 when a Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of the Anshei Emet synagogue.

The Jewish community is predominately secular while observing basic elements of the Jewish tradition. Organizationally, the religious and secular functions have been separate since 1942. Jewish cultural life is the prominent expression of Jewish identity in Uruguay, and there is an organized community of secular humanists in Uruguay. In the mid-1990s, there were 14 Orthodox and 1 Masorti (Conservative) synagogue and two Orthodox and two Masorti (Conservative) rabbis. The growing Masorti community is partially due to the growing population of the Seminario Rabinico Latinamerico rabbinical school of the Conservative movement in Argentina (1 of 5 Conservative rabbinical schools in the world). Chabad-Lubavitch also runs a center and several schools in Montevideo and a center in Punta del Este. As of 2003, Uruguay has 20 synagogues, but only six hold weekly Shabbat services, and only the Yavne Community Center synagogue in Montevideo functions every day.

The Jewish community of Uruguay is made up of 10,000 families of Polish-Russian, Sephardi, German and Hungarian descent. Approximately 75% of Uruguay’s Jews are Ashkenazi, while only 11% are of Sephardic descent, however, that was not always the case. In 1917-1918, 75% of the Jewish population were Sephardim. Uruguay has Ashkenazi and Sephardi schools and youth groups such as the national-religious Bnai Akiva, the socialist HaShomer HaTzair, HaNoar HaTzioni, and the Revisionist Betar give informal youth education. Uruguay has eight strong Zionist youth organizations and Uruguay is the only South American country authorized to administer Israel’s university entrance exam. Local youth organizations include the Maccabia sports group, and the youth section of the Nueva Congregacion Israelita (NCI). The NCI is the umbrella organization of the Uruguayan Jewish community.

At the 1920 San Remo Conference, Uruguay supported Jewish aspirations in Eretz Yisrael and the Balfour Declaration. In 1947, it voted for the establishment of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), which had a delegate from Uruguay who was one of the Jews’ most ardent supporters. Uruguay was the first Latin American country, and one of the first countries overall, to recognize the State of Israel. Montevideo was the first Latin American capital (and fourth globally) in which Israel established a diplomatic mission. Uruguay was also one of the few nations willing to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It opposed the proposed internationalization of the city in 1949 and upgraded the diplomatic representation in Jerusalem to the status of an embassy in 1958. It was subsequently downgraded to the status of consulate, however, due to Arab pressure.

Montevideo has a Jewish museum, documentation center and a Holocaust memorial. The Holocaust museum has been declared a national historic landmark. Next to the major opera house (Téatro Solis), there is a square named after Golda Meir. The Albert Einstein monument stands in Rodo Park, opposite the casino. There is also a Jewish cemetery, with monuments to victims of the Holocaust, Israeli soldiers, and victims of the terror attack on the AMIA Building in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Various neighborhoods also contain traces of a long-abandoned Jewish past. While dwindling because of the economic crisis, many of the small shops are Jewish owned. Kosher food is available at the Hogar de Padres, the senior citizens’ residence of the Nueva Congregación Israelita. Instituto Integral Hebreo Uruguayo “Yavne” is a school, synagogue and adult education center. Also, a Hillel was opened for students in Montevideo.

The Uruguayan Jewish community is less than 1% of the total population and has undergone a serious decline since the 1970s due to emigration. As of the mid-1990s, there are no Jews in the upper echelons of the social strata or military. There is also very little Jewish representation in the legislative bodies of the Uruguayan political system. In the wake of the Latin American economic crisis of the early twenty-first century, Uruguayan Jews have been hit hard. Between 1998-2003, more then half of the community’s 40,000 Jews have immigrated – mostly to Israel. Today, 23,000 Jews live in Uruguay, with 95% residing in Montevideo. Many of the Jewish owned shops have closed due to lack of business. The Israelite Community of Uruguay, also known as the Ashkenazi Kehilah, has been, and continues to be, the main source of social service aid within the traditional system.

According to a 2003 study commissioned by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, titled “Poverty, Vulnerability and Risk in the Uruguayan Jewish Community,” 22 percent of the country’s adult Jewish population is “poor” and 40.5 percent is “vulnerable.” The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and local Jewish organizations are providing thousands of dollars in assistance and enabling children to obtain a free Jewish education. However, while Argentina is receiving significant international financial assistance to meet that Jewish community’s desperate needs, much less aid is coming in to Uruguay. In June 2002, the World Zionist Congress declared Uruguay’s Jewish community to be in a state of emergency.

Notable Jews of Uruguay

Monsieur Chouchani, mysterious scholar
Gisele Ben-Dor, conductor
Daniel Drexler, singer/songwriter
Jorge Drexler, singer/songwriter
Ricardo Ehrlich, mayor of Montevideo
Jose Gurvich, painter
Teresa Porzecanski, writer
Mauricio Rosencof, writer
Gabe Saporta, singer/songwriter/bassist of Cobra Starship and Midtown
Carlos Sherman, writer (Uruguay-born)
Robert Yabeck, photographer