The Story of Chuts: How Cigars Saved My Family

In the 19th century my Dutch Jewish ancestors decided to move from Amsterdam to London. My first ancestors to make the move were my 4th great grandparents Abraham Moscou and Schoontje Veerjong in 1867 (although it is disputed if Abraham was around for this move). Most of the family moved to London, including my 3rd great-grandfather Morris Moscou. Morris' future wife's family, the De Haan family, also made the move around this time as they appear in the 1871 England Census living in Spitalfield. By 1881 another set of my 3rd great-grandparents, the Nunes Vaz and Robles family, had made their move to London from Amsterdam.

I had always wondered what caused my ancestors and their siblings to move to London from Amsterdam, a city in which Jews were seemingly able to thrive with very little anti-semitism for hundreds of years. Through the House of Orange and the Napoleonic Emancipation, Jews in Amsterdam were treated better than most other Jews throughout the World. One of the things I noticed about most of my Dutch Jewish ancestors was the fact that they were almost all cigar makers. There were even stories that my Nunes Vaz ancestors worked on the same bench as Samuel Gompers, who helped set the 8-hour workday.

I soon found that while Jews were treated better in Amsterdam than in most other places there were still some anti-semitic laws. Jews were not allowed to join guilds, which would have been something extremely useful to cigar makers, nor were they allowed to own their shops. Seeking better opportunities in their trade my ancestors made the move to London which was a major center for cigar making during the 19th century. These Dutch Jewish immigrants gained the nickname of Chuts, which is often attributed to the Dutch word 'Goed' which means good. They mostly settled in Spitalfields in the East End of London in an area nickname 'The Tenterground', an area originally established by Huguenot refugees.

Many of these Chuts established small workshops and factories for cigar and cigarette making. Many of the shops were situated in Bethnal Green, White Chapel, and Spitalfields, areas that are all close to the Tobacco Dock in Wapping. Tobacco would come in from the United States and sold to the jews who then treated, stripped, and processed into cigars and cigarettes. The cigars the chuts made were known as "British Cigars" and were considered of high quality.

With the progression of technology and machinery in the late 19th century the cigar making jobs in London became less available and caused many Dutch Jewish families to immigrate once again around the turn of the century. While some of these Jewish families went back to Amsterdam many either stayed in England or immigrated to the United States, Australia, or New Zealand. The United States was going through a golden-age of cigar making and there was a lot of available work. My family decided to move to the United States for stability but they were also bringing safety to their descendants. My family's decision to pursue the cigar making industry in the United States ultimately led to the safety of my family. Not only did this decision to officially move to the United states save them from enduring the bombing of London, which so many of our English relatives suffered through, but it also saved the family from the fate of the many relatives in Amsterdam who were murdered in the Shoah.

There is a family story which comes from the early 20th century when my 2nd-great grandparents were trying to decide whether to stay in London or move to Boston. My 2nd-great grandfather had been pursuing a career in London as a vaudevillian actor and dancer under the name William H Macknay and liked it much better in London. The family had already been to the United States, having lived in Michigan and Boston, but went back to England because my 2nd-great grandfather didn't really like it in America. During an argument about where to live my 2nd-great grandmother told her husband "In England we starved, this is the country that gave us something to eat." They went to America where the family flourished, safe from the horrors so many of their relatives endured. 

Origins of the Nunes Vaz Family of Amsterdam

The Nunes Vaz family of Amsterdam traces it's documented roots back to Livorno, Italy in the late 17th century. Jacob Nunes Vaz is the patriarch of the Nunes Vaz family of Amsterdam and was born in 1697 in Livorno, Italy to Abraham Nunes Vaz. Jacob's father Abraham was born around 1670 but there have been no records found on Abraham. It is believed the family originally hailed from Portugal and there is even a family story that there were originally 4 Nunes Vaz brothers who left Portugal and all went to different parts of the World.

Marriage Record for Jacob Nunes Vaz (1697-1746)
and Judith Falcao (1703-????) - Dec 23rd, 1723

Back in Italy the name also was spelled as Nunes Vais and some records in Amsterdam even spell it as Nunes Vaes. It doesn't seem like anyone else from the Nunes Vaz family came with Jacob to Amsterdam, although there is a possible sister named Lea who is listed in the cemetery records at Beth Haim as Lea Nunes Vaes of Esther and died in 1748, 2 years after Jacob. I haven't found any records of an Esther but I suspect it's possible Esther is the wife of Abraham Nunes Vaz, which if so would make Lea the sister of Jacob and Esther his mother. The family left back in Italy became quite prominent with many Rabbis and famous artists including Italo Nunes Vais and Mario Nunes Vais. The patriarch of the branch that stayed in Livorno is Isaac Joseph Nunes Vais who died in 1768 and was most likely born around the same time as our Jacob Nunes Vaz. It is my belief that Isaac Nunes Vais and Jacob Nunes Vaz were 1st cousins who shared Nunes Vaz grandparents, making their fathers brothers (but this is all speculation). Even more interesting is the fact that both Isaac and Jacob were printers, making it possible that printing was a family trade.

Record for Raphael Nunes Vaz (1734-1802) at
Beth Haim of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel

Jacob Nunes Vaz married Judith Falcao on December 23rd, 1723 in Amsterdam and they had two known sons; Aaron (1733-1745) and Raphael Nunes Vaz (1734-1802). Jacob worked as a printer and it is believed his father also worked as printer, most likely gaining their skills in Livorno which was considered the center of Hebrew printing in Italy. Jacob died in 1746 at the age of 49. Jacob's son Raphael Married Simcha Querido on November 10th, 1758 and had a lot of children but because Jacob's other son Aaron died at the age of 12 all members of the Amsterdam Nunes Vaz family trace their roots back to Raphael.

Of Raphael's descendants all of them come from two of his son's; Jacob Nunes Vaz (1759-1813) or Abraham Nunes Vaz (1769-1832), both of whom marred women from the Senior Coronel family. Between these two brothers there are more than 3000 known direct descendants with about 1000 living descendants scattered all over the World. The number seems to constantly go up as more descendants are found but because of the horrors of the Holocaust, especially in Amsterdam, many branches in the Nunes Vaz tree end in the 1940s.

A portrait of Jaap Nunes Vaz
painted by his friend Meijer Bleekrode

One famous figure in the family is Jaap Nunes Vaz, a co-founder of the newspaper Het Parool and a member of the Dutch resistance. He was arrested by the Gestapo on October 25th, 1942 and deported via Westerbork to Sobibor where he was murdered on March 13th, 1943. He has a street named after him in Amsterdam. 

The Consideration 3: Spain and Portugal Pass Sephardic Right To Return

Spain finally passed the law of return for Sephardic Jews this past June. The law goes into effect in October 2015 but expires after three years, although it can be extended for another year if deemed necessary. Candidates must apply to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) and they must hire a Spanish Notary and pass tests on the Spanish language and history. The law has many different hurdles the candidate must get over and has been defined as some as a bit excessive. Most of these hurdles are in the second section of the law, stating;

Spanish Parliament applauds after approving law
to grant citizenship to Sephardic Jews

"2. The condition of Sephardic jews originally from Spain will be attested through the following means of proof, evaluated as a whole:

a) Certificate issued by the President of the Permanent Commision of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain.

b) Certificate issued by the president or similar position of the jewish community of the area of residence or birthplace of the applicant.

c) Certificate of the competent rabbinic authority, legally recognised in the country of residence of the applicant.

The applicant may attach a certificate issued by the President of the Permanent Commision of Spain’s Federation of Jewish Communities that endorses the authority condition of the expeditor. As an alternative, to prove the idoneity of the documents mentioned on b) and c), the applicant must provide:

1st. Copy of the original statute of the foreign religious entity.

2nd. Certificate of the foreign entity containing the names of those designated as legal representatives.

3rd. Certificate or documents proving that the foreign entity is legally recognised in its country of origin.

4th. Certificate issued by the legal representative of the entity which proves that the signatory rabbi currently and effectively holds such condition in accordance with the requirements established in the statutory rules.

In addition, the documents referred to in the previous paragraphs, exception made from the certificate issued by the President of the Permanent Commision of Spain’s Federation of Jewish Communities, will be, when necessary, appropriately authorised, translated into Spanish by a sworn translator and shall contain the Apostille (of the Hague) or the pertinent seal of legalisation.

d) Accreditation of use of Ladino or “Haketia” as family language, or through other evidence that proves they traditionally belong to that community.

e) Birth certificate or “ketubah” or marriage certificate indicating its celebration according to the traditions of Castile.

f) Report issued by a sufficiently competent entity proving that the applicant’s surname belongs to the Spanish sephardic lineage.

g) Any other circumstance that can reliably prove the condition of Sephardic originally from Spain."

Portugal passed a similar law in January which became effective in late February with the first 21 citizenships being given by March 3rd, 2015. The Portuguese law is less strict than the Spanish law, requiring candidates to obtain a document issued by a Portugal-based Portuguese community attesting to their Portuguese Sephardic ancestry as well as providing their criminal record and birth certificate. To obtain the document attesting to Portuguese Sephardic ancestry a candidate must prove 

"the tradition of belonging to a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin, materialised, namely, in the family name of the applicant, native language, ancestry, and family memory."

or they must provide the following evidence;

1. a)  Certified document, issued by the Jewish community that ther applicant belongs to, proving their usage of Portuguese expressions in Jewish rites, or as a language spoken by them in the heart of that community, the Ladino;
   
2. b)  Certified records, such as registers from synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, as well as residence permits, property titles, deeds of will, and other pieces of evidence of family connection from the applicant, through direct ancestry or family relationship in a collateral line of a common parent from the Sephardic community of Portuguese origin. 

Now that both Spain and Portugal have passed laws, it is interesting to look at the history of Sephardic Jews, Spanish Nationality Law, and Portuguese Nationality Law. In 1492 the Alhambra Decree was signed and brought in the Spanish Inquisition, requiring Jews to either convert to Catholicism or leave the country. In 1536 Portugal followed suit and began their own Inquisition against the Jews. It is said that when the Inquisitions happened the leading Rabbis declared a cherem on Spain, or a ban on living in Spain (oddly enough I never heard or read about a cherem being placed on Portugal). The expulsion from Spain was viewed by many leading Jews as a betrayal and even some Jews who converted to Catholicism (or pretended to) - such as Don Abraham Senior Coronel - were considered betrayers of their people. Fast forward about 500 years to 2013 and the first draft bills in both Portugal and Spain are being put forward to "right the wrongs on the Inquisition" by giving descendants of Sephardic Jews "the right to return" by granting fast-tracked citizenship. 

As I spoke about in The Consideration 2, some see this as a political ploy to bring money to their dying economies. A little unknown fact many people miss is that Portugal had already passed a "Jewish Law of Return" in April 2013 which allowed Sephardic Jews to gain a 'fast-tracked' citizenship. The law of return in Portugal was a bit stricter than that proposed in Spain; requiring applicants to have "belong to a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin with ties to Portugal" and to show Sephardic names in their family tree. Interestingly enough this is an amendment to the already established law "Law On Nationality" which was established in 1981 and determined citizenship by whether one or both parents are citizens of the state as opposed to place of birth. This is called Jus Sanguinis, or right of blood, and makes it so someone born in Portugal can't gain citizenship without at least one parent having citizenship or having held residence for at least 6 years in Portugal.

There are still a lot of questions with both laws and it will be interesting to see how many applications are accepted come October. Many are saying that Spain's law is too strict and they should lighten their requirements, similar to Portugal. A lot of people seem skeptical and believe that this is a ploy to just help the Spanish and Portuguese economies out of their recent slumps. I'd be interested to hear from anyone with personal experience applying for the citizenship and any problems they may have encountered. Now it's time to consider if I want to start the process.

Read the Other "Consideration" articles;
The Consideration: Obtaining My Spanish Citizenship As A Sephardi
The Consideration 2: A Step Forward For Obtaining Spanish Citizenship
The Consideration 4: Starting the Process for Portuguese Citizenship

The Race Debate: Is there a Jewish race?

When I was in college I took a class called Jews in The United States. Obviously the class was focused around how Jews lived in the USA, but early on our professor Barbara Burstin brought up a question I had barely thought about; Who is a Jew? The class discussed multiple ideas of defining who is a Jew; someone born to a Jewish mother, one who practices the Jewish religion, one who descends from the 'Jewish People' (a.k.a. a Jewish race). What really stuck out with me is the idea of Jews as a race. At that point of the class I was a year into my serious genealogy research and had just begun to trace out my Ashkenazi roots in Holland, something I thought I'd never find from my Dutch Sephardic line. As well I had just learned about the Joods Monument, which I wrote about here. I was slowly realizing how connected the Jewish population around the world truly were, so the idea of the Jewish race just made sense to me.

When the class discussed this idea further I realized that many other Jews and non-Jews were quite against this idea. Some discussed how this was just anti-semitic and could lead to another Holocaust because the idea of Jews as a race is used by anti-semites in their propaganda. What the anti-semites do is use the argument of a Jewish race to say Jews have been bred to be evil and manipulative. I could understand why this would lead to many rational people saying the idea of Jews as a race is not only wrong but is morally wrong, especially when you read articles like this, but I think if you look at it with fears aside (there will always be crazy people in the World) you can see the proof in genetics. Another argument that was difficult to counter is the idea that Judaism is a religion and people leave or convert Judaism all throughout history, thus Jews couldn't be a race. While this argument is valid in a way, if you look at it in a different way it makes more sense why this is wrong (at least in my humble opinion).

The first thing you need to do is think of Judaism in two lights; the religion and the race. Yes, as two different things. To make this easier I will refer to the religion as Judaism and the race as Israelites. Judaism is just a religion anyone can enter or leave based on their personal beliefs. Israelites are those who descend from the people who lived in the Middle East who practiced the Jewish faith. So to be an Israelite would be your genetics consisting of mostly Israelite markers. What kept the Israelite DNA flowing throughout it's own community was the Jewish faith, a societal barrier which kept marriages within the Jewish community. Even after hundreds of years apart many people from around the world who claim themselves to be Jewish share a common descent which has been shown through DNA.

Anyone with a percentage of Jewish Diaspora genetic markers (what I previously referred to as Israelite markers) on Family Tree DNA could tell you how fascinating it is to see the thousands of Jews who are anywhere from 2nd cousins to 5th or 6th cousins. Most of whom rely on the chromosome browser to determine how they are related to the others. On Family Tree DNA in the My Origins section of Family Finder they talk about the Jewish Diaspora and say "While Judaism is a religion, the Jewish people are also a nation. Modern Jews have diversified into numerous branches, such as Ashekenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi, as well as odds and ends such as the Bene and Beta Israel. Unifying many of these populations are genetic commonalities, likely resulting from a common Middle Eastern Ancestry. This combination of Middle Eastern and European is found in many other groups, and many of them exhibit signatures of the Ashkenazi Diaspora, but it is not common descent."

Interestingly enough I see a correlation of this idea with a Muslim race but the World already refers to them as the Arab race. At this point some of you might say, "But there are a lot of Arabs who are Jewish, Christian, or other religions and a lot of Muslims who aren't Arabs." True but you can say the exact same thing about Israelites as there are hundreds of thousands who have converted to Christianity, Islam, and other religions over the past 5000 years as well as lots of Jews who aren't Israelite. I would even bet that many Christians with newly discovered Jewish ancestry are reading this, especially since it is more common for those with Sephardic ancestry.  I found out from my own DNA test that I am 6% Arab, meaning that one of my 2nd great-grandparents could be fully Arab (there are only three of my 2nd-great grandparents I don't know about, so possible) but at the very least I have a multiple 3rd great-grandparents and other ancestors further down with partial Arab blood.

In the end I think the main point I'm getting at is when it comes to "Is there a Jewish race?" the answer is Yes. If you look at it from a completely scientific standpoint based on genetic evidence you can see there is an abundance of proof that points in the affirmative.

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The Consideration 2: A Step Forward For Obtaining Spanish Citizenship

Just a few days ago the Spanish Cabinet officially approved draft legislation allowing people with Sephardic Jewish ancestry to obtain dual citizenship. They have added one caveat to the process which requires the person to not only prove their ancestry but they must also pass a Spanish Culture Test. What that exactly entails they have not released but it is being prepared by the Cervantes Institute. The legislation cannot be implemented until approved by the Spanish Parliament which is controlled by the  conservative People's Party who strongly support the legislation, so it will most likely pass.

Some are lauding the move as a way to right the injustice of the Spanish Inquisition. But there is another voice which has emerged forbidding Jews to obtain Spanish citizenship. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner and other senior rabbis urged the Jewish people to reject the offer. Their main argument is they believe Spain is using this for political reasons to "make up for the expulsion of the Jews." Rabbi Aviner also spoke about the financial gain Spain is looking to gain because of their need for support, even claiming "An Israeli passport is worth more."

After my first post about looking into obtaining citizenship once available I heard from a lot of people about their opinion and many said things quite similar to Rabbi Aviner. Some even said they felt that Jews looking to move abroad should consider Israel over Spain since it is the Jewish Nation. Rabbi Haim Drukman had similar statements earlier this year, "We are privileged to have our own country and we should be proud to be its citizens." It is an interesting notion but one many non-religious Jews would not agree with, especially those who don't want to serve 2 years in the military or are afraid of the current fighting situation.

Leading Sephardic Rabbi Eliyahu Abergil reminded the Jews that there is an ancient cherem (religious ban) which was decreed after the Inquisition. A topic which I've heard about since I began my research on my Sephardic ancestry.

At this point I couldn't move forward with obtaining citizenship because I have to wait for Spanish Parliament. Yet the question I have to really ask before I move forward is, "What do I gain out of it?" Obviously it would be really cool to have dual citizenship but there are negatives and a lot of unknowns with possible situations that could arise, especially anything legal. One of the best positives from getting Spanish citizenship is becoming a member of the European Union, basically giving me access to live, work, and study in any EU country. EU membership has a lot of other perks whether I'm traveling throughout the EU or I decide to live there. Beyond this the only other thing I'd gain, I assume, is the ability to participate in Spanish politics.

There is certainly a decent amount to consider and many people have already decided they won't go through with it if the bill passes. Yet there are many more who are still quite interested and see this as a big opportunity. At least I have time to figure it out.

Read the Previous and Follow-up articles;
The Consideration: Obtaining My Spanish Citizenship As A Sephardi
The Consideration 3: Spain and Portugal Pass Sephardic Right to Return
The Consideration 4: Starting the Process for Portuguese Citizenship

The Consideration: Obtaining My Spanish Citizenship as a Sephardi

I have been thinking about becoming a Spanish Citizen. Due to my ancestry I will be able to do so quite easily without losing my current citizenship in the United States. I'm just not yet sure if I want to go through with it, so I have been researching it quite extensively.

There has been a buzz for a few years now about people of Sephardic descent being able to obtain citizenship in Spain without having to denounce their current citizenship. Just the other day on the 7th day of February in the year 2014, the Spanish Cabinet passed a new law giving a 2 year window for descendants of Sephardic Jews to apply for fast-tracked citizenship. While this law is finally coming to fruition it has been in the works for many years now. 

In 1992, King Juan Carlos prayed at Beth Yaacov Synagogue in Madrid to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Alhambra Decree. King Carlos then declared "Sefarad is not nostalgia but a home which should not be said that Jews feel at home, because the Spanish-Jews are at home. What matters is not accounting for our mistakes or successes, but the will to project and analyze the past in terms of our future." In 2012 at a ceremony at Madrid’s Casa Sefarad-Israel the Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz Gallardón announced the Spanish Government would be opening automatic citizenship for anyone who could prove they descended from Sephardic Jews. 

There was a major problem with the 2012 law which made it impossible to work. It required a Certificate from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (Federación de Comunidades Judías de España) but the Federation refused to give out certificates until the Spanish government defined what documentation an applicant required to be considered Sephardi. Just over a year later the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain are now praising the law passed by the Spanish Cabinet. A statement they released about the law said “The minister of Justice, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, kept his word, and this honors him. Spain, once again, not only did not disappoint, but made a historical step for the Sephardic Jews”

The new law still must pass the Spanish Parliament before being officially implemented. While the law speeds up the process it still has stipulations which must be met. The law entails that the applicant prove they are Sephardi by one or more of the following requirements;

1. A certificate from the General Secretariat of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain saying the applicant is of Sephardic origin.

2. A certificate from the Rabbinical Authority legally recognized in the country in which the applicant resides.

3. Family names, languages, or other evidence of applicants connection to the Sephardic Community.

4. If said person was included in a list of Sephardic families protected by Spain such as the decree of December 29th, 1948 or those who obtained special naturalization through the royal decree of December 20th, 1924. 

5. The applicant can prove linkage to person or family member who the previous stipulation applies to.

6. In the event the application is sent to the civil registry office in charge of the residence of the applicant it will consider any applicant's sign of belonging to the Spanish community in their area.

If one or more of these stipulations are met then the applicant must also provide a statement of loyalty to the King of Spain and obedience to it's constitution and laws. The acquisition is then recorded in the Spanish Civil Registry. 

Now the question comes about of whether or not to go through with this...

If you would like to read the actual law please click link (warning: automatically downloads .pdf and is in Spanish);

http://www.mjusticia.gob.es/cs/Satellite/1292426924128?blobheader=application/pdf&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=attachment;+filename=Anteproyecto_de_Ley_nacionalidad_sefardies.pdf

Read the Follow-up articles;
The Consideration 2: A Step Forward For Obtaining Spanish Citizenship
The Consideration 3: Spain and Portugal Pass Sephardic Right to Return
The Consideration 4: Starting the Process for Portuguese Citizenship

Dutch Jews Killed in the Holocaust

The Jews of the Netherlands were persecuted by the Nazis using the 

vast array of documents and records kept by the Dutch and Dutch Jews alike. Of the 140,000 recorded Jews living in the Netherlands 107,000 had been deported by Wars end. 30,000 Jews survived by hiding, escaping, or other means and only 5,000 of the deported Jews returned home.

You can find information on these people at the Joods Monument website. If you can research your lineage to Dutch Jews, Sephardic or Ashkenazi, I can almost guarantee you have relatives listed on the website. The basic information provided for each individual is their birth date, birth location, death date (sometimes deportation date which is the assumed death date), death location, and last recorded residence. As well there is very large community of people who add information to this website; things like pictures, documents, stories, if there are living relatives (they don’t give any info on living relatives), biographies, and links to other family members pages also on the website.

For an example we will use the profile of Leendert Nunes Vaz. He was born November 17th, 1906 in Amsterdam and died at the age of 38 on February 16th, 1945 at Westerbork. The left column shows the home address and lists everyone in the household. Right above Leendert’s name on the left you can see a blue bar. This blue bar is part of a color coded bar system the website uses to distinguish who was in the household. Tall blue bars are adult men; tall red bars are adult women. Half-length green bars are boys ages 6 to 21; half-length yellow bars are girls ages 6 to 21. Short light blue bars are boys 6 and under; short pink bars are girls 6 and under. A white bar indicates a member of the household survived the war and could still be alive.

For another example we will use the profile of Alida Lopes Dias. She was born in Amsterdam on Septermber 19th, 1929 and died at the age of 13 on June 11th, 1943 at Sobibor. We can see in her household she had an adult man (her father), an adult woman (her mother), a member who survived and could be living (a sibling), and a girl age 6 to 21 (Alida). Under the bars it says “Leendert Lopes Dias and his family” with a little i in a white box next the text. This is a link to information about the whole  household, with the i in a box indicating there is extra information on that page.

Underneath the link to the household information we see each family member listed (their name is a link to their page), their birth and death info, and their relationship to the head of household. Below that we see “One child living with it’s parent’s survived the war”. In the center column we see that she was on the children’s transport that went to Sobibor via Westerbork. It also lists where that information was obtained. In the right column we see a picture of Alida and underneath private collection. More than likely Alida’s surviving sibling sent this picture to the Joods Monument.

I suggest before you start searching the website to read the introduction, faq, and other subsequent pages to get a better feel for the website. They give a much better in-depth description of how the website works. Everything on the website is spelt the Dutch way; including Hebrew and Yiddish words. The search on the website is pretty straight-forward, just use keywords to narrow what you’re looking for if you are having trouble.

Records from Beth Haim at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel

One of the greatest online sources for people researching their Sephardic ancestry in Amsterdam are the records for Beth Haim of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. Beth Haim is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Netherlands, being purchased in 1614 by the Jewish Community of Amsterdam. Most Sephardic Jews from the Jewish Community in Amsterdam were buried at Beth Haim cemetery. The records from Beth Haim have a lot of great information and can really help you expand your tree, especially once you learn how to manipulate the search system.

The URL for the directory is http://www.dutchjewry.net/pig/pig_list.php (has been updated to this link). I would suggest bookmarking this website so you don’t have to scroll through the stenen archief website looking for the directory. At the top of the page there is a scroll bar for Taal, which is Dutch for Language. The directory is in 3 languages; Dutch, English, and Hebrew. Most of the documents are written in Dutch with a little Hebrew spread throughout. Many of the dates are listed according to the Jewish Calander, but Jewish Gen has a great tool to translate the dates to the Western calendar at http://www.jewishgen.org/jos/josdates.htm.

Now the key to manipulating this directory is to learn about Sephardic surnames and their history. To get the basics on naming traditions and common surnames and their variants you can check out some pages provided by Sephardic Gen; http://www.sephardicgen.com/nameorig.htm and http://www.sephardicgen.com/yohasin.HTM. Many of the Sephardic Jews who settled in Amsterdam had stayed in Spain or gone to Portugal in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, often pretending to be Catholic while still secretly practicing Jewish customs. Since they needed to seem less Jewish, many of these families used Spanish and Portuguese surnames but changed them back to their Jewish variants once in the Netherlands.

Another common occurrence in Sephardic surnames is the double surname. These double surnames were often created with the marriage of two families, often tracing back to pre-Inquisition Spain. This is actually an important factor when accessing the database because the records are listed according to two family names. For males and unmarried females the column for #1 family name is the first name of their surname and the column for #2 family name is their second surname if they have one. For married females and males with listed aliases the #1 family name is their married surname or proper surname and the #2 family name is their maiden name or alias surname.

For an example I will use Abraham Nunes Vaz (1799-1863). Similar to how one is called up to read the Torah, the column for the first name lists the name of the person and their father. Abraham’s father is Jacob, so Abraham is listed in the first name column as Abraham v. Jacob (meaning Abraham van Jacob, also Abraham son of Jacob). To search for him the best thing to search for would be his most uncommon name in all three of his names. Since his surname will be split up separately we can search for either Nunes or Vaz, but do not search for Nunes Vaz because it will only come up with Nunes Vaz members with another married name or alias. Something to note is the illiteracy of the world before modern times. Many people didn’t know how to spell their own names, let alone their surnames, so documents will have little changes such as Nunes Vas or Nunes Vaaz or some other variant because the record taker guessed at the spelling. In our case we can see Abraham listed at the bottom of page 5.

Once you click the view button a new tab will pop up in your browser with all the basic information on the record along with a little picture of the document. Just click on the picture to view the full size document. The document is pretty straight forward to understand and usually only requires a little knowledge of the Dutch language to interpret.  At the bottom of this blog I will include a reference list for common terms in these documents. 

For Abraham we can see that he had 2 wives; Sara Lopes Dias and Rachel Henriques Coelho. As we can see in Abraham’s record, the Beth Haim documents usually distinguish the surname from the proper name by putting the surname in all capital letters. We can also see that Abraham had at least 12 children, but not all of the children are always listed. If he had children with both wives there will usually be a distinction between each set of children, but it is always good to check the marriage date or even death date of the last wife against the birth date of the children to distinguish mothers. Children are usually listed in the records for father but have been be listed in the mother’s records from time to time.

There is a lot of other information which can be found in these records; including parent’s names, spouse’s parent’s names, biographical information, names of other relatives (cousins, aunts, etc.), birthplace, immigration information, occupation, and many other random tidbits. Some of these records also include photos of the tombstones or links to more information about the person. If this is the case then it is likely that person was prominent in some way and could even be in one of the books written about the cemetery. For more information on the cemetery itself you can visit their website at http://www.bethhaim.nl.

Reference Terms:

Aantekeningen - Notes

Alias - Other names

Begraven – Date buried

Dochter – Daughter

Geb. – Birth date

Geh. met - Married to

Geslachts naam –Family name (married)

Geh. – Marriage date

Gev. - Dead of birth

Moeder – Mother

Naam –Name

Taal – Language

Vader - Father

Zerk – Tombstone

Zoon - Son

Origins of The Henriques Pimentel Family of Amsterdam

Record from Beth Haim cemtery in Ouderkerk

For David Henriques Pimentel

The Henriques Pimentel family of Amsterdam traces its roots to David Henriques Pimentel (1631-1696) and Abigael Henriques Pimentel (?-1701). It is unknown where David or Abigael were born, but their son Emanuel was born in Malaga, Spain in 1657. When the family came to Amsterdam Emanuel changed his name to Isaac because he could be outwardly Jewish without fear of persecution.

In 1674 Isaac received a declaration signed on behalf of the King of Spain Charles II that Isaac was entitled to use the ancient arms of Pimentel. This is quite interesting because it would indicate that Isaac had proof of descent from the House of Pimentel. A distant relative of mine through this lineage had a copy of the document and said that David Henriques Pimentel was the grandson of the 8^th Count (5^th Duke) of Benavente, Juan Alfonso de Pimentel.

Portrait of Juan Alfonso de Pimentel

Juan had many children from 2 marriages, but it is unknown which son David descends from. It is also unclear when the names Henriques and Pimentel were put together. While it could be that David’s mother was an Henriques or Enriquez, we can find two instances in the House of Pimentel where an Enriquez was married in; The 2^nd Count of Benavente, Rodrigo Alfonso Pimentel married Doña Leonor Enriquez de Mendoza.  The 6^th Count of Benavente, Antonio Alonso de Pimentel married Luisa Enriquez.