The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450-1800

Abstract

edited by Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering. European Expansion and Global Interaction, Vol. 2. New York: Berghahn Books, 2001. 567 pp. $49.95. This insightful, well-balanced and finely produced volume is based on papers presented at an international conference held at the John Carter Brown library in June 1997. The volume explores the subject of Jewish history in the early modern period from an Atlantic and hemispheric perspective, within the context of the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English empires and cutting across the Protestant and Catholic divide. Three principles governing the conference are applied to this volume, namely, that: European and American history should not be separated, that North America and South America should not be separated, and that Jewish history of the period must include New Christians and conversos. In addition to a general introduction, the 25 essays in the volume are divided into seven parts: ideas and representations of America in European and Jewish consciousness and intellectual history; Jewish identity among the conversos and Marranos of Spanish America; American Jews, New Christians and international trade; and Jews and the Jewish experience in Portuguese Latin America, France and Caribbean French America, Dutch America, and colonial British America. A number of themes run through the volume, beginning with the ways in which Jews contributed to the shaping of the political, social, and economic patterns of the New World and were in turn deeply influenced by the New World. Examining Jewish publications, which reveal Jewish interest in the New World and an understanding of the New World closely related to the biblical past, contemporary plight, and Divine Providence of the Jewish people, the essays also treat Jewish contributions to the science of navigation as well as to trade and banking. Several essays explain the role of Jews in the sugar industry and others explicate Jewish work in the preparation of vanilla extract. Some Jewish communities -- such as Suriname and Curacao -- receive a great deal of (often repeated) attention, and throughout, the interplay between Jews and Christians receives ample attention, providing a sampling of the diversity of the Jewish experience in the New World. Throughout the early modern period, European Jewish and Christian collaboration was important. Clearly, in America as well, Jews, Christians, and others interacted in many and often complex ways. In America, heterodox beliefs and practices could often escape detection. Spaniards with religious training to detect heterodoxy were, for example, always in short supply in New Spain. Yet Jewish orthodox tradition could be difficult to sustain, and often conditions did not allow for the reconciliation of Jewish law and American life. Many of the essays assess directly and indirectly the question of toleration of Jews, both in the colonies and back in Europe. Ironically, in some cases there was less toleration abroad than at home, as among the Dutch colonies, and in some cases more opportunity than in Europe. In any event, the position and treatment of the Jews could vary a great deal, even within the same imperial territories. …