Studia Rosenthaliana - Volume 49, Issue 1, 2023

Abstract The Atlantic trade in enslaved people became an economic, social, political, and legal issue in the seventeenth century. Portuguese Jews became involved in the trade in enslaved people and the debate about its legality in this same chronology. Portuguese Jews, some of whom had lived as so-called New Christians or conversos, blended legal traditions ranging from the Spanish ‘School of Salamanca’ which was a leg Read More

Abstract The Dutch East India Company (VOC) relied on the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam to ensure that the White or Paradesi Jews in Cochin were suitable to be their social and economic partners. The Portuguese Jews were interested in this partnership as well. Yet there was another group of Jews in Cochin. These were the Black or Malabari Jews. The relationships between the trading company and three disti Read More

Abstract Historians have rarely studied early modern Jewish diplomacy, of which Jewish petitioning was a part. They hypothesize that early modern antisemitism and their minority status as a group without its own state prevented early modern Jewish communities from having any form of political power. However, according to historian David Biale, a typical example of ‘Jewish power’ is Jewish influence on political policy. Thi Read More

Abstract Sephardic Jews were involved in the burgeoning Atlantic trade of the seventeenth century, which linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas. As a highly mobile community, they may have lived in various places throughout their lives. As the Sephardic community settled in Amsterdam in the early-to-mid seventeenth century, they had to contend with issues that these travels brought to the fore, one of which was the boun Read More

Abstract From the last decades of the nineteenth century, Dutch Jews increasingly moved to the Dutch East Indies, which at this time were opened up to individual citizens to pursue a career. Members of the Dutch political, financial, and cultural elites were overrepresented among the (Jewish and non-Jewish) ‘Indiëgangers’, or ‘Indies travellers’. Colonial society provided Jews with novel opportunities, as their Jewish background Read More

Abstract European Jews and their experiences during the Second World War in Europe are a well-covered subject. However, their experiences in Asian colonies during the same period have been examined far less, especially their experiences in the Dutch East Indies. In this article, I examine the experiences of European Jews (including European refugees) just before and during the Japanese occupation in the Dutch East Indie Read More