2012/12/09


                                    BOOK LAUNCH

THE  ISIDROS, AN EPIC 
OF NEW CHRISTIANS
 FROM TORRE DE MONCORVO
 (TRAS-OS-MONTES) ,
 17.30  DECEMBER 14, 2012,
 CASA DO INFANTE, PORTO, PORTUGAL


The ISIDROS - An epic of a family of New Christians from Torre de Moncorvo (Tras-os-Montes, northern Portugal) is a work of historical research, in which the authors follow this family over several generations, almost throughout the entire Inquisition (1536-1821).
It is a family with origins in Torre de Moncorvo but which by its dynamism and entrepreneurship, some of their descendants stand out in the social context of the time, even in times of persecution. Many of them were imprisoned in the Inquisition and eventually left strong marks of Marranism during their lifetimes.

Os Isidros
 20%
Os Isidros
A epopeia de uma família de cristãos-novos de Torre de Moncorvo
Edição/reimpressão: 2012
Páginas: 128
Editor: Lema d`Origem
ISBN: 9789898342126
Imprimir
12,00€
9,60€
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Sinopse
OS ISIDROS – A epopeia de uma família de cristãos-novos de Torre de Moncorvo, de António Júlio Andrade e Maria Fernanda Guimarães, é uma obra de investigação histórica, na qual os autores seguem esta família ao longo de várias gerações, praticamente ao longo da Inquisição. É uma família que tem origem em Torre de Moncorvo mas que, pelo seu dinamismo e empreendedorismo, alguns dos seus descendentes acabam por se destacar no contexto social da época, mesmo em período de perseguição. Muitos deles estiveram presos nos cárceres da Inquisição e acabaram por deixar marcas fortes do marranismo ao longo das suas existências.

2012/12/08


H A P P Y   H A N U K K A H !

The True Meaning of Hanukkah

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
WHEN my brother was in kindergarten, where he was the only Jewish student, a parent organizing enrichment activities asked my mother to tell the class the story of Hanukkah. My mother obligingly brought in a picture book and began to read about foreign conquerors who were not letting Jews in ancient Israel worship freely, even defiling their temple, until a scrappy group led by the Maccabee family overthrew one of the most powerful armies in the world and won their liberty.
The woman was horrified.
The Hanukkah story, she interrupted, was not about war. It was about the miracle of an oil lamp that burned for eight days without replenishing. She urged my mother to close the book. My mother refused.
The woman wasn’t alone. Many Americans, Jews as well as Christians, think that the legend of the long-lasting oil is the root of Hanukkah’s commemoration. And perhaps that mistake is no surprise, given that for many the holiday has morphed into “Christmas for Jews,” echoing the message of peace on earth accompanied by gift giving. In doing so, the holiday’s own message of Jewish survival and faith has been diluted.
Hanukkah is one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays in America. But unlike Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Passover (or even the lesser-known Sukkot and Shavuot), all of which are explicitly mentioned in the Torah, Hanukkah gets only a brief, sketchy reference in the Talmud, the voluminous collection of Jewish oral law and tradition written down hundreds of years after the Maccabees’ revolt.
There for the first time the miracle of the oil is recorded: the ancient temple in Jerusalem held an eternal flame, but after the desecration by the foreign invaders — including the sacrificing of pigs, a non-kosher animal, on the altar — only one day’s worth of purified oil remained. Yet the faithful went ahead and lighted it.
The oil burned in the rededicated temple for eight days, long enough for a new supply to arrive. Hence the practice of lighting candles for eight nights to observe Hanukkah, which means dedication in Hebrew. (Perhaps just as significantly, the reference to oil also gave rise to a holiday tradition of eating foods like potato pancakes and doughnuts  that had been cooked in it.)
Though Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday, 19th-century activists in America promoted it to encourage their coreligionists to take pride in their heritage. During the 20th century it was embraced more broadly by Jews who wanted to fit in with other Americans celebrating the holiday season — and to make their kids feel better about not getting anything from Santa.
It helped, of course, that Hanukkah falls near Christmas on the calendar and traditionally involved candles and small monetary gifts. Over time, children began receiving grander presents, and Hanukkah-themed season’s greeting cards proliferated. Some families even started to purchase “Hanukkah bushes,” small trees often decked out with Stars of David and miniature Maccabees.
By the 1980s, when I was a child, menorahs had been placed next to mangers in the public square and Hanukkah songs had been incorporated into winter holiday concerts. Despite this recognition, I still felt excluded enough to brag to classmates that my holiday was better than Christmas, since it had eight days of gift giving, instead of one.
While elevating Hanukkah does a lot of good for children’s morale, ignoring or sanitizing its historical basis does a great disservice to the Jewish past and present.
The original miracle of Hanukkah was that a committed band of people led a successful uprising against a much larger force, paving the way for Jewish independence and perhaps keeping Judaism itself from disappearing. It’s an amazing story, resonant with America’s own founding, that offers powerful lessons about standing up for one’s convictions and challenging those in power.
Many believe the rabbis in the Talmud recounted the miracle of the light alongside the military victory because they did not want to glorify war. That in itself is an important teaching, as are the holiday’s related messages of renewal, hope and turning away from darkness.
But it’s a story with dark chapters as well, including the Maccabean leaders’ religious zealotry, forced conversions and deadly attacks on their neighbors. These transgressions need to be grappled with. And that is precisely what the most important Jewish holidays do: Jews on Passover spill out wine from their glasses to acknowledge Egyptian suffering caused by the 10 plagues, and congregations at Rosh Hashana read and struggle with God’s order to Abraham to bind his son Isaac as a sacrifice.
If we’re going to magnify Hanukkah, we should do so because it offers the deeper meaning and opportunity for introspection that the major Jewish holidays provide.
Hilary Leila Krieger is the Washington bureau chief for The Jerusalem Post.