DATE=12-31-02

TYPE=Dateline

NUMBER=7-37073

TITLE=The Jews of Cape Verde

BYLINE=Carol Castiel

TELEPHONE=619-0112

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Fred Cooper

CONTENT=

DISK: DATELINE THEME [PLAYED IN STUDIO, FADED UNDER DATELINE HOST VOICE OR PROGRAMMING MATERIAL]

HOST: Who would have imagined that predominantly Catholic Cape Verde, an archipelago of 10 small islands located off the coast of West Africa would at one time have a prominent Jewish community whose members were largely from Muslim Morocco? But that is indeed what happened in the 19th century, when Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony. In this Dateline report, Carol Castiel recounts the story of the Jews of Cape Verde through the memories of their descendants.

CC: The Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited when the Portuguese discovered them in the mid-1400's. Some historians say that many of the original settlers may have been Jews or Cristaos Novos -- New Christians, the name given to Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity by the Portuguese monarchy at the time of the Inquisition. However, several small Jewish cemeteries spread throughout the archipelago attest to a more recent and verifiable Jewish presence. A glance at a Cape Verdean telephone book reflects the unmistakably Sephardic or Spanish/Portuguese Jewish surnames of Anahory, Benoliel, Benros, Benchimol, Cohen, Levy, Pinto and Wahnon.

But, according to Rafael Benoliel, a descendant of a prominent Jewish family which immigrated to the island of Boa Vista from Rabat, Morocco, little more than names, cemeteries and memories remain.

TAPE: CUT 1 BENOLIEL [Portuguese] :15

"I don't think there are many practicing Jews left today among the descendants. There is no Jewish life per se in Cape Verde. There is no Synagogue, no rabbi, none of this. What exists are memories of their presence."

CC: Memories kept alive by the descendants of the dozens of families, most of whom arrived from Morocco and Gibraltar in the mid-1800's, in search of economic opportunities. Cape Verde's strategic location on the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa made it a natural commercial hub.

CC: A recent resurgence of interest in Jewish roots has led a group of descendants to seek more information about their ancestors and to rehabilitate and preserve the small cemeteries. We know from the Hebrew and Portuguese etchings on the tombstones that the majority of Jews were males from the Moroccan cities of Tangiers, Rabat, and Mogador (now called Essaouira.) They landed primarily in the islands of Santo Antao, Sao Vicente, Sao Tiago, Sao Nicolau and Boa Vista where they successfully engaged in all types of commerce and shipping. Some served as administrators for the colonial Portuguese. According to Nuno Wahnon, a young descendant of the well-known Wahnon family, the Jewish presence in Cape Verde is simply a continuation of a historical migratory trend among Sephardic Jews since the time of the Inquisition.

TAPE: CUT 2 WAHNON [Portuguese] :29

"The fact that they went to Cape Verde is nothing extraordinary. Let's remember that they are descendants of Jews who came from Portugal, who came from Spain, and from other countries. Then, they went to Morocco, to Gibraltar to Holland and many ended up in Cape Verde. In this respect, I am very proud that they went there and in the end, they constitute an integral part of the history of Cape Verde."

CC: If Jews constitute a central part of Cape Verdean history, then they certainly are inextricably linked to Morocco, where they have lived for almost 2000 years.

TAPE: MOROCCAN MUSIC INTERLUDE AND UNDER :15

CC: As far back as the year 70, Jews settled in the Atlas Mountains and lived side by side with the indigenous Berber population. Then, in 1492, Morocco received Spanish and Portuguese Jews fleeing the Inquisition. Even though these Jews lived in relative peace and harmony with their Muslim brethren, by the mid-19th century deteriorating economic conditions in Morocco prompted some to emigrate to places like Cape Verde and Brazil.

TAPE: MUSICAL INTERLUDE MOROCCAN/CAPE VERDE CROSS-FADE MIX :30

CC: Gardenia Benros, who now lives in Boston, Massachusetts, is a popular Cape Verdean vocalist of Moroccan Jewish ancestry. Her paternal forebears hailed from Tangiers and settled in the island of Santo Antao. In addition to Coladera, Morna and Funana---the rhythms of her native Cape Verde---Gardenia has also paid homage to her Jewish roots by singing in Ladino, the language spoken by the Jews of Spain.

CC: Gardenia's cousin, Pedro Benros, lives in

Lisbon, Portugal where most of the descendants of Cape Verdean Jewish families reside. //OPT//Pedro is a representative of AMICAEL (The Friends of Cape Verde and Israel), a Cape Verdean-based group of descendants who have spearheaded a drive to rehabilitate the dilapidated cemeteries and document the history of their forebears.//END OPT// He explains that the Jews' arrival in Cape Verde coincided with British settlement there in the early 19th century.

TAPE: CUT 3 BENROS [Portuguese] :30

"It was at the beginning of the 19th century that the English established themselves in Cape Verde, primarily in the island of Sao Vicente, where they contributed to the construction of the port. At the same time the English arrived in Cape Verde, so did the Moroccan Jews. Curiously, many of the Jews held British citizenship, especially those that came from Morocco via Gibraltar."

CC: The Jews lived, worked and prospered in Cape Verde. However, because their numbers were few, relative to the larger Catholic population, widespread intermarriage occurred, diluting their affiliation with Jewish customs and rituals. Or, as Nuno Wahnon put it succinctly, "the names remained but the rituals disappeared."

TAPE: CUT 4 WAHNON [Portuguese]:04

"Os nomes ficaram, mas a practica foi-se."

CC: //OPT// Indeed, a former minister of culture, Ondina Ferreira once told me that the Jews of Cape Verde assimilated to such an extent that it was difficult to tell where their Jewishness left off and their "Cape Verdianess" began. //END OPT//

CC: Those descendants who recalled seeing their ancestors practice Jewish customs, said they normally did so in private. Abrao Levy Lima, a Lisbon-based artist, remembers his mother Preciosa Levy Bentub.

TAPE: CUT 5 LEVY [Portuguese] :14

"The religious rituals were always practiced in private. They took place inside the house because in most of the families, generally only one of the spouses was Jewish, the other one wasn't. As a result, there was great respect for the differences. I remember this distinctly."

cc: Julieta Brigham has a similar recollection of her grandfather, Abrao Brigham. A native of Mogador, Morocco. Abrao was a prominent merchant in Santo Antao. Julieta confirms that her grandfather who married a non-Jew, was religious, but tolerant.

TAPE: CUT 6 BRIGHAM [Portuguese]:20

"My grandfather did not oppose the fact that his children and grandchildren practiced the Catholic religion, but he always maintained his Jewish faith. He practiced all the Jewish rituals in his house. And when he traveled to Lisbon, he attended Synagogue."

CC: Another reason why few offspring adopted Jewish customs is because according to Jewish tradition, religion is passed through the mother. And there were far fewer Jewish females than males. Nevertheless, apparently few of the spouses actively encouraged their sons and daughters to adopt Christianity. According to many descendants, few children of the mixed marriages were even baptized.

CC: Raquel Alice Wahnon Cohen is a descendant of the Benoliel family. In an interview in Lisbon, she told me that her family in particular and the Jews in general were

widely respected in the archipelago.

TAPE: CUT 7 WAHNON COHEN [Portuguese]:28

"I think and from what I have heard, they were thought of with great affection in Cape Verde. They never felt any type of discrimination because they were Jewish.

TAPE: CRACKPOT MUSIC "ADEUS MAE MAE" AND UP: 30

They got along well with the rest of the families in Boa Vista----they got along well with everyone, so much so that many Benoliels married the Carvalhos, another dominant family in Boa Vista."

CC: This popular Cape Verdean song "Adeus Mae Mae," alludes to the drought which devastated the island of Sao Nicolau in the 1940's. It tells of a young woman seeking provisions in Sao Vicente where Rafael Benoliel's father known affectionately as Sr. Carvalhinho, has stocks of needed food and supplies.

CC: Pedro Benros explains that because the Jewish families constituted part of the educated and economically independent elite, they exerted a disproportionate influence on Cape Verde's overall development.

TAPE: CUT 7 BENROS [Portuguese] :12

"The Cohens, the Benros, the Benoliels, the Levy's, the Auday's, directly or indirectly were the pillars of Cape Verdean culture."

CC: It is widely known that David Benoliel, one of Esther and Abrao's children, literally fueled the economy of the island of Boa Vista in the early 20th century.

CC: Today, descendants of the Jewish immigrants play pivotal roles in Cape Verdean government, business and cultural affairs. Carlos Alberto Wahnon de Carvalho Veiga, who was Cape Verde's first democratically elected prime minister serving from 1991-2001, is the great-grandson of Isaac and Rachel Wahnon.

CC: Though the great majority of descendants are not practicing Jews, many expressed a deep attachment to the Jewish people through their ancestors. //opt// I asked Pedro Benros who is a devout Christian, how he identified himself in relation to his Jewish heritage.

TAPE: CUT 8 BENROS [Portuguese]

"Perhaps like King David…(laughter) whose mother was a non-Jew. I feel Jewish. I don't practice the Jewish religion. I am a Christian, but a Christian Jew, just as St. Paul was a Jew and considered himself Jewish." //END OPT//

CC: By definition Cape Verde is mixed-race nation. From its history as a slave trading post, the country endured centuries of intermingling between Portuguese colonialists and Africans. When the Jews arrived in the 19th century, they too, added to the rich cauldron of cultures. And while the original Jews of Cape Verde no longer exist, their legacy lives on through their descendants on the archipelago and abroad. The small Jewish cemeteries that dot the rocky landscape of Cape Verde are a tangible reminder of the once thriving community in a country that warmly welcomed them and to which they contributed in countless ways. For Dateline, I'm Carol Castiel.

CAPE VERDIAN MUSIC