Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/Week 8, 2009

From about 1590 on there has been a Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg, whose qehilla קהילה existed until its compulsory merger with the Ashkenazi congregation in July 1939. The first Sephardic settlers were Portuguese Marranos, who had fled from their own country under Philip II and Philip III, at first concealing their religion in their new place of residence.

In 1603 the aldermen ("Bürgerschaft") made complaints to the senate (city government) about the growing influx of Portuguese Jews. The senate asked the Lutheran theological faculties of Jena and Frankfort-on-the-Oder for their opinions in the matter, and in 1612, after many negotiations, it was agreed that, in consideration of a payment made for their protection, the Jews should be tolerated in the town as strangers, though they were not to be allowed to practise their religion publicly. This practice was not new in the city's policy, because also Reformed Dutch merchants and Anglican Britons (Merchant Adventurers of London) had negotiated similar toleration agreements with the senate. Thus the senate argued towards the aldermen, that the Sephardim were just another group of foreign merchants enhancing Hamburg's international commercial relations, emphasising their Portuguese nationality.