Une minorité et son guide spirituel : la communauté séfarade de Londres et le rabbin David Nieto (1701-1728)

• Main Author: Sarah Mimran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2012-10-01
• Series: Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/671

After they fled the persecutions of the Inquisition and escaped its awesome chase, the Sephardic Jews found in London a haven of relative tolerance and the promise of new prospects. They actively organised themselves and, in 1701, the community inaugurated the admirable Bevis Marks Synagogue and installed David Nieto in his post of rabbi of the congregation. Under the influence of this multi-skilled and brilliant spiritual guide, a period of development –which some describe as a Golden Age- began, its social and economic growth including solidarity, charity and education. Yet the challenges remained numerous and the rabbi was mainly confronted with the burning issue of this particular Jewish minority’s spiritual identity: the members of the community actually brought with them an unsettling “prehistory” since they mostly came from Crypto-Jewish families, who had adopted the Catholic religion in times of difficulties, without however getting rid of their membership to Judaism –which they had permanently practised in secret.