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Early Barzilays
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History
The Barzilay's spring from the so called "Sephardim" (deduced from the biblical name for Spain: Sepharad); these are Jews who originate from Spain and Portugal. From the third century B.C. on there have been living a lot of Jews in Spain in the "Diaspora", mostly because they were tired of the political disturbances in Canaan.
Banishment from Spain
In 1492 all Jews were banished from Spain; one of the most radical occurrences in the history of the Jews. Although there had been a large massacre among the Jews in Spain in 1391, Spain was the very last Christian country where large groups of Jews lived. Probably there lived about 200,000 Jews in relative prosperity. Many of them even belonged to the elite of the population like physicians, administrators, businessmen, etc. However, on March 30th, 1492 a decree of banishment was enacted towards them and before or on the 31st of July they all had either accepted the baptism or had been banished.
Flight to Portugal
The main part, at estimate more than 100,000, fled to Portugal which
was by far the easiest way. That wasn't a wise decision, because five
years later all Jews in Portugal were baptised under pressure of Spain
or burnt. Scenes of horrible violence took place. Many Jews indeed chose
to be baptised instead of being killed or banished. These 'new Christians'
were scornfully called "marrano's" (pigs). Secretly most of
them kept the Jewish identity as well, but whenever possible they emigrated
to 'safer' countries.
Ghetto in Venice
 Ghetto in Venice (wood engraving by Jacopo De Barbari, 1500 AD) |
A few Jewish exiles, including probably our ancestors, were taken in by Italy, although it wasn't very safe there. Large parts of Italy came under Spanish government and in North-Italy there was great enmity against Jews influenced by the Contra-Reformation. One of the biggest centres of Jews was Venice. In 1516 the Jews were sheltered here for the first time in a separate district on the island Lunga Spina, where they weren't allowed to leave during the night; completely closed off by a wall with entrance gates: i.e. a 'ghetto'. The word 'ghetto' probably comes from Venice. In Venice even arose two ghettos, which quickly grew overpopulated. There was a fundamental lack of hygiene. Halfway through the seventeenth century there were already living 5,000 people together in the largest ghetto. It happened regularly that the ruler prohibited enlargement of the ghetto, even when the population began growing, so that the Jews were forced to build floors on the existing houses. Therefore often houses collapsed. All these things do not alter the fact that there was a wealthy Jewish communion. Many of the inhabitants had an active life of money lending, because they were not eligible for other jobs because of unfair competition of the Christians. The musical life was on a high level. The Venetian ghetto accommodated the best academy of music in Italy! At this moment there is no other European city than Venice where so many Jewish monuments can be found.
Most of the Jews however went to non-Christian countries as Morocco en Tunisia where they had nothing to fear from the Islam. But soon they were oppressed there as well and they became part of the poorest proletariat.
Flight to the north
on the other hand, a lot of "marrano's" went with their cloak
of Christianity to more tolerant Christian centres such as Amsterdam,
Antwerp, London and Hamburg. Based on the fact that at least in the seventeenth
century there were already Barzilay's living in this area, there must
have been people among them with that name. Perhaps there was a discord
in the family: some refused to get baptised and went to Italy, others
were baptised instead and went to Holland.
 The Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue, also known as Snoge |
After some time they laid off their cloak of Christianity and they were free to confess the Jewish religion. Especially in The Netherlands they were given a lot of freedom of religion. The Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam became a close community and in 1675 the synagogue of the Portuguese Israeli Communion (Kehilla) was consecrated. This synagogue at the Mr. Visser Square which is still in use nowadays is one of the most important monuments of Amsterdam. In that time about ten percent of the population of Amsterdam were Portuguese Jews, or as they were called "marranes".
The Portuguese Jews were extraordinary assertive and considered the German and Polish Jews with superiority and disdain. They felt highly distinguished. But during the eighteenth century the German and Polish Jews came to great prosperity due to their decisiveness and the Portuguese Jews fell back. There always remained envy between both groups. They called each other names, like "Vrotte Tedesco's" and "Mesjoggene Portugiezen". The latter often was true, because there was a lot of inbreeding amongst Portuguese Jews. As a matter of fact it was obvious that a marranish boy should marry a marranish girl. Because of the many years of inbreeding there appeared sometimes very talented, but more often also eccentric, somewhat mad, silly (mesjogge) characters among the Portuguese Jews ...