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Archiver > AZORES > 1999-09 > 0936368378


From: "Theresa Entin" <>
Subject: [AZORES-L] Rodrigo Rodrigues, Terceira genealogy, Jewish Synagogue
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 10:19:38 -0400


Dear List members,

For those of us who are doing Terceira genealogy a 14 vol. set of books is
to be pubished soon. To those of you who have the Rodrigo Rodrigues book
one of the people who helped with the book was Dr. Bruno Tavares Carreiro
of Ponta Delgada. I had the pleasure of meeting him, his son-in-law, and
his lovely daughter D. Teresa.

D. Teresa's husband and his friend have been working on the genealogy of
Terceira for many years. Her husband has been doing this since he was 14
years old. The books are just about ready to be published.

Dr. Carreiro's son in law is the caretaker of Jewish cemetery and the
remaining synagogue in Ponta Delgada. My husband, who is Jewish and I
visited the synagogue with this family. The synagogue was used up until
1960 by 30 Jewish families remaining in S. Miguel. It is now in shambles
and in danger of having the roof cave in. The five torahs have been sent to
the Temple in Lisbon for safe keeping. Such a pity. The family is very
protective of the location of this place. My husband promised them that he
would help raise money to restore this holy place.

My husband has been in contact with people who are interested in restoring
the temple. There is interest here in Southeastern New England and a
committee had already been formed to do this. I wonder if there is any
interest on the west coast for this? They have raised some money. Although,
they have not been active for awhile because of the floods and such in S.
Miguel. Hopefully, this temple can be restored as a museum. To those of us
who are connected by heritage to these islands, we should try to support
these efforts.

Also, while we were in Belmonte, the home of the Velhos, we visited the
synagogue there. The town is quite small and has as its history, that the
Jews were located in the 1400's in a small area of this village. They were
expelled or made to convert during this time. (This was probably done by
relatives of mine. The circle has been completed now.)

They are quite secretive and we were only allowed in when I told them that
my husband was Jewish. The new temple is built on the area where the
original temple was located. The original corner stone has the date of 1200
and something. They have 200 members and are able to support this temple.
On Friday nights they hold services.

Quite a difference from the one in the Azores. I await your thoughts on
this.
Ate logo, Theresa
PS Thanks again Eloise. Does anyone know when the next book of Rodrigo is
going to be published?



>Theresa: Sorry, I cannot help you. Afonso Velho is only mentioned once in
>Saudades. This is what Frutuoso wrote (translated)..."Maria Esteves, dgtr
of
>Afonso Velhos, an important man of the Velho family (2)...." That footnote
>reads, "Afonso Velho, an important man of the Velho family" was added by
>Frutuoso in his own stingy handwriting. In other words, he added that line
>and said no more about Afonso Velho. I looked in other books but found
>nothing. I think we will have to wait for the Velho chapter in the
Rodrigues
>book. Most of this early stuff that the genealogists have for Sao Miguel
and
>Santa Maria comes from Frutuoso. But if one looks at these lines of
>genealogy in _Saudade_ one sees footnotes, correcting the many errors in
>names or lines. And the one who corrected this information was none other
>than our Rodrigo Rodrigues. And quite possibly he found more information
on
>your Afonso Rodriguse which will be in the Velho chapter.
>
>Let's see if someone out there already has this information.
>
>Eloise
>

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