Steven Nadler

There is no reason to believe that any of the marranos in the United Provinces showed their true Jewish colors until around 1603, and then they did so slowly and cautiously.

Thus, by 1614, the year the Portuguese Jewish community was finally able to purchase some land close to Amsterdam – in Ouderkerk – to serve as a burial ground, there were two well-attended congregations.

The council also demanded that the Jews keep to a strict observance of their orthodoxy, adhering scrupulously to the Law of Moses and never tolerating deviations from thebelief that there is “an omnipotent God the creator . . . [and] that Moses and the prophets revealed the truth under divine inspiration, and that there is another life after death in which good people will receive their recompense and wicked people their punishment.”