The history of the Jewish community in Cape Verde is linked to the Portuguese Inquisition and slavery. Funerary monument: a pure and just man who has gone in his purity, modesty and virtue. He still lives by his gifts. With his funding he sought justice. He strengthened the funeral society group. The wise and important Mordechai Auday who went away on the 2nd day of the month of Tevet 5761 of Creation. May his soul be linked to life. ”
– Translation of Israelite inscription on a tombstone in Cape Verde
Since the 1460s, when the Portuguese discovered the fourteen islands located 450 kilometers from the coast of West Africa, they used the archipelago as a refueling station for New World explorers, as a stop-over terminal for slavers where they could also refuel and “dispose” weak slaves, and as an outpost for Jews whom the Inquisition sought to convert to Catholicism on pain of death.
The Jews of Cape Verde
