A Crypto-Jewish Community in Early Modern Malta (1602-1612)

Sarah Azzopardi-Ljubibratic is a Swiss Ph.D. candidate at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), affiliated to the Institute for ‘Religions, Cultures and Modernity’. She is currently being hosted by the Department of History of the University of Malta, having been awarded the ‘Doc.Mobility programme’ of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SFN) to complete her Ph.D. dissertation. Her thesis investigates the process of conversion of the Jews through the Inquisition with a particular focus on the Roman Inquisition in Malta. The purpose is to throw a new highlight on the concept of marranism. Her research interests are mainly focused on concepts and methods in the study of religion and Jewish history in a Mediterranean Context. Prior to her research stay in Malta, she held a post at the College of Religious Studies as a Student Advisor (2010-2015) and Qualified Assistant (2005-2010) at the Inter-Faculty Department of History of Religions within the University of Lausanne. She graduated at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lausanne in 2005, with a Major in the History of Religions

Synopsis

Sponsored by the Alfred Mizzi Foundation. This public lecture will investigate an aspect of Jewish history through the lens of Marranism, also called Crypto-Judaism. In fact, inquisitorial procedures from 1602 to 1612, the documents for which are today held at the Cathedral Archives at Mdina, show the existence of an embryonic community of Judaising neophytes in the Maltese archipelago. By presenting the characteristics of their religious practices, this lecture will point out some features of their double identity: externally Christian, but internally Jewish. Moreover, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, early modern Malta was a place where Jews, neophytes and conversos were in contact with each other, under the supervision of the Roman Inquisition. This framework makes it possible to identify different conversion-careers which show fluctuating degrees of hidden practices and give the opportunity to widen the concept of Marranism.

Speaker: Sarah Azzopardi-Ljubibratic