ABSTRACT
There was never much love lost between Portuguese and High German Jews. The Jewish congregation established at the start of the seventeenth century was intended only for Conversos, members of the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish nation. They were called the first modern Jews, as they had become fully integrated into Spanish and Portuguese society. They included successful merchants and scholars, many of whom had completed their studies at universities in Spain and Portugal and so were well aware of the latest developments in European culture. Such was their Spanish pride and sense of superiority that they looked with astonishment at the growing influx into Amsterdam of immigrants, ghetto Jews, from the German territories, central Europe and Poland, searching for new opportunities and fleeing pogroms and economic crises.
