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In 1709 the Amsterdam Portuguese Jewish Community sent some 100 people, often with
their families on their way throughout the Sephardic Diaspora. This was done to help people
reach their desired destination, but often enough to prevent them from becoming a burden
on the funds for poor relief, which were large but not inexhaustible.
Since Sephardic Jews were only sent to places with a viable Sephardic community, the list is
somewhat indicative of what the Sephardic Diaspora looked like from the Amsterdam
perspective. Since this is a list for only one year, its use for statistical purposes is a bit
limited. For truly representative statistics see Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld, Poverty and Welfare
among the Portuguese Jews in Early Modern Amsterdam. Littman Library.
Some observations here: many (mostly men, some women, some widows) were sent to
England and Italy, much less to Dutch and English colonies, some to Hamburg and only a
few to North Africa and the Middle East.
I choose this list because it is the first that includes destination Gibraltar. Not one, but four
persons choose to live in Gibraltar. One wonders if maybe there was a coordinated effort to
establish Jews in Gibraltar? What do London sources have to say about this?
No one was sent to Eastern Europe, apparently, the Amsterdam Mahamad did not see any
viable Sephardic communities there.
Please note that such lists - not all as informative as this one - can be found in the archives
of the Amsterdam Portuguese Jewish community for many years, from 1615 to 1815.