Did many Jews convert to be Anabaptists (Amish) during the spanish Inquisition?

Question

Did many Jews convert to anabaptists (amish) during the spanish inquisition?

During the Jewish disphoria period of around the 14-1500, Jews were concentrated in the exact spots the Anabaptist movement was kicking off in. The Spanish Inquisition persecuted both groups harshly,

Today, both groups speak virtually the same ANCIENT language (Yiddish/Pen Dutch), They have the same modesty laws, the star of David is kin to the Amish barnstar, the amish and ultra orthodox have many alike customes... Raising the chairs at the wedding, after dinner blessing, shunning, the use of old testament names for children. Not to mention MANY amish last names are shared with the Jews.

DNA testing on the Amish and the Jews show that they are coming up with the same rare Halpogroups. Also, they almost exclusively share a couple odd genetic diseases.

It would seem that from what I just typed, that I have it all figured out. Here's the deal....

I can't come up with any record, or anything from the Spanish Inquisition confirming that the Mennonites and Anabaptists were made up of Jewish converts. Any help is much appreciated!


Additional Details

This is a repost of a question of mine that was messed up in the process of editing...

I have been asked to provide a couple links before my question went all haywire... Here they are.

Mennonite Israel:
http://www.mennoniteisrael.org/images/pd…

Discription of the areas, prophecy, and history both the Jews and Amish apart of at the EXACT same time... even gives a book that has a chapter on the Amish being one of the lost tribes:
http://www.mennoniteisrael.org/origin.cf…

A forum with some interesting takes on the subject:
http://www.rebeccaellenkurtz.com/wordpre…

Diseases:
https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/hand…

There's a wealth of info out there, but no where does anyone in any historical document (that I've found) just come out and say "yeah, the Jews were converting". Converting was HIGHLY incouraged during the inquisition, so it'd make sense... even though they were both treated like animals towards the end.

And it isn't like the inquisition wasn't documented. It's even documented that Jesuits were sent to infiltrate the Anabaptists, but no word on who these people were before conversion I.E Jews.

Answer 1

Sorry --

your theory is not rational



The only time a Jew would come under the authority of the Inquisition was AFTER he converted to some form of Christianity.



Jews who never converted were never tortured by Inquisitors -- they were exiled from Spain under the edict of 1492 (and a similar edict a few years later in Portugal)



Those Jews who wanted to remain converted to Catholicism and tried their best to hide their "Judizing Heressy".



Why would anyone in their right mind convert expressly to another heressy?



Regarding Language --



Yidish (Judeo-German) comes from a thoroughly different dialect of German than that of the Amish -- and it is spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews -- a group that was never in the Iberian peninsula.

The Jews who had been subject to the inquisition speak Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)

Answer 2

Many Jews did conveert to Christianity, but it would have ben Roman Catholicism, since the Inquisition was Roman Catholic.



I don't know the history of the Amish, but very few Protestant Christians were in the Americas in the early days of European colonisation - even fewer in North America, and anyway I thought the Amish sect was not established until sometime in the 1800s. So whatever the DNA record shows, Jews persued by the Spanish Inquisition could not have directly become Amish.



Do check the date of foundation of the Amish sect.

Answer 3

First, all true Amish and Mennonites are Anabaptist; not all Anabaptists are Amish or Mennonite. I consider myself, by definition, Anabaptist because of both my Anabaptist ancestry and my beliefs, but I'm neither Amish nor Mennonite. Poor question. Somebody needs further study.

Answer 4

I am of Anabaptist heritage. My family is from the Emmental in Switzerland, an area also populated by Jews. My last name is derived from Yiddish and is almost certainly a surname taken to indicate tribal origins, as it indictes an animal that represents Naphtali. Theologically speaking (if nothing else) there seem to be interesting overlaps between Jewish and Anabaptist communities. It would seem that the Rabbis may have had some influence in the ongoing discussions taking place in hiding places of history.



I add this excerpt taken from an academic article on Jewish influences on Anabaptists :

On April 13, 1527 in the city of Worms, Ludwig Hatzer, assisted by Hans Denck, published the first translation of the Old Testament Prophets from Hebrew into German, popularly titled the Worms Prophets. (2) Martin Luther criticized the translation as being overly influenced by the Jews. ...(a quote from Luther) "It has been carefully done and approaches my German very closely. But Jews had a hand in it, and they do not show much reverence for Christ. Apart from that there is plenty of skill and craftsmanship there." (4) Evidently as Luther worked on the Prophets with the Worms translation in hand he became more impressed with the Hebrew translation skills of Hatzer and Denck, but at the same time less enamored of the translation itself because of its perceived Jewish influence.



As for the surnames, you are right about the overlap.... many among Anabaptist bloodlines have been DNA tested, I can confirm, and have been found to have certifiable Jewish descent seen in their DNA.



https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-202919653/the-anabaptists-and-the-jews-the-case-of-hatzer

Answer 5

Yiddish started out as a dialect of Bavarian, with a lot of Hebrew words mixed in. Then it acquired Slavic words in Eastern Europe. Yiddish speakers are Ashkenazi Jews. Spanish Jews are Sephardic.



Protestants in general have always had a strong affinity for the Jewish religion. For example, the Old Testament of the Protestant Bibles are much closer to the Jewish Bible than the Catholic Bible is. Protestants have a tendency to self-identify as spiritual Israelites, often imagining themselves to be descendents of a lost tribe of Israel.

Answer 6

The Inquisition demanded conversion to Catholicism.

Anabaptist were considered heretics themselves so I fail to perceive a motivating factor which would encourage Jews to convert to another heretic religion. Perhaps you have some idea?



Did many convert?

Probably some but I wouldn't say "many" since doing so wouldn't save their lives, would it?



The Inquisition was centered primarily in Spain, Portugal (and their overseas colonies), Italy and southern France, areas which were not centers of the Anabaptist.

Answer 7

i have read and heard some information that Jews and Anabaptists got along well for the most part and some intermarriage did occur,The Anabaptists were religious ancestors to the Mennonites and Amish (most of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage); i read of the thee families do have a Jewish ancestral origin.

Answer 8

From studying my mother's ancestry along with religiuos history, I believe the anabaptist, protestants, lutherans, calvinists, quakers, mennonites, baptist brethren, moravians etc, were a mix of gentiles and crypto jews. The crypto Jews were reformed hundreds of years before the reformation. They were Jews who believed in Jesus, went into hiding for fear of persecution of rabbis and the pope. Calvin, Luther, and other reformed leaders got their ideas from these crypto Jews, gathered them together along gentiles whom many descended from Davidic ancestors and they came here.

Answer 9

The Inquisition was persecution by Catholics where many were forced to become Catholic or leave Spain to stay alive. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/expulsion.html