History of the Jews in Madeira History of the Jews in Madeira History of the Jews in Madeira spans the entire length of the history of Madeira itself, from Crypto-Jews to World War II evacuees. Like the Jews of mainland Portugal, Madeira jews are mainly related to Sephardi history, a Jewish ethnic division that represents communities who have originated in the Iberian Peninsula. There was once a Synagogue of Funchal, which is now disused. Menasseh Ben Israel was born in Madeira in 1604. Jews from Morocco arrived in 1819 and set themselves up in the cloth and wine trades. The Abudarham family from Gibraltar were involved
Boundaries between the continents of Earth point, Morocco and the European portion of Spain are separated by only . The Portuguese Atlantic island possession of the Azores is from Europe and from Africa, and is usually grouped with Europe if grouped with any continent. By contrast, the Canary and Madeira islands (including the Desertas Islands and the Savage Islands) off the Atlantic coast of Morocco are much closer to, and usually grouped with, Africa (the Canary Islands are only from the African coast at their closest point, while Madeira is from Africa and from Europe). The Mediterranean island nation of Malta is approximately from the coast