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
History of Madeira of Allied Powers had agreed on Madeira because it was isolated in the Atlantic and easily guarded. Portugal in World War II was neutral and become non-belligerent in 1943,Salazar's decision to stick with the oldest alliance in the world, cemented by the Treaty of Windsor (1386) between Portugal and England, which is still in force today, meant that the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance allowed Madeira to help the refugees in humanitary work and in July 1940 around 2,000 Gibraltarian Evacuees were shipped to Madeira, this was due to the high risk of Gibraltar being attacked by either Spain or Germany. The Germans