The Dotar (Provision of Dowries for Poor Brides) Confraternity of Izmir

This dotar, officially called the Santa Companhia de Dotar Orphas e Donzellas (Holy Company of Orphan and Young Daughters’ Dowries), was founded in Amsterdam in 1615, coming two years after a similar dowry society had been established in Venice. The Amsterdam society drew on the statutes of the Venetian society and was also influenced by the traditions of Catholic Iberian dowry societies. The dotar’s main purpose was to provide dowries for unmarried converso women, encouraging them to return to Judaism and to marry Jews. Its activities reached far beyond the city of Amsterdam and into the diaspora of New Christians. An influx of Spanish Portuguese refugees arrived in the port city of Smyrna (modern-day Izmir), western Anatolia, during the sixteenth century. The Portuguese community in Izmir maintained close connections with other Portuguese communities throughout Europe and similarly established a dotar. Its record book, written in Ladino, contains the regulations for the society as well as the names of those who served it from 1644 until 1749.