The history of the Jewish Community in Belmonte, Portugal dates back to the 12th century and consists of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who kept their faith alive through the practice of Crypto-Judaism. The Sephardic tradition of Crypto-Judaism is unique and represented a hub of resistance against European Anti-Semitism. Belmonte Marranos The Marranoes are also referred to as ‘Belmonte Jews’, or ‘Conversos’. They are the Jewish community in Belmonte that have survived in secrecy for hundreds of years. The community was forced under King Manuel I to convert to Catholicism in 1490. Otherwise, they would face exile. They kept their faith alive through a tradition of Crypto-Judaism and endogamy. Traditions were kept alive by unique candlelight ceremonies, Sabbath candles submerged in clay jars, and sausages constructed out of flour and chicken. They were hung on their windows to prevent arousing suspicion from local authorities. The secret community was discovered in 1917 by a Polish Jewish mining engineer named Samuel Schwartz. Schwartz first arrived in Belmonte at the beginning of the breakout of World War I. He had just married his wife, Agatha Barbasch, in April 1914, in Odessa. As a result of the war, locating work in Western Europe was nearly impossible. They decided to move to Lisbon, Portugal in 1915. He began working at the tungsten and tin mines of Vilar Formoso and Belmonte, in the Trás-Os-Montes region. It was here that he discovered forgotten Jewish communities in Belmonte. More specifically, the ‘Crypto-Jews’ or 'Marranos' whose public identity was Christian, and worshiped in the hub of their homes. He found a Stele with Hebrew inscriptions. He recognised it belonged to the early synagogue to the Jewish community in Belmonte. A Christian merchant in the mining field warned him not to investigate further, as people in the community had a divide labeling people as either “Jews” or “Christians”, he claimed: “It is enough for me to tell you he is a Jew.” He soon after met Baltasar Pereira de Sousa, who introduced Schwartz to the Marrano families in Belmonte; who were under the belief he was Jewish. After eight years of research, investigating their livelihoods and intimate, secret religion, he published his book: “The New Christians in Portugal in the 20th Century,” in 1925. It was this novel that made the world aware of the existence of the Jewish community in Belmonte. Schwartz died in Lisbon in 1953. They officially gained