The Nação Rules: A Comparative Analysis of the Bylaws of Western Sephardic Congregations in the Early Modern Atlantic

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article provides an unprecedented and very useful overview of the recent bibliography on the Western Sephardic diaspora, showing its different tendencies. Its contribution (beyond this welcome historiographical analysis) consists of highlighting categories based on the way in which the different communities defined themselves in relation to their surroundings, showing the existence of conservative communities, while others were more permissive. These categories might help specialists in better understanding other dimensions of those comunities' history.

Author Response

I would like to thank you for your positive assessment of my article and your appreciation of its strengths.

Reviewer 2 Report

The article analyzes and compares concepts of a shared community (Nação, i.e. nation) as expressed in the regulations of Jewish communities of Iberian origin throughout the Atlantic and its surroundings – both in Western Europe and in the Americas. Through this comparison, the article demonstrates the diversity in the nature of this concept in different communities and time periods, a result of differing local conditions and dynamics.

The article is well-written and the topic is introduced in a compelling manner, with sufficient background given for non-specialists to follow the arguments. Many of the themes examined in the article are of relevance to the broader fields of Jewish and Religious studies. The article presents an important test-case for examining identity, borders and relations with others among Early Modern Jewish communities and should be published. Below are some suggestions for revisions:

It should be stated more clearly (for the benefit of non-specialists) which of the topics and conclusions addressed have been discussed in past scholarship and which are being discussed for the first time.

Maybe some words can be said about the dynamics between the “Portuguese Nation” and the “Spanish Nation”, and between them and Christians without Jewish ancestry originally from Portugal and Spain living abroad.

Bechara ve Shalom on p. 10 should probably be Beracha ve Shalom

Author Response

I would like to thank you for taking the time to review my article and for your suggestions.

As suggested, I tried to emphasise more clearly the new topics and ideas addressed by the article and also to state more precisely those that have been already discussed by other authors.

Your suggestion to develop the "dynamics between the “Portuguese Nation” and the “Spanish Nation”, and between them and Christians without Jewish ancestry originally from Portugal and Spain living abroad" is very interesting. Unfortunately, I have no new research data to develop this question, and the deadline for revising the text (5 days) was too short to explore new bibliography and primary sources to search on this topic. However, I appreciated the suggestion, and I will keep an eye on this issue in future works.

Thank you for noticing the typo in the Beracha ve Shalom's name. 

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper provides for an interesting read as well as information about Western Sephardic communities and their identity(ies) that is not that well known.

It is not that clear, however what the exact contribution is that the paper is. This could be highlighted and accentuated. It seems to lie on the level of the complexity and fluidity of the Nação concept in these communities.

A question that relates to the above would be: How does the description of their identity(ies) fit into existing theories of identity, such as social identity theory (SIT), or even better, social identity complexity theory (SICT)? The author is advised to situate this study in respect of these theories in order to describe the concept of Nação in these communities more accurately.

While the English is generally of a good standard, there are some minor formatting inconsistencies in the document such as extra spaces.

There is not always consistency in providing short descriptions of non-English concepts, e.g., mihag (p. 6) should be defined at its first occurrence (p. 3), not its second occurrence, misvah (p. 11) should be defined, Dotar (p. 11) should be defined, minyan and kehila (p. 12) should be defined.

Author Response

I would like to thank you very much for taking the time to review my article and for your comments and suggestions.

Your suggestion to frame my main research question into the social identity complexity theory was particularly helpful in giving it more accuracy and highlighting the most relevant contributions of the article.

I corrected the inconsistencies in the concepts' descriptions that you noted, as well as the extra spaces. Thank you for your careful review of these details.

Reviewer 4 Report

I commend you for the exemplary scholarship. 

The article is a tour de force in terms of resourceful archival research, exacting attention to the pertinent secondary literature, and its acute analysis. 

Author Response

I would like to thank you for the very positive evaluation of my article. Your words were very encouraging.