Donmeh

Donmeh (d?nme) is a Turkish word for a religious convert. It refers to a group of Jews of the Near East who followed Sabbatai Zevi (also called Shabbatai Zvi) and converted to Islam in 1666. Zevi's conversion is generally understood to have been forced.

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While outwardly Muslim, the Donmeh secretly remained Jews, and continued to practice Jewish rituals covertly. They worshipped Sabbatai Zevi as the Messiah and an incarnation of God, observe certain Jewish rituals and pray in Hebrew and Aramaic and secretly celebrate Jewish festivals and fasts. They also observe rituals celebrating Zevi. They interpreted Zevi's conversion in a Kabbalistic way. Zevi had to rescue the bits of God spread among religions by converting to different confessions.

Turkish: redirect Turk...

Religious convert: REDIRECT Religious conversion...

Jew: The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes....