OrTorah: "My big fat Amaraic Wedding"

OrTorah » Forums » Judaism and Jews: Comprehension of the future from the b"H yet non-Past Tradition of the Truth, right today » "My big fat Amaraic Wedding"

"My big fat Amaraic Wedding" by EduPlanet Rectorate (daniEl I. Ginerman) - Wednesday, 23 November 2005, 12:11 AM

"My big fat Amaraic Wedding" by Jay Bushinsky International Jerusalem Post April 29 - May 5, 2005 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HaTsafon There is no better proof of modern Aramaic's vitality than the spectacular weddings held by the Jewish "Nash Didan" community, which hails from the remote foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. "Nash Didan" means "Our People" and its distinctive music and dance have been immortalized by Nissan Aviv, a brilliant composer and orchestrator who arrived in Israel 55 years ago during the peak of the "Nash Didan" immigration, and has devoted his life to preserving and continuing this culture ever since. Soon after the late Naomi Shemer's Yerushalayim Shel Zahav ("Jerusalem of Gold") became a hit on the eve of the Six Day War, Aviv obtained her permission to render it in Aramaic.  Translated as Yerushalayim Ai Dheba, it is a beloved staple at "Nash Didan" weddings. Aviv was born in Urmia, an ancient city in Iranian Azerbaijan. "We spoke Aramaic at home, Turkish on the street and learned Persian at school," he said. "I knew a fair amount of Hebrew when we came to Israel because it was taught in our Jewish schools.  And partly thanks to my Aramaic, I was able to speak like a sabra in no time." Aviv's lyrics are written in modern Aramaic and his songs not only draw audiences from the various Aramaic-speaking communities in Israel - located in Holon, Givatayim and Jerusalem -- but also are played on the Aramaic (or Syriac) radio and TV stations in Australia, Canada and Sweden. "Jerusalem of Gold is as popular abroad is it is here," he said. Aviv's music is based on three instruments:  a drum known as a dair'a, a five-stringed instrument plucked like a balalaika or mandolin known as a kar kavkazi and a Central Asian version of the cello known as a kamanncha. Aviv has won the unstinting acclaim of one of Israel's leading experts in cognate Semitic languages, Hezy Mutzafi, who speaks half a dozen of the Aramaic and Syriac dialects fluently.  Noting that the "Nash Didan" community consists of "only a few thousand" Israelis (its members constitute a relatively small percentage of an influx of nearly 200,000 immigrants from Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus), Mutzafi points out that it is also one of the least known Jewish ethnic groups. "Its focus is on culture, folklore and spoken Aramaic," explained Mutzafi, referring to the latter as lishan noshan or "our language." Mutzafi singled out Aviv as one of the outstanding activits in the "Nash Didan" community, a man who has contributed mightily to its spiritual and cultural life. Privately, Aviv is rather pessimistic about what the future holds for the language and lifestyle he loves and has tried to preserve. "Our Aramaic is being forgotten," he said.  "The younger generation can understand it, but cannot speak and in time, this too will be lost." One project that gives Aviv hope is the Tel Aviv University's development of an Aramaic dictionary. "The trouble is that the project is enormous and the funding available for it is miniscule," he said. Reply See this post in context

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OrTorah: "Other" Jewish Languages

OrTorah » Forums » Judaism and Jews: Comprehension of the future from the b"H yet non-Past Tradition of the Truth, right today » "Other" Jewish Languages

"Other" Jewish Languages by EduPlanet Rectorate (daniEl I. Ginerman) - Wednesday, 23 November 2005, 12:06 AM

www.myjewishlearning.com/xcommon/Hot_Topics/primers_index.htm For most of their history, Jews have been multilingual. Hebrew is the language of the Bible, the principal language of Jewish liturgy, and the language spoken in modern Israel--but it has been the primary language of only a small percentage of Jews who have ever lived. The geographical diversity of the Jewish people accounts for its multilingualism. Jews have adopted the various languages of their homelands and also spoken numerous Jewish hybrid languages. By the beginning of the Common Era, Aramaic had replaced Hebrew as the spoken language of Palestinian Jews. The causes of Hebrew's decline are not wholly understood, but it was certainly hastened by the Babylonian exile in 587 B.C.E. and the continued foreign rule of Palestine during the Second Temple period. Aramaic, like Hebrew, is a Semitic language, and there are many similarities between the two. Because of Aramaic's prominence during the rabbinic era, it is arguably the second most important Jewish language--though it was spoken by non-Jews as well. The Talmud is written in Aramaic, as is the Zohar, the great medieval mystical text. One of the most well known Jewish prayers, the kaddish, also is written in Aramaic. During the talmudic era, Hebrew illiteracy was so high that the Shabbat Torah reading was recited along with a verse-by-verse translation into Aramaic. Jewish hybrid languages have existed for more than two millennia. Linguists have long puzzled with little resolution over whether these tongues should be considered dialects, unique languages, or Creole languages (languages that began as pidgins--simplified forms of speech, often mixtures of two languages--and are later adopted as primary languages). During the Second Temple Period Judeo-Greek, also known as Yevanic, was spoken by Jews in the Hellenistic world. Over the years many other such hybrid languages emerged. These languages tended to adopt structural and lexical elements of the local languages, mixing them with Hebrew and Aramaic words. They were usually written in Hebrew script. The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa spoke Judeo-Arabic. As early as the eighth century, Jews of present day Iran and Afghanistan spoke Judeo-Persian. Many Jews in Italy spoke Judeo-Italian, a language featuring early South Italian elements and Hebrew characters. Most of these languages, and many other Jewish hybrid languages, are extinct or almost extinct. The two most well known Jewish hybrid languages are Judeo-Spanish -- better known as Ladino -- and Yiddish. Judeo-Spanish was spoken by the Jews of medieval Spain, as well as their descendants. It received most of its linguistic characteristics from early-medieval Spanish, but it was written in Hebrew characters. Though Ladino is its earliest documented name, the language is also known as Judezmo (which is a linguistic equivalent of Yiddish) and Spanyol. Today there are still some speakers of Judeo-Spanish in the Balkans, North Africa, and Israel. The Holocaust hastened the decline of the language; the Nazis decimated many Judeo-Spanish speaking communities--particularly in Greece and the Balkans. In many ways, Yiddish is the German equivalent of Judeo-Spanish. Yiddish is almost wholly German in its linguistic structure and vocabulary, but it is written in Hebrew characters. Yiddish originated in the Rhineland cities of Germany in the early Middle Ages, though the first recognizable Yiddish texts date from the 14th century. Over the next few centuries, Yiddish spread all over Europe, from Eastern France to the Baltics. More Jews have spoken Yiddish than any other language. Prior to the Holocaust, Yiddish-speakers accounted for 75 percent of world Jewry, but during the Holocaust, about 75 percent of the world's Yiddish speakers were killed. Today, Yiddish is spoken by fewer and fewer people, though it is still the primary spoken language of many ultra-Orthodox Jews, and there are still probably tens of thousands of Yiddish speakers in the former Soviet states. In addition, the study of Yiddish language and literature is enjoying something of a renaissance on some college campuses. And parts of the language live on in the many Yiddish words that have become part of English vernacular in America, such as nosh (which means to snack) and mentsh (a gentleman). ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> AIDS in India: A "lurking bomb." Click and help stop AIDS now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpTY2A/lzNLAA/yQLSAA/eZWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> SENDE EIT INNLEGG? -- Post a message: - Send e-post til -- Send an e-mail to:   HaTsafon@yahoogroups.com LESA TIDLEGARE INNLEGG? -- Read previous messages: - Gå til denne nettsida: -- Go to this web site:   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HaTsafon SEIE OPP MEDLEMSSKAPET? -- Unsubscribe: - Send ein e-post til: -- Send an e-mail to:   HaTsafon-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com   Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HaTsafon/ Reply See this post in context

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Cryptic, these crypto Jews

Source:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=Portugal&itemNo=646978

Cryptic, these crypto Jews

By Ruth Almog
Last Update: 18/11/2005 08:34

"Hanotzrim Hakhadashim Beportugal Be'meah Ha'esrim" ("New Christians
in Portugal in the 20th Century") by Samuel Schwarz, translated from
Portuguese and annotated by Claude B. Stuczynski, Dinur Center for
Research in Jewish History & Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History,
287 pages.

It has taken 80 years for a Hebrew translation to come out of Samuel
Schwarz's book on the Cristaos Novos ?(New Christians?), published in
Portugal in 1925, although it deals with one of the most traumatic and
unforgettable chapters in Jewish history.

It is a story whose general lines are familiar to the Israeli public:
the discovery in Portugal of the descendants of the anusim, the crypto
Jews of Iberia, who have secretly practiced Jewish customs, kept
Jewish holidays and continued to recite special prayers until today.
They live in various villages and towns in Portugal, mainly in the
northeast of the country, in Beiras and Tras-os-Montes, but can also
be found in Porto and Coimbra in western Portugal.
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This book, with a detailed, in-depth introduction by Dr. Claude B.
Stuczynski, an expert in Portuguese Jewry, is a fascinating read, but
it also strikes an emotional chord. Appended to the text is a
collection of prayers translated into Hebrew ?(a collaborative effort
of the poet Shulamit Halevy and editor Ruth Toeg?), in addition to an
extensive bibliography.

Samuel Schwarz, born in Poland in 1880, received religious instruction
at a traditional "heder" as a child, but went on to study road and
bridge engineering in Paris. At the age of 24, with a degree in mining
engineering, he worked for oil refineries in Baku, Azerbaijan, and in
coal mines in Poland, England and Spain. At 34, he married the
daughter of a Zionist banker, Shmuel Barabash of Odessa. In the wake
of World War I, they fled Russia, finally settling in Lisbon,
Portugal. Working at a tin mine in east Portugal, Schwarz discovered
the New Christians, as the converted Jews of Portugal and its colonies
?(Brazil, Goa and Capo Verde?) were called.

When the kings of Castilla decided to "cleanse" their country of Jews,
members of the Jewish community were given the choice of converting to
Christianity or expulsion. The majority left, but a few converted.
Some of the Jews crossed the border into Portugal. Others went to
Morocco, France and Italy. Many chose to settle in the Ottoman Empire.
Scarcely five years had passed before the scenario repeated itself in
Portugal, when the king sought the hand of a member of the Castillian
royal family. But in this case, the Jews were not allowed to leave.
The entire Jewish population was forcibly baptized. A handful managed
to escape.

Burned at the stake
If it is true that close to 20 percent of the population of Portugal
was Jewish at the end of the 15th century, as the scholars claim, one
gets an idea of how many of today's Portuguese citizens have Jewish
roots. Over the years, they assimilated in Christian society, except
for small pockets of Jews who continued to practice their religion in
secret. Of those who clung to Judaism, many were tried by the
Inquisition in the 16th and 17th centuries. Such trials were even held
in Brazil. The accused were burned at the stake or imprisoned in
monasteries for the rest of their lives.

Notwithstanding all the persecution, one still finds small groups who
have preserved Jewish customs and recite Jewish prayers, albeit in
Portuguese. Three holidays are observed: Yom Kippur, Passover and the
Fast of Esther. In addition, they keep the Sabbath and pray three
times a day. They have special burial customs and do not eat pork on
the Sabbath or holidays. They marry only within the community.

As Claude Stuczynski observes, quite logically, the New Christian
phenomenon was probably more of a response to prejudice than a
"positive, self-motivated embrace of Jewish identity." The New
Christians were bitterly scorned and hated in Portugal. A pogrom in
Lisbon in the 16th century left more than 2,000 of them dead.
Stuczynski writes that until the early 20th century there were
churches in the northern provinces where New Christians were forced to
sit behind partitions.

"The Awakening," a wonderful novel by Spanish author Ana Maria Matute
published in Hebrew translation many years ago, challenges
Stuczynski's conclusion. In her account of growing up in Majorca in
the 20th century, Matute writes about the despised "chuetas" −
descendants of the local crypto Jews − who were actually devout
Catholics but were still treated with disdain and shunted to the
margins of society.

Samuel Schwarz writes about the New Christians of Belmonte and how
hard it was to gain their trust. He discovered that the women were the
ones who safeguarded these traditions and knew the prayers by heart.
At communal gatherings, they served as cantors and ran the services.
"These poor women did not know Hebrew and were not even aware it
existed," he says, "so they continued to be suspicious of me. This
went on until one evening, as we tried yet again to convince the New
Christians that we were members of the Jewish people, an old woman
asked us to recite at least one prayer in 'the Jewish language you say
is spoken by the Jews.'"

Schwarz chose the Shma prayer ?("Hear O Israel?). Each time he uttered
the word "adonay" ?("the Lord"?) the women covered their eyes with
their hands. "When we finished," he writes, "the old woman turned to
those around her and announced in a tone of great authority: 'The man
is a Jew. He said adonay!'"

Living in the dark
Schwarz, it bears pointing out, was not the first person to "discover"
the New Christians, but his encounter in Belmonte inspired him to
research the phenomenon, and the publication of his book triggered a
wave of writing on the subject, some of it anti-Semitic in tone.
Schwarz breaks new ground with his findings about the wide dispersion
of New Christian communities and the collection of prayers he appends
to the book.

One of these prayers is hauntingly similar to the "Yigdal Elhohim Hai"
?("Exalted is the Living God"?) hymn recited in the morning service −
a lyrical rendition of Maimonides' "Thirteen Principles of Faith." It
is called the "Ani Ma'amin" ?("I Believe"?) prayer and appears in the
original Portuguese, followed by a Hebrew translation, as are all the
prayers in the book. The Portuguese text is not an exact translation
of the Hebrew hymn, which is believed to have been written in Italy in
the 14th century by Emmanuel Haromi, but it is very close.

One cannot help but wonder how this hymn survived. The mind boggles to
think that Maimonides' "Thirteen Principles of Faith," composed in the
12th century and chanted toward the end of the morning service on
weekdays, became part of a Portuguese prayer recited by crypto Jews
who did not even know the Hebrew language existed and refused to talk
to Schwarz because they believed that secrecy was integral to their
religion. Incredibly, Maimonides' "Thirteen Principles," or the hymn
based on it, has survived in Portuguese for 500 years − and they never
even heard of Maimonides. Which shows how cultural values can live in
dark and unknown corners for hundreds of years until one day they
burst forth into the light, virtually unchanged, despite a change of
language.

The Jews of Sicily: Jewish Names

http://dieli.net/SicilyPage/JewishSicily/JewishNames.html

The Jews of Sicily: Jewish Names posted by Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum to Saudades-Sefarad @YahooGroups

Sicilian-Americans conducting family research have some excellent published guidelines to follow. Italian Genealogical Records by Trafford R. Cole is one and Finding Italian Roots by John Philip Colleta, is another. By following their suggestions your own research approach would include documenting stateside sources such as: information from relatives, immigration and naturalization records, census records, ship manifests, passports, etc. In Sicily your research would then go to municipal and provincial records which go back as far as the 1820s, then religious records which go back as far as about 1556 and then possibly earlier records such as tax and notary records which go back several hundreds of years farther. With Ferdinand's Edict of Expulsion of 1492, all Sicilian Jews who did not want to convert to Christianity had 90 days to get out of the Spanish realm under penalty of death. The fire sale was on. The fraction of the Jewish population that were merchants, and had property, had to sell it, pay the tax that was imposed, and leave. This included the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. They all had to sell their tools and workshops, pay the taxes, and leave. Of course, all transactions had to be dutifully notarized. As a result of this painful circumstance, some fragments of notary records going back to 1492 exist in Sicilian Provincial State Archives that record the names of the Jewish sellers and the Christian buyers. Francesco Giunta and Laura Sciascia published a paper in Italia Judaica that contains their transcriptions of some of those fragments. Here's an alphabetical listing of the Jewish surnames and given names extracted from their paper:

Abadara Iesu Abrac aurifici Paxi Actuni Busacca Actuni (Attuni) Adili David Allegrottu Simone Alluxi Sabet Aluxu Salomone Anaf Aron Arnac Salamone Asunsi Vita Attuni Bestet Attuni Busacca Attuni Manuel Attuni Samuel Attuni (Actuni) Azarono Aurifice Busacca Aurifice Isacco Aurifice Leone Aurifice Sadia Aurifice (Laurifice) Abram Azarini David Azarini Iuda Azeni Aron Azeni Bracon Azeni Geremia Azeni Manna Azeni MosË Azeni Nissim Azeni Pietropaolo Azeni Sadia Ben Iosep Iacob Ben Iosep Leone Ben Iosep Salomon Benassai Benedetto Bina Mardoc Bonet Iosep Bonu Busacca Calabrisi David Calabrisi Nissim Calabrisi Salomon Canet Crixi Canet Donato Catalano Nissim Chicheri Gaudio Chippet Xibita Chispi Abram Chispu Manuele Cuino Abram Cuino Bonavogla Cuino Geremia Cuino Muxa

Cuino Rafael Cuino Salomone Cuino Senia Dat Iuda Elevi Muxa Faudali Mardoc Ficart Busacac Finei Tobia Fineni Manuele Fineni Ricco Fineni Rinona Fineni Manuli Fisico Beniamino Furnari Iosep Gazi Grazia Gibet Xibita Girachio Gabriele Girachio Salomone Girgenti Sadia Guillelmo Mussuto Guini Savita Insize Xibita Isac David Isac Muxa Isac Simone Isac Xibita Iuzufi Vita La Bonavogla Prospero Laurifice (Aurifice) Levi Busacca Levi Lia Lincio Braxa Lincio Gabriele Lincio Iacob Linzio Sadia Lisia Xibita Lu Medicu Abram Lu Medicu David Lu Medicu Salomone Lu Medicu Samuele Lu Presti Busacca Lu Presti Iacob Lu Presti Scibita Lumedicu Sadono Lupu Zactarono Marsili Sabet Matrimora David Matrimora Muxa Millac Muxa Millac Sabet Mira Muxa Mugnay Graziano

Muxa Maxalufo Muxarella Gandio Nagira Nissim Nalini Aron Nanu Xibita Polizzi Anna (Xanna) Rabiki Muxa Raskisi (Falichisi) Iuda Rausa Grazia Russo Attono Russo Salomone Sabuti Iesus Sacerdotu Aron Sacerdotu Barono Sacerdotu Busacca Sacerdotu Gabriele Sacerdotu Leono Sacerdotu Lia Sacerdotu Mardoc Sacerdotu Salomon Salamon Abram Samuel Xue Sanzato Gentile Simonis Muxa Siracusa Abram Stozu Iosep Sufi Leone Sufi Nissim Susan Salomone Tagul Asaraz Tagul Mardoc Tolu Iosep Veri Manuele Veri Perna Vigivani Muxa Vigiveni Gabriel Visa Abrac Vita Manuel Xaccaruni David Xafini Abram Xamuel Rabin Xane Xareri Mardoc Xattarini David Xifuni Abram Xunina David Xunina Muxa Xunina Iacob Xunina Zibita Zel Abram

Another List

Here's another alphabetical listing of Jewish surnames and given names used in Sicily before 1492. These names were extracted from Professor Martino's paper on The Jews of Messina.

Abbanascia MosË Abraham Rabbi Jacob ben Abulafia Abraham ben Shemuel Abulrabbi Aaron Amato Amergi Aurifici Aron Aurifici Vitali Balsamo Barone ben Nachman Mosheh ben Shalom Rabbi Abraham Ben Yij˜ Abraham Ben Yij˜ Mubaschir Ben Yij˜ Surur Ben Yij˜ Shamwal Ben Yij˜ Moshe Ben Yij˜ Yusuf Bonanno Bonavoglia David Bonavoglia (Heftz) MosË (Mohe) Bonfiglio

Brigandi Bruno Burrada Campagna Catalano MosË Chanchio Sacerdote (prob. Rabbi) Chaninello Muxa Compagna Aron Compagna Muxa Conti Jacob Conti Rosa Costantino da Bertinoro Obadiý di Dioniso GiosuË di Minisci. Salomone di Minisci. Azaria Fermo Elias Finzi Gaudio Gini Salomone Gini Guglielmo Hadad Rabbi Nathan ben Sa 'adiah

Hasdaj MosË Lagumina G Marino Marmici Elia Mazza Medici MosË Monomato Giovanni Monomato Pagana Romano Sanguinetti Rav Ismaele Scivinell Isacco Sigilmasi Rabbi Sa 'adiah ben Izahaq Sigtune Spangnolo Abramo Spangnolo Iacopo Spangnolo MosË Staiti Syminto Tudela Benjamin Tzarfati Rabbi Natronay Zacco Giuseppe Zacco Gaudio

Community email addresses:
Portuguese-Jewish History: http://www.saudades.org
Celebrating Our Portuguese-Jewish Heritage

The Jews of the North Caribbean

The Jews of the North Caribbean

By ROBERTA SOTONOFF
November 8, 2005
www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp?key=6569

Way before there were packaged trips to Aruba, Jews
have been visiting the Dutch Caribbean. They didn't
come just for sun and fun. It was for the usual
reason-to escape persecution.

The Dutch have always been benevolent toward the Jews.
So it follows that the Dutch Caribbean Islands would
be a refuge for them. Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao
(pronounced cur-as-ow), Saba (pronounced say-ba), St.
Maarten, St. Eustatius (called Statia and pronounced
stay-sha), and
Surinam (formerly Dutch Guyana) offered them a better
life. Jews prospered in the fields of commerce, sugar
cultivation and finance.

Ironically, the first Jew to come to the New World was
Christopher Columbus's interpreter, Luis de Torres.
The Inquisition banned the Jews from participating in
an expedition, but de Torres wanted to live and make a
living. He converted to Christianity alongside the
ship, just before it sailed.

De Torres didn't stay, but Marranos did. As early as
1502, they lived secretly in Brazil-many settled in
Recife. Freedom came with the Dutch capture of the
territory. But, in 1654, the Portuguese returned and
resumed the Inquisition. The Jews quickly relocated to
Surinam, Curacao and Statia.

SURINAM
Surinam lies just east of Venezuela. Crypto-Jews
arrived as early as 1536, but another Jewish colony,
Torarica (rich torah), was formed in 1639.

Under the sponsorship of the English governor, Lord
Willoughby, migration from England began in 1652.
Given religious rights, the colony, Joden Savanna,
thrived, and prosperity continued when the Dutch took
over in 1667.

Neve Shalom Synagogue was built in Paramaribo. By
1736, one-fourth of the sugar plantations were owned
by Jews. They even had their own militia. Bitter
disagreements soon arose between the Ashkenazim and
the Sephardim. The Sephardim ceded Neve Shalom and
built Tsedek Ve Shalom, complete with sand floor. (It
is said that sand floors were originally used to
muffle the sound of crypto-Jews' footsteps and
prayers. It also symbolized the desert wanderings.)

The settlement decline is attributed to the plunder of
plantations and the 1832 fire in Joden Savanna. The
bankruptcy of the Amsterdam business house, Dietz, and
the introduction of beet sugar didn't help much
either.

Today there are about 70 Jewish families in Surinam,
many of them high-level civil servants. The entire
contents of Tsedek Ve Shalom are in Israel's Jewish
Museum. Neve Shalom is still used, and alongside it
is a Moslem mosque.

CURACAO
Curacao is the Jewish jewel of the Caribbean. Since
1634, when Samuel Coheno was appointed Chief Steward
of the native Indian population, Jews have called it
home. Refuges escaping Inquisitions in Recife and
Europe
began arriving in 1651.

The Dutch totally accepted the Jews. In fact, Jews
were the only foreigners who didn't have to leave the
city at night. Immigration swelled, and by the 19th
century, the island had the largest Jewish population
in the Americas.

Jews began as planters, but were most successful as
merchants and ship owners. Language skills made them
interpreters, which helped to establish commerce
between Europe and the Americas. Ironically, many
dealt in the slave trade.

The first temple, a wooden house founded in 1659 in
the De Hoop (The Hope) area, became Mikve Israel. A
rift in 1864 brought the founding of Temple Emanuel, a
reformed congregation. It took 100 years and two
floundering congregations to solve their differences
and merge.

The 1920s brought the Ashkenazim. Not surprisingly,
they had differences with the Sephardim. Their
Orthodox shul, Shaarei Tzedek, is located in the
Scharloo neighborhood.

Today, the former Temple Emanuel, with its steeple and
stained glass windows, is a government law office. But
the famous, sand-floored Mikve Israel-Emanuel,
consecrated in 1732, is legendary. Its bima and seats
of the finest mahogany, huge chandelier, organ and
four columns-one for each of the matriarchs-make it
elegant. The Dutch colonial-designed structure is the
Western Hemisphere's oldest synagogue in continuous
use. It is also one of the island's biggest
attractions.

Involvement ended at Beit Chaim Bleinhelm, located
west of the Joden Kwartier. It is estimated that
between 5,200 and 5,500 people are buried here at the
Western Hemisphere's oldest cemetery. Unfortunately,
many of the elaborately sculptured tombstones have
been damaged by erosion.

The Jewish community, about 600, is still very much a
part of the island. They welcome landsmen.

ST. EUSTATIUS
Not many people are aware of the seven-square-mile St.
Eustatius, affectionately known as Statia. It was a
big deal in the mid-1800s-the hub of commerce between
the Americas and Europe. A free port, it supplied the
U.S. with arms during the Revolution.

David Seraiva and Abraham Henriquea, the isle's first
Jews, came here from Recife in 1660. Other Jews
followed, leaving abruptly each time French pirates
took control of the island. When the Dutch regained
control, they returned, and the Jews prospered. In
1739, they erected their synagogue, Honen Dalim
(Merciful to the Poor), which was so affluent, it had
two rabbis. A hurricane destroyed it in 1772, but it
was rebuilt.

With an 11-gun salute to the American Brig-of-War, the
"Andrew Doria," on Nov. 16, 1776, Statia became the
first country to recognize U.S. independence. For this
goodwill gesture, British Admiral Rodney raided and
torched the warehouses five years later, which
economically destroyed the island. Merchants, most of
them Jews, were looted and deported to St. Kitts and
Antigua. Ironically, the Pollack brothers, Americans
who escaped to Statia because they were pro-British,
suffered the same fate.

Today the shell of Honen Dalim still stands on "Jews
Way" or "Synagogue Path." It has been refurbished. The
stairs leading to the women's level are still in
place. A mikvah and the cemetery, surrounded by a
stone wall and two iron gates representing the Ten
Commandments, are located at the end of Princessweg
Road. No Jews currently reside on the island.

ARUBA
In 1754, Moses Solomon Levie Maduro sailed to Aruba
from Curacao to established a branch of the Dutch West
India Company. Others followed, but a true Jewish
community never really took hold. Evidence of a Jewish

presence from that time is a small cemetery in
Oranjestad.

The Holocaust started a Jewish migration in 1938. With
the establishment of Palm Beach's Jewish Country Club
four years later, the community was officially
launched. The club no longer exists, but the community
does. Beth Israel Synagogue was built in 1962. Today
it has a full-time rabbi. And for a little nosh, there
is the Kineret Aruba Kosher Deli.

ST. MAARTEN
Rodney's 1781 raid on Statia spurred the Jewish
settlement on the neighboring island of St. Maarten.
It never really thrived. A synagogue erected on
Archerstaat (Back Street) became a pile of rubble
within 40 years. The Guavaberry Emporium is thought to
be the site of an old synagogue and off Front Street
there is a small alley-like street known as Jews
Cemetery Way. The walkway leads past the synagogue and
cemetery complex.

Tourism has brought a resurgence of the St. Maarten
Jewish community. There is no synagogue, but one is
planned. About 20 Jewish families reside on the island
as well as a Torah which is kept under lock and key.

Return to Judaism: Crypto Jews (Anousim) Around the World

Tuesday,
November 8, 2005, 7:00 PM

RETURN TO JUDAISM: CRYPTO JEWS (ANOUSIM) AROUND THE WORLD

Yaffah daCosta will join Rabbi Marc D. Angel of Congregation Shearith Israel to talk about an extraordinary and growing phenomenon of our time the desire of forcibly converted Jews or anousim from Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and parts of the Americas to return to the religion of their ancestors. Yaffah daCosta is founder and director of Ezra L'Anousim, a Jerusalem-based organization dedicated to reconnecting crypto-Jews with their Jewish heritage. Of "Anousim" background, the story of her discovery of and return to Judaism is fascinating and inspiring. Ezra L'Anousim is playing a vital role in reaching out to crypto-Jews throughout the world.

Co-sponsor: Congregation Shearith Israel

Admission: Free admission
Location: 8 West 70th Street, NYC

www.americansephardifederation.org/sub/events/featured.asp#118

An Article about the Early Relations between the Jewish Communities in the Caribbean and the Guianas and Those of the Near East 17th to 19th Centuries

An Article about the Early Relations between the Jewish Communities in the Caribbean and the Guianas and Those of the Near East 17th to 19th Centuries

by Mordechaï Arbell

sent to the Saudades-Sefarad forum by Carlos Valencia

The Jewish exodus from Portugal, in the beginning of the 16th century was caused mainly by the installation of the "Holy Office of the Inquisition" there. Since the forced conversion of the Jews to Catholicism in 1497, they had lived as so-called "New Christians." For those who wanted to continue to profess their Judaism in the privacy of their homes, in a quiet, discreet manner, there was no clerical authority that could punish them for doing so. In Spain where the Inquisition was very active throughout the Spanish provinces following the activities of the "conversos" and persecuting them if they were caught continuing their Jewish practices, the newly converted Jews of Portugal could keep their Judaism silently and unobtrusively.

As an exodus of small groups, families, and even individuals, the exodus of the Jews from Portugal was not similar to the massive one from Spain. It continued from the 16th century to well into the 19th. The emigrants from Portugal proceeded mainly to Western Europe - France (Bayonne and Bordeaux); The Netherlands; Germany (Hamburg); Denmark (Copenhagen as well as Altona and Gluckstadt which at that time were in Danish hands); Italy (Leghorn, Venice, and Florence); and to the Mediterranean ports of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), Salonica, Istanbul, and Izmir. Some of the Jewish exiles from Portugal left for North Africa or to the Far East. In most of these places conversos returned to Judaism.

In the beginning of the 17th century interest in the economic potential of the Americas grew among the non-Iberian powers of Europe: France, England, The Netherlands, and later on Denmark. Netherlands started settling parts of Brazil (Recife, Olinda) which was held by Portugal, the so-called Wild Coast (between the Amazon River and the Orinoco), Cayenne (now French Guyana), Pomeroon, Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo
(now the Republic of Guiana), and Curaçao which was held by Spain. England settled the island of Barbados, the island of Jamaica which was held by Spain, the island of Nevis and Surinam on the Wild Coast. France occupied Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti. Denmark settled the Virgin Islands. the new colonizing powers, except France, were Protestant, such that Jews who reconverted from Catholicism to Judaism were not liable to persecution. Jews leaving Portugal saw these colonies as very suitable for their settlement. The colonizing powers saw the Jews as a very positive human element for settlement. Their expertise in trading, shipping, and banking, their knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese was useful for commerce with Spanish and Portuguese America.

With the reoccupation by Portugal of the Dutch-held parts of Brazil, in 1654, the Jews were forced to leave Recife and Olinda, and seek other places of settlement. Now they were also regarded as experienced planters and traders in tropical produce - sugar, cacao, vanilla, and indigo - and people coming from Brazil were used to life in tropical conditions and therefore were very much needed in the American colonies. These exiles from Dutch Brazil took their place among the main producers of sugar in Cayenne, Pomeroon, Surinam, Barbados, Jamaica, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. The "Black Code" promulgated in 1683 by the French king Louis XIV instigated the expulsion of the Jews from the French-held islands.

This fresh diaspora of Jewish exiles from Spain and Portugal formed communities that remained, despite significant distances, very closely linked with the Sephardi centers the world over with sentiments of kinship and brotherhood. The most observant of the exiles made the effort, despite the difficulties and hardship, to return to the Land of Israel and settle there -. they were a minority. Others that left Portugal joined their coreligionists from Spain in the Balkans and in the Eastern Mediterranean, where they could join the centers of Jewish leaning and observance. Those who reached America somehow decided that their return to the land of their forefathers could be postponed. This is very well illustrated in the diary of Jeosua Nunes Netto and Joseph Pereira written in September 1657 on their arrival to the Jewish settlement of New Middelbourg on the Pomeroon river on the Wild Coast:

Thank God who has brought us from hell to the peace of this beautiful land. Here our bodies will lay to rest, until the time comes when they will be transferred to the land of our forefathers - Jerusalem.1

The decision to see America as their more or less permanent place of settlement, their life for several generations as "New Christians" with no Hahams (i.e., rabbis), no Jewish schools, no synagogues, all had taken its toll on their knowledge of Judaism. With their return to the faith of their ancestors, they had a strong desire to observe it fully. At the same time their weakness in religious matters made it impossible for them to produce the necessary spiritual leaders.

The very generous "rights and privileges" given to the Jews of the Caribbean area and in the Guianas in the 17th century allowed the religious leaders to assume special responsibilities. The English in Surinam and the Dutch in Cayenne, Pomeroon, and Curaçao permitted the Jews to administer their own lives, to have their own courts of law for litigation among themselves, to maintain their own schools, to build synagogues, and to observe the Sabbath. Such rights were available to Jews at that time in very few places in the world.

The Haham, with the help of the community leaders - "the Mahamad" - had to take care of the synagogue, the schools, the courts, the cemeteries; to perform circumcisions, marriages, funerals; to arrange for cantors, ritual slaughters, sextons, and community physicians; to provide for widows, orphans, and the needy (haspacoth); to take care of dowries for unmarried women
("santa compania para dotar donzelas"), assistance to transients, ransom of captives, contributions to the Holy Land; and relations with the authorities and other religious groups. They also had to promulgate the rules and regulations of the community (Haskamot).

The communities depended on the religious centers around the Near East or in Amsterdam in their correspondence and on the import of Hahams, preferably originating in the Balkans or the Mediterranean region, or individuals born as conversos in Spain and Portugal who had returned to Judaism, studied in rabbinical academies, and were renowned for their knowledge and piety.

At the time of the expulsion from Spain, those who left the country were the hardcore Jews, not willing to convert. They preferred a life of exile and diaspora to one of genuine or false converts. The largest group left for Portugal where they were condemned to live the life of forced converts while maintaining their Judaism in secret. Jews who headed for the Ottoman Empire were able to continue their Jewish life without restraint and strengthen and enhance their Jewish identity. Those who left Spain and Portugal after living for several generations as secret Jews and wished to bolster their Jewishness turned in their new places of residence in Europe to schools and academies to reimmerse themselves in Jewish studies and expand their Jewish consciousness.

The Caribbean Jews preferred spiritual leaders from the two groups mentioned above as they felt they would obtain better understanding of their special situation as well as leadership that would meet their needs. Responsa, correspondence with a rabbinical authority featuring questions on how to act on religious matters, was usually directed to Istanbul, and in some cases to Salonica (usually when regular contact with Istanbul was very difficult). For instance, we learn from the responsa of Hayim Shabbetai, compiled in 1772, that early settlers in Brazil, having no rabbinical authority among them wrote to Hayim Shabbetai of Salonika, asking whether the seasonal prayer for rain should be altered, given the difference in the seasons in the southern hemisphere.2

When the number of Jewish settlers in Dutch Brazil grew almost to the number of Jews in Amsterdam, the community members saw the need to import a Haham. In 1641 Isaac Aboab da Fonseca arrived in Recife. Aboab was born in 1605 in Castro Daire, Portugal, into a converso family which fled to St. Jean de Luz in France; Aboab had his Jewish upbringing in Amsterdam. He became the first rabbi in the Americas and served in Brazil until 1654 (the Portuguese occupation) when he returned to Amsterdam and followed a brilliant career.

With the foundation of the "Mikve Israel" community on the island of Curaçao in
1659, the community began to expand with the newly arrived Jews from Amsterdam and then with Jews who came after the destruction of the Jewish communities of Cayenne and Pomeroon, and the unsuccessful attempt to have a Jewish settlement on the island of Tobago. The community needed a spiritual leader and the choice fell on the Haham Josiau Pardo, a descendant of a Salonica family of Hahams.

Pardo arrived in Curaçao in 1674. He updated the community regulations
(Haskamot) and founded the first rabbinical academy in the Americas, "Etz Hayim." In 1683 he went to serve as the Haham of Port Royal, Jamaica. It is not known whether he perished in 1692 after the disastrous earthquake and tidal wave that destroyed the city of Port Royal, including its synagogue, or whether he died earlier.

His son David served at the beginning of the 18th century as the Haham of Surinam. Curaçao continued with its custom of preferring Hahams and spiritual leaders who either came from the Near East or were born as conversos in Spain and Portugal. Being the spiritual center of the Jewish communities in the Caribbean area, and often called the "mother" of the Jewish communities of the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its religious administration and its rabbinical academy influenced all the communities in the area.

At about the same time, the Jewish community of Barbados, "Nidhei Israel," was organized, and here again the members were anxious to have a leader. Their choice was a Haham stemming from Spain, Eliau Lopez. Born as a converso in Malaga in 1648, Lopez returned to Judaism in Amsterdam. His arrival in Barbados in 1678 to serve the two Jewish communities there, Bridgetown and Speighstown, was very remarkable - a tall figure with flowing robes as worn by the Hahams of the Mediterranean area - even the English authorities on the island were impressed.3

Barbados was one of the rare places in the Caribbean where the authorities and the population had distinctly pronounced anti- Jewish feelings. Haham Lopez, however, was held in great respect by all residents. This was the reason that in time of crisis the bigger and more prestigious community of Curaçao, nominated Haham Lopez to serve as their spiritual leader. He arrived in Curaçao in 1693, after a cholera epidemic, and following the exodus of groups of Jews to Newport, Rhode Island,4 and Tucacas, Venezuela.5 He organized the Jewish cemetery, founded the synagogue erected in 1703, and administered the community and its Jewish schools.

A Chief Haham of the same origin Lisbon-born (1699) Samuel Mendes de Sola, who reconverted to Judaism in Amsterdam where he pursued his rabbinical studies. In 1744 he was contacted by the Curaçao community. During his tenure one can see the growing difference between the Hahams, who wanted to introduce customs acquired in Amsterdam, influenced by the proximity to the German communities, and the Caribbean Jews, who had become accustomed to the lax tropical atmosphere in their everyday life and who had no desire to change the familiar traditional ways inherited from their forefathers in Spain and Portugal. Angry exchanges between the Chief Haham and the community lay leaders became more and more common.

These pious Hahams had to adapt themselves to the special conditions of the Caribbean. One issue was how to deal with children born as a result of the not uncommon relations between Jewish men and their servant girls. Another problem was that of the wives of numerous Jewish seafarers who had disappeared or not returned to their homes for many years. In the search for solutions the Hahams had to reconcile strict obligations to Jewish law with the unique conditions of Jewish life in the Caribbean. The fate of the rule promoted by the Surinam community, namely, that every Jew must grow a beard, serves as a typical example. In response to the rule, many Jews presented the Haham medical certificates attesting that the growing of a beard causes rashes and skin diseases to the bearer of the certificate and that he must be exempted from doing so.6 There were strict Hahams who often resorted to the punishment of excommunication (Herem) of those who did not abide by the rules. This was a very severe punishment in a society of islanders who lived in groups who had no external social relations.

These discussions continued during the tenure of the Haham Lopez da Fonseca
(served 1764-1815), the son-in-law of Haham de Sola, and resulted in an open clash with the arrival of Cantor Piza in 1816.

Piza, a descendant of a very prestigious family of Istanbul Hahams, was invited to Curaçao to serve as a cantor and to eventually become the Chief Haham.7 Born and educated in Amsterdam, he was already influenced by the customs and usages of modern European Sephardi Jews. His way of service clashed with the majority of the community members. On one side, angry voices called for his dismissal. On the other, he had a strong group of supporters. The rift degenerated into the secession from the established community of the protesters against Piza. They left the synagogue as well and prayed in private houses. Curaçao Jewry broke into two communities with separate cemeteries, separate administration of Jewish laws
(marriages, births, funerals, ritual slaughter, and so on).

The Jewish population of Curaçao was an important part of this Dutch colony, and at times comprised over half of the white population of the island. Thus it was imperative that the rift be mended. By order of the Royal house of Holland and with the help of the head of the rabbinical court, Daniel Lopez-Penha, reconciliation was achieved, but Cantor Piza had to go. The hunger for religious leaders was so great that Piza obtained a contract to serve the Jewish community of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas where he remained for many years.8 His descendants became quite prominent in the Jewish communities of Panama and Costa Rica.

The lack of suitable Hahams forced the Curaçao community to use leaders from their own midst, known as "assessors," as substitute Hahams. The most prominent, Daniel Lopez-Penha, descendant of an Izmir, Turkey, family which played an active role in maintaining Jewish life on the Caribbean coast in Curaçao, Barranquilla (Colombia), and the Dominican Republic.9 For communities smaller than Curaçao and Surinam, the expense of importing and maintaining a Haham was quite high, but when the community felt the need, they did not hesitate to hire a spiritual leader.

A typical example is Barbados. The relatively small community there saw that Jewish observance was waning. They decided to hire Meir Hacohen Belinfante, a descendant of a family of Hahams, cantors, teachers, and writers which had settled in Dalmatia (Dubrovnik and Split)10 when fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition. In this instance, too, there was a clash between the strict, disciplined, pious Haham from the Balkans and the lax tropical life of Barbados (1752). With difficulties, he instituted and orderly religious administration. His death in 1773 found the Barbados community as a whole in mourning. The depression was so all pervasive that when an emissary of the Holy Land, Haham Raphael Haim Isaac Carigal (see below for further information on him), passed through Barbados, the state of the community convinced him to remain there as its Haham until his death in
1777. Other members of the Hacohen Belinfante family served as religious teachers in Jamaica.11 Jamaican Jews were dispersed in at least 13 locations all over the island. Over 16 Jewish cemeteries have been located. A need was felt for a Haham who would be able to serve the entire island. The choice fell on Joshua Hizquiau de Cordova. He was a member of a Sephardi family originating in Istanbul. Born in Amsterdam, he arrived in Curaçao to teach the Bible and Talmud in Ladino translations and also to hold services and preach.12 In 1755 he accepted the invitation of the Jamaican community to serve there as the Chief Haham of all the important communities, "Shaar Hashamaim" in Kingston, "Neve Shalom" in Spanish Town, and "Neve Zedek" in Port Royal. He fulfilled this function until his death in 1797. He wrote several books, the most important being Reason and Faith, considered the first American volume of Jewish apologetics, in which he defended the Jewish religion against the pronouncements of Spinoza, Voltaire, and Hume.

Caribbean communities had to rely on the services of itinerant emissaries from the Holy Land or from the Mediterranean ports for guidance, instruction, and maintenance of Jewish traditions. Sometimes those emissaries remained and serves as rabbis for limited periods of time. Their main aim was to collect funds and donations for the communities in Palestine and for the rabbinical academies there. Their mission was also to maintain the continuation of Jewish life in the Americas.

Portuguese Jews considered contributions to the Holy Land as part of life and as a must. Donations were sent by special carriers through Venice, Vienna, Istanbul, and Izmir. Committees for funds for Holy Land were formed in every Sephardi community as were bodies for community aid "para gozar la morada del Cielo" (to enjoy the place where God is present). The rabbinical academies in Palestine, which in the 16th and 17th centuries were mainly Portuguese Jewish and located in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias, usually reciprocated by sending sand from the Holy Land in the Caribbean (in Surinam, Curaçao, Jamaica, and St. Thomas) where synagogue floors are covered with sand, the sand of the Holy Land was mixed with the local grains.13 Sand from the Holy Land was also used for burials.

Emissaries from the Holy Land were sent to the Americas to collect funds for synagogues, rabbinical academies, and communities in Palestine. These messengers were received with greatest respect and were lodged in the best Jewish homes. Usually accompanied by two local dignitaries, the emissary would visit the contributors, pay official visits to the authorities, and participate in family feasts. At the same time, the emissaries preached in the synagogue, instructed the circumcisers and ritual slaughterers and oversaw their performance, and helped the communities write their rules and regulations.

Usually, the emissaries bore official letters of presentation, which gave them official recognition. The first such document addressed to the "Holy Communities of Israel who had settled in parts of America" was given in 1772 to Shmuel Hacohen of Hebron who went to Barbados. The list of emissaries is quite long: 1749, R. Moshe Haguel; 1750, R. Selomo Zeeli of Hebron;
1757, R. Eliah ben Araya; 1758, R. Moshe Malki of Safed.

The most impressive emissary was Raphael Haim Isaac Carigal. His life is typical of what an emissary had to do in his double capacity of collecting funds and striving to maintain Judaism. Born in Hebron in 1729 to a Portuguese Jewish family, after visiting communities in Asia and Europe he arrived in Curaçao in 1761. There he was also engaged as a Haham for over two years. In 1771 he was in Jamaica where he stayed for a year. After a well-publicized stay of five months with the Portuguese Jewish community in Newport, Rhode Island, founded by Jews from Barbados and Curaçao, he sailed for Surinam (1773), where he remained for half a year before proceeding to Barbados in 1774.14 Special emissaries were sent to the Caribbean if there was a large-scale disaster in the Near East or the Mediterranean. The mutual help flowing between the communities in the Caribbean and those of the Mediterranean was limited to Spanish-Portuguese Jews only.

Haham Yahacob Saul of Izmir came to Curaçao in 1744 to collect funds to "overcome the misfortunes that befell that community";15 in 1759, Haham David Florentin collected funds for Salonica after the plague had struck there;16 Haham Haim Modahi collected funds after the 1765 earthquake in Safed;17 and Haham Abraham Leon was sent as an emissary to Curaçao, St. Eustatius, and St. Thomas to raise funds after a fire destroyed nine synagogues in Izmir in 1774.18 One of the duties of a Jewish community was to obtain the release of Jewish captives, slaves, and hostages. Many Caribbean Jews were shipowners and also captains of their own ships. In the conduct of their business they often acted against the interests of Spain by importing and exporting merchandise from the Spanish colonies in Latin America to Dutch and English territories, activity considered illegal by Spain. Spanish warships in some instances captured these ships, and if on them they caught Jews who had been born Catholic and reconverted to Judaism, the Jews were brought to the tribunals of the Inquisition in Spain itself (to Cadiz or San Sebastian).19 In such cases the Dutch ambassador in Madrid had to intervene, most often with little success. It was the Spanish-Portuguese communities in Gibraltar and Bayonne that invested effort towards obtaining the release of the Caribbean Jewish captives by paying high sums to ransom them. Usually, those communities were reimbursed by the prisoners' home communities.20 Jews lived in Dutch, English, and Danish colonies in the Caribbean. Yet, their language in the 17th and 18th centuries remained Spanish or Portuguese. They physically observed their religion in America, but spiritually they remained in the Mediterranean basin.

The employment of learned individuals from the Near East and the Mediterranean area to serve as Hahams in the Caribbean continued well into the
20th century. With the destruction of most of the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish communities in Europe during the Holocaust and the emigration of the Caribbean Jews to Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic, the Jewish communities in the Caribbean began to diminish in number and could no longer rely on communities in the Balkans or around the Mediterranean to provide spiritual succor.

Bibliographie :
1. 1 Dr. J. Meijer, Pioneers of Pauroma (Pomeroon), Paramaribo (1954), pp. 23-24, based on the compilation by R. Bijlsma, Archief for Nederlandisch Portugeesch-Israelitsche Gemeente in Suriname, Gravenhage.
2. Hayim Shabbetai, Torat Hayim, Saloniki (1722), p. 192.
3. Wilfred S. Samuel, "A Review of the Jewish Colonists in Barbados in the Year
1680," in Transactions of the Historical Society of England, 13
(1932-35): 6-7.
4. Isaac S. and Suzanne A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Nederlands Antilles, Cincinnati (1970), pp. 90-91.
5. MordechaiArbell, "Rediscovering Tucacas," in American Jewish Archives, 48
(1996):36-37.
6. Robert Cohen, Jews in Another Environment, Leiden (1991), pp. 154-55
7. Vida Lindo Gutherman, "The Chronicle of Joshua Piza and His Descendants," manuscript copy with M. Arbell, pp. 3-4.
8. Lindo, pp. 5-6.
9. Mordechai Arbell, "The Annals of the Lopez Penha Family-1660-1924," in Pe'amim, 48 (1991),
10. Yakir Eventov, A History of Yugoslav Jews from Ancient Times to the End of the 19th Century, Tel Aviv (1971), p. 4.
11. Mordechai Arbell, "The Cohen Belinfante Family of Dubrovnik (Ragusa) and Their Diaspora in Barbados, Jamaica, Amsterdam, and Hamburg-16th to 19th Centuries," manuscript, 1998, p. 11.
12. Bertram W. Korn, AJA,. 18 (1966), 141-50.
13. Gerard Nahon, "Les Relations entre Amsterdam et Constantinople au XVIIIe Siecle d'apres le Copiador de Cartas de la Nation Juive Portuguese d'Amsterdam," in Dutch Jewish History, Jerusalem (1984), p. 165
14. Abraham Yaari, Sheluhei Eretz Israel, Jerusalem (1951), pp. 580-83.
15. Emmanuel, p. 166.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid., p. 167.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., p.222-26.
20. Ibid., p. 225.

The long road home

The long road home

More than 500 years after their ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity, thousands of descendants of Marranos living in South America are returning to their Jewish roots. But they are running into obstacles on the way back to Judaism.

_{By Kobi Ben-Simhon}

It seems like they can still hear the rolling laughter of the Inquisitor. Tens of thousands of descendants of the Marranos - the Jews of Spain and Portugal who were forced to convert to Christianity more than 500 years ago - continue to carry the lost identity of their forebears, despite the passage of centuries.

The Internet is buzzing with forums of the descendants of the Marranos, also called anusim, forced converts in Hebrew. On a forum called "Saudades" (Longings; www.saudades.org), more than 1,000 people are engaged in an intensive process of clarifying and crystallizing their identity. They write about Hebrew accents, Israeli Nobel Prize laureates, Torah precepts, Talmudic sages, the Jerusalem prayer book and even about the quality award that went to the olive oil of Kibbutz Revivim in the northern Negev, in a worldwide competition.

One of the participants in the forum styles himself "The 7 Noachian Laws." Another, Mordechai Lopes, from Recife, Brazil, writes about Shabbat observance, and a woman contributes an article that was published in a local American paper about descendants of Marranos who live in the United States, urging people to read it. Anabela from the village of Soago in Portugal writes about a DNA test she recently had done. She says she knows she is of Portuguese descent and asks any forum participants who have also had DNA tests to check whether there is any compatibility with her results (which she includes in the message).

Besides Saudades, an English-language site, there are many sites serving virtual com munities of Spanish-speaking Marranos - Mexicans, Peruvians and Colombians. Here, too, at the heart of their discourse lies their great trap: their past. The Marranos' descendants, who are formally Christians in every respect, deal with questions such as "who is a Jew" and how Jewish history has ignored them. They talk about various archives that document the Spanish Inquisition and their personal genealogies, whose roots extend all the way back to that dark period in Spain.

"All the signs indicate that there is an awakening of Marranos who are looking for their Jewish roots," says Prof. Avi Gross, an expert on Spanish and Portuguese Jewry and on the Marranos from the Department of Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva. Gross returned last month from a visit to the Marrano communities in Brazil as part of his activity in Ezra La'anusim (Help for the Marranos), an association which became operative this year. On the screen of his laptop is a photograph of a family of Marranos: the husband took a picture of his wife and two children as they lit the Shabbat candles.

"More and more people nowadays are discovering their Jewish past," Prof. Gross notes. "That is quite clear to anyone who is engaged in the history of Brazil and Portugal. It is a very broad phenomenon - thousands of Marranos who want to return to the tradition of their forebears, to the life their ancestors were deprived of by Catholic fanaticism. The potential for a return to the Jewish religion is of numbers that I am not willing to cite, because I just cannot. The possibilities are tremendous. I am not interested in citing a number."

Apersonal,authenticfeeling

A new study by Prof. Gross deals with the wave of religious awakening among the descendants of the Portuguese Marranos who immigrated to Brazil. "Jewish blood flows in the veins of a very high proportion of Christian Brazilians of Portuguese origin," he says. "The fact that vestiges of Judaism exist in astounding quantities is cle ar; it is a statistical matter. Historians say that 15 percent of the Portuguese emigrants who settled in Brazil in the 16th and 17th centuries were of Marrano - that is, Jewish - descent. A simple arithmetical calculation will give you seven-digit figures today. In my opinion, the numbers are far smaller. We are talking about unconscious Judaism which was totally assimilated. Most of them assimilated a thousand times since then."

On the other hand, he describes a conversation he had in Sao Paulo with Prof. Anita Novinsky, a world expert on the Inquisition. "She denies the persistence of Judaism among the Marranos, yet she admits, as she told me, that `Brazil is seething with Judaism below the surface.' I will not forget what she said about one of the descendants of the Marranos I met - that he `carries history in his flesh and blood.' From my point of view as a historian, that is a definitive statement. After all, she is highly critical of the way historical research has idealized the Marranos' preservation of Judaism, and when she says something like this she apparently knows whereof she speaks."

There are large concentrations of Marranos (the word, used derogatively of the converts, means "pigs" or "the accursed") in Brazil, especially in the country's northeast. It is in these arid areas, deep in the interior of the continent, that Gross found huge families that maintain a Jewish way of life, at least as far as they are able. The area borders four states: Pernambuco, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte and Paraiba.

"These are vast extended families that have remained in marriage ties and have hardly assimilated with the surroundings," says Gross. "They lived in social separation and did not even know why. It's amazing, but they preserved a Marrano framework of life into the 20th century. I met one person there whose family numbers 9,000 members. Their whole life is conducted under what they call the `family laws.' It is a huge family in which the members are bound to each other by marriage. I cou ld not find an explanation of why they went so far into the interior, into the arid region, apart from the fact that they wanted to maintain quiet, to follow a different community life, by conscious choice. Those who sought money and better sources for a livelihood went further south. There is no reason for people to go so far into desert regions like these."

The Marranos' descendants are far from being a monolithic bloc, Prof. Gross relates. Because the Marrano reality was concealed until now, it became an individual matter, so there are some Marranos who are more Zionist and others who are more religious. There are also some who consider themselves pure Sephardim [from the Hebrew word for Spain] and therefore decided to follow in the footsteps of Maimonides and express powerful opposition to mysticism and kabbala. In general, they all feel Jewish and Israeli, even if they are totally cut off from that way of life.

"They do not meet much, mainly because of the large distances. This is an imagined community," Prof. Gross says. "A community where they all cry together on the Internet. It is together, in the common troubles, in their shared pain, that they find warmth. They are religious people, with religious feelings, who are unable to find themselves within the Christian framework. In some cases the return to Judaism begins with the rejection of the Church - people who from a young age were unwilling to accept Catholic dogma. They arrived at this place by way of their own searching. It is not a herd phenomenon and not a matter of fashion. It is a very personal and authentic feeling."

Rootoftheevil

The Marrano phenomenon came into being in Spain and Portugal in the wake of several separate periods of conversion. The first occurred in the summer of 1391, in Seville, as part of a tidal wave of anti-Jewish riots that swept the country. Thousands of Jews were murdered that summer, and about a third of the Jews - approximately 100,000, according to one estimate - were forced to unde rgo Christian baptism. Additional conversion actions followed, with another one occurring in 1492, during the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, when they were given the choice of becoming Christians or leaving the country. Again the number of converts was in the tens of thousands. By this time, the well-oiled machinery of the Inquisition was operating, systematically persecuting the Marranos in Spain, with the aim of interrogating those among the "new Christians" who continued to observe Judaism in secret and punish the impostors mercilessly.

In 1497, the Jewish community in Portugal was also obliged to convert to Christianity. A royal edict ordered all the Jews to come to Lisbon, where they were forced to convert. Here, too, estimates speak of 10,000 or 20,000 converts. In 1540, the Inquisition was established in Portugal, and the Portuguese version was considered more brutal than that of neighboring Spain. Hebrew parchment scrolls that were hidden in caves and later found, and thousands of interrogation files that document accusations of observing the Mosaic laws in secret show that the Marranos maintained a Jewish way of life of some kind in secret for many years.

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and the general conversion in Portugal, most Marranos were cut off from the Jewish world. A paradoxical situation emerged in which the Church succeeded in turning the Jews into "new Christians," but Christian society rejected them. The entry of the new Christians into the social system was perceived as a threat by former Jews, certainly in the first generation. By the 16th century a view gained credence in Spain and Portugal that there was a stubborn core of heresy in the Jews, who were Christians on the outside but remained Jews in their homes. This outlook was manifested in the form of the "blood purity" laws, which were not necessarily promulgated by the state but were adopted in various areas by certain institutions, such as universities and monasteries, in order to exclude anyone with Jew ish origins.

The source of the evil in these laws lay in their timelessness. As soon as the Jewish past of new Christians was discovered, even 200 years later, their entire social and economic infrastructure was destroyed and they could expect to be persecuted and suspected of observing Judaism. It was to escape a life of unbearable fear that they fled to the Islamic countries, to Amsterdam and to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas.

As is only natural, in the course of time, a gradual erosion occurred in the Jewish way of life of the Marranos. Within two or three generations, most of them were assimilated into Christian society, and the Jewish religion among them was relegated to cellars and unseen places - to an oral tradition. After hundreds of years only vague signs remained of a Jewish heritage.

BornanddyingasJews

On Shabbat, he relates, he takes his children to the far end of the lake. Standing on a broad wooden bridge, they scour the skies together for three stars, indicating the end of the Sabbath. Fabio (Ariel) Fonseca, 32, the spokesman of the Federal Police in the state of Alagoas, Brazil, understood from a young age that he was a Jew. "At the age of 15 I started to read about Judaism," he says in an interview conducted by e-mail. "The first time I encountered the fact that my family had a Jewish past it seemed like total nonsense. I thought the Jews were from Israel."

He left the church at the age of 20. "It was hard to be outside. After I was married, my mother helped me get to relatives and talk to them." His path into the Jewish world was forged through his grandfather's sister; it continued on the Internet and led him to a school in the coastal city of Natal, where descendants of the Marranos learn about Judaism. Fonseca now presents himself as a Jew - last summer he underwent circumcision. He is learning Hebrew from poems an Israeli friend sends him and reads the Jerusalem Post and the English-language edition of Haaretz on the Internet e very day. His two children kiss the mezuzah affixed to the door of their home and can recite the Shema prayer.

Dr. Luciano Oliveira, a 27-year-old family doctor from the state of Paraiba, has bigger plans. He intends to establish a Marrano community in Brazil, like the model of the famous Marrano community in Belmonte, Portugal, where forced converts managed to preserve Jewish religious observance in secret from the time of the Inquisition until the 1970s, and train people to carry out religious tasks in the community. He himself has already learned the burial ritual from the Orthodox burial society of Sao Paulo. "In all the generations of my family," he writes by e-mail, "the women preserved the customs and transmitted the tradition. For example, the burial tradition - my mother was responsible in the family for purifying the dead and for the interment."

Dr. Oliveira views himself as a public emissary with deep responsibility. But the more he tries to resolve the tangled problem of the Marrano society around him, the angrier he becomes. Despite his tremendous efforts to return to the fold of Judaism, he feels that the Jewish institutions are rejecting him outright. "The rabbinate is today succeeding in doing to us what the Inquisition did not succeed in doing for hundreds of years. I am not ready to go back to Judaism as a convert," he says in frustration. "I cannot do that to my family; that would be to betray them. Officially I am still a Catholic, but the family laws are what decide. My mother says, `I was born into these family laws and I will die in them.'"

The bitter irony is that statements in this spirit can be found in the files of the Inquisition, when Marranos who were caught observing Jewish customs declared defiantly before they were murdered that they "were born and will die in Judaism."

TheOrthodoxbarrier

Families like the Fonsecas and the Oliveiras are trapped in a cruel process that is the lot of many Marrano families who are aware of their Jewish past. The Marranos' journey back to Judaism runs into the insensitivity of the religious institutions, even though the Marranos have undergone a profound process of self-discovery. In general, the Orthodox Jewish religious institutions in Israel and abroad view the descendants of the Marranos as gentiles and demand that they undergo a full conversion. The Marranos, for their part, say they want to return to Judaism under the status of people "returning to the religion of their forebears," not as converts.

From their point of view, the difference is critical. Only a very few religious courts in South America might restore the Marranos to Judaism in this way, but even if an Orthodox court in Brazil does so, there is no guarantee that its ruling will be honored in Israel, still less if a court of Reform Judaism was involved.

Sisa Shlomovitz, 33, understood this and thought she would find an answer in Israel. Four years ago, she immigrated to Israel with her Jewish husband, Asher Ben Shlomo, who established the Federation of Israeli Marranos. "We realized that there was no point in undergoing any conversion or return process abroad, because it simply would not be honored in Israel," Ben Shlomo says. "When we arrived in Israel, my wife was made to undergo a conversion process. But to this day, I have not found a court that is willing to restore her to Judaism and whose ruling will be honored. Today she is not considered Jewish according to law. The truth is that she has not even been granted citizenship - she is still going through the procedures, even though I am Jewish."

Shlomovitz first became aware of her Jewishness at the age of 20, from her mother. Her extended family consists of 1,000 people, most of them residing in the state of Alagoas in Brazil. "Generally in my family this information was kept from the children, and they only told us about our Jewish past at a later age," she says. "The military dictatorship in Brazil was in league with the Catholic Church, and that made us afraid. But even before I became aware of my Jewish past, I observed Jewish customs such as waiting for three hours between eating meat and dairy, the prohibition on eating eggs tainted with blood and the tradition of marriage within the family. My family still observes those customs.

"We are in a situation in which the Christians consider us Jews and the Jews consider us gentiles," she sums up. "Today my family has the desire to define itself as Jewish, but they do not take that step because they know that in Israel the return to Judaism is not recognized. In Israel neither I nor my children are considered Jewish. A solution has to be found for us because under no circumstances are we willing to undergo conversion. There are some who want to humiliate us very greatly in the conversion process."

The rabbinate in Israel has not adopted a uniform approach toward the Marranos. There is no coordination between the religious courts on the subject. A halakhic response on the subject written in 1995 by a former chief rabbi, Mordechai Eliahu (after concluding his term as chief rabbi), demonstrates the absurdity involved. According to this ruling, the Marranos do not have to undergo a conversion process, but one of returning to Judaism.

"Those who wish to perform all the precepts of the Torah openly today should be praised," Rabbi Eliahu wrote. "After undergoing all the processes of Torah study, accepting the Torah and the burden of the precepts, circumcision and immersion as stipulated in the Law, they should be given a certificate headed, `Certificate for one who returns to the ways of his forefathers.'" Halakhically, this ruling puts the Marranos through the same strict process that a convert undergoes, but despite this, the rabbinical courts in Israel do not abide by this ruling.

On Tu Bishvat (Arbor Day) this year, a rainy day in Jerusalem, a group of people decided to put an end to the humiliating situation. The Ezra La'anusim association was established with the goal of making it possible for the Marra nos to return to Judaism and overcome the halakhic obstacle posed by the rabbinate. The organization's members include Prof. Gross; attorney Aryeh Barnea, former principal of Gymnasia Herzliya high school in Tel Aviv, who is the association's legal adviser; and Rabbi Zalman Cohen. The head of the association is Yafa da Costa, a resident of the West Bank city of Ma'aleh Adumim, who is from a Marrano family herself.

Da Costa grew up in a town near Boston, Massachusetts, and attended church every Sunday. "We did what we had to in order to adjust ourselves to the framework," she says about her family. "At the age of 19, I got the feeling that it was not for me, an inner feeling that is hard for me to explain. The family's Jewish past was forgotten in certain parts of the family - my mother, for example, didn't know about it."

Da Costa found her Jewish roots in Israel, following a chance conversation in which someone casually suggested to her that she examine whether her Portuguese past ended in a Jewish home in Portugal. After that, things moved quickly. "I started investigating and I understood, as happens to many Marranos, that a lot of the customs we followed at home were actually Jewish customs. There were also customs that we did not observe, but which my mother told me had been observed in her house. In the end, I carried out the process of my return to Judaism in New York, in a highly regarded and well-known court, so that the Interior Ministry in Israel accepted my Jewishness."

In this sense, the Da Costa case is a precedent, and she is now trying to get that precedent extended to other Marranos. "My mission in life is to help the Marrano families," she says. "I started in the United States five years ago and I am continuing here in Israel through the association. It is important for me to make it clear that we are legitimate Jews. We must not let the Inquisition win. The Marranos have waited for years for the doors to be opened to them; they are waiting for historical justice. The assoc iation has begun to direct Marranos to courts abroad that work with us, and thus resolve their Jewish identity. Whoever goes through the process can decide afterward what he wants to do - remain in his community or immigrate to Israel."

"I think we are obligated to find a way to draw the Marranos' descendants close to us and to draw closer to them," Aryeh Barnea says in a determined tone. "This is a humane story. We have to understand that this means the whole world to these people - to connect with their Jewish roots. There is a matter here that the Israeli establishment is not aware of: the Marranos' descendants are Jews and we must find a way to bring them back into the fold of Judaism and Israel. We have to help them come back home. The estimate is that hundreds of thousands might return, and as I see it this is a demographic issue that constitutes a meaningful contribution to society in Israel. From my point of view, a step in this direction is definitely the realization of Zionism."

There have been attempts in the past to assist Marrano communities, though only on a small scale. An organization called Amishav has been active in recent years in urban centers in Spain and Portugal in an effort to restore descendants of the Marranos to the Jewish fold. (This organization, which was founded by Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, is also active in trying to find descendants of the 10 lost tribes.)

Ezra La'anusim has hopes for a genuine shift of attitude, one that would verge on the historic. "Our primary goal is to find conversion courts with Orthodox authority," Prof. Gross explains. "When that court rules in favor of a Marrano's right to return to the ways of his forefathers, no one will be able to dispute it."

Rabbi Zalman Cohen, the association's halakhic adviser, has already begun to contact rabbinical courts abroad. "The problem was that those who dealt with the subject of the Marranos until now were rarely authorized religious court judges, and they did not have the necessary knowledge of the subject," he says after concluding a Torah class in his home close to midnight. "We have made contact with rabbis of the first rank who will be able to resolve the problem. When a Marrano enters the court, these rabbis begin clarifications to ensure that he preserved a Jewish identity. The rabbis whom we have started to work with are authorized to do this."

Could you elaborate?

"To explain exactly what they are doing is like trying to explain how the atomic bomb works to someone who has no knowledge of physics. What's important is that at the end of the hearing the Marrano leaves with a certificate stating he is Jewish and that there is no one in the world who will dare cast doubt on his Jewishness."

What is happening now is only the beginning. The number of Marranos who have benefited from the system described by Rabbi Cohen is negligible compared with the potential. He has no hesitation in assailing the conversions usually performed in Israel. "In Israel we have what is known as wholesale conversion, loose conversion, so there are many people who are unwilling to trust the conversion process that is done here," says Cohen. "Right-wing political forces have taken over the conversion processes here and this is the result. They want cheap labor for the settlements - that is the approach, regrettably. Three weeks ago a Marrano couple arrived who thought that they would find a way out of the dilemma in Israel, but the problem they came up against is that there is no institution here that will restore them to Judaism. These are people who preserved their Jewish identity with selfless devotion, and are treated as though they were gentiles. What a slap in the face this is for them. It's enough to make one cry."

The Chief Rabbinate states in response: "Recently Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar met with representatives of descendants of forced converts from Portugal who are interested in returning to Judaism. With the aim of facilitating the process of the return of the descendants of the anusim to the fold of the Jewish people, the subject will be examined in depth, because of the fear of assimilation among the descendants of the anusim. To examine the Jewishness of the descendants of the anusim, the chief rabbi sent two representatives who are to submit a conclusive report on the subject very soon."

In the meantime, Ezra La'anusim has begun to operate an educational site for the Marranos on the Internet. Miguel Staroi, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Mitzpeh Yericho, teaches a group of 40 students from Colombia twice a week. "I give them lessons in Jewish religious law," he relates. "The subject that they are now taking an interest in is family purification laws. It is a virtual class, in which they listen and watch and can ask questions. Nearly all of them have a university education, nearly all of them have an M.A. It is very thrilling for me to work with them."

Prof. Gross admits, "If I had not thought in terms of large numbers, I think I would not have become involved in the subject. After my meeting with a number of Marranos in Brazil, and endless hours of correspondence via the Internet, I feel that some of them are holding onto me as an anchor. I felt their need for someone to pull them out of the whirlpool. I try to separate the various emotional elements, but there is no doubt that I feel a sense of belonging at the human, national and religious level with these people. If we succeed in the mission we have set ourselves in the association, I will be able to say that this is the greatest thing I was part of in my life."

_______________________________________________________________________________

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=556543

Hispanics Uncovering Roots as Inquisition's 'Hidden' Jews

This is re the NY Times article that was mentioned yesterday on the list.
Since the NY Times needs registration, I thought I'd send the article
referenced so everyone can read it.

Barbara

sent by tavernab@rochester.rr.com To: Anousim@yahoogroups.com

October 29, 2005
Religion

Hispanics Uncovering Roots as Inquisition's 'Hidden' Jews
By SIMON ROMERO


HOUSTON, Oct. 28 - When she was growing up in a small town in southern
Colorado, an area where her ancestors settled centuries ago when it was on
the fringes of the northern frontier of New Spain, Bernadette Gonzalez
always thought some of the stories about her family were unusual, if not
bizarre.

Her grandmother, for instance, refused to travel on Saturday and would use
a specific porcelain basin to drain blood out of meat before she cooked it.
In one tale that particularly puzzled Ms. Gonzalez, 52, her grandfather
called for a Jewish doctor to circumcise him while he was on his death bed
in a hospital in Trinidad, Colo.

Only after Ms. Gonzalez moved to Houston to work as a lawyer and began
discussing these tales with a Jewish colleague, she said, did "the pieces of
the puzzle" start falling into place.

Ms. Gonzalez started researching her family history and concluded that her
ancestors were Marranos, or Sephardic Jews, who had fled the Inquisition in
Spain and in Mexico more than four centuries ago. Though raised in the Roman
Catholic faith, Ms. Gonzalez felt a need to reconnect to her Jewish roots,
so she converted to Judaism three years ago.

"I feel like I came home," said Ms. Gonzalez, who now often uses the first
name Batya. "The fingerprints of my past were all around me, but I didn't
know what they meant."

It is difficult to know precisely how many Hispanics are converting or
adopting Jewish religious practices, but accounts of such embraces of
Judaism are growing more common in parts of the Southwest. In Clear Lake, a
suburb south of Houston, Rabbi Stuart Federow has overseen half a dozen
conversions of Hispanics in recent years. In El Paso, Rabbi Stephen Leon
said he had converted almost 40 Hispanic families since moving to Texas from
New Jersey 19 years ago.

These conversions are the latest chapter in the story of the crypto-Jews,
or hidden Jews, of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, who
are thought to be descended from the Sephardic Jews who began fleeing Spain
more than 500 years ago. The story is being bolstered by recent historical
research and advances in DNA testing that are said to reveal a prominent
role played by crypto-Jews and their descendants in Spain's colonization of
the Southwest.

For more than two decades, anecdotal evidence collected by researchers in
New Mexico, Colorado and Texas suggested that some nominally Catholic
families of Iberian descent had stealthily maintained Jewish customs
throughout the centuries, including lighting candles on Friday evening,
avoiding pork and having the Star of David inscribed on gravestones.

The whispers of hidden rituals coming from thoroughly Catholic communities
were at times met with skepticism. One explanation for these seemingly
Jewish customs was that evangelical Protestant sects active in the Southwest
about a century ago had used Jewish imagery and Hebrew writing in their
proselytizing, and that these symbols had become ingrained in isolated
Hispanic communities.

Skepticism aside, some rabbis view assistance to or conversions of
crypto-Jews as a responsibility. "The American Jewish community provided
support in bringing Soviet, Albanian or Syrian Jews to the United States,
and helping them in their transition," said Rabbi Leon of Congregation B'nai
Zion, a Conservative congregation in El Paso. "I don't see how the
crypto-Jews are any different."

Modern science may now be shedding new light on the history of the
crypto-Jews after molecular anthropologists recently developed a DNA test of
the male or Y chromosome that can indicate an ancestral connection to the
Cohanim, a priestly class of Jews that traces its origin back more than
3,000 years to Aaron, the older brother of Moses.

Family Tree DNA, a Houston company that offers a Cohanim test to its male
clients, gets about one inquiry a day from Hispanics interested in exploring
the possibility of Jewish ancestry, said Bennett Greenspan, its founder and
chief executive. Mr. Greenspan said about one in 10 of the Hispanic men
tested by his company showed Semitic ancestry strongly suggesting a Jewish
background. (Another divergent possibility is that the test might suggest
North African Muslim ancestry.)

"The results have just blown me over, reminding me of something out of
Kaifeng," Mr. Greenspan said, referring to the Chinese city of Kaifeng,
where a small Jewish community persisted for about 1,000 years until the
mid-19th century when it was almost completely assimilated. "Lots of
Hispanic people tell me they're interested in something Jewish and they
can't explain it. Well, this helps explain it."

Not everyone who discovers Jewish ancestry, either through genealogical
research or DNA testing, has decided to convert to Judaism, but some
Hispanics who have found links still feel drawn to incorporate Jewish
customs into their life. For instance, the Rev. William Sanchez, 52, a
Catholic priest in Albuquerque, spent years researching his family's past in
New Mexico before a DNA test three years ago showed that he almost certainly
had the Jewish Cohanim marker.

Since then, Father Sanchez has sought to educate his parishioners on the
connections between Catholicism and Judaism, and has helped oversee the
Nuevo Mexico Project, which tries to identify Sephardic ancestry among
Hispanics from New Mexico. He has encouraged more than 100 of his
parishioners to take DNA tests.

Father Sanchez has also introduced some Jewish customs at St. Edwins Church
in Albuquerque, where he serves; he blew the shofar, or ram's horn, this
month during the Yom Kippur holiday. At another parish where he used to work
in rural northeastern New Mexico, in the village of Villanueva, he would
hold an annual Passover supper.

"I have a pluralistic, not an antagonistic, view of our religions," Father
Sanchez said.

Still, others feel they have to make a clean break upon exploring their
Jewish roots. John García, a lawyer in El Paso whose family moved to the
United States two generations ago from northern Mexico, said he had heard
stories since he was a boy that his family had a Sephardic Jewish past.

He formally converted to Judaism in 2001 and last year had a bar mitzvah in
El Paso, at the age of 53, together with five other crypto-Jews. These days
Mr. García, a lawyer in the public defender's office in El Paso, never works
on the Sabbath and is an active member of Temple Mount Sinai, a Reform
congregation in El Paso.

"I've had to go beyond my comfort level in something I would call a
reversion rather than a conversion," Mr. García said. "There were an
intervening 400 years when my family had become Catholic, but something
about Judaism, I don't know exactly what it was, was kept alive."