WHY BE A MARRANO?     

Preface to :  The Mezzuzah in the Maddonah’s Foot’ , Trudi Alexy, 1994

‘Marrano’ is a pejorative name meaning ‘swine’ given to secret Jews by suspicious Christians during the Spanish Inquisition. I have used it in the book reluctantly—only because it is a historical term with which most people are familiar and because it symbolizes the demeaned status and fear suffered by Jews who were forced to con­vert during that terrible time.

Why does this ugly term have so much resonance for so many people? Why does a book such as mine, which deals primarily with the experiences of Jews in Spain during the past fifty years, keep in­spiring conversation and debate about the mysterious Marrano’s? What is it about the Marrano experience that provokes such in­tense fascination?

The drama of the Marranos dogged determination to cling to their way of life, holding fast to their beliefs and practicing their laws and traditions when being found out meant torture and death, symbolizes, for many, the importance of a connection to one’s an­cestral roots and the miraculous survival of the spirit, even in the most hostile of environments.

One of the many stories recounted in this book compares Judaism to the scraggly cactus, which, unlike other beautifully flow­ering but more fragile plants, not only survives in an arid climate under a burning sun, but thrives. Marranos are the human counter­parts to that cactus.

Speaking with people throughout the U. S. and Canada about Spain, the Jews, and the Holocaust, it is the history of the Marranos that seems to have the most powerful impact—stirring the imagi­nation, rousing the curiosity, and touching the hearts of nearly all who learn about them. I should not be surprised. After all, the Mar­ranos’ influence on my own life was profound: finding out about them inspired me to search for my lost Jewish heritage.

Seldom before has the pull towards one’s own people, the need to belong, the stubborn resistance to assimilation, and the challenge to prevent the blurring of identity emerged with more urgency than now. Today, when frustration over centuries-old suppressed ethnic and religious differences is erupting all around us with atrocities such as the world has not witnessed since the Holocaust, the Mar­ranos’ stubborn but contained commitment to their spiritual her­itage stands as a shining example of fortitude under fire. But the burden of secrecy inherited from their martyred ancestors by pres­ent-day crypto-Jews living in Majorca, Portugal, and South and Central America, as well as in our own American Southwest, passed on from generation to generation through five fear-ridden centuries, is graphic evidence of the enormous price they are still paying. May their tragic legacy help us to create a world in which all people can safely and openly affirm their true identities.

MARRANOS     

INTRODUCTION                                                                                          

New Christians (Jews who converted to Christianity) began to leave Spain after the forced conversions in 1391.  This reached a climax when the Jews were expelled in 1492 followed by the forced  Portuguese conversion of 1497. Pressure to leave was increased by the activities of the Inquisition introduced  in Spain in 1481 and Portugal in 1536.

To stem emigration decrees that were passed forbidding New Christians from emigration, other than to South America,  led to traders going to other countries and not returning sometimes by pretending to go on pilgrimage.  Once safe their object was to practice Judaism openly.  While not all those emigrating were secret Jews the Spanish and Portuguese administration had difficulty distinguishing those who were secret Jews.

Emigrating Marranos could go to four different kinds of countries: Muslim lands, Protestant territories as they came into being, Catholic countries outside the jurisdiction of Spain and Portugal, and Catholic countries within the peninsular orbit.

MARRANO HISTORY
from: The Nutshell History of Marranos of Portugal by Manuel Azevedo

Click here for more detail on Portugal  Stories  Barros Basto  Belmonte

After the forced conversion in 1497 there were supposedly no more Jews in Portugal, only Christians, Old and New. King Manuel ordered the confiscation of all synagogues and their contents. Yeshivas, kosher producing facilities and all communal property were seized. Hebrew books were prohibited and ordered to be deposited in the synagogues. Contrary to some reports, the books were not burned, Manuel may have been cruel, but he was not stupid. He sold the valuable Hebrew manuscripts, many brought to Portugal in 1492. The books turned up in places such as North Africa and Goa. Many synagogues were converted into churches, including the grand synagogue of Lisbon which was destroyed in the great earthquake of 1755. Many contemporary Misericordia churches are former synagogues such as the Misericordia chapel in Vila Real or the Misericordia church in Leiria.

Following the forced baptism, the King encouraged marriages between Old Christians who had titles and “pure blood” and New Christians. He prohibited the inter-marriage of New Christians. There would be no inquiry as to the religious practices of New Christians in their private homes for 20 years but they were not free to leave the realm. However, following the Lisbon massacre of 1506, when two to four thousand New Christian men, women and children, were slaughtered over a period of three days, the King extended the 20 year period and removed many disabilities such as the ability to emigrate and the prohibition on inter-marriage.

The Lisbon massacre, the subject of a recent book by Susana Mateus Basto and Paulo Mendes of the Alberto Benveniste Centre for Sephardic Studies and Culture at the University of Lisbon, signalled a failure of King Manuel’s policy of integration. Most of the New Christians, outwardly Catholic, had remained Jewish in their hearts. The New Christian secret Jews became known as Marranos, from the Portuguese “marrar”, i.e. forced, or from the Aramaic-Hebrew Mar Anus, a forced one, like the widely used Hebrew term today, Anousim, although some historians claim the once pejorative term derives from the Castilian term for swine.

Distressed at the growing rift between New and Old Christians, the King sought permission from Rome to introduce the Inquisition has had been done in Spain in the late 15th century. However, Marrano bribes paid to high ranking Church officials in Rome, including Cardinals and no doubt the Pope himself, thwarted the introduction of the Inquisition in Portugal until 1535 and although the first auto de fe was held in 1540, the Inquisition did not get into full swing until 1580, thus enabling several generations of Marranos to develop a unique secret Portuguese Jewish culture.

The ambiguous Portuguese Marranos became known throughout Europe as “Men of the Nation”. Being Portuguese in 16th century in Europe was synonymous with being Jewish. The Marranos established flourishing Jewish communities in Amsterdam, Bordeaux, London, Hamburg, Venice, Livorno, Salonica, and Constantinople, amongst others. In the New World, the relatively small number of Marranos established communities in Brazil, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Newport Rhode Island, as well as the Caribbean Islands. The success of the American war of Independence owes its success to the financial and material aid provided by the Marranos, then openly professing their Judaism, such as the money and ships provided to George Washington by Aaron Lopez, the wealthiest merchant of the thirteen colonies, born Duarte Lopez in Lisbon.

The Marranos prospered both in business and government wherever they went. It was a the son of a Marrano, Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel (Manuel Dias Soeiro) of Amsterdam, born in Lisbon or Madeira, who convinced Oliver Cromwell in 1656 to allow Jews back into England. The Marranos established the coffee, diamond and tulip industries in Amsterdam. They were instrumental in establishing the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, London and New York. They controlled the sugar and tobacco industries, and regrettably were involved in slavery, amassing huge fortunes.

This rising merchant class created the world’s first truly global Empire (see The First Global Village, How Portugal Changed the World by Martin Page, now in its 8th edition). Lisbon became one of the wealthiest cities in Europe. However, not even the huge bribes paid to the pope and cardinals could keep the Inquisition at bay forever. With the onset of the Inquisition, many of the wealthy Marranos left Portugal, contributing to the decline of Portugal. The poor Marranos, the old and infirm had no option but to remain, becoming even more secretive. Thousands were burned at the stake, including most of the leading intellectuals of the University of Coimbra in the early 17th century. Even Antonio Homem, the chancellor of the University and an advisor to the pope was burned alive in 1624 (he also happened to be a Marrano rabbi). The ones that left established the oldest extant synagogues in the U.S.A; England, and Holland, Touro synagogue, Newport, R.I; 1762 (founded in 1658), Bevis Marks synagogue, London 1701 (founded 1656), and the Esnoga, Amsterdam, 1675 (amalgamated from three communities dating fro 1598). The Esnoga, undisturbed by the Nazis, stands as the model synagogue for the Western Sephardic world. Bevis Marks in London is a replica, one-quarter its size.

The philosophers Baruch Espinoza, Frances Sanches, Uriel Acosta, Montaigne, and David Ricardo were all Marrano descendants. So were rabbis Ben Israel and Aboab Fonseca, the first rabbi in the Americas (Recife, Brazil, 1635). The father of French impressionism, Camille Pissaro was descendant of a Marrano born in Bragança, in the Tras Montes region of Portugal. So too were les freres Peyrere (Pereira) of Bordeaux and later Paris, contemporaries and associates of the Rothchilds. Portugal has yet to recover from this extraordinary brain drain.

It was not until the liberal revolution of the early 19th century that the Inquisition was abolished. Although the Marquis of Pombal invited Jews back to Portugal at the end of the 18th century, very few took up his offer. Some Jews from North Africa and Gibraltar did establish communities in Lisbon, Faro, and the Azores in the 19th century but eventually disappeared. The only surviving remnant maintains a synagogue in Lisbon, Shaare Tikve, and recently a museum opened in the Faro Jewish cemetery.

However, to the surprise of many, indigenous Marranos did survive nearly 300 years of the Inquisition. In 1920, Samuel Schwarz, a Polish engineer working in Portugal, encountered a community of Marranos in the interior of Portugal (Belmonte) who had managed to preserve some of the secret rituals, including prayers, of their ancestors. At first distrustful and denying any Jewish connection, they opened up only after Schwartz recited a Hebrew prayer, in which one of the women elders (women handed down the secret prayers from generation to generation) recognized the Hebrew word, Adonai.. Today Belmonte boasts a modern new synagogue and professional Jewish museum.

About the same time as Schwartz learned of the Marranos of Belmonte, Captain Barros Basto, a decorated World War I veteran founded a synagogue for Marranos, the Mekor Haim synagogue in Porto on the second floor above a store. This charismatic army captain embarked on campaign to convince Marranos to return openly to normative Judaism. In full uniform, sometime on horseback, he travelled the isolated communities of Tras Montes and Beiras, founding several Jewish communities, including Bragança, Covilha and Pinhel. Some estimate his adherents at the time upwards of 10,000. Cecil Roth, who first met him in 1926, described Basto as the most charismatic man he had ever met.

Barros Basto succeeded in creating the community and synagogue in Porto.  As a result of trumped up charges he was cashiered out of the army and died a desolate man.  This decision has been reversed by the Portuguese parliament and he has been posthumously reinstated into the army.  He is known as ‘The Portuguese Dreyfus’.  

The Portuguese government have also passed legislation entitling any Jew who fled Portugal through fear to regain their passport.

CRYPTO JEWS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism                        

INTRODUCTION        

Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as “crypto-Jews” (origin from Greek kryptos – κρυπτός, ‘hidden’). The term crypto-Jew is also used to describe descendants who maintain some Jewish traditions of their ancestors while publicly adhering to other faiths. The term is especially applied historically to European Jews who professed Catholicism. The phenomenon is especially associated with early modern Spain, following the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.

Officially, Jews who converted in Spain in the 14th and 15th centuries were known as Cristianos Nuevos (New Christians), but were commonly called conversos. Spain and Portugal passed legislation restricting their rights in the mother countries and colonies. Despite the dangers of the Inquisition, many conversos continued to secretly and discreetly practice Jewish rituals.

EUROPE      

Overview
In the Balearic Islands, numerous conversos, also called Chuetas, publicly professed Roman Catholicism but privately adhered to Judaism after the Alhambra decree of 1492 and during the Spanish Inquisition. They are among the most widely known crypto-Jews.

In Greece “Romaniote Jews” have been present for a little more than two thousand years. Greek Jews played an important role in the early development of Christianity, and became a source of education and commerce for the Byzantine Empire and throughout the period of Ottoman Greece,[citation needed] until suffering devastation in the Holocaust after Greece was conquered and occupied by the Axis powers in spite of efforts by Greeks to protect them. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, a large percentage of the surviving community emigrated to Israel or the United States. Greek Jews today largely “live side by side in harmony” with Christian Greeks, according to Giorgo Romaio, president of the Greek Committee for the Jewish Museum of Greece, while nevertheless continuing to work with other Greeks, and Jews worldwide, to combat any rise of anti-Semitism in Greece.

Crypto-Judaism dates back to earlier periods when Jews were forced or pressured to convert by the rulers of places they lived in.

Some of the Jewish followers of Sabbatai Zevi (Sabbateans) formally converted to Islam, and later followers of Jacob Frank (“Frankists”) formally converted to Christianity, but maintained aspects of their versions of Messianic Judaism.

Crypto-Jews persisted in Russia and Eastern European countries influenced by the Soviet Union after the rise of Communism with the Russian Revolution of 1917. Rather than being forced to convert, all religion was regarded as undesirable, although some faiths were allowed to continue under strict supervision by the regime. Since the end of Communism, many people in former Soviet states, including descendants of Jews, have publicly taken up the faith of their families again.

The “Belmonte Jews” of Portugal, dating from the 12th century, maintained strong secret traditions for centuries. A whole community survived in secrecy by maintaining a tradition of intermarriage and hiding all external signs of their faith. They and their practices were discovered only in the 20th century. Their rich Sephardic tradition of Crypto-Judaism is unique. Only recently did they contact other Jews. Some now profess Orthodox Judaism, although many still retain their centuries-old traditions.[8]

Xuetes (Chuetas)       

The Xueta are a minority on the Balearic island of Majorca (Mallorca) who are descended almost entirely from crypto-Jews, forced to convert in 1391. The term “xueta” literally translates to “pig”[citation needed] in Catalan, similar to the old Spanish (Castilian) term and marrano, both of the same meaning.

Today, they comprise a population of 20,000–25,000 on an island of 750,000; they have professed Roman Catholicism for centuries but have only recently seen a lessening in tensions with ethnic Majorcans. According to some Orthodox rabbis, the majority of Xuetes are probably Jewish under Jewish law (by descent from Jewish mothers) due to the low rate of intermarriage with outside groups.[citation needed] Only recently have intermarriages between the two groups been more prevalent or noticeable.

During World War II, Nazi Germany was known to have pressured Majorcan religious authorities into surrendering the Xuetes, targeted because of their Jewish ancestry. Reportedly the religious authorities refused the Nazi request.[citation needed]

Several Xuetes are reported to have “reconverted” to Judaism. Some have become rabbis.

Neofiti     

The Neofiti were a group of crypto-Jews living in the Kingdom of Sicily which not only included the island of Sicily but nearly all of Southern Italy from the 13th to the 16th centuries.

ASIA    

There are, or have been, several communities of Crypto-Jews in Muslim lands. The ancestors of the Daggatuns in Morocco probably kept up their Jewish practices a long time after their nominal adoption of Islam. In Iran, a large community of Crypto-Jews lived in Mashhad, near Khorassan, where they were known as “Jedid al-Islam”, who were mass-converted to Islam around 1839. Most of this community left for Israel in 1946, but some have converted into Muslims and live in Iran today. In the central Iranian village of Sebe, local Muslims practice many Jewish customs, such as women lighting a candle on Friday night (the eve of the Jewish Sabbath). Before sundown on Friday, they prepare a small fire which they leave on throughout Saturday, so as not to ignite the fire on Sabbath.

NORTH AMERICA     

There are three distinct historical components to colonial roots of crypto-Judaism, largely restricted to Spanish-held territories in Mexico, each with distinct geographical and temporal aspects: early colonial roots, the frontier province of Nuevo León, and the later northern frontier provinces. The crypto-Jewish traditions have complex histories and are typically embedded in an amalgam of syncretic Roman Catholic and Judaic traditions. In many ways resurgent Judaic practices mirrored indigenous peoples’ maintaining their traditions practiced loosely under Roman Catholic veil. In addition, Catholicism was syncretic, absorbing other traditions and creating a new creole religion.

Early Colonial Period—16th Century

However, Portugal in 1497 issued a similar decree that effectively converted all remaining Jewish children, making them wards of the state unless the parents also converted. Therefore, many of the early crypto-Jewish migrants to Mexico in the early colonial days were technically first to second generation Portuguese with Spanish roots before that. The number of such Portuguese migrants was significant enough that the label of “Portuguese” became synonymous with “Jewish” throughout the Spanish colonies. Immigration to Mexico offered lucrative trade possibilities in a well-populated colony with nascent Spanish culture counterbalanced by a large non-Christian population. Migrants thought the culture would be more tolerant since the lands were overwhelmingly populated by non-Christian indigenous peoples.

Colonial officials believed that many crypto-Jews were going to Mexico during the 16th century and complained in written documents to Spain that Spanish society in Mexico would become significantly Jewish. Officials found and condemned clandestine synagogues in Mexico City. At this point, colonial administrators instituted the Law of the Pure Blood, which prohibited migration to Mexico for New Christians (Cristiano Nuevo), i.e. anyone who could not prove to be Old Christians for at least the last three generations. During this time, the administration initiated the Mexican Inquisition to ensure the Catholic orthodoxy of all migrants into Mexico. The Mexico Inquisition was also deployed in the traditional manner to ensure orthodoxy of converted indigenous peoples. The first victims of burnings or autos de fé of the Mexican Inquisition were indigenous converts convicted of heresy or crypto-Jews convicted of relapsing into their ancestral faith.

Except for the province of Nuevo León, initiation of the Blood Purity Laws reduced the migration of conversos.

Nuevo León—1590s to early 17th century     

The history of the colonization of New Spain can be described as a northward expansion over increasingly hostile geography well-populated by angered tribes and loose confederations of indigenous peoples being conquered. Spain financed the expansion by exploiting mineral wealth, using indigenous peoples as labor in mines, and establishing ranchos for raising livestock. One troublesome region was a large expanse covering the North-Eastern quadrant of New Spain (Nueva España). Chichimec, Apache and other tribes were resistant to Christianization and “settling”. They were perceived to render the frontier (frontera) a lawless and unsettled region.

Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva was a Portuguese New Christian royal accountant who received a royal charter to settle Nuevo León, a large expanse of land in the hostile frontier. Significantly, in the charter Carvajal y de la Cueva received an exemption from the usual requirement that he prove that all new settlers were “old Christians” rather than recently converted Jews or Muslims. This exemption allowed people, especially Crypto-Jews, to come to Nuevo León who were legally barred from entering New Spain elsewhere. Many of the 100 soldiers and 60 laborers Carabajal was authorized to bring to New Spain were Crypto-Jews.

With Carvajal as governor, Monterrey was established as the center, currently in the state of Nuevo León. Within a few years, some people reported to Mexico City that Jewish rites were being performed in the Northern Province and efforts to convert heathen indigenous peoples were lax.[citation needed] The principal economic activity of Carvajal and his associates seems to have been capturing Indians and selling them into slavery. Carvajal’s Lieutenant Governor, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, led a large expedition to New Mexico in 1591 in an effort to establish a colony. Castaño was arrested for this unauthorized expedition and sentenced to exile in the Philippines. The sentence was later reversed but he had already been killed in a slave revolt.

The governor, his immediate family members, and others of his entourage were called to appear before the Inquisition in Mexico City. They were arrested and jailed. The governor subsequently died in jail, while his family members were rehabilitated. One of these was Anna Carvajal, a niece of the Governor. She and others were later again taken captive and sentenced to burning at the stake for relapsing.

The governor’s nephews changed their name to Lumbroso. One of these was Joseph Lumbroso, also known as Luis de Carvajal el Mozo, who is said to have circumcised himself in the desert to conform to Jewish law. His memoirs, letters and inquisition record survive. Two other nephews also changed their names to Lumbroso and migrated to Italy, where they became famous rabbis.

When Governor Carvajal was in office, the city of Monterrey became a destination for other crypto-Jews feeling the pressure of the Mexican Inquisition in the south of the territory. Thus, the story of Nuevo León and the founding of Monterrey are significant as it attracted crypto-Jewish migrants from all parts of New Spain. They created one of the earliest Jewish-related communities in earlier Mexico. (The Jewish communities in modern Mexico which practice their Judaism openly were not established until the considerable immigration from eastern Europe, Turkey and Syria in the late 19th century and 20th century.)

Former New Spain territories in the modern-day southwestern U.S., 17th–18th centuries       

Due to the activities of the New Spain Inquisition in Nuevo León, many crypto-Jewish descendants migrated to other frontier colonies further west to the trade routes passing through the towns of Sierra Madres Occidental and Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Cananea (Canaan) and further north on the trade route to Paso del Norte (Juarez/El Paso) and Santa Fe (both cities in the then colonial Province of New Mexico), Bisbee Arizona and somewhat less in Alta California.

In the former Spanish-held northern New Spain (modern-day Southwestern United States), some Hispanic Roman Catholics have stated a belief that they are descended from crypto-Jews and have started practicing Judaism. They often cite as evidence memories of older relatives practicing Jewish traditions. The crypto-Jews of New Mexico have been documented by several research scholars including Stanley M. Hordes,[16] Janet Liebman Jacobs,[17] Schulamith Halevy, and Seth D. Kunin.[18] Only one researcher, folklorist Judith Neulander, has been skeptical of the authenticity of the Jewish ancestry of Hispanos of the Southwest, she argues that these remembered traditions could be those of Ashkenazi, not Sephardi, Jews and may possibly be constructed memories due to suggestion by proponents. She also argues that the Jewish traditions practiced by older relatives were introduced by groups of Evangelical Protestant Christians who purposely acquired and employed Jewish traditions as part of their religious practices.[19] Neulander’s theory has been directly addressed in Kunin’s book “Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among the Crypto-Jews”. More recently, Evangelical Protestant Christians have opened missionary groups aimed at cultivating evangelical doctrine in Southwestern American communities where crypto-Judaism had survived.

Current times     

According to a December 2008 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, 19.8 percent of modern Spaniards (and Portuguese) have DNA reflecting Sephardic Jewish ancestry (compared to 10.6 percent having DNA reflecting Moorish ancestors. The Sephardic result is in contradiction or not replicated in all the body of genetic studies done in Iberia and has been relativized by the authors themselves and questioned by Stephen Oppenheimer who estimate that much earlier migrations, 5,000 to 10,000 years ago from the Eastern Mediterranean might also have accounted for the Sephardic estimates. “They are really assuming that they are looking at this migration of Jewish immigrants, but the same lineages could have been introduced in the Neolithic”. The same authors in also a recent study (October 2008) attributed most of those same lineages in Iberia and the Balearic Islands as of Phoenician origin. The rest of genetic studies done in Spain estimate the Moorish contribution ranging from 2.5/3.4% to 7.7%.

Recent genetic research, however, has shown that many Latinos of the American Southwest may be descended from Anusim (Sephardic Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism). Michael Hammer, a research professor at the University of Arizona and an expert on Jewish genetics, said that fewer than 1% of non-Semites, but more than four times the entire Jewish population of the world, possessed the male-specific “Cohanim marker” (which in itself is not necessarily carried by all Jews, but is prevalent among Jews claiming descent from hereditary priests), and 30 of 78 Latinos tested in New Mexico (38.5%) were found to be carriers. DNA testing of Hispanic populations also revealed between 10% and 15% of men living in New Mexico, south Texas and northern Mexico have a Y chromosome that traces back to the Middle East.[20] There is no certainty that these lineages are Middle Eastern, as they could also be of earlier Phoenician and later North African influence. Tunisians also rank very high with the Y- chromosome marker that is related to Cohanim. There could be a North African connection for this as well. There is no specific Jewish DNA marker and with so much Moorish and Phoenician settlement in Spain one cannot tell the religion of the bearers ancestors.

In Northern Mexico, Monterrey, the capital city of the state of Nuevo León, that shares a border with Texas, is said to contain descendants of Crypto-Jews. The church in Agualeguas, Nuevo León, Mexico indeed has Star of David windows beneath the Christian cross atop the domed roof. The state of Jalisco has several cities with large numbers of Anusim, mainly Guadalajara, Ciudad Guzmán, and Puerto Vallarta, although a steady influx of Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe during the late 19th century and early to mid-20th century into Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Veracruz is also widely known.

In the Old Town area of Albuquerque New Mexico, the San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church, built in 1793 to replace the original 1706 mission church, contains a Star of David on the left and right sides of the altar; evidence of the influence of Crypto-Jews in New Mexico. Many Jewish symbols can be found on cemetery headstones in Northern New Mexico, alongside Catholic crosses.

Today, there are about 40,000 Mexican Jews, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Researchers and historians say that number would rise considerably if Anusim (or Crypto-Jews) were included in those estimates.

CENTRAL, SOUTH AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN     

As in the American Southwest, in the department of Antioquia, Colombia, as well as in the greater Paisa region, many families also hold traditions and oral accounts of Jewish descent. In this population, Y chromosome genetic analysis has shown an origin of founders predominantly from “southern Spain but also suggest that a fraction came from northern Iberia and that some possibly had a Sephardic origin”. The Medellín tradition of the marranada, where a pig is slaughtered, butchered and consumed on the streets of every neighborhood each Christmas has been interpreted as an annual affirmation of the rejection of Jewish law.

A safe haven destination for Sephardic Conversos during the Spanish Colony was Santa Cruz de la Sierra.[25] In 1557 many Crypto-Jews joined Ñuflo de Chávez and were among the pioneers who founded the city.[26] During the 16th century several Crypto-Jews that faced persecution from the Inquisition and local authorities in nearby Potosí, La Paz and La Plata also moved to Santa Cruz for it was the most isolated urban settlement and because the Inquisition did not bother the Conversos there for this frontier town was meant to be a buffer to the Portuguese and Guaraní raids that threatened the mines of Peru. Several of them settled in the city of Santa Cruz and its adjacent towns of Vallegrande, Postrervalle, Portachuelo, Terevinto, Pucarà, Bolivia, Cotoca and others.

Several of the oldest Catholic families in Santa Cruz are in fact of Jewish origin; some traces of Judaic practices are still alive among them and have also influence the rest of the community. As recent as the 1920s, several families preserved seven-branched candle sticks and served dishes cooked with reminiscing kosher practices. It is still customary among certain old families to light candles on Friday at sunset and to mourn the deaths of dear relatives on the floor. After almost five centuries, some of the descendants of these families still acknowledge their Jewish origin, but practice Catholicism (in certain cases with some Jewish syncretism).

Some Crypto-Jews established in the outskirts of San José, Costa Rica since the 16th century. They passed as Catholics in public and practiced their Jewish rituals in privacy. In the town of Itzkazú (modern day Escazú) some Crypto-Jewish families could not achieve total secrecy of their condition and locals started to associate their rituals and unintelligible prayers in Hebrew as witchcraft. Since then, Escazú has been known in Costarrican folklore as the ¨city of the witches¨.

In Peru, conversos arrived at the time of the Spanish Conquest. At first, they had lived without restrictions because the Inquisition was not active in Peru at the beginning of the Viceroyalty. Then, with the advent of the Inquisition, New Christians began to be persecuted, and, in some cases, executed. In this period, these people were sometimes called “marranos”, converts (“conversos”), and “cristianos nuevos” (New Christians) even if they had not been among the original converts from Judaism and had been reared as Catholics. The descendants of these Colonial Sephardic Jewish descent converts to Christianity settled mainly in the north of the Andes and of the high jungle of Peru, and they were assimilated to local people.

In addition to these communities, Roman Catholic-professing communities who are descendants of Crypto-Jews are said to exist in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico[29] and in various other Spanish-speaking countries of South America, such as Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Ecuador. From these communities comes the proverb, “Catholic by faith, Jewish by blood”.

All the above localities were former territories of either the Spanish or Portuguese Empires, where the Inquisition eventually followed and continued investigating Crypto-Jews who had settled there. The Inquisition endured longer in the colonies than it had in Spain itself.

LINKS     

1.   Jacobs, J (2002). Hidden Heritage: The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews. University of California Press. p. [page needed]. ISBN 978-0-520-23517-5. OCLC 48920842.

2.  Tobias, HJ (1992). A History of the Jews in New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press. p. [page needed]. ISBN 978-0-8263-1390-4. OCLC 36645510.

3.  Alexy, T (2003). The Marrano Legacy: A Contemporary Crypto-Jewish Priest Reveals Secrets of His Double Life. University of New Mexico Press. p. [page needed]. ISBN 978-0-8263-3055-0. OCLC 51059087.

4.  Benbassa, E; Rodrique, A (2000). Sephardi Jewry: A History of the Judeo-Spanish Community, 14th-20th Centuries (Jewish Communities in the Modern World). University of California Press. p. [page needed]. ISBN 978-0-520-21822-2. OCLC 154877054.

5.  Gerber, JS (1994). Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience. Free Press. p. [page needed]. ISBN 978-0-02-911574-9. OCLC 30339044.

6.  a b Levine Melammed, Renee. “Women in Medieval Jewish Societies.” Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship. Ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn. New York: New York University Press, 2009. 105-106.

7.  See David M. Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002).

8.  Socolovsky, J (2003). “For Portugal’s crypto-Jews, new rabbi tries to blend tradition with local custom”. Retrieved 2007-04-16.

9.  Gitlitz, D (2000). Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews. Jewish Publication Society of America. ISBN 978-0-8276-0562-6. OCLC 33861844.

10.  Pirnazar, Jaleh. “The “Jadid Al-Islams” of Mashhad”. Iran Nameh (Bethesda, MD, USA: Foundation for Iranian Studies) XIX.

11.  Hilda Nissimi (December 2006). The Crypto-Jewish Mashhadis. ISBN 978-1-84519-160-3.

ANUSIM
from Wikipedia     

Meaning

Anusim  is a legal category of Jews in halakha (Jewish law) who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically while forcibly converted to another religion. The term “anusim” is most properly translated as the “coerced [ones]” or the “forced [ones]”.

The religious legal terms anús/anusáh/anusim were applied to those Jews who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, and yet had children who continued to do whatever was in their power to continue practicing Judaism under the forced conditions. The terminology derives from the Talmudic phrase “`averah b’ones (Hebrew: עבירה באונס‎).”, meaning “a forced transgression.” The Hebrew term “ones” originally referred to any case where a Jew has been forced into any act against his or her will. The term anús is used in contradistinction to meshumad which means a person who has voluntarily abandoned the practice of Jewish Law in whole or part.

In more recent times, the term Anusim or Reverse Marrano has been used to describe Ultra-Orthodox Jews who are religious on the outside, but are not necessarily practicing in private.

History of Use    

The term anusim became more frequently used after the forced conversion to Christianity of Ashkenazi Jews in Germany at the end of the 11th century. In his religious legal opinions, Rashi, a French rabbi who lived during this period, commented about the issue of anusim.

Several centuries later, following the mass forced conversion of Sephardi Jews (those Jews with extended histories in Spain and Portugal, known jointly as Iberia, or “Sepharad” in Hebrew) of the 15th and 16th centuries, the term “anusim” became widely used by Spanish rabbis and their successors for the following 600 years, henceforth becoming associated with Sephardic history.

The term may be properly applied to any Jew of any ethnic division. Since that time, it has also been applied to other forced or coerced converted Jews, such as the Mashadi Jews of Persia (modern Iran), who converted to Islam in the public eye, but secretly practised Judaism at home. They lived dual-religious lives, being fully practising Muslims in public life, and fully practising Jews at home.