New DNA Project: Puerto Rico - Mallorca - Jewish descendants

A new DNA project has been organized for Puerto Ricans. Its primary objective is to find a possible DNA signature among those with known or suspected Mallorcan/Jewish ancestry.

Mallorca or Majorca are the two spellings for the same place in the Catalan-speaking Balearic Isles, near Barcelona, Spain. In 1391, the Jews of Mallorca were forcibly converted to Catholicism, some stayed, others left. They were known as Chuetas. We'll use the Mallorca spelling for this post.

Project members will have some connection to (or combination of) Mallorcan, Puerto Rican, Jewish ancestry. All data will be analyzed along with genealogical and historical information to track the once secret immigration of Jews from Mallorca to Puerto Rico.

For more information, see the project Mallorcan_Jews_PR here at FamilyTreeDNA.com.

Seham Lewis is organizing the project. She writes:

The Spanish Inquisition forced many Jews to take on new identities and relocate to other colonies, such as Puerto Rico. However, the tribunals extended to the New World forcing many to continue hiding their faith. As a result, the Jewish presence on the island has gone virtually unknown not only to the Jewish Diaspora, but to its own Puerto Rican descendants. With this project I hope to tell their story.

This is a Y-DNA project for males only, whose direct paternal line comes from this area. Females can have a male relative test or investigate mtDNA (maternal) tests and projects.

Why is Seham so interested in this project?

She wants to bring awareness to both Puerto Ricans and Jews around the world that Jewish people have been on the island since its early settlement by the Spanish. Many Puerto Ricans still do not comprehend this piece of their history because the Inquisition tribunals were replicated in the New World.

According to Seham, Inquisition tribunals were also set up in the Americas covering the four Viceroyalties. Puerto Rico fell under the New Spain Viceroyalty which covered what is present day South and Central America (minus Brazil and the northeast region of South America which was Portuguese), and some of the Caribbean islands. [The Inquisitors and the Jews in the New World, summaries of procesos, 1500-1810, and bibliographic guide; Liebman, Seymour B.; 1976 edition. University of Miami Press].

Many Jews, she adds, seem to find this fact peculiar, which she is still trying to understand. Her family in Dorado, Puerto Rico, did not know there was a Conservative synagogue just 20 minutes away from them, let alone that there are four congregations: Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, and Chabad.

My answer to both Jewish and Puerto Rican people is “Well, why not”. When you really think about this, it makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, the Spanish were too good at “protecting” their New World and blood line from the Jews.

However they weren’t 100% successful and one can see this by the growing number of Puerto Ricans discovering or somehow sensing they have Jewish ancestry. The scarcity of documentation on Jews in Puerto Rico forces one to be creative and analyze the topic “sideways.” The genius of Bennett Greenspan’s genetic genealogy has provided one the possibility to find connections when little or no records exist.

Studies done on present-day Mallorcan Jews have shown their DNA to be relatively homogenous and unchanged from one generation to the next.

Athough Seham is not a scientist, her theory and hope is that a pattern will show itself among Puerto Ricans with Mallorcan-Jewish ancestry. Her first member is R1b1b2, and he has upgraded from 12 to 37 markers to receive more information.

Since many Puerto Ricans do not know that they may have Jewish lineage, she opened the project to include anyone who knows or suspects they have Mallorcan ancestry. "I can use the non-Puerto Rican DNA results as a sort of comparison. Maybe…," she adds.

Seham hopes to turn this research into a Master’s thesis, but the topic is raising much skepticism among Jews and Puerto Ricans. Therefore, she has to prove that Mallorcan Jews existed in Puerto Rico, and then find their descendants.

Initially, she wanted to trace the early Jewish presence in Puerto Rico, but quickly realized the enormity of such a project. While reading a late 1800s book on island resources, she saw that the author describes “the inhabitants” (put in quotations because his wording seemed to describe specimens and not people) of Puerto Rico.

He refers to the locals as Jibarros- those who live in the countryside. Every Puerto Rican knows the term Jibarro, and many understand its negative undertones. What many did not know, including myself, is that these Jibarros were said to be descendants of Mallorcan Jews, the Chuetas, AKA “the People of the Street.” I was unfamiliar with the term Chuetas. I kept telling myself it was such an ugly and odd name for a group of people because it sounded like ChuLetas, pork chops in Spanish.

I guess I found the name so horrible that I didn’t make the connection until the next day.

Suddenly, says Seham, a flood of Mallorcan references in her life appeared as if they were waiting for their cue. It is rumored that her mother’s paternal line is from Mallorca, but she is still searching for documentation. Her family surnames are among those found in Inquisition records for Mallorca: Correa, Rodriguez, Maldonado, Rivera and Escalera.

Although not a solid genealogical indicator of ancestry, I recalled eating Pan de Majorca, a type of morning bread or sandwich. I then found two street names with Judio in 2 different municipalities in Puerto Rico: “Cuesta de los Judios” in Yauco and “Sector Judio” in Utuado.

She insists that there must be a reason to have such names extant in those towns. She's currently investigating possible connections. In the meantime, she's hoping her DNA project will attract participants. She's also looking to develop a fund to defray testing costs.

Learn more about the project at the link above, and contact Seham for questions or more information at the project site link.

Spain: Cervera archives update report

Archival resources in Cervera is the subject of an extensive report by Maria Jose Surribas-Camps in Barcelona.

My very good friend Maria Jose has done research in Catalan and other archives for many Sephardic researchers, including Jeff Malka, Judy Simon, Dan Laby, myself and others. She knows her way around the archives and her multi-lingual talents are put to good use translating documents in old Catalan, Latin and more.

We first met years ago when I spoke at Congregation Atid in Barcelona, and conducted a hand's-on workshop on Jewish genealogy - Maria Jose was one of the students and we've been good friends ever since.

A former attorney, her research skills are impeccable. Genealogy became her focus as she helped her maternal uncle, a well-known author and physician, prepare a work on medieval medical doctors (many of whom were Jewish) and conducted extensive archival research. Her maternal family comes from around Lerida (also known as Lleida), about 140 km northwest of Barcelona, and she discovered our TALALAY family's first two documents in Spain.

Most recently, she has been preparing a report on her investigations into the Cervera, Spain, archives, a rich primary resource for the history of medieval Sephardic Jews, for the International Institute of Jewish Genealogy.

Maria Jose will be speaking in Ravenna, Italy at July's EAJS (European Association of Jewish Studies) Congress, where she will present “Connecting with the Lives and Lineages of Medieval Catalan Jews.” Other speakers focusing on Jewish genealogy at that conference will be:

-- Valts Apinis, University of Riga: “Jews in Latvia in 1918-1940: a Genealogical Perspective.”

-- Federica Francesconi, University of Bologna and UCLA: “An Alternative Path toward Emancipation: Jewish; Merchants and their Cross-Cultural Networks in 18th Century Italian Ghettos."

-- Neville Lamdan, Hebrew University, Jerusalem:“Village Jews in the 19th Century Minsk Gubernya through a Genealogical Lens.”

According to director Neville Lamdan, in the International Institute of Jewish Genealogy's semi-annual report:

Perhaps the most exciting research results to be reported recently were received from Mrs. Maria Jose Surribas-Camps in Barcelona regarding her study into the “Lives and Lineages of Medieval Jews” in the provincial town of Cervera, in pre-Expulsion Spain.

Maria Jose has uncovered some 3,000 original documents in Latin and old Catalan, dated 1328-1499. The documents have revealed new discoveries on medieval Jews, as well as several important Cervera families, including rabbinical scholar “Rashba,” (1235-1310).

She has proved that unexplored small town Spanish archives are goldmines for the history and genealogy of Sephardi families living today around the world, who trace their families to pre-Expulsion Spain.

From a May 2009 progress report, Maria Jose provides the following two documents (1362, 1365) as examples of what can be found [TTT has added color to emphasize what details are in the documents]:

“Quod ego magister Abraam Astruch Zatorra judeus nunc Cervarie, tutor et curator Moise Abraam Zatorra, filii meum … Testes … Vital Gracia” – from which we learn that, on October 8, 1362 (document date), the aforesaid Jews were in Cervera, that Abraam Astruch Zatorra, Jew, did not originate from Cervera, and that he was the tutor and guardian of his son Moise (uses the same hereditary surname). The brief quote provides useful information on how middle and surnames were used during that period. It is also helpful to come across the same names more than once to avoid erroneous conclusions.

In another Notary book, dated June 30, 1365, we read “… ad hoc ego Abram Astruh Zatorre, fisicus, locumtenenti Vital Fferrari, judeus secretarii aliame iudeorum Cervarie …” from which we learn that Abram was a medical doctor.

Maria Jose is now working on the final version of her report (which will appear on the IIJG website). Additionally, and in conjunction with our good friend Dr. Jeffrey S. Malka ("Sephardic Genealogy"), she will prepare a book on the archival material.

Sephardic researchers worldwide are waiting for the results of what she has discovered. Read more of the IIJG 2010 mid-year report here. Read about the Cervera archives here. Read the May 2009 report here.

Spain: Anti-Jewish riots began today in 1391

On this day, June 6, in 1391, anti-Jewish riots began in Seville, instigated by Ferrand Martiniz, and soon spread across the country, decimating the Jewish populations of major communities and resulting in mass forced conversions to Catholicism and massacres of those who refused.

Some 10,000 Jews are estimated to have been murdered, many more forcibly converted. Some communities were complete destroyed, such as the 400-year-old Barcelona community, others were re-established in some way. While thousands of individuals went underground and maintained secret Jewish lives, other families and individuals left for other geographic areas.

This was a precursor to the later Inquisition and the 1492 exile.

Click here to learn what else happened this day in Jewish history. Here are some important facts - the list goes through 2010!

1242: Two dozen wagonloads of Talmudic volumes and 200 other rabbinic manuscripts were burned at Paris.1247: Pope Innocent IV contacts the king of Navarre. In a dispatch he requested the king compel Christian debtors to pay off their debt to Jewish lenders.

1506: Birthdate of King John III of Portugal. Persecution of Marranos and Conversos intensified during his reign with the arrival of the Inquisition. On the other hand he met with David Reubeini in 1525 and the two negotiated over the possibility of the King supplying this adventurer with as many as eight ships to use in a fight against the Moslem leader, Selim I. Since much of the life of Reubeni is shrouded in myth and half truths, we cannot be sure as to the reason the negotiations failed.1539: The Inquisition was introduced into Mexico.

1808: Birthdate of Jacob Raphael De Cordova, Texas land agent and colonizer. A native of Jamaica, he settled in Philadelphia in the 1820’s with his father before moving to Texas in 1839. Jacob and his brother Phineas De Cordova operated one of the largest land agencies in Texas. Jacob was one of three men who helped lay out Waco in 1848. He passed away in 1868.

1855: Isaac Kaatz, Gottlieb Milhelm and Anton First were arrested today on charges of having been involved in the theft of eight cows from a farm belong to Colonel Lewis Morris. The three carcasses found in the possession of the accused all bore a mark indicating that they were Kosher.

1859: In Australia, Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales. By 1865, there were enough Jews living in the Queensland city of Brisbane that a congregation was formed that held services in a local Masonic hall until 1886 when a sanctuary with a seating capacity of 400. In 1879, the Jews of Toowoomba, Queensland, built a synagogue which, as the community shrunk in size, was only used on the High Holidays.

1875: Birthdate of Novelist Thomas Mann. Mann was not Jewish but in 1905 he married Katia Pringsheim, daughter of prominent family of Jewish intellectuals. They had six children. Mann left Nazi German in 1933, four years after having won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He lived in the United States for many years. He died in Switzerland in 1955, never having lived in his native land again.

1894: Governor Davis H. Waite ordered the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike. Famed financier Bernard Baruch was one of those who got his start in the “strike it rich” world of Cripple Creek. Arriving from the east, Baruch bought shares of stock in the San Francisco mine. During the day he worked as a “mucker” and at night he played at the roulette wheel in a local gambling joint where he was so successful that he was barred by the owners. Baruch took his winnings and headed back to New York where he gained fame and fortune. Sam Butcher, a Hungarian Jew, was one of the few Jews who actually made money in industrial mining in Cripple Creek. Because many of his fellow miners were blatant anti-Semites, Butcher “took pains to conceal his identity” until he had gained financial success. Sam and Bertha Flax were one of the first, if not the first Jewish couple to marry in Cripple Creek. They tied the knot in 1909. Sam was not much of a miner but he would prove be a successful restaurant owner in Denver, Colorado.

For more, visit This Day in Jewish History.

New York: Forced converts talk, June 13

The historic Gomez Mill House museum is the venue for a program on the forced converts of the Spanish Inquisition on Sunday, June 13.

Sephardic scholar and author Shelomo Alfassa will present "The Impact of the Spanish Inquisition on the Forced Jewish Converts," at 1pm at the oldest standing Jewish dwelling in North America.

Alfassa coordinates Special Projects for the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History in New York City. The program was organized by the Gomez Foundation for Mill House, which manages and operates the 296-year-old Gomez Mill House in Marlboro, Orange County, New York.

Named for Jewish merchant Luis Moses Gomez - a descendant of a forcibly converted Jewish family - who built it in 1714, other pioneers, patriots and significant owners who came later are also honored at the house.

Gomez was born in Spain, fled with his family to southwest France, and arrived in New York via England and the Caribbean. The building was a trading post for his business interests and trade along the Hudson River.

During 2010, a Sunday series at Mill House includes tours, workshops and other activities at the house which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum's goal is to raise awareness of the long history and roe of American Jews as pioneers, predating the American Revolution by many decades. For more information on this and other programs, click here.

A busy schedule: Flying to the US

Tracing the Tribe wishes readers a happy holiday weekend with friends and family. Travel safely.

I'm off to Los Angeles in the early hours of Tuesday June 1, arrive the same day after a long flight, and jump right into a busy schedule. I'm looking forward to meeting Tracing the Tribe readers at every stop. Please make sure to come by and say hello.

• After a few days with good friend and fellow Mogilev researcher Hilary Henkin, I will be speaking on Sephardic research at the JGS of Conejo Valley (and Ventura County) at 1.30pm, Sunday June 6, at Adat Elohim in Thousand Oaks.
• From June 11-13, I will be at the Southern California Genealogical Society's 41st Jamboree at the Burbank Marriott - always an amazing event - where I'll be on the advanced bloggers' panel and also speak on our IberianAshkenaz DNA Project from the administrators' viewpoint. I'm looking forward to seeing many of my Geneablogger colleagues, Tracing the Tribe readers and will be blogging away all weekend. I'll also be helping out at the MyHeritage booth, as I also write the MyHeritage Genealogy Blog.
• On June 13, as Jamboree ends, I go north to Los Altos to visit good friends Rosanne and Dan Leeson and hope to also see friends in San Jose and Monterrey.
• July 4th weekend is at the Association of Jewish Libraries' conference, July 4-7, at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel., Seattle There are several family history sessions this year: history of names (Jewish European names, 18th-19th Centuries), researching Sephardi Jews (including Yeshiva University's Sephardic collections, and using social media in relation to Sephardic studies), Jewish archives, Jewish social history, social media, Seattle's Sephardic history, Jewish business in the Far West, Yiddish culture, in addition to many others on archives, libraries and more.
• To Los Angeles on July 8 to get ready for JGSLA 2010's big international Jewish genealogy conference from July 11-16. I'll be presenting on the wonderful world of genealogy blogging, our IberianAshkenaz DNA Project and how to create your own DNA project, on Sephardic research, speaking with Thomas MacEntee and Lisa Louise Cooke at a social media expert's breakfast, and much more. I'll be blogging from there all week attempting to attend as many as possible of the 150+ speakers presenting 300+ programs.
• On July 16, just as JGSLA2010 ends, I'm off to El Paso, Texas for the 7th Bnai Anousim Sephardic Conference, July 16-19, at Congregation Bnai Zion, where I will be speaking on Genealogy 101 and Sephardic research.
• Then to Houston to enjoy a few days with FamilyTreeDNA.com's Bennett Greenspan and his family.
• New York City is next to see family and friends for a few weeks.

Sounds like a lot of work with all those conferences, but how can we possibly call genealogy-related activities "work"? We love it!

Vacations are great, breaks are necessary but, after this one, I'm sure I'll need another "real" vacation!

While I'm trying to schedule in as many Tracing the Tribe blog posts to automatically publish, there may be some slow days due to travel arrangements or other activities.

It's the summer and everyone needs to kick back a little.

I'm already working on a travel schedule for October. I'm hoping to again attend the Mont Juic Institute's October 18-20 conference (in Barcelona and Valencia) on Catalan-speaking Jews, and the FamilyTreeDNA administrator's conference October 30-31. An East Coast speaking tour may also be in the works.

El Paso: 7th Sephardic Anousim Conference, July 16-19

The seventh Sephardic Anousim Conference - "Past, Present & Future: Identities of B’nai Anousim" - will take place at Congregation B'nai Zion, July 16-19, in El Paso, Texas. Rabbi Stephen Leon leads the congregation, where some 50 families have returned to Judaism.

Tracing the Tribe is delighted to have been invited to speak at this year's conference with a theme of such great personal interest. For several years, I've attempted to attend both the Sephardic Anousim and Crypto-Judaic Studies events, but they've always conflicted with the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. This year, fortunately, the dates worked out and I'll arrive directly from the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (July 11-16, in Los Angeles).

Rabbi Leon introduced a resolution at the December 2009 United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism biennial convention to honor and remember victims of the Spanish Inquisition on Tisha B’Av. The resolution passed unanimously, applies to Conservative congregations and honors Bnai Anousim who have returned to Judaism. Here's the text:

Resolution on the observance of Tisha B’av to be a day to commemorate the Spanish Inquistion and the return of the Anousim to Judaism

Whereas the holiday of Tisha B’av recalls the very day that the expulsion of the Jews from Spain took place in the year 1492; and

Whereas many Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity publicly, but continued to practice Judaism in secret; and Whereas many of the descendants of these Jews who are called B’nei Anousim have returned formally to Judaism today, and many are in the same process,

Now, therefore be it resolved that the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism calls upon all of its affiliated congregations to formally observe Tisha B’av on an annual basis as an occasion to educate its members about the history and events of the Spanish Inquisition regarding the Jewish people, and to inform its members of the return of the B’nei Anousim to Judaism today; and

Be it further resolved that the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism helps to provide programs, speakers, films, and other appropriate materials for such Spanish Inquisition and B’nai Anousim commemorations on Tisha B’av.

The fee is $118 per person (scholarships/subsidies available) and includes meals. Group hotel rates ($79/night including full breakfast) are available at the Holiday Inn, 900 Sunland Park Drive. Mention the B'nai Zion conference when making hotel reservations by June 23 for the special rate.

The Jewish Federation of El Paso provides generous financial assistance for this annual conference.

Payment and registration should be sent by July 1 to Congregation B’nai Zion, 805 Cherry Hill Lane, El Paso, Texas 79912. Contact Sonya Loya or Rabbi Stephen Leon for more information, for the registration form, or call the congregation, 915-833-2222.

Here's the program:

Friday, July 16
-- 6.15pm: Shabbat evening services, traditional Shabbat dinner; Keynote Speaker: Andree Aelion Brooks: “Portugal: Facing up to its Converso Heritage and the Impact upon our B’nai Anousim”

Saturday, July 17
-- 9.30am: Shabbat morning services, Kiddush lunch; Speaker: Andree A. Brooks: “Dona Gracia Nassi, Her Life and Times as a Role Model for Today;"; Speaker: Schelly Talalay Dardashti: “Genealogy 101 & Sephardic Research Trends"
-- Shabbat rest
-- 7pm Mincha; Seudah Shlisheet; Speaker: Rabbi Juan Mejia: “Moving Onward with the Anousim Movement”
-- Ma’ariv & Havdalah
-- Art Gala: Wine and hors d’oeuvres; Introduction by Sonya A. Loya,  presenting artists Elizabeth Genova, Dan Grife, artisan Sonya Loya and photographer Peter Svarzbein.

Sunday, July 18
-- 8.30am: Morning services, bagel breakfast; Speaker: Rabbi Stephen A. Leon: “Tisha B’Av: A Resolution Realized”
-- Panel discussion
-- 2.30pm: Play, "Parted Waters," by Robert Benjamin
-- 5pm:  Evening services

Monday, July 19
-- Tisha B'av speaker: Dennis Durfee, Portland, Oregon

For more information and the registration form, go to the Bnai Zion website or email Sonya Loya or Rabbi Stephen Leon at the links above.

Houston: Legacy of a Hidden Past seminar, May 23

Congregation Shaar Hashalom (Houston, Texas) will present a seminar on the history of the Crypto Jews in New Spain and Mexico, on Sunday, May 23.

"Discovering the Legacy of a Hidden Past" is open to the public and runs from 8am-3.15pm.

Crypto Jews were Jews from Spain and Portugal who, after being forced to convert to Catholicism beginning in the late 14th century, continued to practice Judaism secretly, and passed on a hidden legacy to their descendants. Among the indications of such a heritage are:

-- Lighting candles on Friday nights without knowing why
-- Sweeping to center of room, not over the threshold
-- Covering mirrors when a relative died
-- Observing these or other unusual practices, not understanding why

More than 500 years after the Alhambra Decree of Exile - which sent many Sephardic Jews around the world and many more who went underground to stay in Iberia - the descendants of these individuals are now beginning to rediscover their hidden past. Readers who are interested in learning more about this intriguing history of Jews who hid their faith during the Inquisition (and even from 1391, a century earlier) will enjoy this lineup of speakers.

Some descendants know their ancestors were Jewish and some have passed down Jewish customs through the century. Sometimes traditions are practiced today, but the families don't know why. Others have learned about their hidden legacy and are trying to reconnect.

The seminar will provide general information to those seeking more insight on the topic through experts on the subject matter and informational outlets which they can use as a reference point for their personal research.

Speakers and their presentations are:

-- Rabbi Peter Tarlow, Texas A&M Hillel: Setting the Stage: History of the Crypto-Jews
-- Bennett Greenspan, FamilyTreeDNA,com: Family Tree DNA and the Crypto-Jews 
-- Rabbi Jimmy Kessler, Temple B’nai Israel, Galveston: Crypto-Jews: How This All Got Started
-- Dr. Janet Jacobs, University of Colorado-Boulder; author, "Hidden Heritage; The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews": Women and the Persistence of Culture (Ritual, Customs and Recovery of Ancestry)
-- The program concludes with a Q&A panel.

To register online ($18 donation is suggested) or for more information, visit Crypto Jews of Houston or Shaar HaShalom, or contact Rabbi Stuart Federow.

Sephardim: The Portuguese story

Here is a new and fascinating book of great interest to Sephardim around the world. Unfortunately, it is currently available only in Hebrew.

Thanks to Ruth Almog for her Haaretz review of "Portuguese Jewry at the Stake: Studies on Jews and Crypto-Jews," (Hebrew) edited by Yom Tov Assis and Moises Orfali (Magnes Press and the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, 259 pages, NIS 89).

In the preface to "Portuguese Jewry at the Stake," Yom Tov Assis writes: "This is the first book in Hebrew that is dedicated exclusively to Portuguese Jewry, a subject that has been rather neglected by scholars in Israel. This book is designed to partly remedy the situation."

This extremely interesting compilation of scholarly articles does indeed reveal new facets of an extinct Jewish community. That said, it is not by chance that the study of Portuguese Jewry has been neglected, but because Portugal's Jews have in large part been lumped together with those of Spain, since the two countries, whose borders fluctuated throughout the Middle Ages, were both part of medieval Iberia.

There's a short description of how Portuguese came to be. It developed in the 11th-12th centuries following encounters between Galician and Lusitanian languages, and influenced by Arabic. Historically, Moslems conquered much of Portugal in 713. It was reconquered at the end of the 9th century and only a century later did Portugal separate from Galicia. In the second half of the 12th century, Lisbon was conquered when Portuguese were assisted by troops on their way to the Second Crusade. The Moslems left, the Jews stayed. At the time, estimates are of only 35,000 people in the whole country.

The Jewish history of Portugal is short, some five centuries:

The first Portuguese king, Alfonso Henriques (1109-1185 ), encouraged Jews to settle in the areas he had conquered. By appointing a Jew, Yahya Ibn Yaish (also known as Yahia Ben Rabbi), as state treasurer, Alfonso paved the way for his successors to employ Jews in financial and administrative positions. Ibn Yaish was not only "chief rabbi," but also the "chief cavalier." The king's heirs expanded the employment of Jews as administrators in the kingdom. So it was that during the reign of Portugal's first five kings, the situation of the Jews was good and they lived in security. The problems began later, but even during the period surrounding the 1391 pogrom against the Jews of Spain, Portugal served as a haven for the Jews of Castile.

According to Assis, the well-organized community (alfama) lived in its own neighborhoods was headed by a chief rabbi, was recognized by the crown and protected by the king. Persecution came from the church. The Jewish population increased and after the 1492 Expulsion from Spain, some 120,000 of them went to Portugal.

The Jews were never expelled from Portugal in 1496. Manuel I wanted to marry the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, who demanded he first get rid of his Jews. He didn't want to lose them, but announced a plan for their departure. When the Jews arrived to board the ships, priests demanded they convert, and no one was allowed to leave. Thus baptised, the king could claim there were no Jews in his country and he could marry the princess.

Says Assis, most of the Jews became Conversos - converted under force - and the Jewish percentage there was the highest in Europe. Many of them succeeded in leaving and reaching other safe geographic destinations. There are the Conversos of Belmonte, whose matriarchal society has kept Judaism alive since the Inquisition.

Articles include:

-- Historian Elvira Azevedo Mea's "New Christian Women and the Inquisition" is based on her study of Inquisition files, which suggest that almost until the 20th century, it was the women in New Christian families who were responsible for passing on Jewish traditions.

-- Eric Lawee writes about philosopher and financier Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508 ), during his Portuguese years.

-- Late historian Elias Lipiner deals with Jewish religious law problems that concerned the Conversos.

-- co-editor Moises Orfali's "Jews and Judaism in Christian Polemics in Portugal," shows how, even after Jews had "disappeared," accusatory writing against them did not stop. This article also relates the long reach of the Inquisition - into Goa, India (then a Portuguese colony) - where many Sephardim lived. In 1560, the Goa Inquisition center was founded and persecuted Jews, Hindus and Moslems.

-- Edgar Samuel writes about the Curiel Sephardic family over a century (16th-17th centuries) as some branches remained in Portugal, others went around the world, some were burned alive at the stake, others acquitted, some became devout Catholics and others became public Jews again in South America.

-- Historian Jose Nunes Carreira's "Portuguese Diaspora in the Near East (in the 16th and 17th Centuries ) in the Light of Travel Reports," covers the travelogues of Portuguese missionaries. He describes travelers who reported on meetings with Portuguese Jews in Aleppo, Tripoli, Basra, Cairo, Persia and Palestine. He includes clergyman Gaspar de Bernadino who says most Jews he met in Aleppo were Spanish speakers; he met Portuguese Jews in the Galilee, where there were more than 400 "Portuguese origin" households. The reports reveal that Sephardim were on the Persian Gulf island of Hormuz and Syria's community longed for Portugal. And he includes Frey Pantaleao de Aveiro, who discovered many Portuguese Jews in the Middle East (in Jerusalem, Galilee, Damascus and Tripoli). Aveiro wrote about Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi who leased Tiberias from the Turkish sultan in 1558. In Damascus, he met a man from Braga, Portugal, who had fled after his father was burned.

-- Claude (Dov) Stuczynski's article deals with religious identity and economic activities of the "New Christians."

Now we need the English version to make these articles accessible to the worldwide community.

Sephardim, Crypto-Jews: Article abstracts

"The Journal of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian Crypto Jews" (JOSPIC-J) offers 10 truly fascinating articles in Volume I (Spring 2009).

Available online, in addition to the abstracts, is the entire first article and an article on three major DNA studies.

To learn more about the journal, click here. Read the entire first article - "The Secret Jews of Spain, Portugal, and Italy and Their Descendants Today: Major Issues in a Growing Field of Academic Research" - here, with an extensive bibliography.

According to author Dr. Abraham D. Lavender's detailed article:

"Crypto-Judaic Studies is a rich field of potential research, with multi-disciplinary interests, especially as it is integrated with other areas of study. For the truly curious and open-minded, the field is unlimited."

Read "Recent Research Articles: From Roth to DNA," which discusses three recent articles about the growing field of Sephardic and Crypto Jewish DNA.

For many people, the consequences of the Inquisition still live today, as we will see these consequences in this and future issues of JOSPIC-J. Sociology, history, religion, and other areas of study join together to analyze and explain these consequences. Crypto Jews lived in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, and today their descendants live in a large number of countries, providing a fascinating international flavor to this area of study.

The journal is published by the School of International and Public Affairs, within the College of Arts and Sciences, at Florida International University in Miami, Florida.

If Sephardic or Crypto Jewish studies is an interest, you will want to subscribe to this journal.

Here are the abstracts:

-- “The Secret Jews of Spain, Portugal, and Italy and Their Descendants Today: Major Issues in a Growing Field of Academic Research”
Dr. Abraham D. Lavender

The Journal of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian Crypto Jews (JOSPIC-J) brings together in one place, for the first time in a refereed academic journal, research on the three countries whose historic Jewish communities, each predating the Inquisition for centuries, suffered directly and greatly from Inquisitions. There is no consensus on whether to use the term marranos, conversos, crypto Jews, secret Jews, hidden Jews, lost Jews, New Christians, or anusim. But, whatever the term, significant research continues in international, sociological, cultural, religious, political, historical, and other areas, and the number of books and articles is increasing. Research on crypto Jews and their descendants should be integrated more with other interdisciplinary research, a major goal of this journal.

-- “The Crypto Jews of Spain and Portugal”
Dr. David M. Gitlitz

Prior to the riots of 1391, Spain's Jewish community was the largest in Europe. By 1491, following expulsions and conversions, Spain had the largest single community of former Jews in the post-biblical history of Judaism. Depending on the definition of Jewishness applied, these conversos were arrayed along a continuous spectrum ranging from fully Jewish to fully Christian. This article analyzes four groups on this spectrum—Christians, Jews, seekers of truth, and skeptical dropouts. Brief attention is also given to Portugal which originally had less violence and less forced conversions than Spain, but which also developed a more tenacious crypto-Judaism which led to the establishment of an Inquisition in 1539.

-- “The Barajas Women, Madrid 1634"
Dr. David M. Gitlitz

For the past quarter century, the author has immersed himself in Inquisition trial testimony in the archives of Spain and Mexico. The historical documents are difficult to read, but are worth extensive research, revealing fascinating and inspiring lives of unfortunate conversos. The following, based on these historical documents but with the addition of fictional narration, describes the lives of one representative family, Beatriz Álvarez and her daughter of the same name, known in 1630s Madrid as Las Barajas. It is an excerpt from a forthcoming book with the working title The Lost Minyan.

-- “The Jews of Sicily and Calabria: The Italian Anusim that Nobody Knows”
Rabbi Barbara Aiello

Rabbi Barbara Aiello is the first woman rabbi and first non-orthodox rabbi in Italy, where she has served a progressive synagogue in Milan. She is currently rabbi of Ner Tamid del Sud, the first active synagogue in Calabria in 500 years. Rabbi Aiello has written extensively about her crypto-Jewish background and her efforts to uncover the hidden Jewish traditions of Calabrian Jews that date back to Inquisition times. Her work in the deep south of Italy and Sicily includes directing the Italian Jewish Cultural Center of Calabria (IjCCC), an organization dedicated to the anusim of southern Italy to help them discover and embrace their Jewish roots.

-- “Crypto Judaism in New Mexico and the American Southwest”
Dr. Seth D. Kunin

Crypto Judaism in New Mexico is a highly complex phenomenon, both respecting history and modern ethnography. This paper outlines many of the significant aspects of both of these areas. It presents the historical arguments relating to the movement of conversos and descendents of conversos into New Mexico, and the aspects of the settlement of the colony that may have shaped aspects of crypto-Jewish culture as manifested in New Mexico today. The paper also touches on some of the ethnographic research relating to modern crypto Judaism, examining the forms of identity and the cultural elements out of which those fluid identities are formed. Given the significance of arguments about authenticity in relation to this community, the paper examines Neulander’s arguments in light of both empirical and ethnographic data. It suggests that when tested on that basis Neulander’s work cannot be seen as academically credible. The uniting theme of the paper is the need to eschew simple explanation in the light of a historically and ethnographically complex community.

-- “The Sephardic Legacy in the Spanish Caribbean: Crypto-Jewish Settlement in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica”
Dr. Stanley M. Hordes

The Latin American and Iberian Institute of the University of New Mexico has initiated a research project to document the history of crypto-Jewish settlement on the Spanish Caribbean islands of the Greater Antilles, comprising Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and pre-British Jamaica. Based on archival research in Europe and the Americas, as well as ethnographic analysis, this study will examine the role played by the descendants of Iberian conversos in the economic, religious and cultural life of an area of Spanish America that was situated on the major trans-Atlantic shipping lanes, yet administratively remote from centers of Inquisitorial persecution. The data derived from these investigations will be of great value not only in helping to understand the socio-cultural fabric of a vital part of the Caribbean, but also in bringing to light the activities of the earliest Jewish communities in the Americas.

-- “The Jewish and Crypto-Jewish Participation in the Age of Discovery”
Dr. Barry L. Stiefel

The following article is on the Jewish and crypto-Jewish participation in the age of discovery, from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. Though relatively small in number compared to their Catholic and Protestant counterparts, the Jews and Crypto Jews played a pivotal role in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas as financiers, scientists, and explorers. Not only did they contribute to the prosperity of the empires that they lived under (even when the respective monarch did not show the same kindness to those of Jewish extraction), but also to the perpetuation of crypto-Jewish and Sephardic Jewish life and culture wherever they ventured.

-- “Jews, Catholics, and Converts: Reassessing the Resilience of Convivencia in Fifteenth Century Plasencia, Spain”
Dr. Robert L. Martinez

A systematic reappraisal of fifteenth century Jewish and Christian convivencia, or coexistence, is long overdue because within it resides a hidden history of cooperation among Old Christians, conversos, and Jews. Utilizing a historiographical lens to evaluate interfaith relations in several Castilian and Aragonese communities, one finds a broader range of communal outcomes than is traditionally acknowledged. New findings pertaining to the cohesive collaboration and intertwined relations of Jews, conversos, and Old Christians in the Extremaduran city of Plasencia refute the long-held assumption that Jews and Christians were routinely segregated from one another and corrects the misguided belief that the converso Santa María family persecuted former co-religionists. This study reveals the previously unknown strategic partnership of the converso Santa María and Old Christian Carvajal family in Plasencia and it’s role in maintaining medieval norms of interreligious cooperation.

-- “Catholic, Jewish, and Crypto Jewish in the 1600s: The Geographic and Spiritual Peregrinations of Pacheco de Leon in Spain, Italy, and Mexico”
Dr. Matthew Warshawsky

Due to his knowledge of Judaism and his influence among Judaizers in Mexico City, Juan Pacheco de León (Salomón Machorro) was a prize catch among conversos arrested in 1642 for crypto-Jewish heresy. Yet his name is less well known than those of more famous crypto Jews in Latin America, including Luis de Carvajal the Younger, Tomás Treviño de Sobremonte, and Francisco Maldonado de Silva. This essay rescues Juan de León from such relative anonymity by exploring the interrelated questions of why the Inquisition prosecuted him so painstakingly, what his case teaches us about crypto Judaism in colonial Mexico and the ordeal its practitioners suffered at the hands of the Inquisition, and why he did not achieve fame more proportional to the gravity of his trial. In order to answer these questions, it examines how León differed from other Inquisitorial victims due to his biography, knowledge of Judaism, and personality.

-- “Cecil Roth’s Disrupted Love Affair With the Secret Jews of Italy: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”
Dr. Abraham D. Lavender

Cecil Roth’s 1932 book A History of the Marranos popularized the term “marrano,” and increased knowledge about the secret Jews of Portugal and Spain, and also discussed secret Jews in Europe and the Americas. But, the secret Jews of southern Italy were mostly neglected. Roth corrected this omission in 1946 in The History of the Jews of Italy, discussing the secret Jews in Sicily, the Kingdom of Naples, and Sardinia. Cecil Roth and his wife, Irene, who was also his constant research companion for forty-two years, expressed strong emotional attractions for Italy and had planned to retire there before their plans were disrupted by World War II and the Holocaust.

-- “Recent Research Articles: From Roth to DNA”

Many historical research resources have been used to study crypto Jews. But, especially since the 1990s, DNA research also has been able to add more information to crypto-Judaic studies. DNA research frequently cannot provide definitive answers about a specific individual’s possible secret Jewish ancestry, but it can provide insightful information about history. There are many articles on Sephardic DNA, but this brief report describes three recent reach projects about crypto-Jewish DNA, including the research project from Iberia which documents that about 20% of all Hispanic males (mostly Christian today) whose ancestors came from Spain or Portugal have a Jewish genetic ancestry.

Learn more about the journal and subscriptions. Single issues are $10 (+$4 p&h), while annual subscriptions for individuals are only $10 (+$4 p&h). International subscriptions are $6 for postage and handling.

DNA: Portuguese conversos' genetic identity

"How has a small Portuguese Jewish community retained its genetic identity," is the title of a recent Haaretz story, concerning a new genetic study recently published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Of course, the writer meant a Converso or Crypto-Jewish community. Those of us with interests in Sephardic, Converso and crypto-Jewish history, as well as DNA and genetics, answered the question posed by this story rather quickly: How about not marrying others with different backgrounds?

Tracing the Tribe asks why this is always so surprising to people who don't know or don't want to believe the history of these communities? In various Southwestern US states, the same marriage pattern prevails in many families of Jewish descent. Even though they do not declare themselves public Jews, they tend to only marry others "like" themselves. We know what "like" means - why don't these scientists?

A genetic analysis of northern Portuguese crypto-Jews recently yielded a mysterious discovery: It exposed an isolated Jewish community that has somehow retained its genetic identity for centuries - while avoiding the inbreeding that usually occurs in such situations.

Now scientists are trying to understand how these Jews managed to bypass a condition which worries most small, closed Jewish communities in the world.

The new study by researchers from Porto and Coimbra Universities showed that Jews from the Braganca area are genetically closer to Middle Eastern Jews than to the surrounding Portuguese - even after living there for 500 years. This emerged from an analysis of the Y chromosome, which is passed exclusively from father to son with negligent recombination.

[NOTE: What is more interesting is that the article indicates in several places that there appears to be a larger converso population than these small communities indicate. They retained their genetic identity without inbreeding, meaning that the pool of individuals is much larger. While earlier studies indicated that Spain's genetic analysis showed some 2o% of Jewish descent, Portugal's should be similar.]



The story indicates that genetic match was observed also in the Jews of Belmonte, a small town about 200 kilometers south of Braganca. This study is the first time that the genetic makeup of northern Portuguese Jews had been analyzed.

[NOTE: Anyone reading up on Sephardic Jewish history and the Inquisition knows that many Jews escaping the 1492 Exile went through Braganca into Portugal where they thought they would be safe, although it was short-lived.]

However, the genetic analysis of Belmonte Jews showed a dramatic drop in genetic diversity, indicative of inbreeding. This is normal for isolated communities, simply because less genetic material is introduced each generation.

"All small-sized gene pools tend to lose diversity, but the communities from the Braganca area have succeeded in maintaining a very high diversity, with a relatively small non-Jewish introgression," said Professor Antonio Amorim, a
geneticist from the University of Porto who performed the research.

The recently published - a few weeks ago - research in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology showed paternal lineages of 57 unrelated males of established Jewish origins from around Braganca.

A high lineage diversity was found, at both haplotype and haplogroup levels (98.74 and 82.83%, respectively), demonstrating the absence of a strong genetic drift, the research said. Professor Amorim was surprised at both the low level of inbreeding and the retention of Jewish genes.

[NOTE: Tracing the Tribe knows that if you marry only others with your same background in a small number of local families or "similar" families in a wider geographic region, the Jewish genetic identity will be retained.]

"These results can only be explained assuming that the effective size of the population is much greater that it would seem at the first sight," Amorim concluded, "and/or that there is a reproductive strategy minimizing the loss of male lineages but not avoiding totally the input of non-Jewish males."

The research team indicates that "a deeper and more detailed investigation is required to clarify how these communities avoided the expected inbreeding caused by over four centuries of religious repression." The team is still waiting for the mtDNA (maternal DNA).

[NOTE: Considering the fact that women were the leaders of the Belmonte community for centuries and kept the spark of Judaism alive, and that converso communities around the world often have matriarchal leaders who preserve tradition and knowledge, Tracing the Tribe expects that mtDNA results will show the same Jewish connection.

Jews have lived around Braganca since the late 12th century at least, but the major influx was after the 1492 Expulsion during the Inquisition. At first, they thought they would be safe, and they were for a few years, but then Portugal demanded, as Spain had done, that they convert to Catholicism. Some left again, some had their children forcibly kidnapped (and sent to Sao Tome Island, where many died) to force the parents to convert, and larger numbers converted publicly, but maintained their adherence to Judaism in secret.

Over the centuries, without interaction with established Jewish communities, the people lost much of their Jewish knowledge but maintained what they knew. The families in this genetic study are part of that community.]

Michael Freund, head of Shavei Israel, says that thousands of people - in Portugal and elsewhere - are turning towards Judaism as they believe they are descendants of crypto-Jews.

"This study demonstrates the extent to which the Jews of Portugal who were forcibly converted more than five centuries ago sought to preserve their Jewishness down through the generations," he said. "They made heroic efforts to sustain their Jewish identity in secret, and many only married among themselves, as the findings of this study indicate," he said.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Resource: Crypto-Jewish Links

Are you searching for your Crypto-Jewish/Sephardic/Converso ancestry or are just interested in this fascinating story? Here's a good source of links.

Poet M. Miriam Herrera has compiled a good list of Crypto-Jewish resource links on her website.

Crypto-Jews of the Southwest & New World

History & Definitions - includes explanations and definitions of such words as "marrano," "converso," "new Christian," history, usage and origins. Sources include the Jewish Virtual Library, Shulamit Halevy, Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, Bloom Southwest Jewish Archives, Arthur Benveniste, PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, David Goldblatt, JewishGen, Georgetown University scholar Estelle Irizarry, George Washington University Professer Howard M. Sachar, Nan Rubin, Beit Hatfutsot, Jewish Journal, JUF News and more.

The Spanish & Mexican Inquisitions - includes the 1492 Edict of Expulsion, Books, Papers, Inquisition rosters, Robert J. Ferry, Stanley Hordes, Richard C. Greenleaf, Mary Elizabeth Perry, Anne J. Cruz, Clara Steinberg-Spitz, Dennis P. Geller, Gracia Mendes, Dr. Yitzchok Levine (Jewish Press), Luis de Carvajal, Mexico, Dr. Samuel Nunes and more.

Tools for Researching Crypto-Jewish Heritage - includes Michael Freund's Shavei Israel, Kulanu, Richard C. Greenleaf (tools, DNA, guidelines, etc.), SephardicGen.com, Ezra l'Anusim (several languages), Be'echol Lashon, Rabbi Juan Mejia's Kol Tuv Sepharad (English/Spanish), Colorado's Secret Jews (article).

Writers & Artists - Gabriela Bohm's "The Longing," Gannit Ankori's "Hidden Frida," Menachem Wecker's "Unchosen Artist," New Mexican artist Diana Bryer, author Kathleen Alcala, Cary Herz's photographs/books, photographer Peter Svarzbein's Crypto-Jews Project, Stephanie Rachum's articles on Camille Pissarro, scholar Abraham Haim's work on Miguel de Cervantes, New Mexico singer Consuelo Luz,

Personal Stories - Carlos Salas Diaz (Congregacion Hebrea de Baja California), musician Vanessa Paloma (Ladino music and her family's story), Rabbi Juan Mejia (personal story, plans for a Southwest US yeshiva for anusim, Latin American oral traditions and more), Rabbi Nissan Ben Avraham (a Chueta of Mallorca), Californian Enrique A. Navarro-Pinto's story, California Rabbi Daniel Mehlman (Mexicali group), Rabbi Daniel Ginerman and Shulamith Havi (why Crypto-Jewish families do not come out openly), New York Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein (Amazon conversion), Barcelona's Nuria Guasch Vidal, Chicano Crypto-Jews in Whittier California, Andree Aelion Brooks (hurdles faced by bnai anusim), and Gloria Trujillo.

Culture & Folklore - Rosemary Levy Zumwalt's book on Sephardim and evil eye, Renee Levine Melammed's "Question of Identity," 15th century cancioneros, Anne deSola Cardoza on Jewish food and traditions, Charles M. Robinson's culinary traditions of Rio Grande Valley, Rachel Laudan on pan de semita," history of capirotada bread pudding, gravestone photos, Shylamith HaLevy articles, editor/publisher Ana Pacheco's La Herencia magazine, Mair Jose Benardete's collection of Judeo-Spanish ballads and the Rio Grande Valley's Jewish customs.

Book Reviews - Gloria Golden's "Remnants of Crypto-Jews among Hispanic Americans," Stanley M. Hordes" "To The End of the Earth," Tamar Alexander-Frizer's "The Heart is a Mirror."

Although I didn't see it - and I'm sure Miriam will be updating her lists - Sephardim.com's valuable name search engine is also excellent, as it indexes many books, while Sephardim.org has a list of and links for Sephardic congregations around the world, information on Sephardic music, and Jamaican Sephardic history, which provide links to families of similar names.

Canary Islands: Crypto-Jewish history

Thanks to Harry Stein's Sephardim.com, Tracing the Tribe learned about a century-old paper on Crypto-Jews in the Canary Islands, delivered by Lucien Wolf to the Jewish Historical Society of England in London on December 12, 1910.

The paper is a treasure chest of Jewish names and history. Here's a map of the islands:


Read the complete paper here, but understand that it was posted using OCR (optical recognition software) and there are many errors caused by software inaccuracies (for various reasons). I recommend reading the online version carefully.

Information covers secret synagogues, kosher butchers, the Inquisition, Sephardim in London, buccaneers, sea captains, French merchants, Holland, the plague. Records discussed refer to dates as early as 1480. For many of those names listed below, there is detailed information on their fates, by public burning or other means, such as serving 10 years in the galleys.

In May 1524, several anti-Converso edicts were published in the Cathedral Church of St. Ana in Las Palmas:

-- 1. A general call for the elimination of heresy and confession of erroneous practices.

-- 2. This was directed specifically at Jews and Moslems, providing detailed accounts of their religious and social manners and customs at great length. It is a record of Jewish ceremonies and customs which had survived among the Conversos and helped informers to detect the heretics.

-- 3. This prohibited masters, owners and ship's captains, visiting and leaving the Canary ports, from allowing on board or providing passage to "converts or New Christians, converted to our Holy Catholic Faith from Judaism " under pain of excommunication and confiscation of their ships and other property.

These three edicts generally encouraged "religious maniacs," according to Wolf, and resulted in a large number of denunciations (1524-26).

Here are the names from the paper. If these are of interest, then do read the paper to learn more such as occupations and many geographical location.

Antonio Fernandez Carvajal
Duarte Henriques Alvares
Antonio Rodrigues Robles
Simon de Souza
Domingo de la Cerda
Antonio de Porto
Rodrigo de Leon
Beltran
Rabbi David
Goncalo de Burgos
Luis Alvares
Mayorga
Luis de Niebla
Goncalo de Cordova
Juan de Ler
Juan Fernandez
Pedro Dorador
Alvaro Esteves
Beatrice de la Cruz
Gutierrez de Ocana
Diego Frances
Alvaro Gonsales
Mencia Vaes
Silvestre Goncales
Maistre Diego de Valera (Isaac Levi pre-1496)
Pedro Gonsales
Alonzo Yanez
Ana and Duarte Goncales
Hector Mendes
Hernan Rodrigues
Fernando Jaryam
Aldonca de Vergas y Vargas
Duarte Goncales
Duarte Perez
Pedro Berruyo
Pedrianis
Juan Yanez
Catalina Nunez
Fernan Pinto
Jorge Fernandez
Duarte Henriques Alvares
Diego Rodrigues Aries
Duarte Henriques Alvares
Antonio Rodrigues Robles
Leila Henriques
Antonio Fernandes Carvajal
Domingo Rodrigues Francia
Jorge Francia
Domingo de la Cerda
Joseph Carrera y Coligo
Lourenco Rodrigues (Isaac Lindo) Lindo and wife Perpetua
Goncalo and Lucina Rodrigues Vaes
Manuel Lindo
Manuel Pereira
Jaques Faro
Nunez
Antonio Fernandez Nunez
Juan de Tarifa

Place names include:

The Canaries:
Santa Cruz
Tenerife
Los Santos
San Lucar
San Lucar de Barremeda
Las Palmas
La Laguna
Gibrileo

Spain:
Andalucia
Seville
Cadiz
Cordova
Castile
Marchena, Andalucia

Portugal:
Castel Blanco
Villaviciosa
Lisbon
Coimbra

Elsewhere:
Dublin
London
Azores
Morocco
Cape Verde
Bayonne
Nantes
Rouem
Bordeaux
Rochelle
Amsterdam

A very interesting paper! For more resources on Sephardic names, go to Sephardim.com and SephardicGen.com.

New York: Jews in the Turkic World

Although Tracing the Tribe missed reporting on this conference earlier, readers should know about such events which shed light on relatively unknown Jewish communities.

On November 23, the Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA) and Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC) joined the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), the "Turk of America" magazine and the Uzbek Initiative organized a one-day symposium on "Jewish Identity in the Turkic World," at New York's Center for Jewish History.

Note that Azerbaijan was part of Iran and that Farsi is spoken there as well as Azeri, a Turkic language. Additionally, the city of Baku was famous for its oil production in the early 20th century, and many of our ancestors from Belarus (including some of mine) and elsewhere, moved there to work in the new industry.

The region is also important as many Russian Jews were evacuated to Uzbekistan and other areas at the time of WWII. Each of these Jewish communities had indigenous Sephardic components as well as Ashkenazi communities.

For centuries, the Jewish peoples have lived in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and other parts of the Turkic world. Tens of thousands of "Sephardi Jews" lived in present-day Turkey since 1492, when Ottoman Turks provided shelter and acceptance to the Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition. One of the largest Azeri-speaking communities in America are the Mountain Jews. They settled in Azerbaijan over two millennia ago and tens of thousands of them continue to live in northern parts of Azerbaijan today, enjoying prosperity and acceptance. The Bukharian Jews of Uzbekistan thrived in this region for 2500 years in an atmosphere of tolerance and mutual respect.

The program included speakers representing the Jewish communities of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Jews in Turkey: History and Presence

David Saltzman (Turkish Coalition of America)
Yildiz Yuksek Blackstone (President, Luca Luca)
Alan R. Cordova (Columbia University):
"Sephardi Jewish history in Rhodes and Marmara region "

Jewish Heritage in the Turkic World

Sergei Weinstein (International Charity Fund of Mountain Jews):
"Islam and Judaism in Russia"
Rashbil Shamayev (Azerbaijani Jewish Community):
"Azerbaijani Jewish community relations with Azerbaijan"
Farkhod Muradov (Uzbek Initiative):
"Bukharian Jewish Congress of the U.S. and Canada"

Art, Music & Film Industry

Barry Habib (Broadway producer, "Rock of Ages")
Victoria Barrett (filmmaker):
"Desperate Hours," Screening and Talk on the role Turkish diplomats played in saving thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

Habib and Blackstone spoke about their life experiences. Paintings by Stass Shpanin were displayed along with the copies of historical documents from the Ottoman Archives which illustrated Ottoman-Jewish historical relations.

The conference was also co-sponsored by the International Charity Fund of Mountain Jews (STMEGI), the Turkish-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TACCI), the Bukharian Jewish Community of the US and Canada, the Turkish American Action Committee and "Kavkaz" Jewish Youth Center.

For more information, click here.

New Mexico: Don Juan Oñate's Jewish roots, Nov. 12

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on the research of genealogist José Antonio Esquibel, whose research into New Mexican ancestry, including the familias viejas (the old families who came with explorers such Don Juan de Oñate) has also provided information on Jewish family history.

Esquibel, who been researching the genealogy of New Mexican families for 25 years, will speak on “The Jewish-Converso Lineage of Don Juan de Oñate,” at 6pm, Thursday, November 12, at the New Mexico History Museum, in Santa Fe. There is no charge for admission. The event is part of Santa Fe's ongoing 400th birthday celebration.

According to Esquibel, people tend to underestimate the contributions Jewish people made to the history of Spain, particularly those folks who converted.

The article demonstrated his evidence that Oñate, - New Mexico's first governor - was a Converso, descended from Spanish Jews who were converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition and as early as 1390.

Oñate was ordered by King Felipe II of Spain to spread Catholicism through the province of Santa Fé de Nuevo México. New Spain's viceroy Luis de Velasco gave permission for the explorer to lead the 1598 colonizing expedition up the Rio Grande to what is today New Mexico. Velasco also had Jewish ancestors, including one who was an accountant for the king and converted.

Oñate founded the first Spanish capital, San Juan de los Caballeros, across the Rio Grande from San Juan Pueblo. His ancestors on his mother's side included a rabbi who converted to Christianity in 1390 along with his siblings.

According to Esquibel's research, María Núñez Ha-Levi converted to Christianity in July 1390 along with her brother, Rabbi Salomon Ha-Levi, who became known as Pedro de Santa María and was later Bishop of Cartagena. She married Juan Garces (Rodríguez) de Maluenda, also from a Jewish family that converted to Christianity.

Tracing the Tribe notes that Salomon Ha-Levi was chief rabbi of Burgos, Spain. David M. Gitlitz ("Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews") and other scholars indicate that his new name was Pablo de Santa Maria - not Pedro - and that he was also known as Paul of Burgos.

Although Esquibel says in the article there is no clear evidence that Oñate knew or acknowledged his Jewish heritage or that his family continued to practice their faith in secret after converting to Christianity, he added that there is a good chance that Oñate (born c1552) was at least aware of his Jewish background.

Tracing the Tribe knows that Northern New Mexico is home to a very large population of Conversos who know who they are and who continue to secretly observe many Jewish traditions today. Indeed, most of the people who accompanied Onate were Conversos themselves and their names are listed in Inquisition Court documents in Spanish archives.Who better to help his fellow co-religionists to find freedom of religion in the isolated region of New Mexico than a leader who identified with them and who had the same background?

Tracing the Tribe maintains that those who know northern New Mexico families understand how secretive they remain even today, centuries after arriving in the area. In general, they still do not talk to researchers and keeping the family secrets is still a very serious concern.

Many Sephardic sources researched by Tracing the Tribe note that Jewish families converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition often had a son enter the church. Having a priest in the family meant he could - without suspicion - study Hebrew and the Old Testament and could visit other Converso families and maintain relationships among them. Indeed, many families continued to marry other Converso families, even after converting in the late 1380s, or following the mass conversions of 1391 when many Spanish Jewish communities were decimated, as well as those who were forcibly converted during the late 1400s. Many families continually married other families with the same background and to secretly observe Jewish traditions, in spite of their fear of the Inquisition.

[NOTE: The DNA genetic genealogy database at FamilyTreeDNA.com has gathered many samples of New Mexican families. Results demonstrate that many of the "old families" belong to haplogroups commonly found in Jewish families, including Kohanim modal signatures, indicating Jewish priestly descent. Tracing the Tribe recommends that those interested in this topic visit FamilyTreeDNA.com. Indeed, there is another FamilyTreeDNA project (IberianAshkenaz) which has genetically matched some 75% of Ashkenazi Jewish participants (with a Sephardic oral history or other criteria) to Hispanic Jews who know or suspect Jewish origins.]

Former New Mexico state historian Dr. Stanley Hordes, now teaching at the University of New Mexico, included some of Esquibel's research in his 2005 book, "To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico." Hordes believes Rabbi Salomon/Pedro (Pablo) de Santa Maria, a prominent Catholic theologian, would have been known to the Oñate family, but adds that none of the family were accused of practicing Judaism.

Esquibel published some of his Jewish-converso ancestry research on Oñate in the Colonial American Historical Review (1998). He has been doing genealogical research on New Mexico families for 25 years. On his father's side, Oñate was Basque, and the Jewish roots are on his maternal side.

At the end of the 14th century, when the Inquisition forced the Jews in Spain and Portugal to convert or leave, Oñate's Jewish ancestors converted to preserve their wealth and political positions in Spanish society, he said.

Don Adams and Teresa Kendrick, in a 2003 article, "Don Juan de Oñate and the First Thanksgiving," reported that Oñate's mother, Catalina de Salazar, was the daughter of Gonzalo de Salazar, the royal treasurer of New Spain and a Converso.

Esquibel said that the Ha-Levi descendants became so interrelated with families of the Castilian nobility that a royal decree was issued by King Felipe III between 1598 and 1691 in recognition of a papal brief written in 1596 by Pope Clement VIII, officially recognizing the Ha-Levi as an honorable and noble family of Christian faith. This was given because of services provided by their descendants to the Roman Catholic Church and because the Ha-Levi were believed to be descendants of the same Hebrew tribe as the Virgin Mary.

Oñate resigned as governor of Nuevo México after committing atrocities on the Acoma tribe and other native peoples. Eventually convicted of cruelty against the Indians and the colonists, he was later cleared.

Read the complete article at the link above. Tracing the Tribe highly recommends two books for those interested in Converso history: David M. Gitlitz (Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews), Stanley Hordes (To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico). Also visit the Society of Crypto-Judaic Studies, which offers many articles, a newsletter and an annual conference.

Filtering Jewish history: Sephardi and Ashkanazi

How do we look at history in general and at Jewish history specifically? Tracing the Tribe believes that history is always filtered through what we know today.

In the case of Sephardic history, most readers - unless they are personally connected in some to this history - are merely aware of 1492's Expulsion and the Sephardic diaspora.

A smaller group knows about the pogroms and mass conversions in 1391, across Spain. Our family believes we likely left from Catalunya around this time, as did many others, crossing into French Catalunya, into Germany, Poland and further east, eventually landing in Belarus.

Even fewer are aware of the Almohades - fanatical Moslem rulers in Spain - who, in 1148, also gave Jews and others the same old choice, convert or die. Maimonides and his family left at that time.

An interesting story by Seth Frantzman in the Jerusalem Post addresses how we look at history.

History is subject to our own modern judgments based on what we value today. History can also serve to tell us something about the future. If we choose to emphasize and romanticize certain aspects of the past it is because we imagine a future that will embody those aspects.

In the case of Jewish history and memory two periods stand out for praise in popular secular Jewish assessment. One is the "Golden Age" of Spanish Jewry from the eighth to 15th centuries.

The other is the epoch of the Jews of Germany from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The Jewish interest in this history has also affected Western perceptions of these periods.

Thus Muslim Spain has come to embody all sorts of positive traits that the humanistic West intends to want to revive for the future. Similarly there is no period in German history that is viewed through such a positive light as that of the short-lived Weimar Republic which existed between the two world wars.

Frantzman discusses two popular history books: Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Menocal and The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, by Amos Elon.

Following September 11, both books (published in 2003) seemed to suggest that Europeans examine the history of tolerance that had existed in Germany before the Holocaust and Spain before the "Reconquista."

Jewish historians are interested in both places because Jewish communities had a tragic end in both due to the Inquisition and Expulsion and the Holocaust.

But just because things end in communal destruction doesn't necessarily lead to the conclusion that the society that predated the catastrophe must have been a utopia. Furthermore even if it is logical to want to commemorate a community that was destroyed there is no reason to emphasize how tolerant the community that destroyed it had been.

Spain produced brilliant writers and philosophers, such as Meir Abulafia, Isaac Abravanel, Alharizi, Karo, de Leon, Maimonides and Nahmanides. The German Jewish community also produced such as Marx, Baeck, Arendt, Heine, Einstein, Mendelssohn and others.

However, asks Frantzman, just because the community produced such individuals does it mean that the society where they lived was a "utopia of tolerance"?

The assimilated German Jews had the highest intermarriage rate in Europe. Many brilliant individuals had converted to Christianity. The Weimar Republic was, according to Frantzman, although seemingly liberal and tolerant, it was full of bigotry, extremism and weakness that led to the Holocaust.

The Spanish Golden Age was not so great either, and the Almohades provided a handy choice: convert, be exiled or die. Not so tolerant.

Most have forgotten that this Arab culture in Spain was one that included slavery. People speak of Spain as a "Convivencia" or coexistence society. This coexistence society we imagine as a utopia resembles the American antebellum South, with slavery and large wealthy estates.

The author notes that Jews also prospered in the American South, but that it is not a model for today.

The myth of Muslim Spain and Weimar Germany and the use of the flowering of its Jewish culture is one that harms the West and Jewish culture to this day, presenting a false picture of the past and determining a false hope for a utopian future based on a faulty model that will lead only to failure and self-destruction.

Frantzman is a Hebrew University researcher. Read the complete article at the link above.

Sephardic researchers: Book sale

If you're a Sephardic researcher or know someone who is, this sale will be of interest.

Here's a digital Sephardic reference library at one shot. Hispania Judaica is on sale for libraries and scholars only through Friday, August 14. Read all about it here at eBookShuk.com.

Published by Magnes Press, the acclaimed Hispania Judaica Series is a research project at the Dinur Institute, Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The editorial board includes Haim Beinart, Yom Tov Assis and Raquel Ibáñez-Sperber.

The CD-ROM collection, priced at $259, includes 11 monographs and documentary collections on the life of Jews in Spain before, during and after the Expulsion. The regular digital price is $298, but all titles are purchased separately, it would cost $558.

The offer is made to libraries, individuals or institutions. The CD works on PC, Mac or Linux. Those who order by August 14, will also receive, without charge, "Medicine and Medical Ethics in Medieval and Early Modern Spain" (regular price, $49).

The collection includes these 11 digitized, searchable volumes (plus the bonus volume above):

Vol. I: J. Régné, History of the Jews in Aragon: Regesta and Documents 1213-1327 748 pp. More than 3,500 regesta in French, and original documents mostly from the Archivo General de la Corona de Aragon, in Barcelona, throw light on 114 crucial years of Jewish history in the Aragonese-Catalan region.

Vol. II: H. Beinart, Trujillo: A Jewish Community in Extremadura on the Eve of the Expulsion from Spain, 384 pp. + 8 plates.Based on documents published for the first time, this book reveals the life and surroundings of a community lulled into a false sense of security and endeavoring to build its life in peace while the war against Granada continues.

Vol. III: H. Beinart, Conversos on Trial: The Inquisition in Ciudad Real, 352 pp. + 16 plates. This story is eloquently related on the basis of Inquisition files which depict the Conversos’ deep yearning to their Jewish past and the ultimate sacrifice they were prepared to offer for their continued adherence to their ancestral faith.

Vol. IV: B. Leroy, The Jews of Navarre in the Late Middle Ages, 278 pp. Based on documents from archives, the book relates various aspects of Jewish life, the economic activities of the Jews and their work at the service of the Crown in this Christian kingdom.

Vol. V: A. S. Selke, The Conversos of Majorca: Life and Death in a Crypto-Jewish Community in XVII Century Spain, 290 pp.This volume focuses for the most part on the Conversos of XVII century Majorca, the so-called Chuetas, a phenomenon without parallel in all of Spain.

Vol. VI: Y. T. Assis, The Jews of Santa Coloma de Queralt, 290 pp. This volume attempts to describe Jewish life in a small community of which little is known, on the basis of notary acts found in local archives.

Vol. VII: L. Coronas Tejada, Conversos and the Inquisition in Jaén, 279 pp. This book describes the fate of the Conversos in the Kingdom of Jaén at the hands of the Inquisition Tribunal which operated there for 43 years, from 1483 until 1526.

Vol. VIII: J. Doñate Sebastià & J. R. Magdalena Nom de Déu, Three Jewish Communities in Medieval Valencia: Castellón de la Plana, Burriana, Villarreal, 343 pp. The book describes the history of three neighbouring communities in the medieval Kingdom of Valencia on the basis of archival material from local archives.

Vol. IX: J. Hinojosa Montalvo, The Jews of the Kingdom of Valencia, 721 pp. This book brings to life a comprehensive study of the Jews in this kingdom from the massacres of 1391 to the Expulsion and contains 881 documents found in various archives and published in part here for the first time.

Vol. X: E. Lipiner, Two Portuguese Exiles in Castile: Dom David Negro and Dom Isaac Abravanel, 173 pp.The book contains more than 30 documents related to Portuguese Jewry in general and David Negro and Isaac Abravanel in particular. The book sheds new light on the life of these important personalities.

Vol XI: J. L. Lacave, Medieval Ketubot from Sepharad, 268 pp. + 30 plates. Examination of legal aspects and historic significance of the thirty ketubot (marriage contracts) from various medieval Hispanic kingdoms. and their detailed comparison. The book presents illustrations of the ketubot, some handsomely decorated.

While a number of these books have been indexed on Sephardic websites, the digitized books enable researchers to see the context of names of interest in their own homes, without visiting libraries to find copies of the books in question.

Features:

- The collection is downloadable; purchasers also receive a CD.
- Includes the entire series published to date.
- Each volume indexed separately.
- Scholar PDF format.
- Volumes scanned to match the original printed edition.
- Sophisticated navigation system.
- Table of Contents linked to Chapter pages.
- Endnote references hyper-linked to endnotes and back.
- Subject Index entry linked to corresponding text.
- In several volumes, extra care was taken to link Subject Index entries to proper documents regardless of their pages, to make location very easy
- Volumes searchable individually or collectively in diverse ways.
- Printing/copying unrestricted (for personal use).
- Infinitively expandable.
- Can be installed on up to three computers at the same time
- Accessible off-line from any Windows PC, Mac or Linux
- Optional online delivery service for libraries and institutions available

See the link above for more details and ordering information.

DNA: Jewish connections, Jewish blood

Just what we needed this week. Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn revealed his grandfather was Jewish.

It's not that unusual, however, and Tracing the Tribe remembers the revelations of John Kerry and Madelaine Albright and the rumors about Cuba's Castro and Spain's Franco.

While hidden Jews are fascinating people in all parts of the world, we've had a tool since 2000 to help sort out who's who. That tool is DNA testing used for genetic genealogy.

This Daily Beast article, "The Hidden Jews" by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt reveals some case studies on people finding previously unknown Jewish roots. It asks if DNA discoveries will encourage hidden genetic Jews to return or convert to the normative fold, or at least encourage strong affiliation.

The author discusses Frank Tamburello, a former Catholic priest - now an ordained rabbi - who discovered his Sicilian Jewish roots.

And she mentions radio journalist and former practicing Buddhist Alan Tutillo, raised in an Italian Catholic home, who told her he’d always felt the “spark of Judaism.”

“It was discovering the genetics of my father’s family that pushed me to explore my Jewish roots," he told me. “That was a culmination of a lifetime of trying to figure out why I felt the spark of Judaism.”

People in the field refer to this "feeling" as a genetic memory, and those of us interested in this subject hear about people feeling this connection for their entire lives until they make an effort to do something about it.

The DNA testing for these cases has been conducted by FamilyTreeDNA.com (Houston, Texas), founded by our good friend Bennett Greenspan.

A case I've known about for years is that of a Polish-origin lawyer in Ottawa, Canada, whose mother was handed to his grandparents by a Jewish couple before they were transported to their death from their Polish town.

Cezary Fudali, 41, always liked books about Israel and Middle Eastern architecture. Not until he looked at his own family history did he see a connection.

Through an Internet ancestry site, he met a cousin from New Jersey who asked him if he knew his mother was adopted. Fudali was shocked. She told him that in the summer of 1943, during World War II, his maternal grandparents passed through a train station in Rozwadow, Poland, where they met a poor woman who begged them to take her child. Miraculously, his grandparents took the baby home and raised her as their own. His mother, who still lives in Poland, never knew she was adopted until her son heard this story, and his great aunt confirmed it. His mother still doesn’t believe the story is true.

In 2003, his research led him to FamilyTreeDNA, the very first company in the field estabilshed specifically for genetic genealogy testing of Y-DNA (male) and mtDNA (female). Since his mother was the connecting point, he was tested for mtDNA (female DNA passed down unchanged from mother to daughter and carried by women and by men). The haplogroup is one found only among Eastern European, Moroccan, Algerian and Turkish Jews. He then concluded his mother had Jewish roots.

Since learning about his DNA, Fudali has been working with the U.S. Holocaust Museum trying to locate other relatives. A few months ago, a son of an Orthodox rabbi responded to his request saying she was from Rozwadow area of Poland, and that his aunt had been given up as a baby in 1943. While the story matched, the DNA tests didn’t. He is still hoping to find maternal relatives, and while he isn’t converting to Judaism, he says this information has changed his identity. Now every time he goes to the library to read about the Middle East, he wonders whether his attraction to the subject is in fact a lingering remnant of a spiritual commitment long-passed.

In 2006, a group of scientists, including Dr. Doron Behar of Haifa, Israel, found that 40% of Ashkenazi Jews could be traced to four women. In 2008, a team of British and Spanish geneticists discovered that 20% of Spanish men had Sephardic Jewish ancestry, providing more evidence of the large mass forced coversion of Jews during the Inquisition. Following 1492, many expelled Jews went to Sicily. When they were forced to leave again, some converted and stayed, while others also left for mainland Italy, to Calabria in Southern Italy.

Read the complete article here.

Philippines: Israel and a much older connection

Two items this week focused on the Philippines, which has a little-known and very interesting Jewish history dating from Inquisition days, when the islands were a refuge for Jews escaping from persecution.

Additionally, the Inquisition used the Philippines as a sort of penal colony. There are Mexican Inquisition records indicating that people were sentenced to Manila for several years.

One story concerned a monument to be dedicated in June in Israel commemorating the "Open Doors" program, and remembering the courage, hospitality and determination of the Philippine government, through President Manuel L. Quezon, to give humanitarian support to European Jews seeking refuge from the Holocaust in the 1930s.

The second story was about a Philippino family that learned about its Sephardic Converso background and has just returned to Judaism in Kansas City.

Tracing the Tribe posted on the country's Jewish history in March 2007. Here's a link to the Embassy of Israel's web site for an online exhibit telling the Manila community's history since the Spanish colonial days through to more contemporary times.

The islands were a Spanish colony from 1521-1898, and conversos accompanied Spanish adventurers who settled the islands, according to Harvard University history professor Jonathan Goldstein, who wrote a paper on Jewish merchants in Far Eastern ports.

New Christians Jorge and Domingo Rodriguez are the first recorded Jews to have arrived, reaching Manila in the 1590s. In 1593, both were tried and convicted at a Mexico City trial ( auto-da-fe) because the Inquisition was not operating in the Philippines. At least eight other New Christians were also tried and convicted. Others with Jewish roots kept very quiet, settling in rural areas, living a precarious existence and keeping their traditions very secret in a very Catholic colony.

The Suez Canal opened in March 1869, cutting the travel time from Europe to the Philippines from three months to 40 days. In 1870, brothers Adolf, Charles and Rafael Levy arrived from Alsace-Lorraine, fleeing the Franco-Prussian War, and established a Manila jewelry store famous throughout the Philippines, La Estrella del Norte included general merchandise, gems, pharmaceuticals and automobiles. Leopold Kahn, also from Alsace, arrived in 1909 and joined them in business.

Many refugees were welcomed during the Holocaust. Later, Sephardic Bagdadi Jews from India arrived, as well as those from the American-European Ashkenazi community.

Some Sephardic discussion groups, such as Sephardim.org have recently seen messages from Filipinos discussing their Jewish backgrounds and remnants of Hebrew still preserved.

Click here to read the story of Cantor Cysner and more.

The Manila Bulletin's story about the monument in Rishon-le-Zion, Israel is here.

Recognizing the generosity and humanitarian assistance of the Filipino people to the Jews during the Holocaust, the Israeli government is set to inaugurate the first Philippine monument in Israel’s Rishon Lezion Holocaust Memorial Park on June.

The Israeli embassy in Manila described the first-ever monument as a "lasting symbol" of more than five decades-old bilateral partnership between the Israel and the Philippines.

This year marks "another milestone for the cordial ties" between the two countries with the inauguration of the "Open Doors" monument, designed by Filipino artist Jun Yee, on June 21, the embassy said in a statement.

"The warm hospitality of the Filipino people undoubtedly shed light to one of the darkest and most difficult periods in Jewish history," the Israeli embassy said.

Holocaust survivor, Frank Ephraim, documented the Holocaust in his book "Escape to Manila," which prompted the creation of the "Open Doors" monument, which was initiated by former Ambassador Antonio Modena, who died in 2007.

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle covered the story of a group of individuals who recently converted to Judaism. Involved in this story was Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, a Brazilian native, well know for assisting converts and in outreach efforts in South and Central America. The group included a Filipino family:

It’s been a long road for Romeo Bagunu, his wife, Araceli, and their three children, Yeremeya, 10, Yonatan, 9, and Annaliza, 6. Both Romeo and his wife were born in the Philippines and raised in the United States.

“The whole process has taken many years for us, from study, trying to work out our faith,” said Romeo Bagunu.

He estimates they’ve been studying Judaism on their own for 11 years. Research into their ancestry sparked a curiosity about Judaism. Both Romeo and Araceli found that their heritage was Spanish and that their ancestors had settled in the Philippines after the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition expelled Spain’s Jews and forced those who remained to convert to Christianity.

“During the Inquisition, a lot of the Jews settled in the Philippines. In learning that, we became more interested that our family had a lot of Spanish-Jewish culture they kept,” Bagunu said.

In exploring their faith, “we went from a very charismatic Christian background to a Messianic congregation, then to an Orthodox congregation and finally settled last year with Rabbi Cukierkorn’s New Reform Temple… Moving from the Christian faith to this, we wanted to know where the paths were alike and different,” he said.

Read the complete articles at the links above.