My Opera
Romans
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 8:07:35 PM
Chapter 10
1 Truly brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to Elohim for Yisra’ĕl is for deliverance. 2 For I bear them witness that they have an ardour for Elohim, but not according to knowledge. 3 For not knowing the righteousness of Elohim, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of Elohim. 4 For Messiah is the goal of the ‘Torah unto righteousness’to everyone who believes.
1 Truly brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to Elohim for Yisra’ĕl is for deliverance. 2 For I bear them witness that they have an ardour for Elohim, but not according to knowledge. 3 For not knowing the righteousness of Elohim, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of Elohim. 4 For Messiah is the goal of the ‘Torah unto righteousness’to everyone who believes.
“Messianic"
Sunday, November 20, 2011 6:17:58 PM
“Messianic" is a label that has been adopted by a very wide spectrum of individuals, from Torah observant Jews who wear kippas, tallit and peyot, to non-Torah observant “Hebraic Catholics" of Jewish descent, to other Messianics who simply refer to themselves as born again Jews. Many Messianic believers are not of Jewish descent but grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel through Mashiyach and Covenant.
Messianic Judaism states that Jesus is not merely a man, but also the Jewish Messiah and "God the Son" (one person of the Trinity), and that salvation is only achieved through acceptance of Jesus as one's savior. Any Jewish laws or customs that are followed are cultural and do not contribute to attaining salvation.
Belief in the messiahship and divinity of Jesus, which Messianic Judaism shares, is viewed by Christian denominations and Jewish religious movements as being a defining distinction between Christianity and Judaism.
Messianic Judaism states that Jesus is not merely a man, but also the Jewish Messiah and "God the Son" (one person of the Trinity), and that salvation is only achieved through acceptance of Jesus as one's savior. Any Jewish laws or customs that are followed are cultural and do not contribute to attaining salvation.
Belief in the messiahship and divinity of Jesus, which Messianic Judaism shares, is viewed by Christian denominations and Jewish religious movements as being a defining distinction between Christianity and Judaism.
A Quick Explanation of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)
Thursday, May 17, 2007 6:01:38 PM
by Shelomo Alfassa 12/1999
Click here to listen to an MP3 sound clip of spoken Ladino (50 seconds) 390k
Click here to listen to an MP3 sound clip of spoken Ladino (47 seconds) 364k
Ladino, otherwise known as Judeo-Spanish, is the spoken and written Hispanic language of Jews of Spanish origin. Ladino did not become a specifically Jewish language until after the expulsion from Spain in 1492 - it was merely the language of their province. It is also known as Judezmo, Dzhudezmo, or Spaniolit.
When the Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal they were cut off from the further development of the language, but they continued to speak it in the communities and countries to which they emigrated. Ladino therefore reflects the grammar and vocabulary of 14th and 15th century Spanish. The further away from Spain the emigrants went, the more cut off they were from developments in the language, and the more Ladino began to diverge from mainstream Castilian Spanish.
In Amsterdam, England and Italy, those Jews who continued to speak 'Ladino' were in constant contact with Spain and therefore they basically continued to speak the Castilian Spanish of the time. However, in the Sephardi communities of the Ottoman Empire, the language not only retained the older forms of Spanish, but borrowed so many words from Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, and even French, that it became more and more distorted. Ladino was nowhere near as diverse as the various forms of Yiddish, but there were still two different dialects, which corresponded to the different origins of the speakers.
'Oriental' Ladino was spoken in Turkey and Rhodes and reflected Castilian Spanish, whereas 'Western' Ladino was spoken in Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia and Romania, and preserved the characteristics of northern Spanish and Portuguese. The vocabulary of Ladino includes hundreds of archaic Spanish words which have disappeared from modern day Spanish, and also includes many words from different languages that have been substituted for the original Spanish word, from the various places Ladino speaking Jews settled.
Some terms were actually transferred from one community to another through commercial or cultural relations, whereas others remained peculiar to particular communities. These foreign words derive mainly from Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, French, and to a lesser extent from Portuguese and Italian. In the Ladino spoken in Israel, several words have been borrowed from Yiddish. For most of its lifetime, Ladino was written in the Hebrew alphabet, in Rashi script, or in Solitro, a cursive method of writting letters. It was only in the 20th century that Ladino was ever written using the Latin alphabet. In fact, what is known as 'rashi script' was originally a Ladino script which became used centuries after Rashi's death in printed books to differentiate Rashi's commentary from the text of the Torah.
At various times Ladino has been spoken in North Africa, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, France, Israel, and, to a lesser extent, in the United States (the highest populations being in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, and south Florida) and Latin America. By the beginning of this century, with the spread of compulsory education in the language of the land, Ladino began to disintegrate. Emigration to Israel from the Balkans hastened the decline of Ladino in Eastern Europe and Turkey.
The Nazis destroyed most of the communities in Europe where Ladino had been the first language among Jews. Ladino speakers who survived the Holocaust and emigrated to Latin America tended to pick up regular Spanish very quickly, whilst others adopted the language of whichever country they ended up in. Israel is now the country with the greatest number of Ladino speakers, with about 200,000 people who still speak or understand the language, but even they only know a very limited and basic Ladino.
It is important to note that Ladino is not modern Spanish, and also to note that just because someone speaks modern Spanish, this fact alone does not make them Sephardic.
Click here to listen to an MP3 sound clip of spoken Ladino (50 seconds) 390k
Click here to listen to an MP3 sound clip of spoken Ladino (47 seconds) 364k
Ladino, otherwise known as Judeo-Spanish, is the spoken and written Hispanic language of Jews of Spanish origin. Ladino did not become a specifically Jewish language until after the expulsion from Spain in 1492 - it was merely the language of their province. It is also known as Judezmo, Dzhudezmo, or Spaniolit.
When the Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal they were cut off from the further development of the language, but they continued to speak it in the communities and countries to which they emigrated. Ladino therefore reflects the grammar and vocabulary of 14th and 15th century Spanish. The further away from Spain the emigrants went, the more cut off they were from developments in the language, and the more Ladino began to diverge from mainstream Castilian Spanish.
In Amsterdam, England and Italy, those Jews who continued to speak 'Ladino' were in constant contact with Spain and therefore they basically continued to speak the Castilian Spanish of the time. However, in the Sephardi communities of the Ottoman Empire, the language not only retained the older forms of Spanish, but borrowed so many words from Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, and even French, that it became more and more distorted. Ladino was nowhere near as diverse as the various forms of Yiddish, but there were still two different dialects, which corresponded to the different origins of the speakers.
'Oriental' Ladino was spoken in Turkey and Rhodes and reflected Castilian Spanish, whereas 'Western' Ladino was spoken in Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia and Romania, and preserved the characteristics of northern Spanish and Portuguese. The vocabulary of Ladino includes hundreds of archaic Spanish words which have disappeared from modern day Spanish, and also includes many words from different languages that have been substituted for the original Spanish word, from the various places Ladino speaking Jews settled.
Some terms were actually transferred from one community to another through commercial or cultural relations, whereas others remained peculiar to particular communities. These foreign words derive mainly from Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, French, and to a lesser extent from Portuguese and Italian. In the Ladino spoken in Israel, several words have been borrowed from Yiddish. For most of its lifetime, Ladino was written in the Hebrew alphabet, in Rashi script, or in Solitro, a cursive method of writting letters. It was only in the 20th century that Ladino was ever written using the Latin alphabet. In fact, what is known as 'rashi script' was originally a Ladino script which became used centuries after Rashi's death in printed books to differentiate Rashi's commentary from the text of the Torah.
At various times Ladino has been spoken in North Africa, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, France, Israel, and, to a lesser extent, in the United States (the highest populations being in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, and south Florida) and Latin America. By the beginning of this century, with the spread of compulsory education in the language of the land, Ladino began to disintegrate. Emigration to Israel from the Balkans hastened the decline of Ladino in Eastern Europe and Turkey.
The Nazis destroyed most of the communities in Europe where Ladino had been the first language among Jews. Ladino speakers who survived the Holocaust and emigrated to Latin America tended to pick up regular Spanish very quickly, whilst others adopted the language of whichever country they ended up in. Israel is now the country with the greatest number of Ladino speakers, with about 200,000 people who still speak or understand the language, but even they only know a very limited and basic Ladino.
It is important to note that Ladino is not modern Spanish, and also to note that just because someone speaks modern Spanish, this fact alone does not make them Sephardic.
Oh Lord have mercy on Your people
Sunday, March 18, 2007 3:53:24 PM
Luis Carvajal's 400th Yartzheit
Reid Heller *
On 11 December 1996, Reid Heller wrote: "The Dallas Carvajal Yartzheit" was successful, both in terms of the numbers attending (150-200) and the enthusiasm of the audience. Simon Sargon performed his Ladino song-cycle, At Grandfather's Knee in the Meadows Museum amidst masterpieces of Baroque Spanish Art and I delivered a lecture on Luis, El Mozo next door in the Bridwell Library." The following essay is a condensation of research Mr. Heller conducted in preparation for the lecture.
Tzaddik of the Southwest
In Dallas, on the eastern edge of the great southwestern desert which extends southward through the hill country and past the Rio Grande, we are still mindful of the Indian and Spanish cultures that saturate the landscape. Since Hernando Cortez commenced the conquest of our region in 1521, this desert has been the setting for a parade of colonial oppressors and heroes. The Jewish imagination has much to reflect on here. For example, the story of Pope, leader of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, continues to conjure images of Bar Cochba and another desert freedom struggle.
The Jewish role in this landscape is very real, though largely ignored. Nearly three hundred years before Adolphus Sterne and his fellow Jewish merchants made homes in and around our region, a young Jewish man known to history as Luis de Carvajal, el mozo, lived, prayed, and exactly 400 years ago, on December 8, 1596, was burned at the stake in Mexico City. His life is known to us, not merely through inquisition records, but in his own words, for he left to posterity a memoir, letters, poetry and a spiritual testament which together constitute the sole surviving Jewish writings of the Spanish colonial period.
Luis was born c. 1566 in Benavente, Spain and given the birth name of Luis Rodriguez de Carvajal. His uncle, Luis de Carvajal, el Conquistador, bore the title "Admiral" and later "Governor of the New Kingdom of Leon," a province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Luis, his parents and siblings arrived at the port of Tampico in the entourage of this famous uncle in 1580. In the New World they, along with thousands of other Jews, hoped to find a refuge from the fires of the Inquisition.
Commencing with the mass expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the practice of Judaism was outlawed throughout Spain and her territories. We do not know how many of the Jews who chose to remain under Spanish jurisdiction were secretly loyal to Judaism, but the number was not insignificant based on the Inquisition records available to us. These "crypto-Jews" superficially observed Catholic rites. But in small family groups and underground "congregations" they continued to observe and transmit as much of Judaism as their situation permitted. Luis' father, Francisco Rodriguez was one such crypto-Jew and, through his influence, his wife and most of his nine children lived as crypto-Jews. Francisco died in 1584.
Luis' situation was exceedingly complex following his father's death. He succeeded his father as the head of a large family. He was also designated the principal heir of his childless uncle, who, though descended from Jews, had no sympathy for crypto-Jews and could never be entrusted with Luis' secret. Luis explored the northern territories with his uncle, almost as far north as the present Texas border. On those journeys he sought the company of fellow crypto-Jews and attempted to learn what he could of Judaism from those more learned. Although a well educated man of his time, Luis' Jewish learning was not profound. His Jewish practice, like that of most Mexican crypto-Jews, was based on a Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible and a few fragments from the Jewish prayer book. Yet his memoirs evidence a remarkable and insatiable drive to acquire Jewish learning and to observe Jewish practice whenever possible.
This drive to become an observant Jew can be clearly seen in these simple, moving words where he describes how, after his father's death, he circumcised himself in a ravine of the Panuco River:
"When the Lord took my father away from this life, I returned to Panuco, where a clergyman sold me a sacred Bible for six pesos. I studied it constantly and learned much while alone in the wilderness. I came to know many of the divine mysteries. One day I read chapter 17 of Genesis, in which the Lord ordered Abraham, our father, to be circumcised -- especially those words which say that the soul of him who will not be circumcised will be erased from among the book of the living. I became so frightened that I immediately proceeded to carry out the divine command. Prompted by the Almighty and His good angel, I left the corridor of the house where I had been reading , leaving behind the sacred Bible, took some old worn scissors and went over to the ravine of the Panuco River. There, with longing and a vivid wish to be inscribed in the book of the living, something that could not happen without this holy sacrament, I sealed it by cutting off almost all of the prepuce and leaving very little of it."(Translated by Seymour B. Liebman)
Luis' family gradually emerged as the focal point of a network of crypto-Jews based in Mexico City. He and his sisters encouraged former Jews to return to Judaism. Through their efforts, Jews were circumcised, studied the Hebrew Bible together and observed the Festivals. But their enthusiasm led them to take risks. Luis, for example, spoke openly about Judaism with his brother, Gaspar, a Dominican friar. He then delayed an opportunity to escape to Italy out of concern for his sister, Isabel, who had been denounced to the Inquisition. Once Isabel was taken into custody, it was simply a matter of time. In this pathetic passage he describes his and his mother's first arrest in 1589:
"Two or three days after my return, I went to see my mother during the night, for I dared not visit her or be with her during the day. When we were about to sit at the table for supper, the constable and his assistants from the Inquisition knocked on the door. Having opened it, they placed guards on the stairs and doors and went to take my mother prisoner. Although deeply shaken by the blow from such a cruel enemy, my mother accepted her fate with humility; and crying for her sufferings but praising the Lord for them, she was taken by these accursed ministers, torturers of our lives, to a dark prison. " (Translated by Seymour B. Liebman)
Luis overheard his mother's screams as she was tortured on the rack, the horrible account of which appears in his memoir. In prison Luis experienced divine visions while asleep and in response to them took a new name, Joseph el Lumbroso (the "Enlightened"). He remained imprisoned with his mother, in separate cells, until he and his family were "reconciled" to the Church in a public auto da fe on February 24, 1590. Luis and his family were sentenced to service in convents and public hospitals. Additionally, Luis obtained access to an extraordinary library and used his free time to study and write. His literary production between the years 1590 and 1594 include his Memoirs, poetry and Jewish liturgy. For years to come Luis' mother and sisters trembled under the surveillance of the Inquisition. Once Luis' sister dropped a small book of Jewish prayers, written in Luis' hand, into the street. Luis lived in terror that it would be found and lead the authorities back to him. For four years he worked to buy his and his family's freedom from the penance and shame imposed by the Inquisition authorities. When he at last succeeded he believed it to be a miracle. But it was short-lived.
In the spring of 1595, Luis was arrested for the last time. Luis' friend, Manuel de Lucena, a crypto-Jew, had been denounced to the Inquisition by a brother. At Manuel's fourth hearing before the Inquisition and following several rounds of torture, Manuel denounced Luis. Luis was promptly charged with "judaizante relapso pertinaz" (being a perpetual, relapsed Judaizer) and arrested. While in prison Luis penned a spiritual Testament and some 20 letters of encouragement to his family.
Luis was imprisoned and tortured for nearly 2 years and finally, on December 8, 1596, he was burned at the stake in Mexico City with his mother, Francisca, and three of his sisters, Isabel, Leonor and Catalina. No Jewish woman had been executed in Mexico until then. Conflicting accounts of his death have been circulated. Before his body was consumed in the flames a priest claimed that he had been garroted. The same priest suggests that he kissed a crucifix held up to his lips. If the priest's account is correct (which is by no means certain), he almost certainly did so soley to avoid the pain of being burned alive, for such was the price of an expedited death. He was survived by his saintly sister, Anica, and a beloved disciple, Justa Mendez. His brothers, Baltazar and Miguel, escaped to Europe where they too changed their names to Lumbroso. Baltazar settled in Italy where he became a surgeon. Miguel may have settled in Salonica but is not to be confused with the famous Rabbi of that name.
Luis and his family are now all but forgotten in the United States, despite the efforts of his English translator, Seymour Liebman, and Martin Cohen's outstanding biography in English. The four hundredth anniversary of his Yartzheit has yet to receive a single line in our better known Jewish periodicals. But Luis' life continues to inspire us with his spirit of fidelity and remembrance. He is the proof that the Jewish spirit is forever in the process of resurrecting itself. In an era where Judaism is routinely defined with vague terms such as "identity" and "spirituality," Luis reminds us of the commitment and nobility that Jews have aspired to throughout the millenia. He is our region's connection to the pre-modern era of Jewish heroism and greatness.
This summer, I anticipate that my thoughts will turn several times to a small prison cell in Mexico City where an "enlightened" young Jew wrote these words amidst the terror:
"Oh Lord have mercy on Your people fill the world with Your light so that heaven and earth will be filled with Your glory and Your praise, amen, amen. Dated in Purgatory, the fifth month of the year five thousand three hundred and fifty-seven (six?) of our creation."
Luis de Carvajal, el mozo, Joseph Lumbroso, 1567- December 8, 1596, his memory is a blessing!
The primary sources for this essay are Seymour B. Liebman's The Enlightened, (University of Miami Press, 1967) and Martin Cohen's The Martyr: The Story of a Secret Jew and the Mexican Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973).
Reid Heller
Reid Heller *
On 11 December 1996, Reid Heller wrote: "The Dallas Carvajal Yartzheit" was successful, both in terms of the numbers attending (150-200) and the enthusiasm of the audience. Simon Sargon performed his Ladino song-cycle, At Grandfather's Knee in the Meadows Museum amidst masterpieces of Baroque Spanish Art and I delivered a lecture on Luis, El Mozo next door in the Bridwell Library." The following essay is a condensation of research Mr. Heller conducted in preparation for the lecture.
Tzaddik of the Southwest
In Dallas, on the eastern edge of the great southwestern desert which extends southward through the hill country and past the Rio Grande, we are still mindful of the Indian and Spanish cultures that saturate the landscape. Since Hernando Cortez commenced the conquest of our region in 1521, this desert has been the setting for a parade of colonial oppressors and heroes. The Jewish imagination has much to reflect on here. For example, the story of Pope, leader of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, continues to conjure images of Bar Cochba and another desert freedom struggle.
The Jewish role in this landscape is very real, though largely ignored. Nearly three hundred years before Adolphus Sterne and his fellow Jewish merchants made homes in and around our region, a young Jewish man known to history as Luis de Carvajal, el mozo, lived, prayed, and exactly 400 years ago, on December 8, 1596, was burned at the stake in Mexico City. His life is known to us, not merely through inquisition records, but in his own words, for he left to posterity a memoir, letters, poetry and a spiritual testament which together constitute the sole surviving Jewish writings of the Spanish colonial period.
Luis was born c. 1566 in Benavente, Spain and given the birth name of Luis Rodriguez de Carvajal. His uncle, Luis de Carvajal, el Conquistador, bore the title "Admiral" and later "Governor of the New Kingdom of Leon," a province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Luis, his parents and siblings arrived at the port of Tampico in the entourage of this famous uncle in 1580. In the New World they, along with thousands of other Jews, hoped to find a refuge from the fires of the Inquisition.
Commencing with the mass expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the practice of Judaism was outlawed throughout Spain and her territories. We do not know how many of the Jews who chose to remain under Spanish jurisdiction were secretly loyal to Judaism, but the number was not insignificant based on the Inquisition records available to us. These "crypto-Jews" superficially observed Catholic rites. But in small family groups and underground "congregations" they continued to observe and transmit as much of Judaism as their situation permitted. Luis' father, Francisco Rodriguez was one such crypto-Jew and, through his influence, his wife and most of his nine children lived as crypto-Jews. Francisco died in 1584.
Luis' situation was exceedingly complex following his father's death. He succeeded his father as the head of a large family. He was also designated the principal heir of his childless uncle, who, though descended from Jews, had no sympathy for crypto-Jews and could never be entrusted with Luis' secret. Luis explored the northern territories with his uncle, almost as far north as the present Texas border. On those journeys he sought the company of fellow crypto-Jews and attempted to learn what he could of Judaism from those more learned. Although a well educated man of his time, Luis' Jewish learning was not profound. His Jewish practice, like that of most Mexican crypto-Jews, was based on a Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible and a few fragments from the Jewish prayer book. Yet his memoirs evidence a remarkable and insatiable drive to acquire Jewish learning and to observe Jewish practice whenever possible.
This drive to become an observant Jew can be clearly seen in these simple, moving words where he describes how, after his father's death, he circumcised himself in a ravine of the Panuco River:
"When the Lord took my father away from this life, I returned to Panuco, where a clergyman sold me a sacred Bible for six pesos. I studied it constantly and learned much while alone in the wilderness. I came to know many of the divine mysteries. One day I read chapter 17 of Genesis, in which the Lord ordered Abraham, our father, to be circumcised -- especially those words which say that the soul of him who will not be circumcised will be erased from among the book of the living. I became so frightened that I immediately proceeded to carry out the divine command. Prompted by the Almighty and His good angel, I left the corridor of the house where I had been reading , leaving behind the sacred Bible, took some old worn scissors and went over to the ravine of the Panuco River. There, with longing and a vivid wish to be inscribed in the book of the living, something that could not happen without this holy sacrament, I sealed it by cutting off almost all of the prepuce and leaving very little of it."(Translated by Seymour B. Liebman)
Luis' family gradually emerged as the focal point of a network of crypto-Jews based in Mexico City. He and his sisters encouraged former Jews to return to Judaism. Through their efforts, Jews were circumcised, studied the Hebrew Bible together and observed the Festivals. But their enthusiasm led them to take risks. Luis, for example, spoke openly about Judaism with his brother, Gaspar, a Dominican friar. He then delayed an opportunity to escape to Italy out of concern for his sister, Isabel, who had been denounced to the Inquisition. Once Isabel was taken into custody, it was simply a matter of time. In this pathetic passage he describes his and his mother's first arrest in 1589:
"Two or three days after my return, I went to see my mother during the night, for I dared not visit her or be with her during the day. When we were about to sit at the table for supper, the constable and his assistants from the Inquisition knocked on the door. Having opened it, they placed guards on the stairs and doors and went to take my mother prisoner. Although deeply shaken by the blow from such a cruel enemy, my mother accepted her fate with humility; and crying for her sufferings but praising the Lord for them, she was taken by these accursed ministers, torturers of our lives, to a dark prison. " (Translated by Seymour B. Liebman)
Luis overheard his mother's screams as she was tortured on the rack, the horrible account of which appears in his memoir. In prison Luis experienced divine visions while asleep and in response to them took a new name, Joseph el Lumbroso (the "Enlightened"). He remained imprisoned with his mother, in separate cells, until he and his family were "reconciled" to the Church in a public auto da fe on February 24, 1590. Luis and his family were sentenced to service in convents and public hospitals. Additionally, Luis obtained access to an extraordinary library and used his free time to study and write. His literary production between the years 1590 and 1594 include his Memoirs, poetry and Jewish liturgy. For years to come Luis' mother and sisters trembled under the surveillance of the Inquisition. Once Luis' sister dropped a small book of Jewish prayers, written in Luis' hand, into the street. Luis lived in terror that it would be found and lead the authorities back to him. For four years he worked to buy his and his family's freedom from the penance and shame imposed by the Inquisition authorities. When he at last succeeded he believed it to be a miracle. But it was short-lived.
In the spring of 1595, Luis was arrested for the last time. Luis' friend, Manuel de Lucena, a crypto-Jew, had been denounced to the Inquisition by a brother. At Manuel's fourth hearing before the Inquisition and following several rounds of torture, Manuel denounced Luis. Luis was promptly charged with "judaizante relapso pertinaz" (being a perpetual, relapsed Judaizer) and arrested. While in prison Luis penned a spiritual Testament and some 20 letters of encouragement to his family.
Luis was imprisoned and tortured for nearly 2 years and finally, on December 8, 1596, he was burned at the stake in Mexico City with his mother, Francisca, and three of his sisters, Isabel, Leonor and Catalina. No Jewish woman had been executed in Mexico until then. Conflicting accounts of his death have been circulated. Before his body was consumed in the flames a priest claimed that he had been garroted. The same priest suggests that he kissed a crucifix held up to his lips. If the priest's account is correct (which is by no means certain), he almost certainly did so soley to avoid the pain of being burned alive, for such was the price of an expedited death. He was survived by his saintly sister, Anica, and a beloved disciple, Justa Mendez. His brothers, Baltazar and Miguel, escaped to Europe where they too changed their names to Lumbroso. Baltazar settled in Italy where he became a surgeon. Miguel may have settled in Salonica but is not to be confused with the famous Rabbi of that name.
Luis and his family are now all but forgotten in the United States, despite the efforts of his English translator, Seymour Liebman, and Martin Cohen's outstanding biography in English. The four hundredth anniversary of his Yartzheit has yet to receive a single line in our better known Jewish periodicals. But Luis' life continues to inspire us with his spirit of fidelity and remembrance. He is the proof that the Jewish spirit is forever in the process of resurrecting itself. In an era where Judaism is routinely defined with vague terms such as "identity" and "spirituality," Luis reminds us of the commitment and nobility that Jews have aspired to throughout the millenia. He is our region's connection to the pre-modern era of Jewish heroism and greatness.
This summer, I anticipate that my thoughts will turn several times to a small prison cell in Mexico City where an "enlightened" young Jew wrote these words amidst the terror:
"Oh Lord have mercy on Your people fill the world with Your light so that heaven and earth will be filled with Your glory and Your praise, amen, amen. Dated in Purgatory, the fifth month of the year five thousand three hundred and fifty-seven (six?) of our creation."
Luis de Carvajal, el mozo, Joseph Lumbroso, 1567- December 8, 1596, his memory is a blessing!
The primary sources for this essay are Seymour B. Liebman's The Enlightened, (University of Miami Press, 1967) and Martin Cohen's The Martyr: The Story of a Secret Jew and the Mexican Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973).
Reid Heller
The Messiah
Sunday, December 31, 2006 10:17:40 PM
Title: Comfort for the Jews
Copy written: 1925 International Bible Students Association
MESSIAH means anointed one. The Anointed One is he who is clothed with authority from his superior to act. The Messiah, therefore, the anointed one of God (YAHWEH), must be clothed with authority to carry out the divine plan of redemption and deliverance of mankind and to extend to mankind blessings, which God (YAHWEH) promised to Abraham.
The greatest desire of all real Jews (Israelites) has ever been that their Messiah would come, establish his great kingdom, redeem them, and relieve them from their suffering and bring them the blessings promised. It must necessarily follow that the Messiah is “Abraham’s seed, according to the promise” because it is through him that the blessings must come. It necessarily follows that he is the one of whom Moses was a type and the one to whom the people shall be gathered. Because he is the anointed of God (YHWH), because he is the great deliverer and blesses of the people, Satan the enemy would use every possible means at his hands to keep the people in darkness as to Messiah’s identity.
The testimony of men, unsupported by the Word of YAHWEH, should never be taken as to who is the Messiah, or what is his work. God’s Word alone is final and conclusive proof.
Concerning this the Prophet Isaiah wrote: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this work, it is because there is no light them.” (Isaiah 8:20) In their confession of faith the orthodox Jews acknowledge: That all the words of the prophets are true; that all the law which at this day is found in our hands was delivered by God (YHWH) himself to our master Moses." Then by the law and by the prophets let us identify the Messiah. If the words of the law and the prophets give a clear description of the Messiah and it is found from the undisputed facts following the prophecy that a certain one meets every part of that description, such should be sufficient upon which to base the conclusion that the one who meets these requirements is the Messiah. Otherwise stated, God (YHWH) through his prophets foretold the Messiah. The only way to know whether or not we have prophecy properly interpreted is to fit the facts to the prophecy. Now since the Lord invited us to reason together no man can reason unless he puts aside prejudice. Neither should any man permit any one else to do his thinking, whether that man is a rabbi or a preacher. Remember the words of YAHWEH: “To the law and to the prophets; if they speak not according to this word, there is no truth in them.” The devil has used the sophistry of men to keep the people in darkness. But let us throw away his sophistry, return wholly to the Word of YAHWEH, and use it in the light of reason and the physical facts, which we see before us, which cannot be disputed.
No man ever walked on earth that was the object of such wicked persecution as Jesus (Yahshua) of Nazareth, whom the Jews regard as a great teacher. Yahshua was accused of every crime known to the calendar, yet guilty of none. The common people heard him gladly and believed upon him. The clergy of his day, from whom better might have been expected, were the instruments used by Satan for his persecution. The clergy of the present time likewise misrepresent God. They advance their own wisdom to turn the minds of the people away from YAH and from his Word. The time has come when the people must cast away the stumbling stones which the clergy have put in their pathway, and use their own mental faculties to understand the scriptures.
Jesus always faithfully represented YAHWEH. No one can justly claim that he was unfaithful to YAHWEH (Jehovah) and to the law covenant. He said: “I can of mine own self do nothing…I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.” David prophesied concerning him who should be the members of his own house. “Because for thy sake I have borne reproach: shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”—Psalm 69:7-9
Satan the enemy has reproached God since the days of Eden, and has reproached every one who has insisted on following the teachings of Jehovah. It was he who caused the reproaches to come upon Jesus.
Moses was a type of the Messiah because he testified to that effect. “The Lord thy God will raise up unto a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”—
Deuteronomy 18:15,18
That the Messiah must come through the tribe of Judah is plainly set forth in the prophecy: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto his shall the gathering of the people be.”—Genesis 49:10
The Lord through the prophet Micah foretells the place where the Redeemer, the Messiah, must be born: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.” –Micah 5:2
All agree that Jesus was of the tribe of Judah and that he was born at Bethlehem. His name means “Savior of the people.”
God, through his prophet Isaiah, said concerning the Messiah: “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” (See Isa. 53:1) Thus the Lord foretold that only a few would send would believe the report concerning him whom God would send to execute His plan. The words of the prophecy continue: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
All agree that Pharisees and other leaders of the people and the clergy and the doctors of the law despised Yashua. They rejected him and persecuted him. They heaped upon him all manner of abuse and put forth every possible effort to turn the people away from him. The common people of that day were not responsible for the mistakes and errors of those who claim to be teachers of the Bible.
The prophet further says: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted; yet he opened not his mouth” he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” –Isa. 53:7
Surely Jesus (Yashua) and his experience fulfill every part of this description. He was oppressed and persecuted and afflicted; and then when he stood before his accusers he opened not his mouth. The prophet further identifies the one who is to be the Messiah as “the lamb of God” of whom the Passover lamb was a type. It was at the time of the Passover that the great trouble came upon Yahshua during which he was put to death.
Please read scriptures: Isaiah 53
Zach. 11:12
Daniel 9:25-27
Psalms 34:19,20,
Psalms 16:10,11
Exodus 12:1-14
Hundreds of witnesses testified that within three days after the crucifixion of Jesus (Yahshua) YAHWEH raised him out death, and that his body was taken away and did not see corruption.
Can any reasonable person conclude that these things concerning Jesus (Yahshua) as coincidence? Has any man, Jew or Gentile, ever lived on earth that so completely fulfilled every detail of prophecy as did Yahshua? There certainly has not been one.
We have seen that he who would be Redeemer of the human race must be a perfect man; therefore must be sent by God and not taken from amongst the race on earth. Isaiah prophesied: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call him name Immanuel.” (Isa, 7:14) Exactly in harmony with this prophecy Jesus was born of a virgin, the Virgin Mary. About this there is not the slightest doubt, nor will any one attempt to successfully disprove it. Satan the enemy knew that this child was the one promised and hence Satan sought to have the mother stoned to death before the birth of the child. But God thwarted his purpose. Now we observe that Yahshua met every one of the requirements, namely: He was from the tribe of Judah; he was born of a virgin; he was despised and rejected of men; he was persecuted by the leaders in Israel; he was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and he suffered an ignominious death.
Peter (Kepha) was one of the disciples of Jew who served the law. At Pentecost immediately following the Passover, at which time Jesus (Yahshua) was slain, Peter and the other disciples were waiting at Jerusalem; and at that time the prophecy of Joel above quoted was fulfilled. At that season there were in Jerusalem a great many Jews from various nations, who spoke various tongues. These Jews observed Peter and the others, all unlearned men, speaking in different languages; and were amazed. Those who scoffed, and did not want to believe, said: “These men are drunken.” But Peter replied to them in these words: “These men are not drunken, but what ye now see here is a fulfillment of what the Prophet Joel said referring to the prophecy, and tells his hearers that now they see its fulfillment. This of itself qualifies Peter as a competent witness. He marks the fulfillment of the proceeds to testify; and his testimony definitely identifies the Redeemer and the Messiah, to wit:
Please read scriptures: Acts 2:22-34,41
Here then is the testimony all of which, based upon the prophecies, identifies Yahshua (Jesus) of Nazareth as the Messiah: and there stood about at that time and heard the testimony three thousand other Jews who believed. This prophecy of Joel shows that God would have others prophesy just before the final dispersion of the Jews by the Romans. The fulfillment of this prophecy at the proper time shows conclusively that God did endow other men with power to prophesy, and that these Jews that were endowed to prophesy were the disciples of Yahshua (Jesus). These were caused to make a record of what occurred; and this record was made under the record of YAHWEH (Jehovah) God and therefore imparts absolute verity. It follows then that the record of the New Testament, being in harmony with that of the Old Testament, is the Word of God (written under the direction of Jehovah (YAHWEH).
What then does the New Testament show concerning the great question of redemption and of the Messiah? Exactly in harmony with the prophecies of the Old Testament it shows, to wit: That the human race has been going into death because of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12); that the race must be ransomed from the grace and redeemed from death, and tat this could be done only be the death of a perfect man.
The further testimony is that Jesus (Yahshua), the Messiah, will bind the devil, oust him, and establish a new heaven and a new earth; that is to say, a new invisible ruling power and a new visible government on earth amongst men.
Isaiah prophesied that the kingdom of Messiah will be a kingdom of peace and righteousness:
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”—Isaiah 9:6,7.
It is recorded in the New Testament that when Jesus (Yahshua) was born at Bethlehem with angels of heaven sang together, saying, “On earth peace, good will toward men”; and that this good news in due time should come to all men. This is exactly in harmony with the words of the prophets; Isaiah prophesied that when the YHWH’s kingdom is established, the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of God from Jerusalem; and that them there will be no more war, but that he who rules will rule in peace. (Isaiah 2:2-4) This same prophet prophesies: Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.”—Isaiah 32:1.
The king here mentioned is the Messiah, and the princes undoubtedly are the same princes mentioned in Psalm 45:16 and are, to wit: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other prophets and holy men of old who will be returned to earth and become the rulers amongst the men of earth, making of the Jews (True Israel) the great nation of earth.
Copy written: 1925 International Bible Students Association
MESSIAH means anointed one. The Anointed One is he who is clothed with authority from his superior to act. The Messiah, therefore, the anointed one of God (YAHWEH), must be clothed with authority to carry out the divine plan of redemption and deliverance of mankind and to extend to mankind blessings, which God (YAHWEH) promised to Abraham.
The greatest desire of all real Jews (Israelites) has ever been that their Messiah would come, establish his great kingdom, redeem them, and relieve them from their suffering and bring them the blessings promised. It must necessarily follow that the Messiah is “Abraham’s seed, according to the promise” because it is through him that the blessings must come. It necessarily follows that he is the one of whom Moses was a type and the one to whom the people shall be gathered. Because he is the anointed of God (YHWH), because he is the great deliverer and blesses of the people, Satan the enemy would use every possible means at his hands to keep the people in darkness as to Messiah’s identity.
The testimony of men, unsupported by the Word of YAHWEH, should never be taken as to who is the Messiah, or what is his work. God’s Word alone is final and conclusive proof.
Concerning this the Prophet Isaiah wrote: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this work, it is because there is no light them.” (Isaiah 8:20) In their confession of faith the orthodox Jews acknowledge: That all the words of the prophets are true; that all the law which at this day is found in our hands was delivered by God (YHWH) himself to our master Moses." Then by the law and by the prophets let us identify the Messiah. If the words of the law and the prophets give a clear description of the Messiah and it is found from the undisputed facts following the prophecy that a certain one meets every part of that description, such should be sufficient upon which to base the conclusion that the one who meets these requirements is the Messiah. Otherwise stated, God (YHWH) through his prophets foretold the Messiah. The only way to know whether or not we have prophecy properly interpreted is to fit the facts to the prophecy. Now since the Lord invited us to reason together no man can reason unless he puts aside prejudice. Neither should any man permit any one else to do his thinking, whether that man is a rabbi or a preacher. Remember the words of YAHWEH: “To the law and to the prophets; if they speak not according to this word, there is no truth in them.” The devil has used the sophistry of men to keep the people in darkness. But let us throw away his sophistry, return wholly to the Word of YAHWEH, and use it in the light of reason and the physical facts, which we see before us, which cannot be disputed.
No man ever walked on earth that was the object of such wicked persecution as Jesus (Yahshua) of Nazareth, whom the Jews regard as a great teacher. Yahshua was accused of every crime known to the calendar, yet guilty of none. The common people heard him gladly and believed upon him. The clergy of his day, from whom better might have been expected, were the instruments used by Satan for his persecution. The clergy of the present time likewise misrepresent God. They advance their own wisdom to turn the minds of the people away from YAH and from his Word. The time has come when the people must cast away the stumbling stones which the clergy have put in their pathway, and use their own mental faculties to understand the scriptures.
Jesus always faithfully represented YAHWEH. No one can justly claim that he was unfaithful to YAHWEH (Jehovah) and to the law covenant. He said: “I can of mine own self do nothing…I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.” David prophesied concerning him who should be the members of his own house. “Because for thy sake I have borne reproach: shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”—Psalm 69:7-9
Satan the enemy has reproached God since the days of Eden, and has reproached every one who has insisted on following the teachings of Jehovah. It was he who caused the reproaches to come upon Jesus.
Moses was a type of the Messiah because he testified to that effect. “The Lord thy God will raise up unto a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”—
Deuteronomy 18:15,18
That the Messiah must come through the tribe of Judah is plainly set forth in the prophecy: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto his shall the gathering of the people be.”—Genesis 49:10
The Lord through the prophet Micah foretells the place where the Redeemer, the Messiah, must be born: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.” –Micah 5:2
All agree that Jesus was of the tribe of Judah and that he was born at Bethlehem. His name means “Savior of the people.”
God, through his prophet Isaiah, said concerning the Messiah: “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” (See Isa. 53:1) Thus the Lord foretold that only a few would send would believe the report concerning him whom God would send to execute His plan. The words of the prophecy continue: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
All agree that Pharisees and other leaders of the people and the clergy and the doctors of the law despised Yashua. They rejected him and persecuted him. They heaped upon him all manner of abuse and put forth every possible effort to turn the people away from him. The common people of that day were not responsible for the mistakes and errors of those who claim to be teachers of the Bible.
The prophet further says: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted; yet he opened not his mouth” he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” –Isa. 53:7
Surely Jesus (Yashua) and his experience fulfill every part of this description. He was oppressed and persecuted and afflicted; and then when he stood before his accusers he opened not his mouth. The prophet further identifies the one who is to be the Messiah as “the lamb of God” of whom the Passover lamb was a type. It was at the time of the Passover that the great trouble came upon Yahshua during which he was put to death.
Please read scriptures: Isaiah 53
Zach. 11:12
Daniel 9:25-27
Psalms 34:19,20,
Psalms 16:10,11
Exodus 12:1-14
Hundreds of witnesses testified that within three days after the crucifixion of Jesus (Yahshua) YAHWEH raised him out death, and that his body was taken away and did not see corruption.
Can any reasonable person conclude that these things concerning Jesus (Yahshua) as coincidence? Has any man, Jew or Gentile, ever lived on earth that so completely fulfilled every detail of prophecy as did Yahshua? There certainly has not been one.
We have seen that he who would be Redeemer of the human race must be a perfect man; therefore must be sent by God and not taken from amongst the race on earth. Isaiah prophesied: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call him name Immanuel.” (Isa, 7:14) Exactly in harmony with this prophecy Jesus was born of a virgin, the Virgin Mary. About this there is not the slightest doubt, nor will any one attempt to successfully disprove it. Satan the enemy knew that this child was the one promised and hence Satan sought to have the mother stoned to death before the birth of the child. But God thwarted his purpose. Now we observe that Yahshua met every one of the requirements, namely: He was from the tribe of Judah; he was born of a virgin; he was despised and rejected of men; he was persecuted by the leaders in Israel; he was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and he suffered an ignominious death.
Peter (Kepha) was one of the disciples of Jew who served the law. At Pentecost immediately following the Passover, at which time Jesus (Yahshua) was slain, Peter and the other disciples were waiting at Jerusalem; and at that time the prophecy of Joel above quoted was fulfilled. At that season there were in Jerusalem a great many Jews from various nations, who spoke various tongues. These Jews observed Peter and the others, all unlearned men, speaking in different languages; and were amazed. Those who scoffed, and did not want to believe, said: “These men are drunken.” But Peter replied to them in these words: “These men are not drunken, but what ye now see here is a fulfillment of what the Prophet Joel said referring to the prophecy, and tells his hearers that now they see its fulfillment. This of itself qualifies Peter as a competent witness. He marks the fulfillment of the proceeds to testify; and his testimony definitely identifies the Redeemer and the Messiah, to wit:
Please read scriptures: Acts 2:22-34,41
Here then is the testimony all of which, based upon the prophecies, identifies Yahshua (Jesus) of Nazareth as the Messiah: and there stood about at that time and heard the testimony three thousand other Jews who believed. This prophecy of Joel shows that God would have others prophesy just before the final dispersion of the Jews by the Romans. The fulfillment of this prophecy at the proper time shows conclusively that God did endow other men with power to prophesy, and that these Jews that were endowed to prophesy were the disciples of Yahshua (Jesus). These were caused to make a record of what occurred; and this record was made under the record of YAHWEH (Jehovah) God and therefore imparts absolute verity. It follows then that the record of the New Testament, being in harmony with that of the Old Testament, is the Word of God (written under the direction of Jehovah (YAHWEH).
What then does the New Testament show concerning the great question of redemption and of the Messiah? Exactly in harmony with the prophecies of the Old Testament it shows, to wit: That the human race has been going into death because of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12); that the race must be ransomed from the grace and redeemed from death, and tat this could be done only be the death of a perfect man.
The further testimony is that Jesus (Yahshua), the Messiah, will bind the devil, oust him, and establish a new heaven and a new earth; that is to say, a new invisible ruling power and a new visible government on earth amongst men.
Isaiah prophesied that the kingdom of Messiah will be a kingdom of peace and righteousness:
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”—Isaiah 9:6,7.
It is recorded in the New Testament that when Jesus (Yahshua) was born at Bethlehem with angels of heaven sang together, saying, “On earth peace, good will toward men”; and that this good news in due time should come to all men. This is exactly in harmony with the words of the prophets; Isaiah prophesied that when the YHWH’s kingdom is established, the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of God from Jerusalem; and that them there will be no more war, but that he who rules will rule in peace. (Isaiah 2:2-4) This same prophet prophesies: Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.”—Isaiah 32:1.
The king here mentioned is the Messiah, and the princes undoubtedly are the same princes mentioned in Psalm 45:16 and are, to wit: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other prophets and holy men of old who will be returned to earth and become the rulers amongst the men of earth, making of the Jews (True Israel) the great nation of earth.
THE FIRST CENTURY
Sunday, September 24, 2006 5:01:14 AM
Two thousand years ago Yeshua was a Jew living among Jewish people. "Yeshua," by which Jesus was called during his time on earth, is itself a Hebrew word for "Salvation." Yeshua kept Torah, or the Law of Moses. He studied the Jewish Scriptures that many now know as the "Old Testament," and read them aloud at the local synagogue on Shabbat (Luke 4:16). He was called rabbi ("master") by his followers.
"Think not that I came to abolish the law and the prophets: I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them." - Yeshua, Matthew 5:17
After His death and resurrection, His following increased. From the book of Acts and other historical evidence, many believe that in the first century A.D. hundreds of thousands of Jews followed His teachings (Acts 2:41, 2:47, 4:4, 6:7, 9:31, 21:20), and established Messianic Synagogues throughout the Roman Empire and beyond (James 1:1, 2:2).
One of the first debates these early disciples faced seems ironic to us now: Could non-Jews participate in the community of Yeshua's followers without becoming Jews? At the very birth of Judaism, God had told Abraham that He would bless all nations of the earth through Abraham's offspring (Genesis 12.3). Accordingly, the apostolic council in Acts 15 decided that non-Jews could follow Yeshua without converting to Judaism.
Many factors intervened in the following years. Believers in Yeshua suffered increased opposition from both Roman authorities and Jewish synagogue leaders. As more and more Gentiles came to accept this faith and as the original Jewish apostles passed away, the Jewishness of that first-century faith was gradually lost.
Christianity later became the state religion of the Roman Empire. Eventually an anti-Semitic view of the Messiah's life and death became accepted theology in Christian Europe for hundreds of years.
The Dawn of the Sephardic Revival
Saturday, September 23, 2006 11:02:41 PM
By Rabbi Haim Levi
In order to understand the significance of today’s Sephardic revival, one must understand ancient history and the unfulfilled prophecy of Obadiah. The history of Spanish Jews, also referred to as Sephardic Jews or Sephardim, has its genesis in Israel during the year 2935 (according to the Jewish calendar) or 826 BC when King Solomon sent a large group of Israelites (my ancestors) to the land of Tarshish (c.f. I Kings 10:22). Tarshish is the ancient biblical name for the nation that we now know as Spain and which had become known to Jews as Sepharad in Hebrew. The Jewish presence in Spain spans more than thirty centuries. For example, according to some ancient Spanish historians, even the tomb of Solomon’s famous General Adoniram was located in Murviedo, Spain.
In the year 6460 (or AD 700), Spain was invaded by Muslims (also known as the Moors). Spain then became a Sephardic-Muslim ruled nation. This Muslim rule had spanned some 700 years until the Muslims were driven out of the Iberian Peninsula by the military forces of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Shortly thereafter, the Catholic Church received authority from the Vatican in Rome to establish the office of the “Holy Inquisition” in an effort to force all Jews to convert to Catholicism. When this governmental policy did not effectuate Jewish conversions to Catholicism, tens of thousands of Spanish Jews in Barcelona, Toledo, and in many towns and villages across Spain were burned at the stake, tortured, killed, or expelled from Spain.
After Jews had been living in Spain for more than 2,500 years, my Jewish ancestors were expelled from Spanish soil (and their second Jewish homeland “Eretz Yisrael be Sefarad”) on the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av 1492 (4690). Five years later in 1497 (4695), Portugal expelled the remainder of the Jewish brethren living in that land. The name Sefarad comes from the Hebrew root word sefer, which means book. The term was used in the Iberian Peninsula and is also derived from the Hebrew root word Ivrit, which means Hebrew. There are many other examples of Sephardic names still found in the Spanish culture. For example, the current Spanish city named Toledo means generation in Hebrew.
In order to understand the significance of today’s Sephardic revival, one must understand ancient history and the unfulfilled prophecy of Obadiah. The history of Spanish Jews, also referred to as Sephardic Jews or Sephardim, has its genesis in Israel during the year 2935 (according to the Jewish calendar) or 826 BC when King Solomon sent a large group of Israelites (my ancestors) to the land of Tarshish (c.f. I Kings 10:22). Tarshish is the ancient biblical name for the nation that we now know as Spain and which had become known to Jews as Sepharad in Hebrew. The Jewish presence in Spain spans more than thirty centuries. For example, according to some ancient Spanish historians, even the tomb of Solomon’s famous General Adoniram was located in Murviedo, Spain.
In the year 6460 (or AD 700), Spain was invaded by Muslims (also known as the Moors). Spain then became a Sephardic-Muslim ruled nation. This Muslim rule had spanned some 700 years until the Muslims were driven out of the Iberian Peninsula by the military forces of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Shortly thereafter, the Catholic Church received authority from the Vatican in Rome to establish the office of the “Holy Inquisition” in an effort to force all Jews to convert to Catholicism. When this governmental policy did not effectuate Jewish conversions to Catholicism, tens of thousands of Spanish Jews in Barcelona, Toledo, and in many towns and villages across Spain were burned at the stake, tortured, killed, or expelled from Spain.
After Jews had been living in Spain for more than 2,500 years, my Jewish ancestors were expelled from Spanish soil (and their second Jewish homeland “Eretz Yisrael be Sefarad”) on the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av 1492 (4690). Five years later in 1497 (4695), Portugal expelled the remainder of the Jewish brethren living in that land. The name Sefarad comes from the Hebrew root word sefer, which means book. The term was used in the Iberian Peninsula and is also derived from the Hebrew root word Ivrit, which means Hebrew. There are many other examples of Sephardic names still found in the Spanish culture. For example, the current Spanish city named Toledo means generation in Hebrew.
A Timetable of Jews in Iberia
Tuesday, September 19, 2006 2:26:31 PM
The story of Gracia Mendes is one of hundreds of thousands that can be told about Sephardic Jews in the 16th century. We generally think of them as "Spanish Jews" although their story takes them into Portugal, Holland, Italy, Turkey, and the Americas. And they are only part of a larger picture of expulsions of Jews throughout Europe.
This timetable is a teacher resource to put the story of Jews and the Iberian Peninsula in perspective.
How did Jews get to Spain
Early legends
Biblical Times
City of Tarshish (Jonah 3. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Jaffa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare for it, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord) is believed to be a Spanish seaport, probably on the Western Coast.
Mention of Sepharad as found in Obadiah (20. And this exiled host of the people of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the Negev.) refers to Spain. The mention of the exiles of Jerusalem is a piece of the belief that the Sephardim are descended from the family of David.
The tombstone of one of Solomon’s general Adoniram has been unearthed in Murviedro, Spain.
Esther is believed by some to be of Spanish origin (Esther 5. There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital, and his name was Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite; 6. Who had been exiled from Jerusalem among the captives exiled with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled. 7. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was beautiful and of good presence; and, when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as a daughter.) because Mordecai’s ancestry was of the exiles from Jerusalem.
After Biblical Times
Jerusalem aristocracy (family of David) was taken to Babylon in 586 B.C.E., exiled by Emperor Titus in 79 C.E., and according to Sephardic legend landed on Spanish soil. Josephus relates that the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar reached as far as the Peninsula, adding plausibility to this tale.
Roman Diaspora 200 B.C.E. — 200 C.E.
Antiochus III takes Palestine from Egypt (198 BCE)
Archeological evidence of widespread dispersion after Bar Kochba’s revolt in 135 C.E.. Jews move to Spain, Italy and Northern Africa.
Trilingual (Hebrew, Greek, Latin) tombstones; catacombs
Jews lived in the local communities; absorbed surrounding culture but retained Jewishness
Jews in Roman Spain
Jews are merchants and traders; important economic force
Religious toleration; Jews not required to recognize the cult of the Emperor
Permitted to retail ties to Palestine
Jews made up 25% of Roman population in Eastern Mediterranean
Christian Rome
Early Christian Councils begin to promulgate rules to separate Jews from Christians: If any of the priests or believers eats his meal with a Jew, we decide that he does not participate in the communion so that he atones.(Council of Elvira, Canon 50)
Christians instructed not to ask Rabbis to bless their fields
The Empire converts to Christianity UNDER Constantine; 337 C.E.
A paradoxical doctrine
Jews must be preserved as a people because the Christians taught that predict the Jewish prophets predicted Christ
Jews must be debased to represent their rejection by God
Second Coming cannot happen until Jews accept Christ
Growth of intolerance
Spain under the Visigoths
Spain conquered by Germanic tribes — Suevi, Alani, and primarily Vandals 409.
Visigoths sack Rome in 410, conquer Spain in 415
Visigoths did not recognize the Trinity (Aryan Christians); more tolerant to the Jews than were the Catholics.
King Raccared converts to Catholicism in 587
Jews could not hold slaves — effectively removing them from agriculture
Jews could not hold public office
No intermarriage
Forced conversion of all Jews — King Sisebut, 613
Jews who did not accept baptism whipped, banished, deprived of property
Christians who had become Jews must revert or be flogged and enslaved
90,000 Jews converted; thousands escaped
Converts were not seen as equals: terminology like "Old Christians" and "New Christians," "baptized" and "non-baptized" Jews appears.
King Erwig (680-687) requires that all business transactions between Jews and non-Jews begin with the Lord’s Prayer and the eating of pork.
Many Jews practice Judaism in secret
Jews attempt revolt in 694; foiled by informers. All Jews declared to be slaved; required to bind their children to Catholic slavemasters to be raised as Catholics.
Bad harvests, locusts, famine reduce population of Spain by half before 700.
Disputes of succession to throne 710-711
In 710 Muslims send a force of 400 to investigate rumors of great wealth; find widespread discontent.
711-715: A larger Muslim force conquers Spain.
Christians flee; Jews remain in cities. In the Middle Ages this leads to charges that Jewish "treachery" was responsible for the fall of Spain.
After the Muslim Conquest
Islam rated monotheistic religions higher than others, although lesser than Islam
Many restrictions (9th Century Pact of Umar [found elsewhere in this document]), but many freedoms; practice of Judaism allowed, most professions open, freedom to travel and settle
Muslim expansion westward stopped by France at Battle of Tours (732)
Jews and Christians held many administrative positions
752-3: coup in Damascus; last member of old caliphate takes power in Cordoba and begins to pacify and unite the country,
The Golden Age (10th — 12th Centuries)
"Spain is the only country of the Diaspora in which the Jewswere completely integrated and in which their genius gave of itself everything of which it was capable, influencing … in a very decisive manner, Castilian development and the Spanish Golden Age"
Christian Spain (11th Century to 1492)
A period of four hundred years of invasion of Muslim Spain by Christians from the North
El Cid takes Valencia from the Moors (1094)
Massacres of Jews in the Rhineland. This leads to medieval rabbis taking a sympathetic and lenient view of forced converts who attempted to follow some Jewish laws and did not publicly violate others.(1096)
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)
Birth of King Ferdinand III of Castile(1217-52). He later refuses Pope’s demand that Jews be forced to wear special badge and clothing; the reason given is in that the Jews would flee to Muslim Granada, which would be disastrous for the revenues of the kingdom
Arabs lose Cordoba to Castile (1236)
James I of Aragon conquers Majorca; grants privileges to the Jews and offers financial inducements for them to settle in his combined kingdom.
Nahmanides forced to defend Judaism in debate. Debate is stopped when Nahmanides seems to be winning. (1263)
Pogroms and attempted forced conversions(1391) The conversos of Majorca are ordered to learn the art of weaving.
Pogrom in Toledo aimed specifically at converted Jews The Toledo City Council approves an ordinance linking Jewishness to blood (ancestry) rather than to belief and practice(1449)
Pope Nicholas V overrules the Toledo statute on the grounds that "all Catholics are one in body according to the teaching of our faith." However, the Kings approve the racial laws. (1451)
Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile (1469)
Isabella becomes Queen of Castile(1474)
Union of Aragon and Castile (1479)
Ferdinand and Isabella appoint inquisitors against heresy among converted Jews, (1480). Isabella attempts to expel Jews from Andalusia but the order is never carried out, probably because Jewish money is needed to finance the reconquest of Spain.
Beginning of Spanish Inquisition (1481) under joint direction of church and state
Columbus arrives in Spain (1484)
Spanish capture Malaga from the Arabs (1487)
Columbus receives royal stipend, with backing from important Jewish advisors to the King and Queen (1487)
Jewish community ion Spain contributes significantly to fund Ferdinand’s conquest of Granada (1490)
Spanish conquer Granada (1492)
Order expelling Jews from Spain signed (March 31, 1492)
More than 100,000 (some sources say 200,000) Jews expelled from Spain (July 31, 1492)
Columbus sails (August 3), lands in Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti (1492)
After Spain
Maximillian I becomes Holy Roman Emperor (1493)
Jews expelled from Portugal (1495)
King Manuel of Portugal marries Isabella of Spain (1497)
Torquemada, Inquisitor-general of Spain dies (1420-1498)
Spanish inquisitor-general introduces forced mass conversions of Moors. (1489)
Isaac Ibrabanel dies (1437-1508)
Gracia Mendes born (1510)
Suleiman The magnificent becomes Sultan of Turkey (1520 — 1566)
Isaac Luria born (1533-1572)
Joseph Caro (1488-1575) moves to Safed.
First records of Portuguese Jews in Ferrara, Italy (1538)
Closure
14 December, 1968. Spain recognizes the Jews of Spain as a practicing religious body and revokes the edict of expulsion of 31 March 1492.
Spain is last Western country to recognize State of Israel (1986)
Jews in Spain given same legal rights as Catholics (1990)
This timetable is a teacher resource to put the story of Jews and the Iberian Peninsula in perspective.
How did Jews get to Spain
Early legends
Biblical Times
City of Tarshish (Jonah 3. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Jaffa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare for it, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord) is believed to be a Spanish seaport, probably on the Western Coast.
Mention of Sepharad as found in Obadiah (20. And this exiled host of the people of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the Negev.) refers to Spain. The mention of the exiles of Jerusalem is a piece of the belief that the Sephardim are descended from the family of David.
The tombstone of one of Solomon’s general Adoniram has been unearthed in Murviedro, Spain.
Esther is believed by some to be of Spanish origin (Esther 5. There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital, and his name was Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite; 6. Who had been exiled from Jerusalem among the captives exiled with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled. 7. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was beautiful and of good presence; and, when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as a daughter.) because Mordecai’s ancestry was of the exiles from Jerusalem.
After Biblical Times
Jerusalem aristocracy (family of David) was taken to Babylon in 586 B.C.E., exiled by Emperor Titus in 79 C.E., and according to Sephardic legend landed on Spanish soil. Josephus relates that the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar reached as far as the Peninsula, adding plausibility to this tale.
Roman Diaspora 200 B.C.E. — 200 C.E.
Antiochus III takes Palestine from Egypt (198 BCE)
Archeological evidence of widespread dispersion after Bar Kochba’s revolt in 135 C.E.. Jews move to Spain, Italy and Northern Africa.
Trilingual (Hebrew, Greek, Latin) tombstones; catacombs
Jews lived in the local communities; absorbed surrounding culture but retained Jewishness
Jews in Roman Spain
Jews are merchants and traders; important economic force
Religious toleration; Jews not required to recognize the cult of the Emperor
Permitted to retail ties to Palestine
Jews made up 25% of Roman population in Eastern Mediterranean
Christian Rome
Early Christian Councils begin to promulgate rules to separate Jews from Christians: If any of the priests or believers eats his meal with a Jew, we decide that he does not participate in the communion so that he atones.(Council of Elvira, Canon 50)
Christians instructed not to ask Rabbis to bless their fields
The Empire converts to Christianity UNDER Constantine; 337 C.E.
A paradoxical doctrine
Jews must be preserved as a people because the Christians taught that predict the Jewish prophets predicted Christ
Jews must be debased to represent their rejection by God
Second Coming cannot happen until Jews accept Christ
Growth of intolerance
Spain under the Visigoths
Spain conquered by Germanic tribes — Suevi, Alani, and primarily Vandals 409.
Visigoths sack Rome in 410, conquer Spain in 415
Visigoths did not recognize the Trinity (Aryan Christians); more tolerant to the Jews than were the Catholics.
King Raccared converts to Catholicism in 587
Jews could not hold slaves — effectively removing them from agriculture
Jews could not hold public office
No intermarriage
Forced conversion of all Jews — King Sisebut, 613
Jews who did not accept baptism whipped, banished, deprived of property
Christians who had become Jews must revert or be flogged and enslaved
90,000 Jews converted; thousands escaped
Converts were not seen as equals: terminology like "Old Christians" and "New Christians," "baptized" and "non-baptized" Jews appears.
King Erwig (680-687) requires that all business transactions between Jews and non-Jews begin with the Lord’s Prayer and the eating of pork.
Many Jews practice Judaism in secret
Jews attempt revolt in 694; foiled by informers. All Jews declared to be slaved; required to bind their children to Catholic slavemasters to be raised as Catholics.
Bad harvests, locusts, famine reduce population of Spain by half before 700.
Disputes of succession to throne 710-711
In 710 Muslims send a force of 400 to investigate rumors of great wealth; find widespread discontent.
711-715: A larger Muslim force conquers Spain.
Christians flee; Jews remain in cities. In the Middle Ages this leads to charges that Jewish "treachery" was responsible for the fall of Spain.
After the Muslim Conquest
Islam rated monotheistic religions higher than others, although lesser than Islam
Many restrictions (9th Century Pact of Umar [found elsewhere in this document]), but many freedoms; practice of Judaism allowed, most professions open, freedom to travel and settle
Muslim expansion westward stopped by France at Battle of Tours (732)
Jews and Christians held many administrative positions
752-3: coup in Damascus; last member of old caliphate takes power in Cordoba and begins to pacify and unite the country,
The Golden Age (10th — 12th Centuries)
"Spain is the only country of the Diaspora in which the Jewswere completely integrated and in which their genius gave of itself everything of which it was capable, influencing … in a very decisive manner, Castilian development and the Spanish Golden Age"
Christian Spain (11th Century to 1492)
A period of four hundred years of invasion of Muslim Spain by Christians from the North
El Cid takes Valencia from the Moors (1094)
Massacres of Jews in the Rhineland. This leads to medieval rabbis taking a sympathetic and lenient view of forced converts who attempted to follow some Jewish laws and did not publicly violate others.(1096)
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)
Birth of King Ferdinand III of Castile(1217-52). He later refuses Pope’s demand that Jews be forced to wear special badge and clothing; the reason given is in that the Jews would flee to Muslim Granada, which would be disastrous for the revenues of the kingdom
Arabs lose Cordoba to Castile (1236)
James I of Aragon conquers Majorca; grants privileges to the Jews and offers financial inducements for them to settle in his combined kingdom.
Nahmanides forced to defend Judaism in debate. Debate is stopped when Nahmanides seems to be winning. (1263)
Pogroms and attempted forced conversions(1391) The conversos of Majorca are ordered to learn the art of weaving.
Pogrom in Toledo aimed specifically at converted Jews The Toledo City Council approves an ordinance linking Jewishness to blood (ancestry) rather than to belief and practice(1449)
Pope Nicholas V overrules the Toledo statute on the grounds that "all Catholics are one in body according to the teaching of our faith." However, the Kings approve the racial laws. (1451)
Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile (1469)
Isabella becomes Queen of Castile(1474)
Union of Aragon and Castile (1479)
Ferdinand and Isabella appoint inquisitors against heresy among converted Jews, (1480). Isabella attempts to expel Jews from Andalusia but the order is never carried out, probably because Jewish money is needed to finance the reconquest of Spain.
Beginning of Spanish Inquisition (1481) under joint direction of church and state
Columbus arrives in Spain (1484)
Spanish capture Malaga from the Arabs (1487)
Columbus receives royal stipend, with backing from important Jewish advisors to the King and Queen (1487)
Jewish community ion Spain contributes significantly to fund Ferdinand’s conquest of Granada (1490)
Spanish conquer Granada (1492)
Order expelling Jews from Spain signed (March 31, 1492)
More than 100,000 (some sources say 200,000) Jews expelled from Spain (July 31, 1492)
Columbus sails (August 3), lands in Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti (1492)
After Spain
Maximillian I becomes Holy Roman Emperor (1493)
Jews expelled from Portugal (1495)
King Manuel of Portugal marries Isabella of Spain (1497)
Torquemada, Inquisitor-general of Spain dies (1420-1498)
Spanish inquisitor-general introduces forced mass conversions of Moors. (1489)
Isaac Ibrabanel dies (1437-1508)
Gracia Mendes born (1510)
Suleiman The magnificent becomes Sultan of Turkey (1520 — 1566)
Isaac Luria born (1533-1572)
Joseph Caro (1488-1575) moves to Safed.
First records of Portuguese Jews in Ferrara, Italy (1538)
Closure
14 December, 1968. Spain recognizes the Jews of Spain as a practicing religious body and revokes the edict of expulsion of 31 March 1492.
Spain is last Western country to recognize State of Israel (1986)
Jews in Spain given same legal rights as Catholics (1990)
Conversos Surfacing Among Southwest's Hispanics
Sunday, September 17, 2006 10:20:32 PM
Conversos Surfacing Among Southwest's Hispanics
'Crypto-Jews' Seek Lost Heritage as Academic Debate Rages
By SARAH WILDMAN
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT to The Jewish Forward
Lupita Murillo is Catholic - as were her parents, her grandparents, and all her ancestors who migrated to the New World from Spain. Or were they? Several years ago, as Ms. Murillo, a reporter for the NBC affiliate in Tucson, Ariz., prepared to anchor a program on crypto-Jewish descendants in the Southwest she suddenly realized her own family fit the profile. "My grandmother didn't eat pork - she said it was a dirty animal. She would light candles on Friday night. She covered mirrors when someone died."
As the story of crypto-Jews has risen in public consciousness, more and more Southwesterners of Mexican and Spanish descent have begun to rethink their heritage. Simultaneously, an academic debate is raging in universities from the New World to the Old about the "true" origins of this mixed Hispanic heritage. Crypto-Jews, anusim in Hebrew and conversos in Spanish, are Jews who were converted to Catholicism - generally by force - in 14th-, 15th-, and 16th-century Spain and Portugal but retained some measure of Jewish identity or Jewish ritual practice.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, these new Christians were watched closely by the Holy Court of the Inquisition. Families who swept the floor to the middle of the room instead of past the door (because they did not want to defile the mezuzah), circumcised their male children or refused to cook with pork or lard were often brought before the Inquisition. Servants and neighbors reported women who lit candles on the Jewish Sabbath. As the Inquisition came to the New World, even those who had fled to the colonies were not safe to practice. Observance of ritual was forced underground, and eventually much of the meaning behind the customs was lost.
Like Lupita Murillo, Melissa Amado came across her heritage accidentally. In 1989, Ms. Amado wrote to every Amado in the Los Angeles telephone book. One response came from a Sephardi Jew. The letter "opened a door," said Ms. Amado. Wondering if her Spanish ancestors were conversos, Ms. Amado began to delve more deeply into her family's past. Cousins remembered that their own mothers had lit candles on Friday evenings; some had refused to eat pork. In 1991, a maternal great-aunt took Ms. Amado aside and told her that "the family has always known about being Jewish."
Like Ms. Murillo, Ms. Amado has remained a Catholic. She has, however, connected with Tucson's Jewish community: Today, she runs the Bloom Southwest Jewish Archive. Her graduate work has focused on interviewing and tracing families who have begun to suspect that they, too, might be of converso descent. Ms. Amado has uncovered a variety of rituals and practices which are either decidedly syncretic - that is, a hybrid of Christianity and Judaism - or, apparently, quite Jewish.
Professors Stanley Hordes and Tomas Atencio, both at the University of New Mexico, have worked for the past 10 years to uncover some of the clues that point to a suggested Judeo-Spanish past in the American Southwest. Judith Neulander, at Indiana University, has spent the early '90s attempting to disprove their claims.
Mr. Hordes was New Mexico's state historian when he began to have strange visits from his neighbors. "'So-and-so lights candles on Friday night,' one would say, and I would dismiss it." But the evidence began to pile up. Accounts of infant male circumcision, candle lighting, generally in a discrete location, and dietary practices reminiscent of kashrut were common memories.
Tomas Atencio was born into a Protestant Mexican family - an anomaly in the heavily Catholic world of Latin America. Mr. Atencio, whose father is a Protestant minister, believes many of the people drawn away from Catholicism may have been searching for a form of Christianity that allowed their Jewish remnants to exist more comfortably. Protestantism, explains Mr. Atencio, allows access to the Old Testament, something Catholicism denies. Mr. Atencio believes it is "highly probable" that some Hispanics in New Mexico can claim crypto-Jewish descent. New Mexico was at "the periphery of civilization" in the 16th and 17th centuries - a good place for someone who wanted to hide religious practices.
Judith Neulander does not dispute the possibility of a crypto-Jewish community in the colonial period; it is their modern presence that she doubts. Rituals often cited as crypto-Jewish - a dreidel-like top and covering mirrors after a death in the family, for example - were pan-European phenomena, Ms. Neulander asserts. In a series of articles in the Jewish Ethnography and Folklore Review, Ms. Neulander has systematically attacked the conclusions, methodologies and character of her colleagues who support the crypto-Jewish thesis.
While Ms. Neulander's radical thesis may not be entirely justified, as evidenced by its lone position in the academic discourse, she raises interesting questions. Some of the rituals practiced in the Southwest may be crypto-Jewish - but all? Mr. Hordes, Mr. Atencio and others who believe that descendants of crypto-Jews live in the American Southwest argue that the unique amalgamation of practice represents years of total assimilation coupled with secrecy. This certainly adds an another dimension to the seemingly boundless debate on who is, and who is not, a Jew.
'Crypto-Jews' Seek Lost Heritage as Academic Debate Rages
By SARAH WILDMAN
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT to The Jewish Forward
Lupita Murillo is Catholic - as were her parents, her grandparents, and all her ancestors who migrated to the New World from Spain. Or were they? Several years ago, as Ms. Murillo, a reporter for the NBC affiliate in Tucson, Ariz., prepared to anchor a program on crypto-Jewish descendants in the Southwest she suddenly realized her own family fit the profile. "My grandmother didn't eat pork - she said it was a dirty animal. She would light candles on Friday night. She covered mirrors when someone died."
As the story of crypto-Jews has risen in public consciousness, more and more Southwesterners of Mexican and Spanish descent have begun to rethink their heritage. Simultaneously, an academic debate is raging in universities from the New World to the Old about the "true" origins of this mixed Hispanic heritage. Crypto-Jews, anusim in Hebrew and conversos in Spanish, are Jews who were converted to Catholicism - generally by force - in 14th-, 15th-, and 16th-century Spain and Portugal but retained some measure of Jewish identity or Jewish ritual practice.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, these new Christians were watched closely by the Holy Court of the Inquisition. Families who swept the floor to the middle of the room instead of past the door (because they did not want to defile the mezuzah), circumcised their male children or refused to cook with pork or lard were often brought before the Inquisition. Servants and neighbors reported women who lit candles on the Jewish Sabbath. As the Inquisition came to the New World, even those who had fled to the colonies were not safe to practice. Observance of ritual was forced underground, and eventually much of the meaning behind the customs was lost.
Like Lupita Murillo, Melissa Amado came across her heritage accidentally. In 1989, Ms. Amado wrote to every Amado in the Los Angeles telephone book. One response came from a Sephardi Jew. The letter "opened a door," said Ms. Amado. Wondering if her Spanish ancestors were conversos, Ms. Amado began to delve more deeply into her family's past. Cousins remembered that their own mothers had lit candles on Friday evenings; some had refused to eat pork. In 1991, a maternal great-aunt took Ms. Amado aside and told her that "the family has always known about being Jewish."
Like Ms. Murillo, Ms. Amado has remained a Catholic. She has, however, connected with Tucson's Jewish community: Today, she runs the Bloom Southwest Jewish Archive. Her graduate work has focused on interviewing and tracing families who have begun to suspect that they, too, might be of converso descent. Ms. Amado has uncovered a variety of rituals and practices which are either decidedly syncretic - that is, a hybrid of Christianity and Judaism - or, apparently, quite Jewish.
Professors Stanley Hordes and Tomas Atencio, both at the University of New Mexico, have worked for the past 10 years to uncover some of the clues that point to a suggested Judeo-Spanish past in the American Southwest. Judith Neulander, at Indiana University, has spent the early '90s attempting to disprove their claims.
Mr. Hordes was New Mexico's state historian when he began to have strange visits from his neighbors. "'So-and-so lights candles on Friday night,' one would say, and I would dismiss it." But the evidence began to pile up. Accounts of infant male circumcision, candle lighting, generally in a discrete location, and dietary practices reminiscent of kashrut were common memories.
Tomas Atencio was born into a Protestant Mexican family - an anomaly in the heavily Catholic world of Latin America. Mr. Atencio, whose father is a Protestant minister, believes many of the people drawn away from Catholicism may have been searching for a form of Christianity that allowed their Jewish remnants to exist more comfortably. Protestantism, explains Mr. Atencio, allows access to the Old Testament, something Catholicism denies. Mr. Atencio believes it is "highly probable" that some Hispanics in New Mexico can claim crypto-Jewish descent. New Mexico was at "the periphery of civilization" in the 16th and 17th centuries - a good place for someone who wanted to hide religious practices.
Judith Neulander does not dispute the possibility of a crypto-Jewish community in the colonial period; it is their modern presence that she doubts. Rituals often cited as crypto-Jewish - a dreidel-like top and covering mirrors after a death in the family, for example - were pan-European phenomena, Ms. Neulander asserts. In a series of articles in the Jewish Ethnography and Folklore Review, Ms. Neulander has systematically attacked the conclusions, methodologies and character of her colleagues who support the crypto-Jewish thesis.
While Ms. Neulander's radical thesis may not be entirely justified, as evidenced by its lone position in the academic discourse, she raises interesting questions. Some of the rituals practiced in the Southwest may be crypto-Jewish - but all? Mr. Hordes, Mr. Atencio and others who believe that descendants of crypto-Jews live in the American Southwest argue that the unique amalgamation of practice represents years of total assimilation coupled with secrecy. This certainly adds an another dimension to the seemingly boundless debate on who is, and who is not, a Jew.
Sephardic Revival
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 May 2012July 2012
| ||||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Zola Levitt
-
ZL 112 Yeshua - The Menorah
ZL 112 Yeshua - The Menorah - Zola Levitt Presents - Zola Levitt
-
ZL 111 Yeshua - The Garden Tomb
ZL 111 Yeshua - The Garden Tomb - Zola Levitt Presents - Zola Levitt
-
ZL 110 Yeshua - Golgotha
ZL 110 Yeshua - Golgotha - Zola Levitt Presents - Zola Levitt
-
ZL 109 Yeshua - The Dead Sea Scrolls
ZL 109 Yeshua - The Dead Sea Scrolls - Zola Levitt Presents - Zola Levitt
-
ZL 108 Yeshua - Mars Hill
ZL 108 Yeshua - Mars Hill - Zola Levitt Presents - Zola Levitt
~Sounds
Temple Institute-Light-toThe-Nations Weekly-Torah
-
Weekly Torah Portion: Naso
What’s in a name? Everything – if we’re talking about the name ofG-d. Just as G-d willingly allows His name to be erased for the sake of exonerating the accused Sotah, He allows for His name to be desecrated for the sake of proving Israel’s fidelity. Naso (Numbers 4:21-7: ...
-
Shavuot Greetings from the Temple Institute
A SHORT VIDEO GREETING AND TEACHING ABOUT SHAVUOT: The intimate connection between receiving Torah at Sinai and bringing the first fruits to Jerusalem is the source of the Shavuot holiday joy. Chag Shavuot Sameach – חג שבועות שמח – Happy Shavuot! Temple Institute Links: – Websi ...
-
Astonishing Footage Of Jerusalem Day Prayer, S ...
For the first time in many years, a large gathering of Jews were able to pray, sing and say blessings while on the Temple Mount, unhindered by nearby police. The contingent of Jewish worshipers was led by Knesset members Michael Ben Ari and Uri Ariel, as well as Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder of t ...
-
Weekly Torah Portion: Bamidbar
One man, one voice, “We will do and we will obey!” The unity of the nation of Israel expressed upon receiving Torah at Mount Sinai, and reflected each year on Jerusalem Day, which precedes the festival of Shavuot by one week, is made possible through the twelve distinct flags o ...
-
Jerusalem Day Greeting
The modern world knows no greater day than Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day. It’s been a long time coming, but our prophets foresaw this great event thousands of years ago! Happy Jerusalem Day! !יום ירושלים שמח Temple Institute Links: – Website – Support – New ...
Universal Torah Network
-
Pirkei Avot: Seven Qualities
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” Peak Emunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org The Maharal does not include “hoary age” as one of the qualities, and he explains the Baraita in the following order: Beauty, strength, wealth, wisdom, children, old age, and honor. Are ...
-
Weekly Torah Portion: Naso
What’s in a name? Everything – if we’re talking about the name ofG-d. Just as G-d willingly allows His name to be erased for the sake of exonerating the accused Sotah, He allows for His name to be desecrated for the sake of proving Israel’s fidelity. Naso (Numbers 4:21-7: ...
-
Chapter 27: The Role of the Tzadik
Prophetic Torah – with Rabbi Avraham Sutton Weekly series. The Return of Prophecy It is the role of our righteous teachers and leaders to lift us up and bring us closer to HaShem, even through our questions and our doubts. Dedication: Dedicated to Joanna Kenyon. Temple Institute Links:  ...
-
Temple Talk Radio: The Nazirite’s Dilemma
Temple Talk is a weekly internet radio webcast with Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven of the Temple Institute. This week features: The Test of the Sotah and the Mystery of Erasing G-d’s Name King David, the Sotah, & the Garden of Eden: I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet As the p ...
-
Shavuot Greetings from the Temple Institute
A SHORT VIDEO GREETING AND TEACHING ABOUT SHAVUOT: The intimate connection between receiving Torah at Sinai and bringing the first fruits to Jerusalem is the source of the Shavuot holiday joy. Chag Shavuot Sameach – חג שבועות שמח – Happy Shavuot! Temple Institute Links: – Websi ...
Download Opera - Surf the Web with lightning speed, using the fastest browser ever.
Sephardic Revival is blogging on My Opera
My Opera is a blog and photo sharing community with millions of members. Join now to follow Sephardic Revival's blog and get your own.