8. B’nei Anusim (Crypto Jews)
Beta Israel (Ethiopia)
Jews of Kaifeng (China)
Bnei Menashe (India)
Hidden Jewish Communities Around the World
9. Questions for Messianic Judaism
1. How is the face of the Jewish community changing?
2. How is Jewish identity changing (i.e. who is a Jew)?
3. What is truly “Jewish” culture?
4. How does this shape the way we “do” Messianic Judaism?
10. Course Schedule
Contact: stan.meyer@mjti.org | Text: 480-535-7826
• Tuesday, December 7 @ 12 (EST) - B’nei Anusim (Spanish Conversos)
• Tuesday, December 14 @ 12 - Beta Israel & Lemba (E. Africa)
• Tuesday, December 21 @ 12 - Kaifeng Jews (China)
• Tuesday, December 28 @ 12 - B’nei Menashe (India & Central Asia)
15. Pogroms of 1391
1391 - 1415
• Massacres
• Est. 50,000 Jews converted between
Gerber, J. The Jews of Spain. New York: Free Press. 1994.
16. Converted Jews in
Spain
1400 - 1492
• Became emancipated & integrated
• Educated
• Intermarried into Spanish society
• Successful in business
• International network w/other Jews
Dona Teresa de Aguilar (1623 - 1680)
17. Inquisition
1478 - 1834
• Dominican Monks
• Targeted the Jewish Converts
• Accused of “Crypto-Judaism”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spanish-Inquisition
18. Tomas de Torquemada
1420 - 1498
• Jewish Convert
• Brilliant Dominican Monk
• Appointed Grand Inquisitor
• Concerned about Crypto Jews
in
fl
uence on Converted Jews
https://www.avilaturismo.com/en/tomas-de-torquemada
19. Edict of Expulsion
31 March 1492
Pressed Ferdinand & Isabella
“Edict of Alhambra”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spanish-Inquisition
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spain-announces-it-will-expel-all-jews
20. Edict of Expulsion
31 March 1492
• Fear of Jewish in
fl
uence
• Fear of mixing Jewish & Spanish blood
• Fear of economic competition
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spanish-Inquisition
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spain-announces-it-will-expel-all-jews
22. The Expulsions
1492
1. Conversos - Remained, converted, integrated, Spaniards
2. Levant Jews - Went to Muslim lands (N Africa, Palestine, Ottoman)
3. Sephardic - Went to Holland, England, and New World
4. Joined Ashkenazi - Went to Central & Eastern Europe
23. Terminology
1. Sephardim - Jews from Spain. Sepharad from Obediah 1:20
2. Conversos - Jews who converted to Catholicism
3. Nuevo Cristianos - The new Christians, Jewish & Muslim converts
4. Crypto Jews - Converts who allegedly practiced Judaism in secret
5. Marranos - Moorish word muharram meaning forbidden meat
6. B’nei Anusim - Secret Jews, preferred term today
https://www.etymonline.com/word/marrano
26. Emmigration to America
Conversos traveled to the New
World to escape the Inquisition
Martinez Davila, Diaz, & Hart. “Fractured Faith”. New Mexico History Museum.
https://www.academia.edu/28488179/Fractured_Faiths_Spanish_Judaism_the_Inquisition_and_New_World_Identities?auto=download
28. Purity of Blood Laws
Forbade settlement in West Indies
Limited settlement in big cities
https://mexicodailypost.com/2021/08/26/nuevo-leon-the-mexican-state-that-has-a-jewish-origin/
29. Louis de Carvajal y de la Cueva
1537 - 1591
• Portuguese converso
• Permission from Spain to establish
settlement in mountainous northern Mexico
• Area was inhospitable, away from public eye
• Invited other conversos
https://alchetron.com/Luis-de-Carvajal-y-de-la-Cueva
30. Nueva Leon
Louis de Carvajal caught and imprisoned for
practicing Judaism
Jewish community in Monterrey grew
Community attracted other conversos
https://mexicodailypost.com/2021/08/26/nuevo-leon-the-mexican-state-that-has-a-jewish-origin/
Monument to Louis de Carvajal in Nueva Leon, Mexico
31. B’nei Anusim of Sante Fe
Established 1610
https://historyinsantafe.com/new-mexicos-crypto-jews/
32. B’nei Anusim of Sante Fe
• Northern frontier of New Spain
• Out or reach of Inquisition
• Authorities looked the other way
https://historyinsantafe.com/new-mexicos-crypto-jews/
33. Crypto Jews of Sante Fe
11 / 19 founding members were
Jews
https://historyinsantafe.com/new-mexicos-crypto-jews/
34. Juan de Oñate
• Son of Conversos
• Conquistador
• King Philip II of Spain authorized colonize
New Mexico in 1597
Hart, R. “The Exile Factor”. El Palacio . June 2016. https://www.elpalacio.org/2016/06/the-exile-factor/
35. Dona Teresa de Aguilara
• Daughter of Crypto Jews
• Wife of Governor Bernard Lopez
• Arrested 1662
• Charged with practicing Judaism
Martinez Davila, Diaz, & Hart. “Fractured Faith” [Essay]. Sante Fe: New Mexico History Museum. 2017. 23
Image from https://www.gogmsite.net/iberian_dress_in_the_1600s/la-senora-dona-teresa-de.html
36. Evidence of Crypto Jews
from 1610 to Present
• Physical and historical evidence of Jewish
community from 1610 to present
• Exhibit in Sante Fe at Museum of New
Mexico History
Hebrew on a tombstone in a Catholic Cemetery
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/art/museum_shows/a-new-exhibit-examines-the-history-of-spanish-judaism-the-inquisition-and-identity-in-the/article_0f1a619c-6690-561b-aa1e-5d4340a34fc3.html
37. End of the Tyranny
• 1917 Constitution
• Allowed freedom of religion
• Crypto Jews in Mexico began organizing
their own synagogues
• Came out of secrecy
https://www.anumuseum.org.il/native-mexican-jews/
Venta Prieta, near Mexico City (1940)
39. Congregation Hebrea
de Baja California
• Est. 1984
• T
ij
uana, Mexico
• 128 Converts to Judaism from
Catholicism claiming Crypto Jews from
Venta Prieta
https://jewishjournal.com/culture/travel/4810/
41. Discovery
• Stanley Hordes
• Anthropologist, University of New Mexico
• 1981 working as State Historian
• Met Catholics who lit candles, abstained from
pork, guarded family secrets, tight community
• Conducted 25 years of research
• Conducted hundreds interviews
• Published his book To the Ends of the Earth
Hordes, S. To the Ends of the Earth. Columbia University. 2005
42. Nature of Crypto Jewish Communities
• Maintained a few Jewish traditions
• Tight ethnic, tribal communities
• Rural areas
• Openly practiced Catholicism
• Severed ties to Judaism
• Guarded the family secret
• Refused to discuss it with outsiders
43. DNA Study
Chacon-Duque, J. (2018). Latin Americans show wide-spread Converso ancestry in Nature magazine 9:5388.
• Studied DNA of 6,500 participants from Latin America & Africa.
• 23% percent of Latin Americans have 5% Jewish ancestry
• Ancestry is Sephardic (not Ashkenazi)
• Theorize: Intermarriage of Crypto-Jews in Latin America
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07748-z
45. Feldman, Ari. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Forward. 12 Dec 2018
https://forward.com/news/415858/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-i-am-sephardic-jewish-identity-debate/
46. Jewish Community’s Response
• Chabad, and religious organizations have targeted descendants
• Israel has o
ff
ered Law of Return (case-by-case basis)
• New synagogues emerged, especially in the Southwest
• New organizations emerged (Kulanu, Shavei Yisrael)
• Captured the imagination of American Jews
• Spain (2018) o
ff
ered their own Right of Return Law
47. Questions for the Messianic Movement
1. How should we determine Jewish identity among the descendants?
2. What Jewish culture do descendants bring to the Messianic community?
3. What can we learn from their preservation of heritage?
4. Are there any Jewish traditions they bring that di
ff
er from Ashkenazi ones?
