Jewish Identity and Crypto-Judaism: The emergence of a community

Seth Ward, University of Wyoming

Leslie and Gloria Mound Library

Netanya Academic College, Netanya Israel, May 23, 2012

Introduction from library talk

I am happy indeed to honor my friend Gloria Mound and to honor the creation of the Leslie and Gloria Mound library. For the past few years I have brought a student study-abroad delegation (havaya yisraelit limudit) from the University of Wyoming in May or June. Last year I made intense efforts to adjust my schedule to speak at the opening; in the end this proved impossible. I regretted not being able to attend the opening ceremony and conference, and thank the Netanya Academic College for this opportunity to celebrate the opening of this important resource. I am also grateful for this opportunity to recall the late Leslie Mound, z”l. I brought students to Gan Yavneh a few times; as much as they recalled the resources and enthusiasm that Gloria Mound brought to this study, they recalled the graciousness of Leslie Mound, whose kind manner and warmth was so highly appreciated by my students and colleagues at receptions made at the Mound’s home after Gloria’s presentation. He is deeply missed.

I beg indulgence of my students—this is not a part of my career that is often reflected in their classes.

In April, I spoke at an event honoring Dr. Stan Hordes, a man whose long career has had many achievements, not all of them related to crypto-Jews or Jewish history; and, as a state Historian and expert on water and other rights descending from Spanish colonial times in that area, not even to Jewish studies at all. This past May I spoke at the Leslie and Gloria Mound library in Netanya Israel, a collection of books and materials that opened last year and is part of a new program in Sephardic studies with special reference to Crypto-Jews. These occasions provided a reference point to take stock of the changes and growth over the past few decades.

Put very simply, the past three decades or so have seen radical changes in the expression and study of what I shall call “crypto-Judaism,” in the way Crypto-Judaism is understood, in the emergence of a community, and its relationship with Judaism. Moreover, this period has seen sharp changes in ways that Jewish identity is articulated, and today I hope to address themes about community and identity that may be of particular interest to today’s audience.

For this audience today (In the University of Shanghai) I should start with a definition: In many places around the world, there are individuals who see themselves as descendants of Jews who were living in Spain over 500 years ago. Even in the 13^th century, Jews (and Muslims) were under pressure to join the dominant society by adopting Christianity, and many did so. All of them observed Christianity in public, adopting Christian names, attending Christian worship services and otherwise living Christian lives. However, some of them continued to view themselves as Jews—some only in an ethnic sense, taking pride in the fact that they Christians who were of the same race as Jesus himself—but some in a religious sense, observing Judaism in secret and passing down their heritage to their families. The pace of conversion to Christianity hastened in 1391, after riots in many cities. In the 1400s, Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella  of Castille, uniting the two largest Kingdoms in what is today Spain—and in essence forming Spain as we know it today. They drove out the last vestige of Muslim rule in January of 1492, and in March, they decreed that all Jews had to leave Spain by the summer. But this did not affect Christians of Jewish heritage, and Jews who became Christians could stay in Spain.

My own feeling is that some converts were loyal to Judaism, others were convinced of the truth of Christianity; the situation was somewhat different in neighboring Portugal, where the entire Jewish community, including many Jews who had left Spain, were baptized and declared to be Christians in 1497. In the past 30 years in the USA—earlier in some places—a number of individuals of largely Spanish heritage have begun to assert a Jewish identity, based on their understanding that they had Jewish ancestors, and in some cases based on assumptions that their immediate ancestors had inherited some Jewish practices or beliefs—although they kept them hidden from their Christian neighbors.

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The World Over was a publication of the New York Board of Jewish Education distributed to young American Jews at Hebrew schools around the country in the 1950s and 1960s—and, I have found, fondly remembered by all those familiar with it from those days.  Their pieces about the Inquisition, especially the superb graphic-novel style histories by Morris Epstein on the back cover, highlighted the romance of Jewish survival against all odds—a theme that resonated well in this newsletter addressed to the youth of a highly assimilating community. As I remember it, the World Over never quite answered the question of what became of the descendants of the conversos who retained loyalty to Judaism. Back on those days, there were few indicators of any survival; if there were, I wonder how attractive they would have been to the World Over or to American Jews as a whole. As romantic as 16^th and early 17^th century perseverance of Jewish identity in a Christian world may have seemed, in the 20^th century North American context, converso descendants had indeed committed the arch-crime: they did not maintain Jewish identity, willfully assimilating into their environment. Indeed, the late father of the current PM, Ben-Tzion Netanyahu emphasized the degree to which many converso descendants had identified strongly as Christians and identified Spanish attitudes towards Limpieza de Sangre “purity of blood” with the beginnings of an approach to Jewish heritage in which hatred and oppression was based not on the religious orientation or even on self-identification but on determination of Jewish identity made by governments and the Church, and based more on what we would call racial heritage—the beginnings of antisemitism. Netanyahu’s conclusions are controversial to be sure, but, suggest that some of those who identified with the Law of Moses did so only because of antisemitism—a finding that is highly problematic for a community dedicated to ending antisemitism and promoting Jewish identity.

Indeed, a generation ago there was little scholarship at all that suggested any survival whatsoever of Jewish identity among the descendants of Conversos. Cecil Roth’s history of the Marranos had little; indeed, Roth was editor of the Encyclopedia Judaica and there is little in the 1972-4 publication to suggest the great flowering of interest and research that have ensured in the past 40 years. Raphael Patai had visited the village of Venta Prieta and dismissed its Judaic practices—a view he was later to emend. There were a few references to persons who believed they had some Jewish ancestry—although sometimes connected with personages such as the Carvajal family; one famous historian of 17^th century New Spain traced his own ancestry back to the Carvajal family with multiple strands—while insisting he had no connection with any Jewish ancestry at all. J.R. Marcus, the dean of American Jewish Historians, served the Jews of Trinidad, Colorado for the High Holy days for many years. He is quoted as suggesting that there were as some 2000 New Christians in New Mexico in the 16^th century—yet it is not clear to me that he believed the Spanish speakers in the area preserved Jewish practices or identity into the 20^th century. There was little popular awareness either. Dan Ross published a wonderful book called Acts of Faith (my first published article was a short review of this book) with accounts of his travels to Venta Prieta, of the Xuetas and other communities which preserved Jewish identity—in 1982—and had nothing to say about the New Mexico phenomenon.

The Six Day War—in which the old city of Jerusalem came into Israeli control and Israel avoided disaster, and attitudes toward Israel and Judaism began to change—the growth of a more denominational approach to Jewish education, and the spirit of multiculturalism changed American Jewish life. Slowly there came to be more awareness of broader diversity in Judaism. America as a whole changed too, and so did the Spanish-ancestry community. Urbanization and mobility brought many Hispanos into contact with Jews; Suburbanization and economic growth brought them together as well, as did education and shared experiences stretching back to World War II.  America had become a melting Pot, but in the aftermath of the 1960s, greater valorization of diversity and a radical drop in Antisemitism also played a role. (Charles Silberman argued that American Antisemitism ended in the 1970s when a major family corporation that had had a history of excluding Jews appointed a Jewish president and no one really made a fuss over it), and in any case, according to an important AJC study, anti-Jewish feelings among persons of hispano ancestry born in America was very low, as compared to the high rate of antisemitism among those born outside the US. The conditions were set for a reconsideration of Jewish heritage among converso descendants.

Stan Hordes’ often-repeated account of how people began to express a sense of Jewish identity to him refers to quiet, nearly-clandestine approaches by individuals who had heard him speak about practices reported by the Spanish Inquisition as “Judaizing,” such as lighting candles or having larger meals on Friday evenings, avoiding pork, or eating flat breads around Easter time. These twentieth-century informants told him that they had always wondered about their own, similar family traditions and that his accounts of crypto-Jewish practices from several hundred years ago explained them. In other cases, as reported to me and to others, persons of Spanish heritage who came into contact with Jewish families as domestics, college roommates or army buddies remarked on similarities of practice. At least in such cases, the quest for Jewish identity was initiated by the people themselves as the result of contact with Jews, to be sure, but not by some folklorist or journalist probing them for details, a practice which usually is seen as tainting the research.

Slowly, a consistent picture emerged, usually described as the survival of Jewish practices and some sense of a special identity. Hordes’ historical research work provided a sound basis for interpreting modern practices, and his familiarity with genealogical records enabled him to track the ancestry of some of the families with practices that fit the pattern—often enough finding known Jewish Iberian ancestors. At the very least, there is a sound basis for understanding some of the reported practices as evidence of survival either of Jewish ritual or converso responses to external fear of Judaism, in other words, modern testimony among the descendants of Spanish colonials to converso heritage. But it also made him keenly aware of the limitations of the sources, of the need for sensitivity and respect for privacy, and care to report findings but not over-interpret. For example, certain objects with potential Jewish significance, or the prevalence of certain names have often been adduced as evidence of a hidden Jewish heritage; he and others have shown that these arguments are of limited utility. In any case, the publication and dissemination of these research findings in the form of scholarly articles, documentaries, exhibits and more greatly facilitated the emergence of a community of individuals of largely Hispanic ancestry who identify in some way with the Jewish people

Claims of preserved Jewish heritage have often been controversial, in the US as well as in Israel. A fundamental difference, of course, is that in Israel, there are a number of governmental considerations such as the Law of Return, population registry, state-religious schools and many more that have official stakes in status determination; no such government institutions exist in the U.S. situation. Thus in Israel, deliberations about whether Ethiopian Beta Israel or Falas Mura, Xuetas, Bnai Menashe may be considered Jewish involve governmental bodies. In America, there is no such government involvement of course, and for the most part, no mainstream rabbinic guidance is sought. Some converso descendants have adopted a fully Jewish identity, working with Rabbis trained by some of the main Ranbbinic seminaries—I mean here the large rabbinic schools that furnish Rabbis for all of the main Jewish communities all across the American spectrum from more to less observant—but in my experience, many parts of this community are drawn to work with self-proclaimed Rabbis with no smichut or diploma at all, or whose training is from small programs with little standing in the general Jewish community.

To return to the history of the emergence of this community in America: Whereas there had been reports about Jewish identity among indigenous Mexican people (i.e. Indians) with Venta Prieta, the first inklings of a change in the notion of a “crypto-Jewish identity” in the USA began to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s. In the late 1970s and 80s there were references to contemporary Hispanic families who identified as Jews. Carlos Llaralde did a PhD on members of his own family in the Brownsville are in Texas, near the Mexican border; Some talked about Tejano (Texan)– Jewish identity in places such as San Antonio, and I learned of a number of memoires that were written in those days, but not published, perhaps out of fear of rejection in the largely-Catholic worlds in which the writers lived. This began to change radically in the mid-1980s. There were a few publications around 1985, Hordes and Tomas Atencio published a detailed prospectus in 1987; and a number of histories of New Mexico mentioned some telling details. Hordes was a standard bearer for this change: he interviewed with the American Public Broadcasting Service and was featured in some documentaries, wrote articles in professional journals and newspapers, founded two professional historical societies, and worked with the Smithsonian Institution on an exhibition. A further impetus to this development in the late 1980s was the 500^th anniversary of the Expulsion from Spain. I had just moved from Haifa to Denver Colorado in 1991, and well remember interest expressed to me in such issues as whether Spain would use the occasion to welcome the Jews back to Spain—and what this would mean to people of Spanish ancestry.

Back in 1996, I suggested that Crypto-Judaism could be studied and discussed under the rubrics of the question of genealogy, the canon of evidence, and the expression of identity. The “canon of evidence included what I call “argument from names” -- rigorous research has shown that in fact during the 19^th century this argument holds up—using a set of nine families that exhibit crypto-Jewish features, it has been shown that for a generation or two in the 19^th century there were in fact a statistically significant subset of names that were used by their ancestors; otherwise however the evidence is not convincing. A second set of evidence is artifacts—people talked about items used as mezuzot, or holy books or other items supposedly associated with Jewish practice. Again, research has shown that the description of the artifact by those associated with it is more determinative than the artifact itself—most of the artifacts cited as evidence are unconvincing when taken alone. Another part of the canon of evidence is a tradition in a family that somos judaeos “we are Jews” or accusations that these people were Jews. Again, this is not as convincing as you might think: accusations of Judaism may simply reflect an anti-Semitic slur more than actual Jewish heritage.

Patient genealogical work demonstrated Jewish ancestry but a “genetic essentialism” so often plagues popular treatments of this phenomenon; as DNA evidence began to be available professional, critical analysis and serious critiques to flawed arguments are even more necessary. Conclusions drawn from DNA evidence often do not stand up under scrutiny, or are irrelevant to the point being made. For example, the famous “Cohen Modal Haplotype” – a Y chromosome pattern occurring with striking frequency among men who claim to be Kohanim – occurs often enough among people with no such claim, so often, indeed, that in general, Jewish males with traditions of being Kohanim are only a small subset of males with this haplotype—put differently, a Kohen has a strikingly high probability of having this haplotype, but a person with the haplotype still has a very low probability of being Jewish or having Jewish ancestors. (This type of analysis is important even when addressed to those who are impervious to logic and, unwilling to accept the fact that often proffered evidence does not stand up under scrutiny.  I wrote these lines about some of the genetics presentations in various conference I have attended, but it applies equally well to those such as Judith Neulander or various journalists who wrote critically in general of work identifying the phenomenon of Crypto-Judaism) To my mind, the most important decision in the area of genetic genealogy was to devote much effort and energy to the medical sphere: one may quibble about the interpretation of this or that allele or group of Y-chromosome genes, but the identification of diseases and disorders worth testing among a given subset of the population saves lives.

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The most important component is the study of the expression of identity. Prof. Kunin’s book on the subject is Juggling Identities. This book has a fascinating analysis of a session offered by some Messianic Christians on how they constructed their sense of a Jewish heritage and Jewish identity—based on a conference presentation which might not have come about except for Stan’s patient insistence to program committee members and society board that giving them a space to articulate their approach was a crucial component in understanding all aspects of Crypto-Jewish identity.

So, what are the components of this community? In my teaching, I often use the typology of “believing, behaving and belonging” to organize descriptions of what is important in describing religious movements. Among the Crypto-Jews of the U.S. Southwest, there is little unanimity of belief in the traditional religious sense: some fervently believe in God and some don’t, some express beliefs that would be familiar to anyone in the normative Jewish community; most do not. Underlying this, I conclude, is an important belief: the belief in the value of continuity of their Jewish identity, at least in a hidden form, and the value of their type of identity. To rephrase this: they believe it is important to affirm that they and their ancestors have always been Jewish in at least some sense, rather than to assert that they have some Jewish ancestors or heritage and they have chosen to identify as Jews. 

Behavior is easier to discuss, as is the sense of belonging. Indeed, in observing this community and participating in some of their events, it seems to me that the believing and belonging components are expressed in a readily identifiable pattern.

1.      1.  Rituals and places. Rabbis, Conference, Purim/Esther

Some people in this community follow very traditional Jewish rituals, but most do not. Most talk about rituals and practices they believe their ancestors followed: lighting candles on Friday nights –similar to the Jewish practice—but in a hidden area in the house, or baking pan de Semita at Easter time—but few follow these rituals either. Research has shown that the Jewish festival of Purim was highly meaningful to Crypto Jews several centuries ago, especially the story of Esther, who kept her Jewish identity secret even when brought into the royal palace and married to the King—but while they talk of Esther with pride, relatively few participate in normative Purim activities.

Many, though, participate in various groups and forums, conferences and travel. They seek DNA confirmation of their heritage—it seems to me that this should be considered a kind of ritual. They consult Rabbis and cheer various organizations and rabbis who speak to their beliefs about the continuity of their Jewish identity—regardless of the training and standing of these leaders. Just as “Jewish continuity” seems to be a major unifying belief (rather than belief in God)—as is true for many Jews in the Mainstream Jewish world—who do not have strong religious beliefs regarding the Divine--this style of “Jewish practice” mirrors that of the general Jewish community, whose practice has only a small religious content, but often centers around leaders whose opinions are cherished, and non-religious community institutions.

Thus, “belonging” is the most important component—but here we see that belonging to the Crypto-Jewish community or to a Sephardic subset of Judaism—appears to be the most important component of this equation.

2.      2.  Minority attitudes-Crypto Jews /African American parallels 1960-1980s.

An interesting area for further research is a comparison between Hispanic Crypto-Jews and African American Muslims. Both groups share a narrative asserting a unique heritage:  “Our ancestors included Jews or Muslims” (that is not or not merely Christian Blacks or Spaniards), and a conscious choice to adopt this heritage, including the notion that some small trace was preserved – even if it was hidden or nearly destroyed. Moreover, these communities have not simply folded into the religious mainstream, both due to some of the choices they have made, and due to a feeling in the respective mainstream communities that these groups may represent historic returns – but are also marginal and have practices and beliefs that may not be “mainstream” enough.  

3.      3. Complex attitude towards mainstream, classic communities, multiple identities, reshaping self-image

The Crypto-Jews remind us that adopting a religious heritage can be very complex, and part of a multiple set of identities. There is no single pattern; if anything, the Crypto-Jews seem to behave more like American secular Jews than traditional Jews. Despite the protestations of Crypto-Jews that they are maintaining a religious tradition, often it is the racial component that is most important to them. DNA do not have religion—but often that is just how this is expressed in this community.

4.      4. Important roles of researchers/standard bearers/ creation of institutions and publications.

Finally, I must offer a few words about “Standard Bearers,” institutions and publications in the formation of identity.  I mentioned various processes and changes such as the Six Day War, integration into urban and especially suburban areas with large Jewish populations, shared experiences in World War II, the decline of antisemitism—and I do think these were necessary for and partially the cause for openness to or indeed desire to express a Jewish identity among hispanos. But I do not think they were sufficient: people like Stan Hordes and Gloria Mound worked to help give this phenomenon a voice, and (this is also important) combined commitment to spreading the voice with research and critical thinking. Although Stan, for example, has often been called a “booster” he is more of a “standard bearer”—both in the since of carrying the flag (i.e. the ‘standard’) but also of maintain standards. The leaders and institutions created have made it possible for hispanos interested in exploring Jewish identity to do so, and made it easy to be part of the “Crypto-Jewish Community” – and on the whole these institutions have not insisted on a traditional approach to belonging to the Jewish mainstream. It seems to me to be inevitable that this be so, and the institutions pretty much have to adopt a broad, inclusive and secular approach, in which the religious component is similar to that of secular Jewish institutions.

It is also inevitable that some individuals, movements and institutions are entirely committed to integrating descendants of Crypto-Jews into the contemporary Jewish community and providing them a traditional Jewish identity. Had organizations or Rabbis emphasizing traditional religious training and practice (and not emphasizing research and an inclusive approach) been more active in the US, for example, the shape of the Crypto-Judaism “community” would have been quite different.

POSTSCRIPT

Here in China, Jewish identity is not much of an issue, although it might be that individuals who believe they have ancestry from Kai Feng or for that matter from Jews of Shanghai or Tientsin of a century or more ago might come forward and assert that they hid  their Jewish identity from public view for various reasons. However, many Chinese people are wrestling with questions of preserving ethnic and – yes—religious or belief-oriented practice—and the comparison with the issues raised by Crypto-Judaism may well be instructive. 

 By: Dr. Seth Ward, Program in Religious Studies, University of Wyoming

 What do we mean by the term "Sephardim"?

Spanish Jews are called Sephardim; the singular is "Sephardi." The Hebrew "sephardi" or "sepharadi" refers either to a single Spanish Jew, or is used as an adjective meaning pertaining to the Sephardim. For example, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) called himself Moses... the Sephardi. "Sephardic" is used in English as an adjective, not a noun: someone may be Sephardic, but the people should be called "Sephardim" rather than "Sephardics;"

Up to the fifteenth century, "Sephardi" was used primarily to refer to the Jewish community in the Iberian peninsula itself, or to someone who was born there. Thus Maimonides called himself "the Sephardi," but his son Abraham, born in Egypt, did not. This changed in the fifteenth and especially sixteenth centuries, primarily as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula.

How did the Biblical term Sepharad come to mean "Spain?"

The place-name "Sepharad" is mentioned in the Bible only in the book of Obadiah, where the prophet refers to the Jerusalemite exiles in Sepharad. There is no scholarly concensus as to the geographical location to which this passage originally referred. Some scholars have suggested locations in Mesopotamia, Sardis in Asia Minor, or Sparta in Greece. From late Roman times, some Jews assumed that Sepharad referred to Spain. In any case, this was but one instance of the transference of biblical terms such as Sepharad, Tzarefat and Ashkenaz from their original Middle-Eastern referents to European locales. By the Middle Ages, Sepharad was the normal term used by Jews to refer to Spain.

A Brief History of Jewish Life in Spain

According to Sephardic tradition, the first Jews to arrive in Spain were the exiles from Jerusalem to whom Obadiah referred, who came in the sixth pre-Christian century. Many scholars assume Jews settled in Spain in Roman times, but we have little information about Jewish life in Spain until the time of the Visigothic Spanish kingdom, which outlawed Judaism at the end of the seventh century after the kings had become Catholics. Spain was conquered by the Muslims in 711. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Spanish Judaism flourished under the Muslims, producing poets, scholars, and courtiers of the first order. After the Christian Reconquista gained Toledo in 1085, when the Almoravids came to rule the Islamic side of the frontier, Jewish cultural achievements in Muslim Spain began to decline, disappearing under the Almohades in the mid-twelfth century. But Christian Spain meanwhile developed its remarkable convivencia in which Jews (and Muslims) were involved in cultural, intellectual, financial and even political life all over Christian Spain. By the mid-thirteenth century, the Christians controlled all of the Peninsula except for a small area from Granada to the Mediterranean. In many of the independent Spanish kingdoms, the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries still saw striking religious, cultural and literary achievements among the Jews, but Jews also faced increasing religious pressures and occasionally were forced to participate in religious "disputations" with Christians.

Anti-Jewish riots broke out in several cities in 1391. The fifteenth century was marked by continuing hardships and religious pressure, leading many Jews to convert or to leave Spain. In January, 1492, the Muslims were driven out of their last stronghold, Granada, completing the Reconquista. In March, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decreed the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Many Jews converted or left the Iberian peninsula; other Jews went to Portugal, where Judaism could still be practiced freely. But Portugal expelled its Jews in 1497, and the tiny kingdom of Navarre followed suit in 1498. Judaism could be practiced openly nowhere in the Peninsula.

The exact number of Jews who left Spain and Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century is debated by scholars, but may be estimated at several hundred thousand, significant enough to enable Sephardim to establish their own congregations in such places as Morocco, Italy, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, the Land of Israel, and elsewhere. Eventually, Sephardic communities were established in Amsterdam, London and the New World as well. In many places the Sephardim, with their energy, resources, training and vitality, quickly took a leading role in local Jewish cultural and religious life.

"Sephardim" after 1492 

Today, Jews descended from the communities where Spanish Jews settled are called Sephardim. Indeed, the term "Sephardic Jews" is often used by extension to refer to all Jews who are not part of the Ashkenazi (Central and Eastern-European) culture-world. Although some Jews of Spanish heritage resent this loose usage, it reflects the success of Sephardic religious traditions, language and customs in many of the places in which the exiles settled. The "Sephardic Rite" is sometimes used to refer not to the prayer ritual of the Sephardim but of Rabbi Isaac Luria (d. 1573), an Ashkenazi (!) who combined elements of both Sephardic and Ashkenazic ritual. This prayerbook was adopted by the Hasidim in Eastern Europe and is probably the most common one in use in Israel today. 

Who are the Conversos?

Many Spanish Jews converted to Catholicism in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially in the aftermath of the Edict of Expulsion in 1492. These "conversos," often called "New Christians," included many who became devout, believing Catholics, or at any rate educated their children to be. Others, however, preserved Jewish practices and did their utmost to retain some sort of Jewish identity. Most knew little or nothing about the Jewish religion and beliefs of their ancestors; some may have developed an interest in Judaism only after threatened by or actually charged by the Inquisition. Scholars debate the percentage of New Christians who were loyal to Judaism; some believe it was very low. Nevertheless, a steady stream of conversos and their descendants returned to the open practice of Judaism throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and even afterward; often their communities were called "Spanish-Portuguese." Conversos or their descendants who were believed to continue Jewish practices or to hold Jewish beliefs were called "Marranos," a derogatory term meaning "swine."

What do we mean by the term Crypto-Judaism?

"Crypto-Judaism" is used to describe the broad range of secret practices and beliefs of those secretly maintaining some tie to Judaism but forced to uphold another religion in public. Although the term is almost always used with respect to Sephardic conversos, it could be said to apply to the secret Judaism practiced under Islam under the Almohades in the 12th century, in Mashhad, Iran, in the 19th-20th centuries, and possibly to the Turkish Dönme. Due to its secretive nature, a sense of community was possible only in fairly remote areas; even so, there was a constant fear that a practice might "give them away" to the authorities, or even that a family member might turn them in.

"Crypto-Judaism" is used to refer to a wide range of phenomena. In some cases, families are reported to have transmitted explicit statements such as "We are Jews" through the generations. In other cases, no one knew the reason for practices passed down as family traditions.

What about Crypto-Judaism in the New World?

Some of those who settled in Spain's American colonies were conversos or descendants of conversos. When Spain established the Inquisition in her New-World colonies, inquisitors soon found much evidence of "Judaizing." Whether from loyalty to Judaism or fear of the Inquisition (which confiscated property first and conducted hearings only afterwards), many New Christians found their ways to remote areas. Research documentation is particularly strong about New Christian settlement in what later became northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Inquisition records clearly indicate, however, that throughout the Spanish empire, the Holy Office located individuals who expressed loyalty to the "Law of Moses" rather than to Christianity, and suffered the consequences.

At the end of the seventeenth century, the Inquisition for the most part lost interest in prosecuting crypto-Jews, ironically leading to a dramatic reduction in the preservation of Judaic practices. Many crypto-Judaic families lost much of their identity and assimilated into the Catholic mainstream. Others, however, appear to have maintained some Jewish customs, and even a consciousness of their ancestral faith. Today, some of the descendants of New Christians are discovering their Jewish or converso heritage. At least in some villages, traditional converso crypto-Judaic practices have survived up to the present.

Not all manifestations of Judaism in these areas should be assumed to preserve converso practices brought over from Spain. There may well have been other contacts with Jews, and, curiously, several communities sometimes thought to be converso descendants who returned to Judaism may reflect instead the workings of a Judeophilic Protestant missionary church.

At the end of the twentieth century, many converso descendants from this area find themselves no longer in the village but in the city. They have come into contact with Jews, but also have lost some of their contact with family and village traditions. Paradoxically, as these traditions have begun to fade, those who have inherited them are in a better position to relate to them openly. This process has not only been going on in the American Southwest, but in Portugal itself, where the converso community of Belmonte openly returned to Judaism, undergoing a formal conversion ceremony.                      

Seth Ward

by Seth Ward, University of Wyoming

Originally posted sometime before 2001. Recovered from archive.org October 2012.

  The Jews of Spain, some of whom trace their settlement in the Iberian peninsula back to the sixth pre-Christian century, eventually came to call their new home "Sepharad," a place-name mentioned only once in the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Obadiah (v. 20). Perhaps this was because of a perceived similarity of the term to "Espaniah," or, perhaps, to "sephar," which in the Aramaic vernacular would denote furthermost limit or seacoast. It is also possible, as has been suggested by David Neiman, that it reflects an ancient connection with the colonization of Spain by people from Sardis, in what is now Western Asiatic Turkey. (D. Neiman, "Sefarad, the Name of Spain," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 22 (1963) 128-132.) Indeed, a bi-lingual inscription found in Sardis in Hebrew and Greek characters, and occurrences in other Greek, Mesopotamian and Egyptian writings, support the conjecture that the Old Testament usage actually refers to the city or area of Sardis, surely perceived as a far-distant location in Obadiah's time.  In any case, Jews immigrating to Spain brought along this serviceable term to express both the remoteness of the peninsula and their spiritual identification with Scriptures and Holy Land.  By early mediaeval times, Spanish Jews were referring to themselves as Sephardim. 

  Obadiah the prophet refers to the exile of Jerusalem in Sepharad.  Although the term has come to refer to Spain, there is no consensus about what the term originally meant in the Book of Obadiah. 

  Sepharad is clearly not one of the ancient Biblical "nations of the world," entities mentioned in the "Table of Nations" in Genesis 11, many of which have clear references to ancient peoples. It is not even clear  whether "Sepharad" in Obadiah represents a concrete reference to a real  location, or a veiled, poetic or prophetic reference to what may be  merely a symbolic toponym. Traditional interpreters of this verse have not even agreed about whether it refers to exiles which occured after the destruction of the first or second Temples. Obadiah, who was close in time to the destruction of the First Temple, may have been referring to the dispersion of Judaeans at that time. We know about Judaeans in Babylonia and Egypt, although perhaps they were in other locations as well. Many Jewish commentators, however, aware of the association of Sepharad with Spain, assume the passage is talking prophetically about  the exile from Jerusalem under Titus, an event far in the future in  Obadiah's time. 

  Some of the discussion of this matter depends on a sense of group pride.  Regardless of the dating of the Jerusalemite dispersion in Sepharad, the association of Obadiah's Sepharad with Spain confers upon this group the sense of an ancient heritage, and a centuries-old presence in the Iberian  peninsula. There is no reason to dismiss the possibility of Roman-period Jewish settlement in Spain, and Judaean settlement there may possibly  even predate Roman times. But the later application of the term Sepharad to Spain is irrelevant to the discussion of when Jews first arrived there.   

  Centuries after Obadiah, the Jews of Sardis in Asia Minor apparently  assumed Sepharad in the Bible referred to their community in Roman and  Byzantine times; many scholars assume that Obadiah's reference, or the  Talmudic period understanding of the term, may have been this or some  other location in Asia Minor. Presumably this is because of the  similarity in sound between Sardis and Sepharad.  

  The Targum or Aramaic translation of Obadiah, ascribed to Jonathan ben Uzziel, provides what may be the earliest example of making Obadiah's Sepharad refer to Spain: Targum Jonathan translates Sepharad in Obad. 20 as "Espamia." According to the Talmud, Jonathan was a student of Hillel, which would date him to the end of the last pre-Christian century or beginning of the first Christian century. But scholars assume that the Targum Jonathan is much later than that, and certainly "Espamia" could well be a gloss by an even later hand. 

  The Pshitta, a Christian Aramaic translation of the Bible, also glosses Sepharad to refer to Spain. Here too, the date of the Peshitta is hard to determine; any dating based on this occurrence would involve careful examination of variants in manuscript texts.

  Presumably the association of Sepharad with Spain is based on the similarity of sounds. Note, however, that the assonance is not as clearly evident or lacking in ascription of biblical terms like Tsarefat and Ashkenaz to France and Germany. 

  The editors of the Encyclopedia Judaica assert that Sepharad became the most common way of referring to Spain already in Jewish texts of the  eighth century. Yet this ascription was not so standard as to obviate comment by such twelfth century scholars as Ibn Ezra, Rashi and David  Kimchi. Nor had Sepharad had not totally replaced Espaniah or Espamiah  (or al-Andalus in Judaeo-Arabic) in other texts from this period. These references show that the term Sepharad was widely understood to refer to  Spain, but it was not so standard as to pass without comment.  

  One of the more fanciful suggestions about the derivation of Sepharad was offered by a seventeenth century churchman. Dwelling on a superficial similarity in English transcription, he associated Sepharad with the term "span," which he said meant, inter alia "hidden." In Hebrew the term tsafun "hidden" shares only one letter with Sepharad. While the "S" of Sepharad and "Tz" of tzafun might be rendered the same in English, they are distinct in Hebrew.  Perhaps the "n" was suggested by the final letter in the English name of the country. 

  To summarize: Sepharad is found only once in the Bible, in the book of Obadiah. There is no consensus about what location Obadiah had in mind when using this term. Several centuries after Obadiah, the term was appplied to Sardis, at least by the Jewish residents of Sardis, and may have been applied to other areas in Asia Minor or perhaps elsewhere.   Still later, it came to be the term generally used to refer to Spain.  While the use of Sepharad to refer to Spain may go back to the reputed  time of Jonathan ben Uzziel, the end of the last pre-Christian century,  it is really not possible to fix with certainty when this usage is first  encountered, or when it became common. Probably it was already in common use by the eighth century, but even in mediaeval times it was still necessary to provide a presumably more familiar term, Espamia, to describe the location. 

  The original meaning of Sepharad as used by Obadiah cannot be known with certainty if at all; nor can the date by which it was commonly adopted to refer to Spain. Thus from the historian's viewpoint, it has no historical relevance for determining the beginnings of the community. The true significance lies elsewhere. The term "Sepharad" symbolizes the high aspirations of the Jewish community of Spain, and their deep sense of heritage. It is no doubt the source of the uniform ascription by Sephardim of their ancestry to exiles from Judaea, more specifically, from Jerusalem, (to give only one example, Ibn Verga's title Shevet Yehuda "The Tribe of Judah" for his history of Spanish Jewry) and supports the antiquity of their arrival in Spain. (Apparently this is also the source of the assumption sometimes encountered that the exile of Ashkenaz comprises non-Judaeans; since the Ten Tribes went off into captivity these must be descendants of the erev-rav "mixed multitude." The earliest reference of which I am currently aware is from Israel Zangwill's King of the Schnorrers). Ancestry from Judah connects the community with Scriptures and prophecy, and with a promised return to the Holy Land. Thus, underlying the application of Sepharad to Spain (or to Sardis before it) is a statement of great cultural and even ideological meaning. Although it tells us little if anything about the actual history of the community, it provides a clear symbol of values Jews see within history. 

  Seth Ward