OUT FROM HIDING!
?Evidences of Sephardic Roots among Latinos?By Dell F. SancheziUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Dell F. Sanchez
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-5371-0 Contents
Preface..................................................................xiiiAcknowledgements.........................................................xviiIntroduction.............................................................xxiA note on the locations and sources of investigation.....................xxvOverview.................................................................xxviiChapter One ? Scriptural Evidence........................................1Chapter Two ? Historical Evidences.......................................6Chapter Three ? Material Evidences.......................................16Chapter Four ? Scientific Evidences......................................39Chapter Five ? Onomastic Evidences.......................................53Chapter Six ? Personal Evidences.........................................64Chapter Seven ? Synthesis of Personal Evidences..........................130Chapter Eight ? Implications and Projections.............................133Conclusions..............................................................136Appendix.................................................................140Notes....................................................................144Bibliography.............................................................150About the Author.........................................................153
Chapter One
Scriptural Evidence
The Hebrew Torah has stood the test of time for around 3500 years. It has been the basis and point of departure for various religions for over three millennia. It has also been the subject for inquiry not only in schools of theology but has also been read in the halls of history, literature and human origins.
In this case, there is no better standard, in my opinion, that relates to the existence and future of Sephardic Anusim than that of Holy Scriptures. These Scriptures can be seen as historical or they can be seen strictly as "inspirational." In either case, they provide an ancient reason for Sephardic Anusim's existence as well as their future role in human civilization. My intent is not the theology of the matter but to corroborate the origins and future of the people this book represents.
I shall quote only a few Scriptures which provide us with some precedence on this subject. The Scriptures I shall refer to are taken verbatim from the Massoretic Text of the Scriptures. The Massoretic Text reads like "Old English" and I do so because it is a reliable source for Biblical translation and is also the basis for the Jewish Bible.
Torah Precedence
In the Book of Deuteronomy it reads:
If any of thine that are dispersed be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee. And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
Prior to his death, Moses foretold what would happen to Jews of every tribe and possibly from every age and generation. With accuracy, Moses foretold the future dispersions of the "Chosen People." History has revealed that the Sephardic Anusim have been in hiding the longest and separated the farthest from the rest of the Jewish family since they were expelled from Spain. No other group of Jews has suffered more severely for a longer period of time than these Sephardic Anusim Jews, as we shall see in Chapter two which surveys this history.
Despite their sufferings, Moses foretold that God would "fetch" and bring them into the land of their forefathers. And he also declared that God plans to do well to them and to multiply them "above their fathers." The Jews I'm referring, specifically the descendants of Inquisition survivors of Spain, Portugal and Mexico have been multiplying in every conceivable way.
Prophetic Precedence
The Prophet Jeremiah affirms the attitude in which God intends to return the Jewish people from the farthest corners of the world. He said,
Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land in truth with My whole heart and with My whole soul.
Jeremiah asserts that God will take good pleasure in (re)planting His children back in the land of their forefathers. He also says that God will do this transplanting "with all my heart and soul." There is no other Scripture that declares this more impassionedly.
The Prophet Isaiah emphasizes that God is going to "bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem." And one of the nations cited is "Tarshish" which many scholars declare is a southern region of ancient Spain; in a location also known as "Tartesos." It is my persuasion that the location of ancient Spain goes all the way back to King Solomon, when he sent fleets of ships every three years to Tarshish in partnership with the Phoenician King Hiram.
The Prophet Zechariah said:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country, and from the west country; And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.
In his vision, Zechariah saw that God shall reach out not only to the nations in the Eastern Hemisphere but also to those in the Western Hemisphere. I believe this Western Hemisphere includes the land mass known as the "New World" of the Americas.
I believe the most relevant Scripture dealing with the Sephardic Anusim is found in the smallest book of the bible, the Prophet Obadiah as he foretells:
... and the captivity of Jerusalem, that is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the South (Negev). And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD'S.
In Hebrew Sepharad is Spain. This ancient prophet is foretelling that the Jews of Sepharad/Spain shall possess the cities of the South which is the Negev Desert in southern Israel.
Talmudic Corroboration
The Rabbis teach that he who builds the wall is great, But greater is he who stands in the gap.
There is a Scripture in the Talmud that speaks directly about the Sephardic Anusim. There are rabbis that choose to interpret it differently as is demonstrated in their attitude towards the Anusim but there is an increasing number that are taking a new outlook at this phenomena. The term I am referring to is tinnok shenishba beyin hagoim.
Dr. Rabbi Marc D. Angel of New York City revealed to me a personal concern I have held regarding the Sephardic Anusim whom I represent. The quotation below reflects his personal version of the term, tinnok shenishba beyin hagoim, and it reads:
This term refers to a (Jewish) baby who was captured and raised among non-Jews. Such a child cannot later be held responsible for not knowing the laws of the Torah, since he/she grew up without even knowing he/she was Jewish. Yet, when such a person later learns he/she is of Jewish parentage, he/she can (should) be considered part of the Jewish people and become subject to the laws of the Torah as he/she learns them.
The term I have quoted is crucially important to the quest of Sephardic Anusim for obvious reasons. It is more relevant to the Sephardic Anusim now particularly because it is a well established fact that the primary religion of the Land of Israel is Judaism; and the authorities that are in high positions of influence are rabbis and Jewish sages. This Talmudic declaration is vital to the furtherance of our research as well as our advocating in favor of the Sephardic Anusim when it comes to their hope of becoming an Israeli citizen. It is for this reason that I cite certain foundational issues which confirms the need for us to have some working knowledge of what the Talmud has to say regarding issues such as those affecting Sephardic Anusim.
In its simplest definition, the Talmud is the record of the discussions that took place across many centuries expounding on the Oral Law of Judaism. These discussions took place in the highest Torah academies of the Land of Israel as well as Babylonia long ago. Throughout Jewish history, the Jewish people in all of their lands of dispersion, basically lived a Talmudic way of life, differing little from the way of the lives of their ancestors in Babylonia during the period of the compilation and editing of the Talmud. Nonetheless, Sephardic Anusim began to lose touch with Talmudic teachings during the obscure ages of Inquisitions in Iberia which followed into the New World.
Chapter Two
Historical Evidences
Origins and Development of Hispanic Jewry How & When Jews Became Spanish
The fact that Jews got all the way from Israel down the Mediterranean to Spain is a most amazing story. King David and Solomon, his son, had no idea that one day the Jews they sent on explorations to Tarshish, (ancient Spain) would become the fathers of today's Sephardic Anusim. Centuries later, they would become the Maimonides, the Abravanels, Cristobal Colons, the Carvajals, Oqate and the de Vargas of recent centuries as we now see them in our history books.
This story is so full of mystery that it began with Solomon's fleets and ends with fleeing. It moves from wealth, aristocracy and nobility to the confiscation of all their goods and assets in a land their own fathers founded together with their Phoenician cousins. However, the story doesn't begin this way?it actually begins with continuous successes leading to amazing wealth which eventually led to the Golden Age. It began with King David's intimate relationship with the Phoenician Emperor, King Hiram which is in modern day Lebanon.
History, including the Bible, reveals that the Phoenicians were expert ship builders and navigators. It was in those days that King Solomon and King Hiram would send fleets of ships every three years to explore and bring back gold, silver, exotic animals and fruits from different areas of ancient Spain.
These were the initial beginnings when social systems were established all the way from the ports of Israel and Lebanon down to Spain?with North Africa and Europe on either side of the ocean. Some believe that Solomon used some of the gold to adorn the amazing First Temple in the heart of Jerusalem.
After Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel got divided in two with one capital in the north and the other in the south. The northern Kingdom of Israel became very decadent but many Jews of the ten northern tribes chose to unite with the Southern Kingdom of Judah. There is no question that according to the Tanakh or the Old Testament, that Israelites from the north chose to dwell alongside their southern Judean brothers.
It is believed that about 50 years before the Empire of Babylon descended on Jerusalem to destroy and take Jewish captives into exile, many of the Levites, priests and followers fled to Spain. They took with them not only their Hebrew language and Mosaic faith but also certain objects from the Temple; after all, many were Levites and Cohanim. One would ask, but why flee to Spain? They fled to Spain because there was a community of Jews prospering there since the days of Solomon so eventually they became known as the Sephardim not just `the Jews of Spain.'
I have no doubt that similar flights took place from Israel to Spain during the Syrian oppression under Antiochus IV in 169 BCE. However, the most massive Diaspora of that era took place in 70 CE when the Roman Empire devastated Jerusalem and the "Second Temple," murdered tens of thousands and took over a million Jews to various slave communities throughout Europe. Many Spanish historians believe it was at this time that Jews founded Spain; but now we know this came around 1000 years earlier.
For the following 600 to 700 years after this, Jews prospered and lived peacefully in Spain until major outbreaks of anti-Semitism began to take place all across Spain. From here on out, Jews were constantly targeted for violent persecution. Despite the fact that Sephardim took the lead in ushering in the Golden Age between 1000 and 1400 CE?with displays of great wealth and prosperity, yet on the other hand massacres, riots and all types of violence fell upon the Jewish community of Spain. Year after year, violent crimes were perpetrated against Sephardic Jews until they were forcefully thrown out of their homeland of Sepharad.
Secrets that developed during the Inquisition
The essence of being a Jew in hiding reached its height during these tumultuous times of the Inquisition. Sephardic Jews became the scape goats for anything that went wrong all across Spain. The primary reason for hiding their identity was for shear survival. Sephardic Jews became the primary object of the "Curse of the Inquisition" as they were perpetually victimized. Not being a long-line Catholic was synonymous with being accursed and therefore lumped together with heretics and witches.
They became the target for religious reasons but predominantly because of greed?in other words, Jews had what others wanted and they managed to take it from them by force. Rather than to live a life in constant terror and in hiding, many chose not to convert to Roman Catholicism and fled to countries in Western and Central Europe as well as North Africa and parts of Asia.
As early as 1391, there was a massive Diaspora out of Spain and many fled to countries east of the Great Atlantic. Those that chose to remain in Spain were forced to convert yet they continued to be Jewish at heart. The covert theme of their lives can be characterized by the old saying: "A Catholic by day and a Jew by night."
Consequently, the Inquisition forced remaining Jews to go underground as they perfected their skills as Crypto or hidden Jews. By the time they were expelled in 1492, most of them had adopted a Crypto Jewish life style. Today many of them prefer to be known as Sephardic Anusim or Benei Anusim meaning 'the people of Anusim.' These are those that were forced or coerced to convert while spiritually and secretly they remained Jewish at heart.
Of recent, we have begun to discover stories of clever methods that were used in order to throw off members of the Catholic legion of Inquisitors and their compatriots. In simple terms, Crypto Jews or Anusim lived a dual life known as, "Cultural Catholics." In other words, they became Catolicos solamente de nombre, meaning "Catholics merely by name," with a Jewish heart.
Conflict between Conversos and non-Conversos
The saddest thing that could've taken place, did in fact take place. The Jewish community that had flourished for many centuries began to slowly become fragmented and divided. This wasn't a matter of a few months or years but a crescendo that developed across many centuries. The cause for this was the issue of conversion, whether their conversion was sincere or insincere, it didn't matter.
The Inquisitors and their Catholic cohorts began to label "converted" Jews by calling them Marranos (swine, hogs, pigs) and forced them to eat pork in public. Sadly, some of their own Jewish family that did not convert picked up on this labeling, but not to the same proportion as the Catholic community and its Inquisitors. It is impossible to assess how many fell on one side of this 'conversion camp' or the other. However, it is my personal opinion that possibly the majority of those that thought they could ride out the Inquisition storm underwent conversion in order to save their lives and their families. However, there is no question that some of the Sephardim that converted to Catholicism were sincere. This created yet another reason for tension among all Sephardic Jews, regardless of their public or private faith.
They really believed the day would come when the social climate would change, the Inquisition would go away and they could return to a normal life with their faith and Sephardic way of doing things. Those that had the means and fled into North Africa where favor was afforded them at that time eventually discovered the anti-Semitic spirit among their Arab Islamic cousins. Therefore, some of them became Crypto Jews of a different kind; instead of having Catholicism to contend with they now had Islam to endure.
Sad to say, but some Sephardic families that never converted to Catholicism (or were successful in hiding the secret of their ancestors' conversion) have continued to stigmatize Anusim even to this day. A major way in which we evidence this is by the cynical and suspicious eye against Crypto Jews. This is despite the fact that many Crypto Jews are earnest learners that yearn to reconnect with their extended Jewish family. Some of them have discovered they're not welcomed in their synagogues or their social events. The primary reason is because of their Christian theologies and often because of certain dogmatism which influences them to make statements that are questionable and at times offensive to Jews in general.
However, in recent years, I have personally experienced a significant change towards the good in this age old trend. This is a present day phenomenon to see that this five hundred year old secret is beginning to dismantle as our people are learning how to relate to their history as well as to their Jewish family.
The Inquisition in Mexico and New Mexico
The first waves of Sephardic Anusim that fled the fires of the Spanish and the Portuguese Inquisition arrived in the New World thinking, hoping they had come far away enough to put this hellishness behind them forever.
It was only about three decades after Columbus' arrival that all hell broke loose in their new home in La Nueva Espana (New Spain) which is Mexico. By 1524, the Spanish Crown had sent a dozen Franciscan clergy to replicate the Spanish Inquisition in downtown Mexico City. I've seen material evidences of this holocaust in the land where our grandparents and great grand parents lived just south of the border. This was because letters were sent to the Spanish Crown that La Gente Prohibida (the "prohibited people") had managed to cross the Atlantic into Mexico. The question is, who were these prohibited people, and what were they prohibited from? When Sephardim were expelled from Spain they were strictly prohibited from crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They could flee to any other country or continent they wished but not across the Atlantic.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from OUT FROM HIDING!by Dell F. Sanchez Copyright © 2010 by Dell F. Sanchez. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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