Kesher Talk

Jews in odd places: Hispanic Americans: Throughout the Southwest, Hispanics are discovering a Jewish past. A few of these descendants of conversos or crypto-Jews are returning to the faith of their ancestors.

But let's not exaggerate the trend. Most people who discover a crypto-Judaic or converso heritage do not return to the faith, says Stanley Hordes, founder of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies.

"Crypto-Judaism is an unusual phenomenon in that most of the people who I've dealt with are initially very reluctant to reveal who they are to anyone," Hordes says. "And even if they do talk about their heritage with other people, conversion to Judaism or even establishing a relationship with mainstream Judaism is something that occurs quite rarely. For the most part, for the last 500 years, most of these people have been Catholic or Protestant, and their Christianity has certainly become part of their heritage as well."

posted by William @ 8/20/2003 09:01:23 AM