HaLapid-Spring Summer 2019

THE SOCIETY FOR CRYPTO-JUDAiC STUDIES
SCJS
cryptojews.com
VOL. XLV / XLVI • SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 • ISSUES 25 & 26
SOCIETY FOR
STUDIES
CRYPTO-JUDAIC

THE SOCIETY FOR
CRYPTO-JUDAIC STUDIES
SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780
SCJS
New SCJS board members
and advisor
Page 3
Review: St. Augustine Conference
By Rabbi Merrill Shapiro
Page 30
Southwestern Conversos
By Mark Bennett
Page 4
Inspiring fused-glass art
Page 32
Alleles have no religion
By Seth Ward, PhD
Page 6
Poetry from Canada
By Shula Robin
Page 33
South Central Colorado
By Corinne Brown
Page 11
HIDDEN - The Jews of Spain
By Graciela Serrano Fenn
Page 34
Temple Aaron
Trinidad, Colorado
By Corinne Brown
Page 12
Native son has deep roots
By Diane Mock
Page 16
A lost book finds it way home
By Corinne Brown
Page 28
Welcome to
Denver
Children of the Inquisition debut
Page 35
Four Book Reviews
• On the Chocolate Trail
• By Light of Hidden Candles
• Me’ah Berachot - Life as a Spanish
& Portuguese Jew in 17th-Century
Amsterdam
• The Weight of Ink
Page 36
The Fifth Seder
The Fifth Passover
By Rabbi Barbara Aiello
By Rabbi Barbara Aiello
Page 39
Page 34
June 30-
July 2
SOCIETY FOR CRYPTO-JUDAIC STUDIES
Page 18
Register at www.cryptojews.com
Other upcoming conferences listed on Page 31
In Each Issue
President’s Letter.... Page 1
Editor’s Letter.......... Page 2
About the Cover....... Page 2
Among Ourselves..... Page 43
Carrying the Torch –
Our members
in the community
Page 41
New Members........ Page 44
Get Back Issues ...... Page 44
How to Join SCJS..... Page 45
Advertisers.............. Pages 5, 10

FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Fostering research of
the worldwide history
of the crypto-Judaic
experience and
the emergence of
hidden descendants from
the Iberian Peninsula.
HaLapid is the biannual publication of
The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies,
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
www.cryptojews.com
Editor-in-Chief
Corinne Joy Brown • corinnejb@aol.com
Copy Editor
Schelly Talalay Dardashti
Poetry Editor
M. Miriam Herrera
Contributing Writers
Rabbi Barbara Aiello, Mark Bennett,
Corinne Joy Brown, Schelly Talalay Dardashti,
Graciela Serrano Fenn, Gail Gutierrez,
M.Miriam Herrera, Linda Katchen, Claudia Long,
Diane Mock, Shula Robin, Rabbi Merrill Shapiro,
Seth Ward, Debbie Wohl-Isard,
Contributing Photographers
Corinne Joy Brown, Chas. McNamara, Neal Paul
Graphic Designer
Jacqueline Hirsch • jrh@hirmon.com
HirMon & Associates, Inc. • Lakewood, Colorado
Printer
Update Printing • www.updateprinting.com
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Editorial Policy of HaLapid
Contributions from writers all over the world
are edited for grammar, spelling, typographical
errors, and length. Content embedded in family
memories may or may not be historically accurate;
we reserve the right to edit material and correct
obvious misstatements or historical errors. Opinions
expressed are not necessarily those of SCJS or
HaLapid. Articles from HaLapid may not be reprinted
without permission.
HaLapid is usually mailed in the Spring and Fall of
each year. Please send submissions to the editor-inchief
by March 1 and September 1.
With thanks to the generous support of the
Robin and Bennett
Greenspan Fund
at the
Houston Jewish
Community Foundation
Debbie Wohl-Isard
SCJS President
This time of year always fills me with anticipation.
With our annual meeting and conference around
the corner, I look forward to reconnecting with old
friends and the family reunion-like atmosphere of the
gathering. From the first minutes of each conference, the
family expands to embrace new friends whom we hope
we’ll see again at future conferences. The presentations
are so much more than panels and discussions — they
are a learning opportunity shared among researchers and
searchers, and those of us who feel ourselves pulled to the
crypto-Judaic mysteries that have survived for centuries.
This occasion allows me to talk about an ongoing dilemma that seems to challenge
our organization — the teetering balance between the academic who researches
the subject in which we all share an interest, and the individuals who live it, the
descendants themselves.
How can we hold in our hands the value of each? Clearly, if it were not for the
commitment of scholars to research the history, we would never know just how this
culture was persecuted and how it survived. Without the riveting stories of individuals
who have discovered their roots, reexamined their family’s customs and traced their
past through history, we would never feel the passion and pride they feel, having
learned what they now know. We could never understand the meaning of all this
research and what it feels like to stand in their shoes. Every newly-shared personal
story leads to further research and examination of history. And the circle continues.
In short, we cannot exist without them both, without all of us. Nowhere is this
confluence more stunning and more meaningful than at our annual conference.
Celebrate this diversity, essential and inherent in the study of the crypto-Judaic
phenomena. What happens at conference, doesn’t stay at conference! Every
connection grows another link in the crypto-Judaic narrative.
I hope to see you there.
Debbie Wohl-Isard
President
In case we run out of ways to describe SCJS, try this!
prosopography (pros-uh-PAH-gruh-fee)
MEANING: Noun: A study of people in a group, identifying patterns, connections, etc.:
a collective biography.
ETYMOLOGY: From German Prosopographie, from Latin prosopographia, from Greek
prosopon (face, mask), from pros- (facing) + ops (eye) + -graphy (writing). Earliest
documented use: 1577.
USAGE: “William Lubenow’s book examines the society’s first century via a
prosopography of its 255 members.”
Christopher Kent; Review; Canadian Journal of History (Toronto); Apr 2000.
The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, an international academic and secular association, fosters research,
networking of people and ideas, and the dissemination of information regarding the historical and contemporary
developments involving crypto-Jews of Iberian origins and other hidden Jewish communities around the world.
Membership dues fund the programs and publications of this non-profit organization 501(c)(3), open to any
and all individuals interested in learning more about this cultural phenomenon.
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 1

FROM THE EDITOR
Finding focus through
random connections
Corinne J. Brown
Editor in Chief
This is surely a first. I write
to you in this issue wearing
two hats — editor and
conference chair. It’s like having
two bosses, both after two worthy
goals: to make sure I bring you
all the news that’s fit to print,
and inspire you to come to our
conference!
Without even trying, this issue of
HaLapid found its own focus — southern Colorado emerged
apparent and strong. In fact, I was intrigued as article after
article pointed to the San Luis Valley of Colorado and
northern New Mexico. I decided to run with it; fascinated
by the various submissions about the region’s history,
significance, landmarks, citizens, and its importance in
the world of crypto-Judaic research. All that, and one more
— the story of a lost book, lost no more. Coincidence or
accident, this account gives me the feeling that providence
guides our hand. Random connections aren’t random at
all. I’ll let you decide. See page 28.
This issue also brings you a reprint from HaLapid 2006.
Thanks to Seth Ward, PhD, it’s a powerful essay worth
reading on alleles, the essence of genetic research. I hope
you’ll delight in SCJS president Debbie Wohl-Isard’s
fanciful glass art and Rabbi Barbara’s thoughtful story
about Seder Hamishi, the Fifth Seder — not to be missed. As
usual, book reviews will not disappoint; discover the link
between hidden Jews and chocolate, then marvel at the
book of prayers for Spanish Jews, printed in Holland in
1642! Finally, meet our newest board members and
advisory committee member. Extend a hearty welcome.
Of course, read all about our upcoming conference starting
on page 18. While in Denver, plan a visit to the Museo de
Las Americas and the Mizel Museum as well — both great
resources. Be inspired, get excited, register — and join
us in Denver!
See you soon!
Corinne Brown
Editor
About
the cover
Donna Medina of Denver, a converso
descendant, is a new member of SCJS and
part of the far-reaching community that
believes in a future for Temple Aaron,
Colorado’s oldest synagogue in continuous
use, located in Trinidad.
In her own words...
My family traveled the
Santa Fe Trail when
Colorado was still under
Colonial Hispania. Spain
had left so many of us
to hide under Spanish
names, but we did find
Donna Medina
family gatherings and
migration to protect
our common religion, Judaism. My family
spent many years in the town of Trinidad,
Colorado where they worked on farms and
protected their sacred rituals within our
community. Although there was a small
pocket of Jewish residents, Temple Aaron
represents the visual evidence of their
existence.
To me, helping Temple Aaron be restored is
creating a touchstone for the generations
to come and to know our people left
something for us to remember — their
community. It is an expression of their bold
dedication to Judaism that at times, came
with the price of death.
It is a monument of free worship in
Colorado.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna Medina
Front cover image:
Temple Aaron,
Trinidad, Colorado
Photo by
Chas. McNamara
www.chasmcnphoto.com
2 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

SCJS BOARD NEWS
Welcome new board members and advisor!
Cynthia Seton-Rogers
Cynthia Seton-Rogers
Cynthia Seton-Rogers, our new
board member, is currently a PhD
student at the University of Texas
at Dallas, where she also received her
BA and MA. Her academic focus shifted
during her master’s degree from Latin
American to Jewish studies when she
began working as a graduate research
assistant for the Ackerman Center for
Holocaust Studies at UT Dallas.
Sephardic studies seemed like the
perfect melding of her interests in Latin
American, European, and Jewish
history. Her PhD concentration, The
History of Ideas, is an interdisciplinary
program in the humanities that
interweaves history, literature and
philosophy. Her declared fields of
research are early modern European
history, anti-Semitism, and the
representation of the Holocaust in
literature, but the focus of her
dissertation is on the Sephardic
Diaspora. She is currently researching
the role that Sephardic Jewry played
during the Age of Exploration in both
the New and Old Worlds. Mrs. Seton-
Rogers now serves as the academic and
outreach events manager for the
Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies.
www.utdallas.edu/ackerman
Rosa Marina Siegel
Rosa Marina Siegel
Board member Rosa Marina Siegel
was born and raised in El Salvador
by parents who are descendants of
the colonial crypto-Jewish families of
western Honduras. She is a biologist and
worked as a consultant for the Green-
COM USAID Environmental Education
and Communication Project. She created
the text for the Spanish ecology children
booklets “Colecci Reto,” and similar
publications with environmental NGOs.
She worked in El Salvador as consultant
for environmental impact evaluations,
hazardous waste management, and
environmental legislature. Rosa
implemented activities with schools,
colleges, NGO and rural communities to
address environmental issues like
biodiversity conservation and
ecotourism. She worked with Pesticide
Action Network helping create the
database for California farm workers to
educate them about the risk from
pesticide poisonings, how to get
medical help, and their rights. She is a
past member of the North American
Association for Environmental
Education, Audubon Society of El
Salvador, and Unidad Ecologica Salvadore.
She attended NOVA Southeastern
University for the coastal ecology
SCJS members are invited to nominate themselves (or someone else) so that the board of
directors may consider them prior to the conference in June. We seek additional Members-At-
Large so that we may grow our board from which titled executive positions may emerge after a
term or more of participation. Contact editor.lagranada@gmail.com
Bryan Kirschen
Bryan Kirschen, PhD
A
new member to the SCJS
Advisory Council, Dr. Bryan
Kirschen is professor of Hispanic
linguistics at the State University of
New York at Binghamton (Binghamton
University). His research focuses on
sociolinguistics and Judeo-Spanish,
particularly in the United States.
Bryan is director of the International
Delegation of Shadarim to Israel’s
National Authority of Ladino. He
received his PhD from UCLA, where
he was the Skirball Fellow in Modern
Jewish Culture and co-founded and
directed ucLADINO, which holds
weekly language workshops and
yearly symposia featuring renowned
scholars. In 2017, he was named as one
of The New York Jewish Week’s
“36 Under 36.”
program, and now works and lives in
Florida with her husband, four
daughters and a son. Now an avid
researcher of converso Jewish ancestry
in Central America through family
narratives, DNA, colonial and
Inquisition records. She is an SCJS
member, a past contributor to HaLapid
and spoke at the SCJS conference in
Philadelphia. She is an active member
of the Sephardic congregation of
South Florida and a guest member
of the Sephardic congregation of
El Salvador.
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 3

Southwestern Conversos
By MARK BENNETT
The Spanish (Sephardic) Jews who were forced
during Inquisition times to convert to Catholicism
fled to the New World. These conversos founded
economies and communities with a quarter of Mexico City’s
Spaniards being Jewish in 1545. But the conversos were soon
overwhelmed by ever-increasing immigration from Spain
that brought the Inquisition. They fled north in 1579
and founded Nueva Leon which some believe also means
“New Lion of Judah.” Their leader, Luis de Carvajal, died in
1591 while in prison partly for the crime of Judaizing. But
Juan de Oñate, also of converso descent, pushed into New
Mexico, where Santa Fe was founded in 1607. It developed
into a trade hub with goods from Liverpool to Mexico City,
sometimes traveling through Santa Fe. Special mules were
bred to carry specific packs and unique pack adjustment
tools were designed. They rivaled the camel caravans of the
Old World and were later adopted by the US Army.
The city of Albuquerque, although surrounded by prior
settlements, was founded in 1706 by a relative of a
Turkish converso who named the city in honor of
him. Its first governor (mayor), Fernando Lopez
de Mendizabal, was convicted of Judaizing and
died following torture in an Inquisition prison.
Many converso communities built their homes widely spaced
in contrast to Spanish tradition. But with these settlements
so distant from major markets, long cattle drives were
required. Converso Sebastian de Mendoza is the first recorded
vaquero (cattle driver) to appear in official records. One could
assert that America’s first cowboy was a Spanish Jew.
Mark Bennett
Mark L. Bennett, MCRP, is a retired city
planner and college social sciences
instructor. He is now consumed with
Jewish history, American history and their
confluence.
His article, “Limited New Mexico Area
Literature Survey,” appeared in a recent
issue of Halapid. He also writes a blog
primarily on local politics and the history
behind those issues in Amador County,
California, an area surrounded by the
cemeteries of the Gold Rush Jews.
Awareness of a Jewish heritage faded over time with great
variance of acknowledgment among families, but many
Jewish traditions remained, often as customs of unknown
origin. The dead in Colorado’s San Luis Valley for example,
are buried immediately. Floors are swept toward the middle
of the room to avoid the long-absent Jewish mezuzah
marking the entry doorpost. The common sweet pastry
in many southwestern Mexican restaurants is sopapillas,
descended from the Spanish-Jewish
Chanukah treat buñuelo.
Many settlers observed a syncretic
Judeo-Catholicism. Queen Esther from
the Jewish festival of Purim became
“Santa Esther,” reflecting the parallel
plights of conversos and ancient
Persian Jews. Following the American
annexation, some descendants became
biblical Christians such as Seventh
Day Adventists, and in contemporary
times, a few have returned to Judaism.
Many doubts have been removed by
modern DNA analysis with the seminal
publication of “The Secret of San Luis
4 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

Valley,” by Jeff Wheelwright, published in Smithsonian
magazine, October 2008. Today it’s considered that
15-20% (with some estimates much higher) of all Latin
Americans are of Spanish Jewish descent. Many of
converso heritage as disparate as Rita Moreno and Fidel
Castro have shared their ancestry.
While this awareness of genealogy is a personal matter
for most, it can become understandably problematic for
Hispanic political figures. Considered by some as the
first Hispanic to gain prominence was Daniel T. Valdes,
appointed in the 1940s to the Foreign Service, and to
help solve railway labor disputes. I was his student,
research assistant, and friend. He was an acknowledged
Catholic, but based on what he said both publicly and
privately, with frequent double entendres, he was very
aware of his Spanish-Jewish heritage. And also very
aware to never endanger his leadership position.
Voltaire said “History is the lie we all agree to believe.”
In 1590, Gaspar Castano de Sosa, another converso
from Nueva Leon in New Spain and a friend of Juan de
Oñate, fled following Carvajal’s arrest. He undertook
an unauthorized expedition across the Rio Grande, and
is probably who named that river, scouting for a future
New Mexico settlement. This resulted in his arrest and
the circumstances that led to his death in 1593 while in
exile. When I first read of de Sosa’s foray into Texas, it
was presented by New England Protestant historians as
“greedy Spanish Catholic conquistadors.” But in truth,
he and his party were
conversos/crypto-Jews
searching for freedom.
An old US Army map
actually labels their
ford location along
the Rio Grande as the
“Jews’ Crossing.”
• • •
Development & Support
Running a national organization requires support in many
ways as well as diverse expertise: technical, financial, and
professional. We welcome the efforts of Merrill Shapiro
who has generously offered to assist with development for SCJS,
seeking advertisers for HaLapid from coast-to-coast and
pursuing follow-up to our membership base.
We also welcome Willem Long, professional grant writer, who
will assist us in outreach, seeking available grants for
organizations like our own. It takes a village to maintain a
community, which is what we are.
Long range plans require everyone’s help.
Join us as a development partner.
Contact Merrill Shapiro • ygarsaduta@gmail.com
Author’s note -
A friend, politically
active in Sacramento,
had me write the above
essay for a Hispanic
state legislator who has
privately acknowledged
his Sephardic roots. My
friend had hoped that
this legislator would
distribute this to others
of similar background,
but that didn’t happen.
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 5

Alleles *
have no religion
*Different versions
of the same gene
By seth ward, PhD
Population genetics can tell us a
lot about the overall heritage of
a given population. Many
excellent genetic studies of Jewish
populations have yielded data about
genetic diseases, frequency of various
genetic markers, correspondence with
Near Eastern populations despite long
periods of exile, Levites and Cohanim
having far more genetic coherence
than expected among each group—
but far less than would be expected in
terms of shared genetics.
When I wrote this article, the field
already had a number of books and
articles, and some very important
academic studies. The literature has
grown substantially since then, with
books by, for example, Jon Entine,
David Goldstein, and Harry Ostrer,
that summarize the results of Jewish
population genetics. We know
quite a good deal about the
genetic features that are
typical of Jews, and
can extrapolate all
sorts of things about
population movements, endogamy,
conversion and so forth.
There also are studies that stretch
population genetics far beyond the
limitations of the data, in my humble
opinion. A study I participated in
shortly before writing this article
showed a mutation related to
breast cancer that is typical of
Jewish populations found in the
San Luis Valley of Colorado. It
could indeed indicate a Sephardic
ancestor, or an Ashkenazi ancestor;
in an endogamous population, a
single “founder” can leave many
Author’s Note- February 2019—This article originally appeared in HaLapid,
Summer 2006. The explosion of genetic research and especially of broad-based,
commercial population testing, may have made this issue even more relevant
than it was at that time. Certainly, more and more people do genetic tests to, as
they often describe it, “find out who they really are,” or to “prove” their religious
and/or ethnic identity. Perhaps it is an anchor in a period in which many aspects
of our identity that people generally used to considered as unchanging, are considered
fluid in our times. This is certainly the case with gender identity today.
descendants. There’s no way that
the genetics could indicate that the
“founder” actually practiced Judaism
or identified as Jewish, or to rule out
an Ashkenazi source for the founder
effect. Nor, to my knowledge, did
the study show that the earliest
Spanish-speaking settlers in the
San Luis Valley had an extraordinary
percentage of descendants of Jews,
since a single
founder
could have
had a wide
influence on a highly
endogamous society.
A few presentations at the Society for
Crypt-Judaic Studies conferences by
E. Hirschman and D. Panther-Yates
purported to use genetic markers to
indicate Jewish heritage in Scotland
and by extension, in areas of
Appalachia. Similarly, they assumed
that some persons of Spanish
heritage who had Jewish ancestry
made their way into this area,
presumably north from Florida or
west from the Atlantic seaboard.
Since the time this article appeared,
they’ve published their ideas in a
number of volumes. No real claim of
Jewish religion or identity was made,
just Jewish heritage, and the genetics
are not particularly convincing. The
statistics marshaled to support this
assertion were both impressive in
their amount, and in the degree to
which, at most, they did not support
the broad conclusions the authors of
the studies were making. At most,
they indicate that among the genetic
ancestors of this population, there
are genetic markers that Jews
also have, and along the way
they made a number of
claims that seem far
too broad, and
make
their
work
even easier
to dismiss.
With the
rapid growth
in the number
of markers
examined,
and the
number of
people whose
genetic
6 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

information is available, it is
increasingly likely that a test done
by a commercial genetic testing
organization may identify genetic
relatives of the client. It’s not clear
though that having a Jewish cousin
is any sort of proof that one’s own
parentage would be considered
unambiguously Jewish—plenty of
people who are Jews have non-Jewish
cousins today! One often hears that
genetic examination suggests a client
is not genetically related to the family
he or she thought she was part of—
which also may have ramifications
for Jewish identity. For some, Judaism
is largely a question of inherited
status; it seems to me that genetic
findings can easily paint a general
picture of Jewish population genetics,
and can cast doubt on Jewish status,
but usually cannot really establish
Jewish status in unclear situations.
We live in a rootless age (Steven
Weitzman uses this term in his
excellent book, “Origin of the Jews,”
which considers crypto-Judaism
and other phenomena along the
way to determine whether there
is a useful origin narrative for the
Jewish people). Genetics may appear
to offer a science-based rootedness
in our times. But ultimately, in
most of the cases in which genetics
purport to reveal Jewish identity, all
that they show is that an individual
shares genes with a group of
people, many of whom are Jews.
Traditionally, Jewish status is
conveyed either by birth or
conversion. But in our society,
surveys can talk of, for example,
“Jews of no religion.” There have
been massive advances in genetics
since this piece appeared, and
occasionally genetic analyses have
been used to establish Jewish
heritage, together with other
information. But the fact remains:
ultimately, alleles have no religion.
Occasionally they can tell us about
close relatives; usually they can
identify population groups that have a
high occurrence of the alleles.
They offer many a sense of roots —
but taken alone, they don’t
determine religion.
Below is the article as it was included in
HaLapid, with only very minor copyediting
and corrections of typographical
or printing errors. -Seth Ward
The science of genetics is
a recent one. It dates only
from 1900, when a paper by
Gregor Mendel was presented using
what we now call genetics to explain
heredity. Watson and Crick’s
discovery of DNA is only half-acentury
old, and advances in science
in only the past two decades have
allowed for substantial application of
genetics to explaining the history of
human demography. This is a science
very much still in its infancy. Genetic
inheritance has the potential to tell us
much about the ancestry of groups of
individuals, including how closely
related a particular population is,
possibly to track movements between
populations and so forth.
Complex issues of scientific
discipline, treatment of human
subjects, and medical and counseling
applications are raised by genetic
research having to do with inherited
traits, particularly when genetic
inheritance causes disease or
disability or leads to a heightened
susceptibility. These have been
much discussed by scientists, and
professional protocols govern how
they can proceed. So too, forensic
DNA analysis is now available to
identify perpetrators, rule out
suspects, free those improperly
convicted, and determine the identity
of corpses and skeletal remains where
there were no fingerprints available;
and professional standards must
necessarily ensure that such evidence
stands up to the demands of our
system of justice.
Seth Ward, PhD
Dr. Seth Ward is an associate
lecturer in religious
studies at the University
of Wyoming where he has been
teaching Islam and Middle East
studies since January 2003.
Previously, Ward directed the
University of Denver’s Institute for
Islamic-Judaic Studies for 10 years;
he came to Denver after teaching
in Israel at the University of Haifa
and the Technion. Ward also
taught at Colorado College and the
University of Colorado-Boulder
and -Denver. His academic
interests include the Jews of
Muslim lands, Jewish-Muslim
relations, crypto-Jews, Mormon-
Jewish relations, and Islamic
sacred and legal texts about
Jews and Israel. He is co-editor
of Covenant and Chosenness in
Judaism and Mormonism and is
widely published in many scholarly
journals. sward@uwyo.edu
Much less has been done on the
ethical and scientific issues raised
by the demographic analyses which
have only recently become possible.
Genetic research is already shedding
significant light on relevant issues
of historic demography, and it is an
important tool for those interested in
knowing whether various populations
or communities have a hereditary
link to the Jewish people. SCJS must
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 7

promote and disseminate it.
But we must also be part of the
discussion of the ethical and
interpretational boundaries of
this research.
Various genetic surveys indicate a
highly coherent Jewish genepool,
especially among Ashkenazi
Jews, and suggest the degree
to which Jews are similar
genetically to populations of
the Middle East and other
locations. Research
focusing on genetic
material
passed down only
through a single sex is
of particular interest. The
Y-chromosome, found only in
males and thus passed along
from biological father to son; or
mitochondrial DNA, inherited only from
the mother. Genetics have in some cases appeared to
confirm some traditional suppositions—for example, that
Jewish communities on the whole have a high degree of
endogamy over past centuries. Studies seem to confirm
that many Jews who self-identify as kohanim share a
common male ancestor possibly living during first or
second Temple times or even earlier. Other studies suggest
that there were a limited number of female ancestors in
many Jewish communities; they suggest a high degree of
female endogamy although the founding women may or
may not have had Jewish ancestry themselves. Such
genetic demography is hardly unique to Judaism; a recent
study of African Americans found that many had genetic
traits consistent with a high percentage of European
ancestors. Such studies provide a scientific platform to
address a number of a religious, historical, community,
and personal identity issues. Theories suggested by this
data are often thought provoking and useful, but they are
not always completely substantiated by research; indeed
the field is young, as are disciplinary standards for
determining the meaning of findings and discussing them
within the context of more traditional disciplines.
Genetic screening as a model for
1. demographic reconstruction
There are a number of protocols for genetic screening;
like many scientific procedures performed on human
populations, universities or hospitals have established
parameters that must be analyzed before ordering
a genetic test. Typical considerations include:
· Screening has real benefit in preventing or treating
illness
· Cost is justifiable.
· Results are reliable.
· Adequate follow-up is provided: medical, psychological,
social, educational, and other support measures are
available for those people found to be carriers of the
tested gene.
Geneticists also debate the degree to which detailed
technical information is useful to the patient or the family,
including what types of information should be provided,
and how much information is useful. Clearly many
patients and their families cannot adequately respond to
specialized medical or scientific information in the same
way that researchers
or physicians with
years of specialized
training and
experience can, and in
some cases, the learning
curve to understand this
information is inconsistent with—and
less useful than—discussion of the ramifications of the
information.
At first glance, this “illness” model for demographic
genetics would seem to be totally irrelevant to
demographic genetics. Yet many individuals evidence
strong reactions when they find that the ancestry
suggested by genetic testing is quite different from what
they had previously supposed, no less so then when
anthropologists or folklorists challenge their previous
assumptions. We rightly raise such issues in
anthropological research, insisting on professional
approaches so that researchers to conduct themselves in
ways respectful of the potential reactions of human
subjects to conclusions drawn about them; so too, a
professional attitude towards sharing medical and
scientific results with patients and families is an important
part of medical practice.
The “reliability of results” parameter often is rated in
terms of the percentages of “false positives” or “false
negatives,” and much testing seeks to balance reliability,
cost and relative ease. Thus urinalysis is routine for drug
testing, due to ease and low cost, and the reliability of the
negative result. But a positive result for poppy derivatives
is not reliable at all, as it can be triggered by poppy seed
bagels or even hamantaschen; one source estimated “that
70% of DOT opiates positives are due to poppy seeds.” The
meaning of this statistic is clear: the test is quite reliable
for poppy derivatives, but this source estimates that only
30% of those who test positive use heroin or other poppy-
8 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

ased drugs. Similarly, demographic genetic studies test
for shared ancestry and genetic similarity but this model
suggests that the degree to which a given ancestry
correlates with current religious, ethnic or racial identity
(absent decisions made on the basis of genetic results
alone) should be taken into account in assessing the
meaning of the data.
Public health vs.
2. demography
Research suggests that certain genetic traits linked to
diseases found in Ashkenazi populations are also present
in populations with Hispano backgrounds. In some of these
cases, genetic testing has shown highly specific genetic
variations. It is statistically unreasonable to assume
multiple “founders” — i.e., an original ancestor held in
common by all who posses a unique genetic pattern. But it
is usually impossible to determine whether the founder in
a given population was Ashkenazi, a Spanish-speaking
“crypto-Jew,” or indeed some person with no actual link to
either community who happened to passed on the gene.
Wide incidence in unrelated Southwestern US communities
with known Jewish heritage might be significant; presence
of the genetic variant in isolated communities may reflect
bottleneck/founder situations in which the variant
occurred among the first settlers, and disappeared in some
communities and was magnified in others; or that it was
introduced later only within specific communities. In any
case, the fact that the public health significance is clear
does not mean that the demographic significance is as well.
Genes and
3. Jewish Identity
As we have seen, unique
genetic markers may
determine that two
“essentialists” who
believe that Judaism is
entirely heredity, and those who believe it is entirely
commitment to God and Torah—ultimately, not a
hereditary entity at all. My friend Professor Daniel J. Lasker
is deservedly famous in some circles for comparing the two
attitudes as seeing Judaism as “software” vs. “hardware.”
Maimonides is associated with the “software” position;
Judah Halevi with the “hardware” position. Maimonides,
however, stresses the importance of community and of the
training one receives in one’s birth environment, and even
Halevi accepts that the descendants of converts who are
born to parents who were born as Jews are indistinguishable
from those who have four Jewish-born grandparents. After
the Nazi racial program, it seems to me that it is difficult to
support a position that emphasizes Judaism as a matter of
biological ancestry—even if it is proud of that ancestry
rather than committed to stamping it out.
When contemplating marriage or determining priestly or
Levitical status, Judaism is in fact usually a matter of
biology. The rule is that “offspring from a legitimate
marriage follow the father,” whereas “any [woman] who
does not have Jewish marriage (Hebrew: kiddushin) — not
with [her husband] and not with others—the offspring is
like her.” Since a non-Jewish woman never has the
possibility of kiddushin and a Jewish one generally always
does, in traditional Jewish law, the child of a non-Jewish
mother is not Jewish, and the child of a Jewish mother is.
On the other hand, the hereditary priestly and Levitical
status (Hebrew: Kohen and Levi) follow the father. So, too,
do “Sephardic” or “Ashkenazic” status, to the extent that
these have implications in Jewish law and ritual. This rule
seems to protect against the possibility that mothers of
persons asserting they were Jews were in fact not; no such
degree of “protection” seems to have been necessary
regarding fathers.
Jewish observance would not seem to play any role in this
at all, but traditionally, except for marriage and certain
aspects of Israeli law, observance and lifestyle rather than
lineage determine in practice whether someone is
considered Jewish, including such items as calling them to
the Torah or offering them charitable contributions
designated for Jews. Historically — up to the 1700s — this
almost always meant appearing to follow minimal
standards of Sabbath and dietary observances. In the past
two centuries this has been complicated somewhat due to a
fall-off in observance and Jewish training, a more mobile
society, greater intermarriage and conversion, both into
and out of Judaism.
The Reform movement endorsed
“patrilineal descent” meaning
that the child of a Jewish
father or a Jewish mother
is considered Jewish.
Yet here as well,
Jewish genes
alone do not make
someone Jewish. Reform
doctrine also requires an
explicit affirmation of Jewishness
in order to be considered Jewish,
a concept also embodied in
traditional formulations about the
rejection of idolatry or Sabbath
desecration. Madeleine Albright
is a famous case: most people do
not consider her Jewish at all,
although she now knows that she
had four Jewish grandparents.
>>>
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 9

In most surveys and many research studies, Judaism is
self-determined. Persons who answer affirmatively to
the question “Are you Jewish?” or who select Judaism
as a response to a question about religious affiliation
are considered Jewish, without further determination
of parentage.
In the State of Israel and historically in many European
countries, Judaism is also a matter of public determination,
subject to political considerations. The frequent
vehemence of debates about “who is a Jew” with respect
to the Israeli population registry indicate that this is no
simple matter, and Israeli law has determined that a
person cannot claim to be Jewish by “nationality” (what
we would probably call ethnicity in the US), but not
by religion.
It is usually assumed that throughout history, Judaism has
been overwhelmingly a hereditary affair. Nevertheless,
conversion, adoption, exogamy, political considerations
and other factors led to a complicated situation that must
be considered when attempting genetic demographics.
Genetic testing can add much to our
knowledge of Jewish demography.
I am not arguing that it is unreliable.
On the contrary, it offers a tool of
enormous power to confirm or reject
various propositions about Jewish
migration patterns, community
coherence and endogamy, and
ancestry. Nevertheless, it must be used
carefully and with regard to its limitations,
both with respect to the kind of information it
offers, and to the vagaries of the demographics
of the Jewish community. And to return to
the considerations noted in the
discussion of genetic screening,
considerations about reliability
(and the meaning of reliability),
interpretation of the results, and
counseling based on the results of
demographic genealogy, merit far
more care when we remember that
individuals apply the results of
such research findings to their
own lives.
10 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

South Central Colorado
Las Animas County and the San Luis Valley
Another Chapter in the Spanish Colonial/Crypto-Judaic Story
For those who might not realize
the relevance of south-central
Colorado to the history of crypto-
Judaic studies, perhaps this summary
will suffice. The area is known as Las
Animas County, a sparsely populated
landscape of some 4,775 square miles
including the often-mentioned San
Luis Valley. The county takes its
Spanish name from the Purgatoire
river, originally called El Río de las
Ánimas Perdidas en el Purgatorio, or
“River of the Lost Souls in Purgatory.”
The county seat is the town of
Trinidad, in the Purgatoire river
valley, 13 miles north of the New
Mexico border. Its location is at the
foot of Raton Pass along the historic
Santa Fe Trail, always a favored route
for travelers, by foot, horseback, oxdrawn
wagon, or later, by railroad.
Today, Interstate 25 is the most highly
traveled route between Colorado and
New Mexico and bisects Trinidad
directly through its center.
To the east lie the fabled San Juan
mountains, and to the north and
south, the Sangre de Cristo (Blood
of Christ) range whose purple peaks
at sunrise glow a deep red, thus so
named by the Spanish explorers
who first saw them. These ranges in
Colorado were once thought to be the
home of the Seven Cities of Cibola,
the legendary site of riches and gold.
It is recorded that conquistador Luis
de Moscosco went as far as Alamosa in
the San Luis Valley in search of them
in 1542.
During the exploration period, the
Spanish expeditions went to Pueblo,
122 miles further north. And as
history has proven, wherever the
Spanish went in the 16th century,
conversos, or nuevo cristianos (Spanish
Jews, forcibly converted) were among
BY CORINNE BROWN
them, and slowly being revealed in
many ways.
Twenty miles from Trinidad lies Raton
Pass on the Colorado-New Mexico
border. It climbs up the eastern side
of the Sangres and winds its way
down into southern Colorado. Located
about 100 miles northeast of Santa Fe,
New Mexico, the pass is a historically
significant landmark on the Santa
Fe National Historic Trail, a major
19th-century settlement route that
connected Independence, Missouri
with Santa Fe, which was established
in 1610. It was part of the famed El
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, a trade
route that began in Mexico City. It
served as a vital commercial highway
until the railroad arrived in Santa Fe
in 1880.
Hispanic settlers began moving north
into Colorado during the 17th and 18th
centuries. Prior to the Mexican War
of Independence, the Spanish and
Mexican governments had reserved
the Valley for the Ute Indians, their
allies against the Comanche. The
region remained in the hands of the
Spanish until the liberation of Mexico
from Spain in 1821. The Mexican
Republic attempted to settle the San
Luis Valley by offering land grants to
various groups of people, promising to
settle them. The Tierra Amarilla Land
Grant, encompassing some 500,000
acres of present-day northern New
Mexico and southern Colorado, was
the second largest grant. The Conejos-
Guadalupe Land Grant was bestowed to
a group of families from northern New
Mexico in 1833.
Despite the grants, Indian opposition
to settlement slowed the Valley’s
colonization. Actual settlement of
these New Mexico families did not
take place until the 1850s, following
the end of the Spanish-American War
and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
which brought the San Luis Valley into
the United States. By 1880 and with
the signing of several treaties, the Ute
Indians of the Valley were removed
to the Ute Mountain, Southern Ute
and Hintah reservations of western
Colorado and Utah.
During the 19th century, Anglos
settled in Las Animas County and
engaged in mining, ranching, and
irrigated agriculture. European
immigrants came to work in the
mines and towns and were also in
commerce. The establishment of
agricultural communities by people
from New Mexico continued slowly.
The population of the Valley soared in
the late 1870s and early 1880s when
Mormon settlers from the southern
US and Utah established the towns
of Manassa, Sanford, and Richfield.
Today the Valley and its townships
have a diverse Anglo and Hispanic
population. The historic town of
Trinidad is currently experiencing a
renaissance of sorts based on new,
lucrative kinds of commerce and an
influx of new residents.
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 11

text by CORINNE BROWn • photos by Neal Paul
Colorado mining towns abound with historic landmarks,
most from the mid-1800s to 1900 when wealth gleaned
from gold, silver and coal brought boomtown construction
to the Mountain West. Grand hotels, mercantile
establishments, churches and even opera houses have
survived the passage of time and gained iconic status across the state,
albeit with needed restoration. But one surprising and unsung treasure
might surpass them all - the elegant, fully extant, never modified
Temple Aaron, a synagogue built in 1889 and continuously operated
in one place for 130 years, in Trinidad, Colorado.
A Testament to Time and Devotion
Temple Aaron • Trinidad, Colorado
Trinidad might seem
the least likely
home for a Jewish
house of worship, but the
synagogue stands as a
testament to a time when
America depended on
immigrants to populate
a new country. Colorado,
named a state in 1876, had
been a territory brimming
with eager pioneers;
émigrés from across
America and the other
side of the ocean as well,
especially from Germany.
Between 1815 and 1865 in
fact, two million Germanspeaking
Europeans
immigrated to America,
leaving behind a Europe
racked with economic
hardship and waves of
persecution. In 1840 alone,
some 10,000 German Jews
boarded ships, mostly
single men, with hopes
Temple Aaron, continuously operating
in one place for over 130 years
to bring families at a later
time. By 1875, another
million central-European
immigrants would
disembark, the promise of
a new utopia beckoning one
and all. German Jews were
predominant among all
the waves of immigration
to America up to 1880
due to restrictions on job
opportunities and the
infringement of personal
rights, as well as vicious
pogroms that forced them
to flee their homeland.
One can only imagine the
enormous difficulty of the
trans-Atlantic voyage,
and the resettlement
in a foreign country.
But these pioneers,
educated or unschooled,
were determined to
start a new life, either
in manufacturing in
12 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

urban centers, or more often, heading West to far-flung
communities where they could travel by foot or horseback
and sell whatever was needed — the Jewish peddler had
arrived and the independent retail store wasn’t far behind.
Difficult as it was, many would seek their fortune in the
rugged mountains of southern Colorado and landscapes of
northern New Mexico, but the word was out that Trinidad,
just 20 miles from the New Mexico state line, was a thriving
community, and hopes were high. Ambitious settlers had
begun to move there in 1860 when coal was discovered and
quickly built a bustling town of some 1200 citizens.
Historical record attests to the Jewish settlers’ fierce
determination. (For a detailed, closer look, read “Pioneer
Jewish Families of New Mexico,” Gaon Books.) Courageous
German Jews, a great many from Bavaria, came to the area
to homestead, open businesses, and succeed where others
might have failed.
master, Isaac Hamilton Rapp, who designed the building in
1889 in the Exotic Revival style, with its spectacular Reform
motifs, including 12 windows on each level representing
the 12 tribes of Israel, a theater-style plan to provide for
integrated seating for men and women, and an onion dome
and pyramidal roof towers.”
The sanctuary seated 200 people and was graced by elegant
Top, left - Temple Aaron column with onion dome.
Top, right - Roof tower with Oriental pyramid dome.
Center - Dedication block with original founders of congregation.
Bottom - The town of Trinidad, Colorado
In Trinidad they quickly set up shop as proprietors, saloon
keepers, and professionals, including doctors and lawyers.
In 1883, the first Jewish congregation was established,
Congregation Aaron. Some believe the name came from
one of the founders’ children. That congregation had 24
members. Henry Biernbaum who ran a general store on
Main Street, served as its first president. Over time, certain
names became legend — businessman Leopold Gottlieb,
and Samuel Jaffa who eventually became the first mayor of
Trinidad, for example. The town’s small but vibrant Jewish
community played a major role in the development of
Trinidad’s strategic role in southern Colorado and northern
New Mexico.
Within a few years, in 1889, the enterprising community
would build Temple Aaron, founded at the time with a mere
46 men and their families. And what a synagogue it was!
The 11,000-square-foot, red brick and stone building was
situated on a hill overlooking the center of town. According
to Kim Grant of Colorado Preservation Inc., a statewide,
non-profit historic preservation advocacy, educational
and technical services organization, “Temple Aaron is an
architecturally significant and intact work of a recognized
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 13

Above, left -
Ark and bima,
synagogue interior.
Above, right -
Sanctuary view
from upper pipe
organ gallery
Center - Stained
glass windows
and staircase
Below, left -
“New” boiler circa
mid-20th century
(in need of
replacement)
Below, right -
Original boiler,
vintage mid-1800s
custom millwork throughout, colorful stained glass
windows, and a working pipe organ on the mezzanine.
The building was an affirmation of Jewish life in America
and a center for fellowship and observance of Jewish
traditions for anyone who found themselves along the
famed Santa Fe Trail. Not only home to a thriving Jewish
community in Trinidad whose numbers once approached
300, it also supported Jews in surrounding areas in every
direction. In 2017, Temple Aaron was placed on Colorado’s
Most Endangered Places Program in recognition of the
importance of saving this magnificent structure.
As unusual as the architectural design appears to be with
its Oriental details, it’s worth noting that Denver’s Temple
Emanuel constructed in 1898 on Pearl Street is the only
synagogue in Denver designed in a somewhat similar style.
The use of Eastern-Islamic design for synagogues was
brought to America by German Jews who had been impacted
by the Reform Movement in Judaism and the severe anti-
Semitism of 19th-century Europe. Use of the design reflects
the problem of retaining Jewish cultural identity while fitting
into Christian society. As a result, the style was acceptable
for a place of worship but did not immediately mark it as a
traditional synagogue, evoking instead an association with
Jewish origins in the Near East. When Temple Emanuel was
built, not surprisingly, the congregation was largely made up
of German and American Jews.
Rabbi Leopold Freudenthal from Heidelberg University,
educated at Hebrew Union College was the second rabbi to
officiate at Temple Aaron and the longest to serve —
27 years, until his death in 1916. No permanent rabbi was
ever hired after that. In 1943, his sons Samuel and Alfred,
set up the Alfred Freudenthal Memorial Trust Fund which
maintained the synagogue building, helped the needy in
Trinidad regardless of race or religion, and established the
Trinidad Health Center and various scholarships. Other
directors of the fund, sons of the original founders of
Temple Aaron, insured the congregation’s fiscal survival for
many years following.
14 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

In 1952, Beatrix Sanders, the widow of one of the founder’s
sons, took over presidency of Temple Aaron. Like her
late husband and brother-in-law, she was also the
congregation’s lay rabbi. By 1967, a mere 12 families still
belonged to the congregation: just 15 people, including
two families from New Mexico. The end of coal mining in
Trinidad and the drift to bigger cities had taken its toll.
By 1987, Kathryn Rubin of blessed memory took the
reins. Ms. Rubin (who passed in late 2018) was part of a
family of merchants from Raton, New Mexico who joined
the congregation in 1916. She had been caretaker of the
synagogue for many years. For decades, she, her husband
Leon and her sons Randy and Ron ensured that Temple
Aaron remained a synagogue, even importing circuit rabbis
for High Holiday services, all of which had been celebrated
every year since it was built. Since 1940, Temple Aaron
has also hosted an interfaith service open to the entire
community between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
In 2015, as funds dwindled and deferred maintenance
accumulated, the Rubin family made a fateful decision to
finally “close” the synagogue and put it up for sale. Services
would cease for the first time in 127 years. The building was
offered at a price of $395,000. But the end was not to be.
Word traveled quickly and concerned individuals like David
London of Boulder and Neal Paul of Denver became part of
a frantic fundraising campaign to help find enough money
to at least put a hold on the synagogue’s demise. Donors at
every level came forward including Dana Crawford, Larry
Mizel and Evan Makovsky of Denver, and countless others
who helped raise awareness of the need for continuity in
what has been deemed a true emergency. Donations poured
in and insured at least a limited future.
The rescue was successful but the real work has just begun.
Urgent needs include a new boiler, a new roof and toilet
facilities. Exterior preservation is a goal as well. The dream
is to raise a multi-million dollar endowment fund to insure
this historic landmark in perpetuity. In June 2019, on the
Above, left -
Rabbi Leopold
Freudenthal
Above, right -
Temple Aaron’s
library door
Center, top -
Architect Isaac
Hamilton Rapp
conceptual drawing
Center, bottom -
Denver’s Temple
Emmanuel-1898,
Moorish/Oriental
style architecture
Below, l to r -
Randy Rubin
(Colo. Springs), the
late Kathryn Rubin,
and Ron Rubin,
(Raton, New Mexico)
Temple Aaron turns 130
in June 2019
All are invited to her 130th
Anniversary Gala weekend
June 21-23, 2019.
Join us in Trinidad for this
very special celebration!
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 15

occasion of the synagogue’s 130th anniversary, a weekendlong
celebration and fundraising event will be held.
All interested are invited.
Randy Rubin, Temple Aaron board president, said in a
recent interview, “The significance to me, and I think to my
family and anybody else, is the continuous use since 1889.
Our congregation and the building have never moved. I find
that meaningful. And this may get a little dramatic, but to
me, they’re hallowed walls. It’s truly a sacred space.”
Perhaps there’s yet another reason for this dramatic
rescue, one that lies in the very hills and valleys of Las
Animas County where the town of Trinidad resides. Four
hundred years ago, when the Spanish established the
empire of New Spain in North America, they brought with
them Spanish and Portuguese Jews fleeing persecution
and the infamous Spanish Inquisition, a virtual genocide
against the Jewish people at that time. Converted by force
to Christianity as conversos, they were part of the Spanish
Colonial settlement. To survive, they hid their identity and
then slowly lost their faith over the centuries, yet many
clung to old ways and traditions that clearly hinted at
another heritage. They settled throughout Northern New
Mexico and lower Colorado all the way to Pueblo, bringing
their Iberian Jewish culture with them. Today, as science
and history have helped prove all across the West and
its borderlands, that heritage has become incontestable,
re-identifying a new generations of Jewish descendants,
greatly valued by many, waiting to come to life.
There’s an old saying in the preservation community,
“Architecture inhabits memory,” as if the walls of historic
places have absorbed all that has gone before, evoking a
clear continuum. In this case, that would be the history
of the Jewish people. More than an architectural relic or
memorial to those who came before, Temple Aaron might
yet become home to a new community of Jews in southern
Colorado and northern New Mexico. These descendants,
the “children of the forced ones,” may one day by choice,
gather in this hallowed space to remember and celebrate
their Jewish past.
Temple Aaron
407 South Maple Street
Trinidad, Colorado 81082
To contribute, visit
www.templeaaron.org
For information contact
Randy Rubin
info@templeaaron.org
Tim Rivera
As time passes in southern Colorado,
there are those who remember another reality.
Tim Rivera, a self-identified crypto-Jew, lives
just outside of the town of Alamosa, Colorado.
His log-style compound sits on acreage between
two well-known area landmarks, “Splash Land,” a
kiddie water park, and a farm that grows and sells
mushrooms to food brokers.
Rivera’s home is flanked by tall cottonwood trees. As
he hospitably leads the way inside his house, Rivera
speaks about how he renovated the property himself
using recycled materials that he “picked up at Bud’s”
in Denver. He’s made this place distinctively his own.
A corner table in the kitchen bears the initials TR.
“I used my late father’s branding iron to burn TR into
the broad pine table legs,” he said proudly. Now a
retiree “for years,” Rivera points to a vegetable garden
he tends. Some veggies like spinach, grow wild. In
addition to the garden, he looks after a hen house for
his daughter. In the courtyard, an fountain flows with
water from an artesian well. He’s unable to consume
the water for household use however, because tests
reported high arsenic content. In addition to Rivera’s
household hobbies, he also manages commercial
business interests in the area.
Rivera said he was drawn to the Spanish Thanksgiving
event held in San Luis last summer (2018) after reading
museum curator Joyce Gunn’s article about it in the
local paper, the Valley Courier (also see HaLapid, Fall/
Winter 2018). Until that event, Rivera had not set foot
in the San Luis History Museum. He said doing so left
him feeling “ashamed.” Even though the museum is
probably not more than five miles from his residence,
and despite the fact that he formerly taught history at
the Denver Auraria Campus, he assumed the SLV
History Museum had an “Anglo slant on history,” so
he stayed away. He was pleased yo learn it did not.
Rivera added that during his tenure at Auraria in
Denver, he attended synagogue services occasionally.
Even though he hasn’t had his DNA analyzed or done
extensive genealogy research, he’s always been drawn
to Judaism.
16 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

A San Luis Valley native son with deep roots
BY DIANE D. MOCK
Tim Rivera
“Hispanics in my circle of influence,”
said Rivera, “don’t believe they could
be Jews. Even when I explain that
Jews were among the earliest Spanish
settlers who make up our ancestry,
they still deny the possibility of
Jewish heritage.”
During the museum event, Rivera
approached and encouraged curator
Joyce Gunn to pursue and present
more Hispanic history. He voiced a
special interest in the crypto-Jewish
presence in the SLV. He asked her if
she was familiar with crypto-Jewish
phenomena and described their plight
from the Spanish Inquisition to the
present time. Rivera’s knowledgebase
of Hispanic history, he explained,
came from the book, “Our Hispanic
Roots: What History Failed to Tell Us,”
by Carlos B. Vega. He said it provided
understanding about the untold
history of Hispanics in America.
According to Gunn, who defines
herself as a “Lutheran Jew,” (through
her German ancestors on her father’s
side) there has not been a local or
regional synagogue or designated
place in the Valley where Jews have
been able to gather or express their
faith. She added that she is aware of
some Jews in the community who
occasionally gather in town in
a private home. Until the
Anglo influx in the 1800s,
Catholicism was the only
religious influence Hispanics
had followed and continues to
be the choice of many.
Diane D. Mock
Diane D. Mock is a crypto-
Jew, whose maternal ancestry
hails from the San Luis
Valley. She’s a freelance
writer and retired educator
who resides in Denver,
Colorado with her husband
Freddy, and dog Dulce.
Left - Tim Rivera’s
wild spinach patch
Right - Custom-made
corner table with
Tim Rivera’s initial
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 17

2019 SCJS CONFERENcE • June 30-July 2 • denver
Welcome to
Denver 2 0 1 9
It’s no accident the conference is set here in Colorado
this year. We think Denver has everything to
offer to make your conference experience a minivacation.
Great museums, restaurants and transportation.
We hope you appreciate Denver’s convenient location,
our great weather and the city’s friendly atmosphere.
It’s the West, where anything can happen.
This year’s gathering brings together the best
speakers, the best talent, and abundant resources.
We want you to have the time of your life. We know
you’ll walk away enriched and wiser than before, with
new friends and hopefully, treasured memories.
SCJS
SOCIETY FOR
cryptojews.com
STUDIES
CRYPTO-JUDAIC
Every aspect of this conference has been planned with
you in mind — your needs and your preferences. We
hope you enjoy the intimate hotel with all its amenities,
the great food, and the incredible programming that
lies ahead. The topics by our presenters are simply
stellar covering a wide range of crypto-Judaic studies.
We also invite you to visit our community partners,
the Mizel Museum and the Museo de las Americas.
The board members of SCJS
and I extend a friendly
hand in greeting and hope
to meet everyone of you
personally. It’s your time
to shine. Don’t be shy.
We look forward
to seeing you
all soon!
June 30 - July 2 • 2019
Doubletree by Hilton Denver Tech Center
7801 East Orchard Road
Greenwood Village, Colorado
Conference Committee
Corinne Joy Brown, Chairperson
Debbie Wohl-Isard, SCJS President
Harry Ezratty
Seth Kunin
Cindy Seton-Rogers
Dolly Sloan
Leonard Stein
Seth Ward
18 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

2019 SCJS CONFERENCE • June 30-July 2 • denver
Keynote Speaker
Jeff Wheelwright
Our celebrated keynote speaker, author/journalist Jeff
Wheelwright, takes us back to a pivotal time when
genetic research, especially here in Colorado, was
beginning to add to the rising awareness of the Iberian-Jewish
heritage of the greater Southwest.
A graduate of Yale (1969) and the Columbia Graduate School
of Journalism (1971), Wheelwright worked in public television
and as an editor for the monthly Life magazine. Over time,
the study of history and religion liberated him from science
writing, a previous focus.
His first two books, “Degrees of Disaster,” about the Exxon
Valdez oil spill (1994), and “The Irritable Heart,” about the
Persian Gulf War illnesses (2001), brought national acclaim. The latter was
supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Then he turned to
human genetics for his next topic because of interest sparked by the Human
Genome Project.
Jeff Wheelwright
His third book was about a breast-cancer mutation characteristic of Jews that
came to light in a population of Catholic Hispanos in New Mexico and the
San Luis Valley of Colorado. The mutation proves that its carriers have Jewish
ancestry, at least in part. In 2008 he published an article, “The Secret of San Luis
Valley,” in Smithsonian magazine, and in 2009 was awarded a J.S. Guggenheim
Fellowship to support the writing of the book, “The Wandering Gene and the
Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA,” published in 2012 by W.W. Norton.
Members of the family he wrote about in the San Luis Valley may be joining Jeff
as guests of SCJS on this special occasion.
REMINDER
conference Board
Meeting Memo
SOCIETY FOR CRYPTO-JUDAIC STUDIES
SCJS members are invited to nominate
themselves (or someone else) so that the
board of directors may consider them
prior to the conference in June. We seek
additional Members-At-Large so that we
may grow our board from which titled
executive positions may emerge after
a term or more of participation.
Contact editor.lagranada@gmail.com
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 19

2019 SCJS CONFERENcE • June 30-July 2 • denver
Stanley M. Hordes Distinguished Scholar Lecture
David Gitlitz, PhD
Stanley M. Hordes
Distinguished Scholar Lecture
The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies takes great
pleasure in announcing the inaugural recipient of
the Stanley M. Hordes Distinguished Scholar Lecture
series, a distinction and lecture to be given each year
at our annual conference, bestowed upon a scholar
whose contribution to advancing the field of crypto-
Judaic studies has been exemplary.
David Gitlitz. PhD
Kudos to recipient, author/historian Dr. David Gitlitz
whose canon of works exploring crypto-Judaic culture
are unmatched. Notable are “Secrecy & Deceit -
The Religion of the Crypto-Jews,” a major resource for
researchers, the collectible “Drizzle of Honey,” Sephardic
recipes gleaned from Inquisition testimonies, and “The
Lost Minyan,” a further exploration of the Inquisition
experience. Dr. Gitlitz is a former professor emeritus of
Hispanic studies, University of Rhode Island, former chair
of modern languages at the University of Nebraska, former
associate professor of Spanish, Indiana University, and
a graduate of Oberlin College and Harvard University. A
recipient of the National Jewish Book Award for Sephardic
Studies, his other areas of interest include the Spanish
Golden Age of Literature, pilgrimage studies, university
administration and teaching. Gitlitz researched, traveled
and wrote together with his late wife, Linda Davidson.
For the first Stanley M. Hordes Distinguished Scholar
Lecture David will present Twenty Generations of Conversos
and the Transmission of Jewish Identity.
• • • • • • •
Dr. Stanley M. Hordes is one of the founding members
of SCJS, as well as its passionate visionary. A former state
historian for New Mexico and author of the pivotal work,
“To the End of the Earth, New Mexico’s Crypto-Jews,”
a book that has been a major factor in shaping thought
about the descendants of Spanish conversos or crypto-
Jews in the American Southwest, his dedication to this
field of research and SCJS is inspiring. He was recently
honored by the Santa Fe Jewish Book Council with the 2017
Lifetime Achievement Award. Hordes is an adjunct research
professor at the Latin America and Iberian Institute of the
University of New Mexico and holds a PhD from Tulane
University. His leadership of SCJS over the decades is
immeasurable. Now serving on our SCJS Advisory Council,
his enormous influence and accomplishments will be
honored in perpetuity.
• • • • • • •
Sunset over Denver, Colorado
20 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

2019 SCJS CONFERENCE • June 30-July 2 • denver
A Special Performance - June 30
Conviction
While every SCJS conference offers a huge
opportunity to gain new insight and
understanding into the crypto-Judaic field
of study, it also exposes attendees to the best in the
arts exploring this powerful subject. This year will be no
different. Launching the conference Sunday night, June 30,
attendees will be moved by “Conviction,” a play in one act,
adapted from a true story, starring one of Colorado’s most
celebrated actors, Ami Dayan.
Ami Dayan
Ami Dayan is a
Boulder-based Israeli-
American playwright,
director, actor, and
instructor who has
studied and worked
professionally in the
United States, Europe
and Israel. A twotime
recipient of the
America-Israel Cultural
Ami Dayan
Foundation Grant,
Ami’s work has been commissioned by The Denver
Center Theatre Company, The Colorado Shakespeare
Festival, and The Roe Green Foundation. His play
“The End” received the Westword Award for Best Original
Script. His free adaptation of Nobel Prize Laureate Dario
Fo’s “A Tale of a Tiger” has been performed worldwide
since 1994, including a celebrated off-Broadway run,
followed by a Helen Hayes Award Nomination for
Outstanding Non-Residential Production. Numerous other
off-Broadway credits highlight his career.
About the Play
The Spanish Inquisition endorsed by the Catholic monarchs
attempted to rid Spain of 500,000 Jews. Across Spain, they
had grown in number, prosperity and influence, making
them a political and economic threat to Ferdinand and
Isabella. As a result, some 400,000 Jews abandoned their
identity and converted rather than be burned.
“Conviction” broaches this incendiary chapter of Jewish
history as a time-traveling mystery wrapped inside a
love story. Translated from Hebrew and adapted by Ami
Dayan, the play opens in Franco’s 1960s’ Madrid. Israeli
professor Chaim Tal is being grilled by an Inquisitor, the
director of the Spanish National Archives. Tal has been
caught stealing a confidential file detailing the true story of
a Catholic priest who, 500 years earlier, was caught living a
double life. Father Andres married a Jewish woman and sired
a family with her, all while carrying on his duties as a priest.
Why would the professor commit such a brazen crime?
The answer becomes clear as we shift to another time and
another inquisition, of sorts. Andres shares his secret past
to an unseen and unheard fellow priest, within the safety
of a Catholic confessional, thereby allowing Dayan to tell
him, and us, the full story of Andres “fall from grace.”
Dayan steps into nine roles with clarity and “conviction.”
The story behind the play is rooted in history. In the
following text, a translated excerpt of the original
Inquisition file of Andres Gonzalez has been compiled.
EXCERPT FROM THE ORIGINAL INQUISITION
FILE OF ANDRES GONZALEZ
“…when I was a priest in Alcabdete, in Talavera, one Sunday I
was coming to the church to say mass and a farmer approached
me – by the name of
Fernand Alonso – and
said, ‘I came here
because as I was coming
to church there was one
of these women from the
household of Gonzalo
Marques resting and
honoring the Sabbath as
a Jew…’ and they were
off to burn the house
and its [inhabitants]. It
Church official signatures
on Gonzales’ file
would have been best for me later not to intervene, but I did.”
(Andres Gonzalez, 1486, translated by Lina Williams and
Mark Williams.)
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 21

2019 SCJS Conference schedu
The evolution of mankind is recorded through story, written and oral. It’s how we
preserve the past and understand the present. At each SCJS, conference, scholars,
academics, historians and descendants come together to share the latest in research,
illuminating this field of study from various points of view. We welcome them all.
Announcing our first Silent Au
in search of heritage and informatio
annual conference by defraying regi
by SCJS members and reflect our mi
8:30-11:00am
11am-6pm
Noon-2:30pm
Sunday • June 30
Board Meeting
Lunch on your own available at the hotel.
Conference Registration (Lobby)
PRE-CONFERENCE Genealogy Workshop
• Schelly Talalay Dardashti —
Jewish Ethnicity and DNA: History, Migration and Genetics.
• Genie Milgrom —
Finding Your Jewish Roots Through Catholic and
Inquisition Records
Noon—Mon. 9pm SILENT AUCTION
3:00-3:10pm
OFFICIAL OPENING OF Conference
Welcoming Remarks — Corinne Brown,
Debbie Wohl-Isard and Genie Milgrom
3:10-4:40pm Panel 1
• Andrée Aelion Brooks —
Doña Gracia Nasi: Revisiting the Conversos’ Greatest Leader
• Beth Lurie —
Livorno: Converso Refuge and Center of Jewish Life
• Yda Schreuder —
Crypto-Jews Through the Ages: From Spain, to Portugal, to
Antwerp, to Hamburg, to Amsterdam, and to London in the
17th Century
4:40-5:30pm
Social Hour and Reception (Atrium)
Cash Bar (zink)
Reception featuring entertainment by The
Lorenzo Trujillo Trio, featuring Dr. Lorenzo
Trujillo, folklorist, cantante and violinist.
5:30-6:30pm Dinner • INTRODUCTIONS • REMARKS —
José Luis Parrado, Honorary Consul of Spain
7:00-8:30pm
“Conviction”
starring Ami Dayan (Theater Ballroom)
Q&A After Performance
For Registration and
Hotel Reservations visit now -
www.cryptojews.com
*Schedule is subject to change.
Updates at www.cryptojews.com
Monday • July 1
Breakfast on your own.
Hotel restaurant and coffee bar open from 6:00am
8:15-8:30am
Opening remarks • SCJS Welcome • Schedule
Review • vendor Introductions
8:30-9:50am Panel 2
• Abraham Gross —
Crypto-Jews in Portugal: A 19th-Century Missing Link
• Rebecca Wartell —
Not Like Other Converts: Conversos in Early Modern Sephardi
Rabbinic Thought
• Rachel Bortnik —
Searching for Echoes of Ladino in Crypto-Jewish Dialects
9:50-10:10am Break
10:10am-12:15pm Panel 3
• Claudia Long — Hiding in Plain Sight
• Marcia Fine —
Conversos Survival in Mexico and the Southwest Territories:
Syncretism and Assimilation in the 17th Century
• Rabbi Deborah Prinz —
The Sephardi Chocolate Culture of 18th-Century
New York & Newport
• Rifka Cook —
Crypto-Jews: The Culinary Recovery of Exile
Noon-1:00pm Buffet Lunch — (INDIGO ROOM)
• Dolly Sloan — Remembering Martin Sosin
Introduction Sosin Foundation and Baca-Duran Funds
1:00-2:00pm Martin Sosin Address to Advance
Scholarship in the Crypto-Judaic Arts -
Hiddenness and Reawakening as Musical Drama (Premiere).
Poetry by Miriam Herrera • Music by David Wohl.
Miriam Herrera (poet and reader), Lorenzo Trujillo
(voice/violin), Stacy LeSartre (violin), Catherine Flinchum
(flute), Daniel Masters (classical guitar), David Wohl
(piano).
2:00-4:15pm Panel 4/5 with 5-10 minute break
• Sara Koplik and Rabbi Jordi Gendra-Molina —
A Treasure Trove of Poignant Crypto-Jewish Stories:
Spanish Citizenship Applications
• Kathleen Alcala —
Volver a la Fuente: Seeking Spanish Citizenship
• Schelly Talalay Dardashti — The Inquisition: The Jews That Left
• Genie Milgrom —
The Spanish-Portuguese Inquisition: The Jews That
Stayed Behind
22 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

le*
ction to Honor the Baca Duran Fund, created to help fund those
n about their roots. The Fund provides assistance in attending our
stration or housing costs. All auction items are donated or created
ssion or field of study. Credit cards and checks accepted.
4:15-5:30pm Break with assorted snacks
5:30-6:30pm Keynote Address - Jeff Wheelwright, PhD —
Identity Politics and The Secret of the San Luis Valley
6:30-7:30pm Dinner • General Membership Meeting
Meeting conducted by Debbie Wohl Isard, SCJS
President
7:30-8:30pm Judy Frankel Memorial Concert -
Hal Aqua and The Lost Tribe
9:30pm
SILENT AUCTION CLOSES
Tuesday • July 2
Breakfast on your own
8:15-8:30am WelcomE • SILENT AUCTION RESULTS
8:30-10:00am Panel 6
• Maria Apodaca — Personal Journeys
• Norma Libman—
Telling Crypto-Jewish Stories Through Lectures in New Mexico
and Nationwide
• Dianne Layden —
Telling Crypto-Jewish Stories Through Jewish Historical Societies
10:00-10:30am Break
10:30-11:45am Stanley M. Hordes Distinguished Scholar
Lecture - David Gitlitz, PhD —
Twenty Generations of Conversos and the Transmission
of Jewish Identity.
11:45am-12:30pm Box Lunch
12:30-2:00pm Panel 7
• Kimberly Sanchez-Cawthorn — Love & Legacy: Amor Eterno
• Neil Manel Frau-Cortes —
Identity and Alterity in Poetry and Music By/Against Anusim
• Marie-Theresa Hernandez —
What Cannot Be Thought: Writing a Jewish Guadalupe in
Colonial Mexico
2:15-3:45pm Panel 8
• Cynthia Seton-Rogers —
Redefining the Crypto-Jews’ Place in the Historical Narrative
• David Nidel — Crypto-Judaism and the Penitentes
• Corinne Brown —
In the Crosshairs - HaLapid Preserves Crypto-Judaic History
3:45-4:00pm
Final Words and Adjournment
community partners
This year’s conference welcomes the support of
several organizations and private individuals who
have gone the extra mile to help us get the word out
and fund our event. We could not have done it without them.
With our warmest thanks to
Robin and Bennett
Greenspan Fund
at the
Houston Jewish
Community Foundation
our generous conference patrons
Bonnee Oderberg
Loretta and Dennis Worthington
Larry Mizel
Rabbi Stephen Leon
And our distinguished community partners
Gaon Web - Books and Film
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Ron Hart and Gloria Abella Ballen
Publishers of quality books and documentary film about
Sephardim, Jews, women’s voices, life in the Southwest
and more. A 501(c)(3).
Mizel Museum
400 So. Kearney St.
Denver, Colorado
The Mizel Museum is dedicated to fostering cross-cultural
understanding, combating racism and promoting social justice.
We achieve our mission through educational programming,
events and exhibits that connect universal Jewish values
to the larger world.
Museo de Las Americas
861 Santa Fe Dr. • Denver, Colorado
Museo de las Americas is dedicated to educating
our community through collecting, preserving,
interpreting and exhibiting the diverse arts
and cultures of the Americas from ancient to
contemporary, through innovative exhibitions and programs.
MY HERITAGE
www.myheritage.com
MyHeritage provides an easy way to find new family
members, discover ethnic origins, and to treasure family
stories, past and present for generations to come.
Temple Aaron
407 So. Maple St. • Trinidad, Colorado
Preserving Jewish life and values in the
South Central Colorado Rockies
for over a century
TheatrE Or - Diane Gilboa
Denver, Colorado • TheatreOr.com
Theatre Or (the Hebrew word for light) is a non-profit
professional theater company producing plays of Jewish interest
and universal appeal, with a specialty in Israeli plays.
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 23

2019 SCJS CONFERENcE • June 30-July 2 • Denver
multimedia, and concert hall. His growing awareness of
the history of the Iberian Jews awakened a desire in him to
create a musical interpretation of the emotional journey
from “hiddenness” to “reawakening,” as expressed in
Miriam Herrera’s poem, Kaddish for Columbus (see next
page). David is dedicated to exploring the crypto-Judaic
narrative in musical terms, an endeavor that may lead to
growing understanding of this history for the benefit of
future generations.
David Wohl
Martin Sosin Address to Advance
Scholarship in the Crypto-Judaic Arts
David Wohl
An established and award-winning composer and
lyricist, David Wohl is also a multi-faceted and highly
accomplished keyboardist in popular demand. He is
the composer and arranger of several original musicals
and has composed a wide variety of music for television,
Judy Frankel Memorial Concert
The lost tribe
Hal Aqua and The Lost Tribe play klezmer fusion
music — an exuberant musical experience, rooted
firmly in traditional Jewish modes and melodies and
driven by contemporary rhythms and danceable grooves.
The versatile musicians who make up The Lost Tribe have
a deep respect for their source material, from the evocative
tunes of Eastern European Jews and gypsies to the sinuous
rhythms of the Middle East and Mediterranean. In the
long-standing Jewish tradition of absorbing musical
inspiration from surrounding cultures, The Lost Tribe
steeps their songs in a broth spiced with rock, reggae,
salsa, funk and blues influences, serving up an irresistible
party vibe. The band includes Hal Aqua (vocals, acoustic
and electric guitars,octave mandolin, ukulele), Annie Aqua
(violin, vocals), Ben Cohen (electric and acoustic bass, tuba,
trumpet, accordion, vocals), Shanti Hazan (drums and
percussion), and Miriam Rosenblum (clarinet, recorders,
button accordion).
Especially for this occasion, the Lost Tribe debuts its
long-awaited world music album, heavily influenced by
Sephardic, Ladino and Mizrachi sources. We dare you to stay
in your seat!
The debut of this new piece, Hiddenness and Reawakening as
Musical Drama, at the conference will engage the talents of
four collaborating musicians, including Lorenzo Trujillo,
a 14th-generation descendant from New Mexico and a
noted performer in his own right, excerts from the poetry
of Miriam Herrera, a converso descendant from Texas. We
also welcome Stacy LeSartre on violin, Catherine Flinchum
on flute, and Daniel Masters on guitar. With our special
thanks to Classic Pianos of Denver for providing a baby
grand piano.
The Sosin Stratton-Petit Foundation is a long-standing patron
of SCJS and donates annually to provide arts performances that
further the public’s understanding of the crypto-Judaic journey.
Their grant makes this address possible.
The Judy Frankel Memorial Concert is made possible
by a donation from The Sosin Stratton-Petit Foundation.
24 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

Poetry - included in the Sosin Address
Kaddish For Columbus: Prayer for 500 Years
Legend says Columbus was a crypto-Jew escaping Spain’s Inquisition, along with a boatload
of illegal conversos, in hopes of settling in the New World
I believe in my animal twin:
Together we bellow and embrace
in arms of darkened hills
winding above the Rio Grande,
along the Sangres and Santa Fe, up
to the Pajarito plateau.
I believe in the air
at this elevation, in its power
of redemption. I believe
by grace of
some ineffable pronouncement, I live—
Not like some newcomer fish
thin-blooded, spitting out voiceless
sounds, but with lungs and gills
of a new-wrought beast, easy
in water and sky.
I believe in the rattlers’ sect—
Tribes who shed skin for sake of
divinity, and accept as fate
to be steered by a blackbird’s tail.
I meditate on the Boundless,
on the Inspiration
that looks upon sundown’s ruddy expanse
and bestows commandments:
“Roll in river
mud, inhale sage brush,
build your houses round,
clay red as the upper thigh
of a sun-burned woman—
Live! Live!”
(I trust in these words.)
*****
I believe my Grandfather’s spirit,
looselegged in khakis,
still carries a rifle and hunting knife
north and south
along this same river valley.
I believe in the hemisphere
where there are no borders, no
papers required to prove his footsteps
on this land
for over five hundred years.
(I consecrate to his memory
the number 500.)
Skin, all at once the color
of mountain snow, of river mud
and adobe. Hair like cornsilk
or tail feathers of
a red-tailed hawk, and a soul,
shiny and tempered
as loot from Obsidian Ridge.
*****
I confess—
My hallowed temples are
lands of dry heat. I’ve kept
sandy beds on too many continents, just to
be caressed by this heat. I forgive
my promiscuity, my love
for each singular oddity,
promising to give me a form
unlike my own.
I reaffirm my vows to the desert
as I taste its salty mouth,
and know why
pilgrims and prisoners come here:
To wander through pincushion
gardens, to see miles of
footprints in circles, to be engulfed by
flashfloods.
I extol the amour of the cholla,
saguaro, beavertail, horse crippler,
spiny stars and cat claw.
I worship the slow-moving hunters,
green-eyed masters who see
what burrows below.
*****
I say Kaddish for Columbus
and forgive him. I bless
his explorer blood cast within me—
An alloy of iron, nickel, silver, gold, cobalt,
moon and meteorite.
I bless our ancient shamans
who changed him into a limping wolf,
so that every year
he too makes the pilgrimage
with the Vietnam vets
with the lame, the blind,
the shattered of will,
with the Penitente brothers
to Chimayo’s candle-lit chapel.
He too rakes with his paw
at the replenishing hole
for a taste of miraculous dirt.
He too looks up with longing
at abandoned crutches
and metal braces
hanging on old adobe walls.
Gray fur is his purgatory—
but I believe that one day he will
find redemption.
When the generations
of his heart
can sway, genuflect,
sway,
to the new humanity
his celestial navigations
have created?
*****
I glorify the shadow of spirits at dusk,
their aweful power
as they close in—
flat-out run on hoofs—
thumping
toward a wandering soul,
swept against a cliff
by force of animal will.
I swear, this tiny soul remembers
its first summer, holds
a breath under the breaking sky,
reveres blazes of pink, purple, gold—
and covers its eyes
when a juniper bush
appears to catch fire.
At dusk, the earth’s veins
give up their color
to the Sangre
de Cristo mountains. The hills
put on purple veils and bow
to the sky.
—M. Miriam Herrera
“Kaddish for Columbus” was originally
published in Nimrod International Journal
of Prose and Poetry: A Range of Light:
The Americas.Vol 41, No. 2,University
of Oklahoma, Tulsa, OK (July 1998)
I believe my grandfather
creates new Sabbaths,
when he looks in the river
at his rough, holy image. I believe
he’ll awaken my own
sleeping image with his
odd beauty:
M. Miriam Herrera is the author of the poetry collection, Kaddish for Columbus, published by
Finishing Line Press. She is a graduate of the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at
Chicago. Her poems have appeared in Earth’s Daughters, New Millennium Writings, Blue Mesa
Review, Nimrod, Southwestern American Literature, and other journals. Herrera’s parents are
natives of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and are descended from Sefarditos—conversos
or crypto-Jews who came to the new world to escape the Spanish Inquisition. She teaches
writing and Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and is the
poetry editor for HaLapid.
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 25

2019 SCJS CONFERENCE • June 30-July 2 • denver
Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. He was previously
awarded the 1996 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the
Arts, acknowledging his work as a folk violinist, guitarist,
and vocalist, among his other accomplishments as a
musician, ethnic dancer, folklorist, arts administrator,
and culture bearer for approximately five decades.
Lorenzo Trujillo
A Musical Treat
lorenzo trujillo
Dr. Lorenzo Trujillo is affiliate professor of music and the
director of the Metropolitan State University Mariachi
Ensemble and the Mariachi Correcaminos. He began
playing mariachi and traditional southwest Hispanic music
as a teenager with the Mariachi Alegre and The Southwest
Musicians with whom he made recordings presenting music
for entertainment and liturgical holiday events. Lorenzo
is also the director of the Southwest Musicians. In Fall
2016, he was appointed Direttore della Musica Sacra Ispanico
of the Conservatory of Music for Denver’s Cathedral/
Trujillo was awarded funding from the National Endowment
for the Arts as a performing artist in 1976. In 2004, he
was awarded the Hilos Culturales Distinguished Traditional
Folk Artist Premio for his lifetime contributions to the
traditional Hispanic traditions of southern Colorado
and New Mexico. Dr. Trujillo has presented thousands
of concerts, lecture demonstrations, and has published
extensively about traditional music and dance of the
Southwestern United States over the past 40 years. He
has recorded and performed for television, radio and
on numerous CDs. In 2009, he was inducted into the
Colorado Chicano Music Hall of Fame and in 2011 was
presented with the Tesoro Cultural Center’s Tesoro
de Oro Award. His most popular CD is “The Golden
Age of the Southwest: From 1840 to Hollywood.”
Lorenzo Trujillo is a Doctor of Education and Doctor of
Jurisprudence with a longtime legal practice in Denver.
He has been a supportive member of the Society for
Crypto-Judaic Studies for many years and is a proud 14thgeneration
descendant, raised in northern New Mexico.
Welcome
Our honored Guests
José Luis Parrado
Honorary Consul of Spain
Claudia
Moran-Pichardo
Museo de Las Americas
Denver
Randy Rubin
Temple Aaron
Trinidad, Colorado
Georgina Kolber
Mizel Museum
Denver
26 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

2019 SCJS CONFERENcE • June 30-July 2 • denver
Highlights of select abstracts - a taste of things to come
A Treasure Trove of Poignant
Crypto-Jewish Stories:
Spanish Citizenship Applications
Sara Koplik, PhD
Director of Community Outreach Jewish Federation of New Mexico
Rabbi Jordan Gendra-Molina, PhD.
In 2015, the Spanish government passed a law enabling
individuals to apply for citizenship with proven Sephardic
heritage. After training from immigration attorney Luis
Portero, the Jewish Federation of New Mexico began
to issue certificates of Sephardic heritage. Thousands
of applications poured in from over 50 nations. The
process required a personal statement, important for
those with incomplete genealogical evidence. These
statements contain detailed information and stories
about the ways that Sephardim, crypto-Jews, and converso
families maintained their identity over the centuries
and around the world. Anonymous excerpts from select
applications will be shared while describing larger trends.
The Inquisition: The Jews Who Left
Schelly Talalay Dardashti
During the Inquisition, many Jews were killed, forcibly
converted, or left following the events of 1391 and 1492.
This program will focus on those who left: where they
went, what organizations they created in new places,
how they maintained connections with brethren around
the world, and the significance of those newly-formed
Sephardic communities. We will look at leaders in
those communities, consider the spread of Sephardim
into the New World (including the Caribbean, North/
South America), the reach of the Inquisition, and
Central and Eastern Europe, including Sicily, Italy,
Amsterdam, Hamburg, Vienna, the Ottoman Empire,
North Africa, North America, Central America, South
America, the Caribbean, Romania, Russian Empire, the
Middle East and India. Resources will be provided.
Telling Crypto-Jewish Stories Through
Jewish Historical Societies
Diana Layden
The knowledge of crypto-Jewish stories can be spread
through Jewish historical society publications, films,
and events. This presentation describes the efforts of
the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society to disseminate
crypto-Jewish history in New Mexico and southern
Colorado. NMJHS was founded in 1985 and has published
a newsletter, Legacy, since 1988, distributed widely.
Issues are available online at www.NMJHS.org. Legacy
has published several articles about crypto-Jews,
including the independent film made by past NMJHS
president Paula Amar Schwartz, “Challah Rising in the
Desert: The Jews of New Mexico.” Crypto-Jews have
given presentations at NMJHS annual conferences;
Yvette Cohen Stoor, for example, wrote an article for
Legacy, appeared in Paula’s film, and presented at the
2018 conference. Sample articles will be distributed.
What Cannot Be Thought - Writing a
Jewish Guadalupe in Colonial Mexico
Marie-Theresa Hernandez, PhD
In 1648 a priest named Miguel Sánchez produced the most
important book of the Mexican colonial period. For over
500 years, “Imagen de la Virgen Maria,” was credited for the
identity of the Mexican nation through its treatise on the
apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe. This presentation
concerns a new analysis of the Sánchez book, indicating
a second story that, until the 21st century, was never
considered. As a colleague of Sánchez’s wrote in a postscript
to “Imagen,” the text exemplifies “what could not
be thought.” Critiques of the Sánchez text stressed the
Christian nature of the story, misinterpreting passages as
patriotic missives while the colony was experiencing the
most intense Inquisitorial activity of the century. Previous
readings ignored that Sánchez was writing to secret
Jews living in Mexico City, expressing their terror at an
Inquisition that had incarcerated and executed many from
their community. Why had no one noticed the ubiquitous
presence of the Inquisition? Why was there no interest in
his reference to the psalm telling of children who sang the
praises of the Holy Cross in order to confuse their enemies?
How can a book that has been republished numerous times
in 500 years be so thoroughly misread?
The focus on the cryptic text of “Imagen” tells us “what
cannot be thought” — identifying the existence of a public
secret that if acknowledged, could send nearly everyone to
the jails of the Inquisition.
This and much more at the
conference in Denver!
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 27

A RANDOM OCCURANCE?
Let me begin with the work of
Olibama Lopez Tushar, a woman
raised in the San Luis Valley who
moved to Denver as an adult. She
wrote about this region many years
ago in a slim book titled “The People
of ‘El Valle’ — A History of the
Spanish Colonials in the San Luis
Valley,” a history that describes the
region’s people, their way of life,
customs and traditions, as well as its
founding-and still-prominent
families. Our own SCJS member
Arnold Trujillo grew up there. The
forward of the book is dedicated to
his grandparents.
I learned about Olibama Tushar
through what was once called
the Spanish Genealogy Society of
Colorado, a group that met monthly
at the Denver Public Library. They
named their club after her and the
name always stuck in my mind
because it is so melodious. Once
the group folded some years ago,
I never gave it further thought.
Coincidentally, I met Arnold Trujillo
at the SCJS San Diego conference
many years ago and he actually lent
his personal copy of this book to
me for my research for my awardwinning
novel “Hidden Star,” set
in remote northern New Mexico. I
was looking for an understanding
of the greater area’s way of life.
He thought it might help.
The book is a thorough look into
a highly traditional community,
descended from Spanish Colonial
times, that has triumphed in fulfilling
the responsibilities of rural family
and community life. I enjoyed it,
discerned what I thought was most
important to me, and stuck it away
on my bookshelf for far too long. I
Stars align
and
serendipity
saves a rare
manuscript
BY CORINNE BROWN
mailed the book back to Arnold only
just last year, certain that it had
served its purpose, and apologetic
for my tardy remittance. Arnold
reminded me just how hard it was
to come by. Very few copies existed
and he was glad to get it back.
*****
Shifting gears and changing subjects,
allow me to introduce you to our
graphic designer, Jacqueline Hirsch
of Lakewood, Colorado. She has been
making this magazine look beautiful
and coherent for the last five years.
Jacqueline also served as caregiver to
her ailing mother Ruth who passed
in late 2017, and her beloved brother
Detlef who also passed away in early
2018. Her father Kurt, ill with lung
cancer and bereft of his beloved
family, died three months later.
A tremendous year of grief and loss,
more than most daughters can bear.
Jacqueline’s parents ran a successful
family printing business, Hirsch
Graphics Enterprises, for decades
after they emigrated to the United
States from Germany. They fulfilled
the classic American dream, selftaught
in a profession of which
they all were very proud. When
the couple retired, a longtime
friend and fellow printer took over.
Though now a different name, the
business keeps going to this day.
After selling the business, Kurt
and Ruth still kept an office at
home, always staying busy and
occupied, up until the very end.
Not surprisingly, the house was
filled with projects and papers
when Kurt finally passed, leaving a
challenging job for Jacqueline and
her husband Chuck Montgomery
(our former webmaster) to tackle,
one mysterious box at a time.
Imagine my surprise when Jacqueline
called me one afternoon and said,
“I found a few boxes stored in the
garage. I’m not sure exactly why, but I
think they might be of interest to you.
It’s the complete printer’s set-up —
artwork, offset negatives, plates and
28 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

Above, left - Original photos included in “El Valle”
Above, right - A stack of master layout boards, one for
each of the books nearly 200 pages
Left - Offset printing negatives, “stripped” (mounted)
4-up for printing
Jacqueline Hirsch
galleys, plus a printed copy — of a book called “The People
of ‘El Valle’.” Done the old way – before digital printing.”
“Yes,” I exclaimed, catching my breath,
“it’s important. Thank you!”
I decided to find the material a proper home. Arnold
Trujillo wanted it but I was selfish; I didn’t send it to him.
I wanted anyone interested to have easy access — and
Arnold lives in California, far from the story’s source. The
Denver Public Library Western History division also wanted
it, but an archivist there turned it down; said the content
was not easily accessible to researchers in this form and
didn’t lend itself to microfilm either. Then I shared the
news with Joyce Gunn of the San Luis Valley Museum. She
called colleague Rick Manzanares who works with a special
archive/library in the area that covers San Luis heritage.
He was thrilled. FedEx helped package it and in early
March 2019, this treasure made its way through Colorado,
down the Sangre de Cristos, back to its place of origin.
“Unpacking this shipment brought tears to Rick’s eyes,”
said Joyce in a recent conversation. “We can’t thank
you enough.”
Here’s what I think: Some things are just waiting to be
found. And perhaps the universe has a timeline of its own.
All I know is this: Through serendipity and what seemed
like a random event, “El Valle” has found its way home.
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 29

scjs 2018 regional conference review
St. Augustine Conference
BY Rabbi Merrill Shapiro
The early morning rain made
for a cold and dreary trip to
World Golf Village
Renaissance St. Augustine Resort on
Sunday, December 9, 2018. But inside
the Legacy Conference Room there
was only brightness and luminance
as 75 participants gathered for a
conference designed to help tell the
“Story of Crypto-Jews in the
Southeast US,” a partnership of the
Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies and
the St. Augustine Jewish Historical
Society.
After a warm welcome from SCJS
president Debbie Wohl-Isard and
SAJHS president Merrill Shapiro,
participants were treated to a
presentation titled The Crypto-Jews
Who Helped to Shape the New World by
Cindy Seton-Rogers, PhD candidate
at the University of Texas; then
Sephardic Jews and the New Pirates of
the Caribbean by Dr. Sharonah
Fredrick, assistant professor, SUNY
Buffalo, and a presentation Crypto-
Jewish Narrative, Strategies and Identity
in America Southeast, 16th-21st Century
by SCJS board member, Dr. Seth Ward
of the University of Wyoming.
A brief review of the History of Florida
Jewish History was provided by Dr.
Marcia Zerivitz, founding director,
Rabbi Merrill Shapiro
Jewish Museum of Florida, followed
by a presentation Resources for The
Study of Florida Jewish History by
Dr. Rebecca Jefferson, director,
Price Library of Judaica, University
of Florida.
Following a sumptuous luncheon and
lots of opportunity for networking,
attendees were treated to a
presentation by SCJS board member
Dr. Seth Kunin, Curtin University,
Perth Australia, on Recent
Developments and Research in the Study
of Crypto-Judaism. Debbie Wohl-Isard
and Merrill Shapiro then each
reviewed recent developments in the
work of the Society for Crypto-Judaic
Studies and the St. Augustine Jewish
Historical Society.
The day was concluded with
presentations by Professor Jacob
Frisch, Wayne State University, on
Conversos at Santa Elena; by Albeyra
L. Rodriguez, Inter-America
University of Puerto Rico, titled The
Foreigners: Jews in Cartagena de Indias
1634-1660; and a striking
presentation by Dr. Lourdes
Arguelles, professor emeritus,
Claremont Graduate University,
Narratives of Reconnection, Conversion
and Renewal, striking because it raised
the question of Jewish ancestry
among those seeking entry to the
United States at its southern border.
The benefits of the networking alone
made the time, effort, energy and
attention lavished on this event well
worth the investment. But beyond
the connections and friendships
established, those in attendance have
become ambassadors and advocates
for the study of crypto-Judaica,
spokespersons for a point-of-view
that challenges an old orthodoxy that
says “American Jews are mostly
Ashkenazim from Central and
Eastern Europe whose ancestors
spoke Yiddish!”
Clearly, the echoes of this conference
will be heard for many years as
people in the Southeast US begin to
search for the Sephardic roots and
crypto-Jewish history in their
communities.
Telling
the
Story
of
Crypto-Jews
in the
Southeast
U.S.
Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies
St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society
Sunday • December 9, 2018
World Golf Village Renaissance
St. Augustine Resort
30 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

upcoming conferences
SAVE THE DATE
OCTOBER 3-5
Hispanic Organization for Genealogy and Research
(HOGAR de Dallas)
40th ANNUAL TEXAS HISPANIC GENEALOGICAL
& HISTORICAL CONFERENCE
October 3-5, 2019 • OMNI Dallas Hotel at Park West
1590 Lyndon B Johnson Freeway, LBJ and Luna Rd • Dallas, Texas 75234
Registration $20 – $150 • www.eventbrite.com/e/40th-annual-texas-hispanic-genealogicalhistorical-conference-tickets-56306733957/amp
For information visit www.hogardedallas.org
SAVE THE DATE
OCTOBER 11-13
Texas State Genealogical Society
2019 Family History Conference
October 11-13, 2019 • Omni Houston Hotel Westside
13210 Katy Freeway • Houston, Texas 77079 • 281-558-8338
Details available soon at www.txsgs.org/2019-conference
SAVE THE DATE
NOVEMBER 9-10
New Mexico Jewish Historical Society
Jewish Life in Taos and Northern New Mexico:
Past, Present and Future
November 9-10, 2019 • Sagebrush Inn
1508 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur, Taos, New Mexico 87571 • 575-758-2254
For information visit www.nmjhs.org
PROJECTED DATE
NOVEMBER 2019
The Anusim Center of El Paso
Join us for the 16th Annual Anusim Conference
November 2019 • El Paso, Texas
More details coming soon - go to
Facebook/TheAnusimCenterOfElPasoTexas
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 31

ART
Light C atchers
In addition to being the
most inspired and dedicated
president of SCJS —
a volunteer position that Debbie
Wohl-Isard takes as seriously as any
job — she is also an artist, one who
excels in an exciting but challenging
medium—fused glass.
If our passions are an extension of our
most cherished values, it’s no wonder
Wohl-Isard has chosen to work with a
material that reflects light; a perfect
metaphor for learning and education,
as well as the dissemination of
information, one of the goals of SCJS
she so firmly believes in. Her craft
engages the senses, and teaches us
something too, asking us to look at
and through and beyond the obvious.
There’s always something hidden in
the layers.
Titling the series Shin Shui (like
Jewish Feng Shui), said Wohl-Isard
about her colorful vertical piece
shown here, “Evoking the essence
of a mezuzah, each creation is
individually designed to catch the
light near a threshold as one goes out
or comes in. Or, it may be hung in
any bright place. I urge the viewer to
find the Hebrew letter “shin,” often
hiding in plain sight.”
Whether you read Hebrew or not,
the mystery of the shapes and forms
seem to speak their own message,
benevolent and clear. “The crypto
experience of shattered lives, secrecy
and hiddenness are powerful forces
within my creative inspiration. I have
to shatter the glass before re-forming
it into a new whole. Sometimes I have
a plan for the design; other times the
glass seems to move itself into place.”
These pieces radiate joy. How Debbie
finds the time to create is a question
only she can answer. But for the
lucky owners of these scintillating
light catchers, we’re glad she does.
One or more of the Shin Shui series
will be included in the first ever
silent auction at the Denver SCJS
Conference.
“Yud hey vav hey” (5"x2") vertically
displayed in a Kabbalah-inspired
rendering of the name of God.
CB — Editor
Journey
This multi-colored piece (8"x3") tells
the story (from bottom to top) of the
darkness of the Inquisition and the fires
of the autos-de-fe, crossing turbulent
seas to the New World where the land
journey continued north into New
Mexico. The shape of this piece includes
the horizontal segment that may lead
some to find the hidden cross before the
sun emerges in the Shin.
“ The crypto experience
of shattered lives, secrecy
and hiddenness are
powerful forces within my
creative inspiration.”
32 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

POETRY
I Know Who I Am
My credentials are ancient, unique.
I am a link in the 5000 year-strong, unbroken chain,
despite persecution and pain.
My ancestors spoke directly to God, gave humanity the Ten Commandments,
the ethics code, the belief in one God,
a universal wisdom by the prophets,
taught to an entire world.
My ancestors were tested all the time,
be it Babylon or Spain,
in near or remote lands sounding exotic to the ear,
and now, in a new homeland, Eretz Israel.
My ancestors survived floods, pogroms, plagues,
burning in fires, indescribable wars, hunger, blazing sun,
freezing cold.
Despite all, my people prevailed,
renewing links in that 5000-year chain, untamed,
despite persecution and pain.
I am Eternal.
I know who I am.
By Shula Robin
Late friend of
Yaakov Gladstone
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 33

stage and FILM
Hidden
A
sense of anticipation filled the air in Jerusalem at the
grand opening of “Hidden, the Secret Jews of Spain,”
presented by the Women’s Performance Community
of Jerusalem and OU Israel. This original musical shared the
history of our lost Sephardic families during the Inquisition
in Spain. I attended the performance in fall 2018, invited
by Sharon Katz , production manager and the show’s music
director Avital Macales.
As a descendant of the b’nai anusim, I had been following
this musical’s journey via social media for several months.
I had the honor of meeting many of the talented women
performers at the musical’s inception in Jerusalem earlier
that year at their first rehearsal.
The directors of “Hidden, the Secret Jews of Spain,”
are Shifra Penhower; music director Ellen Macales;
choreographer Judy Kizer, and producer Bati Katz. The cast
includes 70 dedicated Orthodox women (a women/girls-only
production) coming from Jerusalem’s environs. The musical
production flows smoothly with younger and more mature
women working together in harmony.
Most of the show, set in Spain in 1692, is based on the
history of “The Family Aguilar,” as recounted by Rabbi
Marcus Lehmann, with permission from Feldheim
Publishers. “Hidden,” in its musical form, represents
the recounted stories (based on Inquisition records) of
thousands of Jews who remained hidden from view for
centuries to survive.
The Secret Jews of Spain
The musical opens with “A Secret Yom Kippur” held by the
converso families and the Aguilars, along with their rabbi
(played by Sharon Doubler Katz). The rabbi also serves
as teacher and pretends by day to be the Aguilar family’s
butler. Converso Jews left behind would gather secretly
in cellars or secret synagogues where they could avoid
detection. The rabbis also taught Torah secretly to the
children. The characters of “Hidden” are believable, yet not
over-developed.
Top - In costume,
Sharon Doubler
Katz (l), and
Graciela Fenn (r)
Center - Entire
ensemble in scene
with Spanish clergy
Bottom - Women’s
Performance
Community of
Jerusalem in
family scene
by Graciela Serrano Fenn
Many families were Catholic by day and Jewish by night,
living underground lives in Spain, ending in the 1492
Expulsion. However, many of our people did not disappear
as once thought. The musical uses a combination of
historical vignettes based on what thousands of conversos or
New Christians, (nuevos cristianos) endured, depicting their
miraculous survival through persecutions over 500 years.
The production illuminates the subject, yet did not depict
the horrors of the age in an insensitive manner. The
atrocities committed against the Jews of Spain (later in
Portugal) by the powerful Catholic King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella are symbolically expressed through light,
music and dance. Production techniques use blackouts,
sound, and red silk scarves for flames. The effect is
understated and profound.
34 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

The story of the young son, Diego
Aguilar, for example, shows his
transformation into the Grand
Inquisitor of Madrid as an adult. This
character interacts with his younger
self via two actors. The Aguilar
family is later imprisoned after being
denounced by a past family friend
turned rival, an Inquisition agent.
Diego is unfortunately left behind
because he had fallen ill during the
family’s arrest. He is raised as an
orphan by the rival, and eventually
rises to the rank of the Grand
Inquisitor of Spain. In effect, Diego is
now the hidden Jews’ worst enemy.
The haunting song, “Where Do I
Belong,” sung by Avital Macales in
her role as Diego, evokes feelings
of sadness and conflict. Diego’s
memories of his past life are
triggered by touching one of the
rimonim of a Torah scroll confiscated
by the Inquisition. Diego suddenly
remembers the prayers of his
childhood. This song transfers the
character’s suffering and pain to the
audience in a real way.
As a descendant of the b’nai anusim,
now a returnee, (American-Israeli),
I felt personally the pain and
suffering portrayed by Diego’s
character. The melancholy in the
song, and in many other pieces,
captures these conflicting emotions.
The musical provides beautiful
choreography and some comedy
(singing and dancing pirates!), but
also a reminder of the trauma that
Iberian Jewish families endured.
In conclusion, “Hidden, the Secret
Jews of Spain” is beautifully
presented, with authentic period
costumes, while being portrayed
solely by women. I salute the efforts
of the creators and cast, a bright light
shown into the darkness of
our Sephardic past in Spain.
I wish the players of the Women’s
Performance Community of
Jerusalem a strong future.
Children of the Inquisition
A Film Whose Time Has Come
What began as a dream, the
telling of the story of the
Iberian Jewish Diaspora in
the 15th and 16th centuries as a result
of the Spanish Inquisition, and the
reawakening of its descendants around
the world, has become a reality.
Director Joe Lovett and his crew at
Lovett Stories and Strategies can truly
celebrate an astonishing film, a
riveting story of persecution and
survival under extreme odds.
“Children of the Inquisition” is not
only a two-hour documentary, it is also
an immersive website and educational
outreach project that unearths 500
years of hidden history. The project
looks in depth at what happened to
specific families forced to convert to
Catholicism or flee during the Spanish
and Portuguese Inquisitions through
the eyes of their contemporary
descendants, many of whom are just
discovering their often nuanced Jewish
roots. Diverse personal narratives
about subjects, that many members of
SCJS have come to know and respect,
reveal the connections between the
subject’s individual family’s journeys
and this buried history. The discoveries
of these flights to safety enable each
subject to access a fuller understanding
of how their lives were
shaped by a perilous history.
More than just a film, “Children of the
Inquisition” is an opportunity to better
understand our complex world and
identities, a revelation for many.
Constructed of interviews about
descendants: José Barreiro; artist
Carlos de Madeiros; journalist and
author Doreen Carvajal; Kingston,
Jamaica resident Dr. Winston George
Mendes Davidson; Professor Devin
Naar of the University of Washington
in Seattle, and young Ise Sharp,
BY corinne J. Brown
granddaughter of Ainsley Henriques of
Jamaica, the powerful imagery is tied
together with a superb soundtrack.
Historical insights by author David
Gitlitz enrich the tour of Spain and an
interview with Rabbi Stephen Leon of
El Paso, Texas focuses on the hidden
Jews of the Southwest. Contributions
by historian Jane Gerber lend
clarification and credibility.
After six years of shooting in 12 cities
spanning four continents, the new
release recently premiered at the
Seattle Jewish Film Festival to rave
reviews. Said Lovett about his
accomplishment, “Making ‘Children of
the Inquisition’ has been an
extraordinary learning experience. I’ve
learned there is much more to history
than what we’ve been taught and
much more to identity (Jewish,
Christian, Muslim) than what we’ve
assumed. And there is a much wider
Jewish history and experience than
that which is often recounted in
today’s narratives. Our subjects and
our expert consultants have helped me
to understand the people of the Middle
Ages and their tribulations of
persecution, forced migrations and
hiding. I’ve gotten an important
perspective on the plights of today’s
refugees and the politics and prejudice
that creates their situation.”
See “Children of the Inquisition” in Denver
Wednesday, June 5 • BMH Synagogue
For details, email info@bmh-bj.org
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 35

BOOK REVIEWS
On the
Chocolate Trail
By Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz
Jewish Lights, 2017, 2nd edition
I
love chocolate!
It has been a
staple in my
life forever:
a reward for a job
well done,
a comfort when
life seems too
much, and
a pleasure to be
enjoyed. I like certain chocolates more
than others: dark over milk, and white
chocolate only as a last resort. It wasn’t
until I read Rabbi Deborah Prinz’s book,
“On the Chocolate Trail,” that I gained
a real understanding of the history of
chocolate, its connections to culture,
history and rituals, and how one can
learn more of its impact on people
everywhere. In addition, Rabbi Prinz
has included several recipes that
introduce the reader to the magic
of cacao.
Prinz and her husband Mark, also a
rabbi, embarked on several journeys in
search of the connection between Jews
and chocolate. In Section One, she
takes us along on their adventures in
Europe and shares with us what they
see, learn and taste along the way. She
not only found links between Jews and
chocolate, she found connections
between chocolate and other cultures
and traditions around the world. She
explores historical information about
chocolate during World War II, noting
that the Germans devised a thin steel
bomb covered in chocolate that would
explode shortly after the end piece was
broken off! We learn about chocolate
in Israel and Mexico. To sweeten the
story, Prinz includes recipes that fit
each section of the book.
Section Two starts in the Pre-
Colombian world of Mesoamerica:
Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and
Costa Rica. In the Pre-Columbian
world, cacao, grown on a sacred tree,
was considered the food of the gods.
Some believed it was the Aztec
“Gardener of the Gods” who gave
chocolate to humans. When
Christianity was introduced in these
regions, clerics had to learn how to
adapt cacao into their European and
religious beliefs.
The Catholic Church had many
challenges dealing with chocolate,
including issues deriving from
chocolate addictions to chocolate
financial opportunities. Quakers
became involved in the chocolate
business when
the English
government
banned them
from participating
in other
professions.
Although many
got involved in
the business of
chocolate for altruistic reasons, they
often found themselves dealing with
slave labor and inferior product quality
in order to make money and find
success. The last chapter in this
section focuses on the ethics of
chocolate.
Prinz ends the book with more recipes,
a chocolate and religious history
timeline, a “Consumer’s Guide to the
Ethics of Chocolate,” author’s notes,
and more.
“On the Chocolate Trail” is a
fascinating and fun book. Chocolate
offers much more than I ever
imagined. Before reading this work, I
had already decided I would not waste
my time or calories on “inferior”
chocolate, and now I feel like I need to
Chocolate “Morsels”
The Spanish explorer Cortes brought cacao and
chocolate making equipment to Spain. The Spanish
king adored it and tried to monopolize it. Among
those entering the chocolate-making business
were Jews.
1480 The Spanish Inquisition began. In 1492, Jews
were either converted or expelled from Spain and
not permitted to live there until 1925. In 1496, Jews
were ruthlessly expelled from Portugal.
Forced to convert to Christianity, some Jews
continued to observe Judaism in secret in their
homes. Many fled to Holland, Belgium, France, and
Mexico and took their chocolate passion with them.
1544 Dominicans presented sweetened, drinking
chocolate to the Spanish court and it became wildly
popular. People drank chocolate at home, in church
and at court.
1571 The Inquisition was established in “New Spain”
or Mexico, where many Jews had fled. Chocolate was
an essential daily beverage used at meals, parties,
funerals, at the beginning and end of the Yom
Kippur fast. A prominent Mexican Jew of the time
documented breaking his fast with “chocolate, eggs,
salad, pies, fish and olives.”
Jewish prisoners received chocolate several times a
day from their servants and slaves. For many Jews,
chocolate enriched their businesses, permeated
their rituals, and sustained them in prison.
1630 Sixty converso Jewish families moved to
Bayonne, France because a royal grant offered them
refuge from persecution. They began the chocolate
industry there. By the end of the century, when
there were 800 Jews and 13 synagogues in Bayonne,
it became known as a chocolate center. Still,
Jewish life was difficult. French chocolate makers
eventually banned Jews from making or selling
chocolate in Bayonne at all. (Today Bayonne credits
Sephardic Jews for bringing chocolate there.)
Meanwhile, Jews of Amsterdam were considered
expert chocolate makers. Chocolate-making had
become a Dutch Jewish specialty after the rise of
cocoa trade with Curaçao.
1663 Emanuel Soares de Rinero (a converso)
got the first permit to fabricate chocolate in
Belgium. Benjamin d’Acosta de Andrade, also
Jewish, cultivated the first cacao trees and built
a processing plant on Martinique. In 1685, Jews
were expelled from all French colonies, ending the
chocolate trade in Martinique.
1690 The Pilgrims decreed that chocolate was “the
devil’s food;” hence the name for chocolate cake.
1701 The first recorded chocolate importation to
New York was by Isaac Marquez. His trade ships
imported cacao from Venezuela, Curacao, Jamaica
and Haiti, exchanging it for rice from the Carolinas.
Jews and chocolate were found around the world
and Jewish confectioners became legends. Come to
the Denver conference to hear much more.
36 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

know more about the producer and the
product. If Prinz ever offered to take
others on her chocolate adventures, I
would gladly volunteer. For now, I
must be content with the travels and
information shared with the reader.
— Linda Katchen, PhD
By the Light of
Hidden Candles
By Daniella Levy
Kasva Press, 2017
A
gentle love
story hides
bigger
questions.
Alma Ben-Ami, a
“conservadox”
Sephardic Jew,
moves in with
her grandmother
to attend NYU.
Miguel Aguilar
stops by grandma’s Judaica store and
is inexplicably drawn to the
merchandise, and more
understandingly drawn to the lovely
Alma, tending the counter. Boy meets
girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl, all
told in well-researched prose. Woven
into Alma’s and Miguel’s story is the
whispered family history, the tragic
tale of Miriam and Leon, in 1492.
Every love story has an obstacle,
seemingly insurmountable, and this
one is no exception. Miguel, alas, is a
Spanish Catholic, with priestly
aspirations. Alma is bound to her
faith, and has no desire to escape.
Both desire one another, but in this
day of hooking up, swipe-right and
friends-with-benefits, Alma and
Miguel barely dare shake hands. Both
are bound by seemingly (to an
outsider) archaic restrictions—one by
her religion’s rules, the other by plans
for future celibacy. Naturally, their
determination is tested, and
ultimately, and unsurprisingly, Miguel
discovers what everyone else has
known all along: he is the descendant
of Spanish Jews, and his and Alma’s
families knew each other in the story
of Miriam and Leon.
What makes this book special? It isn’t
just the topic of Jewish descent in
Spaniards, since for this reviewer it’s a
topic well-plowed in recent fiction. It
isn’t the dialogue, which the author
renders in perfect sophomore-talk,
with extended paragraphs about faith
spoken by each side reminiscent of
late-night philosophy all-nighters
with roommates. It’s the raising of the
weird, almost ugly side of devotion to a
particular and, to some, outmoded way
of life.
Alma truly keeps kosher and she
covers her hostess’s stove with foil so
she can eat. She travels on her
semester-abroad to Madrid with pots
and pans, cans of food, and her own
plates and utensils, and roundly
reviles the Spanish for having little
available to her. She visits the
Alhambra and while she can
appreciate its beauty she suggests to
her hostess that she would prefer to
spit on the central atrium because it
was there that the Edict of Expulsion
was signed in 1492. She conflates the
rulings of a cruel church and
government of five centuries past with
individuals who are living their lives
today. She can be rude, self-involved,
and judgmental.
Author Daniella Levy doesn’t pull any
punches. While Alma disdains the
conversos who chose life as a hidden
Jew over torture and death, when she
and Miguel are accosted by a group of
Neo-Nazi youths in an alley she hides
behind Miguel, and stays silent when
he assures the thugs that they are
Christian. Alma learns nothing from
the experience.
Miguel, meanwhile, examines his
faith, his life, and his family’s roots
with a near-obsessional doggedness.
He clearly doesn’t want to enter the
priesthood, he is only trying to find
the paternal love he lost when his
father died. He examines his
relationship to Jesus (which is openly
mocked by Alma) and his family’s
roots, to the point where any other
young man would have cried,
“Enough!” and made a decision. Once
he “discovers” his family’s past and
continued secret practices, he is so
relieved that the reader almost cheers.
A simple FamilyTreeDNA test would
have done the trick.
Reviewer’s End Note:
Judaism, as readers of HaLapid all
know, is matrilineal. Traditionally, a
person is Jewish if he or she has a
Jewish mother or converted to
Judaism. This Halachic rule comes
from a time when there was no blood
test for paternity, no genetic testing
for familial relationship. We could
only be sure who the mother was.
Unlike other religions that encourage
conversion, Judaism keeps its
membership cards close. It isn’t easy
to become a Jew. While America was,
at least on an aspirational level,
founded on the idea that we don’t care
who your daddy was, Judaism clearly
cares who your mommy was. This
focus on blood is echoed eerily in the
limpieza de la sangre in Spain, where
the other side of the coin condemned
those with a fraction of Jewish blood.
This obsession with blood lines and
genetics informs current debates over
crypto-Jews, certificates of return, and
the weight of faith versus blood.
This charming love story raises all of
these questions, and to its credit,
doesn’t try to answer them
definitively. The young protagonists
are happy to operate under the laws
that govern them, the rules that
determine whom they can marry,
whom they can touch, and even who
needs to carry the passport on the way
to Shabbat services. The book lets the
reader choose whether to accept these
strictures as the norm and enjoy the
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 37

love story, or spend the next few days
arguing loudly in one’s own head
about how these two sophomores
should live their lives in the greater
context of the world.
Either way, the book stays with you,
long after the love story ends.
[Disclosures: I received a copy of this
book in exchange for a fair review.
After this review was written, but
before it was published, my fifth novel
was accepted for publication by the
same publisher.] — Claudia Long
Claudia Hagadus Long is the secretary
for SCJS. She is the author of four
novels, including “The Duel for
Consuelo” and “Chains of Silver,”
about crypto-Jews in Colonial Mexico.
Her next novel, “My Name Means
Remember,” will be published by
Kasva Press in Fall of 2019.
Me’ah Berachot -
Life as a Spanish &
Portuguese Jew
in 17th-Century
Amsterdam
AUTHOR UNKNOWNi
While time
machines
are still
beyond our grasp,
books can
occasionally serve
as an alternate
way to find
ourselves in a
different era and
place. One such
book, which I just procured for a
customer, is Me’ah Berachot, Orden de
Bendiciones, a comprehensive prayer
book in Hebrew and Spanish printed in
Amsterdam in 1687.
This Siddur was intended to be as
comprehensive as possible, with
prayers and rites for all occasions and
holidays of Jewish life. The intended
audience was the Jewish community of
Amsterdam, composed mostly of
former emigrants from Spain and
Portugal. The prayers and instructions
were in Hebrew and Spanish
throughout, and the contents reflect
what life would have been like for
these Jews, living a new life in a new
land, and most of whom had very little
knowledge of Hebrew or Judaism.
Among the more traditional prayers
that would be familiar to any
practicing Jew today, you can find
several which have thankfully become
obsolete. Appearing in the book are
special prayers to recite when
purchasing a slave, and prayers at the
circumcision ceremony of a new slave.
The emigrant’s fear and connection to
those persecuted by the Spanish
Inquisition can be seen from the
several prayers to be said for both
males and females that were to be
burned at the stake by the Inquisitors.
In the prayer book, one can also find
the local recipe for haroset used in the
Haggadah seder,
as well as a full
detailed order of
purification of a
dead body in
preparation for
burial. A prayer
to recite when
one might see
the pillar of salt
(which was the
wife of the
biblical Lot) is found in the book as
well. For the benefit of users, the
measurements of the Amsterdam
mikvah were noted, as well as a calendar
with future dates of Jewish holidays,
measurements for the separation of
challah, and the rules pertaining to
deeming an animal non-kosher.
— Israel Mizrahi
Israel Mizrahi is the owner of a used
bookstore, containing over 180,000
titles, located in Brooklyn, New York.
He is a descendant of ancestors who
fled Spain and went to the Balkans.
The Weight of Ink
By Rachel Kadish
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017
The Weight of
Ink” by
Rachel
Kadish is a deep
and complex
historical novel
that delves into
the heart of the
conflict between
one’s inherent
nature and one’s
obligations to
society. The book works like a
metaphysical coin-flip; one face says
“sacrifice,” and the other says
“survive.” Between these antithetical
poles lies the fate of the crypto-Jew,
either to be consumed by history or to
become history’s documentation.
Like the flipped coin, both faces are
understood, but prediction is impossible.
The discovery of a mid-17th century
genizah [sacred cache] during the 21stcentury
renovation of a 350-year-old
house in London draws two academics,
Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a
love of Jewish history, and Aaron Levy,
an impatient but charming American
history graduate student, to
investigate the papers hidden there.
As the genizah papers are translated,
the story of Ester Velasquez, a young
Sephardic woman and ward of Rabbi
Hacoen Mendes with a hunger for
study and truth, emerges as she
struggles against the strictures of her
time that forbid learning and discourse
to women. Parallel to her story is that of
continues on page 44
38 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

hidden traditions
Some historians believe that
the Russian painter, Moshe
Maimon’s most famous work,
“Marranos: Secret Seder,” actually
tells the story of the Seder Hamishi,
a secret tradition; a special Passover
seder held, not on the first or second
night of Passover but as its name
suggests, on the fifth night of the
holiday. Legend has it that during
the time of the Inquisition, first in
Spain, then in Portugal and finally on
the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and
into Italy’s mainland, Jews who had
been forced into Christian conversion (b’nai anusim) were
helped, surprisingly, by their Christian neighbors.
Neofiti, as these newly-minted Christians were called,
continued to arouse the suspicion of Inquisition authorities
– so much so that gardeners, maids, cooks and nannies
who worked in households of converted Jews were offered
a bounty if they could catch their employer cleaning
the house of chametz, (leavened bread), changing pots,
pans and dishes, or preparing pane azimo, or matzah, the
unleavened bread eaten during the Passover holiday.
And then, when the first night of Passover finally arrived,
Inquisition soldiers, who laid in wait for the sun to set,
would burst through the doors of what had once been
Jewish homes, checking to see if any of these former Jews
were judaizing – in this case, making Passover in secret.
Observing this injustice, some courageous Christians
concocted a plan to help their Jewish
neighbors. At great personal peril
to themselves and their families
(Christians who helped Jews were
often tortured and murdered along
with the Jews they tried to save),
these Christians encouraged their
Jewish neighbors to hold a seder, not
on the first or second night but,
to not arouse the authorities’
suspicions, on the fifth night. Stories
are told of Christian families who
allowed Jews to sneak into their
Christian cantinas, (basement rooms)
and under the cover of darkness, these
Jewish neighbors first made the space
kosher and then actually observed
Passover complete with symbolic
foods, prayers and blessings.
The
Fifth
Seder
by rabbi barbara aiello
Here in Calabria, in the deep south
of Italy or what we like to call the
toe of the Italian boot, our b’nai
anusim continue the tradition of the
Seder Hamishi. Eight years ago when
Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud (the Eternal
Light of the South) first revived the
Seder Hamishi in the town of Selinunte
on the island of Sicily, friends and
families, both Jewish and Christian,
have gathered annually to celebrate
this remarkable Passover event.
Each year we hold the Seder Hamishi in
the Calabrian town of Lamezia Terme (formerly Nicastro)
near Timpone, the old Jewish quarter that is still intact.
Seder guests tour Timpone, at the foot of the castle of
King Fredrick II, a monarch who recognized the valuable
contribution that these Italian Jews made to the local
economy and who offered them safety and protection.
Following the tour, concert violinist Angela Amato, whose
ancestors were forced into Christian conversion and who,
along with her son Ale, have returned to their Jewish
roots, initiates this historic seder with musical selections
in Ladino, the ancient Spanish-Hebrew language of the
Mediterranean Jews.
Symbolic seder foods include the traditional shank bone
but for us anusim it is coupled with the bietola (blood red
beet) to symbolize the lamb’s blood on the doorposts that
saved the firstborn in Hebrew families. Locally-grown
romaine lettuce (more bitter than the American variety)
Rabbi Barbara tends to the Fifth Seder
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 39

eplaces horseradish and pieces of
celery stalk, rather than parsley, serve
as karpas, the green vegetable dipped
in vinegar, rather than salt water.
The traditional egg on the Italian
seder plate is rich brown in color,
because it has been roasted for hours
with onion skins, vinegar and saffron.
The seder meal begins with a primo
piatto (first course) of rice steamed
with vegetables, because in our
Sephardi or Mediterranean tradition,
rice as well as other kitniyot are
considered kosher for Pesach. Roasted
lamb is a must along with mina, a
layered lasagna-type meat, spinach
and matzah pie brought to Italy from
Spain by our crypto-Jewish ancestors.
Pesach anusim traditions begin with
the lighting of the memorial candle
in honor of our “forced ones,”
“Mina,” a layered lasagna-type meat,
spinach and matzah pie brought to Italy from
Spain by our crypto-Jewish ancestors
(Recipe at www.rabbibarbara.com/
recipies/passover-lasagna)
Russian painter Moshe Maimon’s most famous work,
“Marranos: Secret Seder,” 1892, depicts the Seder Hamashi.
followed by the candle blessing for
Shabbat and Yom Tov, sung in an
ancient Ladino melody. The seder
plate itself is actually a ke’arah, a
woven basket-type tray covered
with silk netting that makes a grand
entrance to the seder table after the
kindling of lights.
At the singing of Ha lachma anya, the
plate of matzah is passed shoulderto-shoulder
among the guests,
a symbol of the heavy burden of
slavery. A tin can placed at the head
of the table takes center stage for
the recitation of the Ten Plagues as
a splash of wine punctuates each
plague. When the can is filled, the
younger guests carry the can into a
far corner of the garden with the
admonition, “May our enemies
stay far from our door.”
Then it’s a rousing version of
Dayenu which features green
onions (scallions) that guests use
to tap each other, symbolizing the
sound of the whips used to beat the
Hebrew slaves.
For me, a bat anusim or “daughter of
the forced ones,” leading the Seder
Hamishi, a secret Passover tradition,
each year in Southern Italy is one of
the most emotional experiences of
my rabbinic career. As we read the
ancient blessings I recall my own
family’s history when my nonna
carried candles to the
cellar to kindle the
lights of Shabbat.
Now, as each Seder
Hamishi brings with
it the realization that
fear and prejudice
nearly extinguished our
heritage, this understanding
is coupled
with a deep sense
of gratitude to the
nameless Christians
whose courage helped
preserve the very traditions that I am
able to enjoy today.
This year in Calabria, we Jews who
were nearly robbed of our religion,
our culture and our heritage, bring
the light of Pesach out of the cantina
and into the hearts of our brothers
and sisters. The seder concludes with
the traditional wish, “Next year in
Jerusalem.” For me and my fellow
b’nai anusim whom I serve here in
the deep south of Italy, we add,
“Baruch HaShem, next year in
Calabria” too.
Rabbi Barbara Aiello
Rabbi Barbara Aiello
is the first and only
woman rabbi in
Italy. In addition she is the
first and only modern
liberal rabbi who lives and
works in Italy, where she
serves congregation Ner
Tamid del Sud, The Eternal Light of the
South, the first active synagogue in Calabria
in 500 years since Inquisition times. In 2017
the synagogue was recognized as a member
of the Reconstructionist Jewish movement
and is open and welcome to Jews of all
backgrounds, interfaith and non-traditional
families, patrilineal Jews and b’nai anusim
and crypto-Jewish Italians who are
discovering and embracing their
Jewish roots.
Rabbi Barbara is an internationally featured
lecturer who was invited to present her
work at the National Press Club in
Washington, DC, at the United Nations
special committee on religious pluralism
and as a scholar in residence for synagogues
and for Italian and Jewish organizations
throughout Europe and the US.
She is host of The Radio Rabbi program, a
weekly radio show featuring topics of Jewish
interest, good news from Israel, and new
and traditional Jewish music. The program is
in its 18th year and available each week as a
podcast. Contact Rabbi Barbara through her
website www.RabbiBarbara.com
40 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

carrying the torch
Erensya Summit, Seattle
The biennial Erensya conference,
this year May 27-31, brought
together Sephardic Jews from
different communities around
the globe.
Erensya is one way the Spanish
government works toward
maintaining ties with the Sephardic
world. It also provides a venue
for establishing relationships,
networking and celebrating a unique
“erensya,” or heritage.
Erensya, which means “heritage” in
Djudezmo is held every other year.
The first was in Sofia, Bulgaria, and
the second was in Istanbul, Turkey.
The third took place in Spring 2015 in
the Spanish cities of Madrid and Ávila
with more than 80 participants from
over 35 communities and institutions
participating.
The event aims to establish a bridge
between Spain and the Sephardic
Diaspora.
Coordinated by the Latin American
Sephardic Federation, the summit’s
more recent previous meetings took
place in Spain, Turkey and Bulgaria
and Mexico City
Maria Apodaca and Schelly Talalay
Dardashti represented Albuquerque,
New Mexico at the May summit and
talked about their activities.
This year’s event in Seattle,
Washington, was the first time
Erensya was held in North America.
The Seattle contact, Doreen Alhadeff,
is the first American to get Spanish
citizenship.
*****
• Immediately following Erensya,
Schelly attended the Southern
California Genealogy Jamboree 50th
anniversary conference, speaking
about Jewish DNA at DNA Day and
on Sephardic topics for main event.
• Schelly will also speak at Hispanic
Organization for Genealogy and
Research (HOGAR) in Dallas,
October 3-5.
KAVOD
on the
Road,
Denver
In February 2019, HaLapid editor
Corinne Brown spoke to Denver’s
“KAVOD on the Road,” a series
of lectures and presentations
designed for older adults, and
showcased around the city. Inspired
by an article in an earlier edition of
HaLapid written by Julia Hernandez
comparing Sukkot to Dios de Los
Muertos, or Day of the Dead, Corinne
showed the trailer for the recent
award-winning animated film “Coco”
Last November Schelly Talalay Dardashti
(left) and Maria Apodaca (right) attended
the Texas State Genealogical Society
Family History Conference. Both SCJS
and Casa Sefarad shared the cost
of this conference for Maria, a joint
collaboration. Both she and Schelly were
able to reach many people and several
Texans came to our table and were very
happy to learn that they had Jewish DNA.
They were a great success and are hoping
to continue this outreach.
“Day of the Dead” mask made by hosts
of Corinne Brown’s talk about Sukkot for
KAVOD in Denver
and explained in detail where the
comparisons lie. This was part of a
larger talk reviewing the wide range
of new ideas and works in print telling
the story of the Iberian expulsion,
the history of the hidden Jews of
Latin America, and the return of the
exiles, the anusim. A crowd of nearly
100 people took it all in and enjoyed
a glimpse into another culture. It was
a great opportunity to talk about the
upcoming Denver conference too!
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 41

carrying the torch
Resiliencia, Homage to the Jewish journey
in Spanish-speaking Countries
Hats off to “Resiliencia!
The Experience of Jewish
Communities in Spain and
the Americas.” The recent week-long
event in Albuquerque, New Mexico
highlighted the extraordinary journey
of the Jewish people in Spanishspeaking
countries, and focused in
part on the US Southwest.
Co-sponsored by the Instituto
Cervantes, CasaSefarad@Nahalat
Shalom, Festival Djudeo-Espanyol
and the National Hispanic Cultural
Center, the cultural festival was a full
week of film, music, food, exhibits
and lectures.
Highlights included an opening art
exhibition, “Women of Valor” by
New Mexico native and SCJS board
member, Natalie Trujillo Gonzalez;
a genetic DNA lecture focusing on
Sephardic research by Schelly Talalay
Dardashti, a variety of significant
roundtable talks and lectures, a
Sephardic concert by Cantor Beth
Cohen and Ensemble; a series of
outstanding films with Sephardic
themes (including the recent
“Challah Rising in the Desert”); a
second concert, “Juderias” by Lara
Bello with Ladino folksongs, and
much more.
Kudos to SCJS members Maria
Apodaca and Schelly Talalay
Dardashti who worked tirelessly
with Casa Sefard@Nahalat Shalom
executive director, Rabbi Jordi Gendra
Molina and with Instituto Cervantes
director and staff to help bring this
remarkable event to fruition.
The event took place in collaboration
with the Consulate of Mexico, the
Cultural Office of the Embassy of
Spain, Centro Sefarad-Israel (Spain),
Red de Juderias de Espana (Spain),
Disputacion of Lleida (Spain), Latin
American & Iberian Institute at the
University of New Mexico, Consulate
General of Israel (Houston), Jewish
Federation of New Mexico, ADL
Mountain States Region, New Mexico
Humanities Council, and Century
Automotive.
The Dancer
Painting by Natalie Trujillo Gonzalez
Florida Atlantic
University
On February 11, 2019,
SCJS member Chana
Cohen (left) attended
a lecture at FAU (Florida
Atlantic University) with
Devin E. Naar, professor at
Washington University Stroum
Center for Judaic Studies, and
author of “Jewish Salonica:
Between the Ottoman Empire
and Modern Greece.”
A word from one of our members...
“I have attended SCJS conferences in Phoenix, Miami, Santa Fe and Philadelphia. As a historical fiction novelist, I find each
event a great way to connect with academics and others who do research on topics of interest, especially Sephardim, their
countries of origin and the Diaspora after the Inquisition. It’s scholarly and fun! They always bring in great cultural
performers and musicians. I learn so much and have met so many wonderful people. I look forward to attending the
conference in Denver!” – Marcia Fine, author
42 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

Kulanu’s 25th
Anniversary,
Washington D.C.
February 15-17, 2019 Genie
Milgrom participated in the
25th anniversary celebration
of Kulanu, an organization that
supports emerging communities
around the world that are isolated
and who wish to learn more about
Judaism and reconnect with the
Jewish people.
The weekend retreat and
anniversary party was held at the
National Synagogue in Washington
D.C. and was hosted by Rabbi
Shmuel Herzfeld. Not only is the
rabbi the leader of this powerful
community, he is also writing a
sefer torah and gave each person an
opportunity to write it with him.
For Genie, it was a life-altering
moment. Rabbi Herzfeld takes
groups into communities in Latin
America and is very active with
communities around the world.
The Shabbat services were filled
with joy and Kulanu’s vice president
Bonita Sussman spoke about the
mission of the organization from
the bimah. Saturday night, Milgrom
gave a talk on her own history and
what she is personally doing on
behalf of the b’nai anusim, as well as
how Kulanu is extending their reach
far into isolated communities.
They also heard from Rabbi Capers
Funnye, the leader of the Ethiopian
Hebrew Congregation in Chicago,
and had the opportunity to see an
amazing movie about the return of
the Jews from Madagascar.
In all, it was a very inspirational
weekend.
among ourselves
Congratulations to Genie on her new cookbook
— in Spanish and English!
All the recipes
were handwritten
by the grandmothers
for
centuries and
handed down,
preserved over
time. Many
Sephardic and
crypto-Judaic recipes intrigue, such
as French toast shaped like pork
chops and covered with red peppers!
Each recipe was prepared and tested
by willing friends, working often with
unknown quantities like “a pinch of
this” or a “drizzle of that.” Some of
the recipes reflect Sephardic heritage
Cookbook/Jewish/Historical
GENIE MILGROM nació en una familia católica
cubana. En busca de sus ancestros y con gran
tenacidad, logró desenredar su historia familiar
hasta la época de la pre-Inquisición en España
y Portugal. En este recorrido ella fue capaz de
encontrar una rica herencia judía que se reveló
como un colorido tapiz compuesto de secretos
de una familia que se ocultaba y pretendía ser
católica, mientras practicaban su religión
judía de forma escondida.
Al investigar profundamente en los archivos
de España, Portugal, Colombia, Islas Canarias,
Costa Rica y Cuba, Genie Milgrom logró seguir
los pasos que su familia había realizado. Pero la
totalidad de la historia no estaba en los archivos,
sino que permanecía oculta en cajas y maletas en
la casa de sus padres. Allí Genie encontró pequeños
fragmentos de borrosas notas escritas a mano.
Sus abuelas habían copiado las recetas y la historia
de la cultura familiar en esas noticas que sus
abuelas y después su mamá habían transportado
de país a país con cada una de sus migraciones.
Lo que resulta más interesante es que en estas
recetas vemos cómo las abuelas acostumbraban
a ocultar el hecho de que estaban manteniendo
las leyes alimenticias judías, mientras
pretendían ser católicas.
GENIE MILGROM
LAS RECETAS DE MIS 15 ABUELAS GENIE MILGROM
de mís
Abuelas
L A S R E C E T A S
Genie Milgrom honored
On March 24, 2019, Young Israel
of Kendall, Florida honored Genie
Milgrom at their annual Tribute
Dinner, “Me’Chayil el Chayil - from
Strength to Strength.” Young Israel
has been more than just a spiritual
home for Genie and husband Mike
for over 25 years. It provides a
nurturing environment and created
a springboard for achieving Genie’s
global success in helping others in
their quest for a dignified return to
their proud Jewish heritage.
Thank You, SCJS!
Thank you all so much for the beautiful
ad in the [Kendall] Journal. It has been
a whirlwind for me and it seems that I
finally have been truly able to put the
crypto-Jewish word out on the world
stage. Thank you! Thank you!
— Genie and Mike
such as Bollo Maimon
for Maimonides,
the Spanish rabbi.
The recipes follow
the family to the New
World and include the
grandmothers’ recipes
from Costa Rica, Canary
Islands and Cuba.
Testers advised some recipe corrections
to make all recipes easy to prepare in
today’s kitchens.
Available at www.GenieMilgrom.com
and www.amazon.com.
Kudos to Matthew
Warshawsky!
Matthew Warshawsky PhD,
former SCJS president,
is now in his fourth
year as department chair at
the University of Portland.
(Congratulations are better
late than never. Matthew is
currently in his second three-year
term.) Also, in 2018, Matthew
received a promotion from
associate to full professor.
HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780 43

THE SOCIETY FOR CRYPTO-JUDAIC STUDIES
VOL. XLIII / XLIV • AUTUMN / WINTER 2018 / 5779 • ISSUES 23 & 24
SOCIETY FOR
STUDIES
THE SOCIETY FOR CRYPTO-JUDAIC STUDIES
VOL. XLI / XLII • WINTER / SPRINg 2017-18 / 5778-79 • ISSUES 21 & 22
SOCIETY FOR
STUDIES
Welcome to Our
Newest Members
SCJS extends a warm welcome to our new
Canadian members, with thanks to
Yaacov Gladstone.
We are delighted to meet you!
Thanks for your support.
Order Back Issues of HaLapid
Own beautiful back issues of HaLapid! If you’re a new member and
would like to see what you’ve missed, we still have copies of some
issues from the past five years (in the current format) and would be
happy to send them.
$9 each or four different issues for $30, plus shipping.
Email the editor (corinnejb@aol.com) with your request
and address. Payment instructions will be sent to you.
Freda B., Toronto
Sendor D., Toronto
Ilan E., Ottowa
Rose G., Toronto
Sophie K., Toronto
David S., Montreal
Leila S., Toronto
SCJS
cryptojews.com
CRYPTO-JUDAIC
Autumn/Winter 2018
SCJS
cryptojews.com
CRYPTO-JUDAIC
Winter/Spring 2017-18
Spring/Summer 2017
Autumn/Winter 2016
Spring/Summer 2016
Autumn/Winter 2015
Yaacov Gladstone and friends in Portugal c. 1990
Spring/Summer 2015
Autumn/Winter 2014
Spring/Summer 2014
Book Reviews (cont.)
The Weight of Ink
continued from page 34
Helen Watt, the crusty British historian
determined to be the first to publish the
discovery of the female scribe, Aleph. As
both stories, past and present, unfold,
Kadish demonstrates that times change,
but that important questions do not;
they are fixed, like stars, and require
personal navigation.
Although The Weight of Ink may be falsely
considered a “woman’s book” because
the protagonists are female, the greater
issues of faith, the search for identity
and truth, the question of martyrdom or
survival, and the nature of the Divine
are universal. These themes evolve
along with the lines of the story.
The personal navigation of the
characters between their time and their
choices guides us through the questions
of those choices and the sacrifices they
must make to be true to the nature of
their hearts and minds. Bypassing the
herem of Baruch de Spinoza and skirting
the dangers of heresy while living
outside the Jewish community and
within the logic of one’s own mind (the
Scylla and Charybdis of faith), they
circumvent the siren call of martyrdom
by questioning why survival is
considered cowardice, when that
impulse is the heartbeat of all that lives.
Kadish asks the question: “Do you
wonder, ever, whether our own will
alters anything? Or whether we’re
determined to be as we are by the very
workings of the world?”
Rachel Kadish is an American writer of
fiction and non-fiction. Her fiction has
won many awards including the
National Jewish Book Award and the
Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction
Award. She has also received fellowships
from the National Endowment of the
Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural
Council. She teaches in Lesley
University’s MFA Program in Creative
Writing and is currently involved in New
Voices, a project using the arts to work
for tolerance. — Gail Gutierrez
Mercedes Gail Gutierrez is a visual artist whose
works explore the questions of identity and place.
She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and
awards including a Fullbright-Hays fellowship to
Spain, and numerous California Arts Council
residencies. After living in Israel, she currently
resides in Davis, California.
44 HaLapid - SPRING / SUMMER 2019 / 5780

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Our first conference, held near Taos, New Mexico in 1991,
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