HaLapid-Spring Summer 2019

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