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It is certainly no surprise to discover Jewish exotica when traveling to hidden recesses of the classical European or North African world.  A stroll through an antique market or peeking around an old shu’s basement can result in the discovery of some fantastic artifacts of a distant past.  It is amazing indeed however to uncover a long lost Jewish community, one with a 500 year history, in your own backyard, on the Texas - Mexico border!
 
At the height of the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th Century large numbers of Jews were tortured, burnt at the stake or were exiled for their faith.  That was the end of what was termed The Golden Age of Spanish Jewry, which was marked by great personalities, scholars, literature and art.  This was a period of freedom and learning unlike any other in the history of the Jewish Diaspora.  In the dark period of persecution that followed, vast numbers of Jews chose to live outwardly as Catholics but behind closed doors secretly observed many Jewish rituals.  They became known as Moranos, Conversos, Cryprto Jews or Anusim (Forced) in Hebrew.  Large groups of them fled Spain and Portugal in search of  more tolerant regimes.  They mostly went to Northern Africa and eastward to the welcoming Turkish Empire and Balkans.  This writer met many of their descendants in Bulgaria last year.
 
Some cast off their Catholic identity when they left the Iberian Peninsula and others kept up the outward Christian behaviors.  Many of those ultimately totally assimilated and their descendents can no longer be identified by usual means.  Recently a community of Anusim descendants was discovered in Colorado and New Mexico through the unusually high occurrence of the BRACA 1 genetic marker for breast cancer.  This genetic defect is found primarily in Jewish woman.
 
Remarkably some Anusim while loosing their Jewish identity over the centuries, still maintained some Jewish observances despite viewing themselves as Christians.  In fact, some do not even recognize their Jewish roots but know that their family has observed certain unusual customs that were actively passed from one generation to the next.  To this day, many light Shabbat candles in closets in basements and attics due to a forgotten past when to do so openly meant death at the hands of the inquisitor if they were to be discovered.  Others reserve a special knife for a quasi kosher slaughter and practice uniquely Jewish customs such as baking a flat bread around the time of Passover.
 
Today there is a 300 member community of Anusim living in Northern Mexico.  Their ancestors escaped Spain to Argentina and continued to be persecuted.  They then settled in Honduras and ultimately found safe haven in Northern Mexico.  History books show that the first explorers of New Mexico were indeed Anusim that were trying to put distance between their families and the long arm of the inquisition situated in Mexico City. 
 
Recently a number of members of this community decided to fully return to the Jewish fold.
 
In as much as their lineage cannot be verified through the span of five centuries full conversions had to be performed.  The lengthy process was done under the aegis of Dallas Rabbi Binyamin Terenyo with the participation Rabbi Elyahu Ben Chaim of New York. Rabbi Terenyo has been in Dallas for a decade and has devoted himself to reaching out to the many expatriate Israelis there.  The final step in the conversion process for the men was a bris.  Local mohalim Rabbi Michael Rovinsky and Dr. Ethan Schuman were contacted and volunteered their time and talents to perform this great mitzvah.
 
The surgical procedures were performed in the offices of the well known Dallas pediatrician and mohel Dr. Shelley Weiss.  The patients and their extended families came to the office to savor the moment.  There was great joy and hearty “mazel tovs” as each patient completed the procedure.  Dr. Weiss commented that “it is rare to find such courage and joy combined in a single moment”.  Some said they had been waiting 20 years for this moment.  As the tears and l’chayims flowed there was discussion of the tens of thousands or perhaps the hundreds of thousands of Jewish descendents of the original Spanish immigrants to the New World who have been lost to us through the mists of time.
 
After the procedures were completed everyone returned to Rabbi Terenyo’s house/congregation where the celebrations continued.  Prayers were sung, le’cyaims were consumed and everyone danced in honor of the new Jews- even the patients!
 
Rabbi Rovinsky was particularly moved to comment that “although I have performed hundreds of adult circumcisions, there was something unique, almost magical, at these converts.  The intense simcha (joy) that radiated from these men was almost blinding.  How they sang ancient Ladino and Spanish songs that were passed down from their ancestors as we performed the britot sent shivers down my spine.  As Jews were being burned at the stake in 1492, could they have possibly imagined that the embers from the flames that consumed them would find a place deep in the souls of their descendants 500 years later.  A spark that would survive the inquisition, progroms, and holocaust, to one day explode from a mere pintele yid to a raging fire of commitment to Torah and mitzvos.”“”
 
After the procedures were completed everyone returned to Rabbi Terenyo’s house/congregation where the celebrations continued. Prayers were sung, L’chaims were consumed and everyone danced in honor of the new Jews- even the patients!
 
Dr. Ethan J. Schuman is a Baltimore Talmudical Academy graduate, cosmetic dentist, watchmaker, mohel, schochet, Cantor of Nusach Hari Cong in St.Louis, Mo. and travels the world in pursuit of Jewish adventure and tradition.

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