I was speaking to a new member of my havurah. I happened to mention my interest in crypto Jews. He said, “My landlord is a crypt Jew.” I said that I would like to meet him.

A few days later the three of us met for breakfast at a waterfront café in Redondo Beach. And this was the beginning of a close friendship between Flavio Montoya and me.

Flavio soon became an active member of my havurah and, when he learned of my interest in crypto Jews, he became a member of the SCJS also. He eventually served as secretary of the society.

We always called him Flavio but he was known as Floyd on his official documents. He was completely by-lingual or maybe even quadra-lingual as he spoke French and Italian almost as well has Spanish and English. He worked as a translator with Immigration at the Los Angeles International Airport. His office was near the El Al counter where he once was startled by the sound of gun fire. He looked out to discover that a gunman had fired at the El Al center, killing a bystander.

Flavio was from New Mexico. He grew up in a family that was Hispanic and Catholic. But, his family also had some odd practices that he later found out to be indicative of a crypto Jewish background.

He once described to me how, about a week before Christmas, his father would place nine luminarias on the roof of their house. Luminarias or farolitos are small paper bags, half filled with sand, with a lit candle in them. They are a tradition in New Mexico in the Christmas season where they can be seen glowing in front of houses. Some speculate that they evolved from secret observances of Hanukkah by the crypto Jews. The fact that his father always lit exactly nine of them indicated to Flavio that they were definitely of Jewish origin.

Flavio identified completely with the Jewish people. He learned Ladino. He often attended services in a nearby Chabad center. He learned traditional Sephardic recipes and prepared them for our havurah events. He once showed me how to cheat in the making of Hanukkah bormuelos. He bought some frozen muffin dough and instead of baking the muffins he deep fried them. They weren’t as fluffy as the bormuelos that I grew up with, but they weren’t bad.

He suffered from diabetes, as his condition worsened, he began dialysis. Several times he was hospitalized. Despite his condition, he kept a happy spirit. On Sunday, August 28, I visited him in the hospital. He was weak, but he managed to smile and we joked together. The next day we lost him. We will miss him.