More than a decade ago I set out to write an article about the "secret Jews" of the South West on assignment from The New York Times I had been warned by Dr Stanley Hordes it would not be easy to interview these descendents of Spanish and Portuguese families who fled from the Inquisition 500 years [...]

Given At The 2002 Conference of The Society For Crypto Judaic Studies In San Diego My paper this morning will be divided into five sections I will first examine existing rabbinic responsa Second I will turn to elements of the laws of conversion as they affect the anusim Third I will examine two status [...]

Presentation of Steve Gomes at the Conference of the SCJS San Diego August 2002 Shalom Today marks the celebration of my first Rosh Hashanah as a Jew! When I entered the mikveh or ritual bath at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles before a Beit Din or rabbinical court it was the single defining [...]

Portuguese Jewish Heritage Conference Tour: Those who gathered on June 9 in Lisbon were taking part in something very new and at the same time very old Without the modern phenomena known as cyberspace and the Saudades website this probably could not have taken place at all or at least been delayed many years and [...]

Descendants of Spanish Jews in South Texas? Yes we’re there and we still use some Spanish Jewish words (Ladino) all the time! First I’ll discuss research on the Cadena Jewish genealogy then my most recent Sephardic traditions discoveries and hidden Jewish practices among some family members Next I’ll describe related events in the PostAmerican Civil War [...]

St Vicente Ferrer (13501419) was a Dominican preacher (Orden de Predicadores) from Valencia Spain who played a critical role during the events of the late 1300’s and early 1400’s that led to the forced conversions of thousands of Jews and the massacres of others When Ferrer was forty years old he launched a campaign against Judaism [...]

Over the past couple of decades this music has enjoyed a timely and muchdeserved renaissance But there is a good deal of confusion about what it is called how old it is who sings it and how it should be sung For Halapid readers here is a general outline to try to clear this up The [...]

The Talmud has a saying about how someone who saves a life saves the world I feel the same way about the Jewish souls who were lost in the Iberian Peninsula to conversion and death Those Jewish souls who were lost became lost Jewish worlds I’m trying to bring some of them back I want [...]

Debbie Nathan is the coauthor of Satan’s Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt which makes her a practiced writer of exposes Apparently one expose wasn’t enough and she needed another She was able to convince Barbara Ferry to lend her investigative reporting a needed cachet with readers since Barbara a [...]

Today Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik will be buried here on the mount of Olives where his wife Rabbanit Ella was interned not long ago Rabbi Soloveichik was the man who opened the door for anusim to return His letter was what generated everything that followed He was a man who feared no other man but God alone [...]