The tragic events which befell the Jews of Spain and Portugal 500 years ago were commemorated in March in Deerfield Park Florida using poetry ladino songs and conversations with scholars I organized the event feeling there should be a day to recall these tragic events for Jews who know almost nothing about this period of [...]

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 himA few days later the three of us met for breakfast at a waterfront café in Redondo Beach And this [...]

Since 1995 I have led Jewish heritage cruises throughout the Caribbean Participants most often come with the traditions of Eastern and Central European Jewry We sail past some of the thirty plus inhabited islands of the Caribbean forming a graceful and lush archipelago (together with others sparsely inhabited) beginning with Cuba ninety miles south of [...]

Originally published in Spanish "Cómo descubrá­ la sinagoga de Coria" in Tarbut Sefarad asociación cultural March 2011 wwwtarbutsefaradcom/indexphp/es/articulos0/4291comodescubrilasinagogadecoriahtml I am a businessman with a doctorate in business ethics I teach courses in various universities and I have published academic as well as literary works However I am not an archeologist an historian or a medium The following story [...]

In 1391 massive antiJewish pogroms spread across Spain Thousands of Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism Over the next century there were many more forced conversions until in March of 1492 the Catholic Kings Ferdinand and Isabella issued the infamous Alhambra Decree ordering all Jews in Spain to convert or leave the country by August [...]

First Annual International Conference Society for Sefardic Studies Jerusalem January 911 2011  The first annual international conference of Sefarad the Society for Sefardic Studies was held this past January 911 2011 in Jerusalem Founded in 2009 by Yom Tov Assis its current chairman Sefarad is affiliated with the BenZvi Institute and is administered through the [...]

Some years ago I was working on a series of paintings rooted in the  more recent history of urban life in New Mexico I used calaveras (skulls) as a metaphor for times past as I drew on stories from friends and relatives about places and situations the stuff of familial legend (see insert) At that [...]

Review of Literature For almost three decades the story of the descendants of Jewish conversos or cryptoJews of the American Southwest has been big news in the popular press Everyone from the New York Times to Hadassah Magazine to the Forward has had a go at it on more than one occasion Over the years [...]