A Couple’s Odyssey Too much of Daniel Ramos" childhood revolved around the church His mother Elizabeth Garcia Ramos a minister’s daughter who became a minister’s wife and his father Ismael spent a lot of time on his ministry and as a result so did their family Daniel the youngest of five siblings was never at [...]

INKIZISION I KRIPTODJUDAIZMO EN CANARIAS SIGLOS XVIIXVIII reprinted by permission from Aki Yerushamayim (Translated from Ladino by Michele Greene) The reestablishment of Crypto Judaism in the Canary Islands dates from the first quarter of the Seventeenth Century The peace achieved in 1604 between Spain and England greatly increased the trade of sugar and wine from the [...]

Considering the diverse origins of the Israelites the large numbers of conversions into and out of the Jewish community and major disasters which have befallen Jewish communities throughout history what is the genetic composition of Jewish communities today? In the days before genetic testing the famous Jewish anthropologist Raphael Patai used cephalic indexes and blood [...]

The Jewish Publication Society Philadelphia 2003 Reviewed by DOLORES SLOAN In presenting the background and biographies of Jewish women for more than 2000 years the authors of this comprehensive sourcebook have undertaken to correct the picture usually presented in works of history Their final product The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 BCE1900 can be [...]

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (15471616) had led a colorful life long before he became the author of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (published in two parts in 1605 and 1615) He fought against the Ottoman Turks in the victorious battle of Lepanto (1571) where he lost the use of his left hand or arm (therefore [...]

Land of the Hebrew Golden Age In 1492 Jews in the Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were given a stark choice: baptism or departure from a land where they had dwelt since the days when their ancestors had called it Sepharad While Fernando of Aragon and Isabel of Castile are rightfully held accountable for [...]

A CryptoJew’s Story Having spent my early years in Panama my family and I belonged to the Catholic Church and I had no idea that we were Jews As a youth I was even an altar boy and helped in the preparation of the wine for the priest Back in the 1950s and 1960s virtually [...]

New York: Ballantine Books 2001 371 pages Reviewed by Abe Lavender Days of Awe a novel is the story of a cryptoJewish family in Cuba and the United States The protagonist is Alexandra "Ale" San José who was born in Havana on January 1 1959 the same day that Fidel Castro began his dictatorship To [...]

In 1998 a friend of Walter’s showed him a flyer from SCJS announcing our upcoming conference in El Paso Walter thought "This is right up my alley" Walter then contacted his friend about attending the conference The friend’s medical practice precluded him from attending but Walter decided that he would go "I had a wonderful [...]

As part of the SCJS conference held in San Diego last August we conducted a walking tour of Jewish Old Town San Diego The tour which included both Ohr Shalom Synagogue members and conference attendees started at Old Temple Beth Israel Completed in 1889 it is one of the oldest existing synagogue structures in the American [...]