My Family History

Pedro Gonzalez de Paredes was born in Amusco Valencia sometime around 1560 His family was from Paredes (de Nava) which is not far from Amusco In Paredes there was a thriving Sephardic community which at one time had a rabbi from Germany (This is reported by Yitzak Baer) The Gonzalez family was a member of [...]

Gomez Peiera

Next year it will be the fifth Centenary of Gomez Pereira’s birth This physician and philosopher was born in Spain in 1500 studied at Salamanca University and practiced in his home town of Medina del Campo He was Physician to the Spanish Royal Court Pereira wrote two books: Antoniana Margarita (1554) a philosophical work in [...]

A Drizzle of Honey

David Gitlitz’s new book with coauthor and wife Linda Kay Davidson is A Drizzle of Honey: the Lives and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews Suggested price is $2995 discounted to $2695 Published by St Martin’s Press When he was at the Summer 1997 Denver conference of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies Gitlitz said he [...]

Card Playing to Hide Jewish Identity

In his presentation to the 1999 SCJS Conference in Los Angeles Seth Ward told of a woman from Northern New Mexico whom he had interviewed She was describing the Crypto Jewish practices of her family and told about playing cards every September with her Grandmother Playing cards was an annual ritual of the family that [...]

Ferrara: Spiritual Haven for Conversos in the Early Renaissance

During the sixteenth century reigns of Alfonso and Ercole of the House of Este the Duchy of Ferrara became known as a spiritual haven and a safe place for Sephardic Jews and conversos Those who had been forcibly converted to Catholicism could return to the faith of their ancestors and all could practice Judaism again [...]

Discovering My Jewish Heritage

(On August 24 1998 I was in Lima Peru to witness the return of Felipe Natal to Judaism Here is Felipe’s story Arthur LBenveniste (translated from Spanish) My interest in converting to Judaism and joining with the people of Israel began seven years ago I remember that between the years 1990 and 1991 certain happenings [...]

Another Look At Solomon Halevy/Pablo de Santa Maria

I enjoyed reading Judith Gale Krieger’s article title "Pablo de Santa Maria ’The Purim Letter’ and ’Siete edades del Mundo’" (Halapid Spring 1998) I was impressed especially by how she contrasted the rich and lively quality of his "Purim Letter" which he composed while he was Rabbi Solomon Halevy to the dry and detached impression [...]