Crypto-Judaic Studies
Festival Djudeo-Espanyol 2010
March 19, 2010
Friday, March 19th - Saturday, March 20th, celebrate the Crypto-Jewish legacy of New Mexico with Shabbat services and guest speakers at Congregation Nahalat Shalom in Albuquerque.
6th Annual Sephardic Anousim Conference
July 31, 2009
The weekend of Friday, July 31st through Sunday, August 2nd, guests traveled from near and far to El Paso, Texas for the 6th Annual Sephardic Anousim Conference at Congregation B'nai Zion.
Honor Anousim on Tisha B'Av
June 1, 2009
Kulanu Blog
by Karen Primack
Kulanu Newsletter, Summer 2009, p.1
Next December Rabbi Stephen Leon will introduce a Resolution at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism biennial convention to honor the victims of the Spanish Inquisition on Tisha B’Av. (This is a solemn fast day that mourns the destruction of the First and Second Temples on the ninth day of the month of Av.) Leon’s Resolution, which would apply to Conservative congregations, would also honor Bnai Anousim who have returned to Judaism.
Kulanu: All of Us
June 1, 2009
Kulanu ("All of Us" in Hebrew), founded in 1994, is a non-profit organization which helps isolated Jewish communities around the world, many of whom have long been disconnected from the worldwide Jewish community.
Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies
June 1, 2009
The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies was founded in 1991 in order to foster research and networking of information into the historical and contemporary development of crypto Jews of Iberian origin. Membership is open to anyone who is interested in this fascinating area.
The Secret Jews of the Southwest
May 18, 2009
EL PASO, Texas (JTA) -- Three strange things happened to Rabbi Stephen Leon the first week he moved here in 1986 to lead Congregation B'nai Zion, the Conservative synagogue in this border city.
The visitor made a most unusual request...How the Crypto Jews of El Paso Transformed My Work
March 1, 2007
I will never forget her wrinkled, glistening elderly eyes. It was a beautiful spring day in 2001 and my secretary informed me that there were three people who had just rushed into the Synagogue and insisted on seeing me immediately.
El Paso and Ruidoso: Centers of Learning for Anousim
January 1, 2007
As I was called to an aliyah at El Paso's B'nai Zion synagogue, Rabbi Stephen Leon stepped back from the bimah. His place was taken by a New Mexican grandmother, Lupe Ramos. She proceeded to chant the parashah with skill and confidence. Lupe Ramos is one of a group in America's Southwest known as Anousim, Hebrew for “the forced ones.” She is a descendant of Spanish and Portuguese Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th and 16th centuries. After more than five centuries, she and others like her have returned to Judaism.
Anousim Conference Meets in El Paso
September 1, 2005
Just two weeks after SCJS held its annual conference in Miami Beach, a similar conference convened in El Paso, TX, August 19-21. Titled “The Sephardic Anousim Conference,” it was hosted by local Congregation B’nai Zion.