Dr. Robert Saunders, student rabbi at Pueblo’s Temple Emanuel, claims that as many as ten percent of Hispanic Catholics in Southern Colorado may actually be Jewish. “In the past year, seven or eight Latinos in Pueblo have discovered their Jewish heritage and joined Temple Emanuel. Once you are a Jew, you cannot notbe a Jew. But, we must re-educate our brothers regarding the Jewish life, the Jewish calendar, spiritual ethics and common dynamics. The process [for conversion] is the same for crypto-Jews as it is for other proselytes.”
Nevertheless, Jewish leaders are divided on what to do about those who believe they are crypto-Jews. Orthodox Jews adhere to the belief that those who have not practiced Judaism and cannot prove their Jewish heritage should convert by traditional methods. Other congregations are less strict and believe crypto-Jews should be welcomed back in as simple a manner as possible.
To Saunders, all Southern Colorado Hispanics are potential Jewish brothers and sisters. Saunders’ agenda is “to educate the community and provide a permissive atmosphere for people to explore their roots in a safe environment.” He believes his crypto-Jewish brothers and sisters deserve special consideration. He calls his mission “Outreach without Battering.”
In his search for his new Jewish identity, Atlas-Acuña also contacted Stanley Hordes, a professor at the University of New Mexico and former New Mexico state historian who says that he had many visits in the mid-1980s from people who told him of secret customs: “Some people have come into my office and poured their hearts out to me, telling me what they know. Then they leave my office and I never hear from them again and never find them.”
Crypto-Jews also told Hordes that they would deny what they said if he ever disclosed it. He believes that fear of discrimination and potential problems with family members, in addition to the generations of secrecy, are at the root of this caution.
“There’s a lot of denial among some of the people,” Hordes says. “But if you are secure about who you are, the knowledge about the past is easier to accept.”
Hordes received a Fulbright-Hays fellowship for his doctoral dissertation on the Inquisition in Mexico. He examined archives there and in Spain and found the details of alleged Mosaic rites, as well as surnames of accused crypto-Jewish families. Many New Mexicans who came to Hordes came for assistance in locating family records. The archives Hordes had accumulated contained baptismal, burial and marriage documents in addition to Inquisitional judicial records and documents. In addition, Hordes helped these visitors search area land-grant records.
In 1985, Hordes left the position of state historian and started his own consulting service. He also spent increased time researching crypto-Jews and subsequently established the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies. Part of the purpose for the Society was to assist those who felt they were crypto-Jews to research their personal history.
Authors Barbara Ferry and Debbie Nathan, for the December 2000 issue of Atlantic Monthly, using leads from Hordes, researched the personal history of several crypto-Jews and reports that by the early 1990s, dozens of Latinos from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas were sharing tales at conferences and in Internet forums of a Jewish past. They described childhood memories of eating unleavened flatbread in the spring, of playing with small tops that resemble the dreidels associated with Hanukkah, and of mothers and grandmothers calling out from deathbeds, “Children, we are really Israelites.”
One of the New Mexico participants introduced to Ferry and Nathan by Hordes was Isabelle Medina Sandoval. Isabelle was born in the Mora Valley in New Mexico and grew up in an impoverished neighborhood in Laramie, Wyoming. As a child, someone told Isabelle, before she knew what the word meant, that she looked Sephardic. Sandoval says she always felt different from both Anglos and Hispanics and she wondered about her true origins. On a visit to New Mexico, her grandfather confirmed that the family had no Native American blood: “We are Spaniards!” he insisted. When she heard a talk by Stanley Hordes, she felt she understood her grandfather’s statement.
As she reflected on Horde’s descriptions of customs and gravestone markings, she developed a theory as to why her family avoided Catholic mass and paid no homage to Catholic saints. She remembered the wine with a picture on the label of “people sitting around a table with funny little hats” that her family drank. They told her it was because it was “clean.” After hearing about crypto-Jews, she surmised “clean” meant “kosher.” Before long Isabelle became very involved with the crypto-Jewish community and was leading support groups, writing poetry and appearing at crypto-Judaic conferences.
