Syllabus Crypto J

THE WORLD OF HIDDEN JEWS

JWST/ANTH 4050-001

Spring 2012

Carlos Zarur

Crypto Jews, Marranos, Conversos, Anusim, and New Christians

The Jews in Spain and Portugal lived in relative peace under the Islamic Caliphs, during the

era known as the Golden Age, and what Americo Castro called Convivencia, until the

Catholic Reconquista.

In 1492 the Catholics Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, signed the edict of expulsion of the

Jews from all their kingdoms. Those who did not convert to Catholicism were expelled from

Spain. Approximately a third of the Jewish population that stayed converted to Catholicism

either of their own free will or by force. Five years later, in 1497, the same situation

happened in Portugal with the difference that there, they were not allowed to leave and

were forced to convert. The Era of Spanish and Portuguese Jewries in Iberian lands ended

and a new chapter in Jewish history was born. The newly converted Jews continued to

practice Judaism in secret while professing their Catholic faith openly, the Spaniards

referred to these ―converts‖ as New Christians, Conversos or Marranos. The Marrano,

Crypto-Jewish phenomenon started in Spain and Portugal, reaching as far the American

Continent, and persists to this day as a Sub-Culture, re-emerging in our days, creating one

of the most polemic and actual chapters in modern Judaism.

The main goal of this course using the lens of anthropological inquiry is to explore, discover

and analyze the World of the Crypto (Secret) Jews. We will then analyze their customs,

religious practices, languages, ethnic and regional subdivisions, occupations, social

composition, and folklore, taking into account the construction of a new identity of the

distinct groups during different periods of time. Then we will ask some fundamental

questions about the definition of Jewish identity, practices, and community.

Assignments: You are required to read assigned materials, bring the text books to the

classroom and be prepared to discuss readings in class. Lap-Tops allowed to take notes, not

for Social Networks.

Evaluation/Requirements:

-Class attendance and participation/Havruta 30%

-Midterm paper:5 page of a detailed analysis of Historical period 30%

-Research/Final paper: 10 page paper of a theme of their choice 40%

There will not be a mid-term or final exam.

Historical Overview

01/18/2012

a. Introduction of the Origins of Sepharad, what is Sepharad, Sepharadim and

what is not.

Readings: Jane Gerber's book ―The Jews of Spain‖, pages IX to XXV

01/20/2012

a. The early Christian period

b. Different Jewish groups.

Readings: Jane Gerber's book ―The Jews of Spain‖, pages 2-26

01/23/2012

a. Muslim period and the Sephardic Sages, The Golden Age


Historical Overview II

01/25/2012

Video ―Out of Spain‖ The Golden Age (part one)


01/27/2012

Video ―Out of Spain‖ The Golden Age (part two)


01/30/2012

a. Under the Catholic Reconquista, Sephardic Jewish Identity

b. What is a New Christian, Converso, Crypto-Jew, Marrano, and Anusim

Readings: Jane Gerber's book ―The Jews of Spain‖, pages 92-114.

Historical Overview III

02/01/2012

a. Brief introduction to the Spanish Expulsion, Conversion, Inquisition and the birth of

Secret (Crypto) Judaism


02/03/2012

a. Brief introduction to the Spanish Expulsion, Conversion, Inquisition and the birth of

Secret (Crypto) Judaism II

Readings: David Gitlitz book, ―Secrecy and Deceit‖, pages 3 to 27

02/06/2012

a. Brief introduction to the Portuguese Expulsion, Conversion, Inquisition and Secret

Judaism

b. Inquisition, the Sephardic Holocaust


Historical Overview IV

02/08/2012

a. The Sephardic Diaspora and the three branches of Sephardic Jews

b. North Africa, Greece, Bulgaria, The Balkans and Turkey, welcoming the Marranos with

open arms

Readings: Jane Gerber's book ―The Jews of Spain‖, pages 146 to 175

02/10/2012

a. Amsterdam and London, Returning to Judaism and founding new communities, a new

civilization under protestant rulers and open societies, and the reconstruction of the

Sephardic identity

b. The Spanish & Portuguese Sages and one heretic in Holland, Menasshe Ben Israel, Aboab

da Fonseca and Spinoza

Readings: Miriam Bodian‘s book ―Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation‖ pag. 25 to 52

02/13/2012

a. Amsterdam II

Readings: Miriam Bodian‘s book ―Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation‖ pag. 96 to 131

02/15/2012

a. The Spanish & Portuguese Jews (Ex-Marranos) in France, Italy, Belgium and Germany

Readings: Jane Gerber's book ―The Jews of Spain‖, pages 178-211 and Bodian‘s book

―Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation‖ pag. 1 to 24

02/17/2012

a. Doña Gracia Nasi, La Señora

b. Reaching the New World as Spanish & Portuguese Jews: Dutch Brazil and the Caribbean

Readings: Jane Gerber's book ―The Jews of Spain‖. Starting at the bottom of page 179-

181 and pages 205 -211

Historical Overview VI

02/20/2012

a. Reaching the New World as Spanish & Portuguese Jews: Dutch Brazil and the Caribbean

II

b. Shearit Israel, the first Jewish Community in United States, a Spanish & Portuguese

congregation

Readings: Bodian‘s book ―Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation‖ pag. 132 to 161

02/22/2012

a. The Portuguese Liturgy in New York

b. The Touro Synagogue in Newport, the oldest Synagogue in United States and her Crypto-

Jewish Background

Cultures of Crypto Jews

The Cultures of Crypto Jews I

02/24/2012

Midterm Due

a. The Crypto-Judaism in Spain and Portugal, their customs, religious practices and

traditions, the Amalgam of Catholicism and Judaism, and a new identity in the Spanish and

Portuguese Societies

b. The languages of Crypto-Jews and their relation with the Judeo-Spanish dialects (Ladino,

Djudezmo, Haketyia)


02/27/2012

Video ―Out of Spain‖ The Portuguese Marranos I-a


02/29/2012

Video ―Out of Spain‖ The Portuguese Marranos I-b


03/02/2012

Video ―Out of Spain‖ The Portuguese Marranos II-a


03/05/2012

Video ―Out of Spain‖ The Portuguese Marranos II-b


The Cultures of Crypto Jews II

03/07/2012

a. Re-discovering the Portuguese Marranos

b. Gender among the Crypto-Jews, As Resadeiras, Women Rabbis? The transmission of the

religion

Readings: David Gitlitz book ― Secrecy and Deceit‖ pages: 44 - 53

03/09/2012

a. Belmonte, Tomar and Trás os Montes (activity class)

b. Barros Basto, the Marrano Apostle and the resurrection of Judaism in Portugal (activity

class)

Readings: David Gitlitz book ―Secrecy and Deceit‖ pages: 80 – 82

03/12/2012

Video ―The Last Marranos‖ first part


03/14/2012

Video ―The Last Marranos‖ second part


The Cultures of Crypto Jews III

03/16/2012

a. The Marranos of ―Andalusia‖, Seville the oldest practicing Crypto-Jews in Spain

b. Hervas and Catalayud the ―Jewish towns‖ in modern Spain

c. Chuetas, a living community in Mallorca

Readings: David Gitlitz book, ―Secrecy and Deceit‖, pages 217 to 235 and 45 to 47.

03/19/2012

Video ―Out of Spain‖ The Chuetas of Majorca, first part

Readings: David Gitlitz' Book ―Secrecy and Deceit‖ pages 243 to 262

03/21/2012

Video ―Out of Spain‖ The Chuetas of Majorca, second part


The Cultures of Crypto Jews IV

03/23/2012

a. Mexico, The mestizaje with another cultures and the encounter with European Jews, their

practices and identity as part of the Hispanic Civilization

b. Tlaltelolco, Taxco, Venta Prieta, Veracruz, Los Altos, Monterrey, Saltillo, Merida, Pueblo,

Alburquerque and Santa Fe, What these Mexican and American cities have in common?

Readings: Seth Kunin Book, ―Juggling Identities‖ pag. 1 to 21

SPRING BREAK March 26th to March 30th

04/02/2012

a. Crypto-Jewish customs in Mexico

b. Monterrey and the Carvajals.

c. Luiz de Carvajal ―el mozo‖

Readings: David Gitlitz' Book ―Secrecy and Deceit‖

-pages 53-58

-page 102 from: In 1589, to: his mother

-page 108-109 from: Among the, to: for them

-page 117 from: By that time, to leather, from: Fray Gaspar, to: and Jeremiah

-page 150 from: The Portuguese, to: the Host"

-page 221 from: In a similar, to: relative, from: Frequently, to: disguised it.

-page 231-232 from: A particularly, to: and Numbers

-page 233 from: Ironically, to: to emulate

-page 281 from: The need, to: Brianda Lopes

-page 324 from: Mexican Crypto-Jews to: burned out

-page 325 from: In Mexico in the, to: and rest

-page 326-327 from: It was crucial, to: prayers

-page 327 from: Today the secret, to: the Sabbath

-page 328 from: Margarita de Rivera, to: tambourine

-page 330 from: But from, to: torments me"

-page 367-368 from: In Mexico on Yom, to: who gives us life

-page 383 from: In Mexico Luis, to: at Passover

-page 386 from: Micaela Enriquez, to: priest give, from: Luis de Carvajal, to: vegetables

-page 387-388 from: In Mexico, to: at night

-page 391 from: There is some, to: thereafter

-page 394 from: On the other hand, to: del alma, from: I.Judith, to: Moses had died

-page 398 from: Juan de Leon, to: chocolate

-page 398-399 from: Dona Ana, to: all day

-page 473 from: A 1603, to: the East"

-page 474 from: And Antonia, to: father's too, from: In the colonies, to: times standing"

-page 510 from: Liebman concludes, to: follow up

-page 517 from: In colonial Mexico, to: of rabbi

-page 570 from: Some steadfast, to: customs

Case Studies I

04/04/2012

Guest Speaker Beatriz Pestana

a. The Crypto Judaism in Colombia, Venezuela and other Latin American countries, secret

networks and building a new identity under La Colonia

b. Colombia and Venezuela, and the Criollo elite, The Canary Islands‘ connection

c. Simon Bolivar, Secret Networks, Independence Movements, Jamaica-Colombia

connection, Curacao-Venezuela connection.

Readings: David M. Gitlitz " Secrecy and Deceit" pages: 58 to 60, 507 to 518 and 588 to

613

04/06/2012

Passover –No Class-

04/09/2012

a. The American South West

Readings: Seth Kunin ―Juggling Identities‖ pages 146 to 191

04/11/2012

a. Real Crypto-Jews in the South West or descendants of Evangelical sects?

Readings: Seth Kunin ―Juggling Identities‖ pages 82 to 113

Case Studies IV

04/13/2012

a. Brazil, The sleeping dragon. Are there more Crypto Jews than Jews in Brazil?

b. Recife-Olinda, Paraiba, Bahia, Rio De Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and how different is the

phenomena in the Brazilian States.

c. Branca Diaz

Readings: David Gitlitz book, ―Secrecy and Deceit‖:

Death and Funeral customs page: 277 to 304

Pages 60-62

page 117 from: As the previous, to: in church

page 150 from: Branca Dias, to: sacrament

page 163 from: In the 1590's, to: urinating on it

from: When Ana Rodrigues, to: do it

page 321 from: Wealthy crypto, to: inquisitor

page 336 from: Branca Dias, to: week

page 431 from: Evidently, to: in Spanish

page 502 from: Crypto-Jewish, to: my father

page 512 form: Typical was, to: Jewish Synagogues

page 513 from: The most, to: Jews Worship

page 517 from: In Brazil to: Pontifice dos Judeus

page 528: MEZUZZAH

page 601 from: Manoel Dias, to: heaven"

page 608 from: The Brazilian Poet, to: his wife

page 609 from: "These Networks, to: assist them

04/16/2012

Video ―The Hidden Star‖ part one

Readings: David Gitlitz book, ―Secrecy and Deceit‖: pages 443 to 479

04/18/2012

Video ―The Hidden Star‖ part two


04/20/2012

Video ―The Hidden Star‖ part three

Readings: David M. Gitlitz ―Secrecy and Deceit" pages: 355 to 402

Case Studies V

04/23/2012

Video: ―About the Sugar Cane and Home Coming‖ part one

Readings: David Gitlitz book, ―Secrecy and Deceit‖ pages 425 to 436

04/25/2012

Guest Speakers Beatriz Pestana and Manuel Martin

a. The Bene Anusim in our days, their identity and self identification, can be a Secret Jewish

Identity?

b. The Secrecy still alive

c. Diversity among the different groups

Readings: David Gitlitz book, ―Secrecy and Deceit‖ pages 531 to 551

04/27/2012

Video: ―About the Sugar Cane and Home Coming‖ part two

Readings: David M. Gitlitz ―Secrecy and Deceit" pages: 587 to 613

The Challenges of Studying Crypto-Jews

Conclusion I

04/30/2012

a. How do Anthropologist and Folklorist identify Crypto-Jews?

b. Finding real Crypto-Jews in our times, are there ―fake‖ Crypto-Jews?

c. The DNA test, counts for Jewish Origin proof?

d. The Strong endogamy and Jewish Genetic diseases among Crypto-Jews

e. Patterns of cultural transmission and cultural change, cultural interaction across social

boundaries, and responses to adversity and crisis.

Readings: Kunin book, Juggling Identities, pages: 213 to 222

Conclusion II

05/02/2012

a. The close encounter with Official Judaism and their acceptance in the Jewish World

b. The trial to return to Judaism, and the 3 paths

c. The Sephardic and Ashkenazi overviews of the Marrano, Crypto-Jew phenomena.

d. The Halakha and Religious issues and their evolution to integrate Crypto-Jews to the

Jewish Societies, Ashkenazi vs. Sephardic, Conversion (Giur) vs. Return (Teshuba)

e. The integration to Mainstream Judaism and the loose of Marrano Crypto-Jewish identity,

Integrating Crypto Jewish customs to mainstream Judaism

Readings: David Gitlitz book: pages 578 to 580

Conclusion III

05/04/2012

LAST DAY OF CLASSES AND DUE DATE FOR FINAL PAPER

a. Analysis of the overall relationship between Israel and the Crypto- Jews

c. Assimilation vs. Acculturation

The vast majority of scholarship of Crypto-Jews, Marranos, Conversos, New Christians and Anusim, is in

Portuguese, since the field is well know researched and developed in Brazil and Portugal. In this course we will read

the most important books in English. There are also some translations of texts in Portuguese and Spanish

Books:

1-Jane S. Gerber, Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience.

Before the brutal expulsion of 300,000 Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephardic Jews thrived on

the Iberian Peninsula for more than a millennium, as Gerber relates in this stirring and

riveting saga, a remarkable story of creative adaptation, minority achievement and survival.

During the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry, Sephardim excelled in medicine, science,

philosophy, music and literature. Columbus, evasive about his origins, kept close company

with Jews, and several Jewish converts sailed with him. Gerber, director of the City

University of New York's Graduate Center's Institute for Sephardic Studies, charts the

haunted lives of "New Christians," secret Jews who were persecuted by the Inquisition, from

Mexico to Peru, and surveys Sephardic communities that flourished openly from Romania,

Syria and Turkey to the U.S. and Barbados. She examines the tensions between

impoverished Ashkenazim (Jews of middle and northern Europe) and aristocratic Sephardim

throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Betrayals and horrors of WW II and the Holocaust

reinforced Sephardic Jews' resolve to leave the Muslim world, and Gerber incisively looks at

today's Sephardic communities in Israel, France, the U.S. and Spain.

2. David M. Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews.

This book is thorough in documenting the practices of Crypto Jews from the 1390 uprising

till the 20th century.

3. Miriam Bodian, Hebrews of Portuguese Nation: Conversos and Community in

Early Modern Amsterdam.

In this book the Author explains how Portuguese Conversos reconstructed a Jewish identity

and built a community in 17th-century Amsterdam.

4. Seth D. Kunin, Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among the Crypto-

Jews.

Kunin adopts a unique approach to the lives of modern crypto-Jews, concentrating primarily

on their understanding of Jewish tradition and the meaning they ascribe to ritual. He

illuminates the complexity of this community, in which individuals and groups perform the

same practice in diverse ways. Kunin supplements his ethnographic research with broader

theories concerning the nature of identity and memory, which is especially applicable to

crypto-Jews, whose culture resides mainly in memory.

Optional Books but recommend

1. Cecil Roth, A History of the Marranos.

This book is one of the early texts to study the phenomenon of marranism or secret

Judaism. In the 14th and 15th centuries in which thousands of Jews were massacred,

thousands of others were converted in order to escape death. After the expulsion many

more joined the ranks of these "new Christians" as an alternative to exile. A large number

of converts, while outwardly professing Christianity, secretly continued to practice Judaism.

They created a widespread Marrano Diaspora. Thousands of Marranos have survived even

into our times.

2. Marc Angel, Remnant of Israel, a Portrait of America’s First Jewish

Congregation.

The History of the twenty-three Jewish refugees of Recife, Brazil (former Crypto-Jews) who

found their haven in New Amsterdam (actual New York) and became the first Jewish

community in North America.

3. Yosef Kaplan and Raphael Loewe, From Christianity to Judaism.

Isaac Orobio de Castro, a Crypto-Jew from Portugal, was one of the most prominent

intellectual figures of the Sephardic Diaspora in the seventeenth century. After studying

medicine and theology in Spain, and having pursued a distinguished medical career, he was

arrested by the Spanish Inquisition for practicing Judaism, tortured, tired, and imprisoned.

He subsequently emigrated to France and became a professor of medicine at the University

of Toulouse before openly professing his Judaism and going to Amsterdam where he joined

the thriving Portuguese Jewish community. Orobio sheds light on the complex life of a

unique Jewish community of former Christians who had openly returned to Judaism.

4. Yosef Kaplan, Jews and Conversos: Studies in Society and the Inquisition.

The interaction of Jews and Conversos as matter of study, open a new vision of Crypto-

Jewish Phenomenon, family and trade links kept the coercion in both communities.

5. Janet Liebman, Hidden Heritage: The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews.

CU‘s own Jacobs has devoted much time to researching Crypto Jews in the southwest. Her

book one many prizes, but some in the field question her method. We will use Jacobs to

ask what some of the methodological challenges are in studying a group of people, whom

we apply labels to, but who may not self-identify with that label (or vice versa…people, who

claim a label, but whom researchers reject using that label)

6. Andree Aelion Brooks, The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of

Dona Gracia Nasi.

This lively, meticulously-documented biography is bound to become the touchstone of

Gracia Nasi scholarship. Brooks has finally set the record straight about the life of this

heroic Jewish Renaissance woman. An underground escape route that rescued thousands of

conversos from the Inquisition's fury in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Despite their financial

power, the Mendes family were forced by the Inquisition into quick moves and narrow

escapes from Lisbon to Antwerp to Venice and Ferrara, back to Venice and then to

Constantinople. Brooks's research, which involved previously unavailable documents in 13

languages and seven countries, effectively details 16th-century social, religious and

economic conditions.

7. Mordechai Arbell, The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean: The Spanish-Portuguese

Jewish Settlements in the Caribbean and the Guianas.

Surinam, known as the ‗Jewish Savannah‘, where a vibrant Jewish community was granted

full and equal rights two hundred years before the Jews of other communities in the region.

St Eustatius, where the economically successful Jewish community was plundered during

the British occupation in 1781. Curacao, named the ‗Mother of Jewish communities in the

New World‘, where a prosperous Jewish community comprised nearly half of Curacao‘s non-

slave population and was the center of Jewish life in the region. For all their economic and

local political power, the Jews were little more than pawns in the 200-year struggle for

control of the Caribbean by Holland, Great Britain, France and Spain.

8. Edward Kritzler, Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of

Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for

Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge

Historian and journalist Kritzler, brings the political and religious ramifications of Caribbean

pirating into a whole new context while explaining how the Sephardic Jewish Diaspora

funded piracy to advance their religious (and financial) freedom in the New World, through a

deft combination of factual overview and anecdotes involving some of the more colorful

figures of the time.

9. Martin Aaron Cohen, The Martyr: Luis de Carvajal, A Secret Jew in Sixteenth-

Century Mexico

Immaculately researched, provided with rich and useful critical notes, powerfully written,

"The Martyr" is a major contribution to converso studies and to colonial social history in

general. This book traces the history of Luis de Carvajal the Younger and his family in

Spain, their migration to the New World, their religious practices, and their adventures in

New Spain until one by one they were put to flight or indicted by the Inquisition. Luis

himself was burned at the stake in 1596 at the age of thirty. He left behind not only his

legacy as an exemplary secret Jew but also valuable literary documents—his memoirs, his

last will and testament, and his letters to his mother and sisters in the inquisitorial prison.

10. Renée Levine Melammed, Heretics or Daughters of Israel?: The Crypto-Jewish

Women of Castile

Between 1391 and the end of the 15th century, numerous Spanish Jews converted to

Christianity, most of them under duress. Before and after 1492, when the Jews were

officially expelled from Spain, a significant number of these conversos maintained

clandestine ties to Judaism, despite their outward conformity to Catholicism. Through the

lens of the Inquisition's own records, this groundbreaking study focuses on the crypto-

Jewish women of Castile, demonstrating their central role in the perpetuation of crypto-

Jewish society in the absence of traditional Jewish institutions led by men. Renee Levine

Melammed shows how many "conversas" acted with great courage and commitment to

perpetuate their religious heritage, seeing themselves as true daughters of Israel. Her

fascinating book sheds new light on the roles of women in the transmission of Jewish

traditions and cultures.

http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Pirates-Caribbean-Swashbuckling-Freedom/dp/0767919521/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252909199&sr=1-1



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?%5Fencoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Martin%20Aaron%20Cohen

http://www.amazon.com/Ren%C3%A9e-Levine-Melammed/e/B001HMSZHA/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1325826036&sr=1-1

Documentaries:

1. Itzhak Navon series, Out of Spain, (3 chapters)

2. Frederik Brener, The Last Marranos

3. Elaine Eiger and Luize Valente, The Hidden Star

4. Shaul Kesslasi, About The Sugar Cane

Syllabus Crypto J

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