Nadene Goldfoot
Jews have had history in Mexico ever since the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 when Jews had 2 choices to make; convert to Christianity and remain in Spain or leave quickly. Jews had arrived in Spain after 70 CE when the Romans had attacked Jerusalem; killing Jews and burning the city down. Jews who remained in Spain by converting included many who were still Jews at heart, not being happy to have been forced to accept another religion, and they continued to practice what they could in secret. They were called Marranos, which in Spanish was an ugly word, meaning swine or pigs. Today we do not use this word, but dub them as another Hebrew word. the Anusim, meaning those who were coerced, forced to take another religion.
The vast majority of Spain's Jews who had converted, called" conversos, however, remained in Spain and Portugal and were suspected of "Marranism" by the Spanish Inquisition. Although the wealthier among them could easily bypass discriminatory Limpieza de sangrelaws, they constituted a significant portion of the over three thousand people executed for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition."
Marranos from Spain found it too hot to stay safe and live so left. They wound up in Mexico with the CONQUISTADORES early in the 16th century, and how, I do not know since the Spaniards no doubt were Catholics intent on converting the natives. Maybe the Jews got out as servants of some sort. Two Jews were discovered, nevertheless, and were burned at the stake in 1528.
A group of Jews arrived who were educated European laymen in 1531 but evidence shows that they were a substantial portion of the scant Spanish-speaking population who had arrived. There are still letters in Spain that claim that by the mid-16th century there were more secret Jews than Catholics in Mexico City. These, however, were written by various Inquisitors and no doubt exaggerated greatly to get more money out the king.
Portugal soon came under the same laws of kicking out Jews so those Jews leaving had to seek refuge elsewhere. These Conversos, as Marranos were also called, who had moved on to Nueva Espagna (Mexico) from Portugal had skills that led Mexico to become a productive country, but we in the USA don't view Mexico as that today, not with thousands fleeing from there to here lately. What has happened?
In 1571, the Spaniards set up an Inquisitional tribunal and it remained active for 200 years.
"Jews who arrived between 1821 and 1865 were not allowed to become Mexican citizens." Political and economic chaos was the problem, not necessarily bias, think some.
A few European Jews reached Mexico in the 19th century. In 1884 President Porfirio Diaz invited a number of Jewish bankers into the country. Until then, banks were non-existent. They financed Mexico's entry into the 20th Century! Today Jews do not dominate the banking system or the Mexican industrial complex, though they founded the bank. Today, all original banks are nationalized.
The Mexican Consul General, Prado, said that "The first wave of Jewish immigrants in México — known as conversos — arrived during the colonial period and were fleeing the Spanish Inquisition" Jewish families also arrived at the border on their way to immigrate to the United States.
"Since then we have many prominent Jewish families living in El Paso that arrived to the United States through México," Prado said.
The community only became sizable after World War I. Most came to Mexico from 1881 to 1939, beginning the same years as those Jews heading for the USA. Mexico today as about 50,000 Jews and are living in a country that is about 97% Catholic. The people of Mexico have been kind and tolerant and the Jews have had the ability to adapt to new environments and maintain their Judaism.
Ashkenazim Jewish immigrants came mainly from Poland, Russia and Lithuania and some could be my relatives for that's where my ancestors came from. The Sephardim who spoke Ladino, a Spanish-Hebrew language from Spanish speaking countries came from Syria, Turkey and Greece. Mexico restricted Jewish immigration after the USA did in 1924. Mexico restricted Jews by 1937, when the getting out from Germany was so important.
Jews have played an important part in the industrial development of the country. These Jews differ from Jews going to the USA as immigrants. Those going to Mexico were almost 100% fleeing for their very lives. The present community of Mexican Jews have left a legacy of fear buried in their minds and hearts. Can such a thing as the Inquisition happen here as well? It has chased Jews to Mexico already. In 1990 there were 35,000 Jews living here. Most found homes in Mexico City. There were also Mexico Indian Jews, Jews of mixed ancestry of Indian and European. Charges brought by the Inquisition substantiate that Jews who fled to Nueva Espagna in 1531 converted Indians before the Inquisition was established in the New World.
The rabbinate and the Mexican Jewry do not recognize this group and 2 other groups, the Iglesia de Dios and the Casa de Dios. All 3 read the Old Testament and observe some of the rules that observant Jews follow. The 7th Day Adventists do also, for that matter. They have not been thought to be a form of Judaism as yet. The one synagogue where Mexican Indians attend who do observe Judaism is the one in Venta Prieta serving Mexican Indians.
There are 14 Orthodox synagogues and 2 others, perhaps a conservative and a reform in Mexico City. Other synagogues are found in Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana.
There are 6 all-day Jewish schools and 2 yeshivot in Mexico City and one each in Guadalajara and Monterrey. About 65% of the Jewish children attend schools, from kindergarten to high school, that offer Yiddish, Hebrew and general courses. The Colegio Hebreo Tarbut offers a Hebrew and general curriculum. There is also a Jewish Teachers' Seminary.
The Yidisher Sport Tzenter has a membership of 23,000. There are 5 Jewish newspapers. The 11 volume Encyclopedia Judaica Castellana is the most ambitious Mexican Jewish cultural achievement out of Mexico.
Strangely to me, as bull- fighting would not be accepted in Orthodox Judaism in that we don't believe in hurting animals, is that we had a Jewish matador from Brooklyn in the 1920s who remained popular in Mexico after he cut the pigtail as an announcer of bullfights on radio and TV.
Some Converso groups in early 1999 from Vera Cruz and Puebla now are practicing Jews. They are also gathering information about the many Catholic families who are still practicing some Jewish rites. This is similar to what is going on with the Pashtun Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. They also became Muslims but how and why is still rather unknown. Their experiences would have happened after the Assyrians attacked Israel in 722 BCE, much farther back in time. These Mexican Catholics were asked why they do these things and they answer that their mothers learned it from their mothers. "They might light candles on Friday night or keep separate sets of dishes for dairy and meat, but have no idea that what they are doing is Judaic in origin."
Schulamite C. Halevey, a descendant of an anusim family made their way to Israel and reported about this. She found they tell their children: "We are not really Mexican. We are descendants of Spanish nobility. Then they practice Jewish rituals; the dietary laws lighting Friday night candles, and some even close their businesses on Saturday. They say it is a day we spend with our families. They also marry only people like themselves, other anusim. It is not expected that they will return to Judaism officially, but will remain Catholics who practice Jewish rituals, but once they know who they are, well, we will see. Such situations have happened with other groups and a few might be curious enough to revert back to Judaism after studying their history.
Jews in Mexico came from 4 distinct areas: Aleppo, Syria, Damascus, Syria, the Balkans and Eastern Europe. They each have their own synagogues. They represent the Ashkenazim of Russia, Poland, Germany and other parts of Europe and the Sephardim, mainly from Italy and what was once the Ottoman Empire.
Here they Ashkenazim and Sephardim are intermarrying, which is also happening in Israel and in the USA, right in my own family. The synagogues are slightly different but both read Hebrew, and the food of the two groups has its own distinctness while still following the laws of Kashrut. Language was different; Yiddish and Ladino, but like in Israel, all speak Hebrew, and in Mexico, all speak Spanish.
San Francisco's Bay area had a Jewish Film Festival and in 1995 saw a movie titled A KISS TO THIS LAND, directed by Daniel Goldberg, a Mexican Jew. The film recreates the Mexico that Jewish immigrants found when they arrived in the 1920s and 1930s. It points out the differences of Jews settling in the USA and those settling in Mexico.
A genealogical study claims that Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla the father of Mexican Independence, had a "Converso" or Anusim background. The same sources say that Bartolome De Las Casas, Bishop who fought the colonial government seeking to free slaves in Nueva Espagna, also had Jewish ancestors.
Frida Kahlo, flamboyant artist and wife of Diego Rivera, had a Jewish heritage. was a "pillar" of the smart set of Mexico who died in 1954. Her father was a Hungarian Jew and she never denied her Jewish heritage.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encylopedia, Mexico
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anusim
Jews in Mexico, A Struggle for Survival by Shep Lenchek in 2000, part 1, 2, and 3. http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/slenchek/sljewsinmexico2.html
Something to read in the future:
Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, a book researched by Joan Comay, published in Israel.
Historical records; Archivo General de la Nacion de Mexico
Ramo de la Inquisition, The Inqauisitors and the Jews in the New World by Seymour B. Liebman, U of Miami Press, 1974
Los JudeoConversos en Espagne y America by Anatonio Dominguez Madrid 1971
 |
| "Marranos" together to Celebrate Passover checking at the window to see if they are safe or not Today we call such Jews the Anusim. |
The vast majority of Spain's Jews who had converted, called" conversos, however, remained in Spain and Portugal and were suspected of "Marranism" by the Spanish Inquisition. Although the wealthier among them could easily bypass discriminatory Limpieza de sangrelaws, they constituted a significant portion of the over three thousand people executed for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition."
 |
| Burned at the stake by Spanish Inquisition for not giving up their Jewish religion when forced to become Catholics. |
A group of Jews arrived who were educated European laymen in 1531 but evidence shows that they were a substantial portion of the scant Spanish-speaking population who had arrived. There are still letters in Spain that claim that by the mid-16th century there were more secret Jews than Catholics in Mexico City. These, however, were written by various Inquisitors and no doubt exaggerated greatly to get more money out the king.
Portugal soon came under the same laws of kicking out Jews so those Jews leaving had to seek refuge elsewhere. These Conversos, as Marranos were also called, who had moved on to Nueva Espagna (Mexico) from Portugal had skills that led Mexico to become a productive country, but we in the USA don't view Mexico as that today, not with thousands fleeing from there to here lately. What has happened?
In 1571, the Spaniards set up an Inquisitional tribunal and it remained active for 200 years.
"Jews who arrived between 1821 and 1865 were not allowed to become Mexican citizens." Political and economic chaos was the problem, not necessarily bias, think some.
A few European Jews reached Mexico in the 19th century. In 1884 President Porfirio Diaz invited a number of Jewish bankers into the country. Until then, banks were non-existent. They financed Mexico's entry into the 20th Century! Today Jews do not dominate the banking system or the Mexican industrial complex, though they founded the bank. Today, all original banks are nationalized.
The Mexican Consul General, Prado, said that "The first wave of Jewish immigrants in México — known as conversos — arrived during the colonial period and were fleeing the Spanish Inquisition" Jewish families also arrived at the border on their way to immigrate to the United States.
"Since then we have many prominent Jewish families living in El Paso that arrived to the United States through México," Prado said.
The community only became sizable after World War I. Most came to Mexico from 1881 to 1939, beginning the same years as those Jews heading for the USA. Mexico today as about 50,000 Jews and are living in a country that is about 97% Catholic. The people of Mexico have been kind and tolerant and the Jews have had the ability to adapt to new environments and maintain their Judaism.
 |
| Celebrating Chanukah in Latin America |
Ashkenazim Jewish immigrants came mainly from Poland, Russia and Lithuania and some could be my relatives for that's where my ancestors came from. The Sephardim who spoke Ladino, a Spanish-Hebrew language from Spanish speaking countries came from Syria, Turkey and Greece. Mexico restricted Jewish immigration after the USA did in 1924. Mexico restricted Jews by 1937, when the getting out from Germany was so important.
Jews have played an important part in the industrial development of the country. These Jews differ from Jews going to the USA as immigrants. Those going to Mexico were almost 100% fleeing for their very lives. The present community of Mexican Jews have left a legacy of fear buried in their minds and hearts. Can such a thing as the Inquisition happen here as well? It has chased Jews to Mexico already. In 1990 there were 35,000 Jews living here. Most found homes in Mexico City. There were also Mexico Indian Jews, Jews of mixed ancestry of Indian and European. Charges brought by the Inquisition substantiate that Jews who fled to Nueva Espagna in 1531 converted Indians before the Inquisition was established in the New World.
 |
| Mexican Jews reading from the Torah on a Saturday morning |
The rabbinate and the Mexican Jewry do not recognize this group and 2 other groups, the Iglesia de Dios and the Casa de Dios. All 3 read the Old Testament and observe some of the rules that observant Jews follow. The 7th Day Adventists do also, for that matter. They have not been thought to be a form of Judaism as yet. The one synagogue where Mexican Indians attend who do observe Judaism is the one in Venta Prieta serving Mexican Indians.
 |
| A synagogue in Mexico of Polish Jews |
There are 6 all-day Jewish schools and 2 yeshivot in Mexico City and one each in Guadalajara and Monterrey. About 65% of the Jewish children attend schools, from kindergarten to high school, that offer Yiddish, Hebrew and general courses. The Colegio Hebreo Tarbut offers a Hebrew and general curriculum. There is also a Jewish Teachers' Seminary.
The Yidisher Sport Tzenter has a membership of 23,000. There are 5 Jewish newspapers. The 11 volume Encyclopedia Judaica Castellana is the most ambitious Mexican Jewish cultural achievement out of Mexico.
Strangely to me, as bull- fighting would not be accepted in Orthodox Judaism in that we don't believe in hurting animals, is that we had a Jewish matador from Brooklyn in the 1920s who remained popular in Mexico after he cut the pigtail as an announcer of bullfights on radio and TV.
 |
| Hidalgo Mexican Sephardi Jewish symbol |
Some Converso groups in early 1999 from Vera Cruz and Puebla now are practicing Jews. They are also gathering information about the many Catholic families who are still practicing some Jewish rites. This is similar to what is going on with the Pashtun Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. They also became Muslims but how and why is still rather unknown. Their experiences would have happened after the Assyrians attacked Israel in 722 BCE, much farther back in time. These Mexican Catholics were asked why they do these things and they answer that their mothers learned it from their mothers. "They might light candles on Friday night or keep separate sets of dishes for dairy and meat, but have no idea that what they are doing is Judaic in origin."
Schulamite C. Halevey, a descendant of an anusim family made their way to Israel and reported about this. She found they tell their children: "We are not really Mexican. We are descendants of Spanish nobility. Then they practice Jewish rituals; the dietary laws lighting Friday night candles, and some even close their businesses on Saturday. They say it is a day we spend with our families. They also marry only people like themselves, other anusim. It is not expected that they will return to Judaism officially, but will remain Catholics who practice Jewish rituals, but once they know who they are, well, we will see. Such situations have happened with other groups and a few might be curious enough to revert back to Judaism after studying their history.
 |
| Catholic Grocer helps Mexican Jews keep kosher (kosher food marked with a U in a circle that has followed the laws of kashrut). Here a Jewish customer is checking out the kosher foods on the top shelf. |
Jews in Mexico came from 4 distinct areas: Aleppo, Syria, Damascus, Syria, the Balkans and Eastern Europe. They each have their own synagogues. They represent the Ashkenazim of Russia, Poland, Germany and other parts of Europe and the Sephardim, mainly from Italy and what was once the Ottoman Empire.
Here they Ashkenazim and Sephardim are intermarrying, which is also happening in Israel and in the USA, right in my own family. The synagogues are slightly different but both read Hebrew, and the food of the two groups has its own distinctness while still following the laws of Kashrut. Language was different; Yiddish and Ladino, but like in Israel, all speak Hebrew, and in Mexico, all speak Spanish.
San Francisco's Bay area had a Jewish Film Festival and in 1995 saw a movie titled A KISS TO THIS LAND, directed by Daniel Goldberg, a Mexican Jew. The film recreates the Mexico that Jewish immigrants found when they arrived in the 1920s and 1930s. It points out the differences of Jews settling in the USA and those settling in Mexico.
 |
| Father Hidalgo y Costilla-Mexican Roman Catholic priest and supposed marrano, and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810-their break from Spain. Anti-Spanish sentiment had been simmering in Mexico for some time, but it took the charismatic Father Hidalgo to provide the spark the nation needed to start its war of Independence. Today, Father Hidalgo is considered a hero of Mexico and one of the greatest founders of the nation. |
A genealogical study claims that Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla the father of Mexican Independence, had a "Converso" or Anusim background. The same sources say that Bartolome De Las Casas, Bishop who fought the colonial government seeking to free slaves in Nueva Espagna, also had Jewish ancestors.
Frida Kahlo, flamboyant artist and wife of Diego Rivera, had a Jewish heritage. was a "pillar" of the smart set of Mexico who died in 1954. Her father was a Hungarian Jew and she never denied her Jewish heritage.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encylopedia, Mexico
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anusim
Jews in Mexico, A Struggle for Survival by Shep Lenchek in 2000, part 1, 2, and 3. http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/slenchek/sljewsinmexico2.html
Something to read in the future:
Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, a book researched by Joan Comay, published in Israel.
Historical records; Archivo General de la Nacion de Mexico
Ramo de la Inquisition, The Inqauisitors and the Jews in the New World by Seymour B. Liebman, U of Miami Press, 1974
Los JudeoConversos en Espagne y America by Anatonio Dominguez Madrid 1971
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