In his 1981 film “History of the World Part I,” Mel Brooks sings and dances his way through a grotesque parody of old-time movie musicals, making light of a sordid chapter in Jewish history. Once upon a time, Spain and Portugal lost their Jews, either through forced conversion to Catholicism or forced emigration.
Sandra Cumings Malamed, a Los Angeles–based scholar of Jewish history, previously wrote “The Jews in Early America,” a series of short biographies of Jews living in Colonial America, all of whom were Sephardis, descendants of Spanish or Portuguese Jews. Her latest book, “The Return to Judaism: Descendants From the Inquisition Discovering Their Jewish Roots,” goes further back in time to reveal their origins and how their successors live today.
Jewish life and culture flourished on the Iberian Peninsula for hundreds of years, until the 14th century, when the new Christian rulers of Spain and Portugal systematically purged them from the region, initially by conversion.
The effort to remake Jews into Christians was not entirely successful. Jews publicly converted but practiced Judaism privately. The Spanish and Portuguese rulers then meted out the ultimate punishment: Jews were banished from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1495. The resulting diaspora was to other European countries, North Africa and South America.
Furthermore, the Inquisition, established in 1483, had begun its infamous work to root out people who professed Catholicism but secretly were Jews. But the flame of Judaism never went out. Those who covertly retained Jewish customs and traditions became “Nuevo Christians” (New Christians) and passed along aspects of Jewish heritage orally to subsequent generations, even up to the present day.
Malamed writes, “Hidden Sephardic Jews … all over the world are … beginning to notice their own observance of
their Jewish traditions, rituals, and customs that were once outlawed.”
Most of the people Malamed interviewed about discovering their Jewish heritage attributed it to a familiar event or memory, such as a wedding or a family name; for some, it was traditions in common with known Jews. In other cases, there were family archives with references to Jewish ancestry, a discomfort with practicing Catholicism or simply rumors of Jewish background.
The author interviewed more than 90 families, making this book more of a primary resource book than a narrative history of Iberian Jews and their descendants. The heart of the book is the chapter summarizing these interviews.
No two stories are alike, but common themes emerge. The family fled the Inquisitions in Spain or Portugal, but their lives in exile were just as risky. Despite constant threats of torture and death, they continued to practice Judaism secretly, mostly relating to food, cooking, holidays, circumcision, death rituals and Friday housecleaning.
“Return to Judaism” is not a definitive history of the Inquisition or of Sephardic Jewry. Cecil Roth’s “The Spanish Inquisition” and Jane S. Gerber’s “The Jews of Spain — A History of the Sephardic Experience” are more thorough treatments of these subjects.
However, Malamed demonstrates how the force of Judaism remained in the descendants of Iberian Jews, despite their traumas. After reading this book, the Mel Brooks Inquisition rendition may not be so funny.
“The Return to Judaism: Descendants From the Inquisition Discovering Their Jewish Roots” by Sandra Cumings Malamed (336 pages, Fithian Press, $32.50)