Crypto Judaism Dr. Seth Ward - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Crypto Judaism

Dr. Seth WardUniversity of WyomingDenver Academy of Torah October 20 2017ל' תשרי ה' תשע"ח

ב"ה

Slide2

Questions to answer this morning?

Slide3

Zog

Maran

Tell me,

Marrano

, my brother,

Where is your

seder set? In a deep cave, in a room, Have I my seder set.  Tell me, Marrano, from where, from whom Will you get white matzot? In the cave with God³s help My wife has kneaded the dough.  Tell me, Marrano, where will you find A Haggadah from which to read? In the cave, in a deep crack, I have long since hidden it.  Tell me, Marrano, how will you fare When your voice is heard? When the hater (soine) seizes me I will die with my song.(I will fight with my song)

https://

www.kulanu.org/anousim/tishabavresolution.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF5fxWBXr0w

Martha

Schlamme

Slide4

Slide5

Slide6

Key Personalities of the “Golden Age

Samuel Ha-Nagid (Ibn Naghrela)

Slide7

Longing to Return to the Land of Israel

A poem by Yehudah ha-Levi

לִבִּי בְמִזְרָח וְאָנֹכִי בְּסוֹף מַעֲרָב / אֵיךְ אֶטְעֲמָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר אֹכַל וְאֵיךְ יֶעֱרָב

אֵיכָה אֲשַׁלֵּם נְדָרַי וֶאֱסָרַי, בְּעוֹד / צִיּוֹן בְּחֶבֶל אֱדוֹם וַאֲנִי בְּכֶבֶל עֲרָב

יֵקַל בְּעֵינַי עֲזֹב כָּל טוּב סְפָרַד, כְּמוֹ / יֵקַר בְּעֵינַי רְאוֹת עַפְרוֹת דְּבִיר נֶחֱרָב.

My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west. How can I find savor in food? How shall it be sweet to me? How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains? A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain - Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.

Slide8

Judah Ha-Levi d. 1141 (?)

Slide9

Moses Maimonides d. 1204

Slide10

Slide11

Profiat

Duran

 (c. 1350 – c. 1415) (

Hebrew

:

פרופייט דוראן),

full Hebrew name Isaac ben Moses ha-Levi; was a physician, philosopher, grammarian, and controversialist in the 14th century. He was later sometimes referred to by the sobriquet Efodi (האפודי) through association with his two grammars entitled "Ephod." In official records he also appears under his converso Christian name Honoratus de Bonafide.Contents  [hide] 1Works1.1

Al

Tehi

Ka-Aboteka

 ("Be Not Like Thy Fathers")

1.2

Kelimmat ha-Goyim

 ("Shame of the Gentiles")

1.3

Hesheb ha-

Efod

 ("The ephod's girdle")

1.4

Ma'aseh

Efod

 ("The making of the ephod")

1.5

Other works, lost works

Slide12

Edict of Expulsion- Alhambra

Slide13

Spanish Inquisition

Slide14

Slide15

Slide16

Understanding Crypto Judaism in the 21

st CenturyCanon of EvidenceGenealogy and GeneticsSense of Identity

Also:

Search for Roots

Disappearance/transformation of Hispanic Antisemitism

Dissatisfaction with Catholicism

Slide17

n=

% of total

% of 50

Identify as

 

 

 Jewish4757%94%Crypto Jewish1417%28%

Catholic

6

7%

12%

Other Christian

3

4%

6%

Other Christian

10

12%

20%

None of the Above

2

2%

4%

total

82

 

Messianic

2

Spiritual

1

descendant

4

Ethnicity or Culture

 

 

 

White

39

55%

78%

Hispanic

26

37%

52%

Native American

46%8%Others23%4%71 

Demographics  Male1329%26%Female3271%64%45 90%

Born

 

 

1928-1945

10

21%

20%

1946-1964

21

44%

42%

1965-1980

14

29%

28%

> 1980

3

6%

6%

48

 

96%

Slide18

Being Jewish is About

 

 

 

Ancestry

51

39%102%Culture4232%84%Religion3930%78%

132

 

Affiliation

 

 

Yes

36

73%

72%

No

13

27%

26%

49

 

98%

Attend any type of religious services

 

 

Weekly

13

42%

26%

Monthly

10

32%

20%

Once or twice a year

8

26%

16%

31

 

62%

Religious Change

 

 

0%

Convert750%14%

Changed Religion750%14%14 28% Denomination and Changed Denomination—given in separate charts of responses

Slide19

Chabad

1

Sephardic Orthodox

2

Orthodox

1

Young Israel 1Jewish Traditional1Conservative3Reform

3

lead Hillel Services

1

Reconstructionist

2

Renewal

1

Reform and Renewal

1

unafilliated

2

Study online Torah

1

Living my life in the ethics of Judaism

1

Messianic

2

Searching

1

Mixed

1

Christian Catholic to Jewish

in a program of conversion or return

Protestant to Judaism

Catholic Christian to Judaism

"Just believe in my heart that I am Jewish , do not have to do anything to prove I am Jewish!" - a Catholic-identifying respondent

Christianity to Messianic Judaism

7th day adventist to unprogrammed Quaker

Catholic to Christian Science

Catholic to LDS to None

"rejected Catholicism"

Orthodox to Reform

Reform to Conservative

Conservative Reform to Jewish Renewal

to Orthodox

Roman

Catholic

2

Catholic and Pentacostal1

Catholic/Jewish1non Denominational Christian1Multi131

Slide20

Immigration

 

 

Born in US

42

84%

84%Born outside US816%16%One or both parents outside US1938%38%

two or more grandparents outside US

19

38%

38%

total born (not parents or grandparents)

50

 

100%

What does it mean to be

Jewish?

 

 

Holocaust

27

9%

54%

Ethical

41

14%

82%

Justice

36

13%

72%

Intellect

35

12%

70%

Israel

43

15%

86%

Humor

16

6%

32%

Community

41

14%82%Observance3010%60%Food186%36%287 

Intermarriage  Share religion2061%40%Do not share religion with spouse1339%26%33 66%

Children

 

 

Raise Jewish

20

43%

40%

Raise different religon

4

9%

8%

Raise Crypto Jew

6

13%

12%

Raise with cultural Awareness

12

26%

24%

Without specific religion

5

11%

10%

47

 

94%

Slide21

Practices

 

 

Yom Kippur

32

14%

64%Hanukkah3616%72%Passover Seder4420%88%

Shabbat

36

16%

72%

Film or Book

40

18%

80%

Travel

37

16%

74%

225

 

Knowledge of Hebrew

 

 

Know

17

38%

34%

Alphabet

17

38%

34%

Other Languages

11

24%

22%

45

 

90%

Ladino

 

 

Yiddish

 

 

Judaeo Arabic  "Ladino Arabic"  

Slide22

Jewish Cuban reports all children married Catholic, some practicing, some not.  This respondent referred to Judaism being relevant 5776 years ago.

Respondent with 4 generations evangelical Protestants on both sides. Values: Collect and pass on genealogical findings. Faith (crossed out religious) One respondent checked all the categories and talked about Jewish memberships but indicated synagogue attendance rare.

A respondent with Crypto Jewish identification selected these three terms: History culture identity.  She said her family was "not related." presumably, not related to her story.

Many selected both Organic growth and  radical change or referred to telling stories.

“Non-devoted” Catholic home, explored Hinduism, now transitioning from Crypto Jewish identity to Jewish identity. Children going to Israel.

Respondent descended from founders of first reform synagogue in Charleston

sc but refers to a side of her family and to genealogy and finding relatives in a question about transmitting heritage.Respondent reports she married Jewish, and children identify as Jewish. My father was Jewish and my mother not yet. Judaism, more culturally, was a strong pull. Conversion was a reasoned choice due to family dynamics and history. Jewish values to transmit: Family history, Jewish values, social justice, respect for diversity. Selected Respondent Comments

Slide23

Israeli respondent went full circle from Orthodox to secular to moderate (conservative). Values: Shabbat, kashrut, Israel, honesty, thanking God

כבד את אביך ואת אמךBorn Jewish, discovered "Sephardic crypto Jews of New Mexico touched my heart (made me) more proud of my heritage

.”

3 children, 2 call themselves Jewish, one talks about becoming Catholic.

Values

: candles, Passover--freedom, respecting all people, talking about family

history. Keep the Law/eat kosher. Grew up in Christian Family but stopped going, later returned. Then went to synagogue. No mention of conversion. (This respondent is reports a Hispanic identity, who identifies as Jewish).  Once I discovered my Jewish heritage, I felt it was required biblically to transfer this heritage to my children.

Slide24

Some conclusions:

Choosing Judaism: Alan E Segal in Oxford Handbook of Religious Coversion

“Because of the emphasis of modern Judaism on rationality and the respect Jews have for the modern scientific worldview and despite Hitler‘s mistaken racial definition of Judaism it is possible to say that all Jews are Jews by choice

.”

(Rambo and

Farhadian

, 2014: 596.) However, many statements reflect a sense that Jewish identification transcends choice. Multiple Identities. Note the frequency of combination of multiple Jewish identities, or multiple religious identities, in ways atypical of mainstream Judaism Movement within JudaismNot surprising, there is movement within Judaism in SCJS Respondents, as well as movement to or from Judaism (more often to Judaism in the respondent population). Movement within Judaism is not overwhelmingly in any one direction.

Slide25

Religious/Heritage mixture, “

Messianics

” and heritage mixing:

There is a discourse of mixed

Christian-Jewish

identity present in the comments of some of the respondents of this survey. Some of this is self identified as “Messianic” but much

appears to me to be distinct from what I encounter in “Messianic” populations. It shares some elements with Messianics, including ways of realizing Judaism that are distinct from mainstream Jewish practice. The assertion of a unique Crypto-Jewish identity is not lacking (and there is the occasional explicit rejection of mainstream Jewish practices). It seems to me that mixed Christian/Jewish tropes within the Crypto-Jewish community need to be seen within a framework of religious or heritage mixing that is far broader than Messianics, and perhaps should include phenomena as broad as the Kabbalah Center (with some members who claim that their Jewish-sourced practices are unrelated to Judaism), and explicit Jewish practices such as the Passover Seder adopted by non-Jews but unrelated to any broad identification as “Messianic.”

Slide26

Raising Children

I was surprised by the frequency in which questions that I thought were about transmitting a “Jewish identity” or “Crypto-Jewish identity” to the next generation were not interpreted this way by respondents.

Not

surprisingly, younger, American-born populations are more accepting of multiple identities and of transmitting elements honoring heritage, or of choosing a Jewish identity, rather than surprise at finding themselves “Suddenly Jewish.”

However

, this appeared more from informal interviews than from processing of the

returns—a clearer picture will have to await a more scientific analysis of the responses than was possible at this time!

Slide27

Patterns of the ethnic and religious communities in which respondents grew up—e.g. Hispanic and Catholic or Evangelical or main-line Protestant—appear likely to play a role in how their identity is realized, and their resultant attitudes towards identity transmission. So, too, an important role is played by the often-random history of “mainstream” Jewish teachers, leadership, and communities with whom they have come into contact, and

by specific family considerations. How Jewish identity is realized and transmitted—and what elements are given priority—may well shape the way in which this and other movements assimilate into the Jewish mainstream, fade away, or preserve and continue to develop a unique communal identity.