Argentinean-born Rabbi David Algaze of Congregation Havurat Yisrael in Forest Hills discussed his research about Spanish Jewish history and his work with Latin people becoming Jews.
Rabbi Algaze founded Portal al Judaísmo – “one of the main organizations trying to help synagogues in Latin America and Jews in America” – with converts, said Rabbi Algaze. He is also in frequent contact with Bnei Anusim, an organization helping hidden Jews.
Rabbi and Rebbetzin Tamara Algaze spent a week in Spain in August. They visited the two main former synagogues in Toledo: El Transito and La Blanca, which were “magnificent.” “They show the incredible wealth and comfort of the Jews in Spain. They obtained very important positions in the government, even at the church.”
“They (the Jews) were the earliest residents,” said Rabbi Algaze. “There are many references in the Bible that they think refer to Spain, including S’farad.”
The Jews were in Spain before the Visigoths, who later became Christians. The Jews came with the Romans.
“Judah HaMacabee says that the Romans had an interest in Spain because of the gold and silver. So, I gathered from this that there was a commercial interest and appeal for Jews in Israel to travel with the Romans for whatever business they were doing,” said Rabbi Algaze.
“In fact, there’s a [source in the] Gemara that says that after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews who were involved in tapestries, like weavers, went to Hispania – to Spain,” said Rabbi Algaze.
Paul said in the New Testament that he wanted to travel to Spain to spread the message of the Gospel because of the Jewish community there. “That already was in the first century CE,” said Rabbi Algaze.
“The literature of the Christians demonstrates a great deal of interaction with Jews, very negative,” said Rabbi Algaze. “The Christians were upset with the Jews, already in the fourth century. By the fifth century, they were forcing Jews to convert.
Rabbi Algaze has seen a sixth-century letter from a Christian writing to the Pope in Latin “about the Jewish problem.” “Another letter says they should not be forced to convert; they should be persuaded.”
The church was upset about the existence of the Jews, and wanted to convert them, but were also upset with the Jews who converted. The Church complained “They were Judaizing Christianity. That’s the word they used,” said Rabbi Algaze. “For example, the Christians mentioned that now the Christians want to observe Sunday like Shabbat.” “They felt that they were contaminating the faith, the Christian faith.”
Teresa is the patron saint of Spain. Born a Jew, she converted to Catholicism, but some in the Church “wanted to excommunicate her because precisely some of her ideas were very Jewish.” “It’s very ironic that the greatest Christian/Catholic personality in Spain is from a Jewish home,” said Rabbi Algaze.
“The fact that the Jews were thrown out of Spain was a process that started as soon as the Visigoths became Christians.” Starting in the fourth and fifth century, you started to see this push against the Jews, which continued in different ways, until the Inquisition.”
“The other phenomenon is that Jews started becoming secret Jews.” The Balearic Islands (Mallorca and Minorca), off of Spain, had a lot of secret Jews because they were far from the mainland.
“The Jews of Cuenca, Spain, “maintained the Jewish attachment but without any rabbinical or literary information,” said Rabbi Algaze. “They were practicing their own kind of religion in a way that they call Judaism. They had Shabbat. They didn’t eat pig. They tried to marry among themselves. But there were a lot of things that were not obviously authentic, and that’s a problem for the future. If they want to be Jews, they have to convert. They have to accept halachah. They cannot say they are Jews.”
Rabbi Algaze is in contact with Bnei Anusim. “This organization tries to discover if people had Jewish mothers and Jewish grandmothers, and they can trace four or five generations back with the maternal line.” “This way they are not called geirim (converts) anymore. They are called Jews. The Beis Din certifies they are Jews.”
Rabbi Algaze is working with Rabbi Peretz Steinberg and the Beis Din here about individuals “from Brazil and other places.” Brazil has a lot of secret Jews “because a lot of the forced converts in Portugal eventually went to Brazil.”
Hidden Jews are now mainly out in the Spanish islands of Majorca and Minorca, the city of Porto, and the Azores in Portugal. “Portugal had a little more secret Jews because the Inquisition was late there and may not have been as thorough as in Spain.”
It’s hard to tell how many are asserting their Jewish identities now, said Rabbi Algaze. “Those are a small group, maybe hundreds, thousands, no more. But if we were to look into the birth records of certain families, we would discover many. I mean, some people say that 80 percent of Spanish people have Jewish ancestry.”
Rabbi Algaze interacts with Spanish people about Judaism through the organization he founded, Portal al Judaísmo. “The main seat of the organization is at Congregation Havurat Yisrael.”
Rabbi Algaze teaches a weekly class in Spanish. “We send cantors, t’filin, sifrei Torah to Peru, Ecuador, and especially Colombia. “Now we’re working with Central America, Nicaragua, Costa Rica. “Many of these secret Jews came to Latin America escaping the Inquisition,” said Rabbi Algaze.
There have been about 20,000 Internet clicks on the Portal al Judaísmo’s website, and several thousand subscribe to Rabbi Algaze’s weekly Torah class in Spanish.
“These people are coming out of the woodwork. We do not know why somebody in the middle of a little town in Ecuador would suddenly want to be a Jew.”
Many people say how they heard from their grandmother that they are from Spain, not native, and not Christians. Many live near the mountains in Ecuador and Colombia. “They were scared of the Inquisition, so they were secret Jews.”
“They discover something here doesn’t fit, and I don’t think it’s purely intellectual. There is something in the DNA, psychological heritage, something very, very strange.”
“One of the most common phenomena was that they were all opposed to the Church. They did not go to the church. They were critical of the church. There was always a reason they were not part of the mainstream Catholic community.”
Rabbi Algaze noticed how many of these hidden Jews married within the family, “there are a lot of cousins.” In one case, a person showed his grandmother’s mezuzah to Rabbi Algaze. The Bnei Anusim organization is in touch with people with signs of Jewish observance.
The established Jewish communities in Spain, Europe, and Latin America are “absolutely frightened of these people. In fact, they even reject them. They don’t want them in the synagogues.” “They don’t want converts,” said Rabbi Algaze.
“The Catholic Church is incensed, and they are speaking always against them.” Rabbi Algaze said the greatest threat is the many Messianic congregations, including in Queens.
“They take a book of Midrash, read the parshah, put on talit and t’filin, they observe some of the laws of Shabbat but not exactly as we do. They have Shabbat services, Shabbat dinners, they have a Torah, or they read the Bible. It’s almost like an imitation of the Jewish practices, and the leaders call themselves rabbis.”
A lot of people are interested in Judaism and go to these places first, said Rabbi Algaze. “From these places, a lot of the people come to us at Havurat Yisrael. We have now a lot of people who have come from these Messianic synagogues.”
Jewish people are not shunned in today’s Spain. “In Spain, there is a great deal of freedom.” There are synagogues and kosher restaurants, very good ones in Madrid, said Rabbi Algaze.
“Mainly the Catholic Church is very worried.” “They wanted to eliminate the influence of Teresa. They worry about the Jews.”
By David Schneier
