When you peel back the layers of NM history, you just keep finding more layers.
Posted on 04/02/2015 4:58:11 AM PDT by SJackson
Communities in New Mexico and southern Colorado have found irrefutable evidence to say they are descended from Jews. What next?
The crypto-Jews of Spain have fascinated Jews for decades. But it was not always fascination – it was once more about the frustration, even resignation, that hundreds of thousands of Jews had been stolen in martyrdom or in forced conversions to Catholicism. In 1492, consolidating their gains following the conquest of Granada, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella enforced the Spanish Inquisition to offer Jews under their rule three infamous options: leave, convert or die. For those who converted, it was a shallow change of religion.
Jews passing themselves off as converts – conversos in Spanish – took advantage of Spain’s expansion into the Americas to escape, not expecting the Spanish Inquisition to follow. Within a generation the Inquisition had set up shop throughout what would become Latin America, forcing devout Jews to go even further out. After the Inquisition consolidated itself in Mexico, some Jews headed toward South America while others went north into what would become New Mexico.
“Years ago, my brother and my aunt were doing our family’s genealogy,” says Bernadette Martinez, a real-estate developer in New Mexico who claims descent from New Mexican conversos and has been involved in the redeveloping community for years.
“We had heard rumors of descendants of conversos in New Mexico. I didn’t think we were part of that because didn’t seem to me we had any practices that were strange or been from a Jewish background. I didn’t think much about it until I saw a segment on TV with Dr. Dell Sanchez.”
Dr. Sanchez has been active in the cause of New Mexican conversos for years.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Misleading headline, the issue is rediscovering their heritage, not emigrating to Israel. Then again, maybe they've been listening to Joe Biden
The law of return issue would be problematical other than for those who might be able to prove an unbroken maternal line. Or simply convert.
When you peel back the layers of NM history, you just keep finding more layers.
So the early Catholics and the Muslims have a lot in common.
PING
The Inquisition was started to clear out Islam from the Iberian Peninsula, and then went overzealous. So not so much.
In The Spanish Jews Defense, No One was Expecting the Spanish Inquisition!
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Eh. Some of my ancestors were Spanish Jews who left Spain for Holland after 1492. The problem posed by the Jews was that they had become administrators for the caliphs, and were part of the enemy apparatus—which for the previous 700 years had ransacked and destroyed churches, forbidden the practice of Christianity, and of course, killed and enslaved Christians across North Africa (which had been Christian since the Roman Empire), Spain, and into France.
What this this article refers to chastely as Ferdinand and Isabella's "conquest of Granada" was the last step in the re-conquest of Spain to repel invaders and totalitarian occupiers. Too bad they didn't chase the Moors back through North Africa to Saudi Arabia. It might have prevented some future problems.
So let's see. In 1945, the French shaved Nazi collaborators' heads and shot them. In 1492, the Spanish Jews could convert or leave. It they falsely converted and stayed, that was considered a crime. It was a genuinely difficult situation for everyone all around, but certainly not capricious cruelty—much as this anti-Christian, anti-Zionist publication would like to pretend otherwise. I'm glad my ancestors headed for the boats. Lord knows, they did just fine in Holland and America.
One thing I wonder, was the Spanish campaign against the Jews entirely unfounded? As it was carried out, the Spanish did do evil against the Jews.
But, were there a substantial number of Jews who preferred the Moorish rule? Was there reason to see Jews as collaborators with the Moors?
The campaign compares in some ways to the internment of the Japanese-Americans during WW2. We look back and say that it was unjustified - there were some who sided with Japan but nearly all were loyal Americans.
The American episode hadn’t the weight of centuries - decades of Japanese presence in this country, and a few years of Japanese aggression, and only a few months since Pearl Harbor.
No, the Catholic Church does do institutionalize murder and lies as core beliefs. Surely, the MEN who acted as Inquisitors were wrong in using torture and death as means to an end. Given the Mohammedan defeat and the proliferation of heresies, it is understandable that they acted AT THAT TIME as they did.
Too often we view history with eyes of modern man, instead of conditions that were prevalent at the time the events occurred.
>>We look back and say that it was unjustified -
I’m not sure that we do. Look back, that is. It is widely said today that it was evil/racist, but have those doing so really looked back? In a total war of that magnitude, given what was known about collaboration via our breaking of Japanese codes, was it really the wrong thing to do, overall?
Required reading on the subject. Lots of scans of source documents from the era:
Magic: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents from the West Coast During WW II
http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Intelligence-Evacuation-Japanese-Residents/dp/0960273611
Not just early Catholics. Both groups today worship Mary.
It is well known that the early Catholic church required you to be accept their doctrine, if not you were put to death, this predates Islam.
Carlos Santana said it was not true but about 14 years ago there was a buzz about him having a New World crypto-Jewish background
You can find Jews on either side of the conflict, as my tribe could not own land and thus were skilled craftsmen or (especially in Spain and Portugal) sailors, and thus used by whomever was the boss at the time.
Same story since Babylonian times (e.g., Daniel) or even with Pharoah (e.g., the famine) -— we’re useful in keeping the wheels of civilization from failing off.
In Spain, this was no different. For example, Chris Columbus was of Jewish origin (his mother), although it is unclear what his religion was -— probably Catholic.
And then, for the other side, go read “Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean” — a plurality of the nastiest raiders were Jewish.
And yes, Jewish people lent money to the Spanish crown to fight the muslims, so there is always this motive.
I don’t know what you mean by the “early Catholic church” because for 300 years it was Catholics that were put to death by the Roman emperors. The next 300 years were spent fighting heresies (Arianism, Nestorianism, Pelagianism, etc.) and the Huns. In most cases, heretics were condemned and departed the Church for new territories. And yes, there were some who were put to death.
And then came the Mohammedans. Fourteen hundred years later, we are still at war. Their choice.
So you are of the belief that the Catholic Church started the day Jesus was raised from the dead.
Why did an image of Mel Brooks flash into my mind?
On a serious note, living in New Mexico, it is an interesting subject.
You have a better day?
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