DNA Clears the Fog Over Latino Links to Judaism in New Mexico

LA Times ^ | 12/06/04 | By David Kelly, Times Staff Writer

[Bella_Bru]

Tests confirm what tradition and whispers have alluded to -- a Sephardic community often unbeknownst to many of its members.

ALBUQUERQUE — As a boy, Father William Sanchez sensed he was different. His Catholic family spun tops on Christmas, shunned pork and whispered of a past in medieval Spain. If anyone knew the secret, they weren't telling, and Sanchez stopped asking.

Then three years ago, after watching a program on genealogy, Sanchez sent for a DNA kit that could help track a person's background through genetic footprinting. He soon got a call from Bennett Greenspan, owner of the Houston-based testing company.

"He said, 'Did you know you were Jewish?' " Sanchez, 53, recalled. "He told me I was a Cohanim, a member of the priestly class descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses."

He launched a DNA project to test his relatives, along with some of the parishioners at Albuquerque's St. Edwin's Church, where he works.

As word got out, others in the community began contacting him. So Sanchez expanded the effort to include Latinos throughout the state.

Of the 78 people tested, 30 are positive for the marker of the Cohanim, whose genetic line remains strong because they rarely married non-Jews throughout a history spanning up to 4,000 years.

Michael Hammer, a research professor at the University of Arizona and an expert on Jewish genetics, said that fewer than 1% of non-Jews possessed this marker. That fact — along with the traditions in many of these families — makes it likely that they are Jewish, he said.

[Bella_Bru]

ping

If you want my Slimes password, FReepmail me.

[Alouette]

The Cohanim- DNA Connection

There are other criteria required to be a full Cohen qualified to perform service in the Temple. The DNA testing is only a start.

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.

WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

[Old Professer]

I once read the complete works of Siclair Lewis; one neat story is Kingsblood Royal.

[hlmencken3]

NOTE: DNA does NOT make one Jewish

The Cohanim - DNA Connection
by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman
The fascinating story of how DNA studies confirm an ancient biblical tradition.

http://www.aish.com/societyWork/sciencenature/The_Cohanim_-_DNA_Connection.asp

[Old Professer]

Sinclair Lewis, excuse me.

[stands2reason]

Interesting --

[Bella_Bru]

Yes, I know it is more than DNA. I found their story interesting, however. Not sure how much more I am allowed to post.

[Graymatter]

Ladino ping

[dennisw]

I remember a few years ago Carlos Santana and his sister were looking into possible Jewish roots. Marano via Spain.

[rpgdfmx]

In itself, no. But, given the New Mexico "Spaniards" claims to being descended from the early Conquistadors rather than their Tlaxcalan allies or later Mexican settlers, it confirms my thesis that more of the conquistadors and early Spanish immigrants to the New World were "conversos" (the Jews and Muslims forced to convert after 1492) than originally thought.

Sorry to bore those more interested in the State of Israel... my interest is Mexican history, and this is exciting to me.

[Bella_Bru]

Ladino

Ah! There is smoehting people don't hear muich about. No offense to Ashkenazic Jews, but some people act like that all Jews are Eastern European. There are wonderful, rich traditions amongst Sephardic and Italian Jews that are often overlooked.

[Bella_Bru]

It mentions that in the article:

In 1492, Jews in Spain where given the choice of conversion to Catholicism or expulsion. Many fled, but others faked conversions while practicing their faith in secret. These crypto-Jews were hounded throughout the Spanish Inquisition.

"In the 1530s and 1540s, you began to see converted Jews coming to Mexico City, where some converted back to Judaism," said Moshe Lazar, a professor of comparative literature at USC and an expert on Sephardic Jews, or those from Spain and Portugal. "The women preserved their tradition. They taught their daughters the religion. People began rediscovering their Jewishness, but remained Catholics."

But in 1571, the Inquisition came to Mexico. Authorities were given lists to help identify crypto-Jews, Lazar said. People who didn't eat pork, knelt imperfectly in church, rubbed water quickly off newly baptized babies or didn't work on Saturday were suspect. If arrested, they were sometimes burned at the stake.

Many fled to what is now northern New Mexico, and remained secretive even after the U.S. gained control of the area in 1848.

[hlmencken3]

This chapter on Jewish history notes the Jews who came to the Americas as Spanish or Portuguese Christians.


Crash Course in Jewish History Part 48 - The Inquisition
by Rabbi Ken Spiro
The basic accusation of the Inquisition was that Jews who converted to Christianity were still secretly Jewish.

http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History_Part_48_-_The_Inquisition.asp

Unlike its earlier version, the Spanish Inquisition sought to punish Jews who had converted to Christianity but were not really "sincere" in their conversions.

There is a great deal of irony in this. First you tell people they have to convert or die, then, when they do convert, you decide to kill them anyway because their conversions are not "sincere."

There was another reason for the Inquisition, which had little to do with the sincerity of conversions. Once Jews converted to Christianity they had an open access to the playing field, economically and politically. And, of course, they prospered mightily. That engendered a lot of hostility from the Christians - a pattern we have seen in Jewish history ever since the enslavement of the Israelites by the Egyptians.

The Christians began to call converted Jews "New Christians" to distinguish them from the "Old Christians" i.e. themselves. Derogatorily, Jewish converts to Christianity were called conversos meaning "converts," or worse yet marranos, meaning "pigs."

The basic accusation was that these Jews were not real converts to Christianity - they were secretly practicing Judaism. That was certainly often the case. There were large numbers of Jews who would be outwardly Christian but who would continue to practice Judaism secretly.

Until this day, there exist Christian communities with clear Jewish roots dating back to this time. There are people in the United States (in New England, New Mexico and Arizona) as well as in South and Central America, who are descended from Spanish or Portuguese settlers, and who have strange customs they cannot explain. For example, even though they are Catholics, on Friday night they go down to the cellar to light candles. They don't know the origins of the custom, but they do it. These people are clearly descended from Jews who pretended to be Christians and yet were practicing Jewish rituals in secret.

The job of the Inquisition was to find such people, torture them until they admitted their "crime," and then kill them.

[Quix]

THANKS.

AM KEENLY INTERESTED IN JEWISH DNA PROJECTS.

If you have a ping list, please put me on it.

Blessings,

[malakhi]

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear on their website any longer, but there was a similar article in the June 2004 issue of Moment magazine.

[Bella_Bru]

I don't have a ping list, save a few FRiends, but both Alouette and Sjackson weild mighty ping lists. ;-) I am sure they both would add you.

[Bella_Bru]

I remember you saying somehting about that once.

[Quix]

THANKS MUCH.

[HiTech RedNeck]

inquisition bump