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Jewish Community News
News: February 2007
Shir Hadash to host speaker on “Crypto-Jews” March 17
As part of a special Havdalah program on Saturday, March 17, at 8 p.m.,
Congregation Shir Hadash of Los Gatos will host educator and writer Ken
Blady, who will speak on “Crypto-Jews: The Jews of Spain and Portugal,
and the Converso Diaspora.”
After pogroms swept across Spain in 1391, thousands of Jews were forcibly
or voluntarily converted to Catholicism. Following the expulsion decree
of 1492, many Jews, wishing to remain in their homeland, joined the ranks
of these converts. All publicly professed Catholics, a large number continued
to practice Judaism secretly. These former Jews, variously called converses,
marranos or New Christians, came under the watchful eye of the Inquisition.
Thousands were subjected to the stake. Ultimately, many fled or were driven
into exile and created a widespread Crypto-Jewish Diaspora, which was
to affect Jewish history in important ways.
This lecture will include a thumbnail sketch of Spanish
Jewish history with an emphasis on the Catholic Reconquista; events leading
up to the massacres of 1391; Torquemada and the establishment of the Spanish
Inquisition (1482); procedures of the Inquisitors; New Christians and
Old Christians; the religion of the conversos; Xuetas (“Catholic
Jews”) of Majorca; Anusim of Belmonte, Portugal; the Judeos of Bahia,
Brazil; and Crypto-Jews of Mexico and the American Southwest.
Ken Blady has appeared on TV talk shows and radio, and has
lectured on several Jewish themes in a variety of settings both religious
and secular. Most recently, he was seen on the History Channel documentary,
“Operation Magic Carpet: The Airlift of the Jews of Yemen to Israel.”
He was born in Paris, France, and grew up in Chassidic Brooklyn, where
he attended yeshiva and rabbinical seminary. A San Francisco Bay Areas
resident since 1972, Mr. Blady has a Bachelors in History from UC Berkeley
and a Masters in Clinical Counseling from California State University,
Hayward.
For more information on this lecture, please contact Congregation
Shir Hadash at (408) 357-1751.
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