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disguised as the feast day of a fictional christian saint the festival of santa esterica based on the story of queen esther in persia other jewish festivals were also celebrated in hiding and disguised as something else however the spanish inquisition branches in the americas were established initially due to the complaints made by spanish conquerors and settlers of old christian backgrounds to the crown they had noticed a significant illegal influx of new christians of sephardi origin into their colonies many coming in via the portuguese colony of brazil only spaniards of old christian backgrounds were legally allowed passage into the spanish colonies as conquistadors and settlers many spanish new christians secret jews falsified their pedigree documents or obtained perjured witness statements attesting pureza de sangre purity of blood from other new christians who had entered the colonies and built up old christian identities others evaded the screening process through influence from family friends community connections and acquaintances who were already passing as old christians some immigrants became members of ships crews and assistants of conquistadors lowly positions that did not require evidence of pureza de sangre later even persons seeking these positions were more closely scrutinized there was a land grant given by the spanish king for the areas in mexico known as nuevo reino de leon the new kingdom of leon which specified that the people did not have to have pure christian blood today the city of monterrey mexico in this region of nuevo leon has many descendants of the secret jews living there on the other hand portuguese new christians settled in the portuguese colonies like the azores islands madeira and são tomé and later migrated to new england especially new bedford fall river and gloucester ma and a major migration to south america via brazil from there some entered the spanish colonies brazil was laxer in enforcing the sephardic new christian immigrant passage prohibition between 1580 and 1640 when the spanish crown annexed the kingdom of portugal the influx of portuguese conversos into the spanish colonies in south america became such that by the early 1600s the term portugués had become synonymous with jewish in the spanish colonies 10 the old christian majority among the portuguese in portugal and brazil complained that they were being denigrated by such association 11 to this day portuguese surnames are among the many descendants of these people in spanish speaking countries of the americas many hispanicized their surnames to fit spanish orthography hiding their portuguese i e jewish origin to this day portuguese bnei anousim are some of the staunchest promoters of coming back to sephardi judaism through conversion or formal return in brazil alone over 50 of these communities have also created a federation reverting to judaism edit only a small number of people of colonial era sephardic descent in spain portugal hispanic america or brazil are reverting to judaism generally formal or officially sanctioned or sponsored conversions by jewish religious institutions including the israeli rabbinate require individuals to undergo a formal conversion process to be accepted as jews there are rabbis today however in europe the usa and latin america who are addressing this injustice of the ban on returnees from being members of the mainstream jewish communities in latin american countries and we see this trend growing since the early 21st century there has been a steady growth in the number of descendants indicating interest in a return to mainstream judaism 12 many sephardic bnei anusim have accepted their historical jewish ancestry and generations of intermarriage and a contemporary christian affiliation along with their modern national identities as spaniards portuguese and latin americans of various nations the bnei anousim return movement is alive and well and growing every year whereas conversos those whose families did not preserve jewish customs and traditions have begun to syncretize their christian religious identities and ethnic identities with an ethnic jewish secular identity without seeking reversion to judaism among these are some who have shifted toward adopting messianic judaism that is jewish emphasizing forms of christianity messianic jewish congregations styled less like churches and more like synagogues have been sprouting up around latin america in the last several years and are mainly composed of sephardic bnei anusim members of these congregations often call their congregation a sinagoga spanish for synagogue beit knesset hebrew for synagogue or kehilah hebrew for congregation the fact that conversos leans towards messianic jewish forms of christianity rather than reverting to judaism itself is suggested as a paradigm resulting from factors in latin america there are various factors that contribute to the fact that conversos and for the bnei anousim do not return to mainstream judaism impeding factors edit internal reluctance due to habitual tradition edit sephardic bnei anusim and conversos are sometimes reluctant to fully abandon a christian faith or living secretly as jews within which they and their immediate ancestors have lived it has been a tradition in their families for centuries now and it may also be the case that some individuals want to make a comeback to judaism while other family members are against it and it is sometimes the case that other family members are even reluctant for it to be known that they were originally jewish the fears because of anti semitism and the history of persecutions still haunt some of them to this day in many cases the mainstream jewish world does not welcome them back targeting by messianic judaism edit in addition many sephardic bnei anusim and conversos resent being targeted and proselytized by messianic jewish organizations since there has been more publicity about the ancient partially jewish communities such messianic jewish organizations have been accused by whom of discouraging sephardic bnei anusim from rejoining mainstream judaism suggesting their faith as a form to integrate their complex ancestries takkanah prohibition on conversions in latin america edit however the major factor impeding reversions stems from a takkanah or jewish religious community edict which was decreed in 1927 in argentina and later adopted by almost all the mainstream jewish communities in latin america this was done at the request of recently arrived immigrant eastern sephardim from syria the mainstream jewish community in argentina composed of a syrian sephardim minority and a european ashkenazim majority who were made up of 20th century immigrants ruled in the takkanah that to combat the high rate of assimilation of the relatively newly formed argentine jewish community of that time and their intermarriage with to gentiles the local mainstream jewish communities would not support conversion of gentile spouses suspicious that they were insincere conversions in argentina were prohibited until the end of time 13 the takkanah was directed against gentiles of no historical jewish ancestry but the takkanah has been applied to all conversions and thus has prevented any of the sephardic bnei anusim in argentina and later in other countries in latin america who may want to convert or return to judaism formally the takkanah was intended to combat what some of the community and rabbinate considered high rates of insincere conversions being performed solely to enable intermarriages of jews to gentiles because sometimes such converts and their children did not fully embrace judaism there were net losses to the jewish population the takkanah later had influence throughout the rest of latin america most local mainstream jewish communities have continued prohibiting all conversions reversions on the continent new york city s syrian jewish community also adopted this prohibition although in theory it was limited to conversions to be performed for the sake of marriage as implemented in 1935 the takkanah in new york has been amended to say that no future rabbinic court will have the right or authority to convert non jews who seek to marry into our syrian jewish community 13 the takkanah in new york city holds no force among the overwhelmingly ashkenazi jewish population of the city and north america in general because of the takkanah sephardic bnei anusim have accused mainstream jewish communities in latin america of classism racism and outright discrimination as many of their members have african and native american or indigenous ancestry in addition to european in latin america the jewish communities are predominantly made up of european ashkenazim on the other hand members of mainstream jewish communities have argued that it is best for converts and returnees to form their own communities where they all share that experience of conversion or return and will be accepted by their own kind citation needed these are the communities that the israeli government calls emerging communities and they are banned by the ministry of interior from making aliyah and so for their part the local jewish communities whether ashkenazi or syrian sephardi have insisted that the status quo of non conversions reversions in latin america by local jewish communities and their isolated and insular natures in latin america is due to the historical anti assimilationist needs for the jewish community to survive often the syrian sephardim and european ashkenazim were isolated from each other as they came from different cultural spheres and tended to settle with others of their kind they were not united across such barriers by judaism but in the 21st century the ashkenazim and sephardim have melded mainly into a single communal identity in latin america local jewish desire to avoid accusations of proselytizing edit in addition the local jewish communities did not want to be accused of proselytizing judaism to christian people latin american catholics of non jewish background said that the jews were stealing souls from the catholic church this is no longer the case however since 1965 with the 2nd vatican council the roman catholic church decided that it would no longer blame all jews for all time for the killing of their christian messiah in 1968 influenced by vatican ii the civil government of spain finally and formally revoked the alhambra decree also known as the edict of expulsion from spain in 1492 more recently both spain and portugal have invited the descendants of the exiled sephardi jews to return as citizens of spain and portugal once they could demonstrate their sephardi ancestry because of these factors the limited number of recent reversions conversions to judaism performed in latin america especially south america have generally been conducted by visiting religious emissaries from either north american ashkenazi jewish communities or sephardi rabbis in america or delegated by the israeli rabbinate the conversions reversions have been based on a formal conversion process in contrast some individuals have gone through a return process prospective converts have to undergo at least one year of online jewish religious study with the sponsoring foreign jewish religious organization or authority they must complete the physical requirements of reversion conversion for the individual or small group which are performed by a delegation sent by the foreign sponsoring jewish religious organization some individual latin americans have also reverted converted to judaism abroad other batei din of mainly sephardi and some ashkenazi rabbis require for returnees documentation of their evidence of the mother s female line of secretly jewish women plus some amount of time in learning the basics of judaism halakha and a basic level of observance in the late 20th century a group of people in iquitos peru who believed they were descendants of 19th century male jewish traders and their indigenous wives began to study judaism seriously they were aided by a rabbi from brooklyn new york they were allowed to make aliyah to israel there they had to undergo formal conversion as overseen and conducted by orthodox authorities in order to be accepted as jewish their jewish ancestors had been among moroccan immigrants to iquitos during the rubber boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries foreign jewish outreach programs edit several foreign jewish outreach organizations are appealing to sephardic bnei anusim among these is shavei israel which operates in spain portugal and throughout latin america and has its headquarters in israel they deal with sephardi descended spaniards portuguese and latin americans who are seeking a formal conversion to the jewish people after centuries of separation their rabbis typically do not work with returnees who want to present evidence to the beit din of their secretly jewish ancestors other organizations working to reach out to and or reconnect the sephardic bnei anusim include sephardim hope international and reconectar lastly ezra l anousim is an israeli non profit since 2005 they are the only non profit made up of all volunteers most of whom are also from the bnei anousim ancestry they are helping the bnei anousim both converts and returnees on a global basis and have an international social media team for their outreach they work with european bnei anousim bnei anousim in all the americas and caribbean bnei anousim from m e n a middle east and north africa and bnei anousim individuals who live as far away as australia new zealand the philippines and indonesia ezra l anousim settlements and concentrations edit iberia edit in iberia itself known and attested settlements of bnei anusim include the population of belmonte in portugal and the xueta of palma de majorca in spain in 2011 rabbi nissim karelitz a leading halachic authority and chairman of the beit din tzedek rabbinical court in bnei brak israel recognized the entire xueta community of bnei anusim in palma de majorca as jews 14 that population consisted of approximately 18 000 people or just over 2 of the entire population of the island of the bnei anusim community in belmonte portugal some officially returned to judaism in the 1970s they opened a synagogue bet eliahu in 1996 15 the belmonte community of bnei anusim as a whole however have not yet been granted the same recognition as jews that the xueta of palma de majorca achieved in 2011 both portugal and spain have people with jewish ancestry according to dna studies up to 20 of the modern population of spain and portugal have jewish ancestry some are likely bnei ansuim whose sephardic jewish ancestors converted but stayed in the peninsula ibero america edit recent historical studies suggest that the number of new christians of sephardi origin who participated in the conquest and settlement was more significant than previously estimated noted spanish conquistadors ...