Crypto-Judaism

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Crypto-Judaismis the secret adherence toJudaismwhile publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greekkryptos–κρυπτός,'hidden').

The term is especially applied historically to Spanish and Portuguese Jews who outwardly professedCatholicism,also known asConversos,Marranos,or theAnusim.The phenomenon is especially associated with medieval Spain, following theMassacre of 1391and theexpulsion of the Jews in 1492.After 1492 in Spain and 1497 in Portugal, officially they no longer existed. TheSpanish Inquisitionand thePortuguese Inquisitionwere established to monitor converted Jews and their descendants for their continued adherence to Christian faith and practice, with severe penalties for those convicted of secretly continuing to practice Judaism. Information about secretly observant Jews largely survives in Inquisition cases against individuals.

Europe

Officially, Jews who converted in Spain during the 14th and 15th centuries were known asCristianos Nuevos(New Christians), but were commonly calledconversos(converts to Christianity). Spain and Portugal issued edicts restricting their rights in the mother countries of Spain and Portugal and Spanish and Portuguese overseas territories in the Americas.

Although onlyCristianos Viejos(Old Christians) who could provelimpieza de sangre( "cleanliness or purity of blood" ) descended from Christian Iberian European ancestry only, without "tainting" of any Jewish ancestry or Muslim Berber/Arab ancestry, were allowed to officially migrate to the New World Spanish possessions, many Christianconversoswith Jewish antecedents went to the Spanish possessions, using forgedlimpieza de sangredocuments, or they entered the Spanish possessions via Portuguese Brazil, particularly 1580-1640 when Spain and Portugal were ruled by the same monarch. The entry requirements to the Portuguese colony of Brazil were more lax and also less rigorously enforced.

Despite the dangers of theSpanish Inquisitionin Iberia and the Inquisitions established in Mexico City; Lima, Peru; and Cartagena de Indias in what is now Colombia, manyconversoscontinued to secretly and discreetly practice Jewish rituals in the home,such as theFestival of Santa Esterica,a disguised version ofPurimto celebrate the Jewish Queen Esther with a fictional “Catholic” Saint Esterica.

After theAlhambra decreeof March 1492, which mandated conversion to Christianity or exile for Jews, numerousconversos,also calledXueta(or Chueta) in theBalearic Islandsruled by Spain, publicly professedRoman Catholicismbut privately adhered to Judaism, even through theSpanish Inquisition.They are among the most widely known and documented crypto-Jews.

Crypto-Judaism existed in earlier periods, whenever Jews were forced or pressured to convert to the majority religion by the rulers of places where they resided. Some of the Jewish followers ofSabbatai Zevi(Sabbateans) formally converted to Islam and were known asDönmeh.Later followers ofJacob Frank(Frankists) formally converted to Christianity but maintained aspects of practice of their versions of Judaism.

Crypto-Jews persisted in Russia and Eastern European countries influenced by the Soviet Union after the rise of Communism with theRussian Revolutionof 1917. The government, which included secular Communist Jews, did not force Jews to convert to theRussian Orthodox Churchbut regarded the practice of any religion as undesirable. Some faiths were allowed to continue under strict supervision by the regime. Since the end of Communism, many people in former Soviet states, including descendants of Jews, have publicly taken up the faith of their ancestors again.

The "Belmonte Jews"of Portugal, dating from the 12th century, maintained strong secret traditions for centuries. A whole community survived in secrecy by maintaining a tradition of endogamous marriage and hiding all external signs of their faith. They and their practices were discovered only in the 20th century. Their rich Sephardic tradition of crypto-Judaism is unique. Some now profess Orthodox Judaism, although many still retain their centuries-old traditions.

Role of Maimonides

As one of the towering figures in Judaism and the author of theMishneh Torahcommentary on theTalmud,Maimonidesalso issued a landmark doctrinal response to the forced conversions of Jews in the Iberian peninsula by theAlmohads:

In hisEpistle on Martyrdom,however, Maimonides suggested that the persecuted Jew should publicly adopt Islam while maintaining crypto-Judaism and not seek martyrdom unless forced to transgress Jewish commandments in public. He also excoriated one writer, who advocated martyrdom, for "long-winded foolish babbling and nonsense" and for misleading and hurting the Jews. In a sweeping view of the Jewish past, Maimonides marshals examples of heretics and sinners from the Bible to show that even oppressors of Israel were rewarded by God for a single act of piety or respect. How much greater then, he argues, will be the reward of the Jews "who despite the exigencies of forced conversion perform commandments secretly."

Maimonides championed rationalism over the then-accepted practice of martyrdom when facing religious adversity. This consequently legitimized crypto-Judaism by the religion's standards and provided doctrinal backing for Jews during the centuries of the Spanish Inquisition (1478–1834).

Before the Spanish Inquisition

According to theEncyclopaedia Judaica,several incidents of forced conversions happened prior to 1492 and outside of Iberia. One of the earliest conversions happened a century after theFall of Romeand was inClermont-Ferrand.After a member of theJewishcommunity in Clermont-Ferrand became aJewish Christianand was persecuted by other members of the community for doing so, the cavalcade in which he was marching persecuted his persecutors in turn:

The participants in the procession then made an attack "which destroyed [the synagogue] completely, razing it to the grounds." Subsequently, Bishop *Avitus directed a letter to the Jews in which he disclaimed the use of compulsion to make them adopt Christianity, but announced at the end of the missive: "Therefore if ye be ready to believe as I do, be one flock with us, and I shall be your pastor; but if ye be not ready, depart from this place." The community hesitated for three days before making a decision. Finally the majority, some 500, accepted Christianity. The Christians in Clermont greeted the event with rejoicing: "Candles were lit, the lamps shone, the whole city radiated with the light of the snow-white flock" (i.e., the forced converts). The Jews who preferred exile left for *Marseilles (Gregory of Tours, Histories, 5:11). The poet Venantius Fortunatus composed a poem to commemorate the occasion. In 582 the Frankish king Chilperic compelled numerous Jews to adopt Christianity. Again the anusim were not wholehearted in their conversion, for "some of them, cleansed in body but not in heart, denied God, and returned to their ancient perfidy, so that they were seen keeping the Sabbath, as well as Sunday" (ibid., 6:17).

The Clermont-Ferrand conversions preceded the first forced conversions in Iberia by 40 years. Forced baptisms of Jews took place in Iberia in 616 at the insistence of Visigoth monarchSisibut:

Persistent attempts to enforce conversion were made in the seventh century by the Visigoths in Spain after they had adopted the Roman Catholic faith. Comparatively mild legal measures were followed by the harsh edict issued by King Sisibut in 616, ordering the compulsory baptism of all Jews. After conversion, however, the anusim evidently maintained their Jewish cohesion and religious life. It was undoubtedly this problem that continued to occupy Spanish sovereigns at the successive Councils of Toledo representing both the ecclesiastical and secular authorities...Thus, steps were taken to secure that the children of converts had a Christian religious education as well as to prevent the older generation from continuing to observe the Jewish rites or from failing to observe the Catholic ones. A system of strict supervision by the clergy over the way of life and movements of the anusim was imposed...

Neofiti

TheNeofitiwere a group of crypto-Jews living in theKingdom of Sicily,which included all of Southern Italy from the 13th to the 16th centuries.

Susiti

The ancestral lineSus,SüßkindandLindauerwas a crypto-Jewish susitic ancestral line that settled in theHoly Roman Empireand lived as Catholic or Protestant crypto-Jews.Secondary lineages of theLindauerare: Lindauere, Lindouer, Lindaer, Linduaer, Lindeaur, Lindeauer, Lindhauer, Linndauer, Lindayer as well as Lindaurr.

Mediterranean and Asia

There have been several communities of crypto-Jews in Muslim lands. The ancestors of theDaggatunsin Morocco are thought to have kept up their Jewish practices a long time after their nominal adoption of Islam. In Iran, a large community of crypto-Jews lived inMashhad,nearKhorassan,where they were known as"Jedid al-Islam";they were mass-converted to Islam around 1839 after theAllahdadevents. Most of this community left for Israel in 1946. Some converted to Islam and remained in Iran.

Portuguese Imperialism in Indian Subcontinent

In 1494, after the signing of theTreaty of Tordesillas,authorized byPope Alexander VI,Portugal was given the right to found colonies in the Eastern Hemisphere. In his lecture at theLibrary of Congress,ProfessorSanjay Subrahmanyam,Chair in Social Sciences atUniversity of California, Los Angeles,explains that crypto-Jews were especially attracted to India because not only was it a center of trade, but India had established ancient Jewish settlements along its Western coast. The presence of these communities meant that crypto-Jews, who had been forced to acceptCatholicismbut did not want to emigrate to tolerant countries (e.g. Morocco, Poland, Ottoman Empire, etc.), could operate within thePortuguese Empirewith the full freedom of Catholic subjects but away from theInquisitionwhile collaborating with existing Jewish communities to hide their true beliefs.

The presence of crypto-Jews in Goa angered the Archbishop of Goa, DomGaspar Jorge de Leão Pereira,and other Europeans likeFrancis Xavierwho wrote polemics and letters toLisbonurging that the Inquisition be brought to Goa.Crypto-Jews presented a security threat to the Kingdom of Portugal, because Sephardic Jews had an established reputation in Iberia for joining forces withMoorsto overthrow Christian rulers.TheGoan Inquisitioncommenced in 1560 and ended in 1812. It targeted crypto-Jews,crypto-Muslims,andcrypto-Hindus.Of the 1,582 persons convicted between 1560 and 1623, 45.2% were convicted for offenses related to Judaism and Islam.A compilation of the auto-da-fé statistics of the Goa Inquisition reveal that a total of 57 persons were burnt in the flesh and 64 in effigy (i.e. a statue resembling the person). All the burnt were convicted as relapsed heretics or for sodomy.

Spanish America

Crypto-Judaism was documented chiefly in Spanish-held colonial territories in northernMexico.Numerous conversos joined Spanish and Portuguese expeditions, believing there was an economic opportunity in the new lands, and that they would have more freedom at a distance far from Iberia. Different situations developed in the early colonial period of Mexico, the frontier province ofNuevo León,the later northern frontier provinces, and the colonial experience of theMexican Inquisition.The crypto-Jewish traditions have complex histories and are typically embedded in an amalgam of syncretic Roman Catholic and Judaic traditions. In many ways resurgent Judaic practices mirrored indigenous peoples' maintaining their traditions practiced loosely under a Roman Catholic veil. In addition, Catholicism was syncretic, absorbing other traditions and creating a new creole religion.

The traditionalFestival of Santa Estericawas preserved among the Conversos who migrated to the New World and is still practiced today among their descendants.

Early colonial period – 16th century

Some of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain went to Portugal, but in 1497 that country effectively converted all remaining Jewish children, making them wards of the state unless the parents also converted. Therefore, many of the early crypto-Jewish migrants to Mexico in the early colonial days were technically first to second-generation Portuguese with Spanish roots before that. The number of such Portuguese migrants was significant enough that Spanish colonists began to use "Portuguese" as a synonym for "Jewish" for their settlers.Immigration to Mexicooffered lucrative trade possibilities in a well-populated colony with nascent Spanish culture. Some migrants believed that this region would be more tolerant since the lands were overwhelmingly populated by non-Christian indigenous peoples and it was far removed from the metropole.

Colonial officials believed that many crypto-Jews were going to Mexico during the 16th century and complained in written documents to Spain that Spanish society in Mexico would become significantly Jewish. Officials found and condemned clandestine synagogues in Mexico City. At this point, colonial administrators institutedthe Law of the Pure Blood,which prohibited migration to Mexico forNew Christians(Cristiano Nuevo), i.e. anyone who could not prove to be Old Christians for at least the last three generations. In addition, the administration initiated theMexican Inquisitionto ensure the Catholic orthodoxy of all migrants to Mexico. The Mexico Inquisition was also deployed in the traditional manner to ensure orthodoxy of converted indigenous peoples. The first victims of burnings (orautos de fé) of the Mexican Inquisition were indigenous converts convicted of heresy or crypto-Jews convicted of relapsing into their ancestral faith.

Except for those allowed to settle the province ofNuevo Leonunder an exemption from the Blood Purity Laws, the number of conversos migrating to the New World was reduced.

Nuevo León (1590s to early 17th century)

The colonization of New Spain took place as a northward expansion over increasingly harsh geography, in regions that were occupied by tribes angered at the encroachment; they formed loose confederations of indigenous peoples to resist the settlers. Spain financed the expansion by exploiting mineral wealth, enslaving, or forcing indigenous peoples to labor in mines. It establishedencomiendasfor raising livestock, thereby displacing the local people. The indigenous peoples of the North-Eastern quadrant ofNew Spain(Nueva España) proved particularly resistant to colonial pressures. TheChichimec,Apache,and other tribes resisted conversion to Christianity and avoided being impressed as laborers or slaves on Spanish ranches and in mines. The Spanish believed such peoples made the frontier (frontera) a lawless region.

Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva,a royal accountant, was a PortugueseNew Christian.He received a royal charter from the Spanish Crown to settleNuevo León,a large expanse of land in the hostile frontier. Because of the dangers and difficulties of this region, Carvajal y de la Cueva received an exemption in his charter from the usual requirement that he prove that all new settlers were "Old Christians" (of at least three generations) rather than recently converted Jews or Muslims. This exemption allowed people to go to Nuevo León who were legally barred from enteringNew Spainelsewhere.Carvajal was authorized to bring 100 soldiers and 60 laborers to New Spain; many have been documented as crypto-Jews.

Jewish religious items at the Metropolitan Museum ofMonterrey.

With Carvajal as governor,Monterreywas established as the center (now in the state of Nuevo León). Within a few years, some people reported to authorities in Mexico City that Jewish rites were being performed in the Northern Province and efforts to convert heathen indigenous peoples were lax.The principal economic activity of Carvajal and his associates seems to have been capturingIndiansand selling them into slavery.Carvajal's Lieutenant Governor,Gaspar Castaño de Sosa,led a large expedition toNew Mexicoin 1591 in an effort to establish a colony. Castaño was arrested for this unauthorized expedition and sentenced to exile in thePhilippines.The sentence was later reversed, but he had already been killed in theMolucca Islandswhen the Chinese slaves on his ship mutinied.

Governor Carvajal, his immediate family members, and others of his entourage were called to appear before the Inquisition in Mexico City. They were arrested and jailed. The governor subsequently died in jail, prior to a sentence of exile. His niece Isabel Carvajal had been tortured and implicated all the family in so-called charges. They were all executed byburning at the stakefor relapsing into Judaism, except for one nephew who escaped arrest by fleeing to Italy, and one nephew who was a Dominican friar.His nephew, also namedLuis,wrote the earliest-known writings by a Jew in the Americas.

When Carvajal was in office, the city of Monterrey became a destination for other crypto-Jews who wanted to escape the Mexican Inquisition in the south of the territory. Thus, Nuevo León and the founding of Monterrey are significant as they attracted crypto-Jewish migrants from all parts ofNew Spain.They created one of the earliest Jewish-related communities in Mexico. (The Jewish communities in modern Mexico, which practice their Judaism openly, were not established until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, after considerable immigration of Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe, andMizrahi Jewsfrom Turkey and Syria.)

Former New Spain territories in the United States, 17th–18th centuries

Due to the Inquisition activities in Nuevo León, many crypto-Jewish descendants migrated to frontier colonies further west, using the trade routes passing through the towns of the Sierra Madre Occidental and Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Cananea, and to the north on the trade route toPaso del NorteandSanta Fe(both cities in the colonialSanta Fe de Nuevo Mexico). Some even traveled toAlta Californiaon the Pacific Coast.

In the late 20th century, in modern-daySouthwestern United StatesspecificallyNew Mexico,which was a former territory of New Spain, severalHispanos of New Mexicohave stated a belief that they are descended from crypto-Jews of the colonial period. While most maintain their Roman Catholic and Christian faiths, they often cite as evidence memories of older relatives practicing Jewish traditions. Since the 1990s, the crypto-Jews of New Mexico have been extensively studied and documented by several research scholars, including Stanley M. Hordes,Janet Liebman Jacobs,Schulamith Halevy,and Seth D. Kunin, who calls themHispanos.Kunin noted that most of this group in New Mexico has not formally embraced Judaism nor joined the organized Jewish community.Though some have been sceptical, such as Folklorist Judith Neulander arguing that people could be referring to traditions of modernAshkenaziJews migrants andEvangelical ProtestantChristianswho purposely acquired and employed Jewish traditions.More recently,Evangelical ProtestantChristianshave opened missionary groups aimed at cultivating evangelical doctrine in Southwestern American communities where crypto-Judaism had survived. The highly influential Hordes has been charged with "single-minded speculation based on largely ephemeral or highly ambiguous evidence" for his conclusion that modern-day Hispanos who claim crypto-Jewish roots are heirs to an unbroken chain of transmission.Kunin responded to some of this criticism in his bookJuggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among the Crypto-Jews,in the response Kunin iterated that these scholars were misunderstanding New Mexican identity which, while authentically tied to Christian and Pueblo historicity, is in line with other Spanishconversohistories.

Peru

InPeru,conversos arrived at the time of the Spanish Conquest. At first, they had lived without restrictions because the Inquisition was not active there at the beginning of the Viceroyalty. With the advent of the Inquisition, New Christians began to be persecuted, and in some cases executed. The descendants of these colonial Sephardic Jewish descent converts to Christianity settled mainlyin the northof the Andes and of the high jungle of Peru, where they married local women and became assimilated.

Colombia

In the department ofAntioquia,Colombia,as well as in the greaterPaisa region,some families also hold traditions and oral accounts of Jewish descent. In this population, Y-DNA genetic analysis has shown an origin of male founders predominantly from "southern Spain but also suggest that a fraction came from northern Iberia and that some possibly had a Sephardic origin".Medellínhas a tradition of themarranada,where apigis slaughtered, butchered and consumed on the streets of every neighborhood eachChristmas.This custom has been interpreted as an annual affirmation of the rejection of Jewish law.

Bolivia

A safe haven destination forSephardicConversosduring the Spanish colonial era wasSanta Cruz de la Sierra.In 1557 many crypto-Jews joinedÑuflo de Chávezand were among the pioneers who founded the city.During the 16th century more crypto-Jews that faced persecution from the Inquisition and local authorities in nearbyPotosí,La PazandLa Platamoved to Santa Cruz, as it was the most isolated urban settlement and because the Inquisition did not bother theConversosthere;Some settled in the city of Santa Cruz and its adjacent towns, includingVallegrande,Postrervalle,Portachuelo,Terevinto,Pucará,andCotoca.

Several of the oldest Catholic families in Santa Cruz are of Jewish ancestry; some families still practice certain traditions of Judaism. As recently as the 1920s, several families preserved seven-branched candlesticks and served dishes cooked withkosherpractices.It is still customary among certain old families to light candles on Friday at sunset and to mourn the deaths of close relatives by sitting on the floor.After almost five centuries, some of the descendants of these families acknowledge having some Jewish ancestry, but practice Catholicism.

Costa Rica

Some crypto-Jews established themselves in the outskirts ofSan José,Costa Ricain the 16th century. They passed as Catholics in public and practiced their Jewish rituals in privacy. In the town of Itzkazú (modern dayEscazú), some crypto-Jewish families did not maintain secrecy. Locals started to associate their rituals and unintelligible prayers in Hebrew with witchcraft. Since then, Escazú has been known in Costa Rican folklore as the "city of the witches".

Elsewhere in Latin America

In addition to these communities, Roman Catholic-professing communities descended from male and female crypto-Jews are said to exist inthe Dominican Republic,Cuba,Jamaica,Puerto Ricoand in various other countries ofSouth America,such asBrazil(see Synagogue Kahal Zur Israel in Recife),Argentina,Uruguay,Venezuela,Chile,PeruandEcuador.From these communities comes the proverb, "Catholic by faith, Jewish by blood".

Modern Times ( "Closet Jews" )

In modern times, due to increasedAntisemitism,Jews have had to hide their religious and/or cultural identitythis is known as being a"closet Jew"This phenomeon is common inEurope,UKand The USA. In 2021 a survey by the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law suggests that many Jewish students feel pressure to hide their Jewish Identity on college campuses. This feeling has increased since theOctober 7th Massacredue to increasedantisemitism and hostility.

Notable crypto-Jews

• Antonio Fernandez Carvajalwas a Portuguese merchant in London; "like other Marranos in London, Carvajal prayed at the Catholic chapel of the Spanish ambassador, while simultaneously playing a leading role in the secret Jewish community, which met at the clandestine synagogue at Creechurch Lane."
• Isaac Cardosowas a Jewish physician, philosopher, and polemic writer, who was born in Portugal but ultimately settled in Italy. For a time he went by the name Fernando to evade the Inquisition. After finding safe haven in Verona he openly embraced Judaism, becoming a leading scholar in Italy.

See also

• Allahdad
• Anusim
• Beta Abraham
• Chala
• Conversos
• Crypto-Christianity
  • Kakure Kirishitan
• Crypto-Islam
• Crypto-paganism
• Crypto-Hinduism
• Doctrine of mental reservation
• Domus Conversorum
• Dönmeh
• Hidden Armenians
• Jewish history
• Jewish visibility
• Judaizers
• Limpieza de sangre
• Marrano
• Morisco
• New Christian
• Relapso
• Sephardic Jews in India
• Who Is A Jew?
• Messianic Judaism

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Singer, Isidore;et al., eds. (1901–1906).The Jewish Encyclopedia.New York: Funk & Wagnalls.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title=(help)

Further reading

• Acevedo-Field, Rafaela. "Denunciation of Faith and Family: Crypto-Jews and the Inquisition in Seventeenth-Century Mexico." PhD diss. University of California, Santa Barbara, 2012.
• Alberro, Solange.Inquisición y sociedad en México, 1571–1700.Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1993.
• Alberro, Solange. "Crypto-Jews and the Mexican Holy Office in the Seventeenth Century," inThe Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450–1800,eds. Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering. New York: Berghahn Books, 2001.
• Arbell, Mordechai.The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean: The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Settlements in the Caribbean and the Guianas.Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2002.
• Beinart, Haim.Conversos ante la inquisición.Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1965.
• Bocanegra, Matias de and Seymour Liebman,Jews and the Inquisition of Mexico: The Great Auto de Fe of 1649.Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press, 1974.
• Bodian, Miriam.Dying the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian World.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
• Böhm, Günter. "Crypto-Jews and New Christians in Colonial Peru and Chile." InThe Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450–1800,edited by Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering, 203–212. New York: Berghahn Books, 2001.
• Cohen, Martin A. "The Letters and Last Will and Testament of Luis De Carvajal, the Younger."American Jewish Historical Quarterly,vol. 55, no. 4, 1966, pp. 451–520.JSTOR23873285.
• Cohen, Martin A. "The Autobiography of Luis De Carvajal, the Younger."American Jewish Historical Quarterly,vol. 55, no. 3, 1966, pp. 277–318,JSTOR23875621.
• Cohen, Martin A.The Martyr Luis de Carvajal: A Secret Jew in Sixteenth-century Mexico.Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
• Cohen, Martin A. "Antonio Díaz De Cáceres: Marrano Adventurer in Colonial Mexico."American Jewish Historical Quarterly,vol. 60, no. 2, 1970, pp. 169–184.JSTOR23877946.
• Cohen, Martin A. "Some Misconceptions about the Crypto-Jews in Colonial Mexico."American Jewish Historical Quarterly61 (1972): 277–293.JSTOR23880521.
• Chuchiak, John F. IV.The Inquisition in New Spain, 1536–1820: A Documentary History.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.
• Cohen, Martin A. "Antonio Díaz De Cáceres: Marrano Adventurer in Colonial Mexico."American Jewish Historical Quarterly,vol. 60, no. 2, 1970, pp. 169–184.JSTOR23877946.
• Corteguera, Luis R.Death by Effigy: A Case from the Mexican Inquisition.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
• Giles, Mary E.Women in the Inquisition: Spain and the New World.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
• Gitlitz, David.Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews,Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2002
• Gojman Goldberg, Alicia.Los conversos en la Nueva España.Mexico City: Enep-Acatlan, UNAM, 1984.
• Gojman de Backal, Alicia. "Conversos" inEncyclopedia of Mexico,vol. 1, pp. 340–344. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
• Greenleaf, Richard E.The Mexican Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century.Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1969.
• Hordes, Stanley M. "The Inquisition as Economic and Political Agent: The Campaign of the Mexican Holy Office Against the Crypto-Jews in the Mid-Seventeenth Century."The Americas39 no. 1 (1982) 2–38.doi:10.2307/981268.
• Hordes, Stanley.To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico.New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
• Israel, Jonathan I.Diasporas within a Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews and the World Empires (1540–1740).Leiden: Brill, 2002.
• Kagan Richard L., and Abigail Dyer, eds.Inquisitorial Inquiries: Brief Lives of Secret Jews and Other Heretics[2004]. 2nd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
• Kagan, Richard L., and Philip D. Morgan, "Preface." InAtlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500–1800,edited by Richard L. Kagan and Philip D. Morgan, vii–xvii. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
• Kamen, Henry.The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision.New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
• Kamen, Henry.The Spanish Inquisition.London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965.
• Lafaye, Jacques.Cruzadas y Utopias: El judeocristianismo en las sociedades Ibéricas.Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1984.
• Lanning, John Tate."Legitimacy andLimpieza de Sangrein the Practice of Medicine in the Spanish Empire. "Jahrbuch für Geschicte 4,1967.
• Lea, Henry Charles.The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies: Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, Milan, the Canaries, Mexico, Peru, and New Granada.New York: Macmillan, 1908.
• Lewin, Boleslao.Los criptojudíos: Un fenómeno religioso y social.Buenos Aires: Milá, 1987.
• Liebman, Seymour.The Jews in New Spain: Faith, Flame, and the Inquisition.Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press, 1970.
• Liebman, Seymour B. "The Jews of Colonial Mexico."The Hispanic American Historical Review,vol. 43, no. 1, 1963, pp. 95–108.JSTOR2510438.
• Liebman, Seymour.Los Judíos en México y en América Central.Mexico City: Siglo XXI, 1971.
• Martínez, Maria Elena. "Limpieza de Sangre" inEncyclopedia of Mexico,vol. 1, pp. 749–752. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
• Martínez, Maria Elena. "Interrogating Blood Line: 'Purity of Blood,' the Inquisition, and Casta Categories" inReligion in New Spain,Susan Schroeder and Stafford Poole, eds. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007.
• Martínez, Maria Elena.Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de sangre, religion, and gender in colonial Mexico.Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2008.
• Medina, José Toribio,Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisicion de Cartagena de las Indias.Santiago: Imprenta Elzeviriana, 1899.
• Medina, José Toribio.Historia del tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en México.2nd edition. Mexico City, 1954.
• Parello, Vincent. "Inquisition and Crypto-Judaism: The 'Complicity' of the Mora Family of Quintanar de la Orden (1588–1592)." InThe Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond,Volume One: Departures and Change, edited by Kevin Ingram, 187–199. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
• Perelis, Ronnie."'These Indians Are Jews!': Lost Tribes, Crypto-Jews, and Jewish Self-Fashioning in Antonio de Montezinos's Relación of 1644. "InAtlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism,edited by Richard L. Kagan and Philip D. Morgan, 195–211. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
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• Ushmany, Eva Alexandra. "The Participation of New Christians and Crypto-Jews in the Conquest, Colonization, and Trade of Spanish America, 1521–1660," inThe Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450–1800,Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering, eds. New York: Berghahn Books, 1991.
• Uchmany, Eva Alexandra.La vida entre el judaísmo y el cristianísmo en la Nueva España, 1580–1606.Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1992.
• Warshawsky, Matthew D. "Inquisitorial Prosecution of Tomás Treviño de Sobremontes, a Crypto-Jew in Colonial Mexico."Colonial Latin American Review17, no 1 (2008) pp. 101–123.doi:10.1080/10609160802025516.
• Wiznitzer, Arnold. "Crypto-Jews in Mexico during the Sixteenth Century."American Jewish Historical Quarterly,vol. 51, no. 3, 1962, pp. 168–214.JSTOR23873766.

External links

• Resources > Medieval Jewish History > Expulsion from Spain and The AnusimThe Jewish History Resource Center, Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Donagraciaproject.org
• The Story of Secret and Forcibly Converted Jews
• Luis Carvajal's 400th Yartzheit
• Society for Crypto Judaic Studies
• History of the Jews in Greece
• Crypto Jews/Anusim Resources
• Shavei Israel – a group that helps our lost brethren return
• Beth HaDerech – Returning to Judaism
• Chavura Zohar Yisrael-Crypto Jewish Outreach
• Crypto Jewish Education
• New Christians and Old Christians in Portugal,written byAntónio Nunes Ribeiro Sanches,in 1748, in Portuguese
• A history of the Marranos,byCecil Roth
• Dramatic episodes of the Portuguese Inquisition, volume 1, by Antonio Baião, in Portuguese
• Dramatic episodes of the Portuguese Inquisition, volume 2, by Antonio Baião, in Portuguese
• Trial of Gabriel de Granada by the Inquisition in Mexico,1642–1645, according toCecil Roth,'it gives a remarkably graphic impression of a typical Inquisitional case'
• Who Are the Crypto-Jews?by Dr.Henry Abramson