Who Are The Marranos?
http://www.ifmj.org/marranos.htm
        When the Catholic Church established the Inquisition in Spain in
1481, and the expulsion of all Jews from Spain in 1492, the practice of
Judaism in Spain became an offense punishable by the most gruesome forms of
torture and/or death. Seven years later, in 1497, Portugal followed the
Spanish example and quickly established its own Portuguese inquisition of
torture and death. Initially, many Jews fled to safety in such places as the
Mediterranean nations of Greece, Italy, and Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Sarajevo,
Hersegovina), the nations of Romania and Bulgaria, and the various Spanish,
Portuguese and Dutch colonies of the New World. The huge number of exiles in
the New World soon found, however, that the ghost of the Inquisition was
established in Lima, Peru; Cartegena, Colombia, and Mexico City, Mexico.

Thus, in the New World, thousands of faithful Sefardic Jews had no choice
but to publically convert to Christianity, while keeping their true Jewish
faith hidden. The name "Marranos", meaning "swine" became the contemptuous
name given by the Catholic Church to the Jews who were forced into
conversion, but who continued to practice Judaism in secret. The officers of
the Inquisition made it their priority to routinely investigate Marranos to
check if they had circumcised their newborns, if they were gathering to pray
on Saturdays, or were gathering on any of the known Jewish feasts,
particularly Passover and Yom Kippur. Also the Inquistion would routinely
require suspected Jews to eat pork in public as a means of demonstrating
whether or not they were good "Conversos", (converts to Catholicism).

Marranos are also known as Crypto-Jews, meaning "secret" Jews, because they
kept Jewish customs in secret. Many Crypto-Jewish communities survive today
in various places in the former Spanish and Portuguese empire, including
many communities in the Americas such as the following: the Guadalara area
of Mexico; the city of Monterrey, Mexico and the surrounding Mexican State
of Nuevo Leon; Santa Fe, New Mexico; San Antonio, Texas; Las Cruces, New
Mexico; San Jose, Costa Rica; the Nations of El Salvador, Honduras, and
Nicaragua; Medellin, Colombia; Lima, Peru; Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belem,
and Bello Horizonte, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile.

Many surviving Crypto-Jews and Marranos today still instinctively fear being
open about their Jewishness, and continue to maintain secrecy about their
beliefs and practices. However, the vast majority of other Marrano
descendants, due to many generations of secrecy about their true heritage,
were assimilated into Christianity in Latin America, but still have
maintained residual Jewish practices such as lighting candles on Friday
night, and are generally aware of their Jewish family trees.

Most of the Spanish or Latinos living in the Americas, are direct
descendants of these Marrano or Crypto-Jews. This is the result of the New
World having been originally explored and colonized mostly by Marranos who
left Spain in order to escape the persecution of the Catholic Church. The
millions of Marranos in Latin America are literally a "sleeping giant",
ready to be awakened to their true heritage in the tribes of Israel, but
sadly, after being hunted and persecuted for centuries by the Catholic
Church, the Marranos are generally not welcomed by mainstream Judaism
either, and cannot currently obtain recognition as Jews without undergoing
formal conversion.

In the Fall of 1995, while ministering to a group of about 300 Marranos in
San Jose, Costa Rica, the Lord directed Rabbi Haim Levi to a specific new
vision and calling found in Obadiah 1:20b, which says: "The captivity of
Jerusalem, which is in Sefarad, shall inhabit the cities of the Negev". With
the formation of the I.F.M.J., those of us involved in this ministry are
aware that now is the day and the final hour for the sleeping giant to
awaken after 505 years of slumbering. With the majority of the I.F.M.J.
executive committee being bi-lingual (i.e. speaking English and Spanish), we
see ourselves thrust into this work by the mighty hand of Hashem.

                          RECOGNITION OF MARRANOS

For more than 500 years, Sefardic Jews have been suffering with the memory
of the Catholic Church's crime against the household of Israel. Beginning
with the Inquisition, the pressure that was placed upon the families who hid
their Jewishness from the Church was tremendous. They were in constant fear
of being accused. Aside from being cast out of the ordinary affairs of the
society, torture and even death were common penalties for those caught
keeping customs that were typically Jewish. To this day, due to the
overwhelming influence of the Catholic Church, many descendants of Sefardic
Jews in Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations still instinctively remain
in fear of coming "out of the closet" concerning their true Jewish heritage.

The result of what began with the Inquisition is that today, the vast
majority of Sefardic Jews, having kept their Jewish identities a secret for
so many generations, are now are unable to prove through any documentation
that they are in fact of Jewish lineage.

Yet, many have memories of having heard a grandmother, grandfather, uncle or
aunt who said to them at one time in the strictest confidence: "Somos
Judios" or "We are Jews". Some come from families that always lit candles on
Friday night, but who knew why? Other families never ate pork, always fasted
and prayed on a certain day each year, or rarely worked on Saturdays.

The most common surnames of the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world are
all typically Sefardic. Surnames like Lopez or Perez in Mexico or Colombia,
for example, are as common as Smith or Jones in the United States or Great
Britain.

Many "Marranos" begin to wonder why they have such a deep love for Israel
and an affection for Jewish things, despite being outwardly Christian all
their lives. These suddenly find themselves compelled to look after their
Jewish roots, and to be rejoined to the nation and people from which they
were forcibly divided by the Catholic Church.

It is the desire of the IFMJ to start giving papers of Jewish recognition to
these Jews. However, in order not make of this provision a free-for-all
paper mill, there are the strongest requirements that need to be met. For
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