This is the second video that will discuss my work on Crypto-Judaism.
The first book in a four-volume series is titled Secret Jews: The Complex Identity of Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Judaism.
This book reviews types of Iberian Conversos (i.e. primarily forced but also voluntary Jewish converts to Christianity) from the late 14th to the 17th centuries and surveys the Christian and Jewish attitudes towards them.
The book begins with a brief history of Jewish life in the Iberian Peninsula noting critical events such as the forced conversions of Jews under the Visigoths and the Almohades. The direct events leading to mass conversions of Jews in the late 14th century and the aftermath in the 15th century are reviewed.
This study examines texts and decrees that reveal that many Christians doubted the sincerity of these Jewish conversions to Christianity, and how they still regarded and treated Conversos as Jews. Different types of Conversos are then discussed. The challenges and situations each Converso faced were unique and produced different outlooks towards Jewish identity and faith in general. Each video will slowly progress through the book and highlight important events and personalities.
In this second video, I briefly discuss the age of Visigothic rule in the Iberian Peninsula and the first forced conversions that occurred under the Visigoth King Sisebut.
For more information visit CryptoJewishEducation.com or to find out more about the book visit https://cutt.ly/1rynZGF.
Posted by Rabbi Dr. Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez, the director of the B’nei Anusim Center for Education.
B'nei Anusim Center for Education 