Some Latinos Trace Their Jewish Roots

By Amy Green, Christian Science Monitor. Posted January 7, 2009.

"If you count everyone today who might have one converso ancestor among the thousands and thousands of their progenitors, then I guess pretty much everyone in the Southwest would be in that category," he adds.

Some Hispanics are beginning to share their stories and reconstruct their ancestries through organizations like Aliyah Sefarad International, which is based in Sanford, Fla. It holds seminars across the U.S. and the Caribbean to educate those Hispanics who may have no idea about their heritage, says Rabbi Gary Fernandez, who leads Beth Israel Messianic Synagogue and is the group's president.

Since the organization's founding last year, Mr. Fernandez has held dozens of seminars, some of them drawing as many as a few hundred. Among those who turn out are Christians who hear about the seminars at church, academics, and others curious about family traditions that hint at a Jewish past.

"It never fails. We get half-a-dozen to a dozen people who come up after with water in their eyes," Fernandez says. "They're thanking me because now a lot of things make sense with their family and their customs. And a few of them then say to me they would like to embrace what was lost or stolen from them."

One person who has embraced his heritage is the Rev. William Sanchez, senior pastor at the Catholic St. Edwin Church in Albuquerque, N.M. While in seminary, he began to wonder whether family traditions such as his grandmother's habit of lighting candles in a window in the weeks leading up to Christmas might be Jewish. He took a DNA test that supported his belief.

Now, Jewish ancestry informs the faith of this Catholic priest. During worship, he has added a menorah and shofar, a horn blown during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

"When I read especially about Moses and Aaron and the people in Israel and their struggles, I recognize that I do not only have a faith connection with those people," he says. "I also have a spiritual legacy rooted in my ancestry."

At Beth Israel Messianic Synagogue, more than half of the congregation's 50 members are Hispanic. Some spend their entire Saturdays in worship, dancing to traditional songs and reciting prayers in English, Spanish, and Hebrew.

Fernandez splits his time between the congregation and Aliyah Sefarad International, which also aims to fulfill a prophesy that Sephardic Jews will inherit the Negev, a desert region of southern Israel. He is planning a trip to Israel in February and is in touch with government representatives about helping Hispanic Jews return to the country to live.

Canelones hopes to be among them someday.

"It's indescribable," she says of her dream. "It'll be awesome."

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