Five centuries after the forced conversion of Spanish and Portuguese Jews to Catholicism, stories of these conversos' descendants uncovering long-hidden Jewish roots have come to light and taken hold of the literary and popular imagination. This seemingly remote history has inspired a wave of contemporary writing involving hidden artifacts, familial whispers and secrets, and clandestine Jewish ritual practices pointing to a past that had been presumed dead and buried. The Converso's Return explores the cultural politics and literary impact of this reawakened interest in converso and crypto-Jewish history, ancestry, and identity, and asks what this fascination with lost-and-found heritage can tell us about how we relate to and make use of the past. Dalia Kandiyoti offers nuanced interpretations of contemporary fictional and autobiographical texts about crypto-Jews in Cuba, Mexico, New Mexico, Spain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey. These works not only imagine what might be missing from the historical archive but also suggest an alternative historical consciousness that underscores uncommon convergences of and solidarities within Sephardi, Christian, Muslim, converso, and Sabbatean histories. Steeped in diaspora, Sephardi, transamerican, Iberian, and world literature studies, The Converso's Return illuminates how the converso narrative can enrich our understanding of history, genealogy, and collective memory.
Conversion to Judaism provides information, advice, and support for individuals contemplating conversion to Judaism, as well as those who have converted and the families affected by this decision. With sensitivity and compassion, Lawrence J. Epstein offers an informative volume that warmly welcomes the newcomer to Judaism.
In 1341 in Aragon, a Jewish convert to Christianity was sentenced to death, only to be pulled from the burning stake and into a formal religious interrogation. His confession was as astonishing to his inquisitors as his brush with mortality is to us: the condemned man described a Jewish conspiracy to persuade recent converts to denounce their newfound Christian faith. His claims were corroborated by witnesses and became the catalyst for a series of trials that unfolded over the course of the next twenty months. Between Christian and Jew closely analyzes these events, which Paola Tartakoff considers paradigmatic of inquisitorial proceedings against Jews in the period. The trials also serve as the backbone of her nuanced consideration of Jewish conversion to Christianity—and the unwelcoming Christian response to Jewish conversions—during a period that is usually celebrated as a time of relative interfaith harmony. The book lays bare the intensity of the mutual hostility between Christians and Jews in medieval Spain. Tartakoff's research reveals that the majority of Jewish converts of the period turned to baptism in order to escape personal difficulties, such as poverty, conflict with other Jews, or unhappy marriages. They often met with a chilly reception from their new Christian brethren, making it difficult to integrate into Christian society. Tartakoff explores Jewish antagonism toward Christians and Christianity by examining the aims and techniques of Jews who sought to re-Judaize apostates as well as the Jewish responses to inquisitorial prosecution during an actual investigation. Prosecutions such as the 1341 trial were understood by papal inquisitors to be in defense of Christianity against perceived Jewish attacks, although Tartakoff shows that Christian fears about Jewish hostility were often exaggerated. Drawing together the accounts of Jews, Jewish converts, and inquisitors, this cultural history offers a broad study of interfaith relations in medieval Iberia.
The book traces the role of Judaism and the Jewish people in God's plan for the salvation of mankind, from Abraham through the Second Coming, as revealed by the Catholic faith and by a thoughtful examination of history. It will give Christians a deeper understanding of Judaism, both as a religion in itself and as a central component of Christian salvation. To Jews it reveals the incomprehensible importance, nobility and glory that Judaism most truly has. It examines the unique and central role Judaism plays in the destiny of the world. It documents that throughout history attacks on Jews and Judaism have been rooted not in Christianity, but in the most anti-Christian of forces. Areas addressed include: the Messianic prophecies in Jewish scripture; the anti-Christian roots of Nazi anti-Semitism; the links between Nazism and Arab anti-Semitism; the theological insights of major Jewish converts; and the role of the Jews in the Second Coming. "Perplexed by controversies new and old about the destiny of the Jewish people? Read this book by a Jew who became a Catholic for a well-written, provocative, ground-breaking account. Some of the answers most have never heard before." Ronda Chervin, Ph.D., Hebrew-Catholic
Since the late 1700s, when the Jewish community ceased to be a semiautonomous political unit in Western Europe and the United States and individual Jews became integrated—culturally, socially, and politically—into broader society, questions surrounding Jewish status and identity have occupied a prominent and contentious place in Jewish legal discourse. This book examines a wide array of legal opinions written by nineteenth- and twentieth-century orthodox rabbis in Europe, the United States, and Israel. It argues that these rabbis' divergent positions—based on the same legal precedents—demonstrate that they were doing more than delivering legal opinions. Instead, they were crafting public policy for Jewish society in response to Jews' social and political interactions as equals with the non-Jewish persons in whose midst they dwelled. Pledges of Jewish Allegiance prefaces its analysis of modern opinions with a discussion of the classical Jewish sources upon which they draw.
One of the first Apologetic Fathers of the Church proves to the Jews that the Messiah expected by the Prophets can be no one else but Jesus Christ. A pertinent theme, since today's Vatican recommends this truth no longer be stressed, and encourages admitting the false messiah of the Jews.
Becoming Jewish is an engaging, accessible, all-inclusive step-by-step guide to converting to Judaism that introduces readers to finding life's meaning through the evolving religious civilization that is Judaism. Written with humor and heart, readers learn the ins and outs of becoming Jewish and discover the wonder that is the language, literature, history, rituals, food, music, and culture of contemporary Jewish life.
When the Nazis came to power and created a racial state in the 1930s, an urgent priority was to identify Jews who had converted to Christianity over the preceding centuries. With the help of church officials, a vast system of conversion and intermarriage records was created in Berlin, the country’s premier Jewish city. Deborah Hertz’s discovery of these records, the Judenkartei, was the first step on a long research journey that has led to this compelling book. Hertz begins the book in 1645, when the records begin, and traces generations of German Jewish families for the next two centuries. The book analyzes the statistics and explores letters, diaries, and other materials to understand in a far more nuanced way than ever before why Jews did or did not convert to Protestantism. Focusing on the stories of individual Jews in Berlin, particularly the charismatic salon woman Rahel Levin Varnhagen and her husband, Karl, a writer and diplomat, Hertz humanizes the stories, sets them in the context of Berlin’s evolving society, and connects them to the broad sweep of European history.
Roy Schoeman, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, and best-selling author of Salvation Is From The Jews, once again shows the clear links between Judaism and Catholicism in these inspiring stories of sixteen Jews who became "fulfilled Jews", as Schoeman says, through their spiritual journeys to the Catholic Church. The sixteen people whose stories are told here are a variety of Jews, including some who came from secularized, liberal or even atheistic backgrounds, while others came from Orthodox Judaism. Some were well trained Jews, others unschooled in Judaism; some rich and wildly successful, others down and out. But their common link was they all had a profound longing for God that gave them no peace until they found God Himself in the Catholic Church. Some of these converts are famous people like Edith Stein, Alphonse Ratisbonne, Karl Stern, and Rabbi Zolli, while others are less well known, but all have powerful stories of life-changing spiritual transformations. Roy Schoeman's work, Honey from the Rock illuminates the essential link between the Jewish faith and Catholicism through the lives of those who were born into the Jewish faith and have come to know the fulfillment of their faith in Christ and His Catholic Church. I recommend Honey from the Rock to anyone who desires to understand the revealed faith of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church. Honey from the Rock illustrates in a most concrete way the truth expounded so well by Roy Schoeman in his earlier work, Salvation is from the Jews, which I also wholeheartedly recommend. Raymond L. Burke, Archbishop of Saint Louis This book is far more than just another collection of conversion stories. It is a spiritual pathway with each story creating a stepping stone to transformation. These life changing encounters will deepen your faith and provide insights into the riches of the Catholic Church. It is filled with Jewish wit and wisdom and climaxes in the radical transformation of conversion. I highly recommend this book to all who wish to grow deeper and learn about the Faith from a Jewish point of view. You won't be disappointed! Brother Bob Fishman - B.S.C.D. Roy Schoeman has given us all a great gift in showing us the mysterious and wonderful ways in which Y'shua, the Messianic Son of David, and His Mother Miryam continue to speak deeply to the longing hearts of that people to whom, more than all others, we Gentiles owe an incalculable debt. Mark Shea, Senior Content Editor, CatholicExchange.com God's covenant with Israel was neither revoked nor abolished. It was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and Honey from the Rock is powerful proof of that fulfillment. Israel's prayer and piety, vocation and sacrifice - all are transformed as they are restored. All find their completion in the lives we encounter here. Pope Pius XI put it well when he said that Spiritually we are Semites. May all Catholics be enriched by this movement of the Spirit, because for us it's a movement homeward Scott Hahn, author, Rome Sweet Home This is a gripping book sketching powerfully the Jewish metaphysical restlessness that nothing can satisfy until they taste Honey from the Divine Rock and recognize in Christ the King of the Jews and the Roman Catholic church as fulfillment of Judaism. This book is a constellation made up of sixteen sons and daughters of Israel for whom overwhelming talents, wordly success, money, pleasure brought nothing but despair. Each one of them had its own path; but what is striking is the role played by the Holy Virgin and the holy hunger for the Eucharist in some of the most amazing conversions. This book will bring joy to its readers and rekindle their hope in the power of G
Dawn Eden, internationally known speaker and author, presents a completely revised Catholic edition of her bestselling work, The Thrill of the Chaste. In this version, Eden shares her story of conversion to Catholicism and invites readers into a Catholic understanding of chastity and its spiritual benefits. When Dawn Eden released The Thrill of the Chaste in 2006, she was a Jewish convert to Protestant Christianity, preparing to make the final leap into Catholicism. Now, nine years later, Eden has extensively updated The Thrill of the Chaste, sharing how her Catholic faith, the lives and intercession of the saints, and the healing power of the sacraments have led her to find her true identity in Christ. This revised, Catholic version offers spiritual and practical advice for both men and women seeking to live chastely in a world that glorifies sex. Eden offers tips to help readers avoid temptation and live faithfully—including dressing modestly, but not being afraid to feel good about the way they look; trusting that God has a plan for their life and relationships; and making sure their “yes” comes from the heart.
