Europe
Officially, Jews who converted in Spain in the 14th and 15th centuries were known as Cristianos Nuevos (New Christians), but were commonly called conversos. Spain and Portugal passed legislation restricting their rights in the mother countries and colonies. Despite the dangers of the Inquisition, many conversos continued to secretly and discreetly practice Jewish rituals.
In the Balearic Islands, numerous conversos, also called Chuetas, publicly professed Roman Catholicism but privately adhered to Judaism after the Alhambra decree of 1492 and during the Spanish Inquisition. They are among the most widely-known crypto-Jews.
Crypto-Judaism dates back to earlier periods when Jews were forced or pressured to convert by the rulers of places they lived in.
Some of the Jewish followers of Sabbatai Zevi (Sabbateans) formally converted to Islam, and later followers of Jacob Frank ("Frankists") formally converted to Christianity, but maintained aspects of their versions of Messianic Judaism.
Crypto-Jews persisted in Russia and Eastern European countries influenced by the Soviet Union after the rise of Communism with the Russian Revolution of 1917. Rather than being forced to convert, all religion was regarded as undesirable, although 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 families 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 intermarriage 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. Only recently did they contact other Jews. Some now profess Orthodox Judaism, although many still retain their centuries-old traditions.
Read more about this topic: Crypto-Judaism
Famous quotes containing the word europe:
“The people of Western Europe are facing this summer a series of tragic dilemmas. Of the hopes that dazzled the last twenty years that some political movement might tend to the betterment of the human lot, little remains above ground but the tattered slogans of the past.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Humanism, it seems, is almost impossible in America where material progress is part of the national romance whereas in Europe such progress is relished because it feels nice.”
—Paul West (b. 1930)
“The Afrocentric exploration of the black past only scratches the surface. A full examination of the ancestry of those who are referred to in the newspapers as blacks and African Americans must include Europe and Native America.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)