{"id":61709,"date":"2018-12-22T23:35:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-22T23:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=61709"},"modified":"2018-12-22T23:35:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T23:35:54","slug":"jews-converting-to-catholicism-a-dual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=61709","title":{"rendered":"Jews converting to Catholicism, a Dual"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — “Conversion is sort of like the untouchable ‘third rail’ of religion” ]
\n.<\/p>\n

It’s an ancient, uncomfortable story:<\/p>\n

The Genetic Legacy of the Spanish Inquisition<\/a>
\nAs Spain simultaneously persecuted its Jews and expanded its colonies in the Americas, conversos secretly came over to the New World. Their legacy lives on in DNA.<\/p>\n

In 1492, best known as the year Columbus sailed the ocean blue, Spain also decided to expel all practicing Jews from its kingdom. Jews who did not leave\u2014and were not murdered\u2014were forced to become Catholics. Along with those who converted during earlier pogroms, they became known as conversos. As Spain expanded its empire in the Americas, conversos made their way to the colonies too.<\/p>\n

The stories have always persisted\u2014of people across Latin America who didn\u2019t eat pork, of candles lit on Friday nights, of mirrors covered for mourning. A new study examining the DNA of thousands of Latin Americans reveals the extent of their likely Sephardic Jewish ancestry, more widespread than previously thought and more pronounced than in people in Spain and Portugal today. \u201cWe were very surprised to find it was the case,\u201d says Juan-Camilo Chaco?n-Duque, a geneticist at the Natural History Museum in London who co-authored the paper. [ .. ]<\/p>\n

In the case of conversos, DNA is helping elucidate a story with few historical records. Spain did not allow converts or their recent descendants to go to its colonies, so they traveled secretly under falsified documents. \u201cFor obvious reasons, conversos were not eager to identify as conversos,\u201d says David Graizbord, a professor of Judaic studies at the University of Arizona. The designation applied not just to converts but also to their descendants who were always Catholic. It came with more than a whiff of a stigma. \u201cIt was to say you come from Jews and you may not be a genuine Christian,\u201d says Graizbord. Conversos who aspired to high offices in the Church or military often tried to fake their ancestry.<\/p>\n

The genetic record now suggests that conversos\u2014or people who shared ancestry with them\u2014came to the Americas in disproportionate numbers. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paper:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
  • Nature<\/strong>, Latin Americans show wide-spread Converso ancestry and imprint of local Native ancestry on physical appearance<\/a><\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    **<\/p>\n

    A variant on that story then reappears in the life of Gustav Mahler<\/strong>. My nephew Daniel Hardin explains:<\/p>\n