lunes, 31 de diciembre de 2018

Genie Milgrom: Pyre to Fire

 


 ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: What are some symbols that conversos etched on their houses as a way of communicating with other Crypto-Jews?

Genie Milgrom was born in Havana, Cuba, into a practicing Roman Catholic family of Spanish ancestry. From a young age, she felt unusually attracted to Judaism. After going through a formal conversion, she began to research her family’s history and was able to document her unbroken maternal lineage going back six centuries to pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal, proving that she is, in fact, a descendent of forced converts. Her research led her to write the books My 15 Grandmothers, and How I found My 15 Grandmothers, A Step By Step Guide. The books were both winners of the 2015 Latino Author Book Awards.
Genie has travelled extensively to Fermoselle, the village of her ancestors in the Zamora region of Spain, while doing field research on the town’s Jewish past. Her new book, Pyre to Fire, is a captivating historical novel that juxtaposes the story of a Jewish family living in Fermoselle at the time of the Inquisition and her own fascinating autobiography.

Listen HERE

miércoles, 25 de julio de 2018

Jewish Zamora


ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – 
Dr. Jesús Jambrina is an Associate Professor of Spanish and History at Viterbo University in Wisconsin. Dr. Jambrina has done extensive research into the Jewish history of Zamora. In part 1 of this series we spoke with him about his book, which is an annotated chronology of Jewish-related events that took place there, and also about Isaac ben Jacob Campanton, Rabbi of Zamora in the 14th to 15th centuries.
Dr. Jambrina was responsible for the establishment of the Centro Isaac Campantón in Zamora and also for the organization of six annual international conferences about Jewish history and presence in that region. In this program he is speaking with us about the history of the Jews in Zamora, and the Centro Campantón.

Listen here

martes, 24 de julio de 2018

And the award goes to... the Crypto-Jews

By Marion Fischel, The Jerusalem Post 



Earlier this month in Zamora, Spain, Miami resident Genie Milgrom – genealogist, author and lecturer – received The Medal of the Four Sephardic Synagogues of Jerusalem for her indefatigable labors in the promotion of the Iberian Peninsula’s Jewish legacy. 

Prof. Abraham Haim, president of the Council of Sephardi and Oriental Communities in Jerusalem, presented the award in the framework of the sixth International Sephardi Congress in Zamora, at which Milgrom was keynote speaker. The now-annual July congress was inaugurated in 2013 by Prof. Jesus Jambrina of Viterbo University, WI, who was honored with the medal in 2014. 

The award recognizes the decade-plus Milgrom spent recovering the Jewish roots of her Cuban Catholic family, and her continued efforts to assist the descendants of anusim – Jews who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will – in their search for their roots. 

Milgrom was able to retrace the footsteps of 22 generations in her family, back beyond 1492, to the village of Fermoselle in the hills of Zamora, and later to the cells of the Inquisition in Portugal. She recovered this genealogy using methods she describes in her book, How I Found My 15 Grandmothers, and uncovered the Jewish history not only of her own ancestral village, but also of many others along the Duero River that separates Spain from Portugal, deciphering the connections of the heretofore lost crypto-Jews of the region.


Milgrom is past president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Miami, as well as the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies. Two of her books, My 15 Grandmothers and Pyre to Fire have won the Latino Author Book Awards. 

She has written numerous articles on the subject and lectures internationally, encouraging and assisting others to retrace their ancestors’ footsteps. 

As director of the Converso Genealogy Project, Milgrom now manages the momentous assignment of digitizing all the Inquisition files around the world, flying to meetings with officials in various countries to convince them of the importance of making their dusty, untouched archives available. 

The project has the seal of approval of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy in Israel. 

Milgrom told The Jerusalem Post, “I have been working for so many years on recovering an era that was lost to Jewish history, yet I was completely surprised at receiving this very important and meaningful medal of recognition from Israel. I didn’t realize that others were watching and following my work to that extent. It is a true honor.”

viernes, 6 de julio de 2018

Prayers of Bragança

This publication (in Spanish) includes a Prayer Book used by a family in Bragança, Portugal, who practiced the Law of Moses in secret for more than 500 years. 

After 1492, the border between Spain & Portugal became a refuge for many Jewish families fleeing the inquisition in Spain. The topography of the area, specially around the Duero River, allows for easy crossing through hidden paths between both sides of the border. 

When the expulsion and forced conversions were imposed in Portugal in 1497, Crypto Jewish population even grew as many Portuguese families escaped to this, then, remote area in the northeast of the country, also known as Trás-os-Montes (Beyond the Mountains)

Inquisition officially arrived to Portugal in 1536 persecuting marranismo among New Christians  affecting well established secret Jewish communities in cities and towns like Bragança, Vimioso, Carçao, Miranda do Douro, Mogadouro and many others in La Raya, as the border between the two countries in called. 

Prayers of Bragança were transcribed from oral tradition in 1925 by Antonio Fernández's family (see picture) and along other archeological evidences it proves what investigators José Manuel Laureiro and Anun Barriuso have identified as a culture of resistance, meaning finding ways of maintaining the Jewish belief system alive in the context of forced conversions.

Prayers of Bragança (Editorial Verbum, 2018) was presented at Centro Sefarad Israel, Madrid, on June 27 and also at the 6th International Congress in Zamora on July 6.  

Antonio Fernández, whose family originated in Trabazos (Zamora) and later when to Bragança

From leaft to right: Anun Barriuso, José Manuel Laureiro, Antonio Fernández and Inés Nogueiro


jueves, 17 de mayo de 2018

6th International Congress “Jews in the Kingdom of León”, Zamora, Spain, July 5 & 6


Registration HERE, fee includes access to activities & events as well as congress sessions

Pre-congress activities and events

June 27, 19:00h, Centro Sefarad-Israel, calle Mayor 69, Madrid. Panel “Jews in the Kingdom of León”, Panelists: Margalit Matitiahu, Anun Barriuso, José Manuel Laureiro and Marciano Hervás.

Visits to historic Jewish Quarters

All Departures will be from NH Palacio del Duero in Zamora

July 2, 9:00, León
July 3, 9.00, Salamanca
July 4, 17:00, Fermoselle

La Hostería Real

July 3, 8:30 PM. Music of Sepharad, concert by Judith Cohen 

Sessions

July 5

10:30, La Alhóndiga Palace, Film, Sefarad, caminos y vida: León reencuentro (90 minutos), director Jack Matitiahu. Q&A will follow.

14:00, Lunch

19:00. Keynote address: “Life and Path of a Zamoran Crypto-Jewish family”, Genie Milgrom, author of Pyre to Fire (2018), My 15 grandmothers (2012), and How I found my 15 Grandmothers (2014). Milgrom is also Board Member of the Jewish Genealogical Society in Miami.

20:00. “Spanish Citizenship and the Anusim. Restoring 15 generations family trees”, Abraham García, Institute for Sephardic, Crypto-Jewish and Anusim Studies, Netanya Academic College, Israel

21:00. Coctel

July 6

9:00 Opening Remarks.  

9:15. “Critical Approaches to the medieval Jewish population in León: the community of Castrum Iudeorum”, Mario Lozano Alonso, Historian

10:00. Jaime Einstein (1947-2015) in Memorian. Einstein was a Cuban-Israeli lawyer and writer, author of The Splendor (2008), a fictional biography of Mosé ben Sem Tob de León (1290-1305), and the unpublished novel The Island of Abraham, on the Jewish community of Cuba, Einstein’s country of origin. He was also a passionate scholar on the history of Sepharad (Jewish name for the Iberian Peninsula), particularly of the city of León, where he was an active participant in the efforts to recuperate city’s Jewish legacy.   

10:30. “On Leonés Language”, Alicia Valmaseda Merino, Linguist

11:00. Reading of Judeo Spanish poetry, Margalit Matitiahu, poet. She is the author of several books, among them, Kamino de tormento (2000), Vagabondo eternel (2001), Despertar el selencio (2004); Asiguiendo al esfuenio (2005) o Cantón de solombra (2005). Matitiahu has received numerous awards and recognitions in Israel and Spain for her literary work, including the Award of the Ateneo of Jaén (1996), and Israel Prize for Artistic Creation (1999)

12:00. Tribute to Abraham Haim for his 40 years of Intercultural Exchange between Spain and Israel. Presenters Leandro Rodrígues, Porfessor Emeritus from University of Ginebra, and Agustín Remesal, writer and for several decades RTVes correspondent in Jerusalem, Lisbon and New York.

13:30. Lunch.

16:00. The Judaizers in the scapulars of the Cathedral of Tuy: religious dissent, and social tension in the Miño Border”, Suso Vila, Historian

16:30. Panel on the book Crypto Judaism in La Raya (Northern border between Spain and Portugal). The prayers of Braganza, authors Anun Barriuso y José Manuel Laureiro, researchers at Centro Isaac Campanton, Antonio Fernandes, grandson of Eugenio Carvalho, who transcribed the prayers book from oral tradition to writing in 1925. Inés Nogueiro, researcher at the Instituto de Investigaçao em saúde-Universidad de Oporto.

17:30. “Jewish imaginary in history and narrative from Extremadura: The Blue Flame”, Marciano Hervás, Historian  

18:00. “Saint Christoph y the conversos”, Ramón Álvarez González, Historian

18:30. Closings

21:00. Teatro Principal, Sephardic Music Concert by María Salgado, among the most important singers in the musical tradition of Castile and León, including Judeo Spanish and La Raya repertoire.   

This is a Conference partially sponsored by

Zamora City Council
Council of Sephardic Communities of Jerusalem
Centro Sefarad-Israel, Madrid
Centro Isaac Campantón
Association Friends of Sephardic Cultures
Hotel NH Palacio del Duero
La Hostería Real de Zamora



Contact information

Phone: (34) 609 740 116
Email: centrocampanton@gmail.com

viernes, 12 de enero de 2018

Call for Papers: 6th International Congress on the Jewish Legacy of Zamora, Spain



Jews in the Kingdom of León
Zamora, July 5 & 6, 2018
NH Palacio del Duero
5/7, 19-23h, 5/6, 10-19h

We have reached the limits of presentations for this year's congress. Please, consider sending a proposal for next edition. You can yet register to attend our event by clicking Here.

Center Isaac Campanton invites proposals for the 6thInternational Congress on the Jewish Legacy of Zamora, Spain, this year with the title of Jews in the Kingdom of Leon, specifically from the 9thto the 15thcenturies. 

This congress is open to professors, students, and independent scholars working on Spanish & Portuguese Jewish Studies. Proposals on the following topics, but not limited to, are welcome: 

Place of Jews in the Fueros(regional code of laws) in the Kingdom of Leon
Life and functioning of the Jewish communities 
Relevant personalities, e.g. Moises de Leon, Abraham Zacuto and others 
Kabbalah in the Kingdom of Leon
Movements across La Raya (Portuguese border)
Crypto Jewish genealogy and memories 
Inquisition and chronicles from the expulsion 
Jews from Leon region in the Sephardic Diaspora
Museum narratives and new approaches to regional Jewish history  

Proposals should be 250 words, and include name, institution (or independent scholar), email, and technological needs. Academic committee can request changes to the proposal in order for this to be fully accepted.  

Deadline: June 1, 2018. Email: centrocampanton@gmail.com

Registration: 10 euros in person, online 15 euros