Art Benveniste

Iberia had significant Jewish communities until the forcible conversion or expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. Many of the converted Jews continued to practice their ancestral religion in secret. These underground rites and practices were passed through the generations to the present day. Crypto-Jews have been discovered in the American Southwest, mainly in New Mexico. Others have been found in the former Spanish and Portuguese colonies of America. In 1988, in a village in northern Portugal, a community of 300 formerly secret Jews came out to openly practice Judaism. Individual crypto-Jews have emerged elsewhere in Portugal and Spain. Mr. Benveniste has studied the crypto-Jews since 1994, and has visited them in the Southwest and overseas in Iberia and Latin America. Mr. Benveniste will cover the history, discovery, culture and current practices of Crypto-Jews.