Mystic-skeptic Radio Show

In this week’s show our guest is Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez, a graduate from Siegal College and Spertus Institute of Jewish Learning and Leadership. He is a rabbi who received ordination from Yeshiva Mesilat Yesharim. He lives in Dallas and is a researcher in Spanish Jewish history. He is the author of Secret Jews: The Complex Identity of Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Judaism. As part two of our exploration of the surviving Jewish communities in Latin America which have encountered much the religious persecution, since their massive exodus from Spain. Dr. Bejarano Gutierrez book describes the struggles of the Anusim or Conversos (forced converts) and shows through historical sources that these converts and their children were, more often than not, treated as Jews by the rabbis of that period. This book shows, through the well researched sources, that the current tendency of some authorities to reject the descendants of the Anusim is more driven by political reasons rather than based on religious, legal or histor