SAN DIEGO —Sanford Ehrlich, QUALCOMM Executive Director of the Entrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego State University, is collaborating with The Peres Center for Peace and The Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace on a cross-border peace-building program in the Middle East.

Dr. Ehrlich is working with groups consisting of both Arabs and Israelis on entrepreneurial methods of commercializing food products from the region. Participants previously met in 2006 in Tel Aviv, Israel and Cairo, Egypt. Future projects for the participants include market surveys by research teams of university students for food product introduction to European, Western, and Gulf markets, as well as training in marketing, market entry, and product innovation. Through research and training, the project aims to also foster peace, understanding, and friendship.

Based on the success of the red palm weevil project, which
significantly decreased the spread of one of the most damaging pests
facing date palms in the region, the Peres Center launched the "Integrated Crop Management" (ICM) program, to promote a comprehensive approach to crop management and pest control. The program now engages representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, France and Malta, thereby benefiting agricultural sectors of the Middle East, Mediterranean region and North Africa.

ICM is an approach which examines the entire crop growth, harvest, and post-harvest care process, to enhance the quality of agricultural output
in the region, and emphasize environmentally friendly practices. The program encompasses elements such as improvement of crop features, production (including improved irrigation and fertilization methods), pest control, post-harvest care, marketing strategies and more, with a view to decreasing negative environmental impact.

Within the framework of this project, various workshops and
training seminars have been held. In November 2004, the inaugural
ICM workshop was held in Israel, followed by a workshop on Date Palm ICM which took place in Israel in May 2006. A large-scale Marketing and Product Development workshop was held in Egypt in November 2006. Moreover, in March 2007, a joint Egyptian-Israeli led Training Course on the Red Palm Weevil was held.

Numerous letters of support for this program have been received by the Peres Center, including from heads of state across the Mediterranean
and Middle East regions, respective Ministers of Agriculture, agricultural bodies (including from the FAO and agricultural branch of the EU), as well as from prominent individuals.

The Peres Center is partnering with the Fred J. Hansen Institute for
World Peace of the San Diego State University Foundation to deliver
this program. Valuable support has also been received from Syngenta (previously Novartis).

The requested article above was based on material from SDSU's Entrepreneurial Management Center, SDSU Foundation's Hansen Institute for World Peace, and the Peres Peace Center in Israel.
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Jews in the News                    -------------------------------------------------------------
 News spotters: Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego. To see a
source story click on the link within the respective paragraph.  If you spot a Jewish-interest
story in your favorite publication, please send us the link.
_______________________________________________________________________

*The widening probe of Congress, with convicted lobbyist Jack
Abramoff telling the FBI most or all of what he knows, has prompted
the FBI to ask Republican Rep. Tom Feeney of Florida to provide more details about his 2003 golfing trip to Scotland. Abramoff  has been
"singing" about congressional misdeeds while awaiting sentencing on his conviction of defrauding Indian casinos. Greg Gordon of MCT News Service has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*The Southern Poverty Law Center is urging California State University
at Long Beach to probe the writings of Prof. Kevin MacDonald, a psychology professor whose views on Jews are widely quoted on
anti-Semitic websites The story by Louis Sahagun is in today's
Los Angeles Times.

*Allegations of anti-Semitism at a fire station in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles prompted Acting Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas L. Barry to quickly order an investigation.  The story by Nancy Wride is in today's Los Angeles Times.

*U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) chided the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Stephen L. Johnson, for not doing more to curb greenhouse gasses.  The story by Richard Simon is in The Los Angeles Times.

*Eli Broad has joined Bill Gates in a political initiative to heighten awareness of the importance of education as a national priority. The two will sponsor commercials and other materials in an "Ed in '08" campaign
in an effort to force candidates to take positions on merit pay for teachers and other educational issues.  The story by David M. Herszenhorn of the New York Times News Service appears in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*In response to a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip against
Israel and declarations by Hamas that the "cease fire" is over, Miri Eisin, spokeswoman for Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared inscrutably: "We reserve our right to respond and to defend our citizens at any time." Isabel Kershner of the New York Times News Service had the story appearing in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*A bill by California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys)
mandating neutering for most pets has cleared another hurdle in the Legislature. The story is included in the regional roundup of today's
San Diego Union-Tribune.

*The Los Angeles Times has thrown its editorial weight behind efforts by Assemblyman Mike Feuer and Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss to force the California Department of Transportation to clean up fire-prone weeds along the freeways.

*To paraphrase the old commercial, when Michael Milken speaks, people listen...Not only that but they're willing to pay quite a bit of money to hobnob with the former junk bond king and his high-powered friends from the worlds of finance, politics and entertainment. Evelyn Iritani has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.

*Isaac N. Pessah, director of the Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention at the University of California at Davis, says research is indicating a link between PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) and autism. The story by Maria Cone is in today's Los Angeles Times.

*Questioning by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Los Angeles) of Secretary
of State Condoleeza Rice over why the U.S. does not acknowledge the genocide committed by Turks against the Armenians in 1915 is quoted approvingly in a guest column by Robert Deranian, principal of San
Diego's Armenian school, in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Record producer Phil Spector's defense attorney, Bruce Cutler, is a barrel-chested New Yorker with a gruff exterior and a vocabulary that Roget himself might admire. Matt Krasnowski of the Copley News Service tells the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*The battle raging over whether World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz should be dismissed is not only over alleged favoritism toward his girlfriend, but also over policies that have failed to help the world's developing nations. A guest column by Mark Weisbrot appears in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

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The Jewish Grapevine
                                                 

CAMPUS WHIRL—San Diego State University's History Department
wraps up its "History Through Film" tomorrow (Thursday) night at
7 p.m. in the SDSU Little Theatre with the showing of Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone.  The film, according to a departmental circular, ponders "the 'choiceless choices' faced by the Hungarian Jews of the Twelfth Sonderkommando unit, who could delay their own deaths by helping the Germans escort other Jewish people into the gas chambers." Members of
the Sonderkommando unit for performing this duty were given clean
sheets, extra food, cigarettes and an extra four months of life. With the
end of the war obviously drawing closer, four months might mean
survival.  Would you refuse this opportunity?" SDSU History Prof. Lawrence Baron, who wrote a highly regarded book on Holocaust
films, will lead the discussion.

CYBER TOURISM—Hillel Mazansky, who keeps an ever-vigilant eye
on the Internet looking for good reading, found a slide presentation in Power Point on the synagogues of Slovakia by Guy Shachar.  That
sounds like Johnny Mathis singing Kol Nidre in the background.

JEWISH LICENSE PLATES—Melanie Rubin is still the undisputed champion of finding personalized license plates with a Jewish tam, but editor Donald H. Harrison spotted one that could be an inspiration for all of us—Mizvah (Heb: Commandment), a word that has come into general Jewish usage as a "good deed."  For more plates in our growing collection, follow this link.


Scholar outlines debate on Crypto-Jews 

Editor’s note: With the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies planning to hold its 17th annual conference Aug. 5-7 in Albuquerque, Dr. Fred Reiss of Winchester, CA., provides us with a review of Stanley Hordes’ book  To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005) and recounts some of the arguments made by Professor Judith Neulander of Case Western Reserve University questioning the validity of the notion that there are Crypto-Jews

By Fred Reiss, Ed.D

WINCHESTER, Ca—Shortly after the city of Grenada, the last Muslim stronghold on Spanish soil, fell on January 2, 1492, Fernando and Isabella, under pressure from the powerful Catholic Church, ordered the Spanish Jewish community to convert or leave the country within four months. Although they had more than 800 years of peaceful coexistence with their neighbors, the edict from the monarchy left no choice but for Jews to decide between giving up the religion of their ancestors, and permanently leaving their country.

Some felt that it was better to continue living as Jews, even if it meant giving up everything, and starting over elsewhere. The exiles left Spain by August 2, the same day that Columbus set sail from Spain on a voyage that lead to his “discovery of America.”  Other Jews believed that converting to Catholicism was a small price to pay to remain in the country of their families and associates, to maintain their livelihoods and to keep their lifestyles.  They converted and followed the tenants of their new faith.

However, an unexpected group emerged from these conversos. They were the ones who converted, but secretly lived their lives as Jews. These secret or crypto-Jews avowed Catholicism in public, but clandestinely followed the dietary laws, prepared for and rested on the Sabbath Day, conducted services, and observed the Jewish holidays.

Author Stanley M. Hordes would have us believe that practicing these illegal rituals and observances can be kept as family secrets for more than 500 years, even though, as time passed, the practitioners didn’t know why they followed strange customs. Researcher and folklorist Judith S. Neulander argues that crypto-Jews are an illusion.

The book, To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico, covers, in detail, the time from the expulsion to the twenty-first century. About half of Spain’s Jews chose to leave and half chose to stay. Most of the exiles fled across the border to Portugal, while others left for Western Europe, Morocco, and lands under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The families who converted, and at least nominally followed Christianity, were assimilated within a few generations. The crypto-Jews practiced the faith of their fathers at great personal risk since Judaism was banned from the country. They were persecuted by the Holy Office of the Inquisition for religious relapse. When found guilty, the punishment ranged from atonement and penitence to death by fire in a public auto de fé.

The Jews who migrated to Portugal only postponed their fate. Within four years King Manoel I issued his own edict of expulsion. However, he recognized the value of having a middle class in his country, so he closed the ports, ordered the Jews gathered in one place, and baptized them en masse. The Jews remained in Portugal, and because of their already strong religious beliefs, many became crypto-Jews. In the end, the fate of the crypto-Jews of Portugal was no better than those remaining in Spain, since Portuguese ancestry and crypto-Judaism were virtually synonymous to the clergy of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in New Spain during most of the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries.

Hordes tells us about some of the secret Jews who joined in the westward expeditions of these two countries. Sometime during the early sixteenth century, Spain founded Mexico City and Lima. Not long after, the Holy Office of the Inquisition established tribunals there, providing motivation for conversos to migrate away from these metropolitan centers; eventually leading to the founding of a settlement in what is now New Mexico.

Using documents from the Inquisition, along with migration, trade, and settlement patterns of the emigrants, Hordes informs us that Hernando Alonso, who accompanied explorer Pánfilo de Narváez in his expedition against Cortés, was one of the first individuals required to do penance by the Inquisition in Mexico for the crime of judaizante, practicing Judaism, in 1528. Hordes believes that such things as the rise of a converso middle class, which threatened the Old Christians, and the Protestant Reformation created a new spirit of church vigilance that spilled over into the New World.

To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico is a scholarly book in which history and cultural identity theories are intertwined. To obtain information on crypto-Jews, the author performed detective-like investigations to ferret out details of a group of people who wanted to remain anonymous. To make matters worse, the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680, which drove out the Europeans from New Spain for thirteen years, led to the destruction of nearly all the pertinent documents. Yet, Hordes ably constructs the activities of important and wealthy individuals who helped shaped the character of New Spain. He tells us of the power struggle between the clergy and the civil government, and the involvement of the conversos in the colony, particularly through crypto-Jew Juan de Oñate, Governor of the first permanent European settlement in New Mexico, called San Gabriel del Yunque, which he founded in 1598.

After considering the establishment of San Gabriel del Yunque, Hordes focuses his attention on New Mexican conversos and their activities. Examining records from the Mexican Inquisition’s concern for limpieza de sangre (blood purity), immigration and birth records, endogamous marriage patterns, and typical Jewish professions, he is able to shed a great deal of light on who most likely was a New Mexican crypto-Jew. By deduction and inference, Hordes relates the origins of many crypto-Jewish families and their histories in the New Mexico, as well as recounts the inquisitorial persecutions of a number of them, including Bernardo López de Mendizábal and Doña Teresa de Aguilera Y Roche, during the 1660s.

His research informs us that crypto-Jews played a continuous role in the life of New Mexico up to its conquest by the United States in 1846. For example, after the reconquest of New Mexico from the Pueblo Indians, there was a new spirit of cooperation between the Spanish church and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, particularly because both sides perceived the very real threat of attack from the nomadic Indian tribes of the southwest, such as the Apache, Comanche, and Navajo nations. Yet, understanding such thing as who the crypto-Jews were, what role they played between the church and state, and how they interacted with the Indians during this period are rendered more difficult because of the lull in New Mexican inquisitional activities. However, Hordes makes great strides in coming to some tentative answers by examining the lives of descendents of the pre-revolt conversos who returned to New Mexico, and the ancestors of nine interviewees who, in the late twentieth century, either asserted or demonstrated that they are crypto-Jews. He concludes that there is overlap between the two groups as shown in mercantile occupations, inventory records, and fragmentary remarks in church documents.

With the conquest of New Mexico by the United States, all legal barriers to practicing Judaism were gone, and so the absence of records, once again, becomes a barrier to deciding if crypto-Jews exist today, and if so, who are they? Hordes asserts that one would not expect a family that shows latent traces of Jewish practices after 500 years, to abandon its core-Christian beliefs. Yet, might not this family give up Catholicism, a religion that caused them a great deal of anguish, for Protestantism after the American conquest? To find the answers, he searches records of conversion, looking for Jewish biblical first names among the converted. He examines records of circumcision, the observations of nineteenth century southwestern writer, Mary Austin, who noted the presence of conversos in her midst, and the assimilation of Hispano communities into the Anglo-American culture. Hordes concludes that there are Christian people of Spanish descent who observe Jewish customs and ceremonies at the dawn of the twenty-first century, and that they are descendents of fifteenth century Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism.

He spends two chapters telling of the research path that led from hypothesis to conclusion, and within them acknowledges the dissident voice of Judith Neulander, who argues that crypto-Jews do not exist. Indeed, she maintains that this notion is based on unfounded beliefs about the cultural past. She dismisses the Jewish-like customs celebrated by members of the Hispano community, and that others conclude are suggestive of crypto-Judaism, as irrelevant or attributable to other causes.

In one example, she asserts that observing the religious dietary laws was neither practiced nor valued by the Jewish exiles in 1492; rather the method of killing animals similar to the way the Jewish dietary laws require was a common practice among Hispanos in New Mexico. She states that Jews drain the blood of animals to avoid consuming it, while Hispanos drain the blood in order to consume it.  As a second example, the crypto-Jews of New Mexico use a four-sided gambling top, called a pon y saca (put and take), which Jews will immediately associate with the game of dreidle, played during the holiday of Chanukah. Neulander points to authorities who call the game a universal cultural phenomenon. The same argument is raised about the use by present-day crypto-Jews of a six-pointed Star of David and Hebrew letters associated with the World-to-Come on headstones found in New Mexican cemeteries. Finally, in an argument that raises Neulander’s ire, Hordes draws on biology, and notes a possible connection between pemphigus vulgaris, a rare autoimmune skin disease of European Jews and the Hispano community. In a 2006 paper, Neulander questions the whole concept of an ethnic disease.

Hordes argues in favor of 500 years of the cultural transmission of symbols and practices through families on both sides of the Atlantic. Neulander disputes this, saying that use of these symbols appeared in the Hispano community with the growth of Hispano Protestantism in the early twentieth century. Although personal recollections can be faulty and the historical record sparse, Hordes builds a compelling case that can not be easily dismissed. But the jury is out and more research needs to be done. Perhaps some new answers will emerge from the up coming 17th annual conference on Crypto-Judaism, which will be held in Albuquerque, NM, this August. In the meantime, it’s nice to believe.

Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator. He is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars and Public Education in Camden, NJ: From Inception to Integration. His latest book, Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Explained, will be published later this year.