The small Jewish community in Majorca, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean, is preparing to greet its new rabbi - who in turn will reach out to the larger, 20,000-strong crypto-Jewish community, whose ancestors were forcibly converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition over five centuries ago.
Rabbi Sha'ul Friborg studied in Israeli yeshivot and was ordained here, and served until recently as Deputy Chief Rabbi of Munich. He is being dispatched to Majorca by the Jerusalem-based Amishav organization, which reaches out and assists lost Jews seeking to return to Judaism. Amishav sees the Chuetas, as the former - and present? - Jews are called, as its newest challenge.
"Palma de Majorca was home to a large and flourishing Jewish community that was cruelly snuffed out by the Inquisition," Amishav Director Michael Freund said. "Nevertheless, many of those forcibly converted to Catholicism continued to preserve their Jewish identity until today, observing various Jewish customs in secret and marrying only among themselves well into the 20th century."
Historians estimate there may be as many as 20,000 crypto-Jews still living in Majorca - "though we have no illusions that they are all Jewish or want to be Jewish," Freund said. Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, former Chief Rabbi of Uruguay and a member of the Chief Rabbinate's special conversion courts, says that because the local Christians did not permit the Chuetas to marry them, and because of the custom of listing both parents' names on marriage records, "I believe we could find people who not only have a strong sense of Jewish identity, but who are considered Jewish according to Halakhah [Jewish law]."
Amishav works only with Israel's Chief Rabbinate in arranging for "lost Jews" to convert to Judaism. Three Majorcans have converted to Judaism and moved to Israel in the past decade, including one who teaches in a Talmud Torah and lives with his Israeli-born wife and 12 children in a community in the Shomron.
Rabbi Sha'ul Friborg studied in Israeli yeshivot and was ordained here, and served until recently as Deputy Chief Rabbi of Munich. He is being dispatched to Majorca by the Jerusalem-based Amishav organization, which reaches out and assists lost Jews seeking to return to Judaism. Amishav sees the Chuetas, as the former - and present? - Jews are called, as its newest challenge.
"Palma de Majorca was home to a large and flourishing Jewish community that was cruelly snuffed out by the Inquisition," Amishav Director Michael Freund said. "Nevertheless, many of those forcibly converted to Catholicism continued to preserve their Jewish identity until today, observing various Jewish customs in secret and marrying only among themselves well into the 20th century."
Historians estimate there may be as many as 20,000 crypto-Jews still living in Majorca - "though we have no illusions that they are all Jewish or want to be Jewish," Freund said. Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, former Chief Rabbi of Uruguay and a member of the Chief Rabbinate's special conversion courts, says that because the local Christians did not permit the Chuetas to marry them, and because of the custom of listing both parents' names on marriage records, "I believe we could find people who not only have a strong sense of Jewish identity, but who are considered Jewish according to Halakhah [Jewish law]."
Amishav works only with Israel's Chief Rabbinate in arranging for "lost Jews" to convert to Judaism. Three Majorcans have converted to Judaism and moved to Israel in the past decade, including one who teaches in a Talmud Torah and lives with his Israeli-born wife and 12 children in a community in the Shomron.