Crypto Jews and Bnei Anusim in the Americas
Most claims of crypto Jews pertain to populations in the Americas, likely descended from individuals who adopted Christianity in or before 1492, or Portuguese New Christians. Estimating the number of individuals who maintained a Jewish identity in the Americas under Catholic rule is challenging, with evidence suggesting that it was likely a small number.
New Christians were officially banned from travelling to Spanish colonies, although unquestionably some will have travelled on forged documents or found an alternative strategy. Portugal was more relaxed.
Why would a Crypto Jew go to America?
If the goal was to maintain a Jewish identity, why would someone choose to travel thousands of miles in the opposite direction from free public Jewish communities in Europe and North Africa to a territory where the Inquisition held authority? It would make more sense for someone wanting to live openly as a Jew to take the shorter, safer journey to free Jewish communities, where there was also a support network.
How Many Crypto Jews Might have been in the Americas
We do not know how many Sephardic Jews and New Christians settled in Americas. The combined global population circa 1600 was likely less than 250,000. The overwhelming majority were in the Old World.
There are details of dozens of individuals arrested for judaizing in the Americas. We do not know how many of the accused were actually practicing Judaism, and how many others avoided arrest.
Brazil possibly contains communities left behind in the northeast after the Portuguese expelled the Dutch. In the Spanish Americas, the total number of people identifying with Judaism at any one time in the 17th century may have been less than one thousand. Maybe considerably less.
It is a reasonable assumption that most New Christians or Jews in the Americas were men, and these presumably mainly took non-Jewish wives. In modern parlance they were ‘marrying out’. Can we fairly call such men ‘anusim‘ if they chose not to live in a Jewish community?
Religious education is more likely to come from the mother, suggesting that children would lose any affinity with Judaism, if it existed.
Estimates from the Crypto Judaism Movement
Twenty years ago, advocates of crypto Judaism were estimating thousands or tens of thousands descendants. Now claims are in the hundreds of millions.
The converso community is estimated to be anywhere from 150 to 600 million people; and genetic research suggests that almost a quarter of Latinos and Hispanics have significant Jewish DNA.
Jewish Heritage Alliance
Elsewhere I have seen an estimate of 800 million crypto-Jews. This may exceed the total Latin American population with any European ancestry. These claims sometimes come from liberal-minded Ashkenazi activists, who may believe they are promoting diversity or some other good, rather that from mainstream researchers.
What is the Methodology for Calculating the number of Crypto Jews in the Americas?
It is not known how the Jewish Heritage Alliance and other figures were derived. It is possible that early and now superseded genetic research data has been extrapolated linearly through a spreadsheet without consideration of variables. Such a strategy would be headline grabbing, but not in the domain of serious research.
There are undoubtedly non-Jews of Sephardic ancestry. It is possible that the memory of this ancestry has been passed down the generations in some families. Unfortunately, the activities of the Crypto-Judaism movement muddy the waters and impede serious research.
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