Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews
This important history documents the religious customs of the crypto-Jewish culture in Spain, Portugal, and their American colonies, principally Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. In coping with clandestineness, crypto-Jews rapidly evolved their own idiosyncratic religion. Its Jewish core was quickly replaced with concepts and practices from the surrounding Catholic culture covered by a veneer of Jewish theology. Included in this award-winning volume are examinations of crypto-Jewish beliefs, superstitions, birth customs, education, marriage and sex, holidays, dietary laws, conversions and death, and burial practices. Secrecy and Deceit provides a comprehensive account of the customs of these secret Jews.
Secrecy and Deceit provides rare glimpses into a subject that is increasingly fascinating to many different audiences.--Jane S. Gerber, Director, Institute for Sephardic Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
Historians and students of comparative and popular religion will be drawing on this work for years.--Haym Soloveitchik, Yeshiva University
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and the Lucy B. Davidowicz History Award
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David Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson are professors at the University of Rhode Island. Each has written several books on Spanish culture, including Gitlitz's Secrecy and Deceit, an alternate selection of the History Book Club and winner of the 1996 National Jewish Book Award for Sephardic Studies and the 1997 Lucy B. Dawidowicz Prize for History. They are married and A Drizzle of Honey is the first book they have written together. They are also the authors of The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago.
His scholarship is massive and his book is both easily manageable and thorough.
""Secrecy and Deceit" is a carefully researched, dense, and thorough historical record of the crypto-Jews."
"Gitlitz's magnum opus provides a full fascinating history of the quixotic religion developed by the Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism in early modern Spain."
." . . this book is thoroughly researched, the author having utilized Inquisition records, chronicles, rabbinical rulings, correspondence, eyewitness accounts, religious manuals, and other historical documents. This book is highly recommended for those interested in the history of the Iberian Jews."
aHis scholarship is massive and his book is both easily manageable and thorough.a
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