New Book on Sephardic Anusim

I'm in the process of writing a new book and I'd like your feedback on a preliminary statement in it. This helps me take a pulse on what folks 'out there' are feeling about this subject. So here goes...

The awakening of Sephardic Anusim has been a glorious one. It has opened up new pathways of improvement and expression for them. However, they are soon discovering that these pathways are a very long and sometimes treacherous journey back home—to the original families they were severed from over five hundred years ago.

Most of them begin this long journey excited and intrigued with the prospects of their new discoveries and being reconnected with their true family. But they soon find out that the journey is fraught with unexpected challenges and oppositions which make it seem even longer. They find out that not only do they experience rejection by those being left behind but also by those they are moving toward.

In the middle of their life changing journey, they discover that there is much more than history, genealogy, DNA and a host of secret stories to their new found life. They experience the rude awakening of something way deeper. They find out that there is a distinct philosophy of life that is quite different to the one they and their forefathers were raised in. This philosophy of life translates itself into radically different expressions of their personal faith and beliefs. Unprepared for it, they discover the inevitable reality that this journey is highly impacted an array of religious beliefs which they will need to carefully manage depending on how they wish to proceed.

What makes things even harder are when they begin to see the duplicity in this new journey which very few are able to endure. On the one hand they begin to taste the bitterness of being criticized and at times ostracized from old Christian circles, including what appears to be ‘true Zionists.’ Later they discover certain pockets of pseudo Christians and pseudo Jews that get very upset if they don’t join their circles. Finally, they discover a major schism between where they are coming from and where they think they are going. They are confronted with the reality of ‘how Jewish they intend to be.’ So now they find that they must make a decision that will make some people happy and others very upset because of their new persuasion, even if they themselves are thrilled about the new direction in their life.

On top of all of this they become aware that reconnecting with the very land of their forefathers (Israel) isn’t quite as easy as they thought it would be. For those that visit Israel more than as a tourist, they quickly find out that the Israeli family is quite a major enigma because some are very religious and the majority is not. As they tread the narrow pathway known as Aliyah in their longing to become one with the land and the people of their ancestry, they soon discover the politics of becoming an Israeli citizen. They are faced with the harshest reality in this quest when they realize they must jump over many hurdles in order to simply reconnect with the family of their true ancestry. In the interim, they quickly discover that the hurdles keep getting higher and closer with very little definition on how to successfully achieve one’s connection with the life they long to belong to.

By the time a Sephardic Anusim family or individual arrives at this hurdle jumping exercise, they are often too exhausted in spirit and sometimes too broke and broken to continue fighting every step of an uphill war—having to watch their back against those left behind and having to be ever watchful for ambushes set by those that really want nothing to do with their ascent to the land of their forefathers. “But why?” they ask, simply because they are different by the decisions their fleeing ancestors had to make in order to endure and survive impending annihilations strewn all across their histories.

This book is not a manual for those desiring to endure this long and treacherous journey. It is intended to provide them, as well as to educate those with an open mind, to the evidences that prove the existence of Sephardic Anusim among a people with Hispanic/Latinos in America. This book intends to shut the mouths of cynics or at least to quiet them down long enough to prove our existence.

I am fully aware that despite all the evidences which this book provides, some Christians as well as Jews will continue to reject these descendants of the very survivors who overcame Inquisitions, pogroms and holocausts which took place many centuries ago but feel as if it happened during the holocaust of the 1940’s but on one seems to really care.

I would be remiss if I did not state that there are a few wonderful Jews who have taken a few of us under their wing to help us along our long journey. I shall not neglect the fact that some of these Jews are rabbis and leaders both in America as well as in Israel. Even though some of them have put their reputation on the line, we have discovered that there continues to be what I call “hard nosed” Israelis in positions of power that do not bend for anyone when it comes to helping Sephardic Anusim get back home.

Meantime, as an old Spanish saying goes: A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando. In other words, at the same time we continue to pray with fervor we also persist in pounding away until we get a breakthrough!

Shalom, hasta luego,

Dell