The Jews

The year 1992 will see numerous events and special programs commemorating the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, where they had lived for a thousand years. The destruction and dispersal of this deep-rooted community has provided one of the great epic themes of Jewish history, relived in this masterful one-volume narrative.

With extraordinary power and passion, master storyteller Howard Fast unearths the dry bones of the past and resurrects them for our times. In this thrilling and illuminating study of the history of the Jews, he takes readers from the nomadic life of the Beni Yisrael some 4,000 years ago to the triumphant creation of the Israel nation in 1948.

Ch. I (pp. 7-21) traces the Jewish presence in the state of New Mexico to the Spanish period when the region was colonized, between 1598-1680. Persecuted by the Inquisition in colonial Mexico in the 1590s and 1640s, many Portuguese Conversos fled north to New Leon and New Mexico to seek refuge. States that, until recently, many New Mexican Hispanics have been unaware that they observe Jewish traditions. Some have complained of being called "killers of Christ". The present Jewish population is composed mainly of descendants of German Jews who emigrated after 1846-48. In New Mexico there were almost no manifestations of antisemitism, apart from sporadic attacks against Jews (e.g. in 1867) in the press, which showed that personal politics or Jewish economic prominence could elicit latent antisemitism. In 1982 a controversy broke out about the use of the swastika and Nazi-like uniforms in the State University's yearbook, and in 1967 Reies Tijerina, a Christian fundamentalist, accused Jews of having stripped the Hispanics of their ancestral lands.

A collection of articles, all of them published previously. Partial contents:

"For almost 350 years, Jews have been part of Boston history, shaping the community and being shaped by it. Now, for the first time, a comprehensive, lavishly illustrated history of the Jews of Boston recounts their stories and marks their achievements. Comprising twelve essays by eleven expert scholars, The Jews of Boston traces the community from its early, tentative beginnings through its emergence in the 20th century as one of America's most influential Jewish communities. Six historical essays detail Boston's unique history as a late-developing but extraordinarily successful American Jewish community. Essays on Boston's synagogues, its Jewish neighborhoods, and its role in Zionism feature discussions by the new generation of American Jewish historians. Assessments of philanthropy, education, and intellectual life evaluate those movements' pioneering roles in the evolution of Jewish culture in Boston and America." "Beautifully illustrated with more than 250 historic photographs, engravings, and documents - many of them published here for the first time - The Jews of Boston will serve for years to come as the reference work on Boston Jewish history."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in the Hispanic world and the second largest in the Western hemisphere. During successive political and social regimes, Argentina alternately barred Jews from entering the country and recruited them to immigrate; persecuted Jews as heretics or worse and welcomed them as productive settlers; restricted Jews by law and invested them with the fullest rights of citizenship. This volume traces the shifting patterns of Jewish immigration and Argentine immigration policy, both as manifestations of cultural and historical processes and as forces shaping the emergence of a large and energetic Jewish community."

Centuries of Jewish Life are revealed in the terse inscriptions recorded in this book, most engraved by local non-Jewish masons. The brief data they present give the story of Jewish settlement in this Caribbean Island at the gateway to the New World. It is the story of brave entrepreneurs who sought to build a fresh life for themselves and their people and to create a bridge between the Old World and the New. The stones are sometimes the only historical source recording the existence of the individuals and their achievements. For this reason these inscriptions are important as a unique historical source for Jewish History.