It is generally assumed that most Jews left the Land of Israel after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE. However thousands remained, and of these, many are still here, after having been forced to convert to Islam. A large part of the Arabs of the Land of Israel are descendants of forced converts to Islam over the years.

“In our search for the lost Ten Tribes in India and Afghanistan, we seem to have forgotten to look for their descendants in our very own backyard.” So says the narrator in a new film about the efforts of a former hi-tech pioneer named Tzvi MiSinai to search out the Jewish roots of Israel’s Arab enemies – and to inform them of their Judaic heritage. MiSinai has spent about a half-million shekels, on these efforts. They include visiting dangerous places deep inside Palestinian Authority-controlled territory, hearing the stories of Arabs who remember observing Jewish customs, and distributing literature to Jews and Arabs alike.

It is estimated that up to 85 percent of Arabs in Israel stem from Jewish ancestors. Some of them want to return to their Jewish roots, but most are fearful to even talk about it. One Arab states his father told him the secret of his family’s Jewishness on his deathbed, while another one, on the backdrop of a photo of the saintly Kabbalistic sage Rabbi Abuchatzeira on his wall, admits their roots have been known in his family for generations. Wrapping what apparently used to be kosher tefillin on his arm, he says, “My father used to do this, and he taught us to do it whenever someone was sick or in trouble.”

Early Israeli leaders David Ben-Gurion and Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi wrote in a book 100 years ago: “If we investigate the origins of the Felahim, there is no doubt that much Jewish blood runs in their veins.” The authors implied that these Jews loved the Land so much that they were willing to give up their religion. The reference is probably to an edict in the year 1012 by Caliph el-Hakim, who ordered the non-Muslims to either convert or leave the Land of Israel. It is estimated that 90 percent of the Jews chose the former, though many continued to practice Judaism in secret. The decree was revoked 32 years later, apparently too late for about 75 percent of the converts.
Tzvi MiSinai continues to advise Arabs in Judea and Samaria that they are likely Jewish while passing through the Gush Etzion checkpoint and distributing pamphlets both to Israeli soldiers and to the Arabs waiting there. Asked by an Arab if he is from the peace movement, MiSinai answers, “Yes, yes, peace, so that we can live together as one nation.”

One place where MiSinai has found very strong Jewish roots is in the Bedouin tribe known as the Sawarka. There are about 4,000 of them throughout the Sinai and the Negev, and they “are all Jewish,” says a tribal leader in perfect Hebrew. The Bedouin state, they had no choice but to convert centuries ago… remembering their mothers and grandmothers who wouldn’t light fire on Sabbath, and they had a special mikveh.

Others, in a Bedouin village east of Hebron, also remember burning a small piece of dough (reminiscent of the Biblical command to separate a small piece of dough when baking bread), lighting candles at graves, and tearing clothes and sitting shiva for seven days, and not three as is Muslim practice. Even today, ritual circumcisions are carried out after the seventh day of birth. Many homes in some of the Arab villages have doorpost indentations for a Mezuzah, with a scroll placed in some of them.

In another village just south of Hevron, Muhammed Amsalem, a descendant of Spanish Jews stated that everyone in town knows he and his clan are Jews: “Our elders tell us that our forefathers came to this land during the [15th century] Spanish Inquisition, via Morocco. They settled in Ramle. Then the Mamluks forced them to convert to Islam, and they moved to the South Hevron area.”

Amsalem stated they decided to reveal their Jewish roots after the 1967 Six Day War when they learned that a Jewish community had been reestablished in Hevron. “But the Jews saw we had no knowledge of their religious practices and refused to accept us… If the Jewish community would be willing to receive us today, we would join them with great enthusiasm.”

In the area of the South Hevron Hills, half of the Arabs are aware of the Jewish origins. They used to talk about it openly, though no longer. One man who recently publicized a silver Chanukah menorah that had been passed down to him from his father and previous generations was hung by terrorists by his feet for six weeks, leaving him with permanent injuries.

At the Hadassah Medical School labs, Prof. Ariela Oppenheim of Hebrew University performed an international genetic study that backs up conclusions of Jewish-Arab genetic similarities. “We found that despite the dispersion of Jews around the world for 2,000 years, they essentially kept their Jewish continuity.” “In addition, we found that the Jewish population is surprisingly close, genetically, to the Arabs living here in Israel.” The study shows that both the Arabs of Israel and the Jews are descended from the Kurds of Aram in Babylon – the birthplace of the Patriarch Abraham. “It’s clear that we’re all from the same family,” Oppenheim concluded. “Most unfortunately, however, there are conflicts even within families, and sometimes brothers fight as well. I wish this is what will bring the Redemption, but I’m very sad to say that I don’t think so.”

South of Hevron, in Yatta, there is a large formerly-Jewish presence and some even want to return to active Judaism. It is widely known there that half the residents are of the originally Jewish Mahamra clan, a name that means “winemaker,” a trade that is forbidden according to Islam. The people in these areas converted to Islam later in history and therefore more customs and knowledge and artifacts have been preserved. These include Jewish stars over the entrances to homes, while in at least one house, the family has hidden a mezuzah and tefillin in creative hiding spots. One man pulled out a small Hebrew booklet of Psalms and Tanya with which he continues to secretly pray.

Miro Cohen, a Jew from Tekoa, in eastern Gush Etzion, is very friendly with the Arabs in a nearby village known as Kawazbe, a name that is merely a corruption of Kuzeiba, the original name of the famous Bar Kokhba. These people are the descendants of Bar Kokhba. One Arab sitting with him can count his ancestors eight generations back, ending with a grandfather named Kawazbeh. Another village elder admits that his grandfather was a Jew who converted to Islam. Some of the residents want to return to Judaism; they don’t call it converting, because they are “already Jewish.” On the other hand, Arabs with the name Kawazbeh have been arrested for terrorist activity against Israel.

Other areas where Arabs of Jewish descent reside are Kfar Anzah in Samaria, Samoa in southern Judea, villages in the Tel Arad area, and more. About 200 years ago, the Galilee village of Sakhnin was a Jewish town, with an active synagogue. The Turks pressured them to convert to Islam, but the people there know that they are of Jewish origins.

The Jewish community in Spain in the early Middle Ages was one of the oldest and most successful Diaspora Jewish communities. Despite this, from 1391 onwards a series of terrible disturbances and great tribulations befell the local Jewish community. One of the direct results was an unprecedented wave of forced conversions. These events continued on through 1492, when they reached their peak, and the remaining Jews were formally expelled from Spain. Bnei Anousim, whose Jewish forefathers were forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition period more than 500 years ago had been compelled to convert to Catholicism. Known by the Hebrew term Bnai Anousim many remained behind, where they continued to preserve their Jewish identity and to practice Jewish tradition covertly.

As a result, this unique phenomenon is still evident even today, even though the Inquisition invested enormous efforts over the centuries to eradicate it. .Shavei Israel currently has emissaries working with Bnei Anousim in Palma de Majorca, Spain; Porto, Portugal; and Recife, Brazil. In Jerusalem, Shavei Israel operates the Spanish and Portuguese-language Machon Miriam Institute for Return, where hundreds of Bnei Anousim have studied Judaism and prepared for return by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. According to Shavei Israel chairman Michael Freund, there are tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands of Bnei Anousim in Spain and Portugal who are conscious of their identity and their special relationship with Israel and the Jewish People.

Three strange things happened to Rabbi Stephen Leon the first week he moved to EL PASO, Texas in 1986 to lead Congregation B’nai Zion, the Conservative synagogue in this border city. Twenty-two years later that something is still going on: A steady trickle of Hispanics in the Southwest, from Juarez to Texas to New Mexico, are discovering Jewish roots. As Jews around the world celebrate the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and read the Book of Ruth — the story of the world’s most famous convert to Judaism — some of these Crypto-Jewish returnees will celebrate their bar and bat mitzvah with Leon at Congregation B’nai Zion, a synagogue with 400 families.

On a hot Saturday morning in the imposing angular white B’nai Zion building about 30 of the 50 people sitting in the circular sanctuary topped by a Jewish star skylight are Crypto-Jews. (The larger sanctuary is used on the High Holidays to accommodate the 1,500 members.)

The rabbi, meanwhile, has big plans. In addition to welcoming Crypto-Jews, he helped start an anusim/Sephardic learning center and yeshiva in El Paso with Juan Pable Mejia, a graduate of the rabbinical program at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Sonya Loya, the director of Bat-Tzyion Hebrew Learning Center in Ruidoso, N.M. The goal would be to bring awareness to the Jewish and general public about the Inquisition and Crypto-Jews on par with Holocaust remembrance.

Crypto-Jews. Marranos. Anusim. Judios. Conversos. They are all terms with different nuances referring to Jews and/or their descendants who were forced to convert after Spain and Portugal expelled all non-Catholics, but continued to practice Judaism or maintained some Jewish customs even as they and their children migrated to Latin America, Europe and finally the United States.

Some Crypto-Jews are interested in the genealogical knowledge but are not planning on leaving Catholicism; others practice a dual Messianic faith with both Judaism and Jesus. 500 years ago in the Inquisition hundreds of thousands of Jewish boys and girls disappeared from the Jewish community. Jews always disappeared from the Jewish community — most of it by force. Many people have Jewish ancestors going back 500 years, estimating that after half of Spain’s several hundred thousand Jews left the country, half were forced to convert to Catholicism, assimilating and eventually blending into Catholic society.

Some are set on their search because of a mysterious tradition practiced by an older relative, such as not eating pork or working on Saturday. For others the clue is an artifact like a trompito spinning top that resembles a dreidel, or a set of tefillin that a Catholic grandmother on a road trip once insisted on depositing with the rabbi.

But for the majority of people it’s something more tenuous: a word here (bubbe, tzedakah), a Jewish name there (Rael, from Israel). Very often it’s just a feeling about Catholicism, Jesus, their past or what they say is their soul that leads people to wonder if their family was once Jewish. There were certain families that held onto ancestral Jewish faith and continued to practice. Today, the although many are content in their Protestantism and Catholicism there are cases of people who are exploring a relationship with mainstream Judaism.

A Catholic man calling from Jaurez, Mexico, recalled every Friday night from the time he was little, his grandmother took him into a room, lit candles and said prayers in a private language he didn’t understand. His grandmother had just died, and he asked his mother if she would continue the tradition. She told him to go find a rabbi.

A Catholic woman from El Paso came to the rabbi after visiting a relative in mourning, where she noticed that all the mirrors were covered. Her relatives said it was a Jewish custom.

Blanca Carrasco’s return to Judaism started as a curious Catholic child in Mexico, where she was infatuated with everything in the Bible. By the time she was 20 she converted to Evangelical Christianity, but the doctrine was still lacking for her and her husband, Cezar, who considered himself more of an atheist. Then, about 14 years ago, her mother invited her to a Passover seder at a Messianic congregation in El Paso. Like a number of Crypto-Jews who now attend B’nai Zion, the Carrascos began their religious transformation by praying at the Messianic Center in El Paso, where they learned about Judaism, important rabbis, the Jewish festivals and history, and Crypto-Jews. She found some family names; Espinoza, Israel, Salinas and a great-aunt who said her grandmother spoke Ladino.

As the rabbi takes the Torah around the sanctuary to be kissed, the congregation sings “Etz chayim chai, l’amachazikim bah” (“A tree of life to all those who hold fast to it …”) and Carrasco tears up at the last verse: “Hashiveinu hashem elecha v’nashuva” — “Return us to you, God, and we shall return.”

Margarita Luna remembered that her grandmother always lit candles on Friday night before saying the Rosary. But her mother didn’t want to talk about it perhaps that was because during the Mexican wars in the 1920s they had to hide in a well for a few days. “Always in my heart I feel that I love the Jewish traditions,” she says, fingering her mezuzah necklace. “And always I say I am Jewish and I need to go back to my roots.” She and her husband, Victor, converted five years ago, and after their b’nai mitzvah on Shavuot, they plan to have a Jewish wedding ceremony and, hopefully one day, move to Israel with their teenage daughter.

Such an approach would be fine with Elay Romero, a retired pipe fitter, who has been retracing his family’s lineage through state records and was considering some DNA testing. He discovered Hordes’ book about Crypto-Jews and came to Taos, N.M., to hear the historian speak on the topic at the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society. Leon states the Jewish community should welcome those Hispanics who want to explore their Jewish ancestry.