Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of Crypto-Jews
by David Martin Gitlitz
Category: Religion

Secrecy and Deceit documents the religious customs of the Iberian Jews who converted to Catholicism, largely under duress, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Although many of the converts quickly melded into the Catholic mainstream, thousands of others and their descendents strove to preserve their Jewish culture despite the efforts of the Inquisition to suppress them. The book details crypto-Jewish culture in Spain, Portugal, and their American colonies, principally Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. The author uses Inquisition records, chronicles, rabbinical rulings, letters, eyewitness accounts, religious books, and other historical documents to give the most thorough and accurate picture of crypto-Jews ever cataloged. This book raises questions about living outside a Jewish community and what happens to religions of approximation.