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Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierez

Aug 17, 2026, 12:07 AM

From Maimonides to the Conversos

Visitors to Congregation Zohar Yisrael, where I serve as rabbi, sometimes notice my ambivalence toward an overemphasis on Kabbalah. Perhaps this reflects what I have observed among some descendants of Conversos who encounter Judaism and find themselves mesmerized by...

Aug 11, 2026, 8:27 PM

The Boy In The Bar Never Questioned Hashem

I grew up inside, so nobody needs to sell me on it. The meals that show up after a birth. The loan with no interest and no questions asked. The chevra kadisha. The man you barely know who finds...

Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierez

Aug 11, 2026, 6:35 AM

Conversos and the Theology of Redemption

Many years ago, Rabbi Dr. Ronald Brauner encouraged me to devote greater scholarly attention to the history and experience of the Conversos. "Speak to it," he advised. At the time, I was uncertain whether I wished to pursue such...

Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierez

Aug 7, 2026, 6:50 AM

Who Has the Authority to Say You Belong?

The experience of descendants of Crypto-Jews, or Benei Anusim, varies from person to person. Like most things in life, these experiences exist along a broad spectrum. As I have noted in other blog posts, Hispanics who are descendants of...

Eliezer Avraham

Jul 23, 2026, 9:30 AM

The Rebuilding Chronicles

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A Journey Through Loneliness, Brokenness, Destruction and Renewal A lighthouse for the weary soul, a companion for Tisha B’Av and the dawn that follows Every soul that rebuilds walks through four pillars: Loneliness, Brokenness, Destruction and Renewal. These are not obstacles....

Micah Ben David Naziri

Jul 22, 2026, 9:20 PM

No, Karl Marx was not ‘Jewish’

In the 2001 film The Believer, starring Ryan Gosling as Daniel “Danny” Balint, a Jewish-born neo-Nazi, the protagonist asks whether antisemites hate Jews for entering spaces where they supposedly do not belong or for remaining separate; for hoarding money...

Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierez

Jul 16, 2026, 5:10 AM

Jewish Identity and Ethnicity

Jewish identity is multifaceted. In the story of the prophet Jonah, for example, he was asked by the frightened crew of the ship bound for Tarshish (possibly Spain) who he was. He responded that he was a Hebrew as...

Jul 15, 2026, 11:49 AM

Israel now needs a Moroccan prime minister

Gadi Eisenkot, currently emerging as the leading challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the upcoming election, 2023. Elad Malka / Wikimedia Commons.

There is an old saying, attributed to Morocco’s King Hassan II, that captures something no diplomatic communiqué ever could: “When a Jew leaves Morocco, we lose a citizen, but we gain an ambassador.” It is a beautiful sentiment, generous...

Jacqueline Snidman-Stren

Jun 27, 2026, 6:11 PM

The Many Faces of Jewish Identity

The Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group with shared origins in the Land of Israel, but Jewish history has unfolded across many different regions over thousands of years. Because of exile, migration, and diaspora, Jewish communities developed distinct ethnic...

Michael Feldstein

Jun 21, 2026, 6:21 PM

What’s in a Name?

Credit: Gemini

Have you ever wondered how we decided on our deeply ingrained customs for naming children? If you grew up in an Ashkenazi household, you probably take it for granted that you name a baby after a beloved relative who has...

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