It has taken more than 500 years, but members of the Chueta community of Mallorca have finally been recognized as Jews.
On Monday, July 11, 2011, Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, who serves as the chairman of the Bet Din Tzedeck in Bnei Brak Israel, issued an opinion that recognizes the 15,000-strong community as part of the Jewish people.
The Chueta (Xueta) Jews of Mallorca, Spain
According to Michael Freund, founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, which provides outreach support to the Chueta community (also referred to as Conversos), the ruling is “an historic moment.”
“(It is) our hope is that this ruling will open the door and pave the way for those Chuetas who wish to return to the Jewish people,” said Freund in a phone interview from his home in Israel on Tuesday.
Mallorca’s Chueta (also spelled Xueta and pronounced “ch-shoo-ay-ta”) community claims its lineage from the Ballearic Islands’ 15th-century Jewish population who were forced to convert to Catholicism after the Jewish faith was outlawed in Spain in 1492. Despite their conversion, the Conversos and their descendants were forbidden from marrying outside of their enclave in Palma de Mallorca for hundreds of years. As a result, said Freund, the community remained endogenous, continuing the maternal lineage that defines Jewish heritage, and many of the traditions that are unique to the Jewish faith.
Despite its pejorative reference (chueta means "pig" in the regional Catalan language), the community has continued to be known by this name. Many unique characteristics define this community, but the members also share an historical link with the broader Bnei Anusim Jewish community of Spain.
Reaction in Palma de Mallorca
Freund said that community members were “overwhelmed” when they received word of the ruling.
“Many of them, when I announced the decision by Rabbi Karelitz … burst out in tears,” said Freund. “They were weeping with joy.
“For more than 600 years, the Chuetas have had to live in between worlds: the Catholics viewed them as Jews, and the Jews viewed them as Catholics. So now, for the first time in six centuries, a prominent rabbi has ruled that the Chuetas are part of the Jewish people. (It) is something that many of them had only dreamed of, and never thought possible.”
Shavei Israel and Rabbi Ben-Avraham of Mallorca
It was also an historic moment for Shavei Israel, which has been working with the community for years with the help of its Mallorca emissary, Rabbi Nissan Ben-Avraham (also of Chueta descent), to provide religious and educational assistance to those members who have expressed an interest to convert. The new ruling, says Freund, will make it easier for residents to who wish to be recognized as Jews, whether it is to immigrate to Israel, or remain in their Mallorcan community.
“In the coming months we plan to intensify … the level of our activities in Palma and offer an even broader range of religious and educational programming … to give those who wish to learn more about their heritage the opportunity to do so.”
Freund stressed that Shavei Israel’s aim is only to ensure that the information is available to those who are seeking more education about their heritage.
“Obviously there are going to be those Chuetas who are interested in coming back to their roots, and there are going to be those who are not interested. And that’s their right,” said Freund.
“I do believe though, that we the Jewish people have an historic responsibility toward the Chuetas. Their ancestors were kidnapped from us. They were taken from us against their will. Nonetheless, they managed to preserve their strong sense of identity down through the generations. So, we are coming to them now and we are saying to them, the door is now open and you will be received with open arms should you choose to come back.”
Those who wish to be recognized as Jews will be required go before the rabbinical court and provide proof of their Jewish heritage. Shavei Israel says it has determined however, that many of the families have documentation that has been passed down through the generations showing the matrilineal inheritance.
Francesc Antich Denounces the Spanish Inquisition
In May 2011, the regional president of the Balearic Islands, Francesc Antich, publicly denounced the Inquisition at a ceremony commemorating its Jewish victims in Palma de Mallorca. The ceremony marked the first time in history that a Spanish official had publicly spoken out against the Inquisition and the burning of Jews at the stake.
Freund said that the message of the denouncement and Monday’s religious ruling have not been lost on Mallorca’s Chueta community, which has lived under the shadow of the Inquisition for hundreds of years and has generally been hesitant to publicly acknowledge its Jewish heritage.
“That is why (the ceremony in May) was so important,” said Freund. “(For) the first time the regional government was publicly acknowledging the crimes that were committed against the Chuetas and was condemning those crimes. That too, (has) sent a very clear message to the Chuetas that the public atmosphere toward them has begun to change.”
Shavei Israel’s emissary, R. Ben-Avraham will be working with the Arachim organization to increase religious and educational classes and activities in the Chueta neighborhoods in the coming months.
Sources:
Telephone interview with Michael Freund, Chair of Shavei Israel, July 11, 2011
Shavei Israel press release July 10, 2011
Ultimahora.es: El primer rabino chueta divulga el legado judío en los conversos de Mallorca, February 23, 2010.
Jan Lee - Jan Lee has been writing for online and print publications for more than 20 years and have been published in five countries.
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