When I saw first the news about the decision of the Spanish Government to allow automatically Spanish citizenship to the descendants of the Spanish Jews I was impressed, thinking that maybe other countries that did the same to their Jewish citizens will follow the example.
However, the law does not include the hidden Jews and all those who were forced to convert or that used to have a double life. Those may need to prove somehow their affiliation or to go through the classical conversion process. For the descendants of those who suffered the expulsions and the frustrations of the double life, it is a sad reality. On the other hand, this is what happens in general with anyone with a hidden identity. True is that once born a Jew always a Jew, but the conversions and the alienation from Judaism left traces in the identity of many of those 'anusim'. Probably there should be a case-by-case basis decision, but still, the precautions are in line with some of the previsions of the Law of return.
The spark is always there, it is up to us to bring it back to light.
No comments:
Post a Comment