The honour of being the last Jew

In the middle of the crisis, strong personalities decide to take the challenge and continue to keep their principles. Even though the stubbornness is only of the heart, while the need for survival might send a different message, not giving up means more than claiming loudly a statement to the world. 

Suddenly today, out of nowhere, I had the realization that maybe we are living today one of the best times in the Jewish history: there are many situations when our life is in danger, but compared to the life as a Jew in the Spain during the Inquisition or the WWII Germany, we are living freely and without fear. Maybe because now we have a state to defend us?

With so much cruel reality around, I am very reluctant to read historical fiction, but Noah Gordon's Last Jew caught me faster than expected because: 1) I had for a while the unluck to be forced by circumstances to keep my Jewishness secret; 2) it offers a certain historical introduction to the later discussions about the possibility to get back the Spanish citizenship for the Jews expelled from Spain. In the second case, I also tried to think from a personal perspective: one of my grandfathers was one of them and even was speaking ladino. But how can I bring the documents from 5 centuries back, from a time when citizenship wasn't existent and not even the precious IDs or other clear archives ?

Yonah Toledano, the hero of Gordon's book, is able to keep his promise of remaining a Jew in an epoch when even the most fervent baptized Jews that were eventually accepted as part of the clergy were not considered 'pure' enough and burned at stake. Through hard work and discretion and a sense of the danger, he succeed to become a trustworthy surgeon when the Jews where not allowed to be in such positions, without being baptized or making a loud 'faith' show. What kept me awake till the end of the book was the authenticity of the story and the similarity with situations I've heard, read and was told about. More than being a work of historical fiction, the book has that pint of reality that kept me interested. 

The sad story is that such situations repeated over and over again. Even now, being a Jew in France or Hungary or in the Arab lands might present a certain level of risk. The good news is that we were able to survive and even more, to return to faith despite all the terrible things that happened to us. And there are so many true stories waiting to be told that are much better than any historical fiction. 

'The silent Jews who lived double lives'

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.