Hareidi Rabbi: Part of Spanish Island’s Descendants Are Jews

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Historic breakthrough: Six centuries after their forcible conversion, a leading hareidi rabbi rules a Spanish island’s Chuetas are Jews.

The Chuetas of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, are the descendants of Mallorca’s Jews, who were forcibly baptized in the 14th and 15th centuries and then barred from intermarrying or assimilating with the island’s Catholic population until the modern era.

Most of the island’s Chueta community bears the names of families whose ancestors who were executed for practicing Judaism more than 300 years ago. Rabbi Karelitz’s ruling relates to those Chuetas whose ancestors practiced strict endogamy down through the generations and did not intermarry. In order for their return to the Jewish peopleto be complete, it will be necessary for the Rabbinical Court to get to know each individual Chueta and their personal and family background.
Read the rest on: Arutz7