Secret Jews - Books and Films of the life and psychological climate of secret Jews and Moriscos

SECRET JEWS -
BOOKS AND FILMS
giving a vivid picture of the psychological climate
and life of marranos, conversos, anussim
crypto Jews, New Christians and Moriscos

Know of any other other books/films to add to this list?
Then send me an e-mail with details so I can add them.

Thanks, Jack White (vijamada@gmail.com)

B O O K S (click here for current autobiography/biography books)
Secret Judaism and the Spanish Inquisition	Michael Alpert (Five Leaves Publication, 2008)s	From the end of the fifteenth century until the eighteenth century Spanish Jews carried on Jewish practices in the shadow of the Inquisition. Those caught were forced to recant or be burnt at the stake in public “autos de fe”. This book describes the private lives of these secret Jews, drawing on their confessions and trial documents. This paperback edition covers the survival of Jewish practices into modern times in Portugal and Spain, where families descended from “conversos” (Christian converts) still carry out long-hidden Jewish traditions.
Cathedral of the Sea	Ildefonso Falcones (Transworld, 2006)	14th century Barcelona. The building of a church. ‘Aristocracy’, Jews, usuary. pogrom
Guardian of the Dawn	Richard Zimler (Constable and Robinson, 2005)	Persecution by the Inquisition in early 17th century Portuguese Goa.
Hunting Midnight	Richard Zimler (Constable and Robinson, 2004)	Oporto, 1800. Napoleon is marching across Europe. The Jews of Portugal, still 'hidden' and baptised, are suffering the threat of a renewed Inquisition
Inquisition and Independence, A Riot in Fundão-1580 Inquisição e Independência, Um Motim No Fundao-1580	Maria Antonieta Garcia, Alma Azul, Coimbra, 2006, 227pp	About a 16th century riot in Fundão (near Belmonte), the only known public act of resistance against the Inquisition in Portugal.
Jews, God and History	Max Dimont (Mentor, 1994)	Especially Chapter 18 'Crusades, Renaissance and Reformation'
Jews and Magic in Medici Florence	Edward Goldberg (University of Toronto Press, 2011)	The story of a 17th century Jew who, with his patron, ventured into dangerous and often forbidden territory—astrology, alchemy and the Kabbalah.
Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara	David Kerzer (Picador, 1997)	The last Jewish boy to be arrested by the Inquisition in the 19th century
The Mezzuzah on the Madonna’s Foot	Trudi Alexy (Harper Collins, 1994)	A woman discovers her spiritual heritage as one of the Jews who found asylum from Hitler in Spain
Mistress of the Art of Death	Ariana Franklin (Bantam, 2008)	The investigation in 1171 n Cambridge by a female doctor into the claimed murder of a boy by the Jews
Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans	Gloria Golden Floricanto Press (2005)	Sixty oral histories, with photographs based on research in New Mexico and El Paso, Texas of people who may have a Jewish heritage from Spain or Portugal.
The Coffee Trader	David Liss (Abacus, 2003)	Amsterdam, 1659. The Sephardi community and finance
The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain	Haim Beinart and Jeffrey M. Green (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization 2005)	Classic History
The Last Jew	Noah Gordon (Little Brown, 2000)	Spain 1492, a 13 year old sees his father and brother die and flees from the Inquisition. Eventually becomes a healer and physician in Granada
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon	Richard Zimler (Arcadia Books, 1988)	Claimed to be based on a manuscript discovered in Istanbul it is the record of the hunt for a murderer among secret Jews living in Lisbon during the massacre of 1506
The Massacre of the Jews, Lisbon 1506 (O Massacre Dos Judeus, 1596)	Susana Bastos Mateus, Paulo Mendes Pinto, 2007, Alêtheia Editores, Lisboa.	This is the first non-fiction book in Portuguese, about the 1506 massacre in Lisbon of 4,000 Marranos (see also ‘The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon’ below)
The Queen's Fool	Phillippa Gregory (Harper Collins, 2003)	Brilliant story of a Jewish girl and her family who come to England to escape the Inquisition, becomes the 'fool' (comedienne) to Mary Tudor, friend to Elizabeth 1 and is in Calais when it is captured by the French.
The Source	James Michener (Random House) 1965)	The story of Palestine over the past few thousand years. Especially relevant is the chapter titled 'The Saintly Men of Safed'
The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Dona Gracia Nasi	Andree Aelion Brooks (Paragon House Publishers; 2003)	Biography of Dona Gracia Nasi. An outstanding Renaissance Jewish international banker she operated an 'underground railroad' that saved hundreds from the Inquisition and spearheaded one of the earliest attempts to form an independent Jewish state for Jews in Israel.
The Cantonists: The Jewish Children's Army of the Tsar’	Larry Domnitch	Click here for a summary
The Marrano Legacy	Trudi Alexis	A Contemporary Crypto-Jewish Priest Reveals His Double Life Click here for a Google Introduction
F I L M S
Secret Files of the Inquisition	www. inquisitionproductions.com	Filmed in High Definition, this production spans medieval France in Episode Episode 1, 15th century Spain Episode 2, Renaissance Italy Episode 3 mid-nineteenth century Episode 4 Europe. The 4 x 60 mini-series reveals how the most powerful church on earth created the Inquisition to attack its enemies and preserve the unquestioned authority of the Pope. Historians, experts and Church authorities advise on the handling of this controversial subject matter
The Last Marranos	Distributed by: National Center for Jewish Film Sharon Pucker Rivo Brandeis University, Lown Building #102 MS053 Directed by Frederic Brenner, Stan Neumann France 1990 16mm color 65 minutes Portuguese, w/Eng. subtitles	THE LAST MARRANOS is an incredible documentary about a community of Marranos in Portugal who still practice their Judaism in the closet, 500 years later. They attend church on Sunday, but clandestinely light candles on Friday, bake matzah on Passover, and say prayers to "Adonai," the Hebrew word for Lord. Their Christian neighbours murmur about them; the old Marranos still speak of their fear of Christians. Yet a new generation appears determined to "come-out" as Jews and establish a synagogue for the first time in five centuries. This film is an eye-opener!