New Mexico’s annual celebration of Sephardic Jews in the Southwest takes place this weekend in Albuquerque. The event was founded 16 years ago as an outgrowth of one synagogue’s mission
Director of Festival Sefardí Hershel Weiss said when Nahalat Shalom synagogue was founded in the North Valley in 1982 the story of New Mexico’s hidden Jews was becoming more widely known. These were Jews who with came here with the Spanish to escape the Inquisition. They hid their identities, pretending to convert to Catholicism. Weiss said more people were finding their family roots in this story.
“Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb recognized this and really from Day 1 sought to make the synagogue a place that would be welcoming to this population,” Weiss said.
This year’s festival focuses on interactions among early Jewish settlers and Indigenous communities. Weiss said these conversos, even though they were oppressed themselves, likely participated in the genocide against Indigenous people in New Mexico.
“It’s not that simple a story, but we wanted to start this conversation,” Weiss said. “And also we’re always looking at the issue of identity in all its complexity, and certainly here in New Mexico there’s a lot of mixing of people through the centuries. So we want to move towards repair and unity.”
There will be talks on the 1680 Pueblo Revolt by Jon Ghahate (Laguna/Zuni pueblos), an educator at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Colorado, and on Genízaros, who were Native Americans who enslaved by the Spanish. That talk will be given by Enrique Lamadrid, co-author of "Genízaro Nation."
"One thing I’ve realized recently is how much in common descendants of Genízaros have with the descendants of the early Sephardic Jews in terms of sort of rediscovering some ancestry that you know, the memory thread may have been broken," Weiss said.
A community movement workshop will feature UNBOUND, a group made up of descendants of Genízaros. The festival will also feature music, poetry, and talks by scholars.
Laura Rebolloso and Las Flores de Valle will perform Sunday night exploring links between Jarocho and Sephardic music.
There will also be a Shabbat morning service in Spanish and Hebrew.
“It’s probably been a very long time since that happened in New Mexico,” Weiss.
Festival Sefardí takes place Friday through Sunday at Nahalot Shalom.
