Families Find Judaism, Then Sephardic Ancestry

This summer we wrote about a small group of people of Hispanic descent who undertook a lengthy conversion process to become Jews and are now regular attendees at Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs.

During the transition, the 13 Mexicans and one Honduran researched their ancestry and discovered that some of them, surprisingly, possess Sephardic roots. Since we published the article, one of them, Katia Rivera Romo, discovered that she is of Ashkenazi origin. The group’s numbers are growing, too. Rina and Rodolfo Romo recently announced the birth of their daughter Natalia, and Rosaura Alvarez Sierra told us last week, “Hopefully in a month or so, we will have another member of the Jewish-Mexican community. The birth of a boy is expected in January.”

It is likely that the majority of this group descended from Jews who were banished from Spain following a decree by Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.

Sierra, 34, said she was first attracted to Judaism by her now-husband, Vinicio Sierra, while they worked in a carpet factory.

“He kept telling me Saturday was the day we are supposed to rest, and I was saying that wasn’t right, but he insisted. … But then I began to realize he might be right.”

Long before converting, Vinicio recalled he would sometimes follow Jewish teachings without realizing what they were. “There were small things we kept doing, not knowing they were originally commandments of Hashem. For example, we show respect to a woman after giving birth by not touching her for 40 days.”

The Sierras were welcomed into Or Hadash with their children during a special Kiddush in May, along with the families of two brothers, Juan and Rodolfo Romo Garcia. They previously went to the mikvah for conversion in February.

“They became, little by little, much more, I would say, ritually observant,” said Or Hadash’s Rabbi Analia Bortz, who is from Argentina. “Some of them are going to be rabbis. They just don’t know it yet.”

View the original story here.