Anusim

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Anusim

Anusim , plural for anús, means "forced ones

Forced conversion

A forced conversion is the conversion to a religion or philosophy under duress, with the threatened consequence of earthly penalties or harm. These consequences range from Unemployment and social isolation to incarceration, torture or death....
" in Hebrew. In Jewish Law, this is the legal term applied to a Jew who was forced to abandon Judaism

Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
against his or her will, but does whatever is in his or her power to continue practicing Judaism under the forced condition. It derives from the Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
ic term averá be' ones [Talmud, Avodá Zará 54a], meaning "a forced transgression." The Hebrew verb concerned originally referred to any case where a Jew has been forced into any act against his or her will.

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Anusim , plural for anús, means "forced ones

Forced conversion

Judaism

Talmud

Meaning and history of term

Jewish Law categorizes the status of a Jew according to his commitment to rabbinic tradition. The two most commonplace ones are: Min (apostate), for a Jew who basically denies the existence of God; and meshumad (heretic

Heresy in Orthodox Judaism

Heresy in Orthodox Judaism is defined as which depart from the traditional Jewish principles of faith to be heretical. In addition, mainstream Orthodox Judaism holds that all Jews who reject the simple meaning of Maimonides' 13 principles of Jewish faith are heretics....
), for a Jew who does not adhere to the observance of Jewish Law. The main difference about a min, a meshumad and an anús, is that the act of abandonment is voluntary for the first two, while for the third it is not.

The term "anusim" was used more often after the forced conversion to Christianity

Forced conversion

History of the Jews in Germany

Jews have lived in Germany, or "Ashkenazi Jews", at least since the early 4th century, through both periods of tolerance and spasms of Antisemitism violence, culminating in the Holocaust and the genocide of the Jewish community in Germany and much of Europe, the subsequent division of Germany and reunification, and post-unification immigratio...
at the end of the 11th century CE. Rashi

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
, a French rabbi

Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
who lived during this period, wrote about the issue in his legal opinions. Because of the mass forced conversion of Jews in Spain

History of the Jews in Spain

Spanish Jews once constituted one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish communities under Muslim and Christian rule in Spain, before they were expelled in 1492....
and Portugal

History of the Jews in Portugal

The history of the Jews in Portugal is directly related to Sephardi Jews history, a Jewish ethnic divisions that represents communities who have originated in the Iberian Peninsula ....
during the 14th and 15th centuries, the term became widely used by Spanish rabbis and their successors for the following 600 years.

In non-rabbinic literature, Iberian anusim are referred to as:

"Converso
Converso

Conversos and its feminine form conversa referred to Jews or Muslims or the descendants of Jews or Muslims who converted to Catholicism in Spain and Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries....
s" or
"New Christian
New Christian

New Christian was a term used to refer to Iberian peninsulan Sephardic Jewss and Moors who converted to Roman Catholicism, and their known Baptism descendants....
s" or
"crypto-Jews" or
"Marrano
Marrano

Marranos or secret Jews were Sephardi who were forced to adopt Christianity under threat of expulsion but who continued to practice Judaism secretly, thus preserving their Jewish identity....
s."

The Catholic Church coined the first two, the third is more of a modern invention by historians, and the fourth is the insulting term Spanish antisemites gave to the anusim. All four terms are sociological, whereas anusim refers to a status in Jewish law.

Rabbinic sources

The subject of Anusim has a special place in rabbinic literature

Rabbinic literature

Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Judaism history. But the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writing, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew language term Sifrut Hazal ....
.

In normal circumstances a person who abandons Jewish observance or part of it is classified as a meshumad. Such a person is still counted as a Jew for purposes of lineage, but is under a disability to claim any privilege pertaining to Jewish status: for example, he should not be counted in a minyan (quorum for religious services).

Anusim by contrast not only remain Jews by lineage but continue to count as fully qualified Jews for all purposes. Since the act of their original abandonment was done against the Jew’s will, the Jew under force may remain a "kasher" Jew. In this sense, "kasher" being the rabbinic legal term applied to a Jew who adheres to rabbinic tradition.

All descendants of anusim (and for that matter descendants of meshumadim) via the maternal line are literally Jews, because Jewish Law explains that the child of an Israelite

Israelite

According to the Tanakh, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
woman is still an Israelite, no matter what belief system the child may hold.

Indeed, as it is stated in Jewish Law:

But their children and grandchildren (of Jewish rebels), who, misguided by their parents . . . and trained in their views, are like children taken captive by them and raised in the laws of the gentiles (haGoyím 'Al Dathím), whose status is that of an 'anus (one who abjures Jewish law under duress), who, although he later learns that he is a Jew, meets Jews, observes them practice their laws, is nevertheless to be regarded as an 'anus, since he was reared in the erroneous ways of his parents . . . Therefore efforts should be made to bring them back in repentance (teshubáh), to draw them near by friendly relations, so that they may return to the strength-giving source, i.e., the Toráh

-- Mishneh Torah

Mishneh Torah

The Mishneh Torah , subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Chazaka , is a Legal code of Judaism religious law by one of the important Jewish authority Maimonides ....
Sefer Shofetím, Hilkhót Mumarím 3:2

Hakham Se‘adyá ben Maimón ibn Danan

Saadia Ibn Danan

Rabbi Saadiah ben Maimon ben Moshe ibn Danan was a grammarian of Hebrew and Arabic, poet and a halacha authority. He served as a dayan in Granada, and after the Alhambra decree settled in Oran....
, one of the most respected Sephardic Sages after the Expulsion, in the 15th century stated:

Indeed, when it comes to lineage, all the people of Israel
Israelite

According to the Tanakh, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
are brethren. We are all the sons of one father, the rebels (reshaim

Heresy in Orthodox Judaism

Conversion to Judaism

Conversion to Judaism is a formal act undertaken by a gentile person who wishes to be recognised as a full member of the Jewish community. A Jewish religious conversion is both a religious act and an expression of association with the Jewish people....
) who are attached to the house of Jacob
Jacob

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarchs and the ancestor of the twelve Israelites....
. All these are Israelites. Even if they left God or denied Him, or violated His Law, the yoke of that Law is still upon their shoulders and will never be removed from them.

Hakham BenSión Uziel

Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel

Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel or Ouziel was the Sephardi chief rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine from 1939 to 1948, and of Israel from 1948 to 1954....
, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of the State of Israel, stated in mid-20th c.

And we still have to clarify on the (subject of) Anusím, to whom the government forbids them to perform Halakhicly valid marriages, if it's necessary to say that their wives must have a Get to permit them (to marry another man), for the reason that, by force of the Law (Hazaqáh), a man does not have intercourse for promiscuity (zenút). . . (In our very case), we deal with those who converted and kept Torah in secrecy and hide their religion because of the gentile surveillance, we say that they do have intercourse for the sake of marriage.

It follows that Hakham Uziel considered anusím as Jews, because only Jews can give or receive a Get, a Jewish divorce.

Anusim

Meaning and history of term

Rabbinic sources

Further reading

See also

External links