Pollin Chapel, Schnitzer Family Center
Presenter: Rabbi Joshua Stampfer,
co-founder of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies

At the end of the 15th century, the Inquisition forced the Jews in Spain to leave or convert to Catholicism. Many of those who converted, or "conversos," continued to practice their faith illegally and in secret. a large number of these conversos and crypto-Jews immigrated to Spanish American colonies where enforcement by the Inquisition was less stringent than in Spain. During periods of persecution by the Mexican Inquisition, crypto-Jews migrated to isolated frontier areas, including northern New Spain, which later became New Mexico.