The Bnei Anusim concept has gained some popularity in the Hispanic community in the American South West as well as in countries in Latin America.
[2] Since the early 21st century, a growing number "of [Sephardic] Bnei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and in Sefarad (Iberia) itself" as "organized groups.
Although not halakhically Jewish as a collective group, Sephardic Bnei Anusim are broadly categorized as Zera Yisrael (זרע ישראל, literally "Seed of Israel").
[citation needed] Such choice was not feasible long-term in that Hispanic environment, as Judaizing conversos in Iberia and Ibero-America were subject to being persecuted, prosecuted, and liable to conviction and execution under the Inquisition.
In the early 20th century there was a move to encourage the secret Jews of Portugal to come out of hiding (by a man named Barros Basto, called the Portuguese Dreyfus).
The traditional Jewish holiday of Purim was celebrated disguised as the feast day of a fictional Christian saint, the "Festival of Santa Esterica" - based on the story of Queen Esther in Persia.
And to this day Portuguese Bnei Anousim are some of the staunchest promoters of the coming back to Sephardi Judaism (through conversion, or formal "return").
Messianic Jewish congregations (styled less like churches, and more like synagogues) have been sprouting up around Latin America in the last several years, and are composed largely of Sephardic Bnei Anusim.
The fact of Conversos leaning towards Messianic "Jewish" forms of Christianity, rather than reverting to Judaism itself, is suggested as a paradigm resulting from factors in Latin America.
Such Messianic Jewish organizations have been accused of discouraging Sephardic Bnei Anusim from rejoining normative Judaism, suggesting their faith as a form to integrate their complex ancestries.
But the takkanah has been applied to all conversions, and thus have prevented any of the Sephardic Bnei Anusim in Argentina (and later in other countries in Latin America) who may want to formally convert (or return) to Judaism.
The takkanah was intended to combat what some of the community and rabbinate considered high rates of insincere conversions being performed solely to enable intermarriages of Jews to gentiles.
New York City's Syrian Jewish community also adopted this prohibition, although in theory it was limited to conversions to be performed for the sake of marriage.
As implemented in 1935, the takkanah in New York has been amended to say that "no future Rabbinic Court will have the right or authority to convert non-Jews who seek to marry into our [Syrian Jewish] community.
Because of the takkanah, Sephardic Bnei Ansuim have accused normative Jewish communities in Latin America of classism, and racism, and outright discrimination as many of their members have African and Native American or indigenous ancestry in addition to European.
In the late 20th century a group of people in Iquitos, Peru, who believed they were descendants of 19th-century male Jewish traders and their indigenous wives, began to study Judaism seriously.
(Middle East and North Africa) and Bnei Anousim individuals who live as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and Indonesia Ezra L'Anousim.
In Iberia itself, known and attested settlements of Bnei Anusim include the population of Belmonte, in Portugal, and the Xueta of Palma de Majorca, in Spain.
Recent historical studies suggest that the number of New Christians of Sephardi origin who participated in the conquest and settlement was more significant than previously estimated.
Recent DNA studies and historical settlement patterns of New Christians indicate that the concentration of these Hispanic/Latino-assimilated Christian-professing descendants of Sephardic Jews are found primarily in the following localities (from north to south): The common characteristic of all the above-mentioned localities is that they are situated in remote areas, isolated either by distance or geographical features from the Spanish colonial administrative centers.
North African Sephardim in Peru have largely assimilated to the majority culture, in part because their early immigrants were mostly men, who married local women to establish their families.
She is knowledgeable and experienced in what kind of "evidences" a Beit Din will need to see, and acts as a coach for Bnei Anousim worldwide who would also like to return (or revert) to Sephardi Judaism.
Casa Shalom holds lectures and seminars in their centre in Netanya, Israel and work to help Sephardic Bnei Ansusim investigate and reclaim their heritage.
Shavei Israel, with headquarters in Jerusalem is an advocacy and Jewish outreach organization with links to religious institutions in helping Bnei Anusim in their branches in Spain, Portugal and South America return to Judaism.
Ashley Perry is the current president of the organization and also director of the Knesset Caucus for the Reconnection with the Descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities.
In 1494, after the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas, authorized by Pope Alexander VI, Portugal was given the right to found colonies in the Eastern Hemisphere and Spain was given dominance over the New World.
In the East, as Professor Walter Fischel, the now deceased Chair of the Department of Near Eastern History at the University of California - Berkeley, explains, the Portuguese found use for the Sephardic anusim in Goa and their other Indian and Asian possessions.
"[27] The ability of the Sephardic Jews and anusim to speak Arabic made them vital to Portuguese colonial ambitions in the East, where they could interact and go on diplomatic and trade missions in the Muslim courts of the Mughal Empire.
Oliveiras has family tradition source which said this surname has origin of Levite or Judah from the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.[31][32] In some cases, Sephardi-descended Hispanics of the communities of Bnei Anusim have inherited genetic mutations and diseases to Jews or Sephardi Jews in particular, including Jewish-specific mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes which increases the risk of breast cancer (found also among Hispanos of the Southwestern United States) and Laron syndrome (found also among Ecuadorians).
Surnames known to have been carried by Jews included Cueva, Luna, León, Pérez, López, Salazar, Córdova, Torres, Castro, Álvarez, González, Gómez, Fernández, Costa, Mendes, Rivera, Maduro.