cryptoJudaism

Crypto-Judaism is the historical practice of Judaism in private by individuals who publicly professed another faith, most often Christianity, under coercion or social pressure. The term is commonly linked to the Iberian Peninsula in the late medieval and early modern periods, when Jewish communities faced forced conversions during the Reconquista and after, and to the later expansion of the Inquisition. Those who secretly observed Jewish law, prayers, and rituals were described as conversos, New Christians, or Marranos; the label crypto-Jew emphasizes the clandestine nature of their Jewish identity.

The Inquisition and secular authorities sought to uncover Judaizing practices, with prosecutions sometimes resulting in penalties, confiscation of property, or expulsion. Crypto-Judaism is also associated with diasporic continuities in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, including parts of the Americas, where families maintained Jewish memory and practices under secrecy for generations.

Scholarly discussions stress that the phenomenon is complex: it involves beliefs, family memory, and varying degrees of practice, and it is not uniformly defined as a formal religious movement. Documentation is often fragmentary, and many cases intersect with questions of ethnicity, faith, and assimilation.

In modern scholarship, crypto-Judaism is studied as part of Sephardic history and the broader history of religiously coerced conversions, with attention to how hidden practices and identities survived, adapted, or re-emerged over time.