As Kulanu\u2019s Vice President for Mexican Affairs for the past two years, I have encountered Mexico\u2019s two Jewish communities \u2014 the 50,000-strong, well-to-do community of \u201cestablishment\u201d Jews, descended from Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Turkey and Syria, and the 500-strong, poorer community of conversos,<\/em> either convert communities or descendants of \u201cMarranos\u201d.<\/p>\n The \u201cestablishment\u201d Jews are Orthodox and do not accept converts to Judaism easily. An Israeli-born Conservative rabbi, Samuel Lehrer, is willing to perform conversions and has served as the spiritual leader to all five of the converso havurot.<\/em> Rabbi Lehrer, who leads a Conservative congregation in Mexico City, receives no compensation for his work with the conversos,<\/em> and faces frequent opposition both from other synagogues and from his own congregants. He is nearly 78 years old and in increasingly poor health, and it is unclear whether any successor of his at Beth Israel<\/em> will take a similar interest in the conversos<\/em> when he retires.<\/p>\n My work for Kulanu in Mexico has focused on seeking out converso<\/em> groups with some interest in a relationship with Kulanu or with American Jews generally. So far, I have been able to make contact with three of the five havurot<\/em> (one each in Mexico City, Puebla and Veracruz).<\/p>\n I visited the 20-family havurah<\/em> in Puebla three times since January 1994 and translated a letter from the founder of the community for the Kulanu newsletter. I have taken this community Kulanu\u2019s donations for siddurim<\/em> and other Jewish books and personally brought gifts of kippot, haggadot<\/em> and tallitot.<\/em> I have also met with the Israeli ambassador to Mexico on their behalf.<\/p>\n My work in Mexico City has been twofold \u2014 providing technical assistance to a group of mainstream Mexican Jews desiring to establish a progressive congregation, and developing a personal relationship with Benyamin Laureano, the unofficial historian of Mexico\u2019s conversos.<\/em><\/p>\n In general, I have found my interactions with both the converso<\/em> communities and \u201cmainstream\u201d Mexican Jewry to be a tremendously enriching experience.<\/p>\n (Editor\u2019s note: Yasher koach, Rick! Readers who might be interested in serving as Kulanu\u2019s next Vice President for Mexican Affairs should contact the office.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Richard A. Kulick As Kulanu\u2019s Vice President for Mexican Affairs for the past two years, I have encountered Mexico\u2019s <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1255,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-template\/full-width.php","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n