We at Kulanu encourage you to remember the Inquisition, and the efforts of today’s Anousim to return to the Jewish community, on Tisha B’av.  At the recommendation of Kulanu board member Rabbi Stephen Leon and Rabbi Juan Mejia, the United Synagogue passed a resolution recommending that their synagogues include this in their Tisha B’av services. Sadly, not all synagogues give a warm welcome to returning Anousim, and your community’s Tisha B’av observance would make it clear that your doors and hearts are open.

Rabbi Leon and Rabbi Mejia prepared a packet of resources to help with Tisha B’av observances. The link to last year’s packet is available on the Anousim community page on Kulanu’s web site; the 2011 version will be available there soon. Click here to read the original resolution and explore the materials and resources.

Also, Darchei Noam, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Toronto, has done a Tisha B’av servicethe past two years focused on the Inquisition. Here is an outline of their service.

Andria Spindel, Kulanu board member who heads the Darchei Noam Diversity Committee, reports that they asked people to do research before Tisha B’Av and bring a story, poem or prayer from an Anousim perspective. Last year their rabbi read from a book of recipes and stories from Iberian conversos, A Drizzle of Honey: The Lives and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews.