Latin American Jewish converts caught between communal bans and Israel’s Law of Return

For nearly a century, a little-known communal decree has effectively blocked tens of thousands of Jewish converts and descendants of Spain and Portugal’s forced converts from making aliyah through normal channels. Israel’s Nascent Sanhedrin court has now challenged the legitimacy of that prohibition, potentially reopening the door for a population that has long sought to return both to Judaism and to Israel. The controversy centers on a takanah, or communal decree, enacted in 1927 by the Syrian Jewish community in Buenos Aires. This decree barred converts from joining the community. Over time, the city’s Ashkenazi community adopted this policy, and it spread to every recognized Jewish community throughout Latin America. Yaffah Batya daCosta, founder and CEO of Ezra L’Anousim, explains the decree's origins. She suggests it was created to prevent Jewish men from marrying non-Jewish women whose sincerity about being Jewish was in question, particularly if they were already in a relationship with a Jewish man. However, she questions why it became a blanket decree against all converts, even sincere ones. DaCosta points to the historical context of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition. Jews who stayed in those countries after expulsion decrees were forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism. The Inquisition persecuted secret Jews for centuries, with the last auto-da-fé in Mexico City in 1830. Potential gentile converts and their rabbis were also murdered in Spain and Portugal in the 13th and 14th centuries. DaCosta believes that in 1927, rabbis may have barred conversion to protect their congregations from the risks associated with accepting new converts in predominantly Catholic Latin America. While originally intended to address specific historical circumstances, critics argue the decree has had unintended consequences for the Bnei Anusim, descendants of Jews forced to convert to Christianity who secretly maintained Jewish practices.

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The decree against converts joining an established Jewish community was allegedly created to prevent Jewish men from marrying non-Jewish women whose sincerity about being a Jew was in question, such as in cases where they were already in a relationship with a Jewish man. That would have been enough to reject those potential converts in those days.