DIGGING
IN BEAT BRADY (AGAIN)
Graphic novel “Tunnels” considers
some complicated truths.

JANUARY 13, 2022 / 11 SHEVAT 5782
PAGE 18
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM — WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH IN PHILADELPHIA —
$1.00 The first female
rabbi was ordained
50 years ago.

Crypto-Jewish Descendants
Connect, Obstacles
Remain Page 4
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
LOCAL “SHABBAT SHALOM a Todos” wrote
one member in the “Sephardic and Crypto-
Jewish Research” Facebook group to an
audience of more than 400 members, many
of whom live in northern Mexico or the
United States Southwest.

Th e post is nestled above a query to fi nd
a book on Spanish marine and navy guards
published in 1954 in Madrid and below a
posting of an old textbook image showing a
woman facing the Inquisition in Mexico City.

Th e contents of the posts to the group run
the gamut, but all pertain to crypto-Judaism,
the secret practice of Judaism by Sephardic
Jews in Spain and its colonies during, and
aft er, the Inquisition.

In a time where Catholics remain the vast
majority in Spanish-speaking countries and
in Iberia, Jewish people in these countries
remain stigmatized, though the Inquisition
ended centuries ago. It’s why these Facebook
groups are precious to so many people
just now uncovering their Sephardic
OF NOTE
LOCAL Female Rabbis
Ponder Current
Challenges Service Options
Set for MLK Day
JCRC a co-sponsor
of local programs.

Page 9
CAMPS Camp Season Isn’t
Too Far Off
See our special
section for some
summer options.

Page 20
Volume 134
Number 40
Published Weekly Since 1887
Robert and Molly Freedman
Courtesy of David Freedman
Jewish Music Collection a
Longstanding Labor of Love
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
PENN LIBRARIES, the University of
Pennsylvania-based repository for the
Robert and Molly Freedman Jewish
Sound Archive, calls it “among the most
important resources in the world for the
study of Jewish culture, folklore, history,
linguistics and literature through the
medium of sound.”
Th at description comes from Penn
Libraries’ website, which explains that
the archive includes more than 40,000
songs, 5,923 albums and 1,510 pieces of
sheet music. Donated to Penn in 1998
aft er it got too big for the Philadelphia-
based Freedmans to house, the collection
holds Yiddish songs, klezmer music and
See Crypto, Page 12
See Music, Page 13
ANNIVERSARY Ann S iv A er L s E ary
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KING OF PRUSSIA, PA
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