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April 2008: In December, a delegation from our congregation spent Shabbat in Philadelphia as the guests of Congregation Temple Bethel. It was a heady, spirited experience. We noticed that there had been considerable water damage to their siddurim and chumashim. A several cartons of chumashim were donated, when my wife and I visited Philadelphia during Pesach.

(It is a shame that so many Jews look at African American Jewish congregations and immediately use the “C” word - conversion. That is, they accentuate the differences and convey the messages that, unless “you people” get with the program - and accept our definitions of Jewishness, we will have nothing to do with you. I have chosen to start from a different position: let’s celebrate what we have in common and maybe - maybe - we will find a way to bridge the differences - and these differences are not inconsiderable.)

July 18, 2008: I had asked Dr. Stanley M. Hordes, president of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies, to put out the word to his contacts that I have books available for descendants of Conversos/Anusim. Rabbi Yosef Garcia, a crypto-Jew born in Panama, contacted me. (Learn more about Rabbi Garcia by visiting the website of the Association of Crypto-Jews of the Americas.) A carton of books - the first of many - was shipped to the Association’s headquarters in Arizona.