Memories of Sephardim : Genie Milgrom's journey back to her roots

Conference about the journey that Genie Milgrom took in order to trace back her Sephardic roots.

Genie Milgrom was brought up in a Roman Catholic family in Havana, Cuba descending from Spanish ancestry. In response to strong feelings and an affinity towards Judaism, her search for her family’s past took on a deeper significance as she researched her maternal lineage and not only discovered but documented and verified her Pre-Inquisition Spanish Roots to fifteenth century Spain and Portugal where they lived first as Jews, then as Crypto-Jews and finally as Roman Catholics. She was able to unravel the web of lies and deceit that her family had spun around themselves in order to survive the Spanish Inquisition. They lived with one foot in each world as they converted to Catholicism openly while secretly practicing their own religion underground.

Genie Milgrom is president of Tarbut Sefarad-Fermoselle in Spain, and Past President of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies. She is a historian, specialized in Crypto-Judaic studies, and the author of the book My 15 Grandmothers, Mis 15 Abuelas in Spanish as well as How I Found My 15 Grandmothers, A Step By Step Guide. The books have all won Latino Author Book Awards .She also writes for several online sites including www.esefarad.com as well as the Journal of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian Crypto Jewry from FIU University. She was awarded the State of Florida Genealogy award for her outstanding achievements and advances in the pioneer work she has done in genealogy.

She has recently been awarded the Medal of the Four Sephardic Synagogues for her decades long work in the discovery of Jewish Villages up and down the Duero River in the Iberian Peninsula and is currently the Director the Converso Genealogy Program that is involved in digitizing Inquisition Archives around the world and bringing the diaspora of the Spanish Jews to light.

Moderated by Ana Coelho, descendant of Portuguese Crypto Jews

In collaboration with the European Jewish Comunity Centre