The Spanish Inquisition devastated Jewish life in Spain, as Jews had to either convert to Catholicism or flee, in 1492. The history of the Inquisition in the New World is less well known; but Ilan Stavans delves into the history of “crypto-Jews” in New Mexico in El Iluminado: A Graphic Novel, which is illustrated by Steve Sheinkin (Rabbi Harvey). Since the history of the Jews who fled Spain and continued to practice Judaism surreptitiously in the American Southwest might become a rather dry affair, El Iluminado stirs in a murder mystery and professional contentions that make things dicey for a certain Professor Stavans, who visits Santa Fe to deliver a lecture about the crypto-Jews. I won’t give away the ending. — M.S.
(American Jewish World, 12.21.12)
