RE: Julio Inglesias Jewish?

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

Alex,

I don't follow news about Mariah Carey but my teenage kids who like her 
inform me of all kinds of things.
I understand that Carey/Carrey also has a step-father and people may mix up 
info about her two fathers.

As for the name sounding Irish, all I can tell you is that there is a very 
wealthy Syrian Jewish family in Brooklyn whose name is spelled Cayre and is 
pronounced Carey, like the Irish name.  One of the Cayre children is my 
daughter's classmates at the Yeshivah of Flatbush and I doubt that there is 
any connection with Ireland here.



Jonathon,

> As to Julio Iglesias, sans other evidence, a high Christian name DOES NOT
> indicate Jewishness.  Many Christian Spaniards were/are devoted enough to
> their religion to choose high Christian names as well, as any glance at
> historical Spanish names will tell you.

I didn't say that it's proof, but rather a great likelihood.  The chances 
are overwhelmingly so.   I will also suggest to you that merely looking at 
historical Spanish names will tell you very little, because we know that 
Jews took on these names with a passion.   The first large-scale attack on 
Spanish Jews happened in 1390, way before 1492.

>Besides, just because some
> ancestor 400 years ago was forced to or chose to take on the name of
> Iglesias (=church) DOES NOT mean that the descendent 400 years later is
> Jewish.  (If it does, we need a racial definition of Jews, which was how
> the whole mess started to begin with...)

I guess all you know about Spanish Jewish history is that there was an 
inquisition.   The fact is that much happened before and after the big 
Inquisition _500_ years ago.  On the local level, Jews and crypto-Jews 
continued to be hounded, pursued, robbed, and punished for in the 16th, 
17th, 18th and 19th centuries.  It is also a known fact in Spain that 
almost EVERYONE in Spain has some Jewish blood in them.  When someone says 
that a Spaniard is a Jew, they are not talking about someone whose 
ancestors converted 400 or 500 years ago. There are still anecdotes of very 
religious Spanish Catholics who to this day secretly light candles on 
Friday nights in closed cupboards and have no idea why they do that, but 
more significantly, communities of secret Jews continued to exist well into 
the 20th century in several locations in the Iberian peninsula especially 
in remote mountain towns or islands, for example, the mountain town 
Belmonte, Portugal to this very day.   They finally decided that it was 
safe to come out as Jews they got a rabbi about 10 years ago.

I don't think that a racial definition of Jews is relevant or necessary 
here.


Reyzl



----------
From:  Alex J. Lubet[SMTP:lubet001 (at) maroon(dot)tc(dot)umn(dot)edu]
Sent:  Wednesday, July 07, 1999 1:07 PM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant
Subject:  Re: Julio Inglesias Jewish?

Responding to the message of <199907071553(dot)IAA02363 (at) 
uclink4(dot)berkeley(dot)edu>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
>
There was an article in Ebony magazine in 1991, when Mariah was breaking 
in,
that said her father was Venezuelan and black.  I can't vouch for its 
veracity
or challenge other readings, but it's interesting that two such different 
bios
have been published.  From whence comes her Irish surname?

> Yes, Mariah Carrey's parents are Syrian Jews, from what I've heard and 
read.
>
> As to Julio Iglesias, sans other evidence, a high Christian name DOES NOT
> indicate Jewishness.  Many Christian Spaniards were/are devoted enough to
> their religion to choose high Christian names as well, as any glance at
> historical Spanish names will tell you.  Besides, just because some
> ancestor 400 years ago was forced to or chose to take on the name of
> Iglesias (=church) DOES NOT mean that the descendent 400 years later is
> Jewish.  (If it does, we need a racial definition of Jews, which was how
> the whole mess started to begin with...)
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
>
> .


Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 626-2200 (fax)



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