Thus, the category Jewish actually subsumes the label Melungeon. Some Jews were Melungeon, but all Melungeons apparently were Jews (or Moors, also persecuted and often thrown together with Jews). This says nothing about their religion but is purely an ethnic and social-historical description. Presumably, however, just as a lapsed Jew is still regarded by other Jews as a Jew, the descendants of a lapsed Jew are also Jews. The timeframe really does not matter. Marranos fleeing the new vehemence of the Spanish Inquisition that began in 1580 with the union of the Spanish and Portuguese thrones returned to Judaism in places like Bayonne and Hamburg after as much as six to eight generations of life as New Christians. Some of the founding families of Bevis Marks Synagogue in 1701 had concealed their Jewish traditions for up to 10 generations, back to the first forced baptisms of the 1390s. For the Savannah Jews the lapse was at least from 1497 to 1733—in other words, 236 years, or about 10 generations.

It remains to be seen how many individual crypto-Jewish practices survived in different Appalachian families, and for how long. The following list is taken from the book Secrecy and Deceit. The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, by David M. Gitlitz (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press). I can testify to many from my own family lines, which include hierarchical families of the Cherokee (Wolf and Paint Clans primarily) and Choctaw/Chickasaw (Colbert and Moshulatubbee), plus the surnames Cooper, Blevins, Sizemore, Green, Jackson, Hart, Jordan, Muse, Sanford, Yates, Denney, Bundren, Goble, Shankle, Lackey and Houston.

·        The Crypto-Jewish Belief System and Attitudes toward Christian Beliefs

o       Linkage to the wellsprings of Jewish tradition such as preservation of Davidic and Levite ancestry

o       Refusal to mention or swear by the name of Christ

o       Veneration of Jerusalem as the promised land

o       Belief that the Messiah is yet to come

o       Non-existence of Hell

o       Averroism and this-worldly orientation

o       Trust in God’s blessing to those who keep his commandments (mizvot):“Jewish history was a product of God’s response to their collective behavior”

o       Observance of the law of Moses

o       Jewish saints like Moses, Joshua, Aaron, Abraham, Elijah, Joseph and others

o       Denigration of Christianity as an inferior, superstitious religion, including ridicule of Jesus, Mary’s virginity, the doctrine of transubstantiation, miracles, etc.

o       Rejection of the last rites

·        Superstitions (Fortune telling, Love and Cures)

·        Birth, Marriage, Death and Funeral customs

o       Male and female children named eight days after birth

o       Two “first” names

o       “Smith-Jonesing”

o       Circumcision by a mohel

o       Birth vigils and propitiation of the fairies (hadas)

o       Jewish wet nurses

o       Ritual baths

o       Fundamental commandment as found in Deut. 11:19, blessing of children, the mezuzah

o       Education of spouses

o       Introduction of children to Judaism at about age 13 or 14, with injunction never to reveal the family’s secrets

o       Godfathers and godmothers in the Jewish way

o       Endogamy and strictures against courting or marrying an outsider

o       Children of mixed marriages called mulattos

o       Divorce common

o       Levirate marriage (Deut. 25:5)

o       Wedding contracts similar to the ketubbah

o       Giving of multiple wedding rings

o       Serving wine and presentation of expensive gifts at wedding feasts

o       No sexual relations during menstruation, often a week’s separation

o       Premarital sex not necessarily a sin

o       Frequent liaisons with unmarried women or servants or slaves, even bigamous relationships

o       Prohibition against women cutting their hair

o       Turning dying person’s face to the wall (2 Kings 20:2)

o       Not leaving body unattended from moment of death to burial

o       Burial in virgin soil, in very deep graves, symbolic sprinkling of sand from Israel

o       Burying deceased male in fringed or tasseled prayer shawl (tallit)

o       Placing money or misshapen pearls in coffin

o       Throwing silver coin into baby boy’s first bath water

o       Saying Kaddish at grave site and for relatives buried elsewhere

o       Burial within one day

o       Eating eggs, fish and lentils (or chickpeas) after funeral

o       Upsetting the furniture in the dead person’s home

o       Observing shivah (Gen. 50:10)

o       Turning all mirrors in the house toward the wall after a death

o       Pouring out all drawn water in the neighborhood of a corpse

o       Feeding widows and the poor as act of charity after a death

o       Avoidance of June weddings in Hebrew month of Av

·        Sabbath and Holiday Customs

o       Sweeping the house, making a stew, washing and dressing in best clothes for Sabbath

o       Sweeping the house from outside in to avoid sweeping dirt past mezuzah

o       Sweeping the entire front yard

o       Lighting Shabbat candles on Friday night once three medium-sized stars can be seen

o       Blessing one’s children at the Shabbat breaking of bread

o       Lighting at least two lamps or candles, always with new wicks or new candles

o       Making sure the lights are kindled by a woman (female name Manorah is sometimes found)

o       Use of the word Adonai for God

o       Abstaining from work, household chores, traveling, opening one’s business or handling money on Saturday

o       Eating precooked casseroles (often fish and eggplant), stews and cold cuts on Shabbat

o       Fasting for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, on Mondays and Thursdays and other appointed times, often in women’s groups

o       Popularity of the name Rosanna, Roxanne, Roseanne (=Rosh Hashanah)

o       Sukkot, or the Festival of the Booths (often combined with the Indians’ Green Corn Festival)

o       Hanukkah (popularity of the name Hanna)

o       Purim and popularity of the names Mordechai and Esther

o       Passover, eating in reclining position, use of matza (unleavened bread), special wine, etc.

o       Fasting and wearing old clothes in July to commemorate the destruction of the Temple

·        Other

o       Having just an Old Testament and no New Testament in the house

o       Reading Josephus as a Bible substitute (also a popular name)

o       Reading the Book of Tobit

o       Using a handwritten prayerbook consisting of the Psalms

o       Observing the daily cycle of prayer of a Jew

o       Knowledge of the words and melody of the Shema (Jewish credo)

o       Washing your hands before praying, saying the blessing after eating

o       Hand kissing

o       Blessings over wine, bread, fruit, upon seeing lightning, etc.

o       “Are you a traveling man?” a code greeting for Jews (and Masons) who meet on the road

o       Minyan (quorum of 10 males for worship)

o       Having a dedicated room in the house for worship services or meeting outdoors or in caves, etc.

o       Worship spaces devoid of any decoration

o       Men and women worshiping separately

o       Having a cantor to sing portions of the service

o       Praying facing east (toward Jerusalem), with door or window open

o       Bobbing of heads during certain parts of prayer meeting

o       Home weddings

o       Kipah

o       Teffilin

o       Calligraphic banner inside home with Bible verse

o       Keeping kosher

o       Throwing out eggs with blood spot

o       Not eating meat with any defect

o       Abstaining from all pork (exceptions sometimes made for sausage and bacon!)

o       Cooking with olive oil

o       Waiting between meat and dairy (Ex. 23:19, 34:26 and Deut. 14:21)

o       Keeping a special knife for kosher slaughtering

o       Avoiding eating meet that is undercooked and bloody

o       Kosher processing of meet to eliminate excess fat, boiling, removing sciatic nerve, porging

o       Casting pinch of bread into fire

o       Eating only recipes cooked by maternal grandmother 

next