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President: Kathleen Alcalá is the author of a short-story collection and three novels set in the American Southwest and nineteenth-century Mexico . She teaches creative writing at workshops and programs in Washington state and elsewhere and is a contributing editor to The Raven Chronicles. A play based on her novel, Spirits of the Ordinary, was produced by The Miracle Theatre of Portland, Oregon. Her Web Site

Immediate Past President: Stanley M. Hordes, PhD . A founding member, Dr. Hordes received his Ph.D. in Colonial Mexican History from Tulane University , with his doctoral dissertation on the crypto-Jewish community of Mexico in the seventeenth century. He is the author of To The Ends Of The Earth, a book on the history of the crypto-Jews of New Mexico published by Columbia University Press.

Secretary: Harry Ezratty . an attorney, historian, writer, lecturer and Sephardic Jew who, for more than 30 years, researched the history of the Sephardim in the Caribbean . He is the author of "500 Years in the Jewish Caribbean: The Spanish & Portuguese Jews in the West Indies Jews of the New World " and "They Led the Way: the Creators of Jewish America." He is currently preparing Vol.III, "The Builders: Jews Who Shaped Modern America."

Vice President/Meetings and Conferences: Stanley Hordes see above.

Treasurer: Diana Zertuche, a resident of Del Rio, Texas where she is a columnist for her local newspaper. She discovered the Jewish roots of her family and has been an active member of SCJS for many years

Vice President/Programs: Seth Kunin is an Executive Dean at Durham University in the UK and an ordained rabbi. He was formerly Head of the School of Divinity and Religious Studies, and taught Religious Studies at the University of Nottingham . An anthropologist by training, he has specialized in the structural analysis of Hebrew myth, and carries out on-going research into the crypto-Jewish communities of modern New Mexico . He has been a featured speaker at many of our conferences and was the keynote speaker at the Miami Beach conference. see: http://www.cryptojews.com/seth_kunin.html

Vice President/Communications: Ron Duncan-Hart. Anthropologist and former Dean of Academic Affairs and Chancellor at Inter American University in Puerto Rico. He did research and worked with UNESCO, the Ford Foundation and other agencies in Latin America for twenty years. He has authored or edited eight books on social change, including Crafts, Capitalism, and Women and El Desarollo Socio- Economico de Puerto Rico among others. He is Senior Editor of Gaon Books, and he is currently doing research on the history of the Western Sephardim and the inquisition in Colombia.

Vice President/Membership: Arthur Benveniste. A member of SCJS since 1993, traveling with society members to Belmonte when the SCJS conference was held there in 1994. Mr. Benveniste has served the society as president, HaLapid editor and now assists Ms Sloan as co-editor. A retired history teacher, he is active as a speaker on Sephardic and crypto Jews. His Web Site

Member-at Large: Dolores (Dolly) Sloan. Writer and speaker, Ms. Sloan is the author of A Sephardic Love Song©, nonfiction work about fifteenth/sixteenth century Sephardic Jews. She has coordinated publicity for the society and was Editor of HaLapid for several years. She teaches writing and public speaking at Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles .

Member at Large: Gloria Trujillo. A member of the SCJS since 1991, Ms. Trujillo has served the Society as President, Immediate Past President and Conference Chair and has served on numerous Society committees. She is a founding member of the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America and is active in several other genealogical organizations.

Member at Large: Roger Louis Martinez. Ph.D. Saint Joseph's University. Dr. Martinez has researched the history of Crypto Jews in Mexico and Spain. His articles have appeared in HaLapid and in the Journal of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian Crypto Jews. His Home Page

Member at Large: Sonya Loya, Sonya returned to Judaism after learning that she was of anousim heritage. She opened the Bat-Tzyion Hebrew Learning Center , to have a place where crypto Jews could come and learn about the roots that were taken by force from them 500 years ago.

Member at Large: Abraham Lavender, Ph.D. Dr. Lavender is Professor of Sociology at Florida International University in Miami , FL. One areas of his specialization is World Jewish Communities with an emphasis on Sephardim. Dr. Lavender has been an active member of the Society for many years and has published articles in HaLapid, as well as numerous other articles on Judaica. He is also the editor of the Jorunal of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian Crypto-Jews. You can find more about him here.

Member at Large: Seth Ward, Is Adjunct Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Assistant Academic Professional of Religious Studies at the Univesity of Wyoming. He has done estensive studies of crypto-Jews and has given papers at SCJS conferences and contributed to HaLapid.

EDITORIAL POLICY OF HALAPID

HaLapid contributors come from all over the world. The editors respect different national writing styles and, where possible, have left each item in the author's style. We edit for grammar, spelling and typographical error. Many contributions are memoirs or retelling of family stories and legends. They may or may not be historically accurate, although they are indeed valid, sacred memories that have been passed along through time. We do not attempt to change individual perceptions as long as they are reported as such, but we do change obvious misstatements or historical error. We reserve the right to edit any material. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily of SCJS or HaLapid. Articles from HaLapid may not be reprinted without permission.