Society For Crypto Judaic Studies
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The Cross by Day, Mezuzah by Night by Deborah Spector Siegel, Jewish Publication Society; Hardcover, $14.95 reviewed by Arthur Benveniste Set in Seville in 1492, this novel for young adults, is a first person narrative, the story of Isabel Caruso de Carvallo, a Catholic girl of wealth and privilege. Expecting a special thirteenth birthday celebration of gifts and family feasting and a special present from her devoted father, she receives instead the most shocking news of her life. Isabel learns she is not Catholic at all but in reality she is Ruth de Cojano, a secret Jew. Her father, the chief royal tax collector of Seville, explains that for 100 years the de Cojano family has lived in Seville as the Caruso de Carvallos and that they have risked torture and imprisonment by practicing their ancient Jewish rites in the dark cellar of their house. The narrator describes her real identity and with the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Spain’s Jews. |