Taste of tradition

Jews, Christians celebrate holiday season with shared flavor of 'bimuelos'

Julia Linder Bell | For The New Mexican

12/16/2008 - 12/17/08

As Hanukkah starts at sundown on Sunday, people of the Jewish faith will kindle the candles on their menorahs and celebrate religious freedom and the miracle of the one remaining vial of oil, which should have lasted for just one day, yet burned brightly for eight. They will remember the Macabeean victory over Anticochus of Syria and the cleansing and rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BC.

To commemorate the holiday, special foods will be prepared. Most Americans associate Hanukkah with latkes, a fried potato pancake popularized by Jews of Ashkenazi descent. But there is another food eaten during this Festival of the Lights called the bimuelo — a word in the Ladino dialect spoken by many Sephardic Jews — that is enjoyed by both Jews and Christians during the month of December.

Bimuelos are an important part of my life. When I was growing up in Rancho Mirage, Calif., my maternal grandfather, Ely Raphael, who was of Sephardic heritage, would frequently visit. And sometimes on Hanukkah we would be treated to a new holiday dish, the bimuelo, instead of latkes, which were passed down from my father's Ashkenazi roots. I did not know anyone else who enjoyed bimuelos at that time.

I had always associated the bimuelo with my grandfather, but I did not ask him a lot of questions about our family history before he passed away at the age of 92.

My family moved to Santa Fe during the late 1980s. One day we received a telephone call from Rabbi Berel Levertov, Santa Fe's Chabad rabbi. He asked my mother, Rita, for a latke recipe — and she told him that she only made bimuelos, and that my father, Michael, who is the cantor at Congregation Beit Tikva, had the latke recipes.

In that moment, Andrea Vigil, a family friend who happened to be in the room at the time, said, "I always make bimuelos before Christmas."

Vigil, who is Catholic, shared with us that during the month of December, right before Christmas, her family would light a menorah to celebrate the "festival of the little lights" and eat bimuelos.

In addition, she said, her great-grandmother, Andrea Lopez of Abiquiú, would chant in another language during this time. She would then say in Spanish, "Soy judio" — "I am a Jew." Her grandmother's ancestors came from Spain, Vigil said.

"Tradition was very important to my grandmother," Vigil continued. "She taught me to make bimuelos at the age of 12 or 13. I just thought that everyone did this before Christmas."

Another Santa Fe friend, Jeanne C' de Baca, told a similar story.

"We are Catholic, but every year in December my grandmother and mother would celebrate the festival of the little lights and light our menorah before Christmas began," she said. "My grandmother would then say, 'Soy judio.' Then, we would enjoy making and eating our bimuelos, which were round and served with syrup, whipped cream and pomegranate seeds."

The pomegranate is supposed to have 613 seeds, associated in the Jewish tradition with the number of mitzvoth — or commandments — in the Torah.

The information these two women shared started me on a historical journey of my own. Along the way, I learned much about why my ancestors left Spain in 1492 and formed some hypotheses about why some of my Catholic friends in Santa Fe lit menorahs or candles and cooked the very same bimuelos to celebrate the "festival of the little lights."

My first step was to learn what it meant to be descended from Jews (like my grandfather) whose families originated in Spain.

I interviewed David M. Gitlitz, who is the author of Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews (University of New Mexico Press, 1996) and co-author with Linda Kay Davidson of Drizzle of Honey: The Lives and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews (University of New Mexico Press, 2002). I learned from Gitlitz, now a professor at the University of Rhode Island, that there was a period of 800 years when Christian kingdoms regained control of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims — a period in the Middle Ages that was known as the Reconquista, or recapturing.

In 1478, the Spanish Inquisition — a tribunal established by the Spanish monarchs to maintain Catholic orthodoxy — began. "On March 31st, 1492, the Edict of Expulsion in the newly conquered city of Granada — and promulgated to Castile and Aragon in late April — gave the two kingdoms' Jews until July 31st to depart or become Christian," Gitlitz said in a phone interview.

For Jews either staunch in their religious convictions or persuaded of the inevitability of persecution in Spain, the choice to leave was simple — and they often went to neighboring countries, Gitlitz wrote. That told me why my ancestors left Spain for Greece in 1492.

But before and during the Spanish Inquisition many people were forced to convert to Christianity. In the Jewish population, these conversions created a sub-population that would become known as Crypto-Jews. The Crypto-Jews did not initially leave Spain, but instead became conversos who practiced Jewish rituals — such as observing the holidays, observing kosher laws and celebrating rites of passage — secretly. Over time, many of the Jewish conversos of Spain assimilated with their Catholic neighbors.

Crypto-Jews were torn between two worlds, Gitlitz said. Usually, one member of the family would know some Jewish customs. "Because of the central role of women in early childhood education and in managing the ceremonial life of the household, conversa mothers and sisters often became the principal transmitters and sustainers of crypto-Judaism," he said.

"After August 1st, 1492," Gitlitz wrote, "... Jewish regalia disappeared almost overnight," making it more difficult for conversos to keep all of the customs of Judaism alive.

Still, some customs persisted, according to Stanley Hordes, author of To The End of The Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico (Columbia University Press, 2005). A one-time historian for the state of New Mexico, Hordes said that he began receiving visits from native New Mexicans, claiming that they, too, lit Friday night candles and menorahs and were often told, "Soy judio. ... Many are starting to embrace their Jewish roots today," Hordes said in a recent phone interview, "while others continue Jewish practices, unknowingly steeped deep in their Catholicism."

Gitlitz agreed that some Crypto-Jews migrated to New Mexico, but differs on how their travels may have affected their rituals.

"As many of these Crypto-Jews migrated, there were some who went north to Mexico and then to New Mexico," Gitlitz said. "Many of them lost touch with certain acts, and it is a possibility that the insertion of acts like lighting menorahs may have been learned later, from other Jews that were not of Spanish descent."


In the past, there has been much controversy about these crypto-Jewish stories, especially here in New Mexico. Experts on the subject, such as Judith Nuelander of Case Western Reserve University, and an article in The Atlantic Monthly in 2000, dispute the concept of
400 years of secret Jewish practice and argue that memories are not significant enough proof of its existence.

"You can't say none of it is real or all is real," Gitlitz said. "The truths lie somewhere in between."

But Hordes believes he knows the truth. "My historical research lends a historical plausibility to the accounts offered by those within the Hispanic community who today assert a crypto-Jewish heritage," he said. "It is clear that Crypto-Jews or their descendants were among the early settlers in New Mexico. After 500 years, the cultural remnant of crypto-Judaism that comes down to us here in New Mexico spans a broad spectrum ranging from people with no (Jewish) customs or consciousness, to those who light candles on Friday night, or refrain from eating pork, etc., but have no idea why, to those who know exactly who they are.

"Sometimes, customs and objects that appear to be connected with Judaism might not necessarily be so," he acknowledged. "Sometimes, a seven-branch candelabra is just a seven-branched candelabra. But when people tell you that they light candles in sequence in the seven-branched candelabra in late December as an observance of Hanukkah then, in this cultural context, that seven-branched candelabra could be seen as a menorah."

My memories are very important to me. I keep them alive during Hanukkah by telling my husband, Lance, and my daughter, Jacqueline, the story of the Macabees, lighting a menorah and making both latkes and bimuelos.




This is Andrea Vigil's recipe for bimuelos:

BIMULEOS
(Makes about 20)

For the fritters:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup warm milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
Canola oil for frying
For the topping:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

Pour enough canola oil into a deep fryer to cover the bimuelos. Heat to 375 degrees.

Sift flour twice. In a large bowl, combine beaten eggs and warm milk. Slowly add flour, sugar and butter, then mix with hands. (Dough should not be hard.)

Roll batter into 20 balls and place them on a floured cutting board. When oil is hot enough, drop them into oil and let them fry until they are golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and serve hot.


In many Sephardic traditions, bimuelos are served drizzled with either honey or a citrusy sugar syrup — a legacy of the foods and flavors or medieval Spain. This version comes from The World of Jewish Cooking: More than 500 Traditional Recipes From Alsace to Yemen by Gil Marks (Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2006).


Combine all of the ingredients in a heavy 1-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, without stirring, until the mixture is syrupy, about 10-15 minutes. Let cool and store in the refrigerator.



"By at least the 13th century, a singular Spanish term emerged to encompass various fried doughs — buñuelos," said Gil Marks, author of, The World of Jewish Cooking: More than 500 recipes From Alsace to Yemen.

"Although some Sephardim continued to call them bunuelos, most eventually developed a slightly different pronunciation, in regional dialects, such as bimuelos," he said in a recent telephone interview. "The name is further confusing as Sephardim use it in reference to a variety of small fried foods, including doughnuts, fritters and pancakes.

"Bimuelos can be sweet or savory. The doughnut version of bimuelos emerged as the pre-eminent Sephardic Hanukkah treat," Marks continued. "Passover bimuelos are made with either crumbled whole matzo or, less frequently, matzo meal.

"My favorite is the traditional Israeli jelly doughnuts, sufganiyot," he said.