6 Things About Jewish New Mexico
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Fancy some green chili in your matzo brei on Passover? Then you should go to New Mexico. Here are six things about Jewish New Mexico you should know.
1) New Mexico is home to many of the last crypto-Jews, who claim that their ancestors fled to Mexico during the Spanish Inquisition to escape persecution. Over the generations, these Jews were forced to practice their Judaism secretly, and today, retain in many cases only suggestive practices — such as lighting candles on Friday nights, refraining from eating pork, or keeping the Sabbath.
2) In 1881, the Jewish Community of Las Vegas, New Mexico, built the Montefiore Cemetery, one of the first Jewish cemeteries west of the Mississippi.
3) In 1884, the local community organized the first Jewish congregation in New Mexico, Congregation Montefiore, building a temple two years later. The Reform congregation is named after the world famous British philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore.
4) On Passover, according to Hadassah Magazine, some Jews here add green chili to their matzo brei.
5) At the age of 18, Charles Ilfeld arrived in Santa Fe from Bad Homburg, Germany. He emerged as a new pioneer, building a formidable mercantile emporium, the Charles Ilfeld Company, and becoming an exemplary member of New Mexico society. His company lasted through the 1950s.
6) Son of a Jewish textile manufacturer, Father of the Atomic Bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, lived on a New Mexico ranch before he began work at the Los Alamos laboratory. The first atomic bomb test was conducted in the desert, southwest of Soccoro, New Mexico.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
