Esperanza Road
Latin Times Magazine Interview with Rabbi Gary Fernandez
Latin Times : What inspired you to become a Rabbi ? Rabbi Gary : My wife Barbara was always curious regarding the fact that her family had Kiowa Indian blood and wanted to find out more . She began a genealogical search and discovered that they were Ashkenazi and Sefardic ... Jewish ! She couldn ’ t believe it , after all , she was Cruz , Manzanares , Chavez & Maise ... how could this be ? She began asking questions within her family and kept getting the famous we don ’ t talk about that until she continued questioning a very old aunt who finally told her the truth in detail . When I heard this I became curious regarding my lineage ... after all , I was just Puerto Rican on both sides , Fernandez , Mercado , Rodriguez , Capo ... so I thought . I then did a search and found I was Sefardic on both sides ! But in my case , this information was completely stolen unlike my wife ’ s case where it was completely hidden . I then began an investigation of my own to understand what this meant and began to feel something happening within me that led me to make the decision to embrace the heritage that we lost .
Latin Times : What are Sefardic Jews ? Rabbi Gary : There are 2 types of Jews , Ashkenazi and Sefardic . Ashkenazis are the ones that are most recognized when someone says Jewish , the black hats , the long beards , the black coats , the curls on the sides of their heads ( Peyots ). Those are the European Jews , Russia , Bulgaria , Poland , Germany , etc . Now to ancient Jewish history , in 826 BCE ( before the common era ) King Shlomo ( Solomon ) finished the construction of the first Holy Temple in Jerusalem . Once finished , he knew that they would need a lot of money to keep that place going . He decided to open a trade route with a place known as Tarshish ( Tarsis ) at the time , which was located on the west coast area of a peninsula that was completely empty , sort of a type of Las Vegas , in the middle of nowhere full of lots of gold , silver and goods for trade . In the book of 1 Kings 10:22 it documents that he creates a fleet of ships known as the fleet of Tarsis built specifically to work that trade route . And as everyone knows he became very rich . Then the King of Babylon decided to invade Jerusalem . He began a horrible attack destroying the Temple and killing the original inhabitants of Jerusalem ... the Sefradi ... the Sefardic Jews .
They began escaping with a great majority heading to Iran , Iraq , Morocco , Turkey and Salonica Greece . The rest fled to that empty peninsula that they knew about . They saw it was plush , fertile and the climate was perfect . They decided to make this their new home and called it Sefarad . Sefer means book not like the kind we know today in pages but on a scroll . The Torah ( the first 5 books of the Bible ) is on a large scroll known as a Sefer Torah . Sefaradi ( Sefardic ) in Hebrew means the people of the Book ). Sefarad means the place of the people of the Book and