The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews--A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage [Paperback]

Trudi Alexy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 1994

Acclaimed in the Progressive's "Best Reading of 1993," these thrilling and harrowing firsthand stories of survivors and their rescuers vividly reveal the secret history of the Jews who found asylum from Hitler's Final Solution under Franco's Fascist regime.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Named among the "Best Reading of 1993" by the Progressive, this thrilling account offers an insider's history of the Marranos of Spain and other secret Jews and explains the mystery surrounding them.

About the Author

Trudi Alexy and her family fled Prague for Barcelona at the outbreak of World War II. They lived in Spain as secret Jews until 1941, when they immigrated to the United States. Today, Alexy is a family therapist in Los Angeles, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco (September 3, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060603402
• ISBN-13: 978-0060603403
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #366,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating mix of heroism, personal histories and religion, August 28, 2001

By 

Laura Hamilton "mslaura" (Saratoga CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews--A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage (Paperback)

I found this book at my Jewish boyfriend's mother's house. She checked it out of the library as part of a Sephardic reading group. I started skimming through it and couldn't put it down, had to buy my own copy here on Amazon! Trudi Alexy and her family fled Czechoslovakia to escape the Germans and were chased through France and finally Spain before they felt safe. Spain, in spite of its history of ultra-conservative Catholicism, Inquisition, expulsion of the Jews, etc., was one of the few safe havens for Jews fleeing the Germans during WWII. I was surpised to find this out, since Franco was a part of the Axis powers, a rigid ultra-Catholic, a dictator, and a Fascist. But I guess he wasn't an anti-Semite, because he basically looked the other way when Jews began pouring into Spain illegally to escape being killed in the concentration camps of Occupied Europe, especially Vichy-controlled France, which practically did all they could to deliver the Jews over to the Germans, nasty anti-Semites that the French are. In contrast, Spain not only looked the other way when Jews came pouring over the border, in many cases Spanish diplomats would demand that arrested Jews in other countries be released to them as Spanish citizens, even in cases where the Jews were Ashkenaz, not even Sephardic! The Spanish Red Cross also made a great effort to get food, clothing and letters shipped to Jews in concentration camps in the rest of Europe, even as the International Red Cross did absolutely nothing to help. There are horrific stories from the survivors themselves, tales of fleeing the Nazis with only the clothes on their backs, of escaping concentration camps and struggling over the Pyrenees in mid-winter without even a proper coat. Tales of getting to Spain and turning themselves in to the police to find warm beds, food and even money provided for them by kind hearted Spaniards from all walks of life. Then there are stories from the people who smuggled them into Spain, the risks they took to save thousands upon thousands of people from certain death. And tales of the Secret Jews, or Marranos, or Crypto-Jews, who were forced to convert during the Inquisition, or who were expelled from Spain, and the constant threats that they faced. Many of them continued practicing their Jewish rituals in absolute secrecy, in most cases not even letting their children know that they were of Jewish blood until age 12, when they were less likely to slip and give the secret away to outsiders. Many Crypto-Jews live in Mexico and New Mexico today, their ancestors having arrived in the 1500's after the expulsion from Spain. The Inquisition follwed them to the New World, however, so they continued practicing the most minimal Jewish traditions, such as ritual prayer, in absolute secrecy. Trudi interviewed some people who only identified as Catholics, but had listened to an NPR show on the Crypto-Jews and identified ancient and distorted Jewish traditions that their own family practiced! These people were utterly shocked to find out that they were of Jewish ancestry. I don't personally see the big deal, but I guess if you're a major Christian, then you might think it's a bad thing. In most cases though, the families were not only aware of their Jewish ancestry, but fostered it in secret while living a public life of Catholicism. They would intermarry only amongst one another and kept to fairly tight-knit communities. I liked the stories of the people who escaped to Spain during WWII best, since they were so full of heroism and drama, but really the whole book was fascinating.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at a little-known aspect of Jewish histor, June 5, 2001

By 

K. Schwarting "rivkah12" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews--A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage (Paperback)

The author, who was hidden by Spaniards for two years during WWII, uses her own experience as a jumping-off point for a discussion of centuries of Spanish assistance in hiding and protecting Jews during times of persecution, notably during the SPanish Inquisition.

While I have a fair grasp on Jewish history, I was astounded by the stories of these "secret Jews," known only to each other by things like the titular talisman (including a Jewish object like a mezuzah in a painting of a Madonna). The descendants of these secret Jews, the Marranos, are still with us today.

This is a little-known aspect of Jewish history. As I kept turning the pages (and trust me, this is a page-turner), I kept saying "I didn't know that."

Even if Jewish history is not a particular interest, the book is interesting both as general history and a fascinating narrative of the author's experiences and those of centuries of Marranos.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Parts Catharsis Three Parts History, September 28, 1999

By 

John Pittaway (Tustin, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews--A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage (Paperback)

During World War II Spain gave safety to nearly one million Jews. Franco, the Fascist dictator, gave the order to the Spanish diplomatic corps, "Bring our Jews home." As a result Jews, stateless for lack of papers, who could not speak a word of Ladino, were given transit visas to Spain until the Nazi's stopped honoring papers of any kind. Then the boarder guards simply looked the other way when Jews ran their border crossings.

Today, there is still a Marano community in the Catholic church. These are the descendants of "conversos," Jews forced into baptism by Ferdinand and Isabella's zeal to unite Spain, who have retained a jewish identity.

This introspective on one young Jewish girl who survived the holocaust is well worth the reading. It is positive, even inspirational and always interesting.