Anusim

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“Anusim” (Hebrew: אנוסים), plural for anús, means forced ones in Hebrew. This is a legal terminology applied to a Jew who has been forced to abandon Judaism against his or her will, and who does whatever is in his or her power to continue practicing Judaism under the forced condition. It derives from the Talmudic term aberá be'ones [TB: Abodá Zará 54a], meaning "a forced transgression".

Indeed, when it comes to lineage, all the people of Israel are brethren. We are all the sons of one father, the rebels (reshaim) and criminals, the heretics (meshumadim) and forced ones (anusim), and the proselytes (gerim) who are attached to the house of Jacob. All these are Israelites. Even if they left God or denied Him, or violated His Law, the yoke of that Law is still upon their shoulders and will never be removed from them.

[R. She‘adyá ben Maimón ibn Danan (16th c.), Khemdah Genuzáh, 15b]

The term is essentially a question of status based on observance of Jewish Law.

Jewish Law categorizes the status of a Jew according to his commitment to rabbinic tradition. The two most commonplace ones are: Min (apostate), for a Jew who basically denies the existence of God; and meshumad (heretic), for a Jew who does not adhere to the observance of Jewish Law.

For example, Sigmund Freud – who was an avowed atheist – is considered a min under Jewish Law; Albert Einstein – who although believed in God’s existence, he was a Jew who did not observe Jewish Law – is considered a meshumad; and Rabbi Salomon ibn Verga, who was converted to Catholicism by force in 1497 yet remained observant of Judaism, was an anús.

The main difference about a min, a meshumad and an anús, is that the act of abandonment is voluntary for the first two, while for the third it is not.

The term “anusim” was first used after the forced conversion to Christianity of German Jews at the end of the 11th century CE. Rashi, French rabbi who lived during this period, wrote about the issue in his legal opinions.

Because of the mass forced conversion of Jews in Spain and Portugal during the 14th and 15th centuries, the term became widely used by Spanish rabbis and their successors for the following 400 years.

In non-rabbinic literature, Anusim are referred to as “Conversos,” “New Christians,” “crypto-Jews,” or “Marranos.” The Catholic Church coined the first two, the third is more of a modern invention by historians, and the fourth is the insulting term Spanish anti-Semites gave to the Anusim.

Anusim have a special place in rabbinic literature. Since the act of abandonment was done against the Jew’s will, the Jew under force remains a kasher Jew for all intents and purposes. In this sense, kasher being the rabbinic legal term applied to a Jew who adheres to rabbinic tradition. This means that despite the forced conversion, the meat slaughtered by the Anusim, the wine made by Anusim, the marriages performed by Anusim, etc., are considered kasher, in this sense valid for the use of a Jew and the Jewish community.

All descendants of Anusim via the maternal line are literally Jews, because Jewish Law explains that the child of an Israelite woman is still an Israelite, no matter what belief system the child may hold.