Genie Milgrom was born and raised as a Catholic. But a curious, unexplained affinity with Judaism and the gifts of Magen David earrings and a hamsa (hand-shaped charm), which had belonged to her grandmother, set her on a lifelong journey to discover her roots.
After years of research, she traced her maternal lineage back to 1405, proving that she was halachically Jewish. Her ancestors had become Crypto-Jews — ostensibly Catholics, but carrying on Jewish traditions in secret.
The clues had always been there: culinary traditions that she had been told were just “family customs” turned out to have their origins in the laws of kashrut. Eggs were always examined carefully for bloodspots, a small piece of dough was removed and burnt during the making of a particular dessert — akin to the similar practice when making challah— and lettuce was meticulously checked for tiny insects.
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Genie's book
Milgrom was born in Cuba but moved to Miami when still a child. Now, having written several books about tracing her roots —including one on the food of her ancestors — she is something of an expert on Jewish genealogy.
She has addressed a conference at the Knesset on this topic and is a strong advocate for assisting those who believe they have a link to Judaism in discovering their true lineage.
Despite family opposition, she went through a long Orthodox conversion process as an adult. The rest of her family remain staunchly Catholic.
“I started learning about Judaism — it took me five and a half years and I converted without knowing I was a Jew all along,” says Milgrom.
“I didn’t put two and two together with the cooking and all that. I started putting two and two together on the day my maternal grandmother died and my mother said that we have to bury her within 18 hours. I said,
‘What? Are you kidding, that’s a Jewish thing!’”
With a family tree that went back to 1700 in her possession, she embarked on intensive detective work, made numerous trips to Spain and Portugal and discovered documents detailing the births and deaths of 22 women in her mother’s lineage.
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Her grandmother's recipes
She found records showing that many of her ancestors were tried and burnt to death by the Spanish Inquisition.
Sometimes people were brought before a court on the flimsiest of evidence: not lighting a fire or choosing to wear a clean shirt on Shabbat; not eating pork.
“One of my grandfathers was caught by the Inquisition for eating lentils on a day that he shouldn’t,” she says.
The story of Milgrom’s long journey to discover her true heritage is a fascinating food chronicle too.
When her mother was ill, Milgrom finally gained access to locked rooms in her house. “There was so much secrecy in my family; everything was a secret, nothing was talked about — very typical of families that come from the Inquisition — everything is hidden. So when I finally got to drawers and suitcases and I found recipes I thought, ‘What is going on?’”
Milgrom had found a stash of hundreds of handwritten recipes that had been passed down from generation to generation — yet her mother had insisted there was nothing of interest in the house. Comparing the family tree she possessed with the recipes, gave her vital information.
“Because I had already done the tree, I knew where they lived and where they had moved from. I could see by the ingredients where they were living at the time, therefore because I had the tree I knew what year it was.
"So they went from almonds to figs [in Spain and Portugal] to mangoes and passionfruit in Cuba. The minute that anise liqueur got switched for rum, I knew they were in Cuba. Had I found the recipes before I did the tree with dates, I may have not been able to do this.”
She found out a lot through visiting many small villages in Portugal, where, fortunately, museums kept local archives. “I think when people left when the Inquisition came — it didn’t start until 1536 in Portugal — they had a lot of time to write stuff down and to understand what they were doing.”
Small nuggets of information enabled Milgrom to discover how ingenious Jews had to be to continue to practise their faith.
An empanada recipe was once used during fast days — people would not fast on Yom Kippur, so they fasted at another time. A “pork chop” was made of French toast, but a real pork chop would be thrown on the fire at the same time so the smell of the meat would permeate the house and deflect the suspicions of those who might betray them to the Inquisition.
Nevertheless, many of her relatives were caught. It is only after 1690 that no one from her family appears to have been tried, and the only conclusion that can be made is that, at that point, her ancestors decided to fully embrace Catholicism.
Of all the recipes that have survived, Milgrom has a few favourites. “There is a dark fruit cake — it is chock-full of nuts, fruit and honey and all different kinds of things, and now I always make that fruit cake at Rosh Hashanah. I also make an empanada of chickpeas. It is vegetarian and gluten-free. It is really good — you can freeze the dough and, like any empanada, you can fill it with meat or you can fill it with cheese.
“Just the other day, we finished Thanksgiving and my family expected this one dessert called periquillos — balls of dough with anise — which, when you fry them they open up a little bit and look like the beak of a parrot (periquillo means parrot).
"My grandmother always made those for the family for the holidays and she gave everybody a tin full. So I had 22 people here from the family and I always cook everything because I’m the only kosher one and I don’t let anyone bring in anything, so obviously that makes my life that much harder. I made tins of periquillos for everybody.”
Two documentaries are currently being made about Milgrom’s story — one in Israel and one in Miami. “Filming in Spain and Portugal is going to be quite interesting, showcasing a life of someone like me as the tip of the iceberg. I want the focus not to be on me because there are so many more out there like me.”
She feels the pain of the past particularly keenly every Friday night, when lighting her Shabbat candles.
“Over the years, I’ve been adding candles; when my granddaughters were born, I added two and when I discovered my 22 great- grandmothers in a row, I added one candle for all those years that they could not light one and they were silenced.
"I put it in the centre of this long candelabra and I closed my eyes and lit. I promise you that I felt the presence of these 22 little women surrounding me, covered in black — back in the day in Spain or Portugal, once you were widowed you wore black for ever. I still feel the strong presence of these 22 women and I feel that they have guided me.
“I think it is very positive because I gave them a voice, I say their names all the time when I am working on genealogy. I feel joy tinged with a lot of sadness of what could have been — that it took this long to be able to return.”
‘Recipes of my 15 Grandmothers: Unique Recipes and Stories from the Times of the Crypto-Jews during the Spanish Inquisition’ by Genie Milgrom is available on Amazon
