Jun

8 2023

I, Teresa de Lucena: Reflections on the Trial of a Conversa

10:45AM - 12:00PM  

This Federation event will be held at Knesset Israel 16 Colt Road
Pittsfield, MA 01201

Contact Rabbi Daveen Litwin
4134424360
dlitwin@jewishberkshires.org

I, Teresa de Lucena tells the story of a complex chapter of Spanish history through an intimate lens: the testimony of a woman who faced the Spanish Inquisition twice.

Teresa was seventeen in 1485 when she and other conversos in Toledo faced the Inquisition for the first time; she was sixty-two in 1530 when she was arrested and held for eighteen months in an Inquisition jail. After a lengthy trial, meticulously recorded by the official scribes, she was found guilty of heresy for practicing Judaism in secret. Saved by her wits, she survived.

How do you make this complex story accessible and beautiful? Join the translator Ellen Kanner and the illustrator Annie Zeybekoglu to learn more about how they created this intimate portrait of one woman’s survival and framed it with the religious, political and social changes that shaped her life.

Ellen is an independent scholar and teacher who has lived and studied in Spain for many years.  Annie is an artist and book designer with extensive commercial and teaching experience.

Copies of the book can be purchased here

This free program is part of the Federation’s Celebration of Sephardic Culture as well as the weekly Connecting with Community program and will be followed by a kosher hot lunch. Lunch is a $3 suggested donation for adults over 60 years of age or $7 for all others. Advance reservations are required for lunch and can be made by calling (413) 442-2200 before 9 a.m. on the day of the program.

Masks are optional but encouraged.