AHC: Jewish minority as large as the Latinos

katchen

Banned
This is not hard to do since a sizeable chunk of Latinos ARE Jews. See duplanet.net/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1368.Also read eduplanet.net/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1368 . This is a Ph.D. thesis from 2009 by Shulamit Halevy at Hebrew University. Through fieldwork, she documented the existence of a large community of anusim (descendants of secret Jews) in Nuevo Leon (Northeast Mexico and South Texas) extending from Tampico north to Corpus Christi and inland to the Big Bend Country and the Bolsons Deserts as well as the New Mexico Southwest, which has also been documented by Daniel Hordes, a University of New Mexico anthropologist.
This community managed to survive sub rosa intact (though not without some persecution by the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico) right up into the 19th Century when it's links with Itlaian Jewry were severed. A TL in which the War of the Spanish Succession is fought more in the New World and results in the British conquest and the French and Spanich cession of all of New France and New Spain north of the Tropic of Cancer at the Treaty of Utrecht would preserve these communities by extending to them British religious liberty and end the threat of religious persecution by the Inquisition. Separdic Jewry would then be free to expand in a big way through the rest of the tolerant British colonies (not sure which colonies were tolearant in the early 1700s and which were not) particularly Pennsylvania, New York and Rhode Island, as well as the new colonies that will be growing up along the Gulf Coast--New Orleans, Texas and the Floridas--and the gold and silver colonies that will be coming in beginning with the Colorado Rockies. The anusim who settled Nuevo Mexico (Santa Fe) shut up about the precious metals they surely knew existed to the north of them so as not to attract the attention of the Spanish Crown. They have no need to keep quiet about this bonanza under the English.
 
There are two factors that would make the OP's goal a challenge:

1) There's already a sizable Latino minority in the US ever since the Mexican War. Sure, the area ceded was sparsely populated, but the 'Mexicans' who lived in the area did not leave, continued life as usual, and now considered themselves Americans. So even with no immigration, the ones already in the US post-1900 is still a significant chunk.

2) As stated before, the Jewish population was small to begin with.

The only think I can think of to have the Jewish population to explode is to have unlimited immigration in the 1930's, have them move to the countryside to encourage high birth rates, have WWII and the holocaust happen as usual, and have the State of Israel not exist.

And even then, the Latinos already had a huge head start. Not impossible, per se, but highly improbable.
 
-Permit the SS Hamburg to land in Miami in 1939
-Permit mass immigration of Jews from Europe into the US during early World War II, I think an idea was considered to make upstate New York into a homeland of some sort?
-Crack down on immigration from Mexico and keep a firm stance against it from the 1970s onwards
-If 2/3 or more of the illegal immigration is cut prior to Reagan's amnesty and even more is controlled afterwards it *might* be feasible though still difficult, especially if very high birth rates are involved.
 
I don't think it will help much, but perhaps a missionary-inspired movement is founded in the early 20th Century to bring such groups as the Kaifeng Jews, Bene Israel, Beta Israel, etc. to "traditional practice", or at least prevent them from assimilating into the local culture. This in turn inspires them to emigrate to the US. Once there, they have a baby boom.

As a result, you have sufficiently large numbers of black Jews, Asian Jews, Indian Jews, etc. in the US to be noticeable. When the Civil Rights movement rolls along, the multi-racial nature of American Jewry makes Jews even more involved, and causes the more militant Blacks to look on Jews as true brothers, rather than condescending white folk. This in turn results in a Jewish version of the Nation of Islam. Meanwhile, the counter-culture becomes fascinated by an "Oriental" variation of Judaism instead of Buddhism.

Come 'round to the '80s-'90s, and there are a lot of American "Judaizers" around, who are interested in Judaism but not technically Jewish, who become targets (is that the right word) of Orthodox "outreach" groups. This in turn inspires the Reform and Conservative movements to launch their own outreach programs to these people...

EDIT: It should be noted that Israel not being created or being destroyed early on (both of which are entirely possible outcomes), not only would Jewish emigration to the US be increased, but it's entirely possible that the energy challenged into Zionist causes will instead be devoted to various "Jewish continuity" projects, which could also lead to more Jews.
 
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katchen

Banned
And most of the Latinos in Texas and New Mexico return to Jewish practice after the Mexican War grants them religious freedom since they are Jews. Maybe an influx of Italian Jews reaches them via New Orleans and reminds them of their Jewishness during the 1850s.
 
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