A major new tool can help Brazilians learn about their possible Iberian Jewish origins: the "Dictionary of Sephardic Surnames," a 528-page tome featuring some 17,000 surnames of Sephardic Jewish families from Portugal, Spain and Italy and their descendants.
We\’re told repeatedly that intermarriage is the death knell of the Jewish people, but let\’s face it: Jews have been intermarrying since the beginning of our tribe 4,000 years ago. Marrying "out" is precisely how we got Jews with looks covering the gamut from blonde hair and blue eyes to black skin and nappy hair. It\’s also one of the reasons that Hitler hated us: We were at it again, blending with the local race, destroying its ethnic purity.
Darlene Basch has always had a fiery independent streak. Born and raised in Queens, the former Darlene Chakin was taking the F train by herself into Manhattan well before she had her Bat Mitzvah. Basch\’s mother, a Holocaust survivor, wanted young Darlene to be able to rely on herself, just in case.\n
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