The story of the Marranos, the lost Jews from Spain, started in the 14th century when the Spanish Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church persecuted the large Jewish community in Spain and Portugal. Many Jews preferred to die rather than to give up their faith and convert. Many other Jews were forced to become Christians. Despite this, the church called them by the disparaging name Marranos which means pigs. They secretly continued to observe their Jewish faith, laws, holidays and Shabbats. Over the generations they lost the knowledge that they were Jews but continued to keep some of the Jewish traditions and laws without knowing why they did so.

The Marrano couple, Isabel and Alan Bouquette

Suddenly in our generation this dear community of lost Jews started to hear the call of the G-d of Israel and to discover their Jewish roots. With great excitement they have returned to their people and their historical promised homeland, Israel. In this historical context we share the personal stories of Alan and Isabel Bouquette. Shortly after meeting, they each discovered their true roots — she from an uncle and he from his grandparents, who used words like Shma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, and others. Also, before Pesach, Alan’s grandmother used to clean the house to remove the leaven. A year after their marriage Isabel and Alan came to Israel for the first time. In 2001 they made Aliyah. They said that they will live in Israel together with Mashiach ben David with the rebuilt Temple. Alan cannot wait to serve as a priest in the Temple. In French, Alan's last name means priest.

This godly end-time story started in Belgium when their good friend Shaul Nachum, now a friend of the Faithful Movement, started to teach them the Jewish laws in a Sephardic synagogue in Brussels. Shaul saw the announcement of the Pesach event on our Web site and immediately joined the Movement. Today, there are many Marranos in Europe and America who, like the Bouquette's, have felt the call to return to their homeland, Israel, and many have already done so.

During my speaking tours to the United States I have met Marranos and these have been very exciting meetings. One of the most exciting was in Odessa, Texas where my wife and I visited a Marrano community. The church had been built in the form of the Star of David. There were two large wooden doors at the entrance and a replica of the Temple menorah and the Star of David. We were moved and excited to see how they had kept the symbols of their Jewish identity for 500 years. Inside, the eastern wall of the church was designed like the Western Wall of the Temple Mount as a memorial for the holy Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This was also the place from where the pastor preached. The church was filled with Hispanic families together with their children and babies. With tears in their eyes they shared their tragic story of how the Inquisition had forced their ancestors to become Catholics and when they ran away from the Inquisition in Spain to Mexico, the Inquisition followed them. They told us we were G-d's messengers to them. They hugged us and we hugged them and together we could only weep and not say a word. They asked me to share about Israel, to teach them Hebrew, to tell them how the land of Israel now looked, and many other questions.

When I said that the Temple was still not rebuilt but that the Faithful Movement was campaigning for it and making all the preparations and that soon it would be rebuilt, they immediately started to donate for this purpose. They were very poor people who were working in farming. I told them they did not need to donate towards G-d's house and at least not so generously because G-d said that each one should offer only if he is able to do so. They did not want to listen and forced me to accept their donations which they had so generously made for this purpose. They told me how the children of Israel in the time of Moses had donated so generously towards the Tabernacle and even the poor Israelites had given their last money as they wanted to have the privilege of having a part in the building of the house of G-d and how the same had happened with the building of the First and Second Temples. They asked me to stay with them and they would start to work for their return to their homeland to be re-united with their people. I will never forget this exciting meeting and how the presence of the G-d of Israel and history was so strong in the meeting.