Anusim

Anusim (אֲנוּסִים, anuˈsim; singular male, anús, אָנוּס aˈnus; singular female, anusáh, anuˈsa, meaning "coerced") is a legal category of Jews in halakha (Jewish law) who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically while forcibly converted to another religion. The term "anusim" is most properly translated as the "coerced [ones]" or the "forced [ones]". The term anusim is derived from the Talmudic phrase averah b’ones (), meaning "a forced transgression." The Hebrew ones (ˈones) derives from the triconsonantal root (Aleph-Nun-Samekh), and originally referred to any case where a person has been forced into any act against his or her will. In Modern Hebrew, the word ones is mainly used to mean rape, thus "anusim" (or female "anusot") nowadays means rape victims, the older meaning used only in the historical context. The term anús is used in contradistinction to meshumad (), (literally "self-destroyed") which means a person who has voluntarily abandoned the practice of Jewish law in whole or in part. The forced converts were also known as cristianos nuevos (Spanish) or cristãos-novos (Portuguese); converso or marrano, which had and still has today a pejorative connotation in Spanish. Besides the term anusim, halakha has various classifications for those Jews who have abandoned, or are no longer committed to, the rabbinic Jewish tradition, whether or not they have converted to another religion. The two most common descriptions are: "Min (), or an apostate of Judaism, for a Jew who basically denies the existence of God; and "Meshumad (), literally "self-destroyed" or a heretic to Judaism, for a Jew who deliberately rebels against the observance of Jewish law. The main difference between a min, a meshumad, and the anusim is that the act of abandonment of Judaism is voluntary for a min and a meshumad, while for the anusim it is not. In more recent times, the term Anusim has also been used to describe "Reverse Marranos", that is, Haredi Jews who are religious on the outside, but are not necessarily practicing in private.