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Explore the History of the Jewish Experience in New Mexico Jewish Merchants of Santa Fe The Twentieth Century Golden AgeA Documentary Film A Peek at the New Mexico Jewish Experience New Mexicos Jewish history reaches back almost 500 hundred years when some of the early Spanish arrivals by way of Mexico traced their family histories to Spanish and Portuguese Sephardic Jews who became conversos or converted in order to escape the clutches of the Spanish Inquisition. Today a number of Hispanic descendants are exploring their families cryptoJewish roots. The mid19th century marked the arrival of European Ashkenazi Jews via the Santa Fe Trail and they became the leading merchants in the Territory. When the railroad arrived in the 1880s more Jewish merchants arrived and expanded their business presence throughout New Mexico.