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Anusim (, ; singular male, anús, ; singular female, anusá, , 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 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 New Christian (Spanish) or cristãos-novos (Portuguese); converso or marrano, which had and still has today a pejorative connotation in Spanish.
The two most common descriptions are:
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.
Several centuries later, following the mass forced conversion of Sephardi Jews (those Jews with extended histories in Spain and Portugal, known jointly as Iberia, or Sepharad in Hebrew) of the 15th and 16th centuries, the term "anusim" became widely used by Spanish rabbis and their successors for the following 600 years, Medieval Jewish History Resource Directory henceforth becoming associated with Sephardic history.
The term may be properly applied to any Jew of any ethnic division. Since that time, it has also been applied to other forced or coerced converted Jews, such as the Mashhadi Jews of Persia (now Iran), who converted to Islam in the public eye, but secretly practised Judaism at home. They lived dual-religious lives, being fully practising Muslims in public life, and fully practising Jews at home.See Mashhadi Jewish Community History on MashadiRabbi.com
In non-rabbinic literature, the more widely known anusim are also referred to as:
Anusim, by contrast, not only remain Jews by lineage but continue to count as fully qualified Jews for all purposes. Since the act of the original abandonment of the religion was done against the Jew's will, the Jew under force may remain a kosher Jew, as long as the anús keeps practising Jewish law to the best of his/her abilities under the coerced condition. In this sense, "kosher" is the rabbinic legal term applied to a Jew who adheres to rabbinic tradition and is accordingly not subject to any disqualification.
Hakham Joseph Shalom, writing in the 16th century, stated:
This is how it is with these conversos: They derive from the hope of Israel, despite the fact that they have been immersed among the idolaters. Their hope and righteousness endure forever (...) furthermore, when they come to be included among the Jews, they are simply Brit milah; they are not Mikveh like converts who were never part of the Jewish people.Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of the State of Israel, stated in the mid-20th century:
It follows that Uziel considered anusím as Jews, because only Jews can give or receive a get, a Jewish divorce. Maimonides stated in the Mishneh Torah Sefer Shofetím, Hilekhót Mumarím 3:3:
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