SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) The Jewish Federation of New Mexico has launched a survey of New Mexico's Jewish community to probe the population size and its history. The federation recently hired a Denver firm to contact Jewish residents affiliated with a synagogue and to contact nonaffiliated Jews through random calling and identification of Jewish family surnames.
It's estimated that the Jewish population in the state is around 4,000 to 7,000. Officials say so far the survey has reached more than 300 families.
The federation's study will be to try to identify the descendants of crypto-Jews who escaped the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th and 17th centuries to settle in the Spanish new world, but might not have openly practiced Judaism.
