Rabbi Samuel Lerer, who converted thousands of Jews in Mexico, died Feb. 5 at age 89. Lerer, who had retired to San Antonio, Texas, lived in Mexico City from 1968 to 1999 while leading the English-language Beth Israel Community Center. During that time, the Conservative rabbi reached out to Mexicans who believed they were descended from Spanish Jews forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition.
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