Faithful Jew or Don Juan?

Many people claim Valley artist 'conned' them with his tales of Converso ancestry

ANNE RACKHAM
Associate Editor

He also traveled the country, giving lectures and doing interviews about what he said was his ancestry as a Sephardic Jew, and of related travails - having been "kidnapped" as a child by his Catholic father from the home of his Jewish grandmother, having been visited by a historian and subsequently discovering Jewish symbols on an old family tombstone, having been told finally by his aging mother that he was a Jew, having been driven off a ranch he owned in New Mexico, having been spurned by his Catholic wife, children and friends.

Now several Jewish women across the country, in addition to a Valley rabbi, Sandoval's Catholic family in Scottsdale, and members of the Sephardic Jewish community in New Mexico, have come forward to say that they have been deceived by Sandoval - that Sandoval used an exaggerated story of his Jewish roots to sell sculptures, to be paid to lecture, to escape family responsibilities, and to be embraced by wealthy Jews who opened their homes, and in some cases their pocketbooks and even their hearts, to him.

"We realized the story (about Jewish ancestry) wasn't true when it started to change and become more elaborate - when he started to incorporate other people's stories," said Juan Sandoval's son, Luis, who managed the Scottsdale gallery. "He can get any piece of information from anyone, and the speed with which he can incorporate it is amazing. ... He'd say, 'It's like show business. I tell them what they want to hear.' "

Luis Sandoval is one of several people interviewed by the Jewish News who claimed that Juan Sandoval incorporated elements of other people's family histories into his own story of Jewish ancestry.

Sandoval claims to be one of the Anusim - people descended from Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity and/or who were exiled from their home countries during the Spanish and Mexican Inquisitions. It is estimated that thousands of Anusim live in the Southwestern United States, many of whom are only now learning about their Jewish heritage, and some of whom are reclaiming it. (Anusim means "forced or coerced ones." The Anusim are also known as Conversos, Crypto Jews or Marranos.)

According to Sandoval's story (as published by various news media, including the Jewish News, the paper's 1996 Community Directory, and JUF News in Chicago, which circulated its story on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in December), about 10 years ago, when Sandoval was living on a ranch he owned in New Mexico, the owner of a Jewish delicatessen asked him if he was Jewish because Sandoval, following the instructions of his grandmother, never mixed cheese and meat.

Sandoval said he subsequently was visited by Stan Hordes, a historian working on a book about the Anusim, and that the two went to visit Sandoval's family cemetery and a Christian church built by his family - only to discover the word "Bethel" inscribed on the church, and a rose with a Star of David on a tombstone.

According to Sandoval's story, he continued to resist the notion he was a Crypto Jew until his mother, then in her 80s, acknowledged that her family was Jewish. Then, when he embraced Judaism, he claimed he was ostracized by his friends and neighbors, that his wife and children rejected him, and that he was forced to sell his ranch "at a great loss."

"When I lost my ranch, my family, my money, I knew what it was like for countless other Jews in countless other countries during their persecutions, their expulsions, to ... lose everything, to have no protection, no roof over your head," Sandoval was quoted as saying in the JUF News article.

He moved to Mexico, and later to Phoenix, with his family. Early in 1995, he opened his gallery here, Hannah's of Scottsdale, named after his granddaughter. But late in 1996, he left his family and moved back to New Mexico alone, returning to Phoenix in December for a "right of return" conversion ceremony, which he underwent together with two Anusim women, conducted by Rabbi Albert Plotkin, rabbi emeritus at Temple Beth Israel. He also went to Phoenix to be interviewed for a cable television program, together with Plotkin, hosted by friend Mary Hazlett, a former Christian evangelist who converted to Judaism last year.

Numerous people interviewed by the Jewish News over the past two months refuted Sandoval's tale, and many claimed to be victims, in various ways, of his deception. Sandoval could not be reached for comment for this story. His cellular phone number in New Mexico, which the Jewish News used to contact him in the past, has been disconnected. There was no answer at a phone number listed in Albuquerque for a Juan Sandoval. And Juan Sandoval did not return messages left with the leader of the Messianic congregation in New Mexico that is attended by a woman named Julia, who Juan Sandoval is said to be living with as husband-and-wife.

Russell Reznick, the leader of the Adot Yashua congregation that Julia attends, confirmed that Julia and Juan "say they're married." He said he passed a message to Julia from the Jewish News, and that she "didn't seem to want to pursue it, and didn't think Juan would either." He said he would again urge the pair to call the Jewish News, but they did not.

(Messianic congregations, including "Jews for Jesus" groups, include people who practice both Jewish and Christian rituals.)

Hordes, who is still working on his book about secret Jews in New Mexico, will say little about his first meeting with Sandoval, which Hordes estimates took place in 1990. Hordes did say that a "mutual acquaintance" called him and told him that Sandoval believed he was of Converso heritage and wanted to meet with Hordes, and that Hordes agreed.

"Juan indicated he wanted to see me. He wanted to know more about the history of Crypto Judaism," Hordes said. "He told me about some of the customs of his family. I met him at his home."

But Sandoval had claimed that it was Hordes who ushered him on an adventure that led to the discovery of the Star of David tombstone in his family cemetery, a photograph of which he used in some of his lectures, as well as sharing copies with friends and associates. In at least one case, the photo was blown up into a poster, according to Claudia Gilburd, program director at the Northshore Congregation of Israel in Glencoe, Ill., where Sandoval spoke last October.

"I had (the poster) made from a 3-by-5 he gave me," said Gilburd. "He said it was a gravestone in the cemetery where his relatives were buried."

No one else has verified having seen the tombstone in the cemetery, but early in 1997, Sandoval's family in Phoenix revealed a Styrofoam mock-up of just such a gravestone, painted gray on three sides. Sandoval's son Luis said he found it when the family was moving from the Phoenix home they had shared with Juan Sandoval to a smaller rental in Scottsdale.

Luis said the discovery was no surprise to him, since he had determined long ago that his father was telling false tales.

"He was two-and-a-half when his grandmother died. He says she raised him until he was 7; that was my mother who was raised by her grandmother," Luis Sandoval said, his mother Loren looking on and nodding agreement. "There are also certain things her family would do that were more Jewish in nature. For example, in Chihuahua (Mexico), the men sat on one side of the (Catholic) church, and the women on the other. (Juan) told people that happened in the Presbyterian church (in his family's home town in New Mexico)."

The Sandoval family in Phoenix, and one former friend of Juan Sandoval who met his mother, said Juan Sandoval's mother is a devout Christian whose modest home remains filled with Christian symbols and statues.

The family's story
Juan Felipe Sandoval and Lorenza R. Sandoval were married June 10, 1975, in Deming, N.M. Juan told Loren that he had never been married before, she said, although when Luis sent away to the Catholic church in Albuquerque where Juan Sandoval was baptized, for his father's church records, the papers noted a 1957 marriage to a woman named Mary. According to Sandoval family members and former friends of Juan Sandoval, there is one Mary who has two daughters named Christina and Catherine with whom Juan Sandoval has a relationship, but who he claims are not his daughters, and another Mary in Texas who they believe also was married to Juan and who has a son.

The Sandoval family of Juan, Loren, Luis and daughter Fatima lived in 22 houses in 21 years, said Luis. "He (Juan) said he was following the art market," Luis recalled.

(Fatima Sandoval called the Jewish News in January to complain that her father's story, as published by this newspaper in December, was untrue. However, Fatima did not actively participate in interviews for this story.)

According to Luis and Loren Sandoval, it was Loren who first created clay sculptures, and she and Juan made and sold Native American sculptures as well as Christian objects, such as advent wreaths, Christmas ornaments and nativity scenes.

While living on the ranch in New Mexico in the late 1980s, which his family says he inherited from his father, Juan Sandoval at one point told his family, "I think I'm probably Jewish," and announced that he wanted to keep kosher and observe the Sabbath on Friday evenings, said Luis.

"Possibly he thought all Jews have money, or possibly it was a spiritual search he was on," commented Luis. Either way, said Luis and Loren, the family bought him a prayer shawl and candles, and Loren bought kosher chickens from Colorado, even though the family was raising chickens on the ranch.

"We left the ranch because he was tired of it," said Luis. "He sold it for $65,000."

After coming to Phoenix, the family continued to support Juan in his search for his Jewish roots, helped him with the transition to creating Judaica, and even attended a Passover seder with him at the home of a local Jewish resident, they said, in addition to urging Juan to convert to Judaism.

"She (Loren) did the minyans, the bar and bat mitzvah (statues), the menorahs, all the figures smaller than 3 inches in height. ... She would say, 'convert,' and he would say, 'No, the story is enough,' " Luis recalled. "Ninety percent of the people who came in (to the gallery) and heard the story would invite us to dinner. He'd say, 'My family doesn't want to go.' He'd tell us, 'The Jewish people are not going to accept you.' He said the Jewish people hate us. Now, most of the friends we have are Jews.

"He would say, 'You're living off the Jews (who were buying the Judaica); maybe you should think about converting. We would be told to say (to customers) that we were converting."

In addition to taking credit for Loren's work, Luis and Loren said Juan put his name on paintings done by Fatima's boyfriend, after convincing the young man that they would sell better if the signature was that of an established artist.

Luis and Loren said the Sandoval marriage fell apart because Loren suspected Juan was cheating on her and Luis witnessed his father kissing another woman. Luis said his father, angry about being confronted, announced that Luis was adopted, struck him, and then later went home, told Loren he wanted a divorce, and stormed out.

The women's stories
Inka Hauser, who first met Sandoval at a Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix event in March of 1996, said that even then he was telling people he didn't know what to do about his Catholic family.

Hauser calls Sandoval "the Bluebeard of the Southwest" because of the many women he's courted in the past year - some estimate there are more than 20, many of whom are now "networked" via the World Wide Web.

Last year, while shopping at Cactus Kosher Foods for Rosh Hashanah, Hauser said she ran into Sandoval, at which time he told her he was divorced from Loren and wanted to "get together" with her. (Juan's divorce from Loren had yet to be granted in mid-May of 1997, although it was pending, according to documents in the case file in Maricopa County Superior Court.)

"In October, he called and read poetry to me; he said he wrote it," recalled Hauser. "He was pretty persistent. In the third call, he said his dream is to have a Jewish wife and he wants to marry me. ... I didn't take the proposal seriously. Then in November, he said, 'I'm going to court you seriously, officially.' "

However, shortly thereafter, Hauser called the Scottsdale gallery and learned from Fatima that Sandoval was "engaged" to a woman in Chicago, Hauser said. Hauser and the Chicago woman eventually got together, although the woman in Chicago initially resisted hearing negative information about Sandoval, even from her own family, who had hired a private investigator to research him.

The woman, who asked that her name not be used in this story, confirmed the investigation, and the contact with Hauser, and said that Sandoval "pushed for me to marry him shortly after I met him."

"He knows which buttons to push," the woman said. "He has all kinds of schemes.

"... He foisted this con story on our Jewish community, and we took him in and loved him. He gave up nothing (to be Jewish). He found out that the Jewish community would take care of him. ... He left his family, not because they couldn't abide him being Jewish, but because he didn't want them to rain on his parade.

"From August to November of 1996, we spent some weekends together; we traveled. ... I bought him plane tickets once or twice and offered him a little money."

Then in December, at a Converso conference in New Mexico, art dealer Cynthia Zimmerman of the Beshert Art Gallery in Albuquerque was approached by Sandoval. She said he told her there was "nothing holding him back in Phoenix" and that he had broken up with the woman in Chicago, but he was broke. She said she agreed to allow him to live in an empty house she owned, where he stayed for two to three months. During this time, Sandoval made numerous long-distance phone calls, the bills for which Zimmerman said she later used to compile a list of women Sandoval had been romancing.

Zimmerman said she also helped Sandoval paint his artwork and paid him in advance for artwork ordered by her customers - artwork she said he never produced.

"He had a reputation in New Mexico as a fine artist. He was pretty famous," Zimmerman explained. "I was helping him make it. I would go (to his workshop) and paint, and one of his daughters in New Mexico, Catherine, would help. ... He took me for about $3,000."

Rabbi Plotkin said Zimmerman "was almost hysterical on the phone over her financial loss" when she spoke with him recently.

"She cried bitter tears," said Plotkin, adding that he has been "shocked" to hear from so many people that Sandoval deceived them.

"If I had known all these facts, I never would have done the Right of Return," said Plotkin. "That's the world we live in. People do take advantage of situations. ... Being Jewish was the special foot in the door he had in order to sell his products. A lot of it was sold in our own (Temple Beth Israel) Jewish heritage shop. I was going to have him speak at our temple, but I (canceled) it after I heard all this."

Meanwhile, also last December, a publicist named Ruth Silverman in Chicago was aggressively representing Sandoval, writing and pitching stories about him to the media.

She also helped book him into speaking engagements and interviews. At the time, Sandoval was traveling to conferences and lectures, where he would typically be paid a stipend and allowed to sell his wares.

"Originally, we didn't want him to sell his art, only display it, and we offered to pay him a stipend - $700 to $1,000 plus airfare," Gilburd said of Sandoval's Illinois engagement. "At the last minute, we agreed to allow him to sell (his artwork). ... He is, on the surface, a very captivating man."

Silverman since has become one of the leaders among the women who say they were duped and courted by Sandoval, keeping a list of "victims" and communicating regularly with them via e-mail. Two of the women she communicates with went through the Right of Return with Sandoval - Gloria Trujillo and Isabelle Sandoval (apparently no relation).

Isabelle Sandoval, whose relatives hail from the same part of New Mexico as Juan Sandoval, said her family "was most instrumental in organizing and building the alleged Presbyterian church that Juan refers to in his presentation."

"After the conference and hearing Juan's presentation, I did my own research, which I am still conducting, and I can state that Juan's story differs from (what I have learned)," said Isabelle Sandoval in an e-mail message to Jewish News. Although she said she was "indirectly romanced" by Juan Sandoval with letters and phone calls, and that he told her son that he wanted to "run away" with her, Isabelle Sandoval said she continues to believe that Juan Sandoval "does descend from Sephardic ancestors" but that, due in part to a lack of research and memorable anecdotes or evidence, he has exaggerated his story to make it more marketable.

Isabelle Sandoval is vice president of a Crypto-Judaism group in New Mexico called Anusim Ysrael, which issued a statement last week reading, in part, "We have encountered some of our own Anusim who prey on the Jewish community and their own people to make money or satisfy their own personal motives. We will not ... tolerate or endorse this fraudulent behavior."

Trujillo, secretary of the group, said Sandoval, after the Right of Return ceremony, sent her letters, invited her to dinner, and tried to elicit her help in starting his own Anusim group.

Several of the women who were "courted" by Sandoval said they were never intimate with him, although some said Sandoval told other people that they had pursued him sexually.

One person who remains loyal to Juan Sandoval is Hazlett, who claims that all the women who are discrediting him are lying.

"I'll stand behind Juan Sandoval 100 percent," said Hazlett.

On papers filed in his divorce action with Loren, Juan Sandoval last March listed Hazlett's address and phone number as his. Hazlett did not return calls seeking comment on this. Silverman said Hazlett's home is one of several Juan Sandoval has stayed in as a guest over the past year.