Entertaining diversion about tennis champ Rafael Nadal Parera: one more myth about who is supposed to be a converso...“Rafa,” as Nadal is affectionately called (and the Rafa name appears everywhere at the US Open at souvenir shirts and souvenir stands), is known more formally as Rafael Nadal Parera.This “Parera” name has led to speculation in recent months that Nadal may have Jewish ancestry. Simcha Jacobovici, a filmmaker and Times of Israel blogger, made this carefully argued claim in an August 7, 2013 Times of Israel blogpost, Rafael Nadal: A Jewish Story?The name “Parera,” notes Jacobovici, means pear tree, and is a common converso or convert name. “It’s the kind of ‘neutral’ name the newly baptized Jews adopted in the 15th century. Names like Parera, Torres, and Medina usually reflect a hidden Jewish past.”Jacobovici makes a distinction between two types of “newly minted” Christians — those who tried to prove their loyalty to their new faith by being more anti-Semitic than the old Christians, and those who defended their countrymen and fellow conversos. One such 16h century defender was Jeronimo Nadal, from the area of Palma de Majorca; he was pro-converso, fluent in Hebrew, knowledgeable in Jewish religious texts, and, according to one report, was even offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Avinon, France in the 1560s.Does Nadal know any of this? Jacobovici doesn’t know."Nadal has now officially told a Times of Israel blogger the story is b.s., but his case was at least as convincing as some others I have seen in genealogy forums... read it here