BROOKLYN, New York (CNN) -- Every Friday evening, the Nunez family sits down to a traditional religious dinner.



Moshe Nunez and his family moved to Crown Heights, a New York neighborhood with thousands of Hasidic Jews.



Like most families in their Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, their Jewish Sabbath meal includes blessings over the wine and bread, the company of family and friends and excellent food.



But for the Nunez family, the Sabbath table would not be complete without salsa picada and jalapeno dip.



Moshe Nunez, an information technology consultant and motivational speaker, was born to a Mexican father and American mother and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico.



His wife, ChanaLeah, grew up in Panama, the daughter of a Salvadoran mother and American-born father.



"Our home is a Latin American home," Nunez says.



"We bring into our home a mixture of the American and Latin culture, and that's reflected in the way we eat. We also enjoy hosting guests, so it's a very Hispanic thing, and a Jewish thing."



The couple and their two children moved to Brooklyn's Crown Heights area about five years ago so their son, Michael, 17, and daughter, Simcha, 18, could have "the best Jewish education available," Nunez says.



Crown Heights is the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a branch of Hasidism that is itself a form of Orthodox Judaism. Among the thousands of Hasidic families in the neighborhood, a significant number are also Latinos, Nunez says.



"There are a lot of Latin American Jews here," Nunez says. "Some of them have moved from countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, where there's political unrest. We make a life here, settle down and become part of the fabric of American society, but we still don't lose our roots." Join the conversation: How has America changed Latinos?



Many non-Jewish Latinos are surprised to see Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn who speak Spanish, carry on their Hispanic traditions and even keep up with soccer scores from their home countries, Nunez says.



Although Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez were raised in Christian homes, they believe that Moshe's family name is proof that his ancestors are Marranos -- Jews who were forced to denounce or abandon their faith centuries ago in Europe.



Moshe Nunez began studying his family genealogy about 13 years ago, while the family was living in Atlanta, Georgia.



He met Lorraine Nunez, a woman raised as a Christian who believed she was a direct descendant of Samuel Nunez, a Portuguese physician who fled Europe in the early 1700s to help start one of the oldest Jewish synagogues in the United States, Congregation Mikve Israel in Savannah, Georgia.



Like other Marranos living in Europe, Samuel Nunez pretended to be Catholic and practiced Judaism in secret, according to Chabad.org, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement's Web site.



Meeting Lorraine Nunez inspired Moshe Nunez -- who was still going by his Christian name, Marco -- to further explore his own genealogy.



ChanaLeah -- who was going by her Christian name, Jacqueline -- had already known that her grandfather, a well-known army colonel in El Salvador, was Jewish. Like many Jews of his time, he hid his Judaism and married a non-Jewish woman.



Marco and Jacqueline believed that their descendants were also Marranos from Spain and Portugal who had to hide their Judaism for fear of persecution.



"The Nunez family started as a Jewish name," Moshe Nunez says. "During the Inquisition they were forced to convert or practice their faith in secret. Most of the Nunez family... like mine assimilated and lost their Judaism."  Watch Nunez talk about his life in Crown Heights »



While researching his genealogy, Moshe Nunez also began to study the Bible more closely, including the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament.



"When I began studying the Torah, I saw that the Sabbath was on Saturday and not Sunday," he says.



"That opened [a] Pandora's Box,"
What religion did Nunez and his wife convert to? Once the Nunez couple converted to Judaism, where in New York did they move to? What cultures do the couple and their children blend in their lives? Which two cultures does the family blend in their lives? In what sort of homes were Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez raised? What two cultures do the Nunez family blend into their lives? What type of Jews are Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez? Where did Nunez and his wife move after converting?
Hasidic Jews. Brooklyn's Crown Heights American American and Latin Crown Heights, American and Latin Hasidic Crown Heights,
question: What religion did Nunez and his wife convert to?, answer: Hasidic Jews. | question: Once the Nunez couple converted to Judaism, where in New York did they move to?, answer: Brooklyn's Crown Heights | question: What cultures do the couple and their children blend in their lives?, answer: American | question: Which two cultures does the family blend in their lives?, answer: American and Latin | question: In what sort of homes were Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez raised?, answer: Crown Heights, | question: What two cultures do the Nunez family blend into their lives?, answer: American and Latin | question: What type of Jews are Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez?, answer: Hasidic | question: Where did Nunez and his wife move after converting?, answer: Crown Heights,