Back Sefardiese Jode Afrikaans Sephardim ALS Sefarditas AN يهود سفارديون Arabic سيفارديم ARZ Pueblu sefardín AST Səfərad yəhudiləri Azerbaijani سفراد یهودیلری AZB Сефарды Byelorussian Сефарадски евреи Bulgarian
יְהוּדֵי סְפָרַד (Yehudei Sfarad) | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sephardi family from Misiones Province, Argentina, circa 1900. | |
| Languages | |
| Traditional: Judaeo-Spanish and Judaeo-Portuguese (Ladino), Hebrew, Andalusian Arabic, Haketia, Judaeo-Catalan, Judaeo-Occitan, Judaeo-Berber, Judeo-Arabic Modern: Modern Hebrew, Sephardi Hebrew (liturgical), Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Italian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, Persian, other local languages | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mizrahi Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Hispanic Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions, and Samaritans |
Sephardic Jews,[a] also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim,[b][1] and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews,[2] are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendants.[2] The term "Sephardic" comes from Sepharad, the Hebrew word for Iberia. These communities flourished for centuries in Iberia until they were expelled in the late 15th century. Over time, "Sephardic" has also come to refer more broadly to Jews, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, who adopted Sephardic religious customs and legal traditions, often due to the influence of exiles. In some cases, Ashkenazi Jews who settled in Sephardic communities and adopted their liturgy are also included under this term.[2] Today, Sephardic Jews form a major component of world Jewry, with the largest population living in Israel.[3]
The earliest documented Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula dates to the Roman period, beginning in the first centuries CE. After facing persecution under the Pagan and later Christian Visigothic Kingdom, Jewish communities flourished for centuries under Muslim rule in Al-Andalus following the Umayyad conquest (711–720s), a period often seen as a golden age. Their status declined under the radical Almoravid and Almohad dynasties and during the Christian Reconquista. In 1391, anti-Jewish riots in Castile and Aragon led to massacres and mass forced conversions. In 1492, the Alhambra Decree by the Catholic Monarchs expelled Jews from Spain, and in 1496, King Manuel I of Portugal issued a similar edict.[4] These events led to migrations, forced conversions, and executions. Sephardic Jews dispersed widely: many found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, settling in cities such as Istanbul, Salonica, and İzmir; others relocated to North African centers like Fez, Algiers, and Tunis; Italian ports including Venice and Livorno; and parts of the Balkans, the Levant (notably Safed), and the Netherlands (notably Amsterdam). Smaller communities also emerged in France, England, and the Americas, where Sephardim often played key roles in commerce and diplomacy.
Historically, the vernacular languages of the Sephardic Jews and their descendants have been variants of either Spanish, Portuguese, or Catalan, though they have also adopted and adapted other languages. The historical forms of Spanish that differing Sephardic communities spoke communally were related to the date of their departure from Iberia and their status at that time as either New Christians or Jews. Judaeo-Spanish and Judaeo-Portuguese, also called Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish and Old Portuguese that was spoken by the eastern Sephardic Jews who settled in the Eastern Mediterranean after their expulsion from Spain in 1492; Haketia (also known as "Tetuani Ladino" in Algeria), an Arabic-influenced variety of Judaeo-Spanish, was spoken by North African Sephardic Jews who settled in the region after the 1492 Spanish expulsion.
In 2015, more than five centuries after the expulsion, both Spain and Portugal enacted laws allowing Sephardic Jews who could prove their ancestral origins in those countries to apply for citizenship.[5] The Spanish law that offered citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews expired in 2019, although subsequent extensions were granted by the Spanish government—due to the COVID-19 pandemic—in order to file pending documents and sign delayed declarations before a notary public in Spain.[6] In the case of Portugal, the nationality law was modified in 2022 with very stringent requirements for new Sephardic applicants,[7][8] effectively ending the possibility of successful applications without evidence of a personal travel history to Portugal—which is tantamount to prior permanent residence—or ownership of inherited property or concerns on Portuguese soil.[9]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Aroeste, Sarah (13 December 2018). "Latino, Hispanic or Sephardic? A Sephardi Jew explains some commonly confused terms". My Jewish Learning. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
- ^ a b c Aroeste, Sarah (13 December 2018). "Latino, Hispanic or Sephardic? A Sephardi Jew explains some commonly confused terms". My Jewish Learning. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
- ^ "Israel: The Askenazi-Sephardic confrontation". cia.gov.
- ^ Fernandes, Maria Júlia (1996). "Expulsão dos judeus de Portugal (Expulsion of Jews from Portugal)" (in Portuguese). RTP. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
- ^ "Spanish & Portuguese Citizenship". sephardicbrotherhood. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
- ^ "Ministry of Justice of Spain, Resolución de 13 de mayo de 2020, de la Dirección General de Seguridad Jurídica y Fe Pública". Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). pp. 34409–34410. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
- ^ "Publicado Decreto-Lei que Altera o Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa". Alto Comissariado para as migrações (in Portuguese).
- ^ de Vicente de Rojas, Alejandro (22 March 2022). "Amendments to the Portuguese nationality process for Sephardim published". Larrauri & Martí Abogados. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
- ^ "Section 3-d) in Article 24.°-A of Decreto-Lei n.º 26/2022, de 18 de março, que altera o Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa". Diário da República Eletrónico (in Portuguese). Retrieved 29 May 2022.