by World Passport Museum

There has been much of talk about spain and portugal easing citizenship rules for sephardic jews. Today we will quickly cover this topic  on who are they? where do they come from? and why is spain and portugal simplifying citizenship path to sephardic jews.

Following the defeat of the Kingdom of Israel in the 720s BCE and the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE, the Jewish people became dispersed throughout much of the Middle East and Africa. The Jewish population in ancient Israel also was severely reduced by the Jewish–Roman wars and by the later hostile policies of the Christian emperors, against non-Christians. Following the Crusades and Inquisition, Jews from around the world began emigrating in increasing numbers.

Historically, European Jews have been classified into two major groups:

•  Ashkenazim, or “Germanics” (“Ashkenaz” meaning “Germany” in Medieval Hebrew), denoting their Central European base, and
• Sephardim, or “Hispanics” (“Sefarad” meaning “Hispania” or “Iberia” in Hebrew), denoting their Spanish, Portuguese or North African base.

A third historic term Mizrahim, or “Easterners” (“Mizrach” being “East” in Hebrew) has been used to describe other non-European Jewish communities to the east, but its usage has changed both over time and relative to the location where it was used.

Sephardic Jews descended from the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century, immediately prior to the issuance of the Alhambra Decree of 1492 by order of the Catholic Monarchs in Spain, and the decree of 1496 in Portugal by order of King Manuel I.

Prior to 1492, substantial Jewish populations existed in most Spanish and Portuguese provinces.

The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion) was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion/exile of jews who did not comply to religious conversion.

Five years later, Portugal’s King Manuel issued a decree  to appease Spanish monarchs to marry their daughter.  The decree blocked jews from leaving by blocking ports of exit.

Both the Spanish and Portuguese edicts ordered their respective Jewish residents to choose one of only three options:

• to convert to Catholicism and therefore to be allowed to remain within the kingdom,
• to remain Jewish and to be expelled by the stipulated deadline, or
• to be summarily executed.

The purpose Alhambra Decree of 1492,  was to eliminate their influence on Spain’s large converso population not convert to Judaism.

As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution in prior years, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled, an indeterminate number returning to Spain in the years following the expulsion. Many fled to Portugal, Turkey and other countries.

Today, according to a genetic research published by American Journal of Human Genetics, genetic markers show that one in five of Spaniards have Sephardic Jews markers.

Spain and Portugal offer expedited path to citizenship and passport  to sephardic jews who could prove their ancestory.

Spain

In 2015 the Government of Spain passed Law 12/2015 of 24 June, whereby Sephardic Jews with a connection to Spain could obtain Spanish citizenship by naturalisation, without the residency requirement.

The scheme was further extended to October 2019.  As of March 2018, some 6,432 people had been granted Spanish citizenship under the sephardic citizenship law. In Spain the citizenship application fee is €100 euro

Portugal

In April 2013 The Portuguese government offered naturalization path to the descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Portugal and Spain in the fifteenth century.  Applicants must prove of Sephardic community of Portuguese origin with ties to Portugal through surnames in the family tree.

As of Feb 2018, 12,000 applications were in process, and 1,800 applicants had been granted Portuguese citizenship in 2017.  The citizenship

Diaspora population

There are about 2,2 million sephardic jews  population worldwide roughly make up to 16% of world’s Jewish population, with majority of them living in Israel, France and United Kingdom