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Sephardic Jews. Sephardic Jews ( Hebrew: יְהוּדֵי סְפָרַד, romanized : Yehudei Sfarad, transl. 'Jews of Spain '; Ladino: Djudíos Sefardíes ), also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, [a] [1] and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, [2] are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula ( Spain and Portugal ...
- Sephardic law and customs
Sephardic law and customs are the law and customs of Judaism...
- Spanish and Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim,...
- Sephardic law and customs
Sephardi Jews, also known as Sephardic Jews or Sephardim (Hebrew: סְפָרַדִּים, Modern Hebrew: Sfaraddim, also יְהוּדֵי סְפָרַד Y'hudey Spharad, meaning "The Jews of Spain"), are a Jewish ethnic division. They emerged as a distinct community around 1000 AD on the Iberian Peninsula.
- 50,000
- 1.4 million
- 300,000–400,000
- 200,000–300,000
- Background
- Language
- Aftermath
- Others
- Influence
- Culture
Many historical documents recount a large population of Jews in Spain during the early years of the Common Era. Their cultural distinctiveness is characterized in Roman writings as a corrupting influence. Later, with the arrival of Christianity, Jewish legal authorities became worried about assimilation and maintaining Jewish identity. Despite thes...
Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language, unified Jews throughout the peninsula in daily life, ritual, and song. Ladino, a blend of medieval Spanish with significant loan words from Hebrew, Arabic, and Portuguese, had both a formal, literary dialect, and numerous daily, spoken dialects which evolved during the immigrations of Sephardic Jews to new lands.
The Sephardic Golden Age ended when Christian princes consolidated their kingdoms and reestablished Christian rule throughout Spain and Portugal. In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled all Jews from Spain; soon after, a similar law exiled Jews from Portugal. Sephardic Jews immigrated to Amsterdam, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Others established new communities in the Americas or converted publicly to Christianity, sometimes secretly maintaining a Jewish life. These converts (known in Ladino as conversos and in Hebrew as anusim, forced converts) often maintained their Judaism in secret. In the 21st century, there are still people in both Europe and the Americas who are d...
Wherever Sephardic Jews traveled, they brought with them their unique ritual customs, language, arts, and architecture. Sephardic synagogues often retain the influence of Islam in their architecture by favoring geometric, calligraphic, and floral decorative motifs. Although they may align with the Ashkenazic religious denominations (usually Orthodo...
At home, Ladino songs convey family traditions at the Shabbat table, although Ladino is rapidly disappearing from daily use. Sephardic Jews often maintain unique holiday customs, such as a seder for Rosh Hashanah that includes a series of special foods eaten as omens for a good new year and the eating of rice and legumes (kitniyot) on Passover.
Feb 26, 2024 · Sephardi, member or descendant of the Jews who lived in Spain and Portugal from at least the later centuries of the Roman Empire until their persecution and mass expulsion from those countries in the last decades of the 15th century.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sephardic Jews ( Hebrew: יְהוּדֵי סְפָרַד, romanized: Yehudei Sfarad, transl. 'Jews of Spain '; Ladino: Djudíos Sefardíes ), also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula ( Spain and Portugal ).
