Spain welcomes back Jews
Spain gets 127,000 citizenship applications from Sephardi Jews
A deadline for Jews living outside Spain to request Spanish nationality has expired with 127,000 applications, most of them from Latin America.Jews living in Mexico top the list, with about 20,000 requests, followed by Jews in Venezuela and Colombia.
In 2015, Spain passed a law to atone for the medieval expulsion of Sephardi Jews from the country.
In the 15th Century, Spain's Catholic monarchs, having defeated the Muslim Moors, forced Jews to convert or leave.
Applicants have had to prove a family connection with medieval Spain - and in many cases, that proved difficult. In addition, they had to get their Sephardi origins certified by a solicitor in Spain.
Mass expulsion
Spanish Jews gave the Hebrew name "Sepharad" to the Iberian peninsula. So descendants of Jews from Spain and Portugal still describe themselves as Sephardi Jews.
Applicants for Spanish nationality were entitled to keep their current nationality, though in general Spain does not allow dual citizenship.
Applicants had to pass tests on Spain's culture and constitution, and show competence in Spanish or the Judeo-Spanish variant Ladino.
A similar scheme in Portugal is still open.
In the Moorish kingdom of Al-Andalus, the Jewish community generally flourished, their religion was tolerated and Jewish scholars made a significant impact, spreading eastern knowledge to medieval Europe.
Historians reckon there were about 200,000 Jews in Spain before their expulsion, which followed the Catholic conquest of Granada in 1492. Sephardi Jews settled mainly in North Africa, the Balkans, Turkey and, later, Latin America.
Jews who get Spanish nationality under the new law are not required to move to Spain. The naturalisation ceremony can be performed at a Spanish consulate in their home country.
Spanish media say there was a rush to submit applications just before the 30 September deadline; 67,000 were registered in September.
There are estimated to be at least two million Sephardi diaspora Jews worldwide.
Inquisition records
Rocío Sánchez, a Colombian genealogist, said "the majority of the people that I have dealt with who want to benefit from a Spanish passport are young people, between 25 and 35 years old, almost all professionals".
AFP news agency interviewed a Colombian Catholic engineer, Andrés Villegas, who is now hoping for "a pleasant old age" in Spain.
He researched church records in Colombia, tracing his ancestry, and examined records of the Inquisition in Cartagena, who punished anyone practising Jewish rites.
He found that an ancestor, militia captain Cristóbal Gómez de Castro, born in 1595, had been prosecuted by the Inquisition for "Judaising". Colombia was part of the Spanish empire at the time.
Ángel Calderón, an Argentinian Sephardi Jew living in the Colombian capital Bogotá, praised the Spanish king for reaching out to the descendants of expelled Jews.
"The fact that King Felipe of Spain tells us face to face how much they wronged us, and that we are welcome home - this is something that heals, or seeks to repair the harm caused by a historical injustice," he told AFP.
Before the 2015 law, Sephardi Jews could only request Spanish nationality after two years' residence in Spain, or through a special government dispensation. In most cases they then had to give up their existing nationality to become Spanish.
Tweets about Jews:
BBC News - Sephardic Jews invited back to Spain after 500 years http://t.co/6y4p8r6R0w (but muslims aren't).— Graham Mad Teacher (@madteacher72) March 6, 2013
Spanish village to hold referendum over 'Kill Jews' name http://t.co/67UNltkCna— Graham Mad Teacher (@madteacher72) April 22, 2014
Scottish soldier who rescued Jew to celebrate Valentine's Day https://t.co/Afw6BPEjWh— Graham Mad Teacher (@madteacher72) February 14, 2017
Holocaust: How Spanish 'Angel of Budapest' Sanz Briz saved Jews https://t.co/EmwbEbI1Cu— Graham Mad Teacher (@madteacher72) March 18, 2019
Comments
I think the 2015 law is right. I like it. If Spain has to repair the harm caused by this injustice it must mend as soon as possible. Spain is an ancient country and it must face its antique obligations. Sometimes, when the Spanish Government changes, they think that old obligations of the previous Government don´t have to obey them.
If there are 127.000 citizenship applications to request Spanish nationality, I reckon it is an important figure. 127.000 Sephardi Jews in the 15th Century were a crowd. It´s clear that they are heirs, but we have to keep in mind that they lived in the kingdom of Al-Andalus only. This Century was great to Spain because Muslim people, Jews people and Catholic people lived together. It´s very difficult to live together now, in the 21th Century, because catalanes y vascos don´t want to live with the others.
These people are so grateful. Someone said: “this is something that heals”, another hoped for “a pleasant old age” in Spain and one young person wanted benefit from Spanish passport. I´m sure that somebody wanted to see the Real Madrid.
I didn´t know that Ladino means judeo-español. Another surprise is that it is said Moor in this article and Muslim people don´t like that we call them moor because they say that it is pejorative.
See you.
If they had been living together in harmony, why kick them out?
I wonder why Jewish descendants are being invited back. Could it have something to do with the widely held belief that Jews are wealthy?
While they are at it, why doesn't Spain invite descendants of the Moors who were also thrown out?
Moors is not dereogatory in this context - the text simply refers to the Muslim inhabitants of Southern Euroope and North Africa during the Middle Ages. But it is true that it is used in an offensive way nowadays in Spain. I am surprised that people still openly use the term and seem to get away with it.
I think the 2015 law is right. I like it. If Spain has to repair the harm caused by this injustice, it must do so as soon as possible. Spain is an ancient country and it must face up to its historical obligations. Sometimes, when the Spanish government changes, they think that promise made by the previous administration don´t have to be respected.
If there are 127,000 citizenship applications to request Spanish nationality, I reckon it is a significant figure. 127.000 Sephardi Jews in the 15th Century were a crowd. It´s clear that they are descendants, but we have to keep in mind that they only lived in the kingdom of Al-Andalus. (Are you suggesting that they can only be allowed to live in Andalucia?) The 15th Century was a great one for Spain because Muslim people, Jewish people and Catholic people lived together. It´s very difficult to live together now in the 21st Century, because Catalans and Basques don´t want to live alongside others in their "part of the world".
These people are so grateful. Someone said: “this is something that heals”, another hoped for “a pleasant, old age” in Spain and one young person wanted to benefit from having a Spanish passport. I´m sure that some just wanted to see the Real Madrid.
I didn´t know that Ladino means judeo-español. Another surprise is that it is said Moor in this article and Muslim people don´t like that we call them moors because they say that it is pejorative.