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In the strictest sense, a Sephardi (Hebrew
ספרדי Səphardî, Sefardi, Sfardi; plural
Sephardim: ספרדים Səphardîm,
Sefardim, Sfardim) is a Jew original to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and
Portugal: Hebrew
ספרד Səpháradh, Sefárad, Sfárad), or whose
ancestors were among the Jews expelled from said peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition incited by the Catholic
Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella.
They settled mainly in Morocco, the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey, Southwest Asia, North Africa and south-eastern
Europe), southern France, Italy, Spanish North America (Southwest United States and Mexico), Spanish South America and Brazil, as well as the Netherlands, England, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Hungary.
In the vernacular of modern-day Israel, the word Sephardi has also come to include the immigrant Jewish communities
that were indigenous to various other countries of the Near East now resident in
Israel, most notably those of Yemen, Iraq and
Iran, that have no ancestral ties to Spain or Portugal. Jews from these Near Eastern
communities are also sometimes called "Oriental Jews" or the Hebrew
equivalent "Mizrakhim", and were once also referred to as "Arab Jews", a phrase that is rarely used today.
A third usage of the word is in reference to the Nusach Sepharad (Sephardic liturgy) which in some Hassidic communities of Eastern Europe replaced the Nusach Ashkenaz (Ashkenazic liturgy) during the 18th and 19th centuries. In this usage, a
Sephardi is someone who follows the Sephardic liturgy.
The remainder of this article concerns Sephardim in the first sense: Jews of Spanish origin.
Language
The traditional language of the Sephardim is Judæo-Spanish, also
called Ladino (a term considered pejorative in some
circles).
It is a Romance Language derived mainly from Old Castilian (Spanish) and Hebrew, and is often considered a dialect adjacent to modern Castilian — the official
language of Spain — because of their intelligibility.
Judæo-Spanish has been conserved by the crypto-Jewish marranos of Portugal and Brazil and is still spoken by many of them. It is also spoken by
many of the few Sephardim still remaining in Turkey and amongst the Sephardi immigrants of Israel.
Other languages associated with Sephardic Jews are mostly extinct, and they included Yevanic ("Judæo-Greek) formerly spoken by the Romaniote community of the Ottoman Empire, Salonica and Italkian (Judæo-Italian) formerly spoken by some Jewish communities in Italy.
History
Among the Sephardim were many who were the descendants, or heads, of wealthy families and who, as Marranos, had occupied
prominent positions in the countries they had left. Some had been state officials, others had held positions of dignity within
the Church; many had been the heads of large banking-houses and mercantile establishments, and some were physicians or scholars
who had officiated as teachers in high schools. Their Spanish was a lingua
franca that enabled Sephardim from different countries to engage in commerce and diplomacy.
The Sephardim rarely engaged in chaffering occupations nor in usury, and they did not
often mingle with lower classes. With their social equals they associated freely, without regard to religion. They were received at the courts of sultans, kings, and princes, and often were employed as
ambassadors, envoys, or agents. The number of Sephardim who have rendered important services to different countries is
considerable, from Samuel
Abravanel (financial councilor to the viceroy of Naples) to Benjamin Disraeli. Among other names mentioned are those of Belmonte, Nasi, Pacheco, Palache, Azevedo,
Sasportas, Costa, Curiel, Cansino, Schonenberg, Toledo, Toledano, and Teixeira.
The Sephardim occupy the foremost place in the roll of Jewish physicians; great as is the number of those who have
distinguished themselves as statesmen, it is not nearly as great as the number of those who have become celebrated as physicians
and have won the favor of rulers and princes, in both the Christian and the Islamic world. That the Sephardim were selected for
prominent positions in every country in which they settled was due to the fact that Spanish had become a world-language through
the expansion of Spain.
For a long time the Sephardim took active part in Spanish
literature; they wrote in prose and in rhyme, and were the authors of theological, philosophical, belletristic, pedagogic,
and mathematical works. The rabbis, who, in common with all the Sephardim, laid great stress on a pure and euphonious
pronunciation of Hebrew, delivered their sermons in Spanish or in Portuguese: several of these sermons have appeared in print.
Their thirst for knowledge, together with the fact that they associated freely with the outer world, led the Sephardim to
establish new educational systems wherever they settled; they founded schools in which the Spanish language was the medium of instruction. Theatre in Istanbul was in Judæo-Spanish since it
was forbidden to Muslims.
In Portugal the Sephardim were given important roles in the sociopolitical sphere and enjoyed a certain amount of protection
from the Crown (e.g. Yahia Ben Yahia, first "Rabino Maior" of Portugal and supervisor of the public revenue of the first King of
Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques).
Even with the increasing pressure from the Catholic Church this state of affairs remained more or less constant and the number of
Jews in Portugal grew with those running from Spain. This changed with the marriage of D. Manuel I of Portugal with the daughter of the Catholic Kings of the newlyborn Spain. In 1497 the Decree ordering the expulsion or forced conversion of
all the Jews was passed, and the Sephardim either fled or went into secrecy under the guise of "Cristãos Novos", i.e. New
Christians. This Decree was symbolically revoked in 1996 by the Portuguese Parliament.
In Amsterdam, where they were especially prominent in the seventeenth century
on account of their number, wealth, education, and influence, they established poetical academies after Spanish models; two of
these were the Academia de los Sitibundos and the Academia de los Floridos. In the same city they also
organized the first Jewish educational institution, with graduate classes in which, in addition to Talmudic studies, instruction
was given in the Hebrew language.
Culture
The Sephardim have preserved the romances and the ancient melodies and songs of Spain, as well as a large number of old
Spanish proverbs. A number
of children's plays,
like, for example, El Castillo, are still popular among them, and they still manifest a fondness for the dishes peculiar
to Spain, such as the pastel, or pastelico, a sort of meat-pie, and the pan de España, or pan de
León. At their festivals they follow the Spanish custom of distributing dulces, or dolces, a confection
wrapped in paper bearing a picture of the magen David.
Names
They bear exclusively Portuguese and Spanish given names, as Aleqria, Angel, Angela, Amado, Amada, Bienvenida, Blanco, Cara,
Cimfa, Comprado, Consuela, Dolza, Esperanza, Estimada, Estrella, Fermosa, Gracia, Luna, Niña, Palomba, Preciosa, Sol, Ventura,
and Zafiro; and such Spanish or Portuguese surnames as Belmonte, Benveniste, Bueno, Calderon, Campos, Cardoso, Castro, Curiel,
Delgado, Fonseca, Cordova, Leon, Lima, Mercado, Monzon, Rocamora, Pacheco, Pardo, Pereira, Pinto, Prado, Sousa, Suasso, Toledano, Tarragona, Valencia, and Zaporta.
Congregations
Great authority was given to the president of each congregation. He and the rabbinate of his congregation formed the
"ma'amad," without whose approbation (often worded in Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian) no book of religious content might be
published. The president not only had the power to make authoritative resolutions with regard to congregational affairs and to
decide communal questions, but he had also the right to observe the religious conduct of the individual and to punish anyone
suspected of heresy or of trespassing against the laws.
Relationship to other Jews
Although the Sephardim lived on peaceful terms with other Jews, they rarely intermarried with them; neither did they unite
with them in forming congregations, but adhered to their own ritual, which differed widely from the Ashkenazic. Paradoxically, those who had suffered the racial pride of limpieza de sangre
applied a similar concept toward other Jews. Wherever the Sephardic Jews settled they grouped themselves according to the country
or district from which they had come, and organized separate communities with legally enacted statutes. In Constantinople and Thessaloniki, for example, there were not only Castilian, Aragonian, Catalonian, and Portuguese
congregations, but also Toledo, Cordova, Evora,
and Lisbon congregations, and differenced themselves from Romaniotes. In Morocco, Sephardim considered themselves
superior to Berber Jews. Under the
common pressure of the Islamic society, the Berbers tried to merge with the Sephardim by naming their children with Sephardic names.
One interesting example is the "Belmonte Jews" in Portugal. A whole comunity survived in secrecy for hundreds of years by maintaining a
tradition of intermarriage and by hiding all the external signs of their faith. The Jewish comunity in Belmonte goes back to the XII century and they
were only discovered in the XX century. Their rich Sephardic tradition of Crypto-Judaism is unique. Only recently did they contact other Jews and they now profess Orthodox Judaism, although they still retain their centuries-old
traditions.
The term Sephardi can also describe the nusach (Hebrew language, "liturgical tradition")
used by Sephardi Jews in their Siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a
liturgical tradition's choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers and melodies used in the singing of prayers.
This phrase is frequently used in contrast with Ashkenazi Jews, also called
Ashkenazim, who are descendants of Jews from Germany, Poland, Austria and Eastern-Europe.
Medicine
Although less than in Ashkenazi Jews, there is a higher incidence of certain
hereditary diseases in Sephardi Jews. The most important ones
are:
See also Jewish
Genetics Center about testing.
See also
Judaism, Sephardic names translated into English their own ritual, which differed widely from
the Ashkenazic.
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