Sephardic Jews
Sefaradís ספרדיס Sefaradim ספרדים (formal) | |
|---|---|
 Sephardic Jewish festival in Tétouan, Morocco, Alfred Dehodencq, 1865, Paris Museum of Jewish Art and History | |
| Languages | |
| Traditional: Judaeo-Spanish, Judaeo-Catalan, Judaeo-Portuguese, Hebrew (Sephardi, Mishnaic, Medieval; liturgical), Andalusian Arabic, Haketia, Arabic, Judaeo-Occitan, Judeo-Berber, Judeo-Arabic, Judaeo-Papiamento (in Curaçao) Modern: Modern Hebrew, Sephardi Hebrew (liturgical), Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Italian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, Persian, other local languages, Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mizrahi Jews, Maghrebi Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Hispanic Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions, Spaniards, Castilians, Andalusians, and Samaritans |
langs. Replace with languages.caption. Replace with image_caption.rels. Replace with religions.pop. Replace with population.Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsula Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula and their descendants. 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 the diverse Jewish peoples, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, who adopted Sephardic religious customs and legal traditions (often due to the influences of exiles). Sephardic Jews form a major component of the global Jewish population, with a high percentage of the Sephardic-Jewish population now living in Israel.
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 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. These events led to migrations, forced conversions, and executions.
Sephardic Jews widely dispersed throughout the Mediterranean basin. Many found refuge throughout the Ottoman Empire, settling in such cities as Istanbul, Salonica, and İzmir; even more Sephardic Jews found refuge in the Mediterranean Maghreb — settling in Tétouan, Fez, Algiers, and Tunis, forming a major Sephardic population: the Maghrebi Jews.
Some Sephardim also settled in Italian ports including Venice and Livorno, as well as in parts of the Balkans, and the Levant (notably Safed). Small communities settled in the Netherlands (notably Amsterdam) and the coast of Germany (especially Hamburg). 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, Catalan or Portuguese, although they have also adopted and adapted other languages. These variants are academically called Judaeo-Spanish (or ladino), Judaeo-Catalan (or katalaní) and Judaeo-Portuguese (aljamiado português). The variant 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. In the former provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ladino is also referred to as djudezmo. The gestation and development of Ladino can be compared to that of Yiddish in Germany, among Ashkenazi Jews of central and eastern European origin. However, Ladino must not be confused with the Ladin language that is spoken in the Austrian and Italian Alps. The Sephardic linguistic repertoire is dovetailed with Haketia (also known as "Tetuani Ladino"), an Arabic-influenced variety of Judaeo-Spanish, which was spoken by North African Sephardic Jews who settled in the region after the 1492 Spanish expulsion.