Sephardic Jews are descendants of the Jewish population of the Iberian Peninsula and can be found worldwide. They have a unique cultural tradition and language, Judeo-Spanish. Sephardic Jews have different religious practices and were expelled from Spain in 1492. Some classify Mizrahi Jews as Sephardic, while others argue they are distinct.
Sephardic Jews are people of the Jewish faith who are descended from the former Jewish population of the Iberian Peninsula. In addition to being used to describe people of a particular ethnic background, the term “Sephardic Jews” is also used to describe individuals who practice a particular form of Judaism, whether or not they are descended from Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Sephardi Jews can be found throughout the world, with particularly large populations in the Middle East and North Africa.
The history of Judaism in Spain is ancient, as numerous archaeological finds suggest, but Jewish people began settling in large numbers in Spain and Portugal around the 2nd century, as Roman influence spread throughout the Middle East. The Jewish population in this region was quite well integrated with the rest of the population and some Jewish residents of the Iberian peninsula became very influential and powerful. Separation from the Middle East has also caused the religious practices of Sephardi Jews to diverge slightly.
In the 8th century, with the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula, the position of Jews in the region improved significantly, as many Jewish individuals were given power and authority by the Muslim government. For several centuries, Spain and Portugal had a remarkably mixed culture of Christians, Muslims and Jews, and the result was a rich cultural tradition. All of this ended with the Christian reconquest of Spain, and the subsequent expulsion of the Jews in 1492 by order of the monarchy.
At the time of the expulsion order, many Sephardic Jews fled to the Middle East, while others settled in North Africa, bringing Sephardic traditions with them to the indigenous Jewish populations of these regions. Others remained hidden in Spain and Portugal, posing as Christians in order to remain in the Iberian Peninsula. These three separate groups of Sephardi Jews evolved slightly different cultural traditions, leading some people to argue that they should be classified separately.
Sephardim follow many of the beliefs and rules of Judaism shared by all people of the Jewish faith, with some differences. They approach Jewish liturgy a little differently, for example, and have different rules about observing religious holidays. Sephardic Jews also inherited their own language, Judeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino. Linguists have raised concerns about the future of Ladino, due to the fact that many speakers are very old, with their children learning Hebrew or modern languages rather than Judaeo-Spanish.
Some people classify Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa among Sephardi Jews, as there are many similarities between these two groups. Others argue that the two are ethnically and culturally distinct and that these two aspects of Jewish culture are poorly served when taken together.
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