Sephardic Jews: description, distinctive features

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

The history of the Sephardi Jews originates in the Iberian Peninsula, the location of the modern states of Spain and Portugal. According to historians, they came to the territory of Iberia before all its indigenous inhabitants - the Romans, barbarians and Arabs. However, after 8 centuries of peaceful life, they were forced to go into exile by decree of the King of Spain.

History of the Sephardim

The name "Sephardi" comes from the words "biblical place" (Hebrew: ספרד, Modern Səfarád, Turkish: Sefarad). This people is also mentioned in Persian inscriptions under the name "Saparda", which some scholars dispute.

Jewish emigration and settlements in Spain, according to historians, occurred during the period of the Roman Empire, after the fall of Carthage (about 210 BC). Many refugees moved from Judea to the Mediterranean after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus. Later Jews even called the Iberian Peninsula "Sefarad", which in modern Hebrew means "Spain".

In history, Sephardic Jews are considered to beimmigrants from the Iberian Peninsula, whose descendants were expelled from Spain in March 1492 by the Alhambra Decree of King Ferdinand II and Isabella of Castile. By this time, Jews had lived in this territory for more than 800 years, and their number was about 100 thousand people.

Most of the Jews were rich people. They served as government officials, headed large banking and commercial institutions. For many years they gave large loans to the Spanish kings, for which they received aristocratic titles and an excellent secular education. After the expulsion verdict, almost 30% of them were forced to leave.

In modern Israel, the name "Sephardi" is also often used for religious purposes to refer to Jews of Asian and African origin, because. they use the Sephardic style in the liturgy.

Jewish flight from Spain and Portugal

Under the terms of the royal decree, only those Spanish Sephardic Jews who accept the Christian faith could remain in Spain. The majority (70-80% of the Jews) agreed with this condition and remained to live on the peninsula, being baptized. They formed an ethnic layer of Marranos, some of whom still secretly observed the rites and laws of Judaism. After a while they returned to their religion. Many of their descendants now live in Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Germany, England and the USA.

Those who decided to leave settled in various regions of the Mediterranean, Europe and other countries (map of Jewish refugee routes -Sephardim - pictured below):

• to the Ottoman Empire, mainly to Istanbul and Thessaloniki;
• to Northern Morocco and other African countries, some of them later emigrated back to the Iberian Peninsula and formed the community of Gibr altar;
• to European countries: Italy, Holland, etc.;
• crypto-Jews who lead a secretive life - since the time of the Spanish and Mexican inquisitions, they have been practicing secret Jewish rites. They now live in Mexico, the southwestern US, the Caribbean and the Philippines.

From Portugal, the Jews were also forced to emigrate to Italy and the Ottoman Empire. Many of them settled in Amsterdam and other European countries.

Jews in the Ottoman Empire

Sephardim who migrated from Spain to the East received a warm welcome from the Turkish Sultan. Possessing considerable we alth and business connections in Europe, they occupied all key positions in the management of the Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire. In doing so, they pressed the local Jews. Thanks to their high self-esteem, they were able to impose their customs, culture and laws on other immigrants, incl. and Ashkenazim.

Prosperous Ottoman Sephardim were generous patrons, opened new schools, libraries and printing houses. They held public office, served as court bankers, and collected taxes. They translated many publications from Hebrew and European classics into their Ladino language, but in oral speech they used its colloquial version.- judesmo.

However, in the 19th century. the economic collapse of the Empire occurred, and control of capital rather quickly passed into the hands of European capitalists. The final blow was the 2nd World War. After the occupation, the Jews in Greece, Yugoslavia and Serbia were almost completely exterminated. And the survivors left for America (USA and Latin America) and Israel.

African and American Sephardim

Significant Sephardic community moved to North Africa (Morocco and other countries). In the 19th century they were colonized by France, which gave the Jews French citizenship in 1870. After the colonists left Algiers in 1962, most of the Jews moved to France, where they now form one of the largest Sephardic communities in the world outside of Israel.

French Sephardim still preserve their traditions in the ancient melodies and romances of Spain and Portugal, prefer Iberian national dishes, follow Spanish customs.

The Sephardi community in Mexico now numbers over 5,000 people. Most of them moved here from Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. In the USA in the 19th century. most of the Jews were Sephardic, the services were held in Portuguese, although they spoke in English. However, the numerous emigration of Ashkenazi Jews from Germany and Eastern Europe during the 19-20 centuries. led to the fact that they began to dominate the American continent.

Sephardic language

The traditional language of most Sephardim is Ladino orJudeo-Spanish. It belongs to the Romanesque group and is based on Old Castilian and Old Portuguese. It also borrows words from Turkish, Greek, Arabic, French and Hebrew.

In the Mediterranean, until recently, there were 2 dialects of Ladino, depending on the region: East and West African (hakitia). The Eastern dialect has retained Old English features in morphology and vocabulary, and is considered more conservative. North African is heavily diluted with colloquial words borrowed from the Arabs, influenced by the Spanish colonial occupation of Northern Morocco in the first half of the 20th century.

Among the Portuguese Jews, a Judaeo-Portuguese variant of the language was spread, which influenced the dialects in Gibr altar.

What is the difference between Sephardim and other Jews

There is no essential difference between the two sub-ethnic groups of Jews. They differ in their customs, traditions, habits, fulfillment of religious commandments and rituals. All this was due to historical events and the geography of their residence: the Ashkenazim formed on the territory of Central Europe (Germany, Poland, etc.), the Sephardim - on the Iberian Peninsula. Historically, they use different languages: Yiddish and Ladino. Today's Ashkenazi Jews make up the majority of Israel's Jews and look down on Sephardim. German Jews have an inflated self-importance, considering themselves more intelligent, etc.

Sephardim expelled from Spain, having resettled in other countries, for many years maintained a group sense of pride, exposing othersdiscrimination against Jews: they did not allow them to sit in synagogues with the rest, forbade marriages and introduced other rules. Spanish Jews did not prohibit polygamous marriages, had specific rites (liturgy), synagogue architecture (the so-called "Mudéjar style"), and even a special way of packing a Torah scroll in a case (tik).

In the 18th century. Sephardim during the French Revolution were able to achieve the expulsion of the Ashkenazim from the city of Bordeaux, having received civil equality before other Jews. In 18-19 Art. immigrants from Iberia gradually began to move away from the religion and traditions of their fathers, were baptized, but proudly bore their names and family titles.

The appearance of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews is almost indistinguishable. The former are predominantly fair-skinned, fair-haired, have light eyes, and are more prone to hereditary diseases. The latter have darker olive skin, but this is not always noticeable. Studying the photo and appearance of Sephardi Jews, it is visually difficult to identify the differences.

In the Jewish environment, it is also customary to consider non-Hispanic Asians and Africans as an "eastern" group called the Mizrachi. These include the communities of Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Iran and India.

Opinion of geneticists

Research by geneticists, biologists and anthropologists on the identification of differences in the genes and appearance of Sephardi Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, led to unequivocal conclusions: all Jews constitute one ethnic group, which is genetically isolated from other peoples. But this is without taking into account the communities in Ethiopia and India, now calledMizrahi. They represent a separate group that emerged about 2.5 thousand years ago, when they were captured by the Babylonians.

The Jews of Southern Europe received 30% of DNA impurities from the genes of local peoples: the French, Italians, Spaniards. In the Middle Ages in Europe, 2 groups were clearly distinguished: Sephardim and Ashkenazim. The latter appeared in Germany in the 8th century and spread widely throughout Eastern Europe: Poland, Russia, etc. Most of the Ashkenazi Jews who did not have time to leave Nazi Germany and the occupied lands died during the Holocaust. Survivors resettled in Israel and the US.

According to geneticists, the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews separated into separate ethnic groups about 1200 years ago. Moreover, the number of the second group in a certain period was greatly reduced and, due to closely related marriages, became susceptible to certain genetic diseases.

Sephardim in Russia and the CIS republics

The first Sephardic Jews were brought to Russia by Peter the Great from Holland: they include the Abarbanel family, one of whose ancestors financed Columbus' expedition to the New World in 1492. It is also known that some families from Bessarabia and the B altic countries moved here.

According to scientists, about 500,000 Sephardic Jews now live on the territory of the Russian Federation and the states of the former USSR. Most of them call themselves that because of the practice of Sephardic Judaism, but few of them have Spanish roots. These include Georgian, Bukharian, Azerbaijani and other Jews living inCaucasus region and Central Asia.

Famous Sephardim

Among the ethnic Sephardim, there are many outstanding personalities who have glorified their name in various fields of activity.

The most famous of them:

• Benedict Spinoza is a New Age philosopher who lived in the Netherlands in the 17th century, who adhered to unorthodox religious views and ideas of rationalism, pantheism and determinism. Comes from a we althy family whose ancestors moved from Portugal to Amsterdam. He was expelled from the Jewish community and accused of heresy, after which he took up the study of natural sciences, Greek philosophy and Latin. The most famous work of Spinoza is "Ethics", which contains the main provisions of his philosophy. Died at 45 from tuberculosis.
• David Ricardo - an economist who lived in the 18th century. in the UK, one of the creators of political economy, its basic laws and principles of income distribution through taxation. His family emigrated from Holland. Successfully engaged in operations on the stock exchange and in trading, earning millions of pounds, but after 12 years he took up scientific work in the field of economic theories.
• Camille Pizarro - the famous French artist, the founder of impressionism. Comes from a we althy Sephardic family that lived in the Antilles. After moving to Paris, he was educated as a painter and artist, was a friend of Cezanne, adhered to the political views of the anarchists.
• Emma Lazarus is a writer and poet from the United States, comes from a family of a planter who fled fromPortugal to the New World from the Inquisition. In addition to writing, she was engaged in translations of poems in Hebrew into English. Her poem "The New Colossus" (1883) adorns the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Sephardim and Ashkenazi Jews in Israel

After the formation of the State of Israel, many Jews began to come here, among whom were Sephardim. They arrived from Morocco, Algeria, the countries of the East, the former republics of the USSR. Most of them perfectly preserved their traditions, having arrived here almost without property. However, officials in the young state who de alt with refugees reacted negatively to them. Children were forcibly sent to kibbutzim, separated from their families. Most Sephardim were uneducated. The situation changed only in the late 1970s, when school and university education, construction and affordable housing programs came into force.

Now the Sephardim have been able to raise their status and take a certain place in the life of the country. Their cultural traditions have become closer to Israeli reality. Marriages between Ashkenazim and Sephardim are widespread.

In Israel, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews have separate synagogues and their own self-government, and there are 2 chief rabbis at the same time (photo can be seen below).

Spain offers citizenship to Sephardim

According to the Spanish authorities, the country invites the descendants of the Jews who were expelled in the 15th century. by decree of the king. They are offered to obtain citizenship under a simplifiedprocedure. In this way, the state is trying to eliminate the injustice against the Jews, which was committed more than 500 years ago.

To prove your belonging to Sephardic Jews, you need to provide either historical documents or a certificate from the religious community, certified by the leader and a notary. According to statistics, there are 1.5-2 million descendants of Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century in the world.