Eastern Sephardim
Eastern Sephardim are a distinctive sub-group of
Eastern Sephardim mostly settled
Some migrated farther east to the territories of the Ottoman Empire, settling among the long-established Arabic-speaking Jewish communities of
In recent times, principally after 1948, most Eastern Sephardim have relocated to Israel, and others have relocated to the United States, France and Latin America.
History
In the 19th century, Sephardic communities in
Ladino literature
Before the 18th century most mainstream
Examples of Sephardic literature from the Ottoman Empire include the Shevet Musar by Elijah ha-Kohen (b.1645, d.1729 in Izmir, Turkey). Another writer, Isaac Bekhor Amarachi, ran a printing business and also translated some works from Hebrew into Ladino, including a biography of the English-Sephardic philanthropist Moses Montefiore. Though the writings of Abraham Palachi, chief rabbi of Izmir, are markedly conservative, Palachi was a strong supported of improving French language education in his community and spoke at the opening of a new Alliance Israélite school in 1873. Sephardi writer Judah Papo, who died in Jerusalem in 1873, was one of the teachers of Judah Alkalai.[3]
Relationship with other Sephardi communities
The term Sephardi is derived from Sepharad. The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified as Hispania by later Jews, that is, it was identified as the Iberian Peninsula. Sepharad now means "Spain" in modern Hebrew.
Their traditional spoken languages were referred to as Judaeo-Spanish and Judaeo-Portuguese. In most locales, where the Eastern Sephardim settled, the indigenous Jewish population came to adopt the culture and customs of the recent Sephardic arrivals. This phenomenon is just one of the factors which has currently led to the broader religious definition of the term Sephardi.
The relationship between Sephardic communities is illustrated in the following diagram:
| Pre-Expulsion Sephardi Jewish Population of Iberia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spanish Alhambra Decree of 1492, Portuguese Decree of 1497 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Iberian Exile in the late 15th century | Conversion to Catholicism up to the late 15th century | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| North African Sephardim | Eastern Sephardim | Sephardic Anusim | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Those Jews fleeing from Iberia as Jews in the late 15th century at the issuance of Spain and Portugal's decrees of expulsion. Initially settled in New Christians in Iberia. As Christians, were under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church and subject to the Inquisition . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Migration of Conversos from the 16th to 18th centuries | Clandestine migration of conversos to Ibero-America and their settlement during colonization from the 16th to 18th centuries | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reversion to Judaism from the 16th to 18th centuries | Extension of the Inquisition to Ibero-America in the 16th century | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Western Sephardim | Sephardic Bnei Anusim | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The first few generations of descendants of Sephardic Anusim who migrated as Iberia or moved to the Iberian colonial possessions across various Latin American countries during the Spanish colonization of the Americas . Subject to the Inquisition until its abolition in the 19th century | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abolition of the Inquisition in the 19th century | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reversion to Judaism in the 20th to 21st centuries | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Neo-Western Sephardim | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The nascent and growing population of returnees to Judaism among the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population whose recent return began in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in Iberia and Ibero-America. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Language
Historically, the
By contrast, the languages spoken by related Sephardi communities and descendants include:
- Haketia, also called "Ladino Occidental" (Western Ladino), a Judaeo-Spanish variety also derived from Old Spanish, plus Hebrew and Aramaic. Spoken by North African Sephardim. Taken with North African Sephardim in the 15th century after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, this dialect was heavily influenced by Maghrebi Arabic.
- conversos, after which they reverted to Judaism.
- Spanish conquest.
Surnames
Eastern Sephardim still often carry common Spanish surnames, as well as other specifically Sephardic surnames from 15th century Spain with Arabic or Hebrew language origins (such as Azoulay, Abulafia, Abravanel) which have since disappeared from Spain when those that stayed behind as conversos adopted surnames that were solely Spanish in origin. Other Eastern Sephardim have since also translated their Hispanic surnames into the languages of the regions they settled in, or have modified them to sound more local.
Return migration to Portugal
In recent years, several hundred
See also
- Mashriqi Jews
- Mizrahi Jews
- North African Sephardim
- Sephardic Anusim
- Western Sephardim
- Sephardic Bnei Anusim
- Neo-Western Sephardim
- Sephardic Jews in India
References
- ^ Matthias B. Lehman, Ladino Rabbinic Literature & Ottoman Sephardic Culture, p.1
- ^ Matthias B. Lehman, Ladino Rabbinic Literature & Ottoman Sephardic Culture, p.3-4
- ^ Matthias B. Lehman, Ladino Rabbinic Literature & Ottoman Sephardic Culture, p.6-7
- ^ DEVOS, Olivier. "Amid rising European anti-Semitism, Portugal sees Jewish renaissance". www.timesofisrael.com.
- ^ Liphshiz, Cnaan. "New citizenship law has Jews flocking to tiny Portugal city". www.timesofisrael.com.
- ^ "Portugal open to citizenship applications by descendants of Sephardic Jews". March 3, 2015.