Population - Ethnic Divisions - Sephardi

In the strictest sense, a Sephardi (ספרדי, Standard Hebrew Səfardi, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardî; plural Sephardim: ספרדים, Standard Hebrew Sfaradim, Tiberian Hebrew Səp̄ardîm) is a Jew original to the Iberian Peninsula), or whose ancestors were either among the Jews expelled during the Spanish Inquisition incited by the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella and codified in the Alhambra decree (1492), or among the Jews expelled by king Manuel I of Portugal in 1497 and subsequent Portuguese Inquisition.

In the vernacular of modern-day Israel, the word Sephardi has also come to include the immigrant Jewish communities that were indigenous to the various countries of the Near East, most notably those of the Yemen, Iraq and Iran who are now resident in Israel, and have no ancestral ties to Spain or Portugal. Jews from these Near Eastern communities are also sometimes called "Oriental Jews" or the Hebrew equivalent Mizrāħîm, some of whom were once also referred to as "Arab Jews", a phrase that is rarely used today. (This article treats only Sephardim in the traditional sense, not this expanded Modern Israeli Hebrew definition.)

Note that the term Nusach Sefard does not refer to the liturgy generally recited by Sephardim, but rather to an alternative European liturgy used by many Chassidim. Sephardim traditionally pray using Nusach Sfarad, which is quite similar to Nusach Eidoth haMizrach (liturgy of the Eastern Congregations).

Distribution

Following the 1492 expulsion from Spain and the subsequent forced conversions and expulsions in Portugal (1497), Sephardim settled mainly in Morocco, the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey, Greece, Southwest Asia, North Africa and south-eastern Europe), southern France, Italy, Spanish North America, (Southwest United States and Mexico), Spanish South America and Portuguese Brazil, as well as the Netherlands (from where a number of families continued onto the former Dutch possessions of Curaçao, Suriname and Aruba), England, Germany, Denmark, Austria and Hungary.

As a result of the Jewish exodus from Arab lands, many of the Sephardim from the Middle East have relocated to either Israel or France, where they form a significant portion of the Jewish communities today.


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 Sephardi 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.

Judæo-Portuguese has also been used by Sephardim — especially amongst the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Western Europe.

The pidgin forms of Portuguese spoken among slaves and their Sephardic owners have been an influence in Papiamento and Creole languages of Suriname.

Several other Romance languages with Jewish forms, spoken historically by Sephardim, include Shuadit (Judæo-Provençal), Judæo-Aragonese, and Catalanic (Judæo-Catalán).

Other languages associated with Sephardic Jews are mostly extinct, i.e., formerly spoken by some Jewish communities in Italy. Low German, formerly used as the vernacular amongst Sephardim of the Hamburg and Altona area of Northern Germany is also no longer in use as a specifically Jewish vernacular.


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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 or Portuguese was a lingua franca that enabled Sephardim from different countries to engage in commerce and diplomacy.

The Sephardim rarely engaged in finance (also called chaffering) occupations nor in usury, and they did not often mingle with lower social 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 have distinguished themselves as physicians and statesmen, 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 an active part in Spanish literature; they wrote in prose and in rhyme, and were the authors of theological, philosophical, belletristic (aesthetic rather than content based writing), pedagogic (teaching), and mathematical works. The rabbis, who, in common with all the Sephardim, emphasized 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 newly born 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). All this was followed by the big massacre of Jews in the city of Lisbon in 1506 and the even more relevant establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1536. This produced the flight of the Portuguese Jewish community during the centuries that followed until the extinction of the Courts of Inquisition in 1821 - by then the number of Jews in Portugal was residual.

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. The most important synagogue, or Esnoga, as it is usually called amongst Spanish and Portuguese Jews, is the Amsterdam Esnoga — usually considered the “mother synagogue”, and the historical centre of the Amsterdam minhag.

A sizeable Sephardic community had settled in Morocco and other Northern African countries, which were colonized by France in the 19th century. The Jewish inhabitants were given French citizenship in 1870 by the décret Crémieux (previously, any Jewish or Muslim local could apply for French citizenship; but this meant renouncing the use of traditional religious courts and laws, a move that many did not want to take). When France withdrew in 1956 (Morocco) and 1962 (Algeria), the local Jewish communities largely relocated to France. There are some tensions between some of those communities, and the earlier French Jewish population (ashkenazi), as well as with the Arabic-Muslim communities.


Culture

The Sephardim have preserved the romances and the ancient melodies and songs of Spain and Portugal, as well as a large number of old Portuguese and 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 Iberia, 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 (six pointed star).


Names

The Sephardim usually followed the general rules for Spanish and Portuguese names. They generally bear Portuguese and Spanish first 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 Afanador, Belmonte, Benveniste, Bueno, Calderón, Campos, Cardoso, Cardoze, Castro, Clemente, Cordova, Curiel, Delgado, Delvalle, Fidanque, Fonseca, Guerreiro, Henríquez, Josué, Leon, Levy Maduro, Lima, Maduro, Mercado, Monzon, Nunes, Osorio, Pacheco, Pardo, Penedo, Pereira, Pinto, Prado, Rocamora, Salvador, Sarabia, Sasso, Sousa, Suasso, Toledano, Tarragona, Valencia, Zapatero, Zaporta, and Zebede.

In contrast to Ashkenazic Jews, who do not name newborn children after living relatives, Sephardic Jews often name their children after the children's grandparents, even if they are still alive. The first son and daughter are traditionally named after the paternal grandparents, and then the maternal parent's names are next up in line for the remaining children. After that, additional children's names are "free", so-to-speak, meaning that one can choose whatever name, without anymore "naming obligations." The only instance in which Sephardic Jews will not name after their own parents when one of the spouses shares a common first name with a mother/father-in-law (since Jews will not name their children after themselves.) There are times though when the "free" names are used to honor the memory of a deceased relative who died young or childless.


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 (clean bloodline) 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 Rome there were Castilian, Mallorcan, Portuguese, Sicilian, Sevillian and Catalan congregations, prior to the merger of all these congregations (and Rome's Ashkenazic and Roman congregations) in 1910. 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 community 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 community in Belmonte goes back to the 12th Century and they were only discovered in the 20th Century. Their rich Sephardic tradition of Crypto-Judaism is unique. Only recently did they contact other Jews and part of them now profess Orthodox Judaism, although many 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 is to be distinguished by the "Nusach Sepharad" used by Chassidic Jews.

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:

* Beta-Thalassemia
* Familial Mediterranean fever
* G6PD deficiency
* Glycogen Storage Disorder, Type III

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi

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