The Origins of Sephardic Jews
The exact origins of Sephardic Jewish culture is not clear, but the first substantial evidence of their presence on the Iberian Peninsula came via references to Jewish people in several edicts from The Council of Elvira, which convened in the early fourth century[3]. These edicts concerned proper Christian behavior toward the Jews of Hispania and prohibited things like marriages between Christians and Jews, the blessing of Christian crops by Jewish rabbis, and the sharing of meals by Christians and Jews[4]. While these edicts were harsh, in comparison to the hardships Jews faced elsewhere, life for the early Jews in the Iberian Peninsula was relatively tolerable. Due to the weakness of the Roman Empire in its later years, Germanic tribes such as the Visigoths had more or less disrupted the political systems of the Roman empire, and for several centuries the Sephardic Jews enjoyed a sense of peace that their brethren in the Eastern Roman empire did not experience[5]. This all changed in 506 A.D. when the Visigoth king adopted the laws of the ousted Romans, and the lives of the Sephardic Jews became just as intolerable as those in the Eastern Roman Empire. The Sephardic Jews endured many hardships under these new rules over the next two hundred years until Muslim armies invaded Spain in 711 and made most of the country into an Arabic-speaking territory known as Al-Andalus[6].
Over the next four centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula, the Sephardic Jews entered a Golden Age where they were not persecuted, and flourished as middlemen and traders between Christians and Muslims in Europe[7]. After Spain was reconquered by the Christians, conditions for the Sephardic Jews there remained tolerable until decrees by the kings of Portugal and Spain in the 1490s that expelled all Jews from their respective countries. In Spain, the Sephardic Jews living there could either leave or face execution, while in Portugal they were forced to convert. It is estimated that around 300,000 Jews were forced to convert, fled, or were killed as a result of these decrees, and because of this, there are now very few Sephardic Jews left on the Iberian Peninsula[8]. After fleeing the peninsula, Sephardic Jews spread throughout North Africa and were welcomed in the Ottoman Empire, but most today reside in Israel, France, and the United States.
Over the thousand years the Sephardic Jews lived on the Iberian Peninsula, they developed a distinct culture with their own language, food, and customs that continues to flourish to this day. The traditional language of Sephardim is Judeo-Spanish, which is also referred to as Judezmo or Ladino[9]. This language is a Romance language derived primarily from Old Castilian, with additional influences from Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and French. This language is still sparsely spoken in Israel, and while estimates vary widely, it is believed to still have over sixty thousand active speakers[10]. The cuisine of the Sephardic Jews includes dishes such as adafina, a Shabbat meal from medieval Spain that is made up of a meat, greens, and chickpea stew, as well as mofletta, a Moroccan Jewish crepe traditionally prepared during the celebration of the Mimouna, at the end of the Passover holiday[11]. Finally, the traditions of worship for the Sephardic Jews vary in many minor ways such as in the way they sing their worship songs, their wedding ceremonies, and slight variations in their religious law[12]
[1] Thomas Devlin, “What Is Ladino, and Where Is It Spoken?,” Babbel Magazine, accessed February 6, 2023, https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/what-is-ladino.
[2] “Sephardi,” Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.), accessed February 6, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sephardi.
[3] “Council of Elvira,” Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.), accessed February 6, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/event/Council-of-Elvira.
[4] “Council of Elvira,” Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.), accessed February 6, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/event/Council-of-Elvira.
[5] Jane Gerber et al., “‘Ornament of the World’ and the Jews of Spain,” The National Endowment for the Humanities, December 17, 2019, https://www.neh.gov/article/ornament-world-and-jews-spain.
[6] Jane Gerber et al., “‘Ornament of the World’ and the Jews of Spain,” The National Endowment for the Humanities, December 17, 2019, https://www.neh.gov/article/ornament-world-and-jews-spain.
[7] Jane Gerber et al., “‘Ornament of the World’ and the Jews of Spain,” The National Endowment for the Humanities, December 17, 2019, https://www.neh.gov/article/ornament-world-and-jews-spain.
[8] Henry Abramson, “The Origins of Sephardic Jewry”
[9] Thomas Devlin, “What Is Ladino, and Where Is It Spoken?,” Babbel Magazine, accessed February 6, 2023, https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/what-is-ladino.
[10] Thomas Devlin, “What Is Ladino, and Where Is It Spoken?,” Babbel Magazine, accessed February 6, 2023, https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/what-is-ladino.
[11] “5 Surprising Differences between Ashkenazi & Sephardic Jews ,” YouTube (Unpacked, November 16, 2022), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-TjGJ9bgKQ.
[12] “5 Surprising Differences between Ashkenazi & Sephardic Jews ,” YouTube (Unpacked, November 16, 2022), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-TjGJ9bgKQ.