Sephardic Jews
Jewish diaspora of Spain and Portugal
Summary
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula and their descendants. The term "Sephardic" comes from Sepharad, the Hebrew word for Iberia. These communities flourished for centuries in Iberia until they were expelled in the late 15th century. Over time, Sephardic has also come to refer more broadly to the diverse Jewish peoples, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, who adopted Sephardic religious customs and legal traditions. In some cases, Ashkenazi Jews who settled in Sephardic communities and adopted Sephardic liturgy are also included under this term. Today, Sephardic Jews form a major component of the global Jewish population, with the largest Sephardic-Jewish population now living in Israel.
Originally created by RK
11/23/2002, 2:00:59 PM
Modified
6/1/2026, 2:02:45 AM
Recent revisions
Move 4 urls. [[User:GreenC/WaybackMedic_2.5|Wayback Medic 2.5]] per [[WP:URLREQ#haaretz.com]]
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/* Eastern Sephardim */ Replace unsourced classification and generalisation with sourced scholarly summary on Sephardi/Mizrahi historical distinction, adding academic references (Lewis, Cohen, Stillman).
([[c:GR|GR]]) [[c:COM:FR|File renamed]]: [[File:Parochet (Torah Ark Curtain) – Portuguese Sephardic – c. 1760–1770 – Silk and metallic embroidery – Beatriz de Luna Art Collection.jpg]] → [[File:Dutch-Portuguese Sephardic Torah Ark Curtain (Parochet), c. 1760–1770 – Silk velvet and metallic embroidery – Beatriz de Luna Art Collection.jpg]] [[c:COM:FR#FR1|Criterion 1]] (original uploader’s request) · Refining title for historical and curatorial precision
([[c:GR|GR]]) [[c:COM:FR|File renamed]]: [[File:Parochet – Portuguese Sephardic – c. 1760–1770 – Silk and embroidery – Beatriz de Luna Art Collection.jpg]] → [[File:Parochet (Torah Ark Curtain) – Portuguese Sephardic – c. 1760–1770 – Silk and metallic embroidery – Beatriz de Luna Art Collection.jpg]] [[c:COM:FR#FR1|Criterion 1]] (original uploader’s request) · Improving file name for clarity and searchability
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Hyphenated “Sephardic-Jewish” added, for clarity.
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Added ‘Andalusians’ to ‘related ethnic groups.’ Andalusians of southern Spain and northern Morocco are genetically-, culturally-, and historically-related to Sephardic Jewish peoples (particularly those whom the Catholic monarchs expelled from Granada, Sevilla, and Cordoba, who then settled in waves in the Maghreb’s coastal cities of Tétouan, Tangier, Oran, Tunis, and Djerba, as well as Fez, Rabat/Salé, Meknes, and Essaouira). Sephardic Jewish refugees, alongside the Moriscos, built Tetouan.
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