Sephardi Jews, also known as Sephardic Jews, Hispanic Jews or Sephardim are a Jewish ethnic division originating from traditionally established communities in the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) and expelled from the region in the late 15th century. They evolved a distinctive diasporic identity that they carried with them to North Africa, Anatolia, the Levant, South-eastern and Southern Europe, as well as the Americas, and all other places of their exiled settlement, either alongside preexisting co-religionists, or alone as the first Jews in new frontiers. Their millennial residence as an open and organised Jewish community in Iberia began to decline with the Reconquista and was brought to an end starting with the Alhambra Decree by Spain's Catholic Monarchs in 1492, and then by the edict of expulsion of Jews and Muslims by Portuguese king Manuel I in 1496, which resulted in a combination of internal and external migrations, mass conversions and executions.In 2015 both Spain and Portugal passed laws which allowed Sephardim who could prove their origins in those countries to apply for citizenship. More broadly, the term Sephardim has today also come sometimes to refer to traditionally Eastern Jewish communities of West Asia and beyond who, although not having genealogical roots in the Jewish communities of Iberia, have adopted a Sephardic style of liturgy and Sephardic law and customs imparted to them by the Iberian Jewish exiles over the course of the last few centuries. This article deals with Sephardim within the narrower ethnic definition. Historically, the vernacular languages of Sephardim and their descendants have been variants of either Spanish or Portuguese, though other tongues had been adopted and adapted throughout their history. The historical forms of Spanish that differing Sephardic communities spoke communally was determined by the date of their departure from Iberia, and their condition of departure as Jews or New Christians. Judaeo-Spanish, sometimes called Ladino Oriental (Eastern Ladino), is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish, incorporating elements from all the old Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula, Hebrew and Aramaic, and was spoken by what became the Eastern Sephardim, who settled in the Eastern Mediterranean, taken with them in the 15th century after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. This dialect was further influenced by Ottoman Turkish, Levantine Arabic, Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian vocabulary in the differing lands of their exile. Haketia (also known as Tetouani in Algeria), an Arabic-influenced Judaeo-Spanish variety also derived from Old Spanish, with numerous Hebrew and Aramaic terms was spoken by North African Sephardim, taken with them in the 15th century after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. The main feature of this dialect is the heavy influence of the Jebli Arabic dialect of northern Morocco. Early Modern Spanish and Early Modern Portuguese, including in a mixture of the two was traditionally spoken or used liturgically by the ex-converso Western Sephardim, taken with them during their later migration out of Iberia between the 16th and 18th centuries as conversos, after which they reverted to Judaism. Modern Spanish and Modern Portuguese varieties, traditionally spoken by the Sephardic Bnei Anusim of Iberia and Ibero-America, including some recent returnees to Judaism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In this latter case, these varieties have incorporated loanwords from the indigenous languages of the Americas introduced following the Spanish conquest.
Los sefardíes o sefarditas, también conocidos como sefaradíes o sefaraditas (en hebreo, ספרדים, Sefaraddim, literalmente ‘los judíos de Sefarad’), son los judíos que vivieron en la Corona de Castilla y la Corona de Aragón hasta su expulsión en 1492 por los Reyes Católicos y también sus descendientes, quienes, más allá de residir en territorio ibérico o en otros puntos geográficos del planeta, permanecen ligados a la cultura hispánica. En 1492 muchos sefardíes se instalaron en países como Francia y el Imperio Otomano. En la actualidad la comunidad sefardí alcanza los dos millones de integrantes, la mayor parte residente en Israel, Francia, Estados Unidos, Argentina y Canadá. También hay comunidades en Turquía, Brasil, México, Chile, Colombia, Marruecos, Perú, Túnez, Países Bajos e Italia. Durante el siglo XIX, el término «sefardí» se empleaba además para designar a todo judío que no era de origen asquenazí (judíos de origen alemán, centroeuropeo o ruso). En esta clasificación se incluía también a judíos de origen árabe, de Persia, Armenia, Georgia, Yemen e incluso India, quienes aparentemente no guardaban ningún vínculo con la cultura ibérica que distingue a los sefardíes. La razón por la cual se utilizaba ese término indistintamente se debía principalmente a similitudes en el rito religioso y a la pronunciación del hebreo que los sefardíes comparten con las poblaciones judías de los países mencionados (y que son claramente distintas a los ritos y pronunciaciones de los judíos asquenazíes). No obstante, a partir de la fundación del Estado de Israel, se consideró ya un tercer grupo dentro de la población judía, los mizrahim (del hebreo מזרח 'Oriente'), para garantizar que el término «sefardí» aluda de manera exclusiva al grupo humano antiguamente vinculado con la península ibérica.[cita requerida] Los judíos desarrollaron prósperas comunidades en la mayor parte de las ciudades de la Corona de Castilla. Destacan las comunidades de las ciudades de Ávila, Burgos, Córdoba, Granada, Jaén, León, Málaga, Segovia, Sevilla, Soria, Toledo, Tudela, Vitoria y Calahorra. En la Corona de Aragón, las comunidades (o Calls) de Zaragoza, Gerona, Barcelona, Tarragona, Valencia y Palma se encuentran entre las más prominentes. Algunas poblaciones, como Lucena, Hervás, Ribadavia, Ocaña y Guadalajara, estaban habitadas principalmente por judíos. De hecho, Lucena estuvo habitada exclusivamente por judíos durante siglos en la Edad Media. En el Reino de Portugal, de donde son originarias muchas ilustres familias sefardíes, se desarrollaron comunidades activas en las ciudades de Lisboa, Évora, Beja y en la región de Trás-os-Montes.