Tekiah Magazine

By Benjamin Daniel, October 2025

Credit: Wall Street Journal

The Spanish Empire, which began in 1492 with the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the new world, set out to assert massive influence on the world stage and brought Catholicism as its driving force along with its colonial reign. In this push to spread Christendom and the beliefs of a uniting force amongst all tongues that uttered the Spanish language, Spain promoted Christendom to unite the Spanish-speaking world, and heavily enforced the exclusion of marginalized groups that opposed Catholic orthodoxy.

With the guidance of Tomas de Torquemada and other inquisition visionaries, the Jews became one of the most heavily targeted groups of hate and hopeful exclusion along with the Moors who had been the opposition force of the Christian led Reconquista. In 1492, as Columbus set sail for the future Latin American landmass, the Spanish Royalty issued the Decree of Expulsion, which declared all Jews to either flee Iberia under penalty of death or convert to Catholicism.

Judaism as a whole, being a heavily traditional and ethnic religion, was not conducive to the demands of abandonment by the newly united Iberian kingdoms. Many among the Jewish community saw themselves as a part of new Spain and converted or even became leaders in the Catholic community, continuing to pass the oral traditions of their forefathers in the light of christian scripture to their posterity and community. However the majority of the Iberian Jewish communities defended their faith and tradition to the last breath and fled the region for North Africa, Turkey, the Balkan states, and boarded the ships to new Latin America.

The word Sepharad (סְפָרַד) in Hebrew is the literal translation of the word “Iberia.” When the modern Jewish community as a whole, mainly in the United States, Israel, and Europe typically describe Sephardic peoples, they tend to associate the word “Sephardic” with essentially anyone who is not a white Jew, commonly referred to as Askhenazi. This has been a surge across many countries, especially recently in Israel and the United States, focusing on phenotypical and racial traits and creating a general stereotype of how Sephardic Jews are different from Ashkenazi Jews.

Those that are commonly misconstrued as Sephardic in the media and culture often more closely align with the Mizrachi identity, or those whose families originated from the Middle East. Spanish and Hispanic Jews specifically descending from the Iberian expulsion also bring with them an important piece of the classification for possible citizenship, Ladino. This language, also known as Judeo-Spanish is a mix of Semitic and old Spanish words, which has been communally spoken in Latin America and southeastern Europe since the expulsion and is undergoing cultural revival in the modern day.

“Sephardic” Jews were reclaimed in International politics for the first time in 2015 when the European Union began to identify Sephardic jews internationally as those who actually were forcefully displaced from Sepharad, or Iberia. This was decreed by the Spanish parliament as a reparations decree and dubbed a “right of return.” A potential foreign national wishing to claim Sephardic ancestry with hope of naturalization into Spain would need to prove descent via surname and connection to both the Sephardic and Spanish cultures, as the Spanish Government intended with this offer to revive the diversity of Spaniards.

If an individual were to check off all the boxes, they would be considered a “Sephard Tahor” in Hebrew terms, a descendant of those displaced from the Iberian peninsula to the east or Latin diaspora. With the obligation to complete a heavily accelerated residency period in Spain provided a claim has been filed the sephardic ancestry passport is entirely both right and a responsibility for potential applicants. Sephardis enjoy the right to live and work in Spain, as well as using the provided passport for Full EU-Schengin zone access and visa-free access to many countries that a US or Israeli passport does not have access to.

However, there is a catch: there is a requirement to still demonstrate knowledge in general Spanish culture. Along with documents for accelerated Spanish citizenship proving connection to the diaspora of Iberian Jewry as a “peninsular.” One must also pass several exams to demonstrate genuine interest in Spain. The CCSE or Constitutional Socio Cultural Exam is a written exam required to demonstrate cultural knowledge of Spanish culture and history, regardless of Jewish connection. In addition, the DELE Spanish language exam is required for all claims to nationality with a required passing level of A2 or above.

Initially in 2015 with the previous decree, no residency was required to obtain this valuable dual EU citizenship. Any person of Sephardic descent could apply for the passport free of obligation to live inside or visit Spanish borders. However, with more requests being submitted than initially expected, in 2019 the Royal Spanish Government ended this offer amid a massive immigration crisis arising from the Middle East and North Africa. At the same time, with Trump’s stricter border policies in the United States diverting immigrants away, Spain saw increased immigration from Latin America as it offered a similar reparation nationality which was another pathway to EU citizenship.

In the present moment, the Sephardic pathway to citizenship is still a massive benefit to Jews that have genuine interest in living in Spain. With the typical citizenship requirement of residency being 10 years decreased to 2 years or even significantly less depending on work visa status or other exceptions, it is still a decent decrease in required work to reclaim this nationality.

Portugal underwent a similar process of naturalization, which was commonly used to secure secondhand Spanish citizenship after a quicker citizenship process that saw more flexible residency requirements and was more lenient among applicants, as the pool of requests for Portuguese nationality was much smaller than for Spanish nationality since 2015. Portuguese nationality was also a method for Sephardic Jews to apply directly for Spanish nationality, as the two nations had an agreement to allow for reparations to all of the Iberian Peninsula.

However, as of June 2025, the Portuguese government followed the same process as Spain, but increased its restrictions, eliminating the previous vector for Sephardic Jews to have their own pathway to citizenship. With the decreased application cycle in Spain, Portugal received a much higher volume of applicants and its government pushed to retract the offer, but with more intense restrictions than in Spain.

As of now, Spain continues to offer the most accessible route to citizenship for Sephardic Jews seeking to reclaim Iberian heritage. However, with ongoing immigration debates across the EU, the policy is likely to continue evolving.