SephardiJews, also known as Sephardic Jews or Sephardim, and seldomly as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula. The term, which is derived from the Hebrew Sepharad, can also refer to the Mizrahi Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, who were also heavily influenced by Sephardic law and customs. Many Iberian Jewish exiled families also later sought refuge in those Mizrahi Jewish communities, resulting in ethnic and cultural integration with those communities over the span of many centuries.
Shlomo Ben-Ami is a former Israeli diplomat, politician, and historian.
Avraham Gabriel Yehoshua was an Israeli novelist, essayist, and playwright. The New York Times called him the "Israeli Faulkner". Underlying themes in Yehoshua's work are Jewish identity, the tense relations with non-Jews, the conflict between the older and younger generations, and the clash between religion and politics.
In Judaism, Nusach (Hebrew: נוסח, romanized: nusaḥ, Modern Hebrew pronunciation nusakh, plural refers to the exact text of a prayer service; sometimes the English word "rite" is used to refer to the same thing. Nusakh means "formulate" or "wording".
Abulafia or Abolafia is a Sephardi Jewish surname whose etymological origin is in the Arabic language. The family name, like many other Hispanic-origin Sephardic Jewish surnames, originated in Spain among Spanish Jews (Sephardim), during the time when it was ruled as Al-Andalus by Arabic-speaking Moors.
Samuel Toledano was a Spanish Jewish community leader and lawyer. As a descendant of an old Jewish family from medieval Toledo, Samuel (Sam) Toledano was a secretary-general and president of Spain's Jewish federation of Israelite communities, later known as the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) from 1982–1994. For 36 years, he was one of the most prominent Jewish leaders in Spain.
Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi was an Israeli politician, minister and the fifth Speaker of the Knesset.
The history of the Jews of Thessaloniki reaches back two thousand years. The city of Thessaloniki housed a major Jewish community, mostly Eastern Sephardim, until the middle of the Second World War. Sephardic Jews immigrated to the city following the expulsion of Jews from Spain by Catholic rulers under the Alhambra Decree of 1492. It is the only known example of a city of this size in the Jewish diaspora that retained a Jewish majority for centuries. This community influenced the Sephardic world both culturally and economically, and the city was nicknamed la madre de Israel.
Amazonian Jews are the Jews of the Amazon basin, mainly descendants of Moroccan Jews who migrated to northern Brazil and Peru in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The migrants were attracted to the growing trade in the Amazon region, especially during the rubber boom, as well as to the newly established religious tolerance. They settled in localities along the Amazon River, such as Belém, Cametá, Santarém, Óbidos, Parintins, Itacoatiara and Manaus in Brazil, some venturing as far as Iquitos in Peru.
Azoulay, sometimes spelled Azoulai, Azulai or Azulay, etc. is a Sephardi Jewish surname, common among Jews of Moroccan descent. It is assumed that the family name Azulai is an acronym of the biblical restriction on whom a Kohen may marry: אשה זנה וחללה לא יקחו and, thus, indicating priestly descent. The Hebrew phrase ishah zonah ve'challelah lo yikachu means "a foreign [non-Israelite woman] or divorced [Israelite woman] shall not he [the Kohen] take".
Rabbi Ya'akov Moshe Toledano was an Israeli rabbi who served as Minister of Religions for two brief periods between 1958 and 1960. He also served as chief rabbi of Cairo, Alexandria and Tel Aviv.
Following are timelines of the history of Ottoman Syria, taken as the parts of Ottoman Syria provinces under Ottoman rule.
The migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel has been made all over the centuries. Moroccan Jews in Israel have been the founders of many pioneer neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Tiberias and others.
Avraham Al-Naddaf (1866–1940), the son of Ḥayim b. Salem Al-Naddaf, was a Yemenite rabbi and scholar who immigrated to Ottoman Palestine in 1891, eventually becoming one of the members of the Yemenite rabbinical court (Beit-Din) established in Jerusalem in 1908, and active in public affairs. His maternal grandfather was Rabbi Yiḥya Badiḥi (1803–1887), the renowned sage and author of the Questions & Responsa, Ḥen Ṭov, and a commentary on the laws of ritual slaughter of livestock, Leḥem Todah, who served as the head of Sanaa's largest seat of learning (yeshiva), held in the synagogue, Bayt Saleḥ, before he was forced to flee from Sana'a in 1846 on account of the tyrant, Abū-Zayid b. Ḥasan al-Miṣrī, who persecuted the Jews under the Imam Al-Mutawakkil Muhammad.
Yitzhak Gormezano Goren is an Egyptian-born Israeli writer.
Rabbi Yehuda Benasouli was a Moroccan-born Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Benasouli served as the Chief Rabbi of Madrid from 1978 until 1997.
