Sephardi Jews, also known as Sephardic Jews, Sephardim, or Hispanic Jews by modern scholars, are a Jewish ethnic division originating from traditionally established communities in the Iberian Peninsula. The term "Sephardim" also sometimes refers to Mizrahi Jews of Western Asia and North Africa. Although most of this latter group do not have ancestry from the Jewish communities of Iberia, the majority of them were influenced by the Sephardic style of liturgy and Sephardic law and customs from the influence of the Iberian Jewish exiles over the course of the last few centuries. This article deals with Sephardim within the narrower ethnic definition.
Sephardic law and customs are the practice of Judaism by the Sephardim, the descendants of the historic Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula. Some definitions of "Sephardic" inaccurately include Mizrahi Jews, many of whom follow the same traditions of worship but have different ethno-cultural traditions. Sephardi Rite is not a denomination or movement like Orthodox, Reform, and other Ashkenazi Rite worship traditions. Sephardim thus comprise a community with distinct cultural, juridical and philosophical traditions.
Shas is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily represents the interests of Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredi Jews. The party works to end prejudice and discrimination against the Sephardic and Mizrahi community, and highlights economic issues and social justice.
Boaz Yakin is an Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, and producer based in New York City. He has written screenplays to films like The Rookie, Fresh, A Price Above Rubies, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Now You See Me, and has directed the 2000 sports drama Remember the Titans and the 2012 Jason Statham action film Safe. As a producer he has collaborated frequently with filmmaker Eli Roth and served as executive producer for the first two entries in the Hostel franchise.
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim (מִזְרָחִים), also sometimes referred to as Mizrachi (מִזְרָחִי), Edot HaMizrach or Oriental Jews, are the descendants of the local Jewish communities that had existed in Western Asia and North Africa from Biblical times into the modern era.
Bevis Marks Synagogue, officially Qahal Kadosh Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, is the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom in continuous use. It is located off Bevis Marks, Aldgate, in the City of London.
The B'nai Yosef Synagogue, formerly Magen David Congregation of Ocean Parkway, is an Orthodox Sephardi synagogue at the 1616 Ocean Parkway and Avenue P in Brooklyn, New York. It is considered "America's busiest synagogue for Middle and Near Eastern Jews", with over 30 prayer services daily.
Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa is a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California that is dedicated to the preservation of Mizrahi and Sephardi culture and history, and seeks to educate the public and advocate for Jewish refugees from the Middle East.
Sephardic Jewish cuisine is an assortment of cooking traditions that developed among the Sephardi Jews—the Jews of Spain and Portugal.
Musta'arabi Jews are the ancient Arabic-speaking Jews, largely Mizrahi Jews and Maghrebi Jews, who lived in the Middle East and North Africa prior to the arrival and integration of Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jews of the Iberian Peninsula following their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Following their expulsion, Sephardi Jewish exiles moved into the Middle East and North Africa, and settled among the Musta'arabi.
The American Sephardi Federation, a founding member of the Center for Jewish History, is a non-profit Jewish organization that strengthens and organizes the religious and cultural activities of Sephardic Jews, preserves Sephardic heritage, tradition and culture in the United States, and assists in the publication of books and literature dealing with the Sephardic culture and tradition. The federation also works to further awareness of the former existence of large Jewish communities in the Muslim and Arab world.
Adio Kerida: Goodbye my Dear Love is a 2002 documentary by American anthropologist Ruth Behar that follows her trip to Cuba, which her family left when she was four. She searches for memories from her past and investigates the dwindling Sephardic Jewish community that remains, estimated at less than 800 in 2011.
Trees Cry for Rain: A Sephardic Journey is a short documentary film by American documentary filmmaker Bonnie Burt that follows "America's Internet Champion of Ladino" Rachel Amado Bortnick, as she explores her Jewish-Turkish heritage and the vanishing world of Sephardic culture and the Ladino language. The film was officially released in 1989, but drew public attention in 1992 with screenings at a number of Jewish film festivals worldwide, including the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and the Madrid "Festival de Cine Judio" which was dubbed "the biggest Jewish cultural event held in Spain in 500 years". This was followed by a public screening at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, and airing on The Jewish Channel.
Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, also called The Sephardic Temple, is a large, urban Sephardi Jewish synagogue located in Westwood, Los Angeles, California at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Warner Avenue. Established on February 1, 1920 as the "Sephardic Community of Los Angeles," it exists today as the merger of three major Sephardic organizations with approximately 600 member families.
Joseph Dweck is the senior rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community of the United Kingdom.
David Serero is a Moroccan-French baritone opera singer, actor, producer, stage director, philanthropist and Ambassador of the Arts. He has played more than 1,500 concerts worldwide, and lead roles in opera, theater and musicals such as Cyrano (Cyrano de Bergerac), Shylock, Othello (Othello), Nabucco (Nabucco), Don Quixote, Richard III, Napoleon Bonaparte, Escamillo (Carmen), Enrico, Amonasro (Aida), the title roles of Don Giovanni and Rigoletto and starred in more than 100 films and TV series. He has toured in America, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Russia. In 2017, David Serero was honored in Marquis Who's Who for outstanding achievement in the entertainment world and for his contribution for the betterment of contemporary society. He is a member of the Recording Academy (Grammys) and the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences (Emmys), for which he is both a voting member. In 2019, he is named one of the top most influential Moroccans by airline Royal Air Maroc, and received the 2019 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, he receives the Award for Diversity by the Unesco. He wins the 2020 BroadwayWorld Awards for Best Performer of the decade, Best Producer of a Musical of the decade, Best Producer of a Play of the decade. The Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, awards him with the Certificate of Recognition for his contributions to the City of New York.
Sephardic Bnei Anusim is a modern term which is used to define the contemporary Christian descendants of an estimated quarter of a million 15th-century Sephardi Jews who were coerced or forced to convert to Catholicism during the 14th and 15th century in Spain and Portugal. The vast majority of conversos remained in Spain and Portugal, and their descendants, who number in the millions, live in both of these countries. The small minority of conversos who did emigrate normally chose to emigrate to destinations where Sephardic communities already existed, particularly to the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, but also to more tolerant cities in Europe, where many of them immediately reverted to Judaism. Although a few of them traveled to Latin America with colonial expeditions, doing so was particularly difficult, since only those Spaniards who could certify that they had no recent Muslim or Jewish ancestry were allowed to travel to the New World. But the constant flow of Spanish emigration to Latin America until well into the 20th century resulted in many Latin Americans having Converso ancestry, in the same way that many modern Spaniards do.
North African Sephardim are a distinct sub-group of Sephardi Jews, who descend from exiled Iberian Jewish families of the late 15th century and North African Maghrebi Jewish communities.
The Synagogue of Deal is a Sephardi Orthodox synagogue on Norwood Avenue in Deal, New Jersey, United States. Established in 1973 by the local Syrian Jewish community, it was the first synagogue to be built in Deal.
Kamal Hachkar, is a Franco-Moroccan filmmaker, and academic. Kamal is best known as the director of the critically acclaim controversial documentary Tinghir-Jerusalem: The Echoes of the mellah.
