Sephardic Questions And Answers
The Biblical Promise of Return and Restoration: Obadiah 1:19-20
Then God’s people will regain southern Judah from Edom; they will take back the mountains of Edom, They will take back the western hills from the Philistines.
They will regain the lands of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will take over Gilead.
People from Israel who once were forced to leave their homes will take the land of the Cananites, all the way to Zarephath,
People from Judah who once were forced to leave Jerusalem and live in Sepharad
Will take back the cities of southern Judah.(personal Emphasis)
What is Sephardic?
Who are the Sephardim?
When did the Sephardic Jews leave Spain?
What is “Marrano”?
What is the Negev?
When was the Spanish Inquisition extablished?
What is Anousim?
What are some of the indications of a Spanish descent person with a sephardic name really being Jewish?
There are now more than 6,000 names that have been documented from several sources—Lists of Inquisition victims in Mexico, Lists of people who came and founded not only areas in Mexico, such as Nuevo Leon (Monterrey), Lists of Soldiers who helped found south Texas and New Mexico with Juan Perez Narizhonda De Onate around 1597 and others .
(Much information can be found through other websites like, Sephardim.org).
Where can I find more information?
What are the Indications that I may have a Sephardic background?
There is much history that families have hidden, so you may start by talking to your relatives in relation to their known past history. You will have to do much research as to your own family background (This is sometimes difficult, as family members were usually told to keep this a “secret”).
Some of these families came from such areas as Nuevo Reyno de Leon, northeastern Mexico(such as Guadarajara, Zacatecas, etc. Many of these hidden Sephardim migrated to south and central Texas and parts of New Mexico. Here are some other historical and common indications, among others:
- The use of the Ladino language(or Ledezmo, not necessarily “correct Spanish” that was an archaic type Spanish spoken by the Sephardim, ie: mercar for comprar, ueno for bueno, semos for somos, parientes for padres, ansina for asina, etc.
- The Sephardic custom of giving biblical names to the children(ie, Natanael, Raquel, Josue, etc. Dietary practices such as, throwing an egg away if it had a spot of blood on it, avoiding blood in meat, testing the special knives on the edge of a fingernail or hair, etc.—many more.
- Avoiding churches with idols or icons, cleaning the house and bathing for the Sabbath, circumcising their male infant on the eighth day, Jewish objects in the home, etc.
- Other birth and practices, like throwing a silver a coin in a new baby’s bath water, the marrying of “our own kind”, etc.
- Female members covered their head with a scarf, purifying of the house after a death, cover mirrors in the house of the deceased, sweeping the dirt to the middle of the floor instead of out the door, etc.
These practices and many more have been kept secret for at least four hundred years. These traditions and others were continued, yet the meaning of many of the old customs was lost.
What is Aliyah?
Realm of Your Glory
Gracia Serrano Fenn Tours the Doña Gracia Hotel in Tiberias, Israel…
Click on Book to Order Now! Anousim Awake! is the personal account of the revealed family Jewish identity of Gracia Serrano Fenn, a hidden Jewess who found out a “family secret” in 1999 in Israel. It is the Serrano family story of being raised with “no family past”,...
MADRID (JTA) — The conferring of Spanish citizenship to Sephardic Jews will be automatic and independent of the government’s discretion, the country’s justice minister told a delegation of American Jews. Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon made the pledge during a...