After many centuries of living in relative peace in Spain, the Sephardi Jews were forced to leave their homes as a result of the new policies of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon who sought to unify Spain as a Catholic empire while alienating other minorities present in the region. With the decree of expulsion of 1492, the Sephardi Jews were forced to leave to other territories where they began to rebuild their lives, a process that was affected by regional policies, which at certain times eased this process while at other times greatly affected the Sephardi world. Furthermore, these migrations and dislocations lead to a variety of changes in the Sephardi identity and culture so as to be able to cope with other adverse historical circumstances of the time period.
The Portuguese and Spanish Judaizers who escaped the Inquisition moved to different regions of the world. One group that deserves particular attention is the crypto Jews who retreated in the mountain regions of northern Portugal or northern New Spain. They maintained crypto-Jewish beliefs and practices in isolation, and they were unaware of Jews living in other regions. They were characterized by an ambivalent and reluctant identification with Judaism. One example of such group is the secret Jews of Belmonte. With the beginning of 20th century, the accepted view was that crypto-Judaism had disappeared and as such the Inquisition was abolished in 1821. However, a Polish Jewish mining engineer working in the mountain region of Belmonte, Samuel Schwarz, discovered this group in 1917. He found out they were unaware of other Jews and they identified Judaism with their specific practices. This group was able to survive in their remote geographic location, in a mountain region. They were still fearful of the Inquisition and persecutions, and they lived as Portuguese crypto-Jews who were outwardly Catholic in a Catholic society.
Another group that reflects the impact of practicing Judaism in great secrecy is reflected in the study of the secret Jews in New Mexico. According to recent studies, scholars trace a historical development among this population that moved to Latin America in the 16 and 17th century. This group seems to be descendant from the Spanish Judaizers, who left the Iberian Peninsula for Latin America. There are four types of Crypto-Jewish identity that have been observed in New Mexico. There are people who identify as Jewish and can trace their lineage to the Iberian Peninsula, people whose identification with Judaism is more ambiguous as they have no knowledge of their origins except for certain distinct practices, people who are Catholics or Protestants but follow some Jewish practices, and those who consider themselves to be Jewish, without any documented tradition of genealogy and without practicing Judaism.
One group of Sephardi Jews in Contemporary Europe that sheds light on the effects of the process of migration is the Sephardi Jews in France. France has the Largest Sephardi community outside of Israel, as there are 600,000 Jews in France from which 375,000 live in Paris. They are mostly Sephardim of North African descent. This is a surprising phenomenon dating since before the Holocaust, when French Jewry was mainly Ashkenazi. As a result of the process of French decolonization, there was a large influx of North African Jews from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco to France. About 300,000 Jews immigrated to France in the 1950s and 1960s making this the largest Jewish immigration in French history. While the Ashkenazi community living here before the arrival of the Sephardim kept a low profile, the Sephardim expressed publically their Jewish heritage and did not embrace assimilation, being outwardly and outspokenly Jewish. They formed new communities relevant to their Jewish practices, and they sought widespread political support for Zionism and State of Israel even in a milieu that sought to emphasize French citizenship and presented challenges to another cultural heritage.
Though differences existed between the interaction of Ashkenazi and Sephardim, it is noteworthy to remark that the Sephardi Jewish population moving to Israel was presented with similar challenges from other segments of the Sephardim. Between 1948 and 1951, about 400,000 Jews from Middle East, North Africa, and Balkans immigrated to Israel. There was discrimination from their Ashkenazi brethren, who sought to erase the Arab customs and traditions of the Jews coming from the Arab world. Their expectations for the Israeli society was to create a melting pot in which the cultural particularities acquired in Diaspora would not be maintained. In the 1960’s there was a wider economic gap between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, and the Oriental Jews sought to fight against discrimination, through public demonstrations and increased involvement in politics.
From the exploration of these regions and their specific trends, it is evident that migrations whether forced or voluntary presented the Sephardi world with challenging circumstances that required it to reestablish its structural communal hierarchy in such a way that it would continue to revitalize its cultural heritage. However, due to forced translations and the need to practice Judaism in secret, at times due to the surrounding societies that sought to quench the ability of the Sephardi community to reestablish itself, issues of identifying with one’s own cultural heritage and Jewish identity arose. The phenomena of crypto Judaism and the trends of identity bring testimony of the impact of such deterring factors. However, the continuation of the Jewish cultural heritage made possible the emergence of new communities that flourished in other regions in Diaspora while the creation of the state of Israel helped bring together at least some of the Jews living in the Diaspora back to their homeland
Sources: College Course in Sephardi Jewish History.
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