Spain Grants Citizenship to 4,302 Sephardic Jews
Image by kurt hoffman
Spain granted citizenship to some 4,302 people who identified themselves as descendants of Sephardic Jews.
The citizenships were approved on Friday, the Associated Press reported, following the Spanish parliament’s adoption earlier this year of a law granting citizenship to the descendants of Jews who fled or were expelled from Spain ahead of and during the Spanish Inquisition.
A day before the approval, a decree making the law official was approved. The decree allowed applicants to maintain dual citizenship with another country.
Under the law approved in June, applicants need not travel to Spain, as proposed in previous amendments that did not pass, but must hire a Spanish notary and pass tests on the Spanish language and history.
Portugal passed and implemented a similar law with fewer stipulations last year. The first approved candidate is expected to be announced in the coming days.
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, or FCJE, which vets applications in Spain under the law in its capacity as consultant and partner of the government on matters concerning the so-called Jewish law of return to Spain, said the majority of applicants were citizens of Venezuela, Morocco and Turkey.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
