Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Spanish Cabinet Approves New Law to Allow Sephardic Jews to Claim Citizenship

After 522 years, Spain is inviting the Jews back — for real this time.

Spain’s government announced in November 2012 a new law to give fast-track citizenship to Sephardic Jews. The Forward published an essay in January 2014 reporting that the government had yet to follow through on the promise.

Now, Spain’s council of ministers has approved the law, which will allow Sephardic Jews to gain Spanish citizenship while keeping their citizenship in their country of origin. Sephardic Jews have a window of two years to apply for citizenship after the passage of the law.

The law still must be debated and passed by the Spanish parliament.

Spain’s Jewish federation, the Federación de Comunidades Judías de España, praised the new law. “The minister of Justice, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, kept his word, and this honors him,” the federation’s statement read. “Spain, once again, not only did not disappoint, but made a historical step for the Sephardic Jews…”

Under the newly proposed law, Sephardic Jews can prove their status as Sephardim by obtaining a certificate from the Federacíon attesting to the fact that they belong to the Sephardic community.

The law also allows for certification as Sephardic by a “competent rabbinical authority” who is “legally recognized” in their country of origin. It’s not clear from the language of the bill what it would mean for a rabbi to be “legally recognized,” particularly in countries like the United States that don’t have official state-recognized rabbinic authorities.

People of Sephardic heritage who are not Jewish can also apply under the law, which explicitly states that Sephardim can apply regardless of their religion and beliefs.

The law states that the government will take into account the applicant’s surnames, their languages, and “other indicators that demonstrate their belonging to that cultural community.” Applicants must also prove their special connection with the culture and customs of Spain.

The government’s Dirección General de los Registros y del Notariado will be required to corroborate the applicants’ claims, including the veracity of the rabbinical authority and Sephardic community they cite in their application.

In a lengthy preamble, the law outlines the history of Spanish-Jewish relations. “In truth, the Jewish presence in Iberian lands was firm and ancient, palpable even in the vestiges of words and of stone,” the law reads.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.