Neo-Western Sephardim

Neo-Western Sephardim refers to a small but growing population among the Sephardic Bnei Anusim in Iberia and Ibero-America who in the late 20th and early 21st centuries have recently begun returning to Judaism.

Descended from Sephardi Jews, some of these organized groups now operate as functional communities of public Judaizers. These communities consist of various groups categorised by Jewish religious status, which include:

• Those whose entire membership has received a blanket recognition (after careful examination) by rabbinical authorities as being officially Jewish without the need of reversion to Judaism,
• Those whose entire membership consists of persons who have officially reverted to Judaism according to Jewish religious law,
• Those whose membership consists of persons where only some have as yet formally reverted to Judaism, and the remainder are either presently in the process of formal reversion to Judaism, or prospective reverts to Judaism (i.e. Judaizing persons who have not yet begun the process of formal reversion to Judaism), and finally,
• Those whose membership consists of persons where no member has as yet formally reverted to, but are prospective reverts, to Judaism (i.e. Judaizing persons who have not yet begun the process of formal reversion to Judaism.

History

A nascent community, their history is still currently in evolution and is presently intertwined with the history of the Sephardic Bnei Anusim. For more information, please also see that article.

In the last 5 to 10 years, a growing number "of [Sephardic] Benei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and in Sefarad [Iberia] itself" as "organized groups," some of whom have formally reverted to Judaism.

Relation to other Sephardi communities

The term Sephardi means "Spanish" or "Hispanic", and is derived from Sepharad, a Biblical location. The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania, that is, the Iberian Peninsula. Sepharad still means "Spain" in modern Hebrew.

The relationship between Sephardi-descended communities is illustrated in the following diagram:

The common feature between Western Sephardim, Sephardic Bnei Anusim, and Neo-Western Sephardim is that all three are descended from conversos. "Western Sephardim" are descendents of ex-conversos from earlier centuries; "Sephardic Bnei Anusim" are the still nominally Christian descendants of conversos; and "Neo-Western Sephardim" are the increasing in number modern-day ex-conversos returning to Judaism from among the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population.

The distinguishing factor between "Western Sephardim" and the nascent "Neo-Western Sephardim" is the time frame of the reversions to Judaism, the location of the reversions, and the precarious religious and legal circumstances surrounding their reversions (including impediments and persecutions). Thus, the converso descendants who became the Western Sephardim had reverted to Judaism between the 16th and 18th centuries, they did so at a time before the abolition of the Inquisition in the 19th century, and this time frame necessitated their migration out of the Iberian cultural sphere. Conversely, the converso descendants who are today becoming the nascent Neo-Western Sephardim have been reverting to Judaism between the late 20th and early 21st centuries, they have been doing so at a time after the abolition of the Inquisition in the 19th century, and this time frame has not necessitated their migration out of the Iberian cultural sphere.

Neo-Western Sephardic communities

In Iberia, practicing Jews of modern returnee Sephardic origins were re-established in the 20th century and early 21st centuries.

One such community's history, the Jewish community of Oporto, was initially founded by a campaign of outreach to Oporto's crypto-Jews of Sephardic Bnei Anusim origins. As such, those among the Oporto community's members who are modern-day Portuguese returnees to Judaism are among the first, if not the first, community which may be regarded as being Neo-Western Sephardim. Although currently, the community is guided by the philosophy of Chabad Lubavitch and also counts among its members Jews of various other origins such as Poland, Egypt, the United States, India, Russia, Israel, Spain, and England, the Oporto community's members who descend from recent Portuguese returnees would constitute the delineating point between Western Sephardim and Neo-Westerm Sephardim, since they are clearly distinguishable from the returnees to Judaism of earlier centuries (who became the Western Sephardim) by the fact that the emergence of the returnee Jews of Oporto as open practicing Jew was a result of their return to Judaism occurring: 1) in the modern era, 2) after the abolition of the Inquisition, 3) within the Spanish/Portuguese world itself, and 4) from among the population of Sephardic Bnei Anusim.

The Oporto community's return to Judaism was led by the returnee to Judaism Captain Artur Carlos de Barros Basto (1887–1961), known also as the "apostle of the Marranos". In 1921, realizing that there were less than twenty Ashkenazi Jews living in Porto, and that recent returnees to Judaism like himself were not organized and had to travel to Lisbon for religious purposes whenever necessary, Barros Basto began to think about building a synagogue and took initiative in 1923 to officially register the Jewish Community of Porto and the Israelite Theological Center in the City Council of Porto.

More recent examples of Neo-Western Sephardic communities include the Belmonte Jews in Portugal, whose public reemergence as an open practicing Jewish community dates back to the 1970's after crypto-Jews were rediscovered in 1917 by a Polish Jewish mining engineer named Samuel Schwarz.

Even more recently the Xuetes of Spain also constitute the single largest community of recognised Neo-Western Sephardim after the entire community of Sephardic Bnei Anusim in the island of Majorca was extended a blanket recognition as official Jews in 2011 by Rabbinical authorities in Israel due to their particular historical circumstances on the island (as opposed to other Sephardic Bnei Anusim) which effectively resulted in a strict social isolation of the Xuetes imposed upon them by their non-Jewish-descended neighors up until modern times.

Beyond these mentioned communities, in the last five to ten years, a growing number "of [Sephardic] Benei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and in Sefarad [Iberia] itself" as "organized groups." Some members of these communities have formally reverted to Judaism, adding to the numbers of Neo-Western Sephardim.

Many recent Portuguese returnees to Judaism have chosen to join the Lisbon Masorti (Conservative) community Beit Israel, which uses the Ashkenazi rite, rather than the older Orthodox Sephardic communities, as the latter have raised more difficulties about their religious status. It is unknown to what extent crypto-Judaism still exists in Spain and Portugal.

Language

Neo-Western Sephardim, as with Sephardic Bnei Anusim, traditionally speak Modern Spanish and Modern Portuguese. In most cases these varieties have incorporated loanwords from the indigenous languages of the Americas introduced following the Spanish conquest.

This is in contrast to the traditional languages spoken by the earlier ex-converso Western Sephardim, which although was also both Spanish and Portuguese, it was in the Early Modern Spanish and Early Modern Portuguese forms — including in a mixture of the two, and used even liturgically.

It also differs from the language traditionally spoken by Eastern Sephardim and North African Sephardim, which were even older archaic Old Spanish-derived Judaeo-Spanish dialects of Ladino and Haketia (a mixture of Old Spanish, Hebrew, and Aramaic, plus various other languages depending on the area of their settlement).

See also

• North African Sephardim
• Eastern Sephardim
• Sephardic Anusim
• Western Sephardim
• Sephardic Bnei Anusim