Portugal's 'Law of Return for Portuguese Sephardic Jews has now become law.
http://app.parlamento.pt/webutils/docs/doc.pdf?path=6148523063446f764c3246795a5868774d546f334e7a67774c325276593342734c58526c6548524263484a76646938794d44457a4c3078664e444e664d6a41784d7935775a47593d&fich=L_43_2013.pdf&Inline=true
Sunday 14 July 2013
Tuesday 9 July 2013
Sephardic Android App
The app is free and available from Google Play. Click: Sephardic Jewish Android app
Wednesday 10 April 2013
Free Genealogy Videos
A lady called Laura has compiled an excellent set of genealogy video on her website called... Genealogy Videos.
I am collecting free video links, including Laura's, on my Sephardic Genealogy website. Please let me know if I have missed anything substantial. Also grateful to receive recommendations for sites in Spanish, Portuguese and other relevant languages.
I am collecting free video links, including Laura's, on my Sephardic Genealogy website. Please let me know if I have missed anything substantial. Also grateful to receive recommendations for sites in Spanish, Portuguese and other relevant languages.
Thursday 7 March 2013
Sephardim invited back to Spain
Several friends have sent me the BBC report on Sephardim being invited back to Spain. The official regulation was published by Spain's Los Angeles consulate in December.
The BBC article gets our history wrong, but that's forgiveable. It hugely complex and subtle. It gives a couple of plugs for Doreen Carvajal's new book. All fine.
What irritates me is that the article alleges that we are some sort of historic remnant yearning for Spain. Er, no. This is as silly as suggesting that ethnic English people are pining for the German forests. Spain is part of the European Union. So too Britain, Holland, Greece, France and Italy which all have Sephardic populations. Has there been a stampede? Has ANYONE "returned" to Spain out of historic nostalgia? Not that I know of.
The journalist found someone in Turkey (outside the EU) who has got a Spanish passport. An anonymous British Sephardic Jew is reported as saying: "I'm still Spanish in my soul and in my heart", which is surprising as (if he exists) his family probably came from Portugal via Amsterdam or Brazil via Barbados.
I think it is kind of sweet - in a ridiculous way - that some people in Spain want to apologise to us for what one group of people did to another several hundred years ago. As a once Visigoth state, no doubt they will also apologise for the destruction of the Western Roman Empire.
I suppose the Spanish government feel it is a nice gesture - which it is. I wonder if they realise that up to 17 million Brazilians have been estimated to be of Sephardic origin, and I would guess millions more in Mexico and Spanish America.
The BBC article gets our history wrong, but that's forgiveable. It hugely complex and subtle. It gives a couple of plugs for Doreen Carvajal's new book. All fine.
What irritates me is that the article alleges that we are some sort of historic remnant yearning for Spain. Er, no. This is as silly as suggesting that ethnic English people are pining for the German forests. Spain is part of the European Union. So too Britain, Holland, Greece, France and Italy which all have Sephardic populations. Has there been a stampede? Has ANYONE "returned" to Spain out of historic nostalgia? Not that I know of.
The journalist found someone in Turkey (outside the EU) who has got a Spanish passport. An anonymous British Sephardic Jew is reported as saying: "I'm still Spanish in my soul and in my heart", which is surprising as (if he exists) his family probably came from Portugal via Amsterdam or Brazil via Barbados.
I think it is kind of sweet - in a ridiculous way - that some people in Spain want to apologise to us for what one group of people did to another several hundred years ago. As a once Visigoth state, no doubt they will also apologise for the destruction of the Western Roman Empire.
I suppose the Spanish government feel it is a nice gesture - which it is. I wonder if they realise that up to 17 million Brazilians have been estimated to be of Sephardic origin, and I would guess millions more in Mexico and Spanish America.
Sunday 17 February 2013
Shabbat in Trancoso, Portugal
The first Shabbat in five hundred years was celebrated in Trancoso, northeast Portugal, last week, as reported by the Os Judeus em Trás os Montes blog.
Sunday 3 February 2013
Dan Mendoza: The Movie
A film is being made on the life of Daniel Mendoza, the famous SEPHARDI boxer. Let's see if they tell his real story, or choose to channel Topol and Barbra Streisand instead.
Thursday 10 January 2013
Mantua records
The records from Mantua, Italy, have now been put online at http://www.adacta.fi.it/digitalib/archeb/index.php
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