Sephardim

SEPHARDIM. - Descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews who emigrated from the Iberian peninsula, after the massacre of 1491 and the expulsion of 1492, toward North Africa, the Mediterranean coasts (especially in the Balkans), Holland, the Spanish and Portuguese possessions in America, and later toward New York and other parts of the United States.

In their most important centers (Salonika, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Safed, Cairo, Ancona, Venice

Amsterdam, London, Bordeaux) the Sephardim founded synagogues with services according to the Sephardic rite, with preaching in Spanish. Sephardim were: Leone Ebreo (Jéhúdháh Abrabáne), Amato Lusitano, Spinoza, Jóséph han-Náší ("the Prince"), Jóséph Caro, Disraeli and many statesmen, scholars, and men of letters. After a century the driving force of the Sephardim began to decline, nor did the Sephardim ever again attain the splendor of the spirituality of their forebears in Spain: Ḥasdai ibn Šaprut, Dunáš ibn Labret, Solomon ibn Gabiról, Judah Halevi and many others. In France, Holland and England they merged in the 19th century with their Ashkenazi coreligionists.

Eugenio Zolli