Sephardi

The Sephardi, or Sephardic Jews, are Jews descended from the historic communities of the Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), before and during the medieval period. The term derives from Sepharad, the Hebrew name for Spain.

Following the 1492 Alhambra Decree in Spain and subsequent expulsions from Portugal, many Sephardi Jews dispersed across the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and later Europe and the Americas. In many communities the term Sephardic also came to include those whose liturgy and legal traditions were shaped by Iberian practice, even if their ancestors did not remain in Iberia.

Cultural and linguistic traditions include the Ladino language, a Judaeo-Spanish vernacular, as well as distinctive Sephardic rites, liturgy, and piyyutim. They maintained culinary and cultural practices linked to Iberian heritage and the Mediterranean world, alongside adaptations in the host countries.

Today Sephardi Jews are a diverse diaspora, with significant populations in Israel, Turkey, North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya), the Balkans, Italy, the Americas, and elsewhere. In some contexts Sephardi and Mizrahi identities are used together; religious authorities and customs vary, but many communities share historical legal traditions codified in rabbinic works such as the Shulchan Aruch by Joseph Caro.

The term is sometimes used interchangeably with “Sephardic” to refer to Jewish liturgical rites associated with Iberian heritage, contrasted with Ashkenazi (Central and Eastern European) rites, though the boundaries are fluid and historical.