Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on May 24, 2017

RIO DE JANEIRO Eight Panamanian Sephardic Jews received Spanish citizenship from Spains ambassador to Panama in a ceremony at the embassy in Panama City.

In a ceremony Friday, the group swore allegiance to the Spanish Constitution and the king, thelocal news website Telemetro reported.

Spain passed a law passed two years ago that allows the conferring of citizenshiponthose who prove to be descendants of Jews expelled from the countryin 1492.

The ceremony is an act of historical reparation with the Sephardic Jews who suffered the intolerance that was then not only in Spain, said Spains ambassador to Panama, Ramon Santos.

Sepharad is the Hebrew word which designates Spain, and Sephardim are those Jews expelled from Spain 500 years ago who formed communities in North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, Portugal and many of which were distributed throughout America, the diplomat recalled.

Last year, another group of 23 Jews became Spanish citizens in Panama, including nationalized Venezuelan emigres who had escaped the economic crisis in their native country. Nearly 5,000 Sephardic Jewsbecamecitizens of Spain or Portugal in 2016 following the passing of laws on the naturalization of descendants of Sephardic Jews.

According to the World Jewish Congress, Panama is home to some 15,000 Jews mostly concentrated in Panama City, including more than 1,000 Israelis.Some 85 percent of the Jews living in Panama are Sephardic, unlike other Latin American countries where the community is mostly Ashkenazi.

Panama is the only country besides Israel that has had two Jewish presidents, Max Delvalle Levy-Maduro in 1967, and his nephew Eric Arturo Delvalle from 1985 to 1989.

Read more here:

8 Panamanians receive Spanish citizenship under law of return for Sephardi Jews - The Jewish Standard

Category: Sephardic
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