Portugal agrees 10,000 requests for citizenship by descendants of Sephardi Jews
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Portugal agrees 10,000 requests for citizenship by descendants of Sephardi Jews

A third of applications under new citizenship law for descendants of Sephardi Jews are approved

Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist

 Portugal has approved about a third of approximately 33,000 applications for citizenship under its 2015 law for descendants of Sephardic Jews, according to official figures.

Applications based on the 2015 law, primarily from Israel, Turkey, Brazil and Venezuela, are behind a 10 percent increase in 2018 applications. Portugal’s Publico magazine reported  last month that there were 41,324 such requests; the highest tally in at least
five years.

Israel, which provided Portugal with only a few dozen new citizens per year before 2015, made 4,289 applications in 2018 — the second-highest number after Brazil. Israelis submitted even more applications for naturalisation than ex-Portuguese colonies such as Cape Verde or Angola.

The Foreigners and Borders Service told Publico the increase resulted primarily from the 2015 law about descendants of Sephardi Jews.

Portugal passed its law shortly before Spain passed a similar law, which is more restrictive and ends in October. Thousands of descendants of Sephardic Jews have obtained Spanish citizenship. Portugal’s law is open-ended.

Both countries said the law was to atone for the Inquisition, the Catholic-led persecution of Jews in the Iberian peninsula in the 15th and
16th centuries.

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: