The Spanish offer of citizenship to qualifying Sephardic Jews came into effect this week, but by then 4,300 applications already had been received.
In Portugal, application numbers have mounted to 204 under a similar programme which began in March. Those applications are still under evaluation, according to Portugal’s Justice Ministry.
The Spanish law, approved in June, permits dual citizenship for descendants of those Jews who fled Spain as the Inquisition took a harsher turn in 1492 forcing Jews to convert or leave. Four years later, Portugal followed suit with the same demand.
The new decree "has allowed us at one stroke to grant nationality to 4,302 people of Sephardic origin" whose applications were already pending, Spanish Justice Minister Catala said.
The naturalizations were approved a day after Spain adopted its new citizenship law for descendants of Sephardic Jews.
A previous initiative designed to encourage Jews to return had required them to relinquish their original citizenship, but now they can have dual nationality.
Spain’s Federation of Jewish Communities said that most applicants were from Morocco, Turkey and Venezuela.
The law gives the Sephardic Jews three years to seek a Spanish passport, with the right to work and live in the 28-nation European Union.
Applicants do not have to be practising Jews but they must have their ancestry vetted by Jewish authorities and prove a "special connection" to and knowledge of Spain. They must pass a test in basic Spanish, current events and culture.
The Portuguese citizenship application process does not require applicants to take language or culture tests or prove a modern-day link to the country.
The government in Madrid describes the measure as atonement for the “historic mistake” of the Jews’ expulsion.
No one knows how many people might be eligible. At the time of their expulsion from Spain, at least 200,000 Jews were living there. Today there are about 50,000 observant Jews in Spain and up to 3.5 million people in the world are thought to have Sephardic Jewish ancestry.
באַגריסן
For Portugal's scheme, see:
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/4634-welcome-home-to-portugal-s-jews
