Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on March 10, 2014

Hurdles May Be More Onerous Than Meet the Eye By Cnaan Liphshiz

Published March 10, 2014.

Madrid (JTA) News that Spain is proposing to offer citizenship to the descendants of Jews expelled in the 15th and 16th centuries spread like wildfire in Israel.

Within hours of the Spanish governments announcement last month, the Israeli website Ynet published a list of family names supposedly eligible for citizenship that contained some obviously Ashkenazi surnames. Another news site reprinted the list, falsely claiming it had come from the Spanish government.

Other Israeli outlets erroneously reported that the bill had already become law, prompting thousands of calls to the Israeli embassy in Madrid, as well as the Spanish embassies in Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires and Caracas.

Its a frenzy, Hamutal Fuchs, the spokesperson for Israels embassy in Spain, told JTA last month in Madrid. The phone wont stop ringing.

The frenzy, which some Israeli media have taken to calling Israels Spanish fever, appears to be a result of the bills dramatic liberalization of standards for securing a passport. A similar but more restrictive measure passed last year in neighboring Portugal failed to generate any discernible hype.

Under current Spanish legislation from 1924, Jews may apply for citizenship if they reside in Spain for more than two years and can prove family ties to expelled Spaniards. Each request is evaluated individually and approved or rejected by a senior Interior Ministry official.

Under the newly proposed standards, Spain would naturalize any applicant, Jewish or not, who meets one of four criteria: proven links to Sephardic culture; certification testifying to Sephardic heritage from a recognized Spanish-Jewish community; other rabbinical certification of Sephardic ancestry; or knowledge of Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language.

Spanish nationality is a right, not a privilege, said Spains Justice Minister, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, in a speech last month in Madrid to a visiting delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The government will have no discretion in conferring citizenship once the law is passed.

View post:
Is Sephardic Spanish Citizenship 'Fever' for Real?

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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