Spain offers citizenship to Jewish descendants who fled persecution during Inquisition
The new law administered by Spanish Ministry of Justice states that New Mexico descendants from Jewish families who were exiled from Spain during the Inquisition can now take back their Spanish citizenship. Crypto-Jews, a name called to those families who practiced Judaism in secret, can now apply for a passport until Oct. 1, 2018.
According to Fox News Latino, this new law would allow approved applicants to work and live anywhere they want in the European Union (EU) countries, as stated by Attorney Luis Portero de la Torre, the representative of the Spanish Ministry of Justice.
He will be travelling to different countries to explain the application process, which requires thorough background checks, specific documentation, a Spanish language examination and a basic knowledge test of Spanish culture and history. The DNA evidence is not currently agreed upon as part of the application process.
Attorney Portero estimated the number of applications to be around 70,000. This effort would be an attempt by Spain to heal the wounds of the families who fled the country during the Inquisition. A spokesperson for the European Jewish Congress also added that the bill is significant at a time of rising anti-Semitism across EU.
The bill was first passed in 2012, but was not approved as it contained a clause stating that applicants must give up their original citizenship before taking the Spanish nationality. The clause was dropped in 2014, and the new version will go to the parliament's upper house for approval and is expected to be in full enforcement by May this year.
As stated in Santa Fe New Mexican, the applicants do not need to be Jewish, but their family history must trace back to Sephardim, a group of Jews who lived in Spain during the expulsion of Jews in the period of 1942-1948.
Sara Koplik, a representative of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, reported that the organization conducted a survey of Jews in New Mexico and said that a large population of Hispanic families might qualify but do not even know. Many who were forced to convert to Catholicism still practice Judaism discreetly. Some continue to practice their religion quietly, hence the term "Crypto-Jews".