Editing Sephardic Jews (section)

== Divisions ==
The divisions among Sephardim and their descendants today are largely a result of the consequences of the royal edicts of expulsion. Both the Spanish and Portuguese crowns ordered their respective Jewish subjects to choose one of two options:
# to convert to Catholicism and be allowed to remain within the kingdom, or
# to remain Jewish and leave or be expelled by the stipulated deadline.

In the case of the [[Alhambra Decree]] of [[1492]], the primary purpose was to eliminate Jewish influence on Spain's large [[converso]] population, and ensure they did not revert to Judaism. Over half of Spain's Jews had converted in the 14th century as a result of the religious persecution and pogroms which [[Massacre of 1391|occurred in 1391]]. They and their Catholic descendants were not subject to the decree or to expulsion, yet were surveilled by the Spanish Inquisition. British scholar Henry Kamen has said that 
<blockquote>"the real purpose of the 1492 edict likely was not expulsion, but compulsory conversion and assimilation of all Spanish Jews, a process which had been underway for a number of centuries. Indeed, a further number of those Jews who had not yet joined the converso community finally chose to convert and avoid expulsion as a result of the edict. As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution during the prior century, between 200,000 and 250,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between one third and one half of Spain's remaining 100,000 non-converted Jews chose exile, with an indeterminate number returning to Spain in the years following the expulsion."<ref>{{cite book |title=History of a Tragedy |last=Pérez |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Pérez |orig-year=2009 |year=2012 |page=17}}</ref></blockquote>
[[File:A Expulsão dos Judeus (Roque Gameiro, Quadros da História de Portugal, 1917).png|thumb|259x259px|"''The Banishment of the Jews''", by [[Alfredo Roque Gameiro|Roque Gameiro]], in ''Quadros da História de Portugal'' ("Pictures of the History of Portugal", 1917).]]
The Portuguese king [[John II of Portugal|John II]] welcomed the Jewish refugees from Spain with the purpose of obtaining specialized artisans, which the Portuguese population lacked, imposing over them, however, a hefty fee for the right to stay in the country. His successor [[Manuel I of Portugal|King Manuel I]] proved, at first, to also tolerate the Jewish population. However, [[Manuel I of Portugal|King Manuel I]] issued his own expulsion decree four years later, presumably to satisfy a precondition that the Spanish monarchs had set for him in order to allow him to marry their daughter [[Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal|Isabella]]. While the stipulations were similar in the Portuguese decree, King Manuel largely prevented Portugal's Jews from leaving, by blocking Portugal's ports of exit, foreseeing a negative economic effect of a similar Jewish flight from Portugal. He decided that the Jews who stayed accepted Catholicism by default, proclaiming them [[New Christian]]s by royal decree. Physical [[forced conversion]]s, however, were also suffered by Jews throughout Portugal. These persecutions led to several recently converted families to flee Portugal, such as the family of [[Francisco Sanches]] who fled to [[Bordeaux]].

Sephardi Jews encompass Jews descended from those Jews who left the Iberian Peninsula as Jews by the expiration of the respective decreed deadlines. This group is further divided between those who fled south to [[North Africa]], as opposed to those who fled eastwards to the [[Balkans]], [[West Asia]] and beyond. Others fled east into Europe, with many settling in northern Italy and the [[Low Countries]]. Also included among Sephardi Jews are those who descend from "[[New Christian]]" conversos, but returned to Judaism after leaving Iberia, largely after reaching Southern and Western Europe.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

From these regions, many later migrated again, this time to the non-Iberian territories of the Americas. Additional to all these Sephardic Jewish groups are the descendants of those New Christian conversos who either remained in Iberia, or moved from Iberia directly to the Iberian colonial possessions in what are today the various [[Latin America]]n countries. For historical reasons and circumstances, most of the descendants of this group of conversos never formally returned to the Jewish religion.

All these sub-groups are defined by a combination of geography, identity, religious evolution, language evolution, and the timeframe of their reversion (for those who had in the interim undergone a temporary nominal [[religious conversion|conversion]] to Catholicism) or non-reversion back to Judaism.

These Sephardic sub-groups are separate from any pre-existing local Jewish communities they encountered in their new areas of settlement. From the perspective of the present day, the first three sub-groups appeared to have developed as separate branches, each with its own traditions. <!-- Most Sephardic Jews, especially those from [[Egypt]] and [[Syria]], carry the tradition that they are the direct descendants of [[Pharez]], the son of [[Judah (biblical figure)]].--><!--Can we get a citation for that?-->

In earlier centuries, and as late as the editing of the ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' at the beginning of the 20th century, the Sephardim were usually regarded as together forming a continuum. The [[Jewish community of Livorno]], Italy acted as the clearing-house of personnel and traditions among the first three sub-groups; it also developed as the chief publishing centre.{{Synthesis inline|date=February 2011}}

=== Eastern Sephardim ===
{{main|Eastern Sephardim}}
[[File:1900 photo of a Sephardi couple from Sarajevo.png|thumb|Sephardi Jewish couple from [[Sarajevo]] in traditional clothing (1900)]]

Eastern Sephardim comprise the descendants of the expellees from Spain who left as Jews in 1492 or earlier. This sub-group of Sephardim settled mostly [[History of the Jews in Turkey|in various parts of the Ottoman Empire]], which then included areas in West Asia's [[Near East]] such as [[Anatolia]], the [[Levant]] and Egypt; in Southeastern Europe, some of the [[Dodecanese]] islands and the [[Balkans]]. They settled particularly in European cities ruled by the Ottoman Empire, including [[History of the Jews of Thessaloniki|Salonica]] in present-day Greece; [[Constantinople]], which today is known as [[Istanbul]] on the European portion of modern Turkey; and [[Sarajevo]], in what is today [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]. Sephardic Jews also lived in [[Bulgaria]], where they absorbed into their community the [[Romaniote Jews]] they found already living there. They had a presence as well in [[Walachia]] in what is today southern Romania, where there is still a functioning Sephardic Synagogue.<ref>[http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Romania]{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422135529/http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Romania|date=22 April 2016}}<span> YIVO</span>{{!}}<span>Romania</span>.</ref> Their traditional language is referred to as ''[[Judezmo]]'' ("Jewish [language]"). It is [[Judaeo-Spanish]], also known as Ladino, which consisted of the medieval Spanish and Portuguese they spoke in Iberia, with admixtures of Hebrew, and the languages around them, especially Turkish. It was often written in [[Rashi script]].
[[File:Epoca_1902_Issue.jpg|thumb|A 1902 Issue of ''[[La Epoca (Ladino newspaper)|La Epoca]]'', a Ladino newspaper from Salonica ([[Thessaloniki]])]]
Regarding the [[Middle East]], some Sephardim went further east into the West Asian territories of the [[Ottoman Empire]], settling among the long-established Arabic-speaking Jewish communities in [[History of the Jews in Syria|Damascus]] and [[History of the Jews in Syria|Aleppo]] in Syria, as well as in the [[Land of Israel]], and as far as [[History of the Jews in Iraq|Baghdad]] in Iraq. Although technically Egypt was a North African Ottoman region, those Jews who settled in [[History of the Jews in Egypt|Alexandria]] are included in this group, due to Egypt's cultural proximity to the other West Asian provinces under Ottoman rule.

For the most part, Eastern Sephardim did not maintain their own separate Sephardic religious and cultural institutions from pre-existing Jews. Instead the local Jews came to adopt the liturgical customs of the recent Sephardic arrivals.<!-- Was this because the new people were more numerous? --> Eastern Sephardim in European areas of the Ottoman Empire, as well as in Palestine, retained their culture and language, but those in the other parts of the West Asian portion gave up their language and adopted the local Judeo-Arabic dialect. This latter phenomenon is just one of the factors which have today led to the broader and eclectic religious definition of Sephardi Jews.

Thus, the Jewish communities in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt are partly of Spanish Jewish origin and they are counted as Sephardim proper. The great majority of the Jewish communities in Iraq, and all of those in Iran, Eastern Syria, Yemen, and Eastern Turkey, are descendants of pre-existing indigenous Jewish populations. They adopted the Sephardic rites and traditions through cultural diffusion, and are properly termed [[Mizrahi Jews]].{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

Going even further into South Asia, a few of the Eastern Sephardim followed the spice trade routes as far as the [[Malabar coast]] of southern India, where they settled among the established [[Cochin Jews|Cochin Jewish]] community. Their culture and customs were absorbed by the local Jews. {{citation needed|date=September 2017}}. Additionally, there was a large community of Jews and crypto-Jews of Portuguese origin in the Portuguese colony of [[Goa]]. [[Gaspar Jorge de Leão Pereira]], the first archbishop of Goa, wanted to suppress or expel that community, calling for the initiation of the [[Goa Inquisition]] against the [[Sephardic Jews in India]].

In recent times, principally after 1948, most Eastern Sephardim have since relocated to Israel, and others to the US and Latin America.

Eastern Sephardim still often carry common Spanish surnames, as well as other specifically Sephardic surnames from 15th-century Spain with Arabic or Hebrew language origins (such as [[Azoulay]], [[Abulafia (surname)|Abulafia]], [[Abravanel]]) which have since disappeared from Spain when those that stayed behind as conversos adopted surnames that were solely Spanish in origin. Other Eastern Sephardim have since also translated their Hispanic surnames into the languages of the regions they settled in, or have modified them to make them sound more local.

=== North African Sephardim ===
[[File:Moroccan_wedding_dress,_19-20th_century_(3551817349).jpg|thumb|19th-century [[Berberisca dress|Moroccan Sephardic wedding dress]]]]
{{main|North African Sephardim}}North African Sephardim consists of the descendants of the expellees from Spain who also left as Jews in 1492. This branch settled in [[North Africa]] (except Egypt, see Eastern Sephardim above). Settling mostly in [[Moroccan Jews|Morocco]] and [[History of the Jews in Algeria|Algeria]], they spoke a variant of [[Judaeo-Spanish]] known as [[Haketia]]. They also spoke [[Judeo-Arabic]] in a majority of cases. They settled in the areas with already established Arabic-speaking Jewish communities in North Africa and eventually merged with them to form new communities based solely on Sephardic customs.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

Several of the [[Moroccan Jews]] emigrated back to the Iberian Peninsula to form the core of the [[History of the Jews in Gibraltar|Gibraltar Jews]].{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

In the 19th century, modern Spanish, French and Italian gradually replaced Haketia and Judeo-Arabic as the mother tongue among most Moroccan Sephardim and other North African Sephardim.<ref>Samuel Toledano, ''Espagne: les retrouvailles'', in: ''Les Juifs du Maroc'' (Editions du Scribe, Paris 1992)</ref>

In recent times, with the [[Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries]], principally after the creation of Israel in 1948, most North African Sephardim have relocated to Israel (total pop. est. 1,400,000 in 2015), and most others to France (361,000)<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
   |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/09/magazine/the-jews-of-france.html |title=The Jews of France
   |author=Paul Lewis |date=9 October 1983 |access-date=29 August 2022}}</ref> and the US (300,000), as well as other countries. As of 2015 there was a significant community still in Morocco (10,000).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://qz.com/427032/mapped-where-sephardic-jews-live-after-they-were-kicked-out-of-spain-500-years-ago/|title=Mapped: Where Sephardic Jews live after they were kicked out of Spain 500 years ago|date=16 June 2015|first=Maria|last=Sanchez Diez|website=Quartz|access-date=7 October 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415233849/https://qz.com/427032/mapped-where-sephardic-jews-live-after-they-were-kicked-out-of-spain-500-years-ago/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2021, among Arab countries, the largest Jewish community now exists in [[Morocco]] with about 2,000 Jews and in Tunisia with about 1,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishagency.org/jewish-population-5782/|title=Jewish Population Rises to 15.2 million Worldwide|date =15 September 2021|publisher=Jewish agency}}</ref>

North African Sephardim still also often carry common Spanish surnames, as well as other specifically Sephardic surnames from 15th century Spain with Arabic or Hebrew language origins (such as [[Azoulay]], [[Abulafia (surname)|Abulafia]], [[Abravanel]]) which have since disappeared from Spain when those that stayed behind as conversos adopted surnames that were solely Spanish in origin. Other North African Sephardim have since also translated their Hispanic surnames into local languages or have modified them to sound local.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

=== Western Sephardim ===
{{main|Spanish and Portuguese Jews}}
{{See also|Anusim|Marrano|Crypto-Judaism}}
[[File:First Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Shearith Israel (1656-1833) in Manhattan, New York City.jpg|thumb|[[First Shearith Israel Graveyard|First Cemetery]] of the Spanish and Portuguese [[Synagogue]], [[Congregation Shearith Israel|Shearith Israel]] (1656–1833) in [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]]]]
[[File:Emmalazarusengraving.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Emma Lazarus]], American poet, born into a large New York Sephardi family.]]
[[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Western Sephardim]] (also known more ambiguously as "Spanish and Portuguese Jews", "Spanish Jews", "Portuguese Jews" and "Jews of the Portuguese Nation") are the community of Jewish ex-''conversos'' whose families initially remained in Spain and Portugal as ostensible [[New Christians]],<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=Micheal |editor1-last=Tarver |editor2-first=Emily |editor2-last=Slape |date=2016 |title=The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia |location=[[Santa Barbara, California]] |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |volume=1 |isbn=978-1-4408-4570-3 |pages=210–212}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bernardini|first1=Paolo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m0JAGMuePO0C&pg=PA371|title=The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450 to 1800|last2=Fiering|first2=Norman|date=2001|page=371|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=978-1-57181-430-2|language=en}}</ref> that is, as [[Anusim]] or "forced [converts]". Western Sephardim are further sub-divided into an [[Old World]] branch and a [[New World]] branch.

Henry Kamen and Joseph Perez estimate that of the total Jewish origin population of Spain at the time of the issuance of the Alhambra Decree, those who chose to remain in Spain represented the majority, up to 300,000 of a total Jewish origin population of 350,000.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of a Tragedy. p. 17.|last=Pérez|first=Joseph|year=2012}}</ref> Furthermore, a significant number returned to Spain in the years following the expulsion, on condition of converting to Catholicism, the Crown guaranteeing they could recover their property at the same price at which it was sold.

Discrimination against this large community of ''conversos'' nevertheless remained, and those who secretly practiced the Jewish faith specifically suffered severe episodes of persecution by the Inquisition. The last such episode of persecution occurred in the mid-18th century. External migrations out of the Iberian peninsula coincided with these episodes of increased persecution by the Inquisition.

As a result of this discrimination and persecution, a small number of ''[[marranos]]'' (''conversos'' who secretly still practiced Judaism) later emigrated to more religiously tolerant Old World countries outside the [[Hispanosphere|Iberian cultural sphere]], such as the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and England.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}} In these lands ''conversos'' reverted to Judaism, rejoining the Jewish community sometimes up to the third or even fourth generations after the initial decrees stipulating conversion, expulsion, or death. It is these returnees to Judaism that represent Old World Western Sephardim. Among this community of Sephardic Jews, the philosopher [[Baruch Spinoza|Baruch de Spinoza]] was born from a Portuguese Jewish family. He was also, famously, [[Herem (censure)|expelled from said community]] over his religious and philosophical views.

New World Western Sephardim, on the other hand, are the descendants of those Jewish-origin New Christian ''conversos'' who accompanied the millions of Old Christian Spaniards and Portuguese that emigrated to the Americas. More specifically, New World Western Sephardim are those Western Sephardim whose ''converso'' ancestors migrated to various of the non-Iberian colonies in the Americas in whose jurisdictions they could return to Judaism.

New World Western Sephardim are juxtaposed to yet another group of descendants of ''conversos'' who settled in the Iberian colonies of the Americas who could not revert to Judaism. These comprise the related but distinct group known as [[Sephardic Bnei Anusim]] (see the section below).

Due to the presence of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition in the Iberian American territories, initially, ''converso'' immigration was barred throughout much of Ibero-America. Because of this, very few ''converso'' immigrants in Iberian American colonies ever reverted to Judaism. Of those ''conversos'' in the New World who did return to Judaism, it was principally those who had come via an initial respite of refuge in the Netherlands or who were settling the New World Dutch colonies such as [[Curaçao]] and the area then known as New Holland (also called [[Dutch Brazil]]). Dutch Brazil was the northern portion of the colony of Brazil ruled by the Dutch for under a quarter of a century before it also fell to the Portuguese who ruled the remainder of Brazil. Jews who had only recently reverted in Dutch Brazil then again had to flee to other Dutch-ruled colonies in the Americas, including joining brethren in Curaçao, but also migrating to [[New Amsterdam]], in what is today [[Lower Manhattan]] in New York City.

The oldest congregations in the non-Iberian colonial possessions in the Americas were founded by Western Sephardim, many who arrived in the then Dutch-ruled [[New Amsterdam]], with their synagogues being in the tradition of "Spanish and Portuguese Jews".

In the United States in particular, [[Congregation Shearith Israel]], established in 1654, in what is now New York City, is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Its present building dates from 1897. Congregation [[Jeshuat Israel]] in Newport, Rhode Island, is dated to sometime after the arrival of Western Sephardim there in 1658 and prior to the 1677 purchase of a communal cemetery, now known as [[Touro Cemetery]]. See also ''[[List of the oldest synagogues in the United States]]''.

The intermittent period of residence in Portugal (after the initial fleeing from Spain) for the ancestors of many Western Sephardim (whether Old World or New World) is a reason why the surnames of many Western Sephardim tend to be Portuguese variations of common Spanish surnames, though some are still Spanish.

Among a few notable figures with roots in Western Sephardim are the current president of Venezuela, [[Nicolás Maduro]], and former [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]], [[Benjamin N. Cardozo]]. Both descend from Western Sephardim who left Portugal for the Netherlands, and in the case of Maduro, from the Netherlands to [[Curaçao]], and ultimately Venezuela.

=== Sephardic Bnei Anusim ===
{{main|Sephardic Bnei Anusim}}
{{See also|Converso|New Christian}}
The [[Sephardic Bnei Anusim]] consists of the contemporary and largely nominal [[Christianity|Christian]] descendants of assimilated 15th century Sephardic [[anusim]]. These descendants of Spanish and Portuguese [[Jew]]s forced or coerced to convert to [[Catholicism]] remained, as [[conversos]], in [[Iberia]] or moved to the [[Ibero-America|Iberian colonial possessions]] across various [[Latin America]]n countries during the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas]].

Due to historical reasons and circumstances, Sephardic Bnei Anusim had not been able to return to the [[Judaism|Jewish faith]] over the last five centuries,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.netanya.ac.il/englishSite/Centers/SecretJewsCenter/Publications/Documents/beloved-legacy.pdf |title=Beloved legacy |website=www.netanya.ac.il |access-date=22 July 2014 |archive-date=8 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808190821/http://www.netanya.ac.il/englishSite/Centers/SecretJewsCenter/Publications/Documents/beloved-legacy.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> although increasing numbers have begun emerging publicly in modern times, especially over the last two decades. Except for varying degrees of putatively rudimentary Jewish customs and traditions which had been retained as [[family traditions]] among individual families, Sephardic Bnei Anusim became a fully assimilated sub-group within the Iberian-descended Christian populations of Spain, Portugal, [[Hispanic America]] and Brazil. In the last 5 to 10 years,{{when|date=October 2022}} however, "organized groups of [Sephardic] Benei Anusim in Brazil, [[Colombia]], [[Costa Rica]], [[Chile]], [[Ecuador]], Mexico, [[Puerto Rico]], [[Venezuela]], [[Dominican Republic]] and in [[Iberia|Sefarad]] [Iberia] itself"<ref>{{cite book|first=ben Levi|last=Moshe|isbn=978-1-4633-2706-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgzBQxoODWcC&q=Existen+ya+grupos+de+Benei+Anusim+organizados&pg=PA20|title=La Yeshivá Benei Anusim: El Manual de Estudios Para Entender las Diferencias Entre el Cristianismo y el Judaismo|publisher=Palibrio|year=2012|page=20|access-date=20 October 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415225609/https://books.google.com/books?id=OgzBQxoODWcC&q=Existen+ya+grupos+de+Benei+Anusim+organizados&pg=PA20|url-status=live}}</ref> have now been established, some of whose members have formally reverted to [[Judaism]], leading to the emergence of Neo-Western Sephardim (see group below).

The [[Jewish Agency for Israel]] estimates the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population to number in the millions.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/world/europe/interest-in-israel-as-spain-weighs-citizenship-for-sephardic-jews.html|title=Prospect of Spanish Citizenship Appeals to Descendants of Jews Expelled in 1492|date=16 February 2014|work=The New York Times|access-date=25 February 2017|archive-date=23 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160723012448/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/world/europe/interest-in-israel-as-spain-weighs-citizenship-for-sephardic-jews.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Their population size is several times larger than the three Jewish-integrated Sephardi descendant sub-groups combined, consisting of [[#Eastern Sephardim|Eastern Sephardim]], [[#North African Sephardim|North African Sephardim]], and the ex-converso [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Western Sephardim]] (both New World and Old World branches).

Although numerically superior, Sephardic Bnei Anusim is, however, the least prominent or known sub-group of Sephardi descendants. Sephardic Bnei Anusim are also more than twice the size of the total world Jewish population as a whole, which itself also encompasses [[Ashkenazi Jews]], [[Mizrahi Jews]] and [[Jewish ethnic divisions|various other smaller groups]].

Unlike the Anusim ("forced [converts]") who were the conversos up to the third, fourth or fifth generation (depending on the Jewish responsa) who later reverted to Judaism, the [[Bnei Anusim]] ("[later] sons/children/descendants [of the] forced [converts]") were the subsequent generations of descendants of the Anusim who remained hidden ever since the Inquisition in the Iberian Peninsula and its New World franchises. At least some Sephardic Anusim in the [[Hispanosphere]] (in Iberia, but especially in their colonies in Ibero-America) had also initially tried to revert to Judaism, or at least maintain crypto-Jewish practices in privacy. This, however, was not feasible long-term in that environment, as Judaizing conversos in Iberia and Ibero-America remained persecuted, prosecuted, and liable to conviction and execution. The Inquisition itself was only finally formally disbanded in the 19th century.

Historical documentation shedding new light on the diversity in the ethnic composition of the Iberian immigrants to the Spanish colonies of the Americas during the conquest era suggests that the number of [[New Christian]]s of Sephardi origin that actively participated in the conquest and settlement was more significant than previously estimated. A number of Spanish conquerors, administrators, settlers, have now been confirmed to have been of Sephardi origin. {{citation needed|date=October 2019}} Recent revelations have only come about as a result of modern DNA evidence and newly discovered records in Spain, which had been either lost or hidden, relating to conversions, marriages, baptisms, and Inquisition trials of the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents of the Sephardi-origin Iberian immigrants.

Overall, it is now estimated that up to 20% of modern-day Spaniards and 10% of colonial Latin America's Iberian settlers may have been of Sephardic origin, although the regional distribution of their settlement was uneven throughout the colonies. Thus, Iberian settlers of New Christian Sephardi-origin ranged anywhere from none in most areas to as high as 1 in every 3 (approx. 30%) Iberian settlers in other areas. With Latin America's current population standing at close to 590 million people, the bulk of which consists of persons of full or partial Iberian ancestry (both [[Hispanic America|New World Hispanics]] and [[Brazilians]], whether they're [[Criollo people|criollos]], [[mestizos]] or [[mulattos]]), it is estimated that up to 50 million of these possess Sephardic Jewish ancestry to some degree.

In Iberia, settlements of known and attested populations of Bnei Anusim include those in [[Belmonte Jews|Belmonte]], in Portugal, and the [[Xuetes]] of [[Palma, Majorca|Palma de Mallorca]], in Spain. In 2011 Rabbi [[Nissim Karelitz]], a leading rabbi and [[Halachic]] authority and chairman of the Beit Din Tzedek [[Beit Din|rabbinical court]] in [[Bnei Brak]], Israel, recognized the entire Xuete community of Bnei Anusim in Palma de Mallorca, as Jews.<ref name="jpost.com">{{Cite web |url=http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=228936 |title="Chuetas of Majorca recognized as Jewish"; ''Jerusalem Post'' 07/12/2011 |date=29 September 2010 |access-date=23 March 2014 |archive-date=10 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121210081838/http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=228936 |url-status=live }}</ref> That population alone represented approximately 18,000 to 20,000 people,<ref name="bbc.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49374489|title=The New Yorker reviving Jewish life on a holiday island|date =18 August 2019|publisher=BBC}}</ref> or just over 2% of the entire population of the island. The proclamation of the Jews' default acceptance of Catholicism by the Portuguese king actually resulted in a high percentage being assimilated into the Portuguese population. Besides the Xuetas, the same is true of Spain. Many of their descendants observe a [[Syncretism|syncretist]] form of Christian worship known as [[Xueta Christianity]].<ref name="bbc.com"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/robert-graves/a-dead-branch-on-the-tree-of-israel-the-xuetas-of-majorca/|title="A Dead Branch on the Tree of Israel" The Xuetas of Majorca|date =17 February 1957|publisher=Commentary}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Those of the Street - The Catholic-Jews of Mallorca: a Study in Urban Cultural Change|first=Kenneth|last=Moore|year=1976|isbn=978-0-674-03783-0|page=46|publisher=Michigan University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Appetites and Identities: An Introduction to the Social Anthropology of Western Europe|first=Sara|last=Delamont|year=2002|isbn=978-1-134-92474-5|page=114|publisher=Taylor & Francis|quote=The Xueta had their own church—St Eulalia's—in their barrio, with a Xueta priest, and their own cofraternity (the Cross of Calvary) to march in the Holy Week procession.}}</ref>

Almost all Sephardic Bnei Anusim carry surnames which are known to have been used by Sephardim during the 15th century. However, almost all of these surnames are not specifically Sephardic ''per se'', and most are in fact surnames of gentile Spanish or gentile Portuguese origin which only became common among Bnei Anusim because they deliberately adopted them during their conversions to Catholicism, in an attempt to obscure their Jewish heritage.
Given that conversion made New Christians subject to Inquisitorial prosecution as Catholics, crypto-Jews formally recorded Christian names and gentile surnames to be publicly used as their aliases in notarial documents, government relations and commercial activities, while keeping their given Hebrew names and Jewish surnames secret.<ref>{{cite book |title=''Hispanidad y Judaísmo en Tiempos de Espinoza: Edición de "La Certeza del Camino" de Abraham Pereyra'' |last=Méchoulan |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Méchoulan |orig-year=1666|year=1987 |page=36}}</ref> As a result, very few Sephardic Bnei Anusim carry surnames that are specifically Sephardic in origin, or that are exclusively found among Bnei Anusim.