[cll]

Many of the Spanish surnames in the Americas - those ending is es or ez - have a Sephardic Jew origin. I recently discovered that my own family name was on a list of Sephardic Jews to be converted or expelled. They did not stay, obviously.

[cll]

Puerto Rico Ping! Please Freepmail me if you want on or off the list.

[henkster]

An interesting follow-on to our earlier discussion about Spanish rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.

One of my high school friends is a Sephardic Jew, but I don’t think he’s inclined to go claim his Spanish citizenship.

[fishtank]

It’ll be very interesting if many of those Hispanic Sephardic Jews make aliyah.

[AuH2ORepublican]

It is not actually true that surnames ending in “ez” are of Jewish origin, although many people of Jewish origin used those surnames. Asturian patronymics ended in “ez” (Gallego and Portuguese patronymics, on the other hand, ended in “es”) with Rodrigo, the son of Gonzalo Pérez, having the name “Rodrigo González,” Sancho, the son of Rodrigo González, having the name “Sancho Rodríguez,” and Pedro, the son of Sancho Rodríguez, having the name “Pedro Sánchez.” When Jews in Spain had to adopt surnames, many just followed the Asturian custom in order to fit in, but Jews were a minority of those who bore them; the Spanish surnames with the highest percentage of Jewish bearers likely were the more overtly Catholic-sounding ones, like San Miguel or “De Jesús,” which were often selected by conversos precisely as an attempt to have their Catholicism not be questioned.

This new law presumably applies to Spanish Jews who weren’t conversos, but who left Spain in the 15th century in order to keep practicing their faith, so I don’t think that any Hernándezes ir Pérezes or Gutiérrezes need apply irrespective of their genealogy.

[Verginius Rufus]

Many of the Sephardic Jews went to the Ottoman Empire. Ivo Andric in his novel Bosnian Chronicle has an interesting depiction of the Sephardic Jews living in the town of Travnik in the early 1800s.

I once heard a talk in which the speaker cited the case of a Turkish consul posted to Chicago. His wife spoke no English but she didn't have any trouble--she could go to stores in the Hispanic neighborhoods and speak to the storekeepers in Spanish because she was a Sephardic Jew.

[Biggirl]

As a Catholic who is doing RCIA, one of the women canidates to be fully recieved into the Church this coming Easter, as well as finishing their two final initiation sacrements, she is of Spanish/Purto Rican origins, I wonder if her last name has either the es or ez.

[Biggirl]

As regards to the RCIA ministry, I am helping one of the two parish deacons who heads it up.

[onedoug]

I think Columbus had six Jews sailing with the expedition.

Isn’t it strange that as Ferdinand and Isabella kicked them out that a new world was about to be found wherein Jews might thrive?

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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A cute gesture, I doubt many will take it up.