A lot of Spanish Jews fled to Holland and the Arab world and the Balkans (then under Turkish control). There were Jews from France and Germany who went to Poland. Some Sephardic Jews did too, but the Sephardim were Ladino (Spanish) speakers and the German and Polish Jews were Yiddish (German) speakers.
They had a strong presence all around the Mediterranean.
Imagine my surprise- I had one of those DNA tests done a few years back, and found out I was 20% Sephardic Jew, and 5% Ashkenazi. Also 40% Greek, about 20% Sardinian and some Italian, and Western Asian, of all things.
I was adopted at 5 months, and my parents were told I was Italian.
I should try applying for that.
It’s funny, I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic, and some of my ancestors were thrown out of Spain by the Roman Catholic King of Spain.