Spain set to offer citizenship to Sephardic Jews after ‘historic mistake’

The Jews who flock to the two medieval synagogues in the walled city of Toledo are tourists, not worshippers. No one of their faith has practiced it in the temples' exquisitely decorated precincts since 1492.

That was the year King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decreed that the Jews of Spain either convert to Christianity or quit the country. Many fled, and were robbed, beaten or raped on the way out. Those who stayed faced possible torture and a gruesome death in the Spanish Inquisition.

More than half a millennium later, Spain says it is intent on rectifying its "historic mistake". Under a proposal still to be voted on, descendants of Spanish Jews would be offered citizenship and welcomed back to the land that drove out their ancestors.

Up to 3.5 million Jews worldwide trace their lineage to Spain, although it is not clear how or when their forebears made their way there in the first place.

Known as Sephardic Jews after the Hebrew word for Spain, they scattered across Europe, North Africa and farther afield. Nowadays, the highest concentration of Sephardim is in Israel.

Spanish embassies around the globe have fielded inquiries from Jews who view the proposal as a gesture of reconciliation and others who see it as an opportunity to receive a European Union passport.

For Amit Ben-Aroya, 40, it is both. "It is genuinely moving, a symbolic act of reconnecting with old and curious roots, and equally exciting in terms of the opportunities this might harbour, like access to the European market," the lawyer, who lives near Tel Aviv, said. "And generally speaking, being able to travel with a passport that is not Israeli is certainly an advantage."