Sephardic Bnei Anusim (, , lit. "Children [of the] coerced [converted] Spanish [Jews]) is a modern term which is used to define the contemporary Christian descendants of an estimated 250,000 Sephardic Jews who were coerced or forced to convert to Catholicism during the 14th and 15th centuries in Spain and Portugal. The majority of Conversos remained in Spain and Portugal, and their descendants, who today number in the millions, live in both countries. Conversos who emigrated chose destinations wherein Sephardic communities already existed, particularly in the Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia). Some emigrated to cities in Europe, where many immediately reverted to Judaism. In theory, very few Conversos would have traveled to Latin America with colonial expeditions, because only those Spaniards who could certify that they had no recent Muslim or Jewish ancestry were allowed to travel to the New World. Recent genetic studies suggest that the arrival of the Sephardic ancestors of Latin American populations coincided with the initial colonization of Latin America, which suggests that significant numbers of recent converts were able to travel to the Americas and contribute to the gene pool of modern Latin American populations (despite an official prohibition). In addition, later arriving Iberian immigrants would have themselves contributed Converso ancestry in some parts of Latin America.
The Bnei Anusim concept has gained some popularity in the Hispanic community in the American South West as well as in countries in Latin America. Thousands of Hispanics have expressed the belief that they are the descendants of Conversos and some have expressed their desire to return to Judaism. Such a desire may probably be understood within the complex identity politics of both Latin and Anglo-America, and their interplay with social mobility. Belief in said identity is normally based on memories of family practices which may resemble perceptions or understandings of Jewish customs and religion. In addition, some have conducted internet genealogical research and have studied publicly available population genetics and atDNA analysis, leading them to their conclusions.
Since the early 21st century, a growing number "of [Sephardic] Bnei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and in Sefarad (Iberia) itself" as "organized groups." Some members of these communities have formally reverted to Judaism, and they have become functional communities of public Judaizers.
Although reversion to Judaism among these communities is largely a question of individual belief and interest because any knowledge of Jewish ancestry has generally been long lost over the past four centuries, two specific exceptions exist: The Xueta community of the island of Majorca in Spain and the Marrano community of Belmonte in Portugal. Both communities have practiced endogamy over generations, thus maintaining awareness of their Jewish heritage. In the case of the Xueta, they also suffered social stigma and discrimination well into the 20th century for their converso origin.
The Jewish Agency for Israel estimates the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population to number in the millions.
Status
Halakha Under Jewish religious law, also known as halakha, the Jewish status of Sephardic Bnei Anusim as a collective group is not automatically recognized by most religious authorities, for two reasons. Firstly, because of issues regarding generational distance, and secondly, because of issues relating to proving an unbroken direct maternal Jewish lineage, which is required for Orthodox recognition. However, there is a path of "return" for individuals, written about in a letter by HaRav Mordechau Eliahu in 1995, and an official "return certificate" he created that has been in use.
In regards to the first issue, many generations have passed since the coerced conversions of the anusim forebears of the Sephardic Bnei Anusim. Depending on Jewish legal rulings being followed, the maximum generational distance for acceptance as Jews (without the requirement of formal reversion/conversion) is between 3 and 5 generations from the anusim forebear/s who was/were forced to convert from Judaism to Catholicism.
In regards to the second issue, in Rabbinic Judaism, a person's Jewish status is determined in one of two ways: a Jew by conversion, if he/she has personally gone through a formal conversion to Judaism, or a natural-born Jew, if he/she was born from an unbroken direct maternal Jewish lineage which is a Jewish lineage ab initio ("from the beginning", from time immemorial descending from an Israelite-era Hebrew woman), or a Jewish lineage established by a female ancestor's formal conversion to Judaism whose unbroken direct Jewish maternal lineage descendants encompasses only the children born to her after her conversion (and the direct maternal-line descendants of only her post-conversion children). Also lately, for returnees, appearing before a Beit Din to establish the evidences for the mother's female line of secretly Jewish ancestors.
Thus, natural-born Jewish status of a child (male or female) comes from its mother, via its maternal direct line of ancestry. As a consequence of the number of generations that have passed since the forced conversion of the Anusim ancestors of the Sephardic Bnei Anusim, the likelihood of a broken direct maternal Jewish lineage in that time (or the difficulty in producing documentary evidence proving otherwise) precludes the establishment of natural-born Jewishness for the majority of Bnei Anusim. If the direct maternal lineage of a Sephardic Ben Anusim is not Jewish or cannot be proven to be Jewish (due to a lack of documentary evidence to that effect), it is irrelevant whether some or all other lineages of that Sephardic Ben Anusim are confirmed Jewish lineages (be it the direct paternal lineage, all other paternal lineages, or all other maternal lineages). Therefore, a person who can *prove* their mother's Jewish lineage will be given by a Beit Din a letter simply stating that they were born Jewish. But for those who have strong evidences of the mother's female Jewish lineage (going back at least 4 generations) - and who have studied to learn the basics of Jewish Law - they can be given a "return certificate" (giyur l'chumra) like what was done for the Ethiopians and others not of the Bnei Anousim.
Halakhically non-Jewish status from the mother, however, does not preclude Sephardic Bnei Anusim from being classed as Zera Yisrael, since they are otherwise of Jewish ancestry. On that basis, some individual Sephardic Bnei Anusim have begun formally returning to Judaism by following a formal process of conversion, and thus "regaining" their status as individual Jews.
At least one Israeli Chief Rabbi has ruled that Sephardic Bnei Anusim should be considered Jewish for all purposes, but this is not the consensus. He says that a symbolic ceremony denoting reversion/conversion is necessary only in the event of a marriage in which a Sephardic Bnei Anusim origin is not shared by both spouses (i.e. a marriage between a spouse of Sephardic Bnei Anusim origin with a Jew of another community origin.). This pro-forma conversion for the purpose of marriage is solely to remove any doubt relating to any possibility of a broken maternal lineage (which religiously might affect the status of offspring borne to that marriage). It does not imply that the Sephardic Bnei Anusim are otherwise of Jewish ancestry.
Zera Yisrael Although not halakhically Jewish as a collective group, Sephardic Bnei Anusim are broadly categorized as Zera Yisrael (זרע ישראל, literally "Seed of Israel"). Zera Yisrael are the Halakhically non-Jewish descendants of Jews who, for practical purposes, are neither completely Jewish nor completely gentile.
According to some of the most prominent medieval Jewish sages, the designation of Zera Yisrael means that although these persons are not halakhically Jewish, they nevertheless embody "the holiness of Israel."
History
Relation to other Sephardi communities The term Sephardi means "Spanish" or "Hispanic" and is derived from Sepharad, a biblical location. The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but later Jews identified the Sepharad as Hispania, that is, the Iberian Peninsula, which includes Portugal. Sepharad still means "Spain" in modern Hebrew.
The common feature among Western Sephardim, Sephardic Bnei Anusim, and Neo-Western Sephardim is that all three are descended in part from conversos. "Western Sephardim" are descendants of ex-conversos from earlier centuries; "Sephardic Bnei Anusim" are nominally Christian descendants of conversos, or secret Jews; and "Neo-Western Sephardim" refers to individuals among the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population who are converting to Judaism in order to return to the origin of some of their ancestors.
The distinguishing factor between "Western Sephardim" and the nascent "Neo-Western Sephardim" is the time frame of the reversions to Judaism (in the present day, usually formal conversions, or reversions, are required because of the time from the original force conversion), the location of the reversions, and the religious and legal circumstances surrounding their reversions (including impediments and persecutions). The converso descendants who became the Western Sephardim had reverted to Judaism between the 16th and 18th centuries. They did so after migrating out of the Iberian cultural sphere and before the abolition of the Inquisition in the 19th century. Conversely, the converso descendants who are today becoming the Neo-Western Sephardim have been reverting to Judaism since the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Because the Inquisition had been abolished, these later converts did not have to leave the Iberian cultural sphere.
Differentiating Anusim and Bnei Anusim
The Sephardic Anusim ("forced [converts]") were the Jewish conversos to Catholicism and their second and third, fourth, and up to fifth generation converso descendants (the maximum acceptable generational distance depended on the particular Jewish responsa being followed by the receiving Jewish community).
The Sephardic Bnei Anusim ("[later] children [of the] coerced [converts]"), on the other hand, were any subsequent generations of descendants of the Sephardic Anusim, living anywhere in the world. These descendants, the Sephardic Bnei Ansuim, have remained hidden mainly in Iberia and Ibero-America - but they also live today all over European countries, Scandinavia, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, the Balkans, the Middle East countries, North African Countries, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and Indonesia. Their ancestors were subject to the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions in the Iberian Peninsula and its Inquisition franchises exported to the New World, and would have been persecuted as Jews. However, intermarriage and other generations of practice also meant that many descendants began to live as assimilated Christians in a Latin world. The converso descendants of Sephardic Anusim in the Hispanosphere became the Sephardic Bnei Anusim.
Conversely, those Sephardic Anusim who migrated to other countries (such as the Netherlands and Italy, among other places) tended to revert to Judaism. However, many still live as secret Jews to this day. They have since been classified as the Western Sephardim.