Sephardic Bnei Anusim

Sephardic Bnei Anusim (Hebrew: בני אנוסים ספרדיים, Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈbne anuˈsim sfaraˈdijim], lit. "Children [of the] coerced [converted] Spanish [Jews]) is a modern term which is used to define the contemporary Christian descendants of an estimated quarter of a million 15th-century Sephardic Jews who were coerced or forced to convert to Catholicism during the 14th and 15th centuries in Spain and Portugal. The vast majority of conversos remained in Spain and Portugal, and their descendants, who number in the millions, live in both of these countries. The small minority of conversos who emigrated normally chose to emigrate to destinations where Sephardic communities already existed, particularly to the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, but some of them emigrated to more tolerant cities in Europe, where many of them immediately reverted to Judaism. In theory, very few of them 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 supposed to be 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,^[1] which suggests that significant numbers of recent converts were able to travel to the new world and contribute to the gene pool of modern Latin American populations despite an official prohibition on them doing so. In addition, later arriving Spanish immigrants would have themselves contributed additional 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 many of them 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 converso 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.^[2]

Since the early 21st century, a growing number "of [Sephardic] Benei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and in Sefarad (Iberia) itself" as "organized groups."^[3] 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.^[4] Although they are the least prominent of Sephardic descendants, Sephardic Bnei Anusim outnumber their Jewish-integrated Sephardic Jewish counterparts, which consist of Eastern Sephardim, North African Sephardim, and the ex-converso Western Sephardim. With up to 20% of Spain and Portugal's population and at least 10% of Latin America's Iberian-descended population estimated to have at least some Sephardic Jewish ancestry (90% of Latin America's modern population having at least partial Iberian ancestry, in the form of criollos, mestizos, and mulattos), the total population size of Sephardic Bnei Anusim (67.78 million) is not only several times larger than the combined population of Jewish-integrated Sephardic sub-groups, but also more than four times the size of the total world Jewish population as a whole. The latter encompasses Ashkenazi Jews, Mizrahi Jews and various other smaller groups.