(Jewish Group) For Sephardic Jews, Portuguese citizenship keys to tradition, heritage and pride

[Behind the Aegis]

For Sephardic Jews, Portuguese citizenship offers keys to tradition, heritage and pride

For a good part of their history, Jews were a stateless people, repeatedly finding themselves fleeing or expelled from countries even long after they had put down roots.

Now, some of those nations are offering citizenship to Jews, regardless of their present nationality, to make amends for centuries of persecution. Portugal is among these nations. It joins Germany, which in June broadened the scope of an earlier law allowing repatriation to the descendants of those who fled Nazi persecution.

Sarah Aroeste is one of those taking Portugal up on the offer. A singer-songwriter, author and educator whose work is steeped in Sephardic culture and the Ladino language, she is one of a growing number of American Jews, particularly those with Sephardic heritage, reconnecting to her roots through Portugal’s “Law of Return,” which launched in 2015 to offer a path to Portuguese citizenship.

“I did not have to go very far back in my family tree — just three or four generations — to show my Sephardic ancestry,” Aroeste said.

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