Sephardic Jews of Portuguese origin will soon be able to apply for Portuguese citizenship online.
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Portugal has taken an active role in fostering Jewish life since 2015. Seeking to atone for its acquisitions during the Inquisition, it passed a law granting Portuguese nationality to Jews of families from traditional Sephardic communities whose ancestors were expelled in the 15th century.
Chelsea FC soccer team owner Roman Abramovich recently became a Portuguese citizen thanks to the country's law of return for Jews of Sephardi descent. Although he was slammed in the press in the darkest terms, a Portuguese Jewish community representative said Abramovich's Sephardic certification process, whose full documentation has long been in the possession of the Lisbon Central Registry, was certified by the highest international Jewish institutions, in compliance with legal criteria.
He added that in its contacts with the Portuguese government and parliament, "the Jewish Community of Porto has always been in favor of the requirement that Sephardic applicants have a connection in the present to Portugal that is in the spirit of the law" in order to combat antisemitic arguments against the law.
Itay Mor, a lawyer who resides in Portugal, where he is president of the Rainbow Portugal Association, said, "The government has been developing this digital platform since November 2019, when it met with a large number of lawyers and announced the end of the paper-based procedure. The cumbersome and slow procedure, including the initial application, gathering of evidence or criminal records, and translations caused delays and inconveniences for the registry, lawyers, and applicants. From 2022, the citizenship application procedure involving the Registry Office and the lawyers will move toward the digital platform and the paper-based procedure will be phased out."
Mor explained that since 2015, one of the documents required in this procedure is a Sephardic certificate issued by one of two Portuguese Jewish communities. The Jewish Community of Porto certifies Jews from traditional families of the Sephardic communities of Portuguese origin, and the Jewish community of Lisbon also accepts applications from people who may not be Jewish or Sephardic today but whose genealogy shows some Sephardic connections to Portugal.
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The Jewish community of Portugal predates the country's official founding in 1143, as Jews lived in the kingdom for millennia, even prior to the Roman Empire.
Ashley Perry, president of Reconectar, an organization that works to reconnect descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities with the Jewish world, said, "This is a very welcome development and once again reiterates the commitment of the Portuguese government to provide citizenship to Sephardic [Jews]. Our family and community retained a strong connection to its Portuguese Sephardi heritage, and we are gratified that the Portuguese leadership is reinforcing it from their side."
In March 2015, Portugal enacted legislation to restore the right of Sephardi Jews to Portuguese citizenship that did not require them to live in Portugal or speak Portuguese. Applicants needed a certificate of Sephardism, which can be obtained through the Portuguese Jewish communities or their communities of origin.
Around 30,000 Sephardic Jews are estimated to have received Portuguese citizenship to date.
According to one member of Porto's Jewish community who asked to remain anonymous, the community supports digital certification "to enable collaboration in real-time between the Porto Rabbinate and the registry office."
"It is important that the registrars understand exactly who is a Jew and how to read Jewish legal documents with halachic credibility, such as a marriage contract, and become familiar with the traditional Sephardic families of Jewish communities of Portuguese and Castilian origin," he said. "We believe that teamwork between the Porto Rabbinate and the registry office will enrich this institution because the analysis of the applicants' documents implies knowledge of the Jewish world and the Hebrew language."
Perry, meanwhile, hailed the "historic process that is reconnecting the Jewish and Portuguese people, who have such a long and illustrious mutual heritage."
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
