Overview

In 2015, both Portugal and Spain passed laws enabling descendants of Sephardi Jews to obtain citizenship, an historic offer of reconciliation. Drawing from scholarly and first-person essays, Reparative Citizenship for Sephardi Descendants analyzes the memory and afterlives of those who were wronged, and how reconciliatory rights impact the lives of those affected.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dalia Kandiyoti ,  Rina Benmayor
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   16
ISBN:  

9781836953616

ISBN 10:   1836953615
Pages:   343
Publication Date:   01 November 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Sephardi Jews, Citizenship, and Reparation in Historical Context Dalia Kandiyoti and Rina Benmayor Part I: Reparation and Reconciliation? Legal and Political Perspectives on the 2015 Laws Chapter 1. “Reparative Citizenship”: Confronting Injustices of the Past or Building Modern Nationalisms? Alfons Aragoneses Chapter 2. Beyond Reparatory Justice: The Portuguese “Law of Return” as Nation Branding Isabel David and Gabriela Anouck Côrte-Real Pinto Chapter 3. Reparations in Spanish Parliamentary Debates about the 2015 Nationality Law for Descendants of Sephardi Jews Davide Aliberti Chapter 4. Personal Essay: Passport to the Past, Passport to the Future Colette Capriles Part II: Roots of “Returns”: Early Uses of Jewish and Muslim History Chapter 5. “Spaniards We Were, Spaniards We Are, and Spaniards We Will Be”: Salonica’s Sephardic Jews and the Instrumentalization of the Spanish Past, 1898–1944 Devin E. Naar Chapter 6. “Spanish Jews” and “Friendly Muslims”: The Historical Absence of a Citizenship Campaign for Muslims of Iberian Descent Elisabeth Bolorinos Allard Chapter 7. Personal Essay: The Story of a Spanish Dönme Uluç Özüyener Part III: Negotiating the Present: Between States and Official Communities Chapter 8. Moriscos Andalusíes: Historical Reparation, Reconciliation, and the Duty of Memory Elena Arigita and Laura Galián Chapter 9. Negotiating Historical Redress: The Spanish Law of Nationality for Sephardi Descendants and Spain’s Jewish Communities Daniela Flesler and Michal Rose Friedman Chapter 10. Personal Essay: “Congratulations, You Are Portuguese!” Reflections on Identity and Nationality Rita Ender Chapter 11. Personal Essay: Sefarad Postponed Ruth Behar Part IV: Sephardi Descendants: Emotions, Identities, and Bureaucracies Chapter 12. “La Nostalgia de Sefarad Tira Mucho, Pero No Tanto”: Attachment, Sentiment, and the Ethics of Refusal Charles A. McDonald Chapter 13. Affective Citizenship and Iberian Sephardi Descendants Rina Benmayor Chapter 14. Descendants of Conversos in the Americas: The Ancestral Past, Sephardi Identity, and Citizenship in Spain and Portugal Dalia Kandiyoti Chapter 15. Portuguese Citizenship for Brazilian Descendants of Sephardic Jews: A Netnography Marina Pignatelli Appendix: Certifying Origins for Sephardic Descendants in Portugal: A Snapshot of the Evaluation Process Teresa Santos and Heraldo Bento Chapter 16. Personal Essay: The Fez in the Water—Exile and Return Victor Silverman Coda: Directions in Citizenship and Historical Repair Dalia Kandiyoti and Rina Benmayor Index

Reviews

“Reparative Citizenship for Sephardi Descendants is a thorough, thoughtful, and empathetic exploration of the many issues that surround the 2015 Spanish and Portuguese nationality laws and the choice, on the part of individual Jews of Sephardi descent and conversos, to pursue (or eschew) this option. In this fascinating and compelling collection, editors Kandiyoti and Benmayor have gathered an astonishing range of perspectives on the historical, emotive, sociological, and political dynamics that underlie the Sephardi quest for “reparative citizenship.”” • Sarah Abrevaya Stein, UCLA “Kandiyoti and Benmayor's volume brings together the legal and emotional repercussions of a return to Spain and Portugal for Sephardic Jews. Beautifully intermingling questions of expulsion, exclusion and reparation, Reparative Citizenship for Sephardi Descendants treats readers to a nuanced and multifaceted examination of Sephardim. By melding personal essays with rigorous academic studies, the editors have compiled a book that speaks to the heart and mind while addressing the discomfiting realities of an invitation six hundred years in the making.” • Sara J. Brenneis, Amherst College

Author Information

Dalia Kandiyoti is Professor of English at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island. She is the author of The Converso's Return: Conversion and Sephardi History in Contemporary Literature and Culture (Stanford University Press, 2020), Migrant Sites: America, Place, and Diaspora Literatures (Dartmouth College/University Press of New England, 2009), and numerous articles on contemporary Sephardi, Latinx, and migration/diaspora literatures.

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