News

Eight Sephardic Jews living in Panama received Spanish citizenship last week, attempting to heal a 500-year-old wound.

The new Spanish citizens were descendants of Jews who were violently expelled from Spain in 1492. In 2015, the Spanish government approved a law granting Spanish nationality to any Sephardic Jew who requested it, without any need to denounce their current nationality or actually live in Spain.

The citizenship offer “is an act of historical reparation” with Sephardic Jews who suffered “the intolerance that was then not only in Spain,” said Spanish ambassador to Panama Ramon Santos, according to coverage by Arutz Sheva, the Israeli news outlet.

Last year 23 Jews in Panama accepted Spanish citizenship, part of a worldwide group of 5,000 Sephardic Jews who took advantage of the new law to become citizens of either Spain or Portugal, the site reports.

Panama City has always been home to a strong and vibrant Jewish community, which has helped shape the city. The World Jewish Congress reports that Panama is home to some 15,000 Jews, including more than 1,000 Israelis, Arutz Sheva reports. About 80 percent of the Jewish population are Sephardic Jews, tracing their heritage to the Iberian peninsula.

“The Jewish presence in Panama was born committed to the fate of this small nation, and that heritage has been enriched throughout the history of the country to the present day,” President Juan Carlos Varela said at a ceremony last year marking the 140th anniversary of Panama’s first synagogue.

And here is an interesting fact: Panama is the only country besides Israel that has had two Jewish presidents–Max Delvalle Levy-Maduro in 1967, and his nephew Eric Arturo Delvalle from 1985 to 1989—Arutz Sheva notes.