Technically, the word Sepharadim means Spaniards. It comes from Sepharad, the Hebrew word for Spain. In practice however, the term Sepharadim refers to Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin, whose ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492. For the most part these exiles settled in the countries along the Mediterranean Sea, in the sprawling Turkish Empire, in the Balkans, and in the lands of North Africa Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Subsequently these communities were reinforced by refugees from Portugal.Large groups later settled in the Netherlands, the West Indies, and North America. Others found new homes in Holland and the New World, It was the Sepahradim who established the Jewish communities of Curacao in the Caribbean Islands in 1651 and in the Dutch colony of Hamburg,Amsterdam, London, and New Amsterdam (New York City) three years later.
Sephardim, Jews of the Iberian Peninsula, spoke a dialect called Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). Spanish Jewry were forced to convert to Christianity between 1391 and 1497. After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, as they moved to more tolerant lands, many openly returned to Judaism. The different names to the Jews of Spain were as follows
ANUSIM:(Hebrew) `the coerced'. Jews
who were converted to another religion by force. It was also applied to their descendants.
Many of them continued to practice Judaism in secret.
CONVERSOS: `The converted'.
MARRANOS: `Swine' (pejorative). Term applied in Spain and
Portugal by Christians to descendants of baptized Jews suspected of adhering to Judaism.
MESHUMADIM: Willing converts from Judaism.
