What makes a surname Sephardic? Despite popular belief, it doesn’t have to do with fruit trees! For Hispanic Heritage Month, Michael, a JewishGen genealogist at the Museum’s Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center, explains the true history behind Sephardic surnames. Surnames were used in the Iberian peninsula starting in the 10th Century CE, and reached popular usage by the 15th century. Of course, during the time of the Inquisition & Expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal, n

In Portugal, March 31 commemorates the victims of the Inquisition, coinciding with the date in 1821 when the Inquisition officially ended - after more than 300 years. Spain and Portugal were both major centres of Jewish life in medieval Europe. But the Inquisition in 1492 and then 1497 led to the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, creating a mass migration of people and forever changing Jewish history. | World Jewish Congress