Sephardic

Alternative Spellings

Sefardic, Sephardi, Sefardi, Sefaradi, Sepharadi

Definitions

• Jews whose ancestors came from the Iberian Peninsula before the Jewish expulsion

Example Sentences

• "The customs of Sephardic Jews differ in many ways from those of Ashkenazi Jews."

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew, English

Etymology

from ספרד sefarád 'medieval Spain'

Who Uses This

Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements
Non-Jews: (words that have spread outside of Jewish networks)

Regions

North America

Dictionaries

The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).

Notes

Sometimes used more broadly to refer to all non-Ashkenazim, though there are in fact other non-Ashkenazi groups.