Spain’s Jews, Once Expelled, Now Embraced By Spain

Ynetnews reports: If any single human being can be said to represent what it meant to be a Jew in the 20th century, it may be the aptly named Jewish everyman, Joseph Cohen, 60, a kibbutznik from central Israel.

Cohen, who goes by the nickname Yossi, was among a select few Jews of Spanish origin — Sephardim —whose Spanish citizenship was restored 500 years after their ancestors were expelled from Inquisition-era Spain.

For Cohen, and for many others, 500 years is not a long enough period of time for forgetting. Asked about the significance of the event for him personally, Cohen told The Media Line “first of all, of course, the historical justice.”

A law passed last October grants Spanish citizenship to all descendants of Spanish Jews who apply for the reinstatement of their Renaissance-era citizenship within three years.