The Consideration 4: Starting the Process for Portuguese Citizenship

Since I posted The Consideration 3 I was contacted by a few cousins asking for help in the process in obtaining citizenship in Portugal. While I have yet to start the actual process I have begun obtaining the needed documentation. One of the first cousins to contact me had already found a translator to work with and was seeking my help to flesh out the exact details of our lineage from Portuguese Jews who were kicked out due to the Inquisition. So we set out to detail our lineage and prove our ancestry.

The first thing to do was go through the regulations set in the law by using an unofficial translation which also describes the history of the Inquisition in Portugal as well as common Portuguese surnames used by Sephardic Jews. I made a list of all the surnames which matched families on our tree and then began going through each branch documenting the exact lineage. Once the document is complete we will match documents to it for each line. A lot of this is most likely overkill but we also see it as something that many cousins can use as thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people descend from the ancestors talked about in these documents.

I recently found a website called SephardicJewsPortugal.com which details what is needed quite nicely. On the website they describe three ways to prove your descent -

1 – Documented evidence. For example, family records, family tree, community archives of births, marriages and deaths (such as those in Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Curacao, St. Thomas and Sofia), cemeteries and lists of tombs (like those found in Surinam, Thessaloniki, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Curacao, Bayonne, Paris and Vienna), brit milah records, general Government archives that show arrivals from Portugal, lists of ships and passengers arriving from Portugal. It is a criminal offense to falsify documents. The Committee of the Jewish Community will always strive to ascertain the veracity of documentation submitted, which will be evaluated together with the other evidence obtained during the course of the investigation.
2 – Testimonial evidence, ie, reputable witnesses who can attest to a family’s oral tradition. Testimonial evidence must be submitted in writing. Testimony must be in the form of written depositions, signed by the witnesses and certified by a Notary Public  (languages: Hebrew, English Spanish or Portuguese). The depositions must be sent to us together with copies of passports or ID cards of the witnesses. Witnesses must be credible and their testimony convincing. It is a criminal offense for a witness to falsely testify in writing to any legally relevant fact. The Committee of the Jewish Community will always endeavor to ascertain the credibility of depositions, which will be evaluated together with other evidence and information gathered during the course of the investigation.
3 – Expert evidence, ie, support of an expert on Portuguese Jewish diaspora. Expert evidence must be submitted in writing. The reports of experts in Portuguese diaspora (languages: Hebrew, English Spanish or Portuguese) must be in writing and signed by the expert(s).

Besides proof of lineage you must also supply other documents which basically prove you are who you claim to be. The first thing you should obtain is a certificate from the Jewish community of Portugal. There are two communities in which you can obtain this certificate - Lisbon and Porto. A cousin who has already completed this part of the process said that he went through The Porto Jewish Community and it took them about a week or two to accept his claim. I emailed the Porto Community inquiring about what they ask for and their response was short but straight-forward - "Please send the documentation in pdf, send copy of passport, birth certificate, surnames of parents and grandparents and proof of Judaism."

Next you will need to get a translated and legalized Birth Certificate, a certified copy of your passport, a copy of your criminal record from every country in which you've lived, and a Power of Attorney letter from a Portuguese Lawyer. The Porto community even suggests contacting legal representation as soon as you receive the certificate from them. If the application is rejected you will need a lawyer with previous knowledge of your case to properly appeal otherwise you could lose your eligibility to obtain citizenship through this law. They even suggest a law firm called Yolanda Busse, Oehen Mendes & Associados who actually lists an office in Porto and Lisbon. 

Now this process is not cheap, so be prepared for some serious costs. The legal costs I've heard being spent have fallen between $700 - $800 (€600-€700), although different lawyers will have different costs. On top of that you have the costs of the documentation and translation of documents which could easily become a couple hundred dollars or even more depending on where you have to order the documents from. To give you an idea, in my own case it would cost me $25 for a copy of my birth certificate, about $35 for my criminal records (I lived in two states since I was 18, so I assume one from each), $195 for my passport (assuming you need a new one or to renew it), and I'm assuming about $20 in postage fees, notary fees, and gas. That comes to a total of $275 for me but I'm guessing it could be a lot more for others, especially anyone who has lived in a lot of states or multiple countries. I have also heard tell that a donation to the Jewish Communities is encouraged of around €500 (about $550) to help with upkeep and sustain the work to prove Sephardic ancestry for applicants. This comes to an estimated $1,625 for the total costs associated with the application, at least in my case, and could easily be even more. 

The costs may not end there for some as certain countries charge extra taxes for dual citizens. If someone from the United States received their Portuguese citizenship and went abroad to work they may be taxed in the United States on any income earned abroad (learn more here). This is somewhat similar in the UK (learn more here) but for many of those in Britain I'm sure this is a much more enticing opportunity as Portuguese Citizenship will allow you to retain a European Union passport.

For anyone who is going through the process or has completed the process I'd be quite interested to hear about your experiences. Please use the message form.

Read the Previous articles;
The Consideration: Obtaining My Spanish Citizenship As A Sephardi
The Consideration 2: A Step Forward For Obtaining Spanish Citizenship
The Consideration 3: Spain and Portugal Pass Sephardic Right To Return:

The Race Debate: Is there a Jewish race?

When I was in college I took a class called Jews in The United States. Obviously the class was focused around how Jews lived in the USA, but early on our professor Barbara Burstin brought up a question I had barely thought about; Who is a Jew? The class discussed multiple ideas of defining who is a Jew; someone born to a Jewish mother, one who practices the Jewish religion, one who descends from the 'Jewish People' (a.k.a. a Jewish race). What really stuck out with me is the idea of Jews as a race. At that point of the class I was a year into my serious genealogy research and had just begun to trace out my Ashkenazi roots in Holland, something I thought I'd never find from my Dutch Sephardic line. As well I had just learned about the Joods Monument, which I wrote about here. I was slowly realizing how connected the Jewish population around the world truly were, so the idea of the Jewish race just made sense to me.

When the class discussed this idea further I realized that many other Jews and non-Jews were quite against this idea. Some discussed how this was just anti-semitic and could lead to another Holocaust because the idea of Jews as a race is used by anti-semites in their propaganda. What the anti-semites do is use the argument of a Jewish race to say Jews have been bred to be evil and manipulative. I could understand why this would lead to many rational people saying the idea of Jews as a race is not only wrong but is morally wrong, especially when you read articles like this, but I think if you look at it with fears aside (there will always be crazy people in the World) you can see the proof in genetics. Another argument that was difficult to counter is the idea that Judaism is a religion and people leave or convert Judaism all throughout history, thus Jews couldn't be a race. While this argument is valid in a way, if you look at it in a different way it makes more sense why this is wrong (at least in my humble opinion).

The first thing you need to do is think of Judaism in two lights; the religion and the race. Yes, as two different things. To make this easier I will refer to the religion as Judaism and the race as Israelites. Judaism is just a religion anyone can enter or leave based on their personal beliefs. Israelites are those who descend from the people who lived in the Middle East who practiced the Jewish faith. So to be an Israelite would be your genetics consisting of mostly Israelite markers. What kept the Israelite DNA flowing throughout it's own community was the Jewish faith, a societal barrier which kept marriages within the Jewish community. Even after hundreds of years apart many people from around the world who claim themselves to be Jewish share a common descent which has been shown through DNA.

Anyone with a percentage of Jewish Diaspora genetic markers (what I previously referred to as Israelite markers) on Family Tree DNA could tell you how fascinating it is to see the thousands of Jews who are anywhere from 2nd cousins to 5th or 6th cousins. Most of whom rely on the chromosome browser to determine how they are related to the others. On Family Tree DNA in the My Origins section of Family Finder they talk about the Jewish Diaspora and say "While Judaism is a religion, the Jewish people are also a nation. Modern Jews have diversified into numerous branches, such as Ashekenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi, as well as odds and ends such as the Bene and Beta Israel. Unifying many of these populations are genetic commonalities, likely resulting from a common Middle Eastern Ancestry. This combination of Middle Eastern and European is found in many other groups, and many of them exhibit signatures of the Ashkenazi Diaspora, but it is not common descent."

Interestingly enough I see a correlation of this idea with a Muslim race but the World already refers to them as the Arab race. At this point some of you might say, "But there are a lot of Arabs who are Jewish, Christian, or other religions and a lot of Muslims who aren't Arabs." True but you can say the exact same thing about Israelites as there are hundreds of thousands who have converted to Christianity, Islam, and other religions over the past 5000 years as well as lots of Jews who aren't Israelite. I would even bet that many Christians with newly discovered Jewish ancestry are reading this, especially since it is more common for those with Sephardic ancestry.  I found out from my own DNA test that I am 6% Arab, meaning that one of my 2nd great-grandparents could be fully Arab (there are only three of my 2nd-great grandparents I don't know about, so possible) but at the very least I have a multiple 3rd great-grandparents and other ancestors further down with partial Arab blood.

In the end I think the main point I'm getting at is when it comes to "Is there a Jewish race?" the answer is Yes. If you look at it from a completely scientific standpoint based on genetic evidence you can see there is an abundance of proof that points in the affirmative.

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The Consideration 2: A Step Forward For Obtaining Spanish Citizenship

Just a few days ago the Spanish Cabinet officially approved draft legislation allowing people with Sephardic Jewish ancestry to obtain dual citizenship. They have added one caveat to the process which requires the person to not only prove their ancestry but they must also pass a Spanish Culture Test. What that exactly entails they have not released but it is being prepared by the Cervantes Institute. The legislation cannot be implemented until approved by the Spanish Parliament which is controlled by the  conservative People's Party who strongly support the legislation, so it will most likely pass.

Some are lauding the move as a way to right the injustice of the Spanish Inquisition. But there is another voice which has emerged forbidding Jews to obtain Spanish citizenship. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner and other senior rabbis urged the Jewish people to reject the offer. Their main argument is they believe Spain is using this for political reasons to "make up for the expulsion of the Jews." Rabbi Aviner also spoke about the financial gain Spain is looking to gain because of their need for support, even claiming "An Israeli passport is worth more."

After my first post about looking into obtaining citizenship once available I heard from a lot of people about their opinion and many said things quite similar to Rabbi Aviner. Some even said they felt that Jews looking to move abroad should consider Israel over Spain since it is the Jewish Nation. Rabbi Haim Drukman had similar statements earlier this year, "We are privileged to have our own country and we should be proud to be its citizens." It is an interesting notion but one many non-religious Jews would not agree with, especially those who don't want to serve 2 years in the military or are afraid of the current fighting situation.

Leading Sephardic Rabbi Eliyahu Abergil reminded the Jews that there is an ancient cherem (religious ban) which was decreed after the Inquisition. A topic which I've heard about since I began my research on my Sephardic ancestry.

At this point I couldn't move forward with obtaining citizenship because I have to wait for Spanish Parliament. Yet the question I have to really ask before I move forward is, "What do I gain out of it?" Obviously it would be really cool to have dual citizenship but there are negatives and a lot of unknowns with possible situations that could arise, especially anything legal. One of the best positives from getting Spanish citizenship is becoming a member of the European Union, basically giving me access to live, work, and study in any EU country. EU membership has a lot of other perks whether I'm traveling throughout the EU or I decide to live there. Beyond this the only other thing I'd gain, I assume, is the ability to participate in Spanish politics.

There is certainly a decent amount to consider and many people have already decided they won't go through with it if the bill passes. Yet there are many more who are still quite interested and see this as a big opportunity. At least I have time to figure it out.

Read the Previous and Follow-up articles;
The Consideration: Obtaining My Spanish Citizenship As A Sephardi
The Consideration 3: Spain and Portugal Pass Sephardic Right to Return
The Consideration 4: Starting the Process for Portuguese Citizenship