what does sephardic jews look like? What is thedifference between them and other jews?

Question

I was told I have some jewish blood.

My dad is half sephardic. According to Jewish law I am not jewish. This kinda makes me sad because I feel stronger and stronger about my Jewish linearage.

Answer 1

This is hard to answer, since conversions and movement between different countries tend to blur things.

Traditionally, Sephardic Jews came from north Africa, the Middle East, Spain and Portugal. The other big subgroup within the Jews are the Ashkenazic Jews, from most of the rest of Europe. The biggest differences between the groups are minor differences in some areas of Jewish law, and differences in the daily (and Sabbath and festival) prayers. Sephardic Jews also tend to be somewhat darker complected that Ashkenazic Jews, though there is a lot of variation within both groups. Migration over the centuries has also blurred things (as Jews from one community move to and adopt the practices of another community), and of course marriage between the two groups does also.

In the U.S. most Jews are Ashkenazic; in Israel, most are Sephardic. The Sephardic pronounciation is used for everyday conversation in Israel, while for prayer and religious study Ashkenazim may use the traditional Ashkenazic pronounciation and follow traditional Ashkenazi religious practices.

Barring moving to a community that uniformly follows a different practice, changing between Ashkenazic and Sephardic practice is strongly discouraged; Jews are supposed to follow the practices of their ancestors, not switch without very strong reason. (If a new couple comes from different traditions, Jewish law says that the couple follow the husband's tradition.) Changing is possible, but extremely difficult; such a request must be endorsed and signed by 100 (!) rabbis, and I've only heard of one case where this was actually done (a few decades ago).

Hope this helps!

Bar Yisrael

P.S.: What do you mean by "have some Jewish blood?" Depending on the details, you may actually be Jewish according to Jewish law! :-)

Answer 2

I heard from some people that Sephardic Jews look more Middle Eastern than European Jews.

Answer 3

Of course, they are mankind like you.
jtm