Interesting findings of the Leals: As a result of a search on sephardim I found out last year that there are / were persons with the surname LEAL who are / were Jewish or of Jewish descend. Although I am not Jewish myself, I find this subject of interest which is why I am doing more research on this subject. Jews Anyone researching the subject of Jewry will always have to face the question: what constitutes a Jew? The religious definition of a Jew is a person who was born from a Jewish mother or a person who did not, but who converted to the Jewish faith with rabbinical approval. For the following, I will use this definition. In my definition, a person of Jewish descend is someone who is not Jewish him / herself, but who has ancestors who were Jewish according to the religious definition. Sephardim The website sephardim is a website dedicated to the history / genealogy of Sephardim. Sephardim are Jews who originate from the Iberian peninsula (Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar). Jews were present in Iberia for many hundreds of years before they were forced to either convert to Christianity or leave the Iberian peninsula altogether in the late 15th century (first in 1492 from the territories of current day Spain and later also from current day Portugal). The number of Jews living in Spain at the time of the expulsion can only be estimated, but there are believed to have been hundreds of thousands which represented a considerable proportion of the total population of Spain at the time. In general, historians believe that approximately 1/3 of the Jewish population fled to Portugal which was a separate kingdom at the time as well, 1/3 left the Iberian peninsula altogether fleeing to territories such as the Ottoman Empire, Northern Africa and Holland, and 1/3 stayed in Spain and converted to Christianity (known as “New Christians†or “Anusimâ€). Of the later group it is believed that a considerable proportion converted in name only and continued to practice the Jewish religion in secrecy. It was very dangerous to do so following the expulsion decrees as anyone who was believed to be a follower of the Jewish faith risked his / her life and the lives of family members as a result of the Inquisition (the Inquisition persecuted New Christians only because it had no jurisdiction over non-Christians). Still there were many who dared to stay loyal to their religion. References to Jewish LEALs on sephardim The website sephardim has a long list of surnames which are / were borne by Sephardim. One should be cautious, however, in reaching conclusions. The mere fact that a name is mentioned on the list does not mean that anyone who bears the name today is either Jewish or of Jewish descend. The way I see it is that there have been in the past and sometimes still are persons who bear a particular surname and who are indeed Jewish or of Jewish descend. I expect that the same applies to persons with the surname LEAL.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 21:38:26 +0000
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