YNET NEWS
by Associated Press
May 11, 2015

For Alfonso Paredes Henriquez, it was the opportunity not only of a lifetime – but of a half-millennium. The Panamanian real estate developer, a descendant of Sephardic Jews kicked out of Spain five centuries ago, was elated when the country announced it would atone for the Inquisition by granting citizenship to people who can prove lineage from exiled Jews. Then came a long wait, as Spain’s Sephardic Jew citizenship law took two years to wind its way through Parliament. One amendment after another were tacked on that made the application process tougher and delayed approval for a bill that faced virtually no opposition. Frustrated, Paredes Henriquez turned instead to Portugal. The neighboring country had enacted its own law to grant citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews exiled during the Inquisition, which forced Jews to flee convert to Catholicism or be burned at the stake. READ MORE