Sephardic Jewish Ancestry Certificate Now Open for Millions of Applicants

From an article by Zvika Klein published in The Jerusalem Post:

Tens of millions of descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities, whose ancestors were forcibly converted from the 14th century onward, can now apply to receive a “Certificate of Sephardi Ancestry.”

Recent academic and genetic research has shown that as many as 200 million people, largely in Latin and North America and Europe, have “significant Jewish ancestry” dating back to the time of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal.

The initiative was launched by the American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience (ASF IJE), Reconectar, an organization dedicated to helping the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities reconnect with the Jewish people, and Genie Milgrom, an award-winning author, researcher and genealogist who was able to fully document her unbroken maternal lineage 22 generations, as far back as 1405 to pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal.

Milgrom is also leading work to digitize Inquisition records that provide an unprecedented amount of genealogical information for those who seek to discover their possible Jewish roots. These and a vast array of other information on the certification website will help the descendants, otherwise known as Anusim, Marranos, Conversos or Crypto-Jews, discover their heritage.

You can read more at https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-717479.