Description

A landmark review of the history, culture, and influence of Sephardic Jews in the Western Hemisphere

Sephardim in the Americas offers a sweeping, multidisciplinary exploration of one of the most dynamic and influential Jewish diasporas in the Western Hemisphere. Arguing that Sephardic history cannot be understood without tracing its full arc, from Iberian origins through the Expulsion of 1492, mass conversions, the Inquisition, and centuries of global migration, the volume reveals how Sephardic Jews continually adapted, rebuilt communities, and shaped the cultural, economic, and religious landscapes of the Americas.

Drawing on history, anthropology, literary studies, linguistics, musicology, and archival research, the contributors illuminate the major phases of Sephardic experience: the early foundations in Iberia; the flourishing under Muslim rule; the trauma of persecution and displacement; the consolidation of community life in the Ottoman Empire; and the profound transformation and "universalization" of Sephardic identity across the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America. Essays explore topics ranging from Ladino language and music to crypto-Jewish survival in the American Southwest, transnational merchant networks, literary expression, and the distinctive rituals, leadership structures, and communal institutions that sustained Sephardic life.

The book's enduring relevance lies in its portrayal of a diaspora shaped by movement, reinvention, and cultural hybridity--patterns that continue to inform contemporary debates about migration, identity, memory, and belonging.

Sephardim in the Americas will captivate historians of Jewish life, scholars of migration and diaspora studies, students of Latin American and Caribbean history, and readers drawn to family sagas, cultural resilience, and the global threads that bind communities across time and place. Richly detailed and narratively compelling, it stands as an essential resource for understanding the Sephardic past and its living legacy.