(JTA) — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin praised activists who are working to reconnect the descendants of Sephardic Jews with the Jewish people.
Rivlin said this in a letter he sent last month to Reconectar, a nonprofit that last week launched a website in English, Spanish and Portuguese in the hope of reaching out to non-Jews descended from Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity during the 15th and 16th centuries in Portugal and Spain, during the Inquisition – the name for religious persecution of Jews.
“It is vital to locate and reconnect with those who remain our brothers and sisters,” Rivlin wrote to Reconectar, adding: “I would like to congratulate you on your important effort to reconnect with the anousim,” a Hebrew word that means “the forced ones.”
In the days following the launch of reconectar.co, the site registered more than 5,000 views, according to Ashley Perry, a Sephardic Jew who was born in Britain and now lives in Israel, and who is among Reconectar’s founders.
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He said that, according to polling of sample respondents of descendants of anousim, “a significant proportion of them have expressed a strong interest in reconnecting to the Jewish people.”
In addition to Rivlin, the project received the endorsement of Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Aryeh Stern.
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Reconnectar’s launch comes months after Spain and Portugal issued the first passports under laws implemented last year that offer citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews.
