Despite decades of grassroots work, a community descended from Jews forced into hiding during the Spanish Inquisition fights an uphill battle against local religious bureaucracy

Church records tell of a Jewish woman's 1688 confession to admiring Queen Esther, who also hid her Jewish identity. Her community prepared special foods for 'St. Esther's Feast'

Historian Rodrigo Caro hinted at temple's existence 1604, writing that site was formerly used by Jews to pray; after years of analysis, archaeologist confirms finding prayer room

Doreen Alhadeff, who was 1st American Jew granted citizenship under 2015 Spain law and later helped guide people through process, says honor shows 'unbelievable promise'

Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry validates identity, while an online ancestral database of 45,000 Sephardic family names makes searching for roots easier

Jewish groups have history in India dating back to antiquity; pillar found not far from Chennai, where Sephardic Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition formed a community

Russian-Israeli billionaire's naturalization has become symbol for suspected abuse of Portuguese law; surfaced documents include testimonies from rabbis, copy of Israeli passport

Expelled in 1492, the once-prosperous Sephardic Jews left a striking medieval architectural legacy. Now, landowners are digging them up, along with a possible gold mine of tourism

This weeklong holiday of Sukkot, which began Monday evening, marks the first time in centuries that the community has received municipal space and funding for the traditional booth

In the last quarter, thousands of applications have been rejected due to fear of fraud and what some experts call retroactively implemented bureaucratic standards