willemmarx

Immigration policies vary between countries, but in the historical context the offer of citizenship that Portugal made to people who had been forced out of their country on religious grounds was pretty unprecedented. Essentially along the lines of: "something awful happened to your ancestors (they were tortured, burned at the stake, their property confiscated, children forcibly given away for adoption), and we'd like to try and make it up to you, their descendants." Anti-semitism is still a scourge in many parts of the world, and played a role in this story I reported too, as political forces in Poland used the Abramovich application to help end legislation that had sought to right that historic wrong.

Another great question, and yes there have been efforts to pay reparations for the "porajjmos" - the genocide against the Roma during the Holocaust (one example here: https://eeagrants.org/news/providing-justice-for-roma-holocaust-victims). What's unusual with the Portuguese and Spanish Sephardic offers is how long ago the Iberian peninsula expulsions were - half a millenium ago.

Hi there. I'm not sure I agree with you there. The Rabbi was not the only individual who was approving certifications, as my story makes clear, and the requirements that Mr. Abramovich met, on their own, were in keeping with a methodology that the Jewish community in Porto had been following consistently for many years, without any formal complaints, nor credible evidence (or even a credible suggestion that I have seen, at least) that there was ever some sort of quid pro quo involving wealthy donors and certification. The criteria were created by the Portuguese legislature, and the Porto community was given latitute to interpret them as they saw fit, and in a way that they never sought to hide from Portugal's authorities.

I'm not sure I'm qualified to address your question, as I lack the expertise to talk about retributive or reparative laws elsewhere, but I would say that many of the Portuguese lawyers and lawmakers (including many former and current senior officials I spoke to) said they regretted that the initial nationality law as conceived was not more proscriptive, to avoid the possibility (and I am careful to add that I do not say this is necessarily what happened with Mr. Abramovich) that the system could be gamed.

For many people that will be a part of their consideration, but based on conversations and interviews I conducted, for many it is also a desire to get in touch in some way with their distant ancestors, to help recreate a family identity that they have lost, and to stand up to a state that had so horrendously disadvantaged their forebears and publicly assert their existence and family's survival despite the horrors of previous centuries.