Spain Rejects 3,000 Citizenship Applications of Sephardic Jews’ Descendants

Spain has rejected more than 3,000 applications for citizenship from the descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from the country beginning in 1492, after launching a program to offer such citizenship as a form of reparations.

Only one applicant was denied citizenship from the start of the program in 2015, until recent months when 3,000 applications have been rejected and 17,000 others have received no response, The New York Times reported over the weekend. Some 34,000 applicants have been granted citizenship since the start of the program.

Applicants have hired attorneys, paid for records searches and made trips to Spain in pursuit of citizenship. Applicants do not have to be Jewish and they are not required to give up the citizenship of their country of origin.