Within Ashkenazi Judaism, there are a wide variety of religious movements: ultra-Orthodox, Hasidim, Modern Orthodox, Open Orthodox, Traditionalist, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, Chavurot, Humanist, etc. The list could be even longer if we mentioned the subgroups within each of them. In contrast, in Sephardic Judaism, virtually everyone considers themselves Orthodox in some way.

Daniel J. Elazar tells us: “One of the greatest, if not the greatest, contributions of Sephardic Jews was their unique approach to the theory and practice of Judaism. The Iberian Jews reformulated the Judaism they inherited from the Jews of Eretz Israel, Babylon, and North Africa and shaped it into classical, systematically thought-out and organized forms. They offered a balanced and practical theology, without excess, seriously Jewish, but without losing its worldliness and cosmopolitan character. Classical Sephardic Judaism was designed by men who lived in the outside world and actively participated in its affairs. Most of them desired a Judaism that was, in its essential aspects, no less rigorous than that of the Ashkenazi Jews, but flexible in its interpretations and applications. Their Judaism would isolate itself from the outside world only where critically necessary, and it would not prevent Jews from playing their part in what was Spain before the anti-Jewish revolt of 1391: a multi-religious society.”

Elazar continues: “Sephardic Judaism, as it developed in Spain, did not break with tradition, as Reform Judaism did, but neither did it transform tradition into something frozen, or worse, into a rigid ideology, as ultra-Orthodoxy did. The culture of the Mediterranean world was different from that of Northern Europe. As a general rule, Mediterranean peoples believe they must be formally faithful to the traditions of their fathers, although they reserve the right to determine how they will individually maintain those traditions.”

Sephardic Jews did not develop different currents within their Judaism, unlike the Ashkenazim, who not only did so, but also, to promote their movements, founded large institutions, such as the Lithuanian and Hasidic yeshivos or the American rabbinical seminaries, which have dominated the Jewish religious scene, especially since the 20th century. This dominance penetrated Sephardic Judaism, where, lacking similar institutions, they began to integrate into the religious world, especially the Orthodox world, of the Ashkenazim. It is curious how many of the rabbis in Sephardic communities now come from Ashkenazi yeshivot.

The Sephardic world remains predominantly Orthodox. The different religious denominations have not penetrated their culture. It still retains that characteristic of sheltering different religious traditions under one roof. For them, tradition outweighs modernity.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Daniel J. Elazar: “Can Sephardic Judaism be reconstructed?”; Elliot Jagger: “Sephardic Judaism straining to stay non-denominational”