Sephardim

Webster's Dictionary

(n. pl.) Jews who are descendants of the former Jews of Spain and Portugal. They are as a rule darker than the northern Jews, and have more delicate features.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

a name applied to the Spanish Jews. They were banished from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497, and yet they still maintain their identity as a separate class of Jews among their brethren in all parts of the world. They look upon themselves as a higher order of Israelites. One peculiar point of distinction which marks them out from other Jews is their daily use of the old Spanish language, with which they are so familiar that their own Scriptures are better known to them in the old Spanish version than in the original Hebrew. (See Jews).