Spanish and Portuguese Jews

Western Sephardic Jews
יהדות ספרד ופורטוגל
Judeus da nação portuguesa
Judíos sefardíes occidentales
Languages
Judaeo-Portuguese, Judaeo-Spanish, Sephardi Hebrew (liturgical), later English, Dutch, Low German, Judaeo-Papiamento (in Curaçao)
Religion
Rabbinic Judaism, Crypto-Judaism, Catholic Church
Related ethnic groups
other Sephardic Jews, other Jews, and Sephardic Bnei Anusim

Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497. They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal.

The main present-day communities of Spanish and Portuguese Jews exist in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, and several other Jewish communities in the Americas have Spanish and Portuguese Jewish roots though they no longer follow the distinctive customs of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews.