The Spanish government, belatedly coming to grips with the historic mistake of forcing the Jews out of the country, is now trying to apologize through granting them citizenship The Spanish government adopted a long-anticipated bill to grant citizenship to Sephardic Jews, but applicants face serious challenges For quite some time, people had been talking about the Spanish government's plans to grant citizenship to Sephardic Jews, a religious minority forced out of the Iberian Peninsula several centuries ago. Considering that the Jewish community faced persecution for refusing to become Christians, it would be more accurate to use the term "readmission."