Seattle Woman Regains Citizenship Taken From Family 500 Years Ago

Over 500 years ago, Doreen Alhadeff's family had something taken away from them: their Spanish citizenship. Now Doreen is trying to get it back.

The Alhambra Decree was an edict that said Jews in Spain must either convert or leave their homes. So Doreen's family left. They resettled with other Sephardic Jews in Turkey and Greece.

Then, in the early 1900s, Doreen's family came to Seattle and helped establish our Sephardic Jewish community.

Now the Spanish government is offering citizenship to descendants of the Sephardic community they expelled five centuries ago. And even though Doreen Alhadeff has spent her life in Seattle, she wants to be a Spanish citizen.

Bill Radke talks to Doreen Alhadeff, president of the Seattle Sephardic Network, about why she decided to become the first Sephardic Jew from the U.S. to apply for Spanish citizenship.