X-Nico

unusual facts about Sephardi Jew



Cañete, Cuenca

It is the birthplace of Álvaro de Luna and the origin of Sephardi Jew family Canetti (the most famous member of which is Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Elias Canetti) —in fact, Canetti is a bastardisation of Cañete—.

Head baronets

The Mendes family descended from Fernando Mendes, a Sephardi Jew who came to England in 1662 as personal physician to Catherine of Braganza.

Jorge Sampaio

His maternal grandmother Sara Bensliman Bensaúde, who died in 1976, was a of Sephardi Jew from Morocco of Portuguese origin, and his maternal grandfather Fernando Branco (1880–1940) was a Naval Officer of the Portuguese Navy and later the Foreign Minister of Portugal; Sampaio himself is agnostic, and does not consider himself a Jew.


see also